Chapter Text
The sky is clear, and the summer’s warm breeze brushes Jungkook’s exposed face as he walks along the indoor lake covered with water lillies. He sighs, tilts his head back and closes his eyes, succumbing to his surroundings not minding the life that’s ahead of him.
His moment was interrupted by Yoongi clearing his throat. Yoongi’s in his formal attire, with his sword on his left. Yoongi’s formally his guard, but to Jungkook, he’s his guardian. “Mind if I interrupt a little”
“You already did” Jungkook shrugs.
“The princess needs you.” Yoongi replies as he walks closer to Jungkook.
“What does that demon want again?” Yoongi laughs at the remark. He put his hand on Jungkook’s shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.
“Just go there and find out for yourself.”
Jungkook knocks lightly on the paper door. Two women slide the doors open for him while bowing and immediately leaving the room to give the siblings some privacy. There,his sister is sitting on the ground,in the middle of the room,back facing Jungkook, with her hair down with golden and flowery pins on each side.
“Jeon Jungjin what did you call me all the way here for?” Jungkook says, annoyed. Jungjin laughs and turns her face towards his brother. Needle and thread on her hands, tapestry on her lap.
“I just need help for a second” Jungjin says, smiling, and grabs two spools of thread, red and purple, she raises it and asks “What color do I use as lining for dad’s part?”
Jungkook sits on the ground across his sister, elbows on the table, and chin on his hand. “You could’ve decided that for yourself, why did you have to ask me? But red.” Jungkook huffs.
“Red it is.” Jungjin continues sewing. Grabbing the thread from the spool of red, putting it in the needle.
“What’s that for?” Jungkook questions.
“It’s in dad’s edict, he wanted me to show my talents” Jungjin says the last part in his dad’s voice.
“I still don’t get how dad died, like he’s healthy, he’s so friendly and approachable, I don’t think anyone hates him enough to kill him, him just dying out of nowhere just sounds like complete bullshit” He huffs exasperatedly.
“First of all, language, second, what happened, happened. Third, dad is literally king, everyone hates him and wants him dead.”
“Sorry...God, why does he have to have a lot of enemies, I just want to live peacefully, is that too much to ask? I just miss him so much, and now I have to be king so early.” Jungkook says as he looks down at his fingers on the table, fiddling with it.
His sister puts down the tapestry on the table and holds his brother’s hands and takes his chin to look at her.
“This life that we have, though we didn’t ask for it, we have to live it the best we could, we have royal blood coursing through our veins, and with it comes the responsibilities, I miss him too, but we can’t bring him back, we can only move forward and try to make him proud.” Jungkook smiles.
“Ew, since when did you get sappy, Jeon Jungjin getting sappy? Excuse me could you please check if the sun’s rising in the west?” Jungjin hits his brother on the shoulder playfully.
“Done! What do you think, golden prince?” The nickname was given to him for his brilliance at everything he does, his sister pertaining to his artsy side.
Jungjin stands up and brushes her clothes with her hands, grabbing the tapestry and lifting it up to reveal the whole picture. It’s a family tapestry, Jungjin is in no doubt excellent at what she does, this masterpiece that takes others months to finish only took her 2 weeks to complete. The tapestry is filled with saturated colors and patterns, in the middle lies the four of them, His sister, Jungkook, his mom, and finally his dad.
But despite the intricate patterns on the tapestry, something else catches Jungkook’s eyes. It’s a text.
"Time is like water, fluid and passing, but holds memory.” Jungkook reads aloud, his fingers brushing against the letters on the fabric.
“Yeah, dad wanted me to put it there,” Jungjin says, leaning in to look at the text herself.
—
[Tae’s an idiot]
ughhh why did I choose to be an archaeologist??
i’ve been dusting this vase for years
Namjoon: maybe if you did your job instead of complaining, you would’ve been done by now
Taehyung: points were made
Taehyung: btw who tf changed the gc name?!?!
Namjoon: prolly Jimin and his bored ass
at least I have one
Taehyung: as if only you’ve got cake in this house
Taehyung: my ass is nowhere near flat sir
Namjoon: i want to leave this gc so bad
Namjoon: why am I friends with you?
cause you love us
Namjoon: i don’t yet here we are
Taehyung: pfft you say that but then buy food for us
Namjoon: oh speaking of food, i bought dumplings, I left it in the lounge
and as if on cue, Tae’s right again
i’ll be there once i’m done with this
Taehyung: YOU TRAITORS, I WANT TO BE WORK BUDDIES WITH YOU TOO
Taehyung: I WANT DUMPLINGS TOO
wait look at this vase i’m finishing up, it’s so pretty
I suddenly like my job
Namjoon: that is pretty
Namjoon: now come here before the dumplings go all soggy and gross
After Namjoon replied to his text, Jimin quickly put down his brushes and dusted his pants, he inspected the vase one last time before heading downstairs to the lounge.
