In the morning

From outside of a white panel door, on a blue sponge-painted white walls, a few polite knocks are heard.

"Come in." A voice answered.

Opens the door, and enter- Jay, moving sluggishly in a brick red hoodie, the pulled over hood is over his head, and grey jeans, looking down, his left hand is shoved into the front pocket. He turns to close back the door quietly, then facing forward again, while shoving another hand into the pocket, he raise up his head, only to be dumbfounded by what's in front of him.

At a computer table, there; sit a Aquaman lookalike figure in a white, rolled up, mildly bulging sleeves and unbuttoned collar shirt, man bunned dark hair and neatly trimmed beard, adorning a rose gold thin rimmed round glasses and also in rose gold, and black, a sleek strap watch on his right wrist, it is The King. In the middle of focusing on typing on his tablet's keyboard, he glances at Jay, smile, and went right back to what he's working on.

Jay, still stand on his spot- unmoving, looks at him, with a frowned face.

"What's with these office settings?"

The truth is, he wasn't any bothered by The King's look; that's his common work appearance, it is- THE BARE ROOM and ITS COMMON OFFICE SETTINGS that had him bewildered. This is not like His Majesty's usual big, and office, like the ones he had frequented to, this is..

He looks around again in this tiny, windowless space, with an old air-cond up at a side, a single lightbulb for a light, and dark blue carpeting. Behind The King, towers a tall dark bookcase -already filled with files and books, and on the table, a black three tier wire document tray, placed in front of a little pot of succulent, near a tablet with its keyboard, a mouse, and a chair for the guest. That's all.

The young man knows he's no an interior designer or anything but this place is clearly not befitting, nor he ever expects, to see The King in it.

So why, and what, is The King doing in here??

The King chuckles. "Well.. I just loves reminiscing the days I was an office worker." He gestures to the guest chair, and smiles again. "Please, have a seat."

Still with an unbelievable expression, Jay then went to sit down, to The King clasping his hands together, looking at him, concernly.

"Did you get any rest?"

The young guard nodded. Actually, they've just met earlier at another place, when Jay just got back from his mission of three days closely monitoring of that mysterious intruder, to report to him and handing over all of the evidences. But this young man right now in front of him, still looks sleepy, having that half droopy eyes and a drained appearance. "..Just barely enough." That young man answered before continuing, "..But you told me to meet you -here, because of an urgent matter..?"

"Yes." The King look intensely direct at him. "It's about your works these past few days."

His young guard suddenly look alerted, instantly straightened up, rounded eyes and all, staring back at him.

The King continue again with a sombre tone. "I've had a look at everything you had submitted an hour ago, and the pictures.. it's a good job, Jay. As can be expected from you."

The stare continues, but inside him, a sense of panic begun to stir.

"You've got a talent, and I, have a good faith on you-"

"Jay, I have a faith on you."

-No-

"Sir, are you going to abandon me?" Blurting out with a trembling voice, while looking at him with a wide, frightened eyes, Jay is now even paler, than earlier.

The arisen feeling has conquered.

The King looks taken aback. "No, why are you thinking of that?"

"It's.. nothing." The young man lowers then averted his gaze. But there's something, something that has been triggered back to his mind. Because the things that The King have said,

..was similar to what his handler had said, at their last meeting,

before abandoning him.

"Jay," The King mentions softly, "Me, and Balgia, are so lucky to have you here. I hope I can ease your worries on that."

He can see that the bright eyes of his young guard sitting in front of him now has started brimming with tears.

"You can believe, that I trust you."

It might be clueless to The King on how that assurance had capable to make some of the tears escapes and rolling down his cheeks but quickly Jay wipes it off. There's a look of relief. "That.. feels comforting." His eyes are carefully dabbed by his fingers. "..And I wanna to thank you, for taking me in."

For when I thought I was nothing.

"It's an honour."

The young man dries off his remaining tears, then let out a short, awkward laugh. "Do you usually treat everyone that have been sent against you, kindly like this?

