☁ Kitchens

@Kyungsoo Mir had to look as natural as possible. Though that was a bit difficult, what with no shoes on and a hood covering his face. It wasn't a natural sight in the middle of the palace. It was, however, the risk he had to make. He couldn't afford the guards or, worse, the advisors spotting him. Let them think he was a slightly off-the-wall servant, not the leader of the Grassland kingdom.

It had been a secret he'd been keeping for a while. Ever since King Seokjin's father had died suddenly, Mir had suspected it to be poison. Of course half the advisors hadn't believed him and that had only led Mir to believe they were involved with it. But the death of that king had, strangely, been a relief. He had felt oppressive, always glaring down with judgmental eyes and lips that could utter someone's execution in seconds.

Mir wasn't avenging his death. It was more out of fear that it could happen again - another king or ruler would be killed. Or, worse, an advisor. At meal times, Mir had always been reluctant to stick into his food. He'd cautiously watch the other advisors eat first before biting into his. It was paranoia, yes. But also protection. Mir wasn't an oppressive king but he didn't know what enemies he had.

And his paranoia had proved correct. Although King Seokjin hadn't been killed by poison, he had still been assassinated. And Mir was convinced that the same person had struck again. They were picking off leaders one by one. If they kept going like this, Mir would be next - and he couldn't afford that to happen.

Mir glanced around before he slipped down the stairwell towards the kitchen. He kept his steps silent, his body close to the wall to keep himself hidden in the shadows. If Mir was right, the man would be in the kitchen alone. The advisors had conveniently been interrogating everyone in the castle about King Seokjin's recent death and Mir had organized that all but one of the kitchen staff would be taken to be interrogated at once. That gave Mir an opening of about an hour to find this head cook and give him a private interrogation of his own.

After all, who was in the perfect position to poison food but a cook?

Mir was relieved to only hear one voice as he approached the kitchen, the sounds of only one knife at work. That meant his plan must have worked. Mir honed in on the words the male was saying, able to catch the tale end of his last words. In seconds, Mir had whipped off his hood and slipped round the corner into the kitchen, straightening his back and stepping daringly towards the other. "Why are they looking for you?" He asked, making himself sound like he knew something. Wasn't that the right tactic? Convince the interrogated that he knew everything, even if there was nothing to be known. "I'm guessing it's not for your famous apple pie?"

@☁ Mir The sound of metal against wood echoed through the stone walls of the palace's kitchen as his hand swiftly moved the knife across the chopping board, slicing and dicing tomatoes and garlic into equally-shaped cubes before tossing them into the boiling broth he had been brewing on the stove. Once in a while he would lift his forearm to his forehead to wipe off the beads of sweat onto his sleeve, accompanied by the small sighs he emitted which was almost inaudible to the ears.

"Taking away the other cooks for interrogation and leaving me here to prepare the meal on my own. How very thoughtful." Kyungsoo's face distorted into an involuntary scowl. With King Seokjin's death and the yet unsolved death of the king before him, the palace was in an unavoidable turmoil with people pointing their fingers at each other and shoving the blame from one to another. Kyungsoo, however, had never felt safer.

The assassination of the latter king had distracted the royal advisers from their original quest of finding the former king's murderer. Though it is true that he was upset by King Seokjin's death, this situation gave Kyungsoo some space to breathe, some space to think of how he could evade from being found out until the authority finally gives up. "It's just a matter of time. Just a matter of time until they stop looking for the one who poisoned the king."

The dainty-looking lad picked up a meat cleaver hanging against the wall and trudged back to the butcher block. Holding the cleaver at an angle, he began running the edge against the stone block to sharpen the blade, all the while keeping his fingers clear out of its way. "Just a matter of time until they stop looking for me."

@☁ Jessica Onew nodded, understandingly, before his eyes were captured by the approaching apple pie. It didn't take much convincing for him to dig into it. The rich apple flavour burst in his mouth, complimented by the texture of the crisp pastry.

