Minho pulled into the parking lot before he turned off his motorcycle's engine and waited for his friends to pull up beside him. Hyunjin, Bang Chan, Felix, Changbin and Jisung had all managed to squeeze into Hyunin's car, but they looked realived to get some fresh air.
They found themselves in the middle of a forest, the parking lot leading right to the entrance the palace, which was a tunnel.
"Are you guys ready to go?" Chan asked as he strapped a small backpack around his shoulders. Always watching out for the younger boys, Chan had made sure the bring everything that they might need.
"Let's go!" Changbin called as he lead the way, walking through the tunnel first.
"I'm getting too many Halloween vibes, this is sort of spooky," Hyunjin fell into step with Minho behind Changbin, his eyes darting around nervously.
"It's fine, it's just a tunnel," Minho pointed towards the nearing light on the other side. They now found the palace in front of them, the ticket booth and shop right to their left.
"Come on, I'll buy the tickets," Minho walked over to the booth and looked over the tickets. "How much for tickets without a guide?"
"How many of you are there?" the older woman asked, looking around the group.
"Six."
"Pay here," the lady motioned for the card reader. Minho swiped his card before nodding. "Thank you."
"Enjoy!"
Minho looked back to find that Felix and Hyunjin had taken it upon themselves to look through the gift shop that had everything from mini figures of the palace to horse stuffed animals.
"Where should we go first?" Chan asked, a map magically appearing in his hands. "Should we go to the barn first, or should we go right to the palace? We can start in the throne room and move down the different hallways and such."
"Let's start with the animals. They're always better," Changbin muttered, crossing his arms. Minho looked him over, dressed in all black and with a constant scowl on his face. Shrugging off Changbin's cold demeanor, Minho led the way to the barn.
"So this obviously isn't the original material," Chan read off the map, making sure the younger boys in the back didn't get lost. "Everything has been restored, but they've tried to maintain as much historical accuracy as possible."
"Are there still horses in the barns?"
"Yes, actually. But you have to pay to ride them," Chan sighed. "Let's not, I don't want to have to call the ambulance for any of you."
"Good idea," Minho laughed. They passed by a few buildings that Chan informed them were soldier's quarters. Then at the very end of the housing for soldiers was the long barn. Minho peered inside.
Chan was right. There were several horses being housed inside. Minho walked inside the cool barn, looking at the horses as he passed by the different stalls. He stopped in front of the largest of the stalls which happened to be empty. "Why is this one so big?"
"Ah, young man!" Minho turned around as he found a staff member watching their group. "Are you boys here for a school project?"
"Um- something like that," Hyunjin said quickly, not wanting to embarrass Minho and say, 'No, we're actually here because my idiot friend is having nightmares about this place' like he really wanted to. But he was a good friend.
"That stall in particular housed one of the royal family member's horses. We're not completely sure whose horse it actually was, but the lineage was carried on for generations, and many modern day horses in Korea are related to the horse that was living in that stall!"
"Wow, that's... amazing. How do you guys know all this stuff?" Chan asked.
"Well of course there are written documents. Many are well preserved, and we've been able to connect documents and historian's texts from different locations around Korea," the staff member turned and walked back out of the barn. "Let me know if you have any more questions."
"Hey, Jisung, what do you think?" Chan asked, stretching his hand out to pet one of the horses' noses. "These guys are so pretty. Do you really think they're related to the royal family member's horse?"
"That's what that guy said before."
"I think it's true," Jisung walked over to a tall grey horse that was standing in the corner, raising his hand to stroke his nose softly. "Hey..." he whispered under his breath, running his hand over the soft fur of the horse's nose.
The boys finished with the barn before Chan herded them towards the throne room. "Come on you guys, that's the most exciting part, isn't it?"
"Sure, sure," Hyunjin was the first to reach the door.
"Go on... open it," Changbin narrowed his eyes.
Hyunjin pushed the door open and let the six boys inside. The throne room was large, and clearly had been recently repainted. Yet still there was obvious wear that had been caused by time. Minho paused in the doorway.
His vision went black.
His hands pushed the door open and he stormed inside, hanbok streaming out behind him. He felt a familiar presence standing at his side as he stopped in the center of the courtroom.
He felt a laugh erupt from himself, one that he hadn't planned on letting out of his mouth.