The King smiles a thin smile. "To the one that I believe still have goodness inside."

His red guard blinked away a few times then readjusted his seat. "Okay, now back to the business. What it is that you really wanted to talk about?"

The King, now is on his serious face back, looks at Jay for a moment, then placed a hand on a corner of his tablet. "Actually, I wanted to ask you ONE thing, Jay,"

He turned his tablet, facing that young guard. It shows a picture; an almost close-up of Kite from behind, looking at somewhere.

"How did you exactly got this?"

Jay, from looking almost relieved, still moist eyes, now looks stunned. He recognised that picture, the very FIRST picture of that man.

Exhales. A trust that he surely didn't want to broke, for now. "I will admit something to you now, Sir."

That Day, in his room.

It was morning, on his off day, Jay was sitting on his study table when he then reaches down to something hidden deeply amongst the stack of books under it. Taking out a flat, square white box and putting it on the table, there's a number '010' written by black marker on a corner of it. He opened the side of the white wrap, and takes out a dark blue coloured box.

It's the last thing his handler had sent before went missing.

Uncovering it, there's a little, soo tiny black thing embedded in the middle of the black sponge that occupies the box. He pinched it out, and examines it closely.

His hand scrambles for anything more from the box, there's a folded brochure. Jay reads it for a moment,

"..it resembles a fly, moves and act like a fly to blends with surrounding. It can't be detected.." He muttered. Then looks back at the peculiar item.

"A micro, flying spy cam."

Its name, GWAENG, was printed in silver on the box cover.

He reached for his phone, unlocking it before putting it back awhile to read back the brochure, then picked up the phone back. The fly is placed behind the phone, prompting up a box and keyboard on the screen, asking for 5 digit code.

Code? Code.. code.. Jay looks at the fly's body, grabs the brochure again and look all over it, the box, he then founds something inside the cover. Typing in the digits that turns into dots- immediately hiding it, then he is asked if he's the new owner of the cam, and to scan in a fingerprint.

He clipped his mouth. Okay.

Fingerprint accepted. It instantly open to a camera, with some small icons above it, and the views came directly.. from the fly.

"Cool."

Jay selects an icon and it instantly switched into landscape view, a virtual joystick popped out on the left side of the screen, accompanied by four other separated buttons. On the right side, there's a slide switch of 'ON' and 'OFF'. He slides it to 'ON' and at once, the fly on his hand rapidly FLAPPED ITS WINGS-

"Wha-" He put the supposed-fly on the table, and it hovers up a few inches. Amazed, the young man glances at the screen, and by using one hand controling the joystick, he tries to move the fly around.

IT MOVES AND DO LOOKS LIKE ACTUAL FLIES.

He flies it around the room, higher and higher, while occasionally monitoring the cam. Then, Jay, looking determined, flies it out of the room.

The fly went around, even higher than the roof of the Palace's buildings. It flies flawlessly. Then it spots something absurd, down there, at a building.

There's someone.. pulling someone else back in.. that was dangling by feet outside a balcony.

Jay shots up from his seat, shocked. Inspecting closer, he saw The Princess, in a blue ball gown, strenuously pulling back someone that seems like a man in brown jacket, with beige and cream inner outfit.

"Whattheh*** is going on??" Jay exclaims with utter horrid. That's The Princess's building, a very prohibited place for anybody common to enter, and that man doesn't even looks like a Palace's staff to begin with. That corridor with a private balcony is along the way to The Princess's chamber, he knows, because he had memorized the palace's layout before and the thing is, what is that man is doing there??

Who is he??

To the questions unanswered, it seems that The Princess had succeed in pulling that man back in. They had a surprisingly calm, small talk, then after a while that man departs. The Princess then stayed there for a moment, looking longingly at where that man had been standing last before he left. Then she turns and continues to walk towards her chamber.

That's a really.. strange sequences he'd ever seen for today. But inside, somehow, there's an uneasy feeling- not jealousy, he hasn't been here for a long time yet and doesn't even know The Princess that well, nor has any romantic feelings seeding for her, but it's just a sense of danger, that might befall soon.

