화랑 - a tale of curiosity [ON HOLD]

🌸chapter twenty-two🌸

Unbeknowest to Hansung, Ji-ae had finished her piece, and was now watching silently. She saw how Hansung shook his head when he didn't agree with the alignment of the edges of the sheet. He tugged at one side, causing the other side to reeve up. He then frowned at it, and then caught Ji-ae's glancing eyes.

He immediately stepped back, pretending that he had nothing to do with that specific piece of clothing.

"Hansung." Ji-ae sang, a hint of mockery in her voice.

He continued to peer everywhere else apart from her way. Ji-ae chortled, then placed her hands over his eyes. She felt him tense, but she hushed him.

"What do you see?" She asked him.

"Blackness." He responded with.

Ji-ae chimed. "Now, create an image." She ordered him.

"How?" He asked, pursing his lips.

"That blackness is your background." She stated. "Use your mind to create an image onto that background. Anything that you want."

"Why?" He asked, shifting slightly.

"It's a trick my mother taught me." Ji-ae answered honestly. "I close my eyes  every night and draw an image. Now, you try it." She said, shifting slightly from behind him. "Tell me what you see."

He remained silent for a moment but then spoke up. "A flower."

"What kind of flower?" Ji-ae asked.

He furrowed his brows. "That one you gave me that once." He replied.  "A Gentiana."

"And what does that flower look like?" She asked, removing her hands and walking to stand infront of him. She saw how concentrstued he was, his eyes shut tightlt and twitching as he looked at the image he had created.

"Blooming." He said, now opening his eyes to see Ji-ae's face right infront of his. "What does that mean?"

"Whatever you interpret it as." She said, placing a quick peck on his lips. "Now, I must return to my room and finishing off my drawings." She twirled around his figure, picking up the basket from the floor.

He gently wrapped his fingers around Ji-ae's wrist and brought her closer to him. "Could a drawing have several meanings?" He asked.

Ji-ae nodded. "Yes, I suppose." She answered. "Why?"

"I'm just curious as to what your interpretation is." Hansung said. "Because, I know you won't just see it as a blooming flower like most would."

"Well, since it's a flower that we both are associated with, I think that memory has some amount of significance to you." She started walking, Hansung following close by. "So, It could be a symbol of our blooming bond." Hansung hummed in response. "What's your interpretation of it?"

Hansung looked to her and shrugged his shoulders. "The same as yours." He answered.

Ji-ae nodded. "Well, see you at dinner." Ji-ae said, leaving after Hansung placed a delicate kiss on her lips this time.

"See you at dinner."

-

Dinner soon came, leaving Ji-ae to end up bringing her artwork along with her to the meal.

She sat alone at a table to the side, her artwork infront of her rather then her food since she prefered her hobby then to drawing. She would pick at her food absentmidedly, but least to say, she was engorssed in her work.

Since Ji-ae was first in, she had the surrounding peacefulness, but that soon vanished when the rowdy group of men came stumbling into the dining hall. Laughing, bickering, chatting, as they grabbed their food. She glanced around once, checking to see if Hansung was getting his meal, and when she saw him sat with his roommate's, she finally looked away back to her work.

Only a few minuted passed before some sort of argument was created, leaving Ji-ae to do nothing but watch subtly as the scene unfolded across from her. As she drew repeated sgoeked, sbe watched as Ban Ryu leant over the table towards Sun Woo, pouring one of his bowl's contents, into Sun Woo's food.

"Peasants way this way, right?" Ban Ryu asked, sitting straight in his chair again.

"Did this True Bone master get angry after being beaten by a peasant?" Sun Woo quipped back.

"You only think of yourself, do you not?" Ban Ryu started. "How are you still talking back?"

"Do I hear a dog barking?"

Ban Ryu fell silent for a mere second, making Ji-ae cast her glance around the room to see everyone also subtly paying attention with their ears.

"I hear Master Ahn Jo's daughter is the storyteller at Okta. I hear your half-breed sister is good at telling stories." With this statement, the table Hansung was sat on erupted in laughter, making Ji-ae look to him. He was sat there, his expression blank as the others laughter died down.

"Did you do it as well?" One of his roomate asked him that was sat opposite him. "Why? Does it remind you of your brother?" Hansung just shrugged his shoulders, not paying attention to him, so he instead layed his eyes upon Ji-ae's worried expression.

Their gaze didn't falter for a while, but Hansung looked away, resuming to eating his meal.

"Once I get out from here. I will go straight to Okta." Ban Ryu began again, making Ji-ae push her food aside slightly. "Let us go together. I will pay for the story. Even better if a can play with your sister."

Ji-ae dropped her jaw slightly, not believing the harsh words leaving Ban Ryu's mouth. She then saw Sam leaving a little closer to Sun Woo, telling him something with an unimpressed face.

"This is too easy." Ban Ryu continued on. "Your sister is the secret to shut you up."

Sun Woo seemed to not want to retaliate, but the moment he stood up, slamming his spoon down was alraming to everyone, but what shocked Ji-ae the most was when Sun Woo just walked out.

Ji-ae followed Sun Woo, turning her head in the direction he left in as he passed her by to leave the dining hall.

The rest of the Hwarang's sat in silence now thst Ban Ryu continued to eat his meal. Ji-ae shared looks to Sam and Soo Hoo who just looked as unimpressed and then there was Yeo Wool, who seemed amused by any sort of conflict he was a witness to.

The glare Ji-ae was burning into the side of Ban Ryu's face was notice by the said man, making him look up and see Ji-ae's unamused expression.

"Got something to say, or are you just staring for the fun of it?" Ji-ae rolled her eyes, standing up from her seat. "Hm?"

Ji-ae huffed, after she had returned her tray, now collecting her things. "You're embarassing yourself more then you're trying to achieve to another."

"How so?" He asked, everyone's attention now on them.

"The way that your ego runs your life, and the way your tail dangles behind your legs." Ji-ae countered, hooking her things under her arm. Ban Ryu huffed. "Am I wrong?"

"I say that you are." He replied.

"Well then, your tail will continue to dangle there, if you carry on being groomed by your step-father." Soo Hoo choked on his drink slightly, bringing a hand to cover up his coughs. "I'm not the only one thinking it." Ji-ae said. "The rest are too scared to say it themselves."

She cast one last glance over the room before turning on her heel and leavinf through the same door Sun Woo had left through moments ago.

As Ji-ae began wondering through the corridors before she reached the yard, she asked herself repeatedly if she was right to have said that, and everytime she hated herself for saying that.

Her intentions were to help Ban Ryu. Enlighten him on the right path, and leave his learned prejudices behind, but she feared she did the exact opposite, and feared that she had lost a friend.