"Is this," he started before he realised he'd been speaking with his mouth full and covered his mouth with his hand, swallowing. "Is this what the king gets to eat every day? Because, if so, I wouldn't mind being the king." He chuckled innocently before devowering another bite. "I've never had anything quite like this at home. It's usually just fish." He made a face at the thought of fish in a sweet pastry like this. They must have gathered the apple from a nearby orchard. He would have to visit it sometime and sneak an apple or two to take home. Of course he'd pay for them. He wasn't the stealing type.

Though sometimes he wished he could be daring enough to do it. It was hard enough surviving on his poor pay already.

@⚓ Jinki “I will have to think about it all,” she said with a small nod of her head. At the mention of a few days off, she bit her lip a little before nodding her head a bit. “I would love to but I would need to go up and pack for a few days. Also need to stop in the market to get some food as well. But for now that can wait, finish eating alright, I will get us some dessert.” Smiling, she got up and went to get two slices of pie before bringing it over to him.

She smiled setting it down before beginning to dig into her own. “Its an apple pie from yesterday but it still tastes really good I promise you,” she said with a happy smile, humming happily at the taste of it. “Though I think I made it a bit too sweet,” she admitted with a chuckle.

@☁ Jessica "I can teach you!" He piped in when she mentioned she couldn't swim. But a sheepish smile spread over his features in a second. "If you want, that is." He chuckled, glancing down at his food.

"Mm," Onew agreed as he chewed on his food. Swallowing, he said. "Sure, but it's a bit of a trek. You might need to take a few days off. Is that alright?"

He chuckled at that, nodding. "Yep, it's just me, myself and I." He confirmed. "Though I don't really mind it. It's kind of peaceful," He concluded.

@⚓ Jinki At this, she couldn’t help but give a soft laugh and smile warmly at him. “Its alright, you don’t have to be embarrassed,” she said with a small nod of her head. Hearing his next words she couldn’t help but grin before laughing a little more. “That is a bit odd isn’t it? I honestly do like to look at it but I wont be going in it. I never learned how to swim so I try to avoid it as much as I can.” Jessica smiled at the invitation before nodding her head.

“Sure I would love to go someday, I am free from the kitchens in the afternoon so if you are still around I wouldn’t mind walking with you to go see it. It would be a nice change to get out of here and see other things,” she explained as she ate a bit of food herself before smiling warmly. “Are you the only one there?”

@☁ Jessica Onew's eyes bulged when he saw the food. He hadn't realised how hungry he was, his stomach grumbling in response. For a second, he forgot his manners, munching into the food with his hands - he didn't often eat with company after all. Then, with a look of horror on his face for being so publicly disgraceful, he dropped the food, slowly removed his hands, wiped them on his trousers and picked up the utensils to eat with.

"Sorry," he smiled sheepishly, passing her an embarrassed gaze. Then, pointing at the food with his chopsticks, he said, "this is really good. No wonder they have you working in the kitchens." Ones didn't cook much extravagant things with him living alone at all. It was mostly fish, bread and cheese really. It was so nice to taste something different, something homemade but not made by him.

Onew coughed when she asked about the lighthouse. "Yeah," he smiled, his eyes brightening. He loved the lighthouse. It was his friend as much as it was his home. "It feels like I've been there forever." He laughed at that, adding, "I do like the sea. Just don't like being on it." It was quite ironic really - how he lived right by the ocean but was easily seasick.

"You should come see it some time."

@❊ Jinki Hearing him, she couldn’t help but give a soft laugh at this point. “I wasn’t saying that you hated but I was curious. But either way its good that you helped you know, means you have a really good heart.” When the food was ready, she carried it over and smiled softly at him before giving him something to drink. “You can eat up now and if you like dessert, we have some left over apple pie from yesterday if you would like or would you like something else,” she asked, her hands clasped together in front of her. She watched him eat, happy to be able to see someone really enjoy her food since she didn’t get the chance to often see it herself.

"So you work at the lighthouse, how long have you been doing that," she asked as she sat near him and watched him. "I mean I assume you love being near the water so you do that to help people see at night or something right," she asked, wondering what got him to work there in the first place.

