fic: The Lion and the Lamb {part viii}
More rapid succession. The most sensible thing to do was immediately appoint Kibum as the village leader, which, since the King wasn’t present, Jinki had the power to do as his superior. Not that it wouldn’t have been a unanimous decision in the first place.
Kibum formally filled in the remaining soldiers-the stunned men of the King, who knew nothing of the creature the elders harbored. But once they knew the truth, the other side of the story, there was no mistake that they’d been horribly deceived. The sincerity of the Commander was substantial enough for a pardon of what had happened and who was lost in battle: Not many lost, as was also predicted. Some of the men even marveled at Jonghyun from afar, not really able to conceive that the curse was so contained and controlled.
Kibum’s first decree, then, was for the troops to return to the King. They were to take with them that servant boy-caught by the excellent tracker that was Minho- as a singing birdie. Certain proof, someone sufficient enough to attest to the heinous misdeeds of the elders. The boy, Luhan, was more than willing to leave and testify, though. He’d never forget the day he slipped the jaws of Kim Jonghyun, and he could only think of what reverence and awe the court would bestow of him once he told Jonghyun’s incredible story.
The second decree was for the village bookkeeper. Probably the next night, the ahjusshi would be instructed to attend a special, private meeting with Kibum and Jinki, to pen in the village achieves that the secret to curing the age old Curse was to be acclaimed to Kim Kibum the IV, and for the “cure” to be recorded for future generations. The official signing would be a public event not long after.
All of this the people took in stride.
But for the abruptly absent Jonghyun and his mate, matters were much more unfavorable.
Kibum went to announce merrily the renewed citizenship of his elder brother. But despite who Jonghyun’d become and what he’d done to the elders, the villagers were inclement in their objections; tongues even wagged about how it wasn’t Jonghyun’s place to carry out the deed..
No amount of persuasions and speeches and reassurances and vouching by the new village head and his men were enough. They wanted him dead-he should be killed now that there was nothing to stop them. No trial, no chance, no mercy.
And there was really nothing Kibum could do about it.
He was just as helpless all over again, like the day of Taemin’s execution.
“He knew they wouldn’t wilt, he knew they wouldn’t forgive, he knew they wouldn’t see it our way,” he whispered to himself over and over; moments after the common men of the village roared and dispersed to seek Jonghyun with their weapons.
“We need to find them before they do, Kibum. We have to warn them,” came Jinki’s urgent reply, hand grasping the younger’s shoulder.
“If you know where they’d be, the rest of us will keep those men off your tails,” Minho chirped from Kibum’s left side. About 50 other heads bowed in loyal obedience behind him. Kibum smiled wryly; at first at the trilogy concept he’d formed in head about Jinki on right and Minho on his left happening literally, then for realizing that there was still hope yet for the next-to last of his kin.
“You’re as true as they come. Sometimes it’s annoying but now…I treasure it, Minho.” There was little time to chortle before Kibum clasped hands and bumped with his old friend. But before they pulled away, Kibum managed to murmur a desperate request in his ear.
“We’ll be at the barracks. Tell your wife to bring Deyoung there within the hour…”
Minho’s eyed brimmed with understanding when he saluted half-heartedly, tiny smile tugging at his lips.
“Will do Commander.”
Jinki nodded at Minho and took Kibum’s upper arm.
“Hurry,” he pleaded, light brown eyes like Kibum hadn’t seen them since Hyoyeon’s death. “Or they will be gone before we get there.”
*****
Taemin already had a burlap sack thrown over his small shoulders when Jinki and Kibum burst in the room.
“You knew,” was all Kibum could rasp to his brother. A freshly dressed, yet still dirty Jonghyun briefly paused in filling a bigger sack.
He stared back just as lifelessly.
A soft lament.
“Can you blame me?”
“No. I don’t and I can’t. Yet…” Kibum’s bottom lip trembled. “Hyung…” He slumped down to his knees, too suddenly for Jinki to stop him. His head fell, hands crinkled on the dirt floor, hanging from limp wrists. “Hyung, I can’t lose you again,” he finally sobbed. “You can’t leave me again. Not again. I just got you back, dammit. Not again…”
Jinki surveyed everyone in the stalled silence with quick, keen eyes. “Taemin.”
Taemin met his cousin’s gaze feebly. Then he slowly glanced down to the outstretched hand.
“Come,” he muttered, while at the same time asking Jonghyun’s permission with those same weary eyes that really revealed his true age now. “Wait out here with me.”
The teenager bit his lip and did as asked. He and Jonghyun didn’t look away from each other until the door shut behind the two.
“I can’t lose you again, Jonghyun. D-Deyoungie…she needs you too. She needs to know her uncle a-and have what little family a-around her as m-much as possible-
Jonghyun closed his stinging eyes. “Key…”
The younger just continued shaking his head, breath hitching. “She needs you too. Jonghyun you can’t go. Not after all of this.” His laugh was a pitiful choke. “You can’t…Jonghyun you can’t….no…
Jonghyun weakly stuffed a few more supplies in the sack. The man with a curtain of sweaty, blood-slicked hair in his face didn’t even flinch when his brother’s presence appeared in front of him a minute later. On his knees like Kibum, Jonghyun sighed stutteringly and leaned forward. His hands gripped broad, sturdy shoulders.
