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War, superiority and inferiority.
Things that they all feared, what they didn't want, was bought upon them. Every single one of them.
For years the nations have suffered from these greatly. The Lights have had it the worst among all of them. Forced to be succumbed under the Shadows' rule, they were looked down upon, and labelled as the inferiors. Under the rule of an empress, that blinded her own people from the truth, forever hiding everything in the shadows where her sharp glare and tainted smile shone the most, where her secrets were the darkest.
Dohui could only bitterly chuckle at the thought. It was unbelievably painful seeing her kind, shadowed by the cruel and corrupt. Thrown into slavery and forced to do harsh and unwanted labor. Weeping and mourning everyday at the sight of another one, missing or dead. And it said to be that she is one of the either, at least that's what had been announced back from where she had come from.
She quietly stood in an alley, her back leaning on the wall behind her, awaiting for the boy she had met four days ago to arrive. Haechan was an odd one, she thought. He was quiet, but at the same time he had so much to say, majority being snarky comments about her height and her behavior.
Haechan sat quietly in the living room, eyes travelling to whatever caught his attention as he sipped on his tea. A thud of nowhere caused him to jump in his seat surprise, his hot tea now dripping from the side of the cup. The door had suddenly burst open and Dohui stood there, her hair disheveled and a tired expression. "I left my scarf here."
"Good afternoon to you too, dwarf." He quirked his brows up and exasperatedly sighed as he placed his tea down on the small desk in front of him. The girl rolled her eyes him and tiredly walked past him to the staircase.
She had forgotten her red scarf when she had left in the morning. Having to sneak back, trying not to get noticed by any of the other villagers that were busy roaming the streets. It took her a while till she got lost trying to find her way to the boy's house.
It was far from the Yoon's and definetly nowhere near the market either. Hidden somewhere at the very back of the village was a house not too big. It looked old and abandoned outside but the interior was clean and looked pretty new, that's also where you could find Haechan sitting on a rocking chair, leg over the other with his head leaned back on the head rest as he pretended to pet an animal on his lap.
"It's in the guest's room where you slept at, in the closet." Haechan informed and Dohui proceeded to climb upstairs and into the guest's room. After a few minutes of searching the closet the girl huffed and jumped on the bed, scanning the room and from the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a bright red material, it was her scarf, resting on top of the wooden closet.
And there was Haechan, leaning on the corridor with a play smile on his face, "Good luck, short stack." He chuckled and walked off. At that point Dohui was irritated, letting it take over her, her voice boomed through the house when she yelled,
"LEE HAECHAN!"
Dohui rolled her eyes at the memory and pushed herself off when she noticed the said boy standing by the alley with an uninterested look on his face. "Why am I here again?"
"You're going with me to the Yoon's."
"No, goodbye." He turned around to walk back, "You're leaving me here, with a huge possibility for me to get lost?" Dohui scoffed, her hands falling to her sides as she gazed at the boy who looked back at her, emotionless.
Silence surrounded them for a few moments until Haechan spoke out, his voice monotonous, "Yes." He turned back and walked away, with Dohui rushing over to him.
Surprisingly, after some convincing, Haechan had given up and agreed to go with her. They both pulled up the shawl that circled around their necks over their head, a shadow hovered over their features. Dohui tugged on her scarf and brought it up to the bridges of her nose.
Haechan searched through his leather satchel and brought out a wooden mask, dipped in a deep red color, with carving lines that ran along the wooden material, strokes of darker colors painted onto it had made it have very odd facial features, features not so human like. To add to that, it had things poking out of the mouth that made it look like tusks.
Dohui gave a look of amusement his way as he put on the mask, "What the hell. Where do you get those?" She trailed behind the boy when he walked out of the alley, the sun's late morning gaze greeting his relaxed figure. He shrugged, "Given."
No other words were spoken out after and Dohui only nodded, continuing to walk behind him in silence. They continued to walk down the empty streets, taking another turn to be greeted by the busy market. Dohui, who wasn't paying attention, hadn't noticed the boy in front of her stop, causing her to bump onto his back. "Hey-" before she could continue, the taller turned to face her and grabbed her by the wrist. He raised his mask by a bit with his free hand and leaned forward "Don't let go, you'll get lost again like last time, just follow."
Dohui furrowed her brows at the proximity, hesitantly nodding. He brought his mask down and turned back after pulling her beside him. She exhaled a breath she didn't know she held in and continued to walk by him, now entering the area of the market.
Everybody had suddenly seemed to be busier than usual, and more items for the winter were displayed. Chatters just kept getting louder every second, and it was getting more crowded. The two were squishing through the crowd, Dohui winced everytime somebody would step on her foot, wanting to go back but Haechan's hand still gripped onto her wrist.
Once they had finally gotten out of the crowded streets they rushed over to where the Yoon's were. Haechan pulled the mask up to his head and the other pulled down her scarf, both hunched over with palms on their knees as they coughed for air. Beads of sweat running down their foreheads to their chins as their shawls stuck to their skin.
