Hatred.
An intense negative emotional response towards a certain person and an absolute pain in the neck.
Cale Henituse wasn't the kind of person who would spare much emotion for hatred. Cale had not hated people, some people yes, but he certainly hated a lot of things rather than people.
Like, how he hated that his mom was dead and how Harris village was the last thing that represented her death. Or another example, he hated the nobility for how they're treating his new family, and hated the reality why strawberries only grew in late springs or early fall.
(Why can't they bear fruits earlier? Cale wanted to eat strawberries everyday.)
Cale had never felt any extreme dislike and a simply undeniable feeling where such consistent loathing would build up in his heart and lose all his self-control.
So he really needed answers to his questions.
The reason why Cale hated Choi Han from the moment they first met was pure and simple. He hated how suspicious he looked, his expression dark with the same undeniable feeling and dried blood sticking to his clothes. Hated how he could easily access the territory that the people had protectively reinforced for many many years; he hated how this suspicious creep was demanding an audience with his father after jumping over the wall and just got his ankle twisted in an pathetic way.
Pfft! It was laughable. Cale chuckled everytime he strived to recollect that memory. He found it so fucking embarrassing Choi Han should've seen it and reconsidered his choice of action, oh my god! In his opinion, everybody should have witnessed such an embarrassing feat!
So he hated Choi Han, his Harris village, and beyond all of that, Cale hated himself for using Choi Han as his scapegoat for all the problems that had nothing to do with that clearly dangerous man.
Not like it was his fucking fault though.
Cale was practically asking to get beaten up. He should be glad he isn't dead.
Choi Han had been true about it as well. Extremely cruel, brutally honest with his feelings, and yet mercilessly violent.
Cale sneered at the memory.
Perhaps he should've settled with drinking poison after all. Well it was too late now, what has happened had transpired before he even knew it.
Cale's dark pupils moved towards the gentleman reading a book at his side.
Kim Rok Soo had ‘found’ him bloodied at an alleyway and called the guards. Strangely, this man knew who had beaten him up and also told him everything ‘he had to know’.
The man glanced up from his book and lifted an amusing eyebrow at Cale before introducing himself. “Do you need anything? I'll get you some water.”
“You killed me, bastard!” Cale exclaimed.
Cale had absolutely no fear and hoping to get his point across the border to get the man's direct attention of what the hell happened between them in their previous lives.
A tense silence hung in the air and Kim Rok Soo's eyes blew wide from shock. He coughed awkwardly. “I know I offered to drive you to the airport but I wouldn't have expected an assassination that took both our lives. I can't see the future, you know.”
What the fuck.
“Get to the fucking point. Why are you even here?” Cale interrogated, since he found it too difficult to punch that man because of the excruciating pain. “Go on then, talk.”
The man, Kim Rok Soo, sighed tiredly and placed the book on Cale's bedside table without knowing what to say. Kim Rok Soo actually had a vague idea of what happened to them, but no way to confirm it.
After all, Kim Rok Soo was an ordinary man with no special abilities.
“Fuck—” Cale cursed loudly, fixing his formerly slouched posture. “I haven't felt this vulnerable since my boyfriend left me for another guy.”
What?
Kim Rok Soo had not been expecting that.
He'd thought while he was reading that despite looking angry, Cale looked a bit attractive. Not pretty, he held the appearance of a person who had beauty and handsomeness. Lovely would fit him perfectly. It'd make sense when a lot of people would court him despite his ‘trash’ personality.
So who's the motherfucker who broke his heart?
Cale blinked owlishly at him and then looked up at the ceiling. “Ah,” Cale let out with a shrug. “Just kidding, I don't even have a boyfriend.”
The displeased look on Kim Rok Soo's face made Cale feel awkward and he pulled the blankets over his head and hid from the man.
Kim Rok Soo grunts. “Anyway, we have to leave for capital by tomorrow. We have to go save your baby brother.”
Cale pulled his blankets down abruptly. Cale blinked twice, his long eyelashes fluttering twice as he took in the information. He then opened his mouth to speak.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?”
He could not understand what Kim Rok Soo had just said.
“Cale. This is history. Have you ever paid attention to any of my lessons? I even made you do a book report about the Plaza Terror Incident.”
Cale couldn't help but take a deep breath as he started to remember countless nights of staring at a computer screen researching about a ‘stupid history book’ that was more than a decade older. How could he forget such a tiring experience? It was all it took before graduating highschool and moving on to college.
[The terror attack of a then unknown organization in the capital city of the Roan Kingdom, particularly of the plaza area. The attack took place during the celebration of the current king Zed Crossman’s 50th birthday.]
Woah, he needs a moment to think about this. Cale was going to send Basen to an extremely dangerous place and get his younger brother killed. How could he not remember an important event like that?
At the same time, Cale was finally able to confirm one thing that had been haunting him for the past two weeks.
I'm my own ancestor.
This is disgusting! And fucking twisted! He could've never imagine himself having a child, more or less a descendant from his maternal side of the family.
Cale scowled at the thought.
“Pack only the essentials. I know you're injured and all that but I take you can still move around, right?”
The black-haired man said, his stoic expression slowly melting into ire as he spoke. He knows that Cale had just got brutalized four days ago and is currently on medication, but the middle child Henituse had left a few hours ago and Kim Rok Soo feared that it might be too late if they delayed any longer.
“And what if I don't want to go?”
Kim Rok Soo's expression nearly dropped. He hadn't expected Cale to even question something like that. He maintained his composure though, silently observing Cale's facial expression.
Nothing.
His heart throbbed in his chest. Was he underestimating him? Does he like his brother or hate him? It was a difficult question to answer. Kim Rok Soo assumed that Cale cared for his younger brother Basen, so he didn't want Cale to feel devasted after he finds out what would happen at the plaza.
Kim Rok Soo generally could not understand Henituse family drama. From an outward eye, it looked for all the world like he hated them. However in his past life, despite relentless loathing from his siblings, Cale loved them and thought of them as his own.
Perhaps this Cale was different?
Kim Rok Soo could believe that. The ‘innocent younger sibling’ is usually hated by the ‘second parent’ which often happens to be an eldest child.
Problem was that Kim Rok Soo had been embarrassingly confident that Cale's surface had nothing to do with what was in his big heart.
His empty expression gave nothing but an anxious feeling.
Finally, Cale carefully sat up on the bed he'd been lying on for four days straight, cracking his knuckles as he gave him a look. “Can I bring two cats on our journey?”
Kim Rok Soo laughed. Cale was a little shit.