And automatically, Kibum leaned forward too. As if twenty years hadn’t passed and they were still boys, huddling forehead to forehead like this, giggling, trying to read the other’s mind through their “brotherly telekinesis.”
Kibum’s fingers dug into his brother’s shoulders. He struggled to breath evenly through sniffles and hiccups. Their noses brushed back and forth, the leathery skin warm and moist. A familiar friction as their heads moved from left to right. Their eyes closed and shifting behind the thin lids, blood vessels throbbing and creating pretty, starry pictures in the darkness. Because of ritual, they’d compare images and decode them, creating some sort of hieroglyphic language all of their own.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” Jonghyun croaked back. “You know I don’t want to leave.”
“I know.”
They sighed at the same time. The hold broke and they fell into a suffocating embrace, rocking back and forth in the rectangles of sunlight.
“I’ve always loved you. E-even as a monster. I always loved you. I always looked after you, even though I was in danger being around you. I d-dedicated my life to you.” Kibum clung tighter, the tears streaming freely now. His fists pounded into Jonghyun’s back. “Always, Jonghyun. Always. I’ve kept it a s-secret for so long. And now…I won’t see you again. If you l-leave now, I know I won’t… Jonghyun…you know I’ll always love you…”
“Don’t cry, Kibummie.” Jonghyun tried to smile into the younger’s neck. “Please don’t cry. You know I never liked to see you like this. Kim Bro’s oath, remember? We don’t cry, no matter what?”
Whether he did remember or not, Kibum never clarified. He only blubbered into Jonghyun, wetting him up, letting it all out. Holding on like there was no way he could let go. Holding on like there were no tomorrows, no yesterdays, no other moment like this moment.
Finally they still and quieted down. Jonghyun inhaled Kibum with the last of his animal senses, categorizing his brother’s scent into that special part of his mind. His only two tears rolled down Kibum’s neck, twin droplets that disappeared into the recesses between shirt and flesh.
Jonghyun pulled back a little. Took Kibum’s head with both hands and planted his lips on the other man’s brow. “I love you too,” he repeated, even more fervently.
Then he was to his feet, heavy sack tossed over his shoulder. There was still that smile. Same smile Kibum loved and hated as a child because of how devious it was. How he felt about it now was no different. Jonghyun paused at the door and glanced back.
No black. Just the soft petal brown and a normal, red film over the whites of his eyes that indicated the obvious. The part of Jonghyun’s now “human” eyes that Kibum wished he didn’t have to recollect in seeing his brother for the last time.
“You will see me again, I swear on our parent’s graves.”
“You can’t make promises you don’t intend to keep.”
“I promise you, Kibum. Believe me.” Jonghyun stared at him earnestly. Accepting a moment later that Kibum’s faint nod was all the acknowledgement to his vow that he was going to get, Jonghyun swallowed.
The small gesture made Kibum look away. He didn’t want to watch the imminent signs of farewell, not when he didn’t have to.
“Goodbye, brother. Tell Deyoung that…Uncle Jonghyun loves her.”
The door creaked open and shut. Kibum’s hearing was somehow fuzzy from how hard he was crying, so he could only make out bits and pieces of Jonghyun’s last words to Jinki. The cousins also exchanged words, there were hurried footsteps…then they were gone.
Gone. Just like that.
Kibum didn’t want to believe that Jonghyun would keep his word. He tried to force himself not to believe, especially since he’d never receive a message by hawk or horseback.
That ache, though. The one he’d always kept compressed.
The ache was what nailed that ongoing hope to his heart.
And the ache would still remain, a hurting, pulsing ulcer, even after Kibum would convince himself that he’d really never see him again. After many moons have passed, many exhibitions with his Jinki, many countless nights of wanting and waiting to hear the ominous howl that was neither wolf nor man, but somewhere in between.
But when Kibum thought about whether or not it was worth it to have discovered the cure to the curse, he decided, without hesitance, that it was. And he would do it all over again if he had to.
He closed his eyes, imagining Jonghyun and Taemin running through the barren trees. The angry shouts and curses ad threats of the village men chasing after them, throwing their pitchforks and spears, reloading their rifles and crunching over the bullet shells with their boots.
The snow falling. The pure white flakes tumbling from the sky, possibly creating a blanket over the next few hours that would surely blind them and deter them from the fleeing couple. The cold that always drove them back to their fireplaces for warmth and togetherness-which was just as necessary as the warmth. There would be another day to hunt Jonghyun.
But by then, the pair would be long gone.
Kibum smiled.
The cure to the curse was love, as is so agreeably fit. Taemin let love in, he let Jonghyun in, and thus, the spell was broken.
The meek lamb brought the mighty lion to its knees.
Perhaps the weak are, sometimes, the strongest of them all.
-End-
part vii | epilogue