Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

36 Past

San stretches his body as he checks the clock: it's 4a.m. He only got around 4 hours of sleep after the ball yesterday, but it doesn't matter to him. He is always among the earliest to wake up among the palace's occupants - besides the night guards who don't sleep throughout the night - and he can even live on with just 1 hour of sleep. After all, his work requires him to be working all the time, and he has never complained about it. Ever since he is born, he is introduced at the palace as a servant, getting accustomed to the work he has to do around the palace as he grows up. He knows the ways around the palace inside and out; where the best places are to hide when you don't feel like dealing with anyone, the particular spots in the palace that needs repairing but never got to be, the creaking floorboards that make noise as you step on them even with the slightest pressure. He harbours the secrets of every palace occupants, from the butlers, maids and his other fellow servants. He is considered very young, but his experience around the palace catapults him to a position that automatically makes the other servants refer to him as their 'leader' although he never wanted them to.

Growing up, he is there from the start to welcome everyone to the palace, whom now he treats as his brothers, despite their obvious differences in each of their personalities. Wooyoung is the first one he met, although they were far too young to remember their first encounter. Both of them were babies as the hushed story of Wooyoung's arrival to the palace were passed around, and it wasn't until they're old enough to know what 'adopted' meant that they finally understood where he had come from. Seonghwa came in to the palace a little bit later, but he was only 5 when he came across the older one, whose faced was streaked with tears and cuts littered across his small palms and knees because he was kneeling in front of the doors, begging everyone to take him in. He remembered as he eyed the blood that oozed out, his 5-year-old self thought, so this is how a nobleman's blood look like. The colour of their blood never prevented them from becoming so close, and the palace had never hindered them from doing so.

Then came Hongjoong, coming in with the brightest smile as he was invited to live in the palace for being a hero, but lost that very smile years after as the one he cherished died in his arms. Yeosang brought in his egoistic self, raised up by his good skills, brain and high status as a nobleman, and the rest of them had always devised a plan on how they could get back to him.

There was one time when Wooyoung suggested them to put an outrageous amount of salt in his drink, and San was the one who had to do it. He complied anyway, because the four of them wanted to teach him a lesson, even though Seonghwa was a bit scared that it would harm him. Seonghwa had always been the caring oldest brother, always looking out for everyone although his words could slice through your heart if you're not careful enough. They did it, and when the doctor spat out his drink, coughing like he was about to die from the lack of breath, only then they started panicking. He rolled around on the floor, clutching his stomach, his face writhing in pain.

Seonghwa was the first to go to his side, thinking about what they could do and how they would answer if they were apprehended by the elders. When it looked like they were visibly panicking, Yeosang stopped rolling around on the floor and let out a low laugh, one that they never heard coming out from him. Soon, he started laughing like a maniac, holding his stomach, but this time not due to the pain. The four of them - Seonghwa, Wooyoung, San and Hongjoong - only stared at him like he was an alien, still not registering what was going on. The doctor returned to his cold expression before relaying that he 'was joking'. Yeosang told them that he had known they had put salt in his drink - he could tell the difference since he's well-versed in concoctions and brews - but he drank it anyway to get them right back. He shrugged but Wooyoung almost lunged at him, saying that they were really worried about him dying. I won't die that easily, especially because of you guys, he had replied, and for the first time, they saw him crack a smile. It still took them some time to be comfortable with him, but it was clear they were making progress. Now, people would believe if they were to say that they spent all their childhood together.