Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

9 List

After the meeting with Jongho, she retreats to her temporary bedroom, in which there is a queen-sized bed with drapes, freshly-changed sheets and pillows that seem to cover half the length of the bed. It looks like they are really serious about their hospitality as the bed she is lying on now is obviously a thousand times better than hers back in Lucida. She stares at the ceiling, which bears a painting of what she assumes is the sky. She guesses that since the wisps of paint scattered across look like clouds and there are figures of birds emerging from behind them, the painter is trying to imitate the image of the sky. She does not know why they bother to do that when the windows are literally a few metres away, but brushes away the thought.

She wants to start on her plan of finding out the identity of the king, but decides that she cannot move until she gets a hold of the list of suspected names. Her luggage is still not with her, yet time is ticking. She feels frustrated knowing that she has to act more like an ambassador than a general. She longs for her sword that she has left back in the palace, she misses leading the troop, chasing victims. And, although she does not want to admit it, she is curious on how Yunho is doing. After all, he is the only person that has never failed to be by her side since they were children.

She hears a knock on the door and almost instantly, she gets up. As what she expected, her luggage is right in front of her eyes, but she finds the least expected person she would see. She thought that maybe one of the servants would bring them up. She has never met this man before, but she is almost 100% sure who he is.

The man brushes his fingers lightly against his scar, which seems like a habit of his, before saying, "Seonghwa told me he left your luggage back in the woods and since I'm going there to look for some materials, he had asked for my help. So here you go, I hope everything is intact and no thieves or wayfarers stole anything. I tried to go there as fast as I could."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it."

"It really is nothing but you're welcome."

He looks like he's about to say more but decides against it at the last minute. He shrugs before leaving her with the luggage at her feet. She heaves the luggage onto her bed, and quickly unlocks it to make sure her contents are intact. She does not mind about the rest; the only thing she is looking for now is the list. She finds it, but what alarms her is the fact that it wasn't at the original place she had left it. She is sure of it as she has mulled over the list a thousand times and even made sure where she put it before closing the luggage. She had put it in the right inside pocket, but now it's sitting in the left inside pocket. There is no way that she had gotten it wrong.

Someone must have stolen something but was not interested in the list.

So she rummages around the contents, quietly hoping that something was missing to at least know that it was indeed a thief or wayfarer stealing from her. To her dismay, everything is there. So there wasn't anything stolen.

Someone has known about the list.

What if it was Hongjoong? What if he rummaged through her luggage under the orders of Nyla? He must had done it because they were suspicious of her, and when he found the list, put it back at the wrong place. He must have informed the king by now. But the question is, who is the king? She feels her chest become stuffy but tries to remain calm. If anyone ever bursts through the door and attacks her right now, the only defense she has is her body and dagger. Feeling the coldness of metal against her skin, she makes sure that her dagger is still there. As her mind races trying to think of a solution and cursing herself for her carelessness, she hears another knock at the door. This time, she doesn't react as fast as she did before.

With her heart pumping, she quietly pulls out her dagger and hides it behind her. As she walks slowly towards the door, she reaches for the doorknob and leaves the door half ajar, hiding half of her body behind it. She is surprised to see a slightly embarrassed Seonghwa in front of her door, looking like he would love to be anywhere but here.