Getting You Back (And Closer)

Ch. 7 - Just The Surface

Cale Henituse sat in a room with Choi Han, Alberu Crossman, the Ancient Dragon Eruhaben, and Ron Molan. 

The arrangement of people was made after much conversation and consideration to the situation at hand. 

A week after Cale Henituse woke up upon his safe arrival home the elephant in the room was finally addressed.

"I understand that what I am asking of you is difficult, however we need to know what happened to better understand how to help you, Cale."

"Whatever you're comfortable sharing with us is alright, however we ask that you please share as much as you can so that we better understand what you went through and how we can help your recovery. Is that ok with you, dongsaeng?"

Alberu rephrased Eruhaben's statement to sound less demanding.

The Ancient Dragon resisted the urge to click his tongue at the Crown Prince since he did not want to make the environment too hostile or uncomfortable.

Ironically, Cale Henituse already felt the environment was hostile.

He couldn't deny the person who raised the original owner of his body for all of his youth the title of 'Cale Henituse's closest subordinates', so in the end he caved into letting Ron join the session.

Even without Ron Molan in the picture, a 1,000 year old dragon, a too-many-generations year old swords master, and the Crown Prince (soon to be king) of the Roan Kingdom was already stressful enough.

The assassin was the least of his concerns.

The biggest issue came up in where Cale Henituse realized that neither as Kim Rok Soo or his current body did he ever learn how to talk about himself.

It was one thing to introduce yourself, but to share your biggest failures with someone was completely different.

In the first place, he didn't understand the point in sharing such troubling details with others.

It would only cause them more headaches, something his comrades seemed to complain about often. 

Choi Han seemed uncomfortable with the idea of asking Cale to share his trauma.

He had tried explaining to the others how sometimes talking about things wasn't the best option, but his family's shocked responses made it clear the wall was too dense.

He knew it wasn't their intention, but he was worried they were pressuring Cale into opening up.

Doing so would only cause more harm than good.

The last thing they wanted was to give Cale the opportunity to further distance himself.

Unfortunately, he couldn't get this concept through anyone's head.

He could only stand by and intervene if things cross the line.

Cale Henituse looked at the people around him with an unchanged expression.

"What pieces of information do you find most valuable?"

It was Eruhaben that spoke up before anyone else could.

"We need to know what they did to hurt you."

Cale almost flinched.

'How vicious.'

"I still do not understand the purpose in needing such details."

This time Choi Han responded to Cale.

"Cale-nim, it's like they said. We want to know how they hurt you since it'll give us a better perspective in what we can do to help."

Before Cale could open his mouth to speak, Choi Han continued.