Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

47 |2| Lies

"Akira," Yunho cuts her off. "They are about to reveal who the Shadow King is to the public during the ball. They are about to put a stop to their tradition after decades."

"And why should we care about that?" her voice becomes strained and the puppy barks, as if sensing the rising tension between them. She pats it to calm it down although she is the complete opposite. "The Nyla palace and whatever happens in there... is none of our business anymore. Let them do whatever they want and let us do whatever we can to survive. That's what we're supposed to do anyway."

He wants to reply to her but their dialogue is disrupted by Madam Eurielle, who looks much better than yesterday, who couldn't get out of bed as she was sick. She waves to them from behind the front door of her house, beckoning them to come over. "Both of you haven't had lunch, have you? I made roasted chicken for lunch but it's too much for me to finish on my own, so I would be more than happy if both of you would join me."

"The conversation about this ends here," Akira mutters to Yunho before jogging to the house next door, the puppy still in her arms.

A radiant smile decorates Madam Eurielle's features as she spots the cute puppy and she opens the door wider to let Akira in. Akira looks over her shoulder to Yunho before motioning for him to follow her inside. He sighs as he ties his horse to the fence, carresses it and makes a beeline to enter the noblewoman's house. The smell wafting in the air is enough to make the two's stomachs to grumble; they are served the whole chicken and they don't need a second invitation to take a bite off the meat.

At the sound of their cutleries clinking against the ceramic plates, Madam Eurielle suddenly asks, "Have both of you received the invitation for the annual public ball?"

Their chewing slows down before gradually stopping. Akira forcefully swallows, wipes her mouth with a napkin and replies shortly, "Yes."

"Say, are both of you planning to go? I never missed a single ball when I was young but as I grew older I started sitting it out. I don't feel like it's a place for an old woman like me," she chortles. "It should be fun for youngsters like you. You don't have a ball like this in Lucida do you? You should try joining the event and get to know the people around here more."

They don't say anything; Madam Eurielle doesn't know about their past in detail, except for the fact that both of them are friends who came from Lucida.

"I've heard that the youngsters in the palace are very good-looking," Madam Eurielle winks mischivieously at Akira. "Maybe you can look for a partner there; a pretty girl like you could make any of them fall for you in a second. In case you've never heard of them, they're known fondly as the young masters of the palace."

She knows that Madam Eurielle is only being nice, but she wishes that she could close her ears when she mentions about the young masters. She doesn't want to know about them but the noblewoman is being chatty, though she's aware that she means no harm. The noblewoman doesn't know that they had history together; Yunho and Akira have probably been closer to the young masters than the other Nyla residents could have been.

They were close but there is still one fact that they don't know. The Shadow King. And now they're announcing to the whole kingdom that they will finally reveal who the king is at the annual ball. But for what purpose?

"I wonder what makes them decide to change the tradition they held on for as long as I could remember," the noblewoman laments. "Something must have happened for them to change something that they have kept for so long. I hope our kingdom is all right, though. I wouldn't want it to break apart just as I am about to return to my deathbed."

"Please don't say that," Akira touches the woman's wrinkly hands and grips it with tenderness, genuinely concerned. "You're still going on strong, and I won't let you go for as long as I'm here."

The woman titters and returns the gesture by putting her other hand on top of Akira's. "It's always so nice having the two of you here; both of you are like my grandchildren. It's nice to have someone actually caring for me." Her lips curl into a kind smile, her eyes twinkling as they shift between the two. "It's my wish to attend this ball before I'm not able to, plus it seems to be a special one as they are about to tell the public on who our king is; I do wonder if it's one of the young masters."

They had wondered about it before too, but it's not their place to do so anymore. They're only outsiders from Lucida who got kicked out from the palace as quickly as they were accepted, who always relied others' kindness to help them survive.

It's funny how the most feared and highest ranking soldiers had become reduced to two lost people seeking refuge in a foreign kingdom.

"Would you care to join me at the ball? It would be less awkward for an old woman to come to the ball with two young people."

Yunho side-eyes Akira, who has put her cutleries down, giving off a tight smile. He knows; she's debating between trying to entertain the noblewoman's request and the young masters' warning to them one year ago. They're warned to not come near the palace and to pretend that they never knew each other.

The latter request is easier to be fulfilled because Yunho and Akira had tried hard to avoid the town at all costs. Even if they do come to town, they quickly do whatever they needed and come back. For all the times before this, they have never bumped into Mingi or Wooyoung, who always spend most of their time in town. In fact, they did a good job in only limiting themselves to the residential areas. They had never bumped into any of the young masters after they left the palace a year ago, so they haven't gone against the second warning.

Except for Akira, who bumped into Yeosang yesterday, but Yunho doesn't have to know that, because she only wanted to help.

The first warning should be equally as easy to abide by considering how far they are from the palace right now, but the invitation for the ball seems to be enticing them to come step back once more. Madam Eurielle is yearning to attend the ball, and they understand; for a resident of Nyla, they should be wondering on who has been ruling their kingdom and for the king to finally step out of the shadows, it's a huge turning point for Nyla.

I need to stop lying to myself. I'm selfish... because I never really let the past go. I told Yunho that it doesn't matter... but that's a lie, because that's what I've done for the past year.

A liar. A coward. A killer.

"The ball is on Saturday, right? That is two days from now," Akira states, earning a nod from the beaming woman. "I'll go and find a dress that I can wear to the ball. I'm sure I have one somewhere in my wardrobe." The only dress that I own.

Yunho looks at her and he's shaking his head, as if not believing that she's too quick in going against her own words. "What are you planning to do?" he whispers fiercely at her the moment Madam Eurielle excuses herself to the kitchen. "You said it doesn't matter, you said we're not going."

"I'm just helping out a woman getting her wish granted before it's too late. And of course it's something special to them; their king is about to reveal himself."

A lie.

"You're just using that as an excuse," he shoots back, but making sure that the woman doesn't hear their bickering.

"And what is the matter if I'm going to use it as an excuse?" She looks at him with evident pain in her eyes. "I miss him but I can't accept the fact that I can't do anything about it. Let me just see him smiling for one last time and I promise that I won't talk about them anymore. And then I'll forget."

A lie... or not?

Even she can't tell.