Thread by @No_OnesHo

— クライミングアスター

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#joongdok

a man walks his way alone in the streets of seoul, passing by a female doctor who walks past him as the two absentmindedly nod to each other.

she had been a bride once, and yet her left hand doesn't bear any band on any of her-

fingers, nor does she own one.

lee seolhwa walks away.

yoo joonghyuk felt a smile slowly etch on his face as he walks closer near his way in gyeongui line forest park;

towards a particular man who sits alone in a paricular spot while the chilly weather in seoul continues to-

rain down on them, drops of snow falling on top of his bare head which makes yoo joonghyuk chuckle at the sight.

he sits beside them with a warm smile still plastered on his lips and his hands tucked inside the pockets of his white overcoat, a color he's grown to love over-

the years and a coat that he's gotten himself to treasure just as long as he's loved the color of winter.

he glances back at the man's face and felt his heart swell;

he sees the way their long lashes fan across their close eyelids, how their button nose seem to not be affected-

with the weather as it stays in color, how their pink tinted lips form a thin line as they stay seated in their spot, beside yoo joonghyuk.

yoo joonghyuk had always thought kim dokja looks pretty like this, the color in his face making the man more breathtaking even while the-

frigid cold continues to spread across the city streets.

he looks up at the sky, and felt nostalgia creep deeply within his bones; of how he had met the most beautiful man he's ever known in the entire world.

they had been friends ever since they were little kids, and he had-

always been the protagonist of the shorter but older boy he's fondly called his squid throughout his lifetime.

they fill their days with laughter and cheers, the two engrossed in each other's presence as they play in their neighborhood, uncaring of the days ahead of them.

they were young, and yet so in love with the idea of being with the other as they grow old; and so they make a promise one day when yoo joonghyuk's parents decide that separating them will be for their benefit.

they will wait for each other even when times are rough, and when-

they meet again someday; one of them would kneel to the other kid and ask for their lifetime companionship.

yoo joonghyuk decided to be the one to do the task, thinking that he would be responsible enough to do the deed and for being the one who'd left his squid behind.

they tearfully bid each other goodbye, as the car that yoo joonghyuk's family have owned slowly drive away from their former community.

away from the boy that yoo joonghyuk had sworn to marry once they grow old, and away from the boy who had always grown up alone and unloved.

yoo joonghyuk, for all his childish mind of the past, had bravely and confidently thought to being able to keep his promise of waiting for the right time to be married with his childhood sweetheart.

and yet here he was many years later; in love and kneeling in front of another-

woman who he had met in his time of being south korea's supreme king, who tearfully says yes to him while the spotlight and shutter of cameras flicker upon their blissed selves.

it was the wintery night of the first day of november, when yoo joonghyuk's impatience slowly ate-

away the promises he's made to one particular boy; who grew up alone, abused, and unloved as the years pass by.

he smiles through the camera, the same smile he's once promised to his dear squid that only he will be able to see once they wear each other their golden bands.

a man stands a few feet away from the whole scene in front of them, eyes welling up with tears and grief of the love he was promised to have;

only to find it taken away from him, from the very man who promised him the world.

the first snow drops from the dark skies of seoul.

yoo joonghyuk remembers his moments of bliss in preparing for his impending wedding, genuinely happy to being with someone who he had grown to love over the years;

to being wedded with someone who's as great and perfect as her is a blessing that most men would be envious of.

no one knows this creeping feeling that the supreme king had felt in his own gut, of missing something vital and much more important than this grandiose event in his life.

he chooses to ignore it for the sake of bliss, as none of them were ever the wiser.

outside, asters bloom.

yoo joonghyuk of the present chuckles halfheartedly, of the things he's done five years ago and of the promises he's made three decades ago.

he's on his thirties, still a bachelor despite his obvious charm and enticing masculinity that could pull anyone he likes towards him.

he felt the freezing cold slowly pierce through the thick layers of his coat, the frigid winter slowly creeping through the back of his neck as he shivers lightly.

it truly has been cold this time of the year, he concludes as he comfortably sits beside the other man; who still-

hasn't said a single word, nor let out the slightest sound.

it was fine, yoo joonghyuk thinks to himself while he sits along with them; finding solace in their little space in the world while everyone else blurs into motion.

it was around the same day of his engagement with his fiance that something had happened in the pathways of gyeongui forest line park.

