everyone around him dies

Part 6

Sometimes Kim Kwangsu was just unthinkingly elegant. Amongst the maturity, the willingness to eat dirt soup as though it were a luxury item, and the eyes that stared on as though they'd seen more death than most morgues there was a grace to him.

It was in the way he walked and held himself. A pride worthy of nobility and an arrogant upturn of his nose that was befitting of a man who'd looked down on kings.

It was not befitting of an eight year old and it didn't endear him to his peers.

Children are very much like people, in fact, it could be said that children are people and it is only the adults that have yet to reach this revelation. They are not pure and innocent fairies full of nothing but kindness. They are not miserable little sociopathic brats with no common sense.

They are people.

People come in a great variety of attitudes, perspectives, experiences, and biases.

However it can be said that quite a few people find no enjoyment from feeling patronized. It was Kim Kwangsu's unlucky fate that he should be surrounded by such people. Although, perhaps it was fortunate that he wasn't surrounded by those who adore being mocked and derided.

Fortune favored the child in one particular way though. He wasn't actually a child and he truly didn't give a rat's ass whether a bunch of snot nosed nobodies liked him.

It was largely due to the way he quite literally looked down on the children that led them to believe they were being looked down on. If Kim Kwangsu, or rather Cale Henituse, were placed on the scale of believing children were innocent saints or nasty brats, he would lean heavily towards the latter. It wasn't due to any true hatred of the youth, he merely wasn't the sort who put much thought into the humanity of children and thus judged them based on his own limited experiences.

Of course this led to a certain amount of hypocrisy because despite his tepid belief that children were unpleasant, sticky, and usually quite selfish he was actually fond of the few children he'd known.

Lily Henituse, in his eyes, could do no wrong. Even when she'd mussed up his hair with mud as a surprise way to wake up, back when she was too young to properly understand that her drunkard of an older brother was best experienced at a great distance.

Basen Henituse was a point of great pride for Cale. A boy who deserved the world and more and despite a meek personality that wouldn't do him any good during negotiations, a child without any fault at all. Someone to be protected at all costs.

And Kim Roksu, the sweet boy who was too giving for his own good and the pure definition of rotten luck, was a peerless genius and an absolute fool. A child who was thoughtful, considerate, and just the right degree of selfishness while paradoxically being all the wrong degrees of selfless. He was exceptional and complicated.

He also made a much better target for ill-begotten and misplaced frustration than his impervious older twin.

It would be an exaggeration to say that Roksu was bullied. Or at least, Roksu would have considered it an exaggeration. No one hit him and no one said anything particularly awful. However there was a certain amount of exclusion, a hint of sarcasm, some nasty looks, and just a touch of reproach.

It could also be considered fortunate that Kim Roksu was far too traumatized from his upbringing to notice most of it. He was a bright lad and good at reading others but certain subtleties escaped him. When one was used to dodging the blows of outright malice, tepid feelings of dislike simply rolled away harmlessly.

Besides, the isolation suited him just fine. Kim Roksu had decided, in his complicated little way, that he wasn't going to love anyone or be loved by anyone ever again. Making friends would be, of course, an inconvenience to achieving that goal and thus he soaked in the isolation.