Work Text:
It was one of those night during winter. When the Yoon residence were disrupted by a big fire. It was started from the painter's room, luckily, he was sleeping in the lord's arms at that time after a passionate night of coupling.
It happened so fast that Nakyum couldn't comprehend how everyone and everything he have suddenly turned into ash. He also saw unknown people in mask killed a lot of Yoon's servant and if it's not for Servant Kim who pushed the two of them to run away, those people will hurt him and Seungho.
" Go on. Run fast or else it would be too late." Mr. Kim wrapped his Master and the painter using two robes he grab before they ran away.
Mr. Kim look at his master and smile gently.
" It was a pleasure to serve you, Young Master." He bowed down to the two of them, eyes misting but he was decided.
" ...Thank you" Mr. Kim couldn't hold back the tears when he heard his master said it for the first time.
" S-sir... What do you mean? What is it Seungho?" Nakyum could feel that something doesn't seems right. He look at Seungho and Mr. Kim who's silently conversing using their eyes.
" Sir, let's go..." Mr. Kim look at the young boy whom he loved and taken care of. The only boy who made his master the person he is today. He was certain that they will protect each other.
He was so happy. Very happy to witness the different but honest love of them that it feels so sacred to look at their holding hands.
" I will follow you after I come back. You must go. And take care."
Nakyum cried silently when Seungho grab his arms and ran. He look back at the old man who smiled at them so he smiled and bowed down. But they already far north when he realized that Mr. Kim will not keep his words to Seungho for the first and last time of his life.
It was the most frightening situation that Nakyum has been into. There are six masked people who pointed daggers to the two of them. Seungho keep him out of sight, holding his hands and keeping him from his back.
"And at the end of the day, those people who pertains to themselves as the higher types of humans, sent cheap low-borns to destroy me. You really couldn't buy gallantry no matter how much money you have." Seungho laughs dryly. Seungho didn't have the fear of dying. His fear was not the pain nor how he will die but it is a person, crying and trembling from his back, whispering how scared he is.
Seungho's fear was not a thing, a situation or death, but it is the safety of this mere creature, that most beautiful person he ever laid his eyes on.
His one and only love of his life. His kryptonite.
" Promise me one thing..." Seungho whispered on a weeping Nakyum on his back. The painter look at the face of his lord who's busy smirking at the armoured people and didn't spare him a glance.
"Promise me that you will be safe. No matter what. You will go on and take care of yourself..."
"What--- What are you saying, M-my Lord?" Nakyum feel that his heart was clenching.
" Promise me you will find a way to live. You will run once I step forward. Remember “our place”? You must go there and wait for the sunrise. I have someone who will keep you to a safe place." Seungho got a knife from his robe and gave it to Nakyum for protection before he held his sword.
"No... My lord--- Seungho.. please no don't leave me..." Nakyum hug him tightly shake his head. He refused everything that he heard. It feels like Seungho will never come back. He couldn't understand why he was telling him those words and making him promise those things that he didn't want to do.
" I love you so much. I am never this happy in my whole life." Seungho held the back of Nakyum's head and kissed him on a lips and on his forehead before he whispered
" Let's see each other in our next life. Maybe there, it will be easier for them to accept our love for each other." It was only the second time Nakyum saw Seungho cried. The first time was when he told him about his childhood. It was painful for him to witness it.
" I will let you run away now. Do not look back. And never ever come back here.
But don't forget me."
Nakyum ran away on that night and not looking back like what Seungho said. He heard metals colliding to metals and people screaming in pain. His feet got numb from tiredness and the cold night but he didn't stop. His feet brought him to a familiar place where Seungho genuinely smiled for him for the first time.
He hide to the small hut behind a big tree. Seungho said it was his safe place when he was still a child and wanted to ran away from the wrath of his father. Nakyum hug his knees and cried silently. Half part of him died at that night when he realized no matter how invinsible Seungho may seem, he's still a human and he will never come back.
It was January 5th, the coldest night of the year when Seungho laid down under the night sky, in the middle of the corpse of the unmasked people whom he made sure he never let one alive.
He strated to not to feel his legs and the slow painful hole on his stomach.
He remember his lover's innocent smile, the blush when he was shyly helding his hand, the smell of jasmine oil that they used during their baths, his peaceful presence and the the pureness of it's heart. Seungho smiled from his collection of those memories.
The night is cold but the memory of a sleeping Nakyum laid on his chest made him warm until the last minute of his life.
Year 2020
A young first year college from Seoul National University spend his alone time from their field trip to look around for the paintings. He is a scholar of the most prestigious school in South Korea despite of his humble life. He have a loving parents and grew up to a simple yet happy life.
Even as a child, he dreamt of becoming a painter. It feels like he was born to paint and his parents are happy to support his dreams.
Nakyum was on his way to look at the other works of the great painter, 'BNK' of Joseon, when his eyes landed to a tall man standing in a suit who was looking at an 8 ft 10 ft wide painting.
" Promise me you will find a way to live"
" I love you so much. I am never this happy in my whole life. "
" ...don't forget me"
Nakyum didn't understand why his tears started to fall when their eyes met. He heard voices in his head, more like a memory that he was sure it was not from this lifetime. It feels like a preserved memory of him way back then.
His chest felt so much pain of longing. It feels like he's waiting for someone who never came back. He never felt that he's been waiting for someone not until those russet eyes stared into his looking at the him at an equal intensity.
They walk closer to each other, testing the waters and sensing if they are the only one who felt that strong pull, luckily, they felt the same.
"Seungwon... my brother, Did he found you?" The tall man ask with a trembling voice that he never imagined that he have.
"He...did." Nakyum answered, he didn't understand why he did but he felt that his heart know something that his mind did not.
"We didn't... Never found you. We tried. It was painful. I just-- I -- my only wish for those times was to find you for the last time. I didn’t...” Nakyum's shoulder were shaking because of the painful words he utter.
“ Do you... remember me?” Seungho asked, eyes glistening with the overwhelming pain yet happiness that his chest could bust in a minute.
“ I don’t remember your name. But I remember that I love you.”
Seungho reach out for the young painter and buried him onto his chest. For the first time in years, he let himself to cry.
It was like a puzzle falling into its right place. The longing that they never know they have change into a feeling of finding their missing pieces that they lost for a long time.
It was January 5th inside the National Palace Museum of Korea, in front of one of BNK's paintings way back in Joseon Dynasty alongside with hundreds of his preserve's paintings/portraits ot the said to be Yoon Seungho, the firstborn of the ‘Yoon', a noble class family.
It was said that BNK painted until his last breath to aid the longing of his heart for his only love, waiting for him to come back.
(A poem under BNK’s portrait of Yoon Seungho)
October 21, 2020
National Palace Museum of Korea
10PM
“ What I regent
in our lifetime was
that I should have
cherished you
longer enough
before we
bid our last farewell
Let’s meet
again
When our time
our life
would be much
easier to
say,
I love you”
by BNK