Chapter 2: The Death Of A Monarchy

THE SEOUL CHRONICLES 2018 BREAKING NEWS: KING KWON JAESUK PASSED AWAY IN HIS SLEEP.

His Majesty, King Jaesuk, has passed away peacefully in his sleep at the royal Imperial palace. The official announcement from the Imperial Palace, given at 12 50 P.M, said that the great king had retired to his chambers early the night before in his usual health, but passed away in the sleep and was found dead in his bed by a servant at approximately 06 45 A.M.

He was 43, and was known to have been suffering for a worsening lung condition for the past 7 years. The shocking news shook the whole Republic of South Korea for the sudden loss of their king. His death met with extraordinary public expression of grief. His funeral held on January 2nd drew thousands of mourners and onlookers in Korea.

The cabinet met this morning to discuss the constitutional implications as soon as Prime Minister, Baek Min-soo was informed with the devastating news. He offered their condolences saying, "He was a great king, a father to our beloved country. We cannot, at this moment, do more than to record the spontaneous expression of grief."

A national wide broadcast to the nation is due tomorrow.

As the news of the King's death spread, all cinemas and theaters closed. Flags in every town were half-mast, and schools and universities have reportedly closed for three days to allow young people to pay their respects. A crowd had begun to gather outside the imperial palace during the afternoon, as diplomats from around the world arrived in official cars to write their condolences in the visitor's book.

King Kwon Jaesuk only son, Crown Prince, Kwon Tae Hyun, aged 20, is said to take over his father position as the next rightful heir to throne. However, due to his young age, inexperience and complications, many citizen have aired their doubts on whether he would immediately succeed to the throne any time soon. His mother, Queen Jang Soo Yeon and Queen Dowager, Han Mi Kyung is said to act as his regent until he is truly prepared to say take the Royal Oath and succeed as King. If he were to succeed the crown, he would be the youngest king in the history of Korea's constitutional monarchy.

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I ran.

I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me because I knew that if I were to be late again, Chaerin would probably skin me alive and boil me into a delicious pot of kimchi soup. It was ridiculous how much I was heaving and sweating in this cold weather in Seoul and I took a mental note to exercise my lazy ass when I get home later. I stopped for a moment for a breather and glanced at my watch on my left wrist, praying that I would still have sufficient time to make it.

After being scolded numerous time for being late, I was desperate to get to work on time. The last thing I wanted was to endure another speech about her tardiness from my boss. Moreover, I wasn't in a good standing position. I couldn't afford more mishaps.

Bullshit. It was during time like these that your life tends to fuck you up and make your valuable time go faster. Groaning in annoyance, I quickly got back into my sprinting position and skilfully maneuverer my way through the sea of people. Though I would very much like to drive a truck and ram it through the crowd to make way cause no matter how many 'excuse me' I would oh-so-politely exclaim, no one seemed to even give two hoots to me.

Awhile I was wondering how humanity has succumbed to being such impolite deaf monkeys, I finally caught sight of the shop in the far distance. I grinned cheerfully, glad that I wouldn't have to continue to run a marathon.

As soon as I heard the soft ringing of bells when I rammed myself through the shop doors, I heaved a loud sigh. Finally, I am here. The fresh sweet scent of coffee and vanilla wafted in the air and the soft classical music played in the background made relax a little. It wasn't for long when a loud high-pitched voice and a hard slap to my back ringed in my ears, causing me to jump and back away.

"YAH! Lee Kara! You are late again, as usual!" The voice hollered out my name. I flinched and covered my ears as the loud female voice burned my ears. I did not need to take a look at the owner of the voice; I could recognize the distinctive and familiar high-pitched and screechy tone anywhere.

I turned to face her meekly, and as expected, I was faced with a fuming Kang Chaerin, already fully dressed in her work attire consisting of a dark chocolate colored apron, a light brown colored sun visor and black jeans. I smiled goofily at her, hoping to lessen the killing aura she was radiating off from her stare.

Kang Chaerin was my best friend. Our history went back from our time at preschool when I accidentally sat on her toy car and broke it. I guess I was really fat during that time cause I had no idea a five year old could sit on a plastic object and squash it. Now, we currently attend high school together and with heaven's great blessing — which I am very much thankful for — we attend the same class as well.

