Midori POV
I had made my way to the river. It was the middle of the day, and it was bright and sunny. The air was crisp and cool, it was as if this place was a shrine.
Well, it kinda was.
Just as I began to hear the rushing of water, a familiar figure face planted onto the hard ground. I blinked, tried to hold back my initial reaction to laugh, and quickly made my way over to Ik-su, "A-are you a-alright?" I was doing a very bad job of masking my rude reaction to this poor man's clumsiness.
"Ah~," the blonde said. He kind of gave me an air-headed vibe, "I think your friend is awake."
"Eh?"
A flower popped out of his head, "Yona-hime's so brave!"
I blinked and walked back towards the shack while supporting my clumsy savior, "How did you?"
"Kami-sama told me."
My eyes widened, "You're the priest!" He nodded with a joyful smile, "Ik-su, right?" Another nod. "Thank you for helping me."
"Of course!" I went to take another step forward when he stopped, "Midori-san?"
I gave a questioning look, "The Gods?"
"Hai," Ik-su gave me a serious and slightly sad look. "Midori-chan? The gods have told me you have suffered."
I inhaled sharply, "Kind of, b-but I'm fine! People have it worse off than me, so I should be happy with what I have."
A nod came from the priest, "Very noble, a good way of thinking." I looked at him, trying to see some hidden message, "I'm sad to say that you've still got to go through some more pain with old enemies and tough choices."
I inhaled in a little more calmly, "Of course. I wouldn't expect an easy life," I said trying to make a joke out of a possibly bad situation, "where's the fun in that? Besides, after facing something tough, something better comes out of it."
"Keep that," I froze looking at Ik-us in surprise. "That mentality. Keep it. It could keep you sane in bad situations."
I nodded, "I'll try." I sighed giving myself a childish disposition, "Ne, ne, let's go see Yona and Hak!"
As I dragged poor Ik-us back to his own home, I failed to notice his sad look of admiration casted towards me.
~~~~~
"Yoon!" I said popping through the door. "I'm back, and I brought Ik-su!"
Said man popped into the shack where Yoon and Yona were sitting, "Yoon, Yoon, Listen–"
"Hold it," Yoon said getting up to tend to the mud-covered priest. "Jeez! Why are you covered in mud?!"
I came inside and sat near Yona (it seemed as though she didn't notice me yet), as Ik-su tried to explain, "While I was praying to the heavens for everyone to be happy, I slipped and fell!"
"Ah!" I said drawing the strawberry-blonde's as well as my pink haired friend's attention, "He fell on his way back."
Ik-su teasingly stated, "You were trying to hold back a laugh as I fell, Midori-chan!"
"Midori?!" Yona asked realizing who I was and coming over to hug me, glad I was alive,
With a straight face, I looked to the priest and said, "I sincerely apologize."
"Apology accepted," said the airhead priest.
"What a pain!" Yoon exclaimed trying to keep the mud-covered Ik-su away. "The heavens have deserted you."
"Mou~ that's harsh!" Ik-su said before gasping realizing that Yona was watching this exchange while holding onto me like I was going to die or something. "You woke up! Thank goodness!" Ik-su said smiling at Yona. Flowers appeared by and around Ik-su as he proceeded to introduce himself to Yona, "How do you do? My name is Ik-su, I'm sort of like Yoon's guardian."
"Uh. . ." I said looking at Yoon for conformation, "Isn't that kind of like the other way around?"
"Midori-chan," Yona said looking at me in surprise. That's when I realized that was probably rude.
"S-sorry, Ik-su," I muttered tilting my head down in apology.
"It's okay, it's okay!" Replied the priest while parting my head.
Yoon sat down by me and muttered to me, "You're not wrong, though."
"Um," Yona said trying to change the subject, "I'm. . ." At least she understood not to give her name out freely.
"Y-you've really," I jumped, surprised to see Ik-su actually crying, "suffered a lot, haven't you?"
I blinked looking to Yona and whispering, "He's talking to you."
"No, I haven't," she looked confused, "Hak shielded me, so. . ."
"No," Ik-su said sadly, "I meant from the time when you made the decision to start your trip."
"Huh?" Yona gave a surprised look.
The priest continued on without stopping, "Even more so for a person like you, Princess Yona."
I blinked and Yona spoke up realizing what Ik-so said, "Hold on. How do you know so mush about me?"
Ik-su, without a care in the world gave Yona the same explanation he gave me, "God told me tha–"
Realization passed over him and Yoon grumbled, "There's no point in living in seclusion if you tell others so casually!"
Yona's eyes widened as she whispered, "It can't be. . ."
"Oh, trust me," I whispered to her, "it can."
Ik-us went through a minor stage of panic, "Oh, shoot, I wanted to look proper and near when I greeted the princess!"
Yona realized, "You're the priest?" We were standing facing said priest, "I heard that uncle Yu-hon oppressed you, so I thought you'd be an old man."
Yoon was walking outside as he muttered, "If you ask me, he's old enough."
"Sure," I said going over to him, "he wouldn't be older than a child, way to go oppress a child."
"That was my predecessor," Ik-su said to Yona.
"So," Yona said curious, "You knew I'd be coming, too?"
"Yes!" Ik-su said delighted to talk about his passion.
"Midori," I turn towards Yoon, to which he pointed to some white fabric hanging on a line, "could you hand that to me?"
"Sure," I said passing over the cloth.
Meanwhile, Ik-su was explaining what he does to Yona, "It is my job to convey the voice of God to everyone. God teaches me everything about this world."
Yoon scoffed, "What job?! You don't make any money!" Then he began to fuss over Ik-su's clothing forcing him into the new kimono that I had handed over to Yoon a second ago. More grumbling came from Yoon, "You were driven out of the castle because claiming to hear the voice of the gods was suspicious enough."
"Um," Oh Yona, don't ask. Please don't, "why was he driven out?" She did it now.
I gave a small warning, "Yona. . ."
"That's surprising," Oh, no. Great. Yoon is going to say something that's going to be either good or bad for Yona to hear. He's going to be merciless, "You lived in the castle and you don't know?" Yep, merciless. "What about you?" Yoon asked me.
"I knew," I admitted looking away from Yona, I couldn't bear to see her look at me for keeping something like this from her, "I was curious, because when I was desperate, I always prayed and I had heard of a priest that lived in the castle, but he wasn't in the palace when I arrived. So, I asked Gramps."
It was silent until Yoon spoke up, "Well, at least one of you has the sense to ask about the things around you."
___________________________
Ooohh, another update! Couldn't have done it without my manga streaming app though......I didn't even write this part for my other Akatsuki no Yona fanfic.
So, what do you think? It's definitely longer, so I hope that's a plus!
Two more weeks of school! Then all I have left is my trips in June, my SAT (also in June), and my summer job, so I should have time to update!
Hope I don't slack too bad in my writing~ ^.^'
Hope you like this one,
~Ashley