Osan (11/15)
Title: Osan
Genre: Alternate Reality
Length: 11/15
Disclaimer: I don't own DBSK. And the plot is not purely mine. I was inspired by King of Attolia, written by Megan Whalen Turner. I actually borrowed some of the scenes from it
Summary: Jaejoong has decided to return to his homeland, leaving his good life and cousin behind. But what will happen if the people in his homeland doesn't want him? His nightmares are getting worse as well. Did he make the right decision?
A/N: Osan, Busan and Naju are three different kingdoms. The king or prince of a kingdom is usually called after their kingdom’s name. However, there is a second prince in Osan. The second prince, who is now the king, is named Osanis because the first prince is still alive.
A/N2: There were some errors so just to warn you, Yunho is Osan's current king but whenever he's together with Jaejoong, he's referred to as the second prince and Jaejoong as the first prince
unbeta-ed
By the day’s end, the entire palace knew of Sungjoon’s defection to the prince’s support. Yoochun was thinking of it as he prepared for bed. He was about to blow out the light on his desk when he heard footsteps approaching. He looked up from the flame to see Junho leaning on his door frame.
"Have you heard the latest?" Junho asked as he sat on Kangdae's three-legged stool.
"If it's about Sungjoon and the prince, the whole palace, if not the whole country, has heard about it. So yes, I did." Yoochun answered as he lie on his bed.
"Not the latest I suppose." Junho commented teasingly.
"What do you mean?" Yoochun asked, one eye opening as he tried to study Junho's expression.
"I accidentally bumped on Taegoo on my way here. You know, one of the prince's attendants." Junho started.
"What about him?" Yoochun's interest peaked.
"Well. Let me get into it will you?" Junho answered as he snatched Yoochun's glass and pitcher of water from his table. He drank heartily before continuing, "He was carrying lethium from the physician's office. He said that the prince's nightmare has gone worse and that the physician had suggested for the prince to take lethium at night. You know, so that he can sleep soundly."
"That's not sleeping soundly, that's sedating someone to sleep." Yoochun was astounded by the physician's suggestion.
"Taegoo said that the prince refused to take it but the king insisted on it. I wonder if our king has to insist it as our king or as his brother." Junho chuckled. "For sure you know how stubborn our prince is."
"He's quite a headache, to be honest." Yoochun admitted. "But I kind of miss it."
Junho raised an eyebrow, "You miss the headache? Or you miss being by the prince's side?"
Yoochun threw his pillow at Junho's direction before burying himself under his blankets. "Go away! I need to sleep early."
Junho laughed at his most-likely-blushing friend before leaving. "You know you can't hide anything from me Chun-ah." He teased before closing the door behind him.
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The view was of the mountain separating Osan and Naju. Changmin misses Jaejoong so much that there's not a day goes by that he doesn't stare at Osan's direction, where the only view is the mountain that separates them.
Kyuhyun's assistant came by and reported about the incident during dinner.
"You should visit him again. It's been a while since you last saw him."
Changmin knew it's his Minister of War, Jongwu, that has spoken to him even without looking.
"Yes, I think so too. Things in Osan has become…" Changmin tried thinking of an appropriate word to describe the events in Osan but found nothing but, "Interesting."
"Yes, it has, has it? Is this part of Jaejoong's magnificent plan?" Jongwu asked as he walked towards the king, enjoying the light breeze in the king's balcony.
Changmin faced him with an unreadable expression. "Well, Jaejoong has threatened to kill someone that is too important that Yunho had offered him his wineglass, Kyuhyun's pissed off, more or less, due to tonight's events, his assistant, mind you, rushed here to report everything with a black eye, presumably from Kyuhyun, and as I've heard, Jae's nightmares are getting worse, much worse that the palace's physician prescribed to sedate him for him to sleep soundly. This... This is Jaejoong's magnificent plan, is it?"
Jongwu flinched at how bitter his king had sounded. The uncontrollable King's Thief, more uncontrollable now that he's far away from home, hasn't asked for advice from Changmin since then. And, the king has no idea what Jaejoong had planned, leaving even Changmin in the dark.