The door to the front was opened and sounds of Youra nagging Jiro had emerged as she pulled on her son's ear, dragging him outside as the younger yelped in pain while trying to pull away his mother's hands. Dohui and Haechan paused and looked up at the two, who also froze and looked back at them. Jiro used the chance to slap away his mom's hands from his ears, to which she slapped him back on the shoulder.
"How many times do I have to convince myself that both of you aren't siblings?" Dohui huffed.
Jiro shrugged, "I ask myself that too," he paused and turned to Youra with wide eyes, "Are you my sister, Youra?" The lady scoffed and slapped the boy on the arm, he only winced back.
"You're grounded you little shit. Don't even think of walking back into the house until I say so." Youra glared up at his taller figure, glancing at us and smiled, turning around right after and walked back into the house.
Jiro looked back at us and clasoed his hands together and smiled like nothing happened, "Anyways! I-" "What was that just now?" Haechan cut him off, the other cheekily smiled and shook his head.
"It was nothing! Anyway I assume you're the.. you know?" He whispered and Dohui deadpanned. "Get straight to the point, rat. You already met him two days ago so quit the stalling. I know there's a reason why you told me to drag his ass here."
"Correction, I dragged y-" Dohui's eyes widened and immediately pulled his shaman mask down to his face. Jiro eyed the two suspiciously, brushing his thoughts away after and placed his hands on his waist.
"Alright I have a task for both of you!" The other two diverted their gaze and attention towards the tall boy. "I need you two to fetch me a few herbs from the small tent outside of the village by the forest's entrance. You know- the one where you just take some and leave a few silver coins because nobody is ever there? Ugh, that's very bad service- but they have really great herbs I tell you-"
"You're rambling again, Ji. But why do we have to get them for you? Can't you just get them yourself?" Jiro laughed at the girl's complain.
"Do you think I'm gonna let you both go and stay here for free? In this age and economy? No, of course not!" He pointed at the both of them. His head perked up a bit, another thought slipping into his head. "I'll also need the both of you to fetch water in the river at the near end of the forest."
"What? Why? Can't 'mister water' right here just do his thing?" Dohui pointed towards the boy beside her. She didn't want to have anything to do with nearing Shadow Empire territory, at least not at the moment.
Haechan looked at her in disbelief, "Are you risking getting caught by the knights just for river water?" He whispered.
"But aren't we also risking getting caught because technically- that river is a border."
"Border- This village is under the so called 'protection' of the empire, you worm." He rolled his eyes and Dohui crossed her arms, "Still though.."
"Would you rather do labor for a day if we're caught fetching water for innocent villagers or get sent to the dungeon AND do labor for who knows how long just because I broke a 'rule' just for water?"
"Neither of those sound appealing to me.." Dohui grew quiet and hid her hands behind her, looking down at her feet. "Exactly, but let's just go over to the river. It'll be quick anyway." He reassured.
Haechan looked up at Jiro who had a teasing smile on his face as he watched the two. "What are you smiling at?" He stared into the taller's eyes with disinterest, Jiro immediately snapping out of it and only shook his head, giving Haechan a small smile.
The two had ventured out of the village after Jiro handed them a drawstring bag full of silver, and 2 carrying poles to carry water. Dreadful just looking at how much weight Dohui thought they would carry. They planned to fetch some water from the river first, then get the herbs Jiro had requested. After they exited the long pathway they were greeted by the forest. Walking through the woods carefully, Haechan skillfully walking over the thick roots of the tall trees as Dohui struggled to even stand on her feet.
The sun had shone brighter the more they get farther into the forest, and in half an hour they managed to reach the river.
The river didn't run along as fast as how it would when it rains or when a storm comes. The clear water just flowed calmly as it reflected the sun's gaze.
"-And here I am doing labor just because I didn't pay rent in time." Dohui complained as she dipped the bucket into the water.
She had been complaining for the past minutes and was barely finished, as for Haechan- he had just filled both buckets and was now gazing at the irritated girl in amusement, slowly getting tired of her complaints.
"Look at you! You're done and I'm not because you gave up halfway and used your waterbending! Didn't you say it was against the rule to-" Dohui had completely stopped when a huge sphere of water fell on her head, soaking her completely. She looked at the boy wide eyed and he gave her a playful smirk.
"Oops." He placed a hand over his lips, stifling a laugh.
"Oh it is on!" Dohui yelled at she pushed Haechan into the river.
Dohui laughed at his state, clutching onto her stomach hunched over, until she was pulled by wrist and fell right into the river. It was the boy's turn to laugh at her.
Forgetting about the task at hand, they carelessly played and splashed around the river. Huge smiles on their faces and hearty laughs slipping through their lips. Haechan would often send waves of water her way and she would stumble back, giggling. This was the most fun each of them have had in a long time. The boy continued to chase her around, though something had caught him off guard.
And that was when a sphere of water flew towards him, and it came from Dohui.
Shit. Was the only thing the girl thought of at that moment.
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:)) hai