The Chemicals in Us [Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi: Chuh-Ro, Dam-Duk]
31_days prompt: 3 December 2006. L'amour et la Morte/And I don't know if it's a miracle or just chemicals in us [Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi: Chuh-Ro, Dam-Duk, 561 words]. Set towards the END OF THE SERIES ( and after this), POSSIBLE SPOILERS.
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When she speaks of the next life, Chuh-Ro suspects he knows what Sujini is planning. But in his next breath he lets it go, because he does not believe she will go through with it. His tie to Dam-Duk, the Joo-Shin King, is strong; it is tugging at him painfully, like a heartache. It is this reason alone that he lets Sujini go. For all his confidence and power the King right now is in need of Chuh-Ro far more.
He knows that Sujini will not go on to the next life without Dam-Duk. She could not leave him behind with only Chuh-Ro for protection. Swords and shields aren't half so good as friendship and understanding. It is like a temporary loaning, until she and Dam-Duk can come back together at the right time. Until then, Chuh-Ro must fill the gap between them.
He despises the taste of alcohol, though he has honestly tried to like it, in order to seem less strange to the people around him and make them more comfortable in his presence. And not only the taste, he despises also the way that too much of it makes his head spin and his body lax in its responses. Still, in order to keep his promise to Sujini, Chuh-Ro puts a firm grip on the container and swallows the wine down. Dam-Duk looks at him in amazement, then smiles. His first smile of the day.
Chuh-Ro offers out the wine, and Dam-Duk takes it and has a long lasting swig.
"It's good," he says. Chuh-Ro just looks at him. Dam-Duk smiles again. "I can see you don't agree."
Chuh-Ro isn't about to deny it, but he sees no need to pretend otherwise, either, so he stays silent. Dam-Duk offers back the wine, and though his first instinct is to refuse it, Chuh-Ro takes it back and forces it down his throat again.
It takes a long life of drinking to develop a really solid tolerance for good wine, and so it doesn't take long for Chuh-Ro to end up overwhelmed by his senses.
"I drink when I can't sleep," Dam-Duk says presently. "Sometimes, if you drink enough, you can pass out completely."
Chuh-Ro cranes his head up to look at Dam-Duk, and wonders just when he slid to the floor. His fingers are still tightly clutched to his spear, as though someone could attack at any moment, right in the middle of the castle.
"I don't drink enough to pass out very often," Dam-Duk says. There are so many things he could say into the empty silence, but too many of them relate to Sujini, being to do with wine after all.
"I fail to see the benefits of wine," Chuh-Ro replies. Dam-Duk smiles again.
"It's supposed to relax you," he says, "it can be a useful tool during negotiations, to make an enemy feel more at ease, make someone more amenable to your ideas."
"And not impossible to poison, should the need arise."
"I can see the wine hasn't relaxed you at all," Dam-Duk says, "you are still imagining conspiracies everywhere."
Chuh-Ro is of the opinion that Dam-Duk could do with a few more people who possess wariness and forethought, but he doesn't need to speak it aloud. Criticism is never appropriate in front of his King.
"Still," Dam-Duk sighs happily, slouching down further, "I'm glad to have you just as you are."
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