Jimin and Namjoon are co-workers, they work at the National Museum of Korea, the part of the museum where they clean and restore the artifacts are not open to the public, due to obvious reasons. After cleaning and restoring these artifacts, they are brought somewhere more private than the restoration room, this storage room is equipped with high security, and only a few have access to it.
Jimin heads to the lounge and spots the take-out box in its plastic wrapping on the table. Namjoon making a cup of coffee at the back.
“Coffee at 8 pm?” Jimin says as he sits down on the couch, slouching with his elbows on his knees. Namjoon turns around, a cup of coffee in his hand and sits beside Jimin on the couch. Jimin moves to the bag of take-out and takes out a pack of chopsticks and splits it in half.
“Yeah, I’m closing the storage and restoration tonight,” Namjoon says as he blows on the cup of coffee and sips.
“Oh, be careful, I’ve heard a lot of rumors of ghosts roaming these halls at night, you know, for “stealing” their shit,” Jimin says, raising both of his hands and does the quote-unquote gesture with his index and middle finger.
“You’re seriously telling me this when I’m about to stay here for 6 more hours alone?” Namjoon lets out an exasperated laugh and hits Jimin’s back playfully.
“Yeah?” Jimin says mockingly while munching on his dumplings.
They talk about life and work until Jimin finishes eating, leaving Namjoon behind as he is on duty tonight. They head back to their office upstairs where they do their paperwork, reports and stuff.
“Goodluck Joon-hyung, come back alive tomorrow” Jimin sing songs as he grabs his stuff from his desk.
Jimin's desk is beside Namjoon’s. That’s how they got closer and became friends, later introducing Taehyung to Namjoon.
Namjoon sighs and leans on his chair, hands behind his head. He glances at the clock, “10:30” it reads. He still has 3 and a half more hours to go.
To pass time, he finishes all of the reports due for next week as he doesn’t like procrastinating and likes to get things done right after they’re handed to him. By the time he’s finished with his reports, it’s already 1 in the morning. Namjoon shuts down his desktop and stretches his arms upward. He grabs his things and heads for his rounds.
“Why did Jimin have to say shit like that? Ughh” Namjoon thinks to himself, he grabs his ID and scans it on the scanner to his right, then his thumb on the fingerprint scanner, to enter the storage room. The big heavy doors slide to the right like elevators. He checks if there is anyone left in the room. None.
He heads to the next room, the restoration room, he does the same to enter, ID, then fingerprint.
Namjoon enters and inhales the smell of pottery and ancient papers, he loves the smell of it. He slowly walks through the aisle of unfinished artifacts, and on to his right, he sees the pot Jimin was working on.
He grabs a pair of rubber gloves and puts it on, then investigates the piece. Such beauty and elegance, he thinks.
He slowly rotates the pot to see the other side and flips it to see the bottom, usually, potters put their name at the bottom, like branding. But what Namjoon sees shocks him, almost making him drop the pot. Thank God he didn’t, he would’ve been in serious trouble if he did.
“Park Jimin” written at the bottom of the pot.
—
[02:00]
[Tae’s still an idiot]
Namjoon: you won’t believe what I just saw
Taehyung: joon-hyung,it’s literally two in the morning go to sleep
Namjoon: I know, but the pot Jimin was cleaning.
Namjoon: I looked at it when I was closing
Namjoon: And I flipped it upside down to know who made it
Namjoon: and when I flipped it
Namjoon: Guess whose name was on it?
Taehyung: BITCH IDK?? Who??
Namjoon: PARK MFING JIMIN
Taehyung: Hyung, I know you wanted to be a comedian, and I support you, but this aint it
Namjoon: I’m not kidding, im serious tae
Taehyung: hyung you should really get some sleep
[07:44]
[PARK JIMIN WAKE TF UP]
Good morning🥰, i’ve never slept so well in so long
what goes on
Namjoon: bitch scroll up
Taehyung: hyung, not this again
what??
are you serious?