it was an attempted robbery turned murder, the police had stated to the public once the autopsy had been investigated with by the authorities.

no witnesses were around the area when it happened, as found in the cctv footage of a nearby building;

when the thief had tried taking away a random civilian's phone only to find himself in a struggle as the two fought for the device, the victim desperately clutching on his-

item of possession before getting stabbed by the suspect's weapon of choice.

no one blames the police for releasing the news and the statement one week after the crime was done, as everyone else were too caught up with engagement that had happened that same day.

no one persuades the authorities to look after the prime suspect of the whole murder, as it had "already been too late" for them to try doing so,

and it is, as they say, just a waste of resources for one simple and unassuming individual who stupidly died for just a simple phone.

everyone however had chastised the victim for being "stupid" enough to not just let his phone be taken from him, and instead foolishly tried fighting his way with it only to get killed.

no one had sympathized for the young man's untimely demise, even when the authorities have-

released the name of the poor murder victim of gyeongui forest line park.

yoo joonghyuk however felt his own world crash down upon him one bright morning, a week after his own engagement with his fiance.

shown in the news as the murder victim, was kim dokja.

yoo joonghyuk lets out a shaky breath from deep inside him, as he catches on a faint metallic scent permeating from the man beside him.

he takes another glance to his companion and watches with bated breath, how those long yet cold lashes fan across two lifeless orbs; how their-

skin slowly get paler and paler in mere seconds; and how crimson slowly blooms in their gut like some sort of flower.

he takes his gaze off of them, and wept in his own seat as he remembers what happened that day while he watches the cctv footage of kim dokja's untimely death.

the footage shows the man slowly drag his limp body away from the culprit, who stands there for a few seconds out of shock before fleeing the scene, fruitless from his attempts.

he sees how kim dokja tried reaching for a nearby bench, with one of his hands covering the wound in-

his bleeding stomach while blood slowly stains the clothes he worn that night, sitting himself on the cold surface.

yoo joonghyuk saw how kim dokja crouched down for a little while in his spot, presumably trying to at least lessen the blood flowing from his own body all the-

while the frigid cold slowly eats his own warmth away from him.

he sees, for a few minutes, how kim dokja relented from his crouched form and instead sat straight, hands on his lap as he braves the dead of night.

everyone in south korea sees a man; plain and unassuming, slowly-

die right in the comfort of their own homes while watching the news, the same week supreme king yoo joonghyuk had been engaged with his long-term girlfriend lee seolhwa.

no one however, hears the muffled whispers of kim dokja's ragged voice while he knocks on death's door;

asking no one but himself,

"w- we promised t- to wait for each other, j- joonghyuk-ah..." before finally taking his last breath.

a man dies that same night, alone and unloved; just like how he grew up after his own protagonist had left him in their own community.

yoo joonghyuk sits straight in his own spot, the same bench that he's always been visiting ever since the day he's cancelled his engagement with his fiance.

it was five years ago that kim dokja had died, and yoo joonghyuk had never been the same ever since.

he remembers the memories of childhood resurfacing for him to reminisce on, he remembers the way kim dokja would always laugh only for him and their silly antics,

remembers the way they would always long for each other's presence, never one without the other.

they were kindred.

and now they were no more, as yoo joonghyuk hears the first few words that the man beside him utter under his dying breath; the cold slowly eating his life away as he spoke.

"w- we promised t- to wait for each other, j- joonghyuk-ah..."

yoo joonghyuk could only stifle his own cries, of the grief of losing the one who's truly ever mattered to him, of losing the star he's promised to take away from the dark outer space.

he lets out a pained smile to himself, wobbly and uneven as they both sit in a familiar bench-

here at gyeongui line forest park, but never once looking back at the other man sitting beside him.

this is all he could only do to remember his presence, and it was on his reader's own dying breath right in this park, where he's proposed to someone else who wasn't kim dokja.

yoo joonghyuk takes in a lungful of cold air and smiles painfully at the sight of purple flowers slowly blooming in the freezing weather of winter, their beauty overshadowed by the bittercold of the season.

he opens his mouth, and spoke the words he's longed to tell him.

"i'm here now, dokja-yah."

yoo joonghyuk looks back, and sees no one sitting beside him as the first snow in the month of november slowly trickles from the skies of seoul.

no one hears the sound mourning of a king long fallen from his glory, and only alempasters accompany him.

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— end of thread

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