Was there really a possibility to get back?!
Whoever wrote that letter had to live in the palace or otherwise they wouldn't know about my whereabouts. But how did they know about my situation... I never told anyone.
Was that person able to travel in time too? Wouldn't that mean that he had to be somehow connected to what happend to me? Until now everything had just been a coincidence but what if there was a chance for me to find a reason behind it.
...
It was early in the moring but I was already awake to go and feed the horses still having the events of yesterday stuck in my head. On my way back I was stopped by general Felix.
I didn't even notice that he was there before and gasped at the sudden confrontation.
"Oh Felix, I didn't see you" I laughed and scratched my neck nervously. The blond haired guy gave me an amused look.
"You seem a little unfocused today, but it's early in the moring so I won't have to worry about that."
He was right because the opportunity of maybe finding out how to get back in time didn't leave my head.
In the beginning I had tried telling myself that living here was a new hope and a better start than what my old life had been but in reality the home sickness of the 21 century became worse by the day. The people here were nicer... but death was around every corner.
"Listen Jisung, Prince Hyunjin asked me to deliver you a message. He said you should come to the river outside the palace as soon as possible."
"Why would he want to meet me out there at six o'clock in the moring?" I asked a little confused.
Felix shrugged.
"He didn't particularly say that he himself wants to meet you. Maybe he send you there for another reason."
Whatever, I wasn't in the place to disobey a prince's order anyway. Going there wouldn't hurt so I agreed and said bye to the boy to go.
In that moment someone else caught my eyes in an instant. It was like I was sent back to the future again when I saw his pink colored hair...the guy from last night. He walked over the place with a basket of apples in his arm and smiled when he noticed us looking at him.
"Felix, who is that boy?" I asked my friend.
"Oh hey Jeongin! Didn't know you were up this early."
The boy walked over to us and happily greeted me.
"Hello, my name is Yang Jeongin. Nice to meet you."
From further away he seemed like a little kid but he was actually taller that me. A little perplexed I shook his hand.
"Hi Jeongin, I'm Jisung. Didn't we see each other before, last night? You were feeding fish in the pond in front of the palace" I wanted to ask directly so I could be sure about it.
Suddenly, it felt like time had stopped. Felix wanted to say something but froze with his mouth half open. My body refused move but I could still see and move my eyes. Jeongin came a bit closer now having a serious expression on his face.
"Listen Jisung, you aren't supposed to remember your old life. Your life right now is the result of an error in the system. Keep yesterday a secret... we never met before."
In the next moment Felix started speaking and I could move again. Jeongin continued his smiling.
"Wait you guys met before?"
"No, I think I've mistaken him for someone else. That was kinda dumb, I'm sorry." I quickly answered hiding the fact that I had just witnessed that someone had stopped time...?!
"Gotta go now." Jeongin said and left us from one moment to the other without saying another word. Weird. Something about all of this was very strange but this person was the first one here that seemed to know something about my situation. I had to talk to him as soon as possible but he was already gone... additionally I still had to go to the river.
After saying goodby to Felix I made my way to the said river hoping whatever this was would not take up all my time. In fact the nervousity took over my body because I finally found a clue about my situation.
The sun was already up but because of the fog the whole landscape was looking grey and colourless. When I jumped over the rocks near the river I realized that they were even more slippery than before but it was too late. My foot slipped and I fell... into the ice cold water of the river.
Luckily I hadn't hit my head on a rock again but current pulled me under the water and pushed me with the river rapidly. Swimming wasn't exactly one of my talents so I had problems keeping my head over the surface being constantly pushed down. There was a small waterfall ahead, about 2 meters high but I wasn't able to hold onto anything to stop myself.
When I fell I was pushed down into the greenish water mercilessly. Where was the ground and where the surface? I couldn't say.
Not again... I didn't want to drown again. This horrible feeling of cold water filling pushing its way down my throat... my view slowly becoming black.
Suddenly something wrapped itsslef around my arm and I was pulled up in an instant.
My body hit the shore hardly but the stinging pain from lungs numbed every other sensation down.
Did I die again? Would I go back to the future then?
I thought I had already lost my consciousness when I suddenly coughed and out water and with every movement my ribcage hurt even more. It felt like someone stabbed me in the chest but slowly my breath got steadier and calmer.
Someone carefully patted my back to help me regaining my cool and when looking up ahead I realized I wasn't laying at the shore anymore but sitting further away in the grass. My clothes where soaked in the water of the river and my body shivered from the cold.
"Here." Someone behind me put a jacket around my shoulders but I was faster to stand up and flinch back from prince Minho who slowly took the cloth back after just staring at me for a few seconds.
"What *cough* year do we have?" I asked barely keeping my balance and
Minho stood up as well but didn't attempt to come any closer.
"It's still the same year as yesterday. How do you feel? Are you hurt?"
So I hadn't traveled in time any further...
Then this was just an unfortunate accident meaning the fact that Minho stood here in front of me meant... he had pulled me out of the river.
"Don't think I'll thank you for saving me." I glared at him but opposite of what I expected he stayed calm and collected.
"... I told Hyunjin bring you here so I could apologize but then I saw you falling into the river... it is my fault that you even came here so I guess I made up for that by saving you. But what I really need to tell you is that I'm sorry for what I did to you yesterday. I felt ashamed of myself when I woke up today and I can't even say why I did that in the first place... perhaps because I had too much to drink."
In his expression there was deep regret but also awkwardness. He must not like apologizing but because his actions had hurt his own pride he was forced to do this.
To be honest I never expceted him to even say one nice word to me so this apology was more than enough for the moment. It wasn't like I'd held what he did against him for eternity... in fact I didn't really care about it anymore.