Hyung did you sleep well last night?
Namjoon: GODDDDD
Namjoon: I REALLY MEAN IT
Namjoon: I'M NOT KIDDING
Taehyung: fine, lemme see it then
Tae I don't think you can tho
Namjoon: sure
—
It’s a full moon in HanSeong (the capital of Korea during the Joseon dynasty). Jungkook is lying peacefully on his bed. He twists and tosses to find a comfortable position to sleep in but he fails. He exhales and puts his forearms on his face, shielding his eyes from the faint light of the full moon seeping through the paper windows.
He sits up straight and walks to his window. He opens it and the cool breeze hits his face and he basks in the coolness. “The moon is so pretty,” he says to himself.
“Jungkook”, he hears a light whisper in his right ear and he quickly faces the direction of the voice but sees nothing.
“Son” Jungkook swears that it sounds like his dad. He faces the voice again but this time he notices a vial on top of his bed.
Jungkook slowly walks towards the vial and sits on his bed. He picks up the vial and inspects it. The vial is made of glass, its lid made of gold. The liquid inside is tinted red. He quickly shoves it inside his cabinet. Jungkook isn’t stupid, he knows how far people go, just to obtain the throne. It’s probably poison, he thinks.
He lays down, and surprisingly, he’s out in a blink.
—
“Tae!!” A man says, the man has blond hair and has very plump lips. Said man calls someone named “Tae”. They’re in an unfamiliar setting, there’s a lot of clothes, unfamiliar ones, Jungkook notes.
“Jimin!” Jungkook hears a deep voice say from behind. The owner of the deep voice approaches the blond man and embraces him. Oh. So Jimin’s his name. So the guy with that deep voice must be Tae. “Let’s go,” said Jimin, as he hooks his left arm around Tae’s right arm.
Jungkook looks around the place, it’s very bright, he notes to himself. It’s crowded and a bit loud. “We should hurry, then meet Joon-hyung outside,” Jimin says while smiling at Tae. Jungkook notices the way his eyes turn into little crescents. Cute, he thinks.
Jimin and Tae continue to talk and laugh with each other. Jungkook also notices the way, the blond man laughs with his whole body, and soon enough, they reach “outside”.
“Outside” is filled with strange chunks of metal and to Jungkook’s surprise, he sees a lump of metal suddenly move on its own. That must be heavy, he thinks. He turns his attention to the trio in front of him. The third guy is taller than the two and has dimples. The tall guy puts his arm on Jimin’s shoulders and says
“ where should we go first?”.
“ A lot of things are on sale, so we have to check those out before everyone else clears out everything,” Jimin replies, hooking his arm on the tall guy’s waist. “Yeah, people clear out everything like it’s air, it’s crazy,” Tae says, laughing to himself.
To Jungkook’s surprise, Jimin turns his head to Jungkook and smiles, the kind of smile that makes his eyes turn into little crescents. “You coming?”
Jungkook shots awake, and sits up. Wiping the built up sweat on his forehead that he didn’t notice was there. What was that crazy and unfamiliar dream?
“See?”
Namjoon says, the three of them are in the restoration room, hands covered with rubber gloves. Namjoon lifts the pot that Jimin was restoring yesterday. “Hyung there’s nothing,” Jimin replies and grabs the pot to put it back down. “B-but, I swear I saw your name there and—“ Namjoon rambles, trying his best to prove what he witnessed.
“Hyung it’s okay, you must’ve been seeing things, you leave work in the morning lately, it must be because you haven’t been sleeping well lately,” Taehyung says as he pats his hyung’s shoulder as an attempt to ease the older. Namjoon sighs and runs his hands through his hair and hunched forward, his hands on his knees.
“You’re right, I must be seeing things, I've been really stressed out with work lately, yeah that must be it, I'm just stressed” Namjoon replies, not really convincing the two, but convincing himself.
Jungkook and Yoongi are walking along the palace. They're headed to Jungkook’s lecture with Seokjin, Jungkook’s advisor.
Seokjin or Jin-hyung as Jungkook calls him is more like an older brother to him. Jin’s father was the king’s confidant, they were best friends, it’s a mystery how the two became friends when Jin’s father was not of noble blood, nor do they have an ounce of royalty in their blood.
“Hyung” Jungkook starts, fiddling with the sleeves of his hanbok. “Hmm?” Yoongi hums, head turning to the right to meet Jungkook’s gaze.
