Eclipse || Seongjoong

Chapter 8: Jewels of the Soul

(A/N: i normally hate putting a/n's at the beginning but listen to that song while reading this- it just its just mhwa! Especially toward the end! byeee...or good luck!) 

"Oi! Catch that thief!" Jongho shouted, running after a man at his full speed. He had been manning his father's stand at the farmer's market when a man came and stole his money box under his nose. Jongho swore he had only blinked, trying to help a customer as his father slept, before the box was whisked away like a cat snatching a bird in flight.

It was a hot and humid day, one of the hottest days of the year, with a drought nearly coming. The narrow streets crowded with bodies didn't help such heat as Jongho tried to chase the man. He knew he couldn't leave his father to watch the stand-alone when he was on the verge of passing out himself.

The sound of conversation gasps and horses flooded Jongho's senses, causing him to lose sight of the streets filled to the brim with posh ladies and obnoxious lords. Jongho cursed to himself, knowing he would get an earful from his mother and a whip-lashes on his back from his father for being so careless.

Without that money, his family would have no income for the month and become slaves to the illness without medication. His younger sister's cold worse than a snowstorm was on the verge of the Grim Reapers' touch. One of his younger brothers had a bad case of hives and rashes. And the twins were too tiny, unnourished, and weak. His family desperately needed that money, and losing it would be another burden he placed on them.

Jongho loved his family, but it was clear that he was just another mouth to feed to them. He was just a worker they could use for free, someone they could send to sow the fields with the ox was sick or harvest the corn when the rain was pouring.

He was tired of living the life of a farmer's son...but what else could there be for him?

Jongho was just about to give up when he saw the man run into a narrow alleyway that no one dared to enter. He rushed toward the alleyway with a smile, pushing away anyone he came across with a soft "sorry." As he entered the musky and dark alleyway, he saw the man run down toward the exit way on the opposite side as he giggled in victory. He knew the man who took it; he was a famous gambler who often spent more money than a nobleman. He was wanted for many crimes with a prince on his head larger than any sum of vegetables could bring. Jongho wondered if he could just catch the man, he could give him to however posted the WANTED signs for his name. But first, he had to catch the man. Grumbling, Jongho prepared to make hast with his speed when suddenly a loud cry was heard before silence.

Jongho gasped as he saw the man with his money box head on the floor; his body slowly fell onto the floor with a loud thud. A sword, dripping with beat red blood, floated in the air held up by a tan hand, covered in scars. The farmer's son stepped back, covering his mouth at the gory sight in front of him, blood oozing into the bricked paved street in the alleyway. The blood flowed like a river down the cracks of the rectangular bricks of the road. It reached Jongho's foot, going around his shoes as the sword slowly dropped down, as a sinister giggle echoed like the sound of the slash of the owner's sword made when it chopped off the man's head.

Holding in his breath, Jongho's lungs tightened like a nose around a hanging man's throat. He couldn't breathe as the smell of rust from the blood infected Jongho's nose and blurred his vision. When Jongho meant the price on his head, he didn't mean it literally.