He flies the fly to search for that man.

Ah, he just remembered, today is an Open Day to visit the Palace. It might, perhaps, that he a tourist who get lost while roaming around?

But it would be, Never.

To enter prohibited royal area, you have to pass through a 24 hour fully guarded tight security entrance, surrounded by long, towering wall, with every possible places secured with latest security equipments that ALWAYS up to date; CCTVs, motion sensors, auto locks- you name it, and a bunch of special trained guards that committed in making rounds.

So it's very unlikely for him, to lost into here.

Alright, found you.

Jay saw him after a corner that its path was sort of covered by several pots of branching, tall growing plants. Quickly screenshots a picture (instant thinking, not knowing how to fully operates the camera yet), on the way to approach him, that man disappears in a blink, then in a few seconds came out..

..An old janitor? In a long sleeves and pant uniform, already pushing a cleaning cart..?

He's really astonished at that moment, and when the fly went to check out the corner he had disappeared into a moment earlier, there's nothing here, just a little corner on a wall. The fly also went over the rail, and from above view he looks at the ground floor, wall, everywhere, THERE'S NOTHING. Has that man flew away or what? Or..

Goosebumps. As he wasn't dangling again here, unless he's hiding in that cart (it's a small cart, for his tall frame, he would needed to painfully bend and fold himself really tight in there, it would be a heck of contortions), then..?

That old janitor. Slowly getting away, Jay had nothing to lose by following him as things are getting more and more suspicious. Just in case.

And he's considering something. But still hesitating.

But, if anything happened, he too had to deal with it soon anyway.

He made a decision, and sent the screenshot to The King, with a text; Sir,I just saw something crazy. Know him?

After a few seconds The King replies, No. Keep him close.

Jay was so preoccupied with the incoming thoughts that he just realised that the intruder is being picked up by a car, and is getting more away. Using another feature that he had read from the brochure, he got the fly stuck to the car and connected the GPS to his smart watch. He rushed out..

..To his big black bike in a parking lot, then revving it up fast enough just to start chasing the mystery.

While he's riding out of the Palace ground, he consistently checks his watch to see where the car is heading to but still minds his own safety. In a distance he followed them to the town, went around and finally arrives at an inn. From afar he took off the fly to continues following that man. But while the machine is newly operated and still goes slow, he still pushed it to chase him only to get unintentionally smashed by that man's room door, that was quickly swung closed after he got in. Its screen instantly goes black.

The fly dropped to the floor. Unknown to Jay, an unaware guest wearing a white shoe with a whale patch on it had stepped on the camera, and it also got rolled over by a heavy bag's tires.

Outside, Jay is frustrated by the last thing he had seen (the smashing by the door). He pondered for a moment, still believing on what he had sensed, he called his in-charge and asked for an emergency leave before went to the Inn too. His arrival at the register was greeted warmly by an old man behind it and Jay, wanted to push his luck as he had memorized the man's room number as soon he saw it on the camera, asks for the room next to it, and by luck he succeed. The elderly innkeeper meanwhile while registering his check in, proceeds to tells him things like how opening an Inn has been one of his long time dreams.. and now he gets to open one but has no idea how to promotes it "like the kids these days do it", he still has so many rooms available so for now he just let his customers pick any room they wanted- The TMIs might seems irrelevant to Jay but secretly, he's grateful that the Inn is being in that condition at the moment, You're doing a great favour for this country, Sir! He wished him a good luck, then goes to retrieve the fly, upon finding it, is astonished by how much damage it had suffered; it was in bits and pieces, scattered around, beyond unrecognisable.

How strong this man swings his door? The young guard bemused.

Fast forward the next three days doing what he had been trained to do before; eavesdropping, following in close proximity, watch and gathers evidence on what's his target doing, (later did he know the consequences..) and had The King's personnel deliver him stuffs, until that man finally left today and as he had seen him at the airport, hopefully left this country for good. He had some help in keeping that man's room untouched so after that, he went right back there to take a look around in it. That's when he found those letters, read it, and aware of that seemingly tame (?) pigeon who's unafraid of him while feeding from a bowl of corn, and the rests, to his returns and reporting everything to The King.