“I dreamt of something weird. The setting is very strange and unfamiliar, people look and act differently. It’s like it’s from a different time.” Jungkook deducts, he is the Golden Prince after all, it won’t take long for him to figure that out.
“And before I dreamt of that, I heard voices calling me, one sounded like father. Then the next thing I knew, this was on my bed.” Jungkook says as he pulls out the vial from last night. Handing it to Yoongi. Yoongi inspects it and swirls the liquid around to examine it further.
“I have no idea what this is and what’s inside it. But maybe Jin-hyung does.” They continue to Seokjin’s.
“Ah, yes, the walking headache is back,” Jin says as he slides the door for the two to enter. “You’re 27 and you’re still bickering with a 22-year-old, how petty Hyung” Jungkook snaps back, the corners of his mouth rising to a smirk. Yoongi snorts and tries to hold in his laughter. Jin shoots him a death glare and sits on the ground.
“You got me there,” Jin says, pointing at Jungkook.
Yoongi and Jungkook sit across Jin, on the ground, with a small wooden table in front of them. “Hyung, can you check this out?” Yoongi says as he pulls out the vial. Jungkook handed it to him a while ago. Seokjin did the same as Yoongi, he inspected the vial and its lid to find any similarities of style from known vial artisans.
He has a clue of who it might’ve come from.
“I found this on my bed last night when I couldn’t sleep.” Jungkook interrupts Jin’s examination. Seokjin swirls it around and observes, he then opens the lid to sniff a little bit.
One thing came to mind, his grandfather.
Seokjin puts down the vial carefully and stands to grab a notebook from behind, he unwraps the rope around it and opens it. He sits on the ground on his knees and lays the notebook down, open side up, his hands smoothening the pages down. He points to one flower. It’s a red daffodil.
“There’s a rare species of daffodils, they’re red. My grandfather surrounds his house with these.” He smiles at the fond memory of his grandfather giving him these when they say goodbye to each other.
“What about it?” Jungkook replies impatiently, biting his bottom lips as he listens anxiously.
“Patience Jeon, you see, these flowers don’t just grow anywhere” Seokjin replies. “Okay we get it, it’s rare now what?” Seokjin rolls his eyes at Jungkook’s impatience.
“So basically my grandfather grows them and makes them into potions like these, my grandfather asked my father to give one of these potions to your father when he was young.” Jin word vomits and is trying to hold in a laugh because of Jungkook’s reaction.
Jungkook’s eyes are wide, his mouth agape, his mind crashing. Father? Daffodils? Potions? What the fuck? Why is he just finding out about this now? “So now, what?” Yoongi asks, on behalf of Jungkook, whose mind is already out of the room. Seokjin wipes his tears from laughing.
“Have you been dreaming lately? About something weird perhaps, unfamiliar and strange?” Seokjin asks as he looks intently at Jungkook, with one of his eyebrows raised as if reading his mind.
“Actually, yeah, just last night. I had a dream, it was….odd and strange, it’s like it’s not from this world or this timeline” Jungkook replies, slightly tilting his head to the side. A light trace of his lisp showing as he explains.
“Yeah, according to these notes of my grandfather” Seokjin points at the notebook. “The king had those dreams. He sees the future in those dreams” Jin finishes.
“Future, so what I saw last night was what the world would look like?” Jungkook replies. “Yeah, basically”
“so, what do we do now?” Yoongi interrupts the two. “I don’t know. That’s the only thing written here. Your father had these dreams, my grandfather asked my dad to deliver the vial and done, nothing less nothing more on this notebook, the rest is torn” Seokjin recites his grandfather's notes as he flips through the pages, waiting for a magic trick to happen.
“Why would the rest be torn?” Jungkook mutters to himself.
“What?” Both Yoongi and Jin ask at the same time. “Nothing.” Jungkook waves his hand, he then stands up, Yoongi doing the same. “Thanks, Hyung, please tell me if you find out about anything else. We’ll get going now”
“It’s my pleasure, your highness” Seokjin replies, bowing slowly. Jungkook turns to the door, confused about the sudden formality.
There he sees the queen. Ah. That’s why. Yoongi bows deeply. “Your majesty,” Jungkook says as he bows down.
“What are you doing out so late?” The queen asks softly, her voice so smooth it could kill. “I just had a lecture with Jin-hyung, I didn’t know it would take that long” The trio was so immersed in the topic that they didn’t notice the lack of warmth and the sun setting.