Born From Kings - Minsung

Chapter Fifteen

"Wow, that's... amazing. How do you guys know all this stuff?" Chan asked.

"Well of course there are written documents. Many are well preserved, and we've been able to connect documents and historian's texts from different locations around Korea," the staff member turned and walked back out of the barn. "Let me know if you have any more questions."

"Hey, Jisung, what do you think?" Chan asked, stretching his hand out to pet one of the horses' noses. "These guys are so pretty. Do you really think they're related to the royal family member's horse?"

"That's what that guy said before."

"I think it's true," Jisung walked over to a tall grey horse that was standing in the corner, raising his hand to stroke his nose softly. "Hey..." he whispered under his breath, running his hand over the soft fur of the horse's nose. 

The boys finished with the barn before Chan herded them towards the throne room. "Come on you guys, that's the most exciting part, isn't it?"

"Sure, sure," Hyunjin was the first to reach the door. 

"Go on... open it," Changbin narrowed his eyes.

Hyunjin pushed the door open and let the six boys inside. The throne room was large, and clearly had been recently repainted. Yet still there was obvious wear that had been caused by time. Minho paused in the doorway.

His vision went black.

His hands pushed the door open and he stormed inside, hanbok streaming out behind him. He felt a familiar presence standing at his side as he stopped in the center of the courtroom.

He felt a laugh erupt from himself, one that he hadn't planned on letting out of his mouth.

"Lady, no one here wants to marry your daughter. You should stop now, before you embarrass yourself more!" he found himself saying, not sure who we was talking to. Probably whoever was standing opposite to him. 

He was saying more. But his attention went elsewhere. Upwards, towards the throne. The room was decorated in red and yellow, some green splashed here and there. The colors though... they were so vibrant. Nothing like the room he was in with his friends. And there, sitting on the throne was the young man... he was standing up.

Just a little further, and he could see his face-

"Minho!" 

Minho blinked, and he was back with his friends, Hyunjin staring at him with confusion on his face. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh... yeah, I'm fine," Minho blinked, disoriented. He was confused.... what was that? Had this place triggered a dream while he was still awake? That couldn't be possible, so then what...?

Minho turned to find that Jisung was staring up at the throne in front of them. Minho found himself walking over to him. "What is it?"

"Nothing..." Jisung didn't look away from the throne. "It's just... nice."

"I guess so," Minho looked around. The room restored looked so bleak compared to the room that he had just seen a few seconds prior. 

"Is there only one throne? Was there no place for the Queen to sit?"

"I don't think there was a queen," Jisung said under his breath, so quietly that only Minho picked up on what he said. Minho's interest perked. Did Jisung know something about this place?

Feeling Minho's stare, Jisung turned away and found something on the wall to turn his attention to. Minho didn't want to press him any further. He was just surprised that Jisung had agreed to come on this sort of field trip with him. It seemed like their relationship was getting... better?

Minho didn't want to jinx it. He quickly walked back to where Hyunjin was standing, peering up at the ceiling. Minho looked up as well and found that there was faint color left among the wood that supported the entire room. 

"That's a lot of colors. I actually didn't think they had that many colors back then," Hyunjin narrowed his eyes to try and get a better look. "It looks like it's a rainbow."

"There's a rainbow over here too," Chan was looking down at an old document that had been pinned to the wall. It was an amateur drawing only in black and white, but with the curve of a rainbow. Perhaps a child's work?

Minho turned away from the drawing and wandered over to the door that lead out of the throne room and further into the palace. Pausing, Minho felt the air still as he looked out towards the hallway.

There was something there... he knew where it was, he just had to get to it. Where was the room?

Minho didn't know where his feet were taking him, but his body clearly knew what is was doing. Minho just went where his body was telling him to go. He left the throne room and walked down the hallways, taking different lefts and rights.

He stopped in front of a wooden door. The door wasn't open, so he wasn't sure if people were allowed in the room at all. But he cracked the door open anyway  and looked inside.

The room was bare, but had been renovated as well. However, it hadn't been painted over like the throne room. The only things that were still in this room were the bed frame which hadn't been touched, and an old wooden desk that looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

Minho walked over to the bedframe, the wood under his feet groaning as he walked. Minho stopped above the bed and looked down at it.

This... had he had a dream in here before? Was this one of those places that seemed so familiar, yet he couldn't quit tell where he had seen them before?

Minho reached down and ran his finger down the side of the frame. The wood had been smoothed out, all the corners shaved down to create soft corners. 

And there was something etched out in the wood... he couldn't tell what he was seeing since it was in Chinese characters. Minho pulled out his phone and got a quick picture before he shoved his phone back in his pocket. He was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to take pictures...

"What are you doing in here?"

Minho whirled around, worried that a staff member had caught him in a place that he wasn't supposed to be. Instead, Jisung stood in the doorway staring at him with wide eyes. "Why are you in here?"

"I..." Minho cut himself off as he thought. Why was he in here? "I just felt like I should come in here," Minho decided to speak truthfully.

"What... never mind," Jisung let Minho slip past him back into the hallway.

"I'm going to go find Chan-hyung," Minho said as he passed by Jisung, who nodded silently. He waited for Minho to turn the corner before he himself stepped inside the room.

His eyes swept the place quickly. "Huh," he murmured, looking at the desk to the bed frame. That was where Minho had been standing. Jisung walked over to the bedframe and looked down at it.

His fingers brushed against the engraved words in the wood. 

"Jisung, where are you?" Chan's voice could be heard from down the hall.

"Coming!" Jisung called. His fingers quickly left the engraving as he walked quickly over to the door. He looked around the room one last time before he sighed and closed the door behind him.