Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

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Akira drinks the tea first, and she waits for Yunho to do the same. As they gulp down the liquid until its last drop, they're already preparing to feel the changes to their bodies. Both of them close their eyes as they wait for the poison to take effect.

But nothing happens.

Feeling the situation is somewhat peculiar, they open their eyes simultaneously to Emira who is still staring at them, her face hardened and her eyes shining from the tears she was about to spill as she laid the truth about Akira's birth. A tear rolls down as she sees them putting down the teacups on the saucers, both of them still feeling detached from the condition they're in. They don't understand; their tea was supposed to be poisoned. Because that's the punishment for betrayers.

"Did you... expect to have your tea poisoned?" the queen asks.

Yunho speaks up first. "Emira what do you think you're doing-"

"I may be the queen of a kingdom that pride ourselves in seggregating people based on our blood colours, but I don't cross my boundaries when it's there. I received a direct request from the king," she looks at Akira. "Your king." As she sees that the two soldiers are still unmoving, she repeats her sentence, "I received a direct request from your king asking me to get my hands off of you because both of you are no longer Lucida residents. So, Akira, congratulations. You had completed the mission that I gave you to find out on the identity of the king. You are now free. Both of you are no longer my concern."

"You changed your mind because you finally find out who it is?" the general asks, incredulous. To her, it's not logical; how could the queen change from having the drive to kill the two of them no matter what to deciding that they would be set free just because of a request from the Shadow King? A king that they don't even know who he is?

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" Yunho grips his fist. "You wanted to drive the king out of his hiding, break the tradition they've been holding on for so long. What satisfaction do you get out of finding out on the identity of the king? Do you think you can boast to everyone that Lucida is the one to break Nyla's tradition; that it will make people respect you more?"

"Both of you are only spewing out nonsense. Isn't this what both of you wanted? To finally be free from me," the queen points towards her bedroom door. "Get out, and never show your faces in Lucida ever again, because if I ever find you walking around in this kingdom, I will make sure that both of you won't see the light of day anymore."

They get up warily and just before they step out of the room, they look back to Emira, whose tears have start pouring down and right now, she looks so vulnerable. Gone was the hardened queen that both of them feared, but in front of them is their childhood friend, one that they had known for years. Akira is about to step over to her once again but the queen only instructs them to get out this instant. Yunho pulls Akira out of the room, and this is the last time that they will be able to see her. Lucida is now off-limits to them, because that was what they wanted to. To be free from Emira, to be free from their blood colours.

So this is what Emira is giving them.

As the door closes and she is left alone in her huge chamber, she returns to her seat facing the window. She brings her tea with her and puts it on the small side table beside the plush chair and she sinks back.

Akira and Yunho kept asking why.

Why did you do this?

Why did you decide to kill me only now?

Why did you want to break another kingdom's tradition?

The truth... always hurts.

Love makes you do things beyond your control.