And if I trusted my intuition then prince Minho was genuine at the moment and he also put his own title as a prince down by apologizing to a subject of his.
At least for that I respected him at the moment.
"Thank you for saving me, prince Minho. I think I might be able to forgive you for now..."
The prince looked up at me his lips curling up into a sad smile.
"Really? What I did is unforgivable... I don't know what happend to me in that moment." Wow... I totally didn't expect him to be able to look so regretful and hurt even though I was the one who was supposed to look like that.
Confidently, I took a few steps closer so I was right infront him again. This guy couldn't be the cruel killer that people portrayed him as... maybe he was just deeply hurt and misunderstood like Hyunjin had indicated before. Right now there was nothing intimidating about him... he simply stood there uncomfortable because of his own mistake and we held eye contact without pressure.
I might never get a moment like this again so I wanted to bring the wall around him down. Maybe we'd even get along after this.
"You know prince... I think the problem is that you don't even know who you are yourself. It's obvious that you are hiding something but from what I heard you never let anyone help you. The people think of you as a monster but you let them talk instead of opening up. Don't you think that might make everything worse? For example... why would you hide your eye?"
I reached out to carefully take his mask but he grabbed my wrist to stop me.
His eyes sparkled dangerously when his face distorted to madness. The wall I had tried to break down was there again.
"You don't know me, Han Jisung."
I pulled my hand away just to reach forward again and with a quick movement I took his mask away. If he really regretted his actions he couldn't hurt me again so this was my chance.
The prince let go of my wrist immediately and closed his eyes while stumbling back and holding onto a tree.
"Open your eyes Prince Minho... I might not know you but I don't care about your eye color. Where I come from it is considered pretty to have two different colored eyes so stop whining around!" Inwas pretty sure this overstepped the boundaries of what I should say to a prince but this whole situation was almost funny to me. Seeing him stand there covering his eyes with his hands was somehow stupid.
I took his hands away from his face noticing how he didn't try much to stop me but his body tensed.
"Go away or I'll hurt you." He threatened but it was nothing compared to how he usually spoke.
"I told you to stop whining... open your eyes." I spoke to him again and slowly his eyelids moved exposing his different colored irises.
The right one was shining as purple as the first time I saw it and I couldn't stop being pulled in by the color of his eyes.
He attempted to pull his hands put of mine but I didn't let him. He looked so vulnearable now that I almost felt bad for taking off his mask. As if he was suddenly another person.
"Your eyes are beautiful. Why would you hide them?" I asked again but he lowered his head so I couldn't look at them anymore.
"You're the first person to say that... everyone else thinks it looks weird and that it is a curse. In the end it doesn't matter what it is but what people think... that's why I don't need to know who I am because in their eyes I'll always be the devil. One person won't change that."
"You are the damn third Prince Minho of this beautiful palace over there and what you are is not determined by others. Devil or not, don't you need to make the best out of it and be the person you want to be? What do really want?" I asked him directly when something crossed my mind that I had been curious about since yesterday. This was the past... so kissing a man was forbidden for a I knew and yet...
"About the kiss yesterday... you knew that I was a guy but you still did that. Are you hiding your interest in men, too?"
The puzzled reaction from him gave me a feeling of satisfaction. His eyes widened for moment and he swallowed nervously. No way...
"I...don't know... I never really thought about it." He cleared his voice and everted his eyes awkwardly.
Was he...blushing? I couldn't believe my eyes but the fact alone that he didn't come at me for mentioning love between man had to mean he didn't dislike it.
After everything he did... was prince Minho really getting nervous in my presence like that?
With mixed intentions in my thoughts I placed my hands on his neck and moved my head closer to his when talking to him. His eyes widened in shock when he just stared at me.
"Lets find out then, shall we? Do you feel anything? Is your heart beating faster? Do you feel hot? Anyth-"
Suddenly he put his hands on my sides and gently pressed his lips on mine.
I honestly didn't expect him to do that so suddenly but it was my fault for teasing him. Didn't I subconsciously want him to react? Maybe I did...
I responded with light kisses testing out what exactly he intended on doing.
"I knew it" I laughed at him when he shut me down by biting my lip.
The prince wasn't a good kisser but I somehow didn't care much... this must have been the first time that he had a real kiss with a man.
Helplessly he pulled me closer and intensified his movements a little but always making sure I responded to it. This was totally different from when he had forced himself onto me... right now he was considerate of my own feelings so he let me lead the kiss after a while. I made sure to keep it slow and help him understanding how it worked when he tightened his grip around my waist and moved his hands up my sides and to me back. My clothes were still wet form the water of the river but he didn't seem to care.
His touch felt good even though it didn't make sense that I enjoyed this after what happened yesterday... but right now... it was beautiful.
I subconsciously brought my hands to the rim of his shirt and let my fingers brush over the skin on his lower back.
At that sensation Minho moaned silently into the kiss and suddenly froze in the spot. He put his hands on my shoulders and ended the kiss, his eyes switch from my eyes to my lips before he stumbled back and held his hand infront of his mouth.
"Wh- what?! I- I am so sorry Jisung I d- didn't mean to. What has gotten into me-"
"It's fine!" I interrupted him but he was too absorbed in his shock.
"I don't like men. Whats wrong with me!?" He visbly panicked.
"I need time for myself." He then mumbled and turned on his heel before running away into the maze of the forest leaving me alone just like that.
This probably was a bit too much for him... the first kiss was never easy.
The problem was that this kiss had also made me feel something intense and when I saw him running of I felt horrible.
I didn't want prince Minho to hate me again. I had already grown too attached.
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