"Lady, no one here wants to marry your daughter. You should stop now, before you embarrass yourself more!" he found himself saying, not sure who we was talking to. Probably whoever was standing opposite to him.
He was saying more. But his attention went elsewhere. Upwards, towards the throne. The room was decorated in red and yellow, some green splashed here and there. The colors though... they were so vibrant. Nothing like the room he was in with his friends. And there, sitting on the throne was the young man... he was standing up.
Just a little further, and he could see his face-
"Minho!"
Minho blinked, and he was back with his friends, Hyunjin staring at him with confusion on his face. "Are you okay?"
"What? Oh... yeah, I'm fine," Minho blinked, disoriented. He was confused.... what was that? Had this place triggered a dream while he was still awake? That couldn't be possible, so then what...?
Minho turned to find that Jisung was staring up at the throne in front of them. Minho found himself walking over to him. "What is it?"
"Nothing..." Jisung didn't look away from the throne. "It's just... nice."
"I guess so," Minho looked around. The room restored looked so bleak compared to the room that he had just seen a few seconds prior.
"Is there only one throne? Was there no place for the Queen to sit?"
"I don't think there was a queen," Jisung said under his breath, so quietly that only Minho picked up on what he said. Minho's interest perked. Did Jisung know something about this place?
Feeling Minho's stare, Jisung turned away and found something on the wall to turn his attention to. Minho didn't want to press him any further. He was just surprised that Jisung had agreed to come on this sort of field trip with him. It seemed like their relationship was getting... better?
Minho didn't want to jinx it. He quickly walked back to where Hyunjin was standing, peering up at the ceiling. Minho looked up as well and found that there was faint color left among the wood that supported the entire room.
"That's a lot of colors. I actually didn't think they had that many colors back then," Hyunjin narrowed his eyes to try and get a better look. "It looks like it's a rainbow."
"There's a rainbow over here too," Chan was looking down at an old document that had been pinned to the wall. It was an amateur drawing only in black and white, but with the curve of a rainbow. Perhaps a child's work?
Minho turned away from the drawing and wandered over to the door that lead out of the throne room and further into the palace. Pausing, Minho felt the air still as he looked out towards the hallway.
There was something there... he knew where it was, he just had to get to it. Where was the room?
Minho didn't know where his feet were taking him, but his body clearly knew what is was doing. Minho just went where his body was telling him to go. He left the throne room and walked down the hallways, taking different lefts and rights.
He stopped in front of a wooden door. The door wasn't open, so he wasn't sure if people were allowed in the room at all. But he cracked the door open anyway and looked inside.
The room was bare, but had been renovated as well. However, it hadn't been painted over like the throne room. The only things that were still in this room were the bed frame which hadn't been touched, and an old wooden desk that looked like it would fall apart at any moment.
Minho walked over to the bedframe, the wood under his feet groaning as he walked. Minho stopped above the bed and looked down at it.
This... had he had a dream in here before? Was this one of those places that seemed so familiar, yet he couldn't quit tell where he had seen them before?
Minho reached down and ran his finger down the side of the frame. The wood had been smoothed out, all the corners shaved down to create soft corners.
And there was something etched out in the wood... he couldn't tell what he was seeing since it was in Chinese characters. Minho pulled out his phone and got a quick picture before he shoved his phone back in his pocket. He was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to take pictures...
"What are you doing in here?"
Minho whirled around, worried that a staff member had caught him in a place that he wasn't supposed to be. Instead, Jisung stood in the doorway staring at him with wide eyes. "Why are you in here?"
"I..." Minho cut himself off as he thought. Why was he in here? "I just felt like I should come in here," Minho decided to speak truthfully.
"What... never mind," Jisung let Minho slip past him back into the hallway.
"I'm going to go find Chan-hyung," Minho said as he passed by Jisung, who nodded silently. He waited for Minho to turn the corner before he himself stepped inside the room.
His eyes swept the place quickly. "Huh," he murmured, looking at the desk to the bed frame. That was where Minho had been standing. Jisung walked over to the bedframe and looked down at it.
His fingers brushed against the engraved words in the wood.
"Jisung, where are you?" Chan's voice could be heard from down the hall.
"Coming!" Jisung called. His fingers quickly left the engraving as he walked quickly over to the door. He looked around the room one last time before he sighed and closed the door behind him.