Changmin sighed before staring faraway. "I just hope he's doing well. How can he do his escapades now that he's being sedated?"
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The room was a small one, the paintings on the walls all around it and the delicately carved screen that formed the low ceiling making it seem even smaller. There was no place to sit but the floor and no place to rest the lamp, so Sungki had been standing for some time when his father arrived.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he said. “We should not meet.”
Baron Lee grunted. “I want a report.”
“I am a success.” Sungki shrugged; the lamp in his hand moved, and the shadows flickered wildly around the room. The satyrs on the wall seemed to dance and leer. “There is not one attendant who has not disgraced himself and the prince. He is ready to purge them all.”
“Not yet,” said Baron Lee. “I don’t want them dismissed yet. He must take the mistress first, so that she can tell him whom to choose as new attendants.”
“You are less successful than I,” said Sungki.
The baron glowered. “She’s beautiful, newly widowed, and the stupid ass persists in dancing with her sister.”
“Why not use the sister, then, if she has caught the prince’s eye?”
“She reads plays. She embroiders. She is artless, unwed, and useless. Her sister is twice widowed and quite adequately prepared for the task of leading the prince by his nose. It has to be her. I told their father to beat them both, and the younger one especially. She won’t dance with the prince again. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“I don’t want you dismissed as well. You’re the one attendant who must stay.”
“Depend on it,” said Sungki. “He won’t let me go.”
“I have heard otherwise.”
“He relies on me. The other attendants don’t realize it, but the prince and I are becoming allies and better friends every day. He won’t dismiss me when he throws out the rest.”
“Be sure of it,” the baron warned.
“Oh, I am,” said Sungki.
After they left, Jaejoong shifted a little on the rafters above the carefully carved and pierced wooden ceiling, more screen than a ceiling, in fact. He sat cross-legged in the dark and considered the room below, conveniently out of the way, but not far from the royal apartments. With no furniture in it, too small to be useful for any legitimate purpose, it was guaranteed to be empty. The architect who designed it, and directed the carving of the wooden screen for the false ceiling, had been Jaejoong’s many-times-great-grandfather. He’d called it “the conspiracy room.”
Silent as an owl, Jaejoong made his way back to his room and his bed. Lying there in the dark, he whispered to himself, “So Sungki is my dear friend. How strange that I did not know. And poor Jihye is suffering for dancing with me. Sungki, dear, dear Sungki, what are you playing at, I wonder?”
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The next night, he danced again with the Lady Jihyun’s little sister, Jihye. “That was beautifully done,” he told her.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty?”
“I mean the way you tried to avoid dancing with me, in a way calculated to make me insist on doing just that. Just this.” He gestured to the dance as they separated.
When they met again, he said, “Do you know, I heard someone describe you as artless?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Your Majesty.”
“Neither did he,” said the prince.
“Your Majesty-”
“Was the beating very bad, my dear?”
She stumbled slightly. He took her arm.
“You’re tired. Let me take you to a seat.” The dancers around them parted, and he led her through.
“I can finish the dance with your sister.”
Her grip on his arm tightened.
“Just a single dance, dear,” said the prince. “Then I promise I’ll move on. I can’t allow you to be beaten for casting yourself between me and the rather rapacious clutches of your sister. I do wonder why you think I am worth saving.”
“Maybe because I have eyes in my head, Your Majesty,” said Jihye.
Jaejoong was briefly taken aback. “Well, I will have to watch my step then, won’t I? And you will have to point out to your father the advantages of having one of his daughters admired by the prince, even if it is the wrong one. If it saves you from a beating, you may always call on me.” He bowed over her hand.
He could feel her shaking, and looked over his shoulder to see her father approaching. “He will wonder what you see to admire,” said Jihye.
.
“That’s easy,” said the first prince of Osan. “Tell him I like your earrings.”
“Your Majesty might like to dance with my friend, Lady Soojin. She’s a pretty girl,” Jihye said quickly.
“I like pretty girls. Who else?”
