The Secret Sonata || Ryeji

Epilogue 2

Lucy recited the words she'd written down on the cue cards and fumbled with her hair in frustration every time she stumbled over a word or two, extremely fed up with her minor mistakes. Today, she would be meeting the daughter of the monkey king, Son Oh-Gong, to sign an alliance treaty between the demons and monkeys, and discuss their vision, mission and objectives of their partnership.

These monkeys weren't typical monkeys that human beings would meet in a jungle or keep at zoos; they were preternatural monkeys who had the intelligence and agility of humans, yet stronger and more powerful than the latter. Moreover, they walked like humans, acted like humans, possessed the same facial features as humans—albeit having more fur on their bodies—and even ate like humans, thus they could also be regarded as omnivores. The majority of those said mythical species inhabited a magical forest that was concealed to the bare eyes of ordinary folks. On the contrary, the minority lived amongst the humans, disguised as one of them, given that they could morph into their human forms anytime they wanted.

Lucy remembered—through Ma Woo Yeol's memories—how these creatures were once malicious tricksters who took advantage of humanity's greed and lured them to do embarrassing things for them in exchange for wealth, only to leave them empty-handed when they had a good laugh and tarnished their reputation. Into the bargain, Lord Ma Wang waged a personal vendetta against Lord Oh-Gong for being at the receiving end of the latter's sleight of hand, not once but twice, and the two rulers would often get engaged in scrimmages whenever they crossed paths, centuries ago. Nevertheless, monkeys in question now served the earth goddess Jishin, and became the guardians of nature, hence the end of their deceit and the beginning of their good deeds.

Then, Lucy sat down on one of the sofas positioned around a short glass table, mulling things over. She wondered if she'd met the monkey king's daughter in her past life. Certainly, she'd seen Lord Oh-Gong sporadically whensoever Lord Ma Wang, him, and their respective followers were in an intense brawl. Nonetheless, she never recalled the monkey king having a daughter nor was he married. She drummed her fingers on the glass table, leaning forward, with her eyes closed as she tried to harked her mind back to her past life, in hopes of catching a glimpse of a particular monkey princess.

Lucy was drowning in her reverie and the sound of her fingers tapping the table that she failed to hear the impatient knocks on her office door, which soon turned into angry pounds. At the last pound and the loudest of all, Lucy flinched, snapping out of her trance.

"C-coming!" She stammered, launching up from the sofa, and made a beeline for the door instead of staying where she was and instructing the individual from the other side to come inside as like she always did to others.

Lucy yanked the door open in haste, making the person—or rather a monkey—to stumble inside with her furry fists raised, to which the former responded by seizing hold of them. Luckily, her action prevented the monkey's fall.

Wow. Her fur's soft... Was Lucy's initial thought instantaneously as she grabbed the monkey's wrists, then she surveyed how the latter's long green hood covered part of her features and casted a shadow across her face. The only things she could clearly make out were the princess' ears—behind which the hood was tucked—and loose strands of blonde hair draping at the collar of her hoodie since the monkey hung her head low, not meeting the former's appraising cat eyes. Intrigued, the demon queen adjusted the angle of her neck and leveled her face to the monkey's, in order to see more of her features.

Just then, the hooded princess released her hands from the queen's grasp in an abrupt manner and walked past her with vexatious strides, slipping her hands inside her jeans' pockets in the process. Lucy didn't fail to acknowledge their height difference—the monkey was shorter than her by two inches—and the way her long brown tail was thrashing and thumping behind her in stark irritation.