30 Fire on Fire
Grabbing Soojin's elbow, Yun Ki pulls her towards him.
She swings towards him in his grasp, now face-to-face with the Man whose face read confusion.
"Why did you leave?" He asks the woman who'd left in such haste as though she had left an unattended baby by her bedside.
Soojin stares at Yun Ki's eyes for those are all she can see, taking into consideration the mask that covers his face.
His mouth is ajar, almost as though he regrets being so upfront and demanding.
She was answerable to him, wasn't she?
"I wasn't needed anymore." Soojin voices out, standing her ground.
All she can focus on is how Yun Ki's fingers dig into the bony protuberance of her elbow, nails creating crescent shaped indents over the pale skin adorning her joint.
"T-That's not true. You are my Queen, aren't you? Doesn't staying by my side lie in your priorities?" He asks, realising the firm grip he'd placed over her arm and lets go, straightening out the fabric on her arm.
Soojin steps away from Yun Ki and his hand is left floating in the air, grasping at nothingness.
He feels shrugged away.
How dirt is shrugged under a carpet, much like that in essence.
Soojin scoffs, letting out a sarcastic laugh and eying Yun Ki's state.
"What's this change in demeanour, Your Majesty? Why aren't you pinning me against the hard marble walls of this hall? Why aren't you grasping my hand so hard that it turns blue? Why aren't you threatening to rob away my modesty? You're absolutely selfish. Just when you realise Lee Min Hyuk has the power to ruin you, you summon me to come save you. When you're not playing the righteous King, you're away merry-making with Concubines who are more than willing to play my part. Why didn't you just marry them, Min Yun Ki? What's this despicable charade?"
Yun Ki feels attacked.
Threatened, in the most.
His mute wife did have a voice, after all?
That's not what enraged him, however.
Was he even angry? He wondered.
What was this feeling of a ton of bricks falling over you, crushing you?
What was this painful squeeze he felt in his heart?
Why wasn't he fuming in rage?
"What might you mean, Soojin?" He asks of her, stepping closer to her, until her back is plastered against the hall outside his tent.
Maidservants are passing by the hall, heads perched down to avoid getting a look of whatever was transpiring between The King and his Queen Consort.
Reputation was the last thing on Yun Ki's mind right now.
Soojin's eyes grow glossy, lips trembling but she composes her stature, sucking in a strained breath and turning sideways to watch as The King's helpers scurried past them.
She looks at Yun Ki, painfully.
She couldn't stand their proximity any longer.
It was as though she'd get suffocated.
But she closes her eyes, momentarily and flickers them open to watch his grow in concern.
What was this charade he'd presented before her? It was repulsive.
"What I mean to ask of you is, why me, Yun Ki? Why did you marry me?" Soojin asks, addressing the King by his first name, all and every respect gone through the roof.
Yun Ki feels stumped by her questions and that has never happened to him throughout his reign as The Ruler of a Monarchy.
A Woman wasn't supposed to be asking questions, was she?
This was a patriarchy and yet whatever Soojin mumbled before him, became a law.
Why had he given her the power to be so bold and upfront?
He could behead her, this instant and bring in another Queen into his Kingdom.
Why were his hands cold and clammy?
Why was his heart beating so hard that he felt he could bleed right out his nose?
What had she done to the ruthless self of his?
When had this change transpired, he'd wondered.
He couldn't remember the last time he manipulated Soojin or threatened her.
Perhaps it was when he was preparing her to go to the Lunar Harvest Festival.
However even after that one time, he'd stared at his blood stained hands in rage at how monstrous they were.
His rage scared his own self, at times.
It was as though he wasn't himself anymore when the ghost of fury took over him.
It closed the doors to his heart.
It spread past his vessels and intoxicated him to do things he wouldn't believe he did.
But why wasn't he being possessed by rage, now? Now, when his own wife was hurling insults his way.
She did hurl insults but she wasn't wrong in her conjectures. He was a selfish beast. How could he tell her how he'd been broken so many times and trampled upon that made him this self centred.
How could he possibly bare his heart before her and tell her that she was his redemption?
He couldn't.
Maybe affection or care or any of the nice words weren't for him and yet he couldn't get himself to raise a hand on her.
Her, who shuddered like a kitten in the cold.
He could've told her about Ryunjin but he didn't.
He knew it'd turn her away from him, forever.
He'd have no scope of being resurrected in her eyes.
What could he possibly tell her? She'd laugh at him if he told her she was the medicine he needed.
He'd grown to loathe himself so much that being near her made him feel somewhat better about himself.
She'd touched and caressed his wounds minutes ago and he already felt as though he'd sipped from the elixir of life.
How could he tell her she was the ointment to all his visceral wounds?
She was like fire.
She'd set fire to his insides.
So much fire that it'd send up smoke into his head, clouding his thoughts and actions.
But then again, he was fire as well.
Untouchable, destructive and unsalvageable.
No-one had ever come so close to him as they feared being set ablaze, at his ghastly hands.
"Why, Yun Ki?" She questions again, watching how his pupils shook at her inquisitions.
He breathes out, feeling a lump in his throat.
"B-Because, you were everything I wasn't."
Yun Ki spaces away from Soojin, giving her one last look and marching towards the exit.
He had Kings to greet and a match to win.
Soojin however, remained pinned against the hard marble, picking at her bottom lip.
Why had he turned into something he wasn't, initially? She wondered.
Just when she though she knew The cruel and ruthless King, she'd be proved wrong every time.
Were there things that she was unaware of?
Her fingers play with the strings of her gold studded necklace as she tries to decipher Min Yun Ki's portrayal of compassion.
If this were an act, Yun Ki deserved all the awards.
Just then, the pads of her fingers gaze against the deep red contusion overlying the nape of her neck and a stimulus shakes her insides.
What was she thinking?
Min Yun Ki was nothing but a selfish bastard.
He'd sullied his family's honour.
How could she even think about harbouring a warm place in her heart, for him to take abode in?
The poison had started spreading past her insides, gaining origin from the 'love bite', she wore as a relic.