She mentioned a few more names, but fell silent as her father arrived looking thunderous.
“She claims she’s unwell,” said the prince with petulance. “She suggests I finish the dance with her sister.”
Her father’s brow cleared. He led her away. Lady Jihyun and the prince returned to the dance.
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Doubting the ability of Jaejoong's attendants in giving him his lethium, Yunho has asked Junsu to deliver tonight lethium to the prince's room to make sure that the prince really takes it.
Junsu transfers the tray to his left hand before knocking on the door with his right. "Your Majesty, your milk and lethium are here."
"Come in", was the muffled response beyond the door.
Junsu slowly enters the room, balancing the tray on his left hand. As he peeked inside, he saw Jaejoong sitting near the window, staring outside.
"You can leave it on my table…" Jaejoong moved his head a little to take a look on who brought his lethium tonight, "Junsu. Tell me, why would you bring my lethium instead of my attendants?"
Junsu approached the table Jaejoong has indicated before answering, "The king has asked me to make sure that you drink the lethium, that's why I'm here."
The oak table, more than a hundred years old, is littered with books and papers, some of it containing the prince's lessons today, and most likely his appointments for tomorrow, paper weights and inkbottles. Funny how he spotted a copy of Sungjoon's song somewhere in the pile. He cleared a portion of the table, piling all the books and papers in an orderly manner before placing the tray.
"I'll drink it later Junsu. Unless you'd want to wait and see for yourself?"
"That's the plan." Junsu answered as he sat on the chair near the table, eyeing the prince as he stared outside the window.
"Can't you just leave it there? I'll drink it after I drink my milk." Jaejoong answered petulantly.
"But…"
"I insist." Jaejoong said, sighing before turning his gaze on Junsu. That gaze, Junsu only saw it once, and that was during Jaejoong's battle with Kangdae. He didn't want to push it further.
"If you insist." Junsu bowed before leaving the room.
Jaejoong took his glass of milk, approached the window he was staring at, before drinking it slowly. He has just felt the last drop of milk go down his throat before he felt drowsy, sleepy. He glared at the glass on his hand-or tried glaring as his eyes are closing on their own accord- before dropping on the floor, the glass rolling towards the oak table.
Junsu quickly re-entered the room, heaved Jaejoong to his bed -how can someone so skinny be so heavy?- before picking up the glass from the floor. He quickly took it, together with the tray, outside before reporting to Yunho that he has ensured that Jaejoong took his lethium.
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The next night, Yunho paced inside his room. He has summoned Junsu but the said man has not yet appeared. After a few more minutes, Jaejoong entered his room.
"Brother." Yunho greeted Jaejoong with a smile.
Jaejoong smiled back at him, but there's a hint of mischief in his eyes. "Hey."
Jaejoong sat on Yunho's chair, surprisingly unoccupied, before speaking, "Junsu won't be coming tonight."
Yunho stopped midstep, eyes widening, before turning to look at Jaejoong. "Something happened? Is he okay? Should I summon the palace's physician? A fight? Assassin?"
"Woah. Calm down Yunho." Jaejoong grinned. "I just did what he did to me."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…" Jaejoong clapped like an excited child before continuing, seeing that Yunho's already panicking about his Minister of War. "Junsu told me that you asked him to make sure that I drink my lethium yesterday, correct?"
Yunho nodded, waiting apprehensively for Jaejoong to continue.
"Junsu mixed it with my milk, so... I just did him a favor and had him sleep earlier than his routine."
"You made him take lethium?"
"More like mixed it with his soup." Jaejoong pretended not to care.
"And how were you able to do that?" The mess hall for the soldiers was supposed to be self-service.
Jaejoong winked, "I have my ways." He laughed with mirth before walking towards Yunho. "You should go to sleep Yunho, Junsu won't be waking until dawn." He brushed the hair away from Yunho's eyes before exiting, the screen door closing behind him.
The messenger he asked to fetch Junsu arrived a minute later, relaying the news he already knows. Junsu is asleep in the mess hall, his face luckily falling on the table and not on his soup bowl.
-tbc-
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