She is a girl with the most angelic face in the whole wide world and a self-proclaimed gold-digger.

People say that we use to look alike until she cropped her hand shoulder length and bleached it. Blessed with a dewy pale skin, bleached blonde hair and large round brown eyes, it was weird to think of her as a gold-digger. It was during junior year in high school when Chaerin realized her academic achievements were, well… nothing. So she settled on plans of finding a rich guy and living happily ever after.

Sometimes I would wonder why such a wonderful girl would want to hang out with someone like me, but I am guessing it was because opposite attract. She is one of the rare-breed of humankind that could accept my crude, clumsy and impatient personality. Her only downfall was her death glare, that girl could give the fiercest icy cold glare that I have ever seen, not to mention her screeching reprimanding voice is top-notch as well.

I gave out a small chuckle, scratching my head awkwardly while she fumed. I could practically see the steam blowing out from her ears. I glanced at the digital wall clock to see that it was 2:30 P.M. I was 30 minutes late, again.

"Hahaha, sorry Chaerin... I was... caught up in traffic again." I came up with an excuse as quickly as I could.

I could feel her scrutinizing eyes burn through me as she came closer and raise her brow. I tired to maintain a straight face and a straight posture, hoping that she would buy my ridiculous lie.

With a confident cross of her arm and a proud huff of the chest, she started to break down my lies without mercy. "You ride the subway to work, what traffic are you talking about?"

Her expression on her cool face turned into a smirk when she noticed me falter, her large round almond eyes judging me silently. I swept my long bangs away my face, pouting. Damn, caught like a mouse again. I could never lie to her. "Sorry, I was really tired with all the recent projects." I apologized.

"Hurry up. I managed to cover you from my dad. He doesn't know you're late again, so just get change quickly and get to work." She sighed and rolled her large eyes away from me. She hurried away when a customer called out to her at the cashier, her tone of voice changing to a cheery one when she greeted him.

Smiling, I scurried to the back of the shop and extracted my working attire from my backpack, quickly changing into it at the bathroom. The shop that I worked at was called 'Latte Memories', a coffee and dessert joint that Chaerin's father owned. Although I was always late for work, I undeniably love my part-time job. I have been working here for as long as I could remember.

There was always something about making fresh coffee at the barista, watching the hot steam floating on top of it and waving it gently under my nose to take in the distinctive bittersweet smell of just plain coffee that I just treasured and adored.

There was something about coffee that I couldn't resist.

My mother had always told me the first step to being an adult is to stress yourself out.

So I had my schedule filled out with part time jobs to help out my family. In the morning, I attended school as usual and later in the afternoon, I worked here with my best friend Chaerin where we hung around, gossiping and flipping through magazines until Mr. Kang, the owner and Chaerin's father, started waving a broomstick and threatening to kick us out if we didn't look more productive. That killed the rest of our leisure time.

At night, I worked as a waitress at Luxola, a quiet local food and pub joint nearby my house. I wiped tables, served drinks and food and cleaned up the counters. I knew this hectic schedule would prove too much for an 19-year-old high school student, but I managed to cope somehow, struggling through school and work.

The joy of being 19 and having to work; I literally had to labor for the fruits. Even though it boring and routinely, it kept me somewhat busy, and I liked that.

Tying my extremely long hair up into a ponytail, I slipped the brown sun visor on top of my head. I studied my reflection in the mirror for a while seeing the same features for the past 19 years of my life. Large doe eye hazel eyes, silky and straight luscious jet-black hair, a sharp pointy button nose and a complexion extremely pale and unblemished, tamed like a harmless doll.

Though I had received lots of compliments from people commenting on my doll-like traits, I had never really put much effort into my appearance.

I don't consider myself extremely drop-dead pretty. I guess, I'm just pretty average. A petite Korean girl with extremely long, un layered straight black hair. My eyes, my mother's gifts were large and round framed with thick voluminous lashes.

I swung open the wooden door and stepped out into the café. It was plain and simple; the room was mainly dressed in primarily colors like brown, black and white. Standard glass tables and cushioned brown chairs decorated the room in an organized manner. Soft warm light illuminated the room, giving it a cozy feel. The small coffee shop was surprisingly empty today for a Friday afternoon. I strolled across the checkered floor and headed to where Chaerin was.