diadem | hyunho

14. weakness

MINHO:

It was almost time for sunset when we were leaving the beach. Just then, Hyunjin receives a call from his mother. He is greeted with a series of panicked comments over his missing sister.

"What? That's unbelievable! I thought our security system there is strong!" He exclaims, still registering the event in his mind.

"Whatever makes you think she'll pick up the phone if I call her? What? Okay fine, I'll try calling her," he concludes the call with a sigh.

"It seems like the universe doesn't want us to be enjoying our time here," Hyunjin says, looking very exhausted all of a sudden. I pat his back.

Hyunjin's sister, Yeji, is a member of his hamily I'm not very familiar with. The reason behind that is that she wasn't present at our wedding; she had gotten into Harvard a few months prior to that. Knowing how much of an important deal that is, everyone asked her to refrain from traveling back home. And now, it seems to be that she's missing from her accommodation.

Hyunjin takes out his phone and opens the 'Contacts' app, immediately going to the favorites menu before selecting Yeji's number. She picks up the call almost immediately, and Hyunjin switches to using the phone speaker.

"That's it? Everyone's worried sick at home because you aren't responding to anyone's calls or texts and now you have the audacity to just pick up my call in three rings? Hell, mom was about to send for a search party across two countries if you didn't pick up my call. Hwang Yeji, you'll have it from me once I find you!" He yells into the phone, evidently annoyed. This was the first time I've ever seen him this angry, but it didn't help that he still looked so attractive while scolding someone.

"Okay, first of all, hello. If you really didn't want me to pick up the call so fast, why the hell did you call me? And second of all, you won't find me anytime soon. I'm far away from uni, all the way in Maldives," she says on the other side of the line. All color drains from Hyunjin's face. I was stunned as well. Of all places!

"Come again? You're where?"

"Far away, taking a nice stroll in a beach in Maldives. In fact, I'm enjoying the sunset here as we speak," she says and we instinctively scan our surroundings, looking for a tall, red-headed girl in her early twenties. To our luck, she was standing some ten to twenty metres in front of us, in the very same beach we spent our entire day in.

"There might be a problem, Yeji. Turn around..." I finally talk to her as I see Hyunjin's mouth hang open in disbelief. I could see her figure become stiff in the distance.

"Please don't tell me..." she says as she slowly turns around, looking all miserable upon seeing us. Her phone drops into the sand as she sports a similar expression to that of Hyunjin's. She takes a few moments to process what just happened, sighs, and walks towards us. I hang up the ongoing call.

"What are you guys doing here? And I'm so sorry this had to be my first formal meeting with you, Minho," she says as looks at me apologetically. I give her a smile, indicating that it's all good. Hyunjin scoffs.

"You have some real nerve asking that. Everyone in the palace knew that we'll be here till day after tomorrow! We're on our honeymoon!"

Yeji eyes go wide in shock. It seemed to he that this was her first time hearing of any such thing.

"This is why I wasn't cut out for college OR for the palace!" She groans.

"Wait. What even are you doing here? Don't you have classes going on?" I ask her, hoping I didn't sound rude. She sighs.

"That's exactly why I'm here. I'm not built for that kind of environment. Sure, I can study and stuff, but I don't find any joy in what I'm doing right now. Ultimately, I'll end up back in the palace with a shiny new degree and nothing to do with it. It's not like I'll be allowed to work anywhere, or that I even have to. I don't want to waste my time on this when I know it's not going to be beneficial to me in any way," she says as she sadly looks away. Hyunjin seems to have lost his cold attitude, and comfortingly pats her shoulder.