Under the Water | VMIN

003

Halfway through Taehyung's way to school, the sun peaked over the horizon and shone over the hills of the King's land. Orange sunrays greeted the prince and a smile played over his lips. He liked early mornings, because you were able to look right into the core and see the sun's magnificent beauty. When you tried hard enough, you could almost imagine the immense flames licking at each other, miles away. Almost a lifetime away actually. When you would arrive on the sun, you would be grey and old, Taehyung thought, you would be in a different phase of life.

Taehyung had seen movies and books about men going to the moon and he believed it was possible. First he had read the novel by Jules Verne called From the Earth to the Moon. The men succeeded to air their missile and land on the moon after a lot of trial and error and the last sentence was a hopeful message that "once they would land on the sun!". Just a few years back, Taehyung saw a movie called Le Voyage dans la Lune, A trip to the Moon. The French movie was directed by George Méliès in 1902.

Taehyung imagined what would've happened if he did go on a trip to the sun. First of all, Taehyung would finish education onboard of the rocket and his teachers and mentor would come along to help him finish his training of how to become King. Maybe with the purpose to colonize the alien destination and to become King of the Moon or the Sun someday. Though eventually Taehyung would grow old and then he would need offspring to takeover his legacy, or a good friend whom he could trust with this duty. However, who would that be?

A pout formed on Taehyung's lips as he remembered himself of the fact that he didn't have any friends, no matter how hard he tried. Sure, people would be nice to him - formally nice - but he never got invited to any party nor after-school acitivities. Everytime Taehyung would find out that his classmates had done something without him, he would keep his mouth shut and act like didn't hear it or didn't understand what they were talking about. Sadly the opposite was true and every time he would discover the truth, the wound in his hearth would be torn open further. He never showed this to anyone, because a prince should never let anyone know that his pride got shattered. It wasn't just because he was a prince though, a teenage boy is way too stubborn to admit. Therefore, for every time he acted like it was nothing, the more people thought he really didn't care and thought he didn't want to be invited himself. The truth is, however, that he longed for nothing more.

The meadows slowly turned into woods as Taehyung came closer to his destination. This is where paths crossed and became a big road that led to the entrance of the school. Students were walking side by side on the big road and they were chatting with each other about their weekends. A few people around Taehyung greeted him and bowed lightly to acknowledge the prince when he joined them, but none of them came up to him to walk together. From books Taehyung had read that princes were usually popular amongst the people, but he was not at all. His sisters were popular though and he wondered why. But in the end it was just the way it was and he grew accustomed to it.

A little while later he hung his coat on the coat rack and sat behind his school desk near the end of the classroom. Next to him he placed his basket and took out his little chalkboard to place it on the desk in front of him. He watched as the students slowly came in and took there seats and start conversations with their neighbours. The chatter immediately stopped when a loud slam sounded through the classroom and the teacher cleared his throat.

"Welcome students. We are about to start the lesson so please shut your mouths and focus your eyes on the front. Areum, please move around and go to your seat."

A girl with long hair like a waterfall was chuckling with a friend and obediently turned around to go to her seat, which was in front of Taehyung. He watched her closely as she sat down and she briefly looked at him too, but didn't say anything. When everyone was quiet, the teacher started his lesson and chalked some words on the board in beautiful flowy letters in italics. Starting off was History. The students had to read a book about the emergence of the four kingdoms and answer questions about them. This was a piece of cake for Taehyung, because his father used to brag about his victories all the time. He told his children how powerful their kingdom was, because it was twice the size of the other three, whenever he got the chance to.

Fifty years ago, the four brave men - who have now become kings - fought alongside each other to defeat the evil Emperor of the realm. They all fought brave, but Taehyung's father was eventually the one who made it into the heart of the palace and killed the Emperor in a duel. In the books and in the folktales, Taehyung's father was the bravest of them all and the strongest. He was all alone when he faced the Emperor, since the other men were injured.

However, Taehyung knew better. It was his mother who helped his father defeat the Emperor. In fact, his father did not even kill the Emperor, his mother was. She was the Emperor's daughter, who wanted to escape her father's brutality and set foot outside the palace. This is how the King and the Queen met: when the future King's sword got knocked out of his hand and the Emperor got him down on his knees, the Emperor was ready to take the young man's life and continue to rule over the empire and the future King got scared, begged for his life and crawled back. Then all of a sudden, the Emperor's daughter came from behind and struck her father with a dagger. The dagger went all the way through his back and pierced right through his heart. When the Emperor fell to the side, dead, she saw the face of her future husband for the first time. The King, who had looked it utmost fear at the face of the Emperor just minutes ago, now looked at the face of his rescuer, his angel. It was right then and there that he asked her to marry him. If she did so, he would take her to all the corners of the world and she would be free to travel with him. However, he only could do that if the folk would appoint him as the King and therefore she had to lie and say he was the one who killed the Emperor. The future Queen said yes and took the young man's hand, because she never had the opportunity to be free.

So when the young man got crowned, his wife sat on his left side and she would stay quiet during the coronation when people talked about her husband full of praise. Then, she would stay quiet for the rest of her life about this matter. She only told this story to her most loyal maiden, Bora, whom she trusted completely. The same maiden who always took care of Taehyung.

When Taehyung was just a young boy, Bora sometimes told this story as a bedtime story to him. This is how Taehyung knew that his father wasn't the brave King everybody thought he was: he wasn't the heroic figure in the book the students had to read. In fact, his father was a tyrant and had no honor. But most of all, he was a coward who took advantage of others.

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It's my birthday!!!