•••

..but not everything.

"So that's how you saw him, using Gwaeng?"

The young guard nodded, guiltily.

"I'm sorry that your gift has turned out like that."

"If it's for greater good. This is a place that I'm staying on now."

"It's a memory.. but your honesty is admirable." The King had his hands intertwined together, pondering something, "The Princess, I've had non-directly asked her, if something had happened at her place recently, but nothing about this." He dropped the hands and turns to look at Jay. "I knew also lately that she had troubles falling asleep."

Jay nodded agreeably. "I've seen it too, while making rounds."

"Do you think it has something to do with that man?"

"Highly might be. But Sir," Jay, right now genuinely curious, "Why didn't you asked her directly?"

"Jay, even we're close, sometimes," The King had a thoughtful look on his face, "..when there's things about heart, asking about it point blank would make it hidden deeper in the heart."

"So how would I know if it is something to do with that intruder, or if she's interested on HIM?"

"For that, I too, couldn't answer it. Different human will have different approach. I can tell about her late mother's, but as she's her own person, she might have her own preferences. But if she's more like me, I can tell how I was interested in the late queen."

"By what?" Jay asked.

The King answered with a longing gaze and a smile. "She sold me flowers."

*******

Present Day -

There's a beautifully framed painting of a vase of orange lilies on a wall nearby Jeremy.

That old man, meanwhile, is in the mid of expressing his anger; closed eyes, clenched jaw tightened lips and twisting his neck, his left hand is gripping his waist. He raised his right hand up high,

..and SLAMMED IT on the table.

BAM!

Kite looks unamused.

"What do you mean, you DIDN'T KNOW about the TATTOO STICKER?"

That man shrugged, "I really don't know anything about any sticker, nor ever saw it."

"You're about to be a f****** liar, and that sticker, has been sent TO YOU!!!"

"I really don't have it."

"You lose it? YOU'VE DONE IT ON PURPOSE, DIDN'T YOU??"

Wow what craziness I'm seeing. Kite just stare boredly at him without answering. Can I just jump out of the deck somewhere, here?

Jeremy is now pacing fumingly left and right, hands both gripping firmly on his waist, he then stops, grabs a phone from the table and seemingly speed dialing someone.

Silent.

"Hey, something **** had happened."

Silent.

"This useless purposefully lost a material."

Useless? Purposefully losing a material? Woah. Hearing the accusations, Kite feels his blood broiled. Useless, it is?

"Yes, that place."

Again, silence. Kite's eyes are fixed sharply at him.

"And, Plan C."

Huh. Plan C?

After putting down the phone, that sneaky old man looks smug, sneering at him, at the corner of his eyes there's like a wicked glint, he is waiting.

Enter the earlier man in a black puffed coat, now carrying a tray of a fancy teapot, with a small closed container, a small milk jug, and two porcelain cups.

"Let's have a drink." Snickered Jeremy.

Setting the tray to the table, the puffed jacket man pours some hot drink into a cup, releasing its scent and thin smoke wafting into the air, it's a coffee. Kite cautiously eyeing all the man's gestures, and the man handed the first cup over to Jeremy.

"I don't drink coffee." Exclaims Kite.

Nonetheless the man pours the drink again, take the second cup and hands it to him, Kite looks at the man and declines politely;

"No-"

While raising his hand to gently push the cup away, but out of the blue, the man grabs his arm- shocking him, and looked directly onto his eyes.

"You do really need a coffee."

Something.. felt like had happened, but Kite couldn't grasps what it is. His eyelids feels heavy, he blinked slowly. The man let go of his arm, it dropped, and Kite's stance also, seems had changed. He appears weakened.

Jeremy with a hand in his pocket, drinks his coffee, while looking at him.

Slowly, Kite closed his eyes.

***