The night went by, faster than I thought. The next morning my sisters were more excited than me. They were busy thinking it was a fresh beginning oblivious to the realities of my destiny. Since the day I met Fate I couldn't help thinking, will I ever be able to make a fresh start? Will this cycle ever end? Or will all my efforts of living a happy life will result in ending at the gates of north heaven palace? "Yeoja unnie!", I heard Mi So. "I am up.", I answered her hidden command. She came inside running and jumped onto my bed. "Why are you so happy?", I asked ruffling her hair. She made a face showing her disapproval to my actions making me ruffle her hair more. She pushed my hand away and said, "Today you will start your job again, so we are all happy." I sighed, "Well its still not my real job.", I said. "Unnie! A job is a job. And till the time it helps the house and the person you are doing it for, it is a good job.", she said smiling. That made me realise my sister is growing now. She has started to understand the world and it was on my and Kang's shoulders to give her a nice upbringing. "Hyun are you up?", I hear Kang calling for me. I took Mi So's hand and we both went out to Kang. She was all ready to leave for somewhere. "Where are you going?", I asked. "To find some work.", Kang replied. "But unnie its not the time for any annual festival yet!", Mi So said. "Yes, I know, but after the new prince took over, there are a lot of local events that have started to take place. I'll find some work there.", she said. her voice was full of enthusiasm. I smiled at her. "So, are you leaving right now?", I asked. "If you get ready in 10 minutes we can leave together. I'll walk you to the queen's chamber.", she said. I nodded and ran inside to get freshen up. We both left leaving Mi So as the in charge of the house and the sole caretaker of our mom.
"You don't seem like yourself lately Hyun.", Kang said. I looked at her a bit taken aback by her sudden observation. "No, I am still trying to get my mind off certain things.", I said giving away half the truth. "The things that happened in the dungeons?", she asked. A bit of uncertainty in her tone showing she was afraid to start this conversation with me. Maybe she was afraid of me breaking down again thinking about the head's wife. I nodded. Maybe somewhere this was also on my mind and it left quite a big emotional trauma that I still couldn't talk about it. But I had a lot more baggage to carry, so I pushed this incident somewhere behind. She stopped and hugged me tightly. This was the second time I was taken aback in her company. I hugged her back. She smiled and said, "Saranghaeyo (I love you).", I smiled and nodded. I walked into the chamber and she left towards the palace gate.
Everyone was happy to see me and the queen recognised me as well.
The day went by pretty fast. It was mostly about being yelled at for being lost in thoughts for me. It was time to leave and I was more than happy to realise it was time to visit my cherry blossom tree. What I was unaware of my destiny. I was walking outside the queen's room when I heard the royal guards announce the entry of the prince. As a courtesy, I stood where I was and bowed my head to show respect and also to hide from the prince's eyes. He walked in and I found something different about his gait. He walked by and a familiar scent surrounded me. I looked up in haste and I saw his back moving in sync with his legs. The muscles of his back popping in and out very prominently even in his clothes. I don't remember our prince being this tall and this athletic. He sure had a handsome face but he was not this impressive in his walk. The prince turned around making the move a little too dramatic. But when I saw the new yet conversant face, my heart popped out of my body. It was Ethan and not the actual prince. But everyone around him regarded him as the actual prince.
"What are you doing here?", before I could ask this question, someone else did. I turned around to see Aiden standing there, his eyes full of anger. God this can't be good. "I came to see my mom.", Ethan answered with a little too calm demeanour. He said mom with so much affection that even I believed he was the real prince for that moment. "You know what I mean.", Aiden roared. "We will talk about it later, my little brother. It will be good if you leave for now.", Ethan said with a smile. Ethan's smile added more fuel to Aiden's anger. He stared at me with those scary eyes, turned around and left the chamber. What did I do? I bowed again and ran after Aiden.
"You called him! Didn't you?", he yelled at me. "How am I supposed to call him when I don't even know how to contact anyone in heaven?", I clarified. "So, what is he doing here?", Aiden said walking back and forth under the cherry blossom tree. "How am I supposed to know that?", I said. He stood at one place and sighed making me even more scared. Angry Aiden is never a piece of good news. We both were trying to figure out the mysterious entry of Ethan when the protagonist of our today's drama entered the scene himself.
I realised his presence when Aiden already had Ethan's collar clutched in his fist. I couldn't get why is Ethan's presence was bothering him this much. "What do you think you are doing?", I heard Ethan say trying to hide his anger. "What are you doing?", Aiden said showing his anger. These two are seriously polar opposites. "Guys people here don't know who we actually are. Please don't leave the roles you are playing. We are out in public right now and anyone can see us.", I said. Aiden let go off his collar and they both stood at a distance. "Ethan what are you doing here?", I asked. "Fate has made some changes in this era. I am here to execute them.", he replied. "There are more changes other than you?", Aiden asked, disapproval dripping off his tone. I shushed him. He rolled his eyes but to my surprise, he stood in the corner like an obedient child. "What other changes?", I asked again. "I just know that I have to take the role of the new prince and she will send the other instructions when the right time comes.", he replied honestly.
Aiden was still looking at him suspiciously but I could tell that he was not lying. "You two, I don't know what is the grudge you hold against each other but till the time we are here please just stay in your roles or else we won't be able to do the changes in this era.", I said looking sternly at two of them. I don't know when and how I became this fearless to talk with authority in front of Aiden but I was sure of one thing that I was done with their childish tantrums. Ethan smiled at us but Aiden was still standing in the corner with a straight face. I sighed and sat again under the cherry blossom. Ethan soon followed and sat beside me. To my surprise, Aiden also came and sat on the other side.
I knew no matter how different we three were, right now all three of us were thinking the same thing, 'what changes will fate make?'. One thing none of us had even a single hint about was, that fate was actually writing our story under the heading of this era.