POV: Hae Na Ri
More like someone.
Inside a coffee shop, Jieun is placing a cake carefully under a counter. Her hair flow over her shoulder and they are dyed violet at the ends. She is wearing an apron and a pair of white rimmed glasses rest on the bridge of her nose.
At a glance, I can tell something is wrong.
Jieun–my friend Kim Jieun has short hair, abhors long hair and hair dyes, and has a sight sharp enough to challenge an eagle to archery.
This is not Kim Jieun.
And it's confirmed in the next few moments when she looks in my direction, smiles and bows like one would do to a customer and continues to assemble the cakes and pastries under the counter.
Still, as if in a daze, I push open the door, ignoring the Close sign. A TV on the wall is running on low volume. My attention is on Jieun. She looks up from her work, startled.
"I am sorry we aren't open yet," she says.
"Jieun'ah…" I study her closely. This is utterly absurd.
She pushes her glasses up. "Sorry? What did you say?"
"Who are you?"
"Ah, you must be a regular here. I have bought this cafe." A smile breaks out on her face. "Though I haven't made many changes except for the menu." She walks out and holds out her hand. "Lee Miyoung. Welcome to my cafe. I hope you will give our menu a chance too."
"How is this possible?" I murmur to myself. A doppelganger in another universe, that's what it looks like.
At this moment, the word "His Majesty" from the TV catches my attention.
It's some news channel I can't recognize. Ryu Hajoon is in a four piece suit, flagged on each side by those masked guards and the bob woman. Standing with a private jet in the background. A man exits it and walks down the stairs. The footage cuts to him bowing to Ryu Hajoon. I focus on the reporter's voiceover.
"....diplomatic relations with Japan. It's the newly elected president's first visit to Korea. His Majesty himself went to receive President Iroshma…" The news moves to another topic, Prime Minister Ko Mingyu attending a conference on the topic of VAW. This PM is actually the mayor of Seoul in my world.
"So this is all real! How's this possible?!"
"Um.. are you okay?" Jieun, I mean Lee Miyoung eyes me in bafflement.
"No," I say honestly. "Do you know any internet cafe around that I can use?"
"There is one at the end of the next street," she answers slowly.
"Thanks." I almost turn to leave then remember something. "Ah jincha, I left my wallet at home. Can you please lend me just enough money to use the internet cafe for 15 minutes? I need to do something really urgent. I will return it."
"Sure sure, no problem." She goes to the counter and returns with some thousand bills. It looks kind of like the currency I know but I can't recognize the portrait on it.
Anyways.
"Thank you!" I stuff the notes in my pocket and run out of the cafe. The two guards are waiting outside but I don't join them. I keep running. They immediately spring into action.
I wonder how it appears to the people around us. My instinct was right. I can't ask them for help.
I don't know how I lose them but after a while I don't see anyone following me. I do find it strange but my focus is on the internet cafe. I am out of breath as I search for it. I must have left it behind while running.
I have to ask people for directions and I believe it's not the same internet cafe Jieun's lookalike sent me to. But it will do.
It's mostly empty inside. There are five to six rows of computers and only a few teenagers with headphones clamped to their ears are sitting here, playing games aggressively. A long counter of a small canteen is on the side and I can smell something buttery.
I pay for thirty minutes and take the computer at the far end of a row with no one around.
In the next thirty minutes I am typing and reading vigorously. First of all, I can confirm everything I know so far.
This is not my world.
This is some other universe and some quantum mechanics thing is going on here.
Korea is called the Kingdom of Korea; Monarchy was never demolished. There is no DMZ. North Korea and South Korea both are ruled by the same president, prime minister and king. Its disorientating, the amount of information I am taking in. So I focus on my current situation.
I focus on Ryu Hajoon.
I type in his name and scroll through his Knowledgtable. Knowledgtable must be some equivalent of Wikipedia. Ryu Hajoon is merely 4 years older than me. He is the only child, there are no siblings (no one to kill). His mother was a queen Regent for 11 years. She died when he was 15 and he's been the monarch since then.
I lean back, surprised for several reasons.
I also find some information on the bob woman. Her name is Lee Sunwoo, 37 years old, she is his royal bodyguard and one of the secretaries. There isn't much information about her online.
But all of this is general information. I need to know just how much danger I am in as 'the intruder' in a palace when there's no way to confirm my identity. I try to search for several keywords with Ryu Hajoon's name. The news articles are about conferences, guest speaker sessions, meetings, legislations, gossip columns about his dating life, interviews. All of these would show a perfectly curated image and personality.
I wish Reddit existed here. It's so much easier to find lesser known things there,
I search for his name with one last keyword, "Ryu Hajoon tyrant".
News articles show irrelevant things. I click on 'All' option and scroll down. At first nothing matches the keyword in the search, but then on a site called Askedit, I find a 4 years old article's link, "King Hajoon, a modern day tyrant or not?"
I click on the link and get a warning. It's not my computer, it doesn't matter if a virus eats it. So I proceed. The article is written by Song Damu.
"What is the definition of a tyrant? In the most simplest terms, it's a ruler who is cruel and violates human rights. He stands above the law and thus can't be held accountable.
By this definition if we were to study the current monarchy system in Korea, we can say–"
A deep masculine voice interrupts my reading. "King Hajoon, a modern day tyrant or not?"
I jump in my seat, a squeal escapes my throat.
Ryu Hajoon is behind me, leaning over my shoulder.
Where the hell did he come from?!
I try to close the article and accidently drop the mouse behind the desk. Jincha! I slap the screen with my hands in an attempt to hide it, nearly cracking it with a splat sound.
But why bother with it? He is standing straight and watching me scramble around with amusement.
So I drop my hands in defeat. Even if I was not in any trouble before, I would be now.
"Of course I am not a tyrant. If I were, I would have taken down that article," he says, a devilish shine in his dark eyes. "But I didn't. I only got him beheaded."