() sorry its short OTL

@☁ Jessica "Really?" Onew blinked at her, resting his elbow on the counter after he'd sat down, watching her with curiosity and bewilderment. Onew couldn't imagine someone not talking much; after all, he was quite a talker himself. It was beyond him how someone could stay so silent when there was so much to say!

So he was supposed to talk to her? Well, there were three main questions to ask when first meeting someone; their name, their occupation and their passions. But before he could begin asking them, she had piped in and, with the way he was, it was easy to go with the flow.

Onew laughed uneasily, remembering his encounter earlier with the other servant. "Actually, no. Someone roped me into this," he said, chuckling at the memory. Then, after a second, he added, flustered, "Not that I see being here as a chore! It's just... I work at a lighthouse." He shrugged as if that would explain everything. "I don't generally go around carrying around fish. I know it must be hard to believe."

He laughed at his attempt at a joke.

@❊ Jinki Just watching him she couldn’t help but give a soft laugh at this point. There was something about him that just made Jessica be able to smile and forget how sad she felt inside. At his question to help, she shook her head and had him sit down. “No you don’t have to, it wont take too long to prepare some food for you at all. But what you can do is talk with me. Sadly though I work with many people here, they don’t really talk all that often so it does get kind of lonely,” she said with a soft sigh but smiled at him.

She then moved and began to put together a sandwich for him with a few sides for him to feel full with. “So tell me how it is you came to bring the fish? You aren’t the one that usually brings it for us. Are you new working or something,” she asked looking up from where she was assembling his plate before looking back down to make sure she wouldn’t make a mess.

@☁ Jessica ❊ Jinki 1 second ago Reply
@☁ Jessica Onew smiled a friendly smile, glad that she showed him the way. Glad also that there wasn't much to walk otherwise he thought his arms might fall off. He had been carrying this blasted basketball the way from the Oceanside Kingdom after all.

"It's my pleasure," he said, half distracted from the strain that lifting the basket was on his arms.

Onew let out a sign of relief as soon as they had reached the kitchens and set the basket down on the counter. The room smelled of firewood and cooking which proceeded to make him hungry. All of a sudden, those raw fish looked delicious.

"Oh!" He started, turning to look at the girl who had invited him in. "Thanks, that would be great." His stomach grumbles in agreement and he flashed her a sheepish yet pleased smile.

She was a beautiful girl which made Onew wonder how she was just working in a damp, sooty place like this. But he shrugged his shoulders, thinking no more of it. It was her business and Onew wasn't a particularly curious person. He took things at face value and let them be.

He also wasn't a very observant person either. Which was why it took him five minutes and fourty-five seconds to finally ask, "Shall I help?"

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@☁ Kyungsoo Jongdae was on a hunt, not a hunt that required bow and arrows but a hunt where he was going to get information for the new king. The son of the previous king. It was his job as an advisor to help and resolve who had killed the king and if the king had nothing to do or say about how they got the information, well that would be the king’s fault. Jongdae, as soon as he first saw him bore a crown that didn’t belong to him, he knew instantly that he would be unfit to be king. The man was too kind and sweet and that was no good. When a king walked, the peasants should bow but instead of that, the peasants would wave as they were good buddies… that was disgusting and it gave him the sign that this nan was unfit to be king but there was no way to remove him from his place except without killing him, and oddly enough, it sounded like a good idea but then who would lead? It would have to be by blood relation and the previous didn’t have a son except Seokjin and killing Seokjin will cause disruption in their kingdom. Jongdae as a good advisor, had to help lead the kingdom without wearing the crow. While Seokjin can be cutting the ribbon, Jongdae would be the one declaring the laws.

“The king has been requesting his buffet for a while now. It usually doesn’t take these long doesn’t it?” Jongdae tilted his head as his lips pursed as he leaned against the wall of the old dusty kitchen. He lifted his hand and began to examine his nails upward as he tapped his fot impatiently with the corners of his lips twitching into a smirk. The king didn’t ordered anything but Jongdae did want a buffet mainly for himself. What the king didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, Jongdae chanted in his head. “I would suggest you pick up the pace, you do know how the king gets if he doesn’t get his food in early right? I suppose that you make it taste exceptional to his standards because that could result in undesirable consequences if you don’t pick the pace.”