Cheol woke up early in the morning, blinded by a mischievous stray ray of sunlight that had decided to settle on his face and squinted, he stirred then sat upright with a yawn, stretching his arms.

Apparently he had ended up drifting off to sleep after surrounding himself with too many thoughts, his sleep accompanied by the soft snores of his newfound traveling companion.

He turned to look at the futon, or more precisely the mass of blankets, where the man was still sleeping calmly, and decided he would let him rest a bit more.

He knew he definitely needed it, since on the previous day he had walked all the way from Kouka to his village, which was located miles away, between the earth tribe and the fire tribe.

The first thing Cheol did was grab the clothes he had tossed away during the night, to wash them in the creek that he had seen while he was grabbing dried sticks to add to their fire the evening prior, he picked up Hyun's haori aswell and started to stride through the forest; thinking to himself that he had to rush and finish before the prince could wake up.

The morning dew was dazzling as it sat on the strands of grass, the sight was unusual to him who would wake up in a suntuous palace, but most certainly welcome.

The fresh air washed the tiredness away from his body and once he reached the valley that welcomed the creek, he sighed in relief, it was closer than he remembered, the saplings perched towards the waterway in a very peticular way, that made a shady refuge for him to sit in.

He crouched in front of the clear stream of water to rinse and wash the clothes; his motions to clean them definitely weren't as concise and as clever as those of the people he saw at the village ,washing diligently their clothes first thing in the morning.

He never had to do it himself,  so their routines became enterainement for him, something he'd watch after he had finished having breakfast or when he had to take a break from studying imperial laws in the garden of the palace.

Now he was the one in their shoes, staring at his distorted reflection as he squeezed the clothes dry and a sense of pride rose in him, before remembering the sleeping face of Hyun and standing up in a hurry, to go back to the temporary camp they had set up.

He was met with a sight he didn't expect, Hyun was sitting on the tree trunk, brushing stubborn knots out of his crimson hair and tying it up with a ribbon, everything had been ranged cleanly and the tent folded away.

"Good morning, your highness" he spoke softly as to not startle him,or bother him as either one would be absolutely terrible, Hyun turned his head to face him with the usual smile plastered on his face.

" 'Morning, I was worrying you had changed your mind and abandoned me here" he remarked cheekily as he continued to pull his hair back.

"I would never do something like that" Cheol refuted, then blinked before following the prince's gaze which landed right on the still dripping wet clothes in his arms
"I didn't think of where to let them dry up..."

Hyun stared at him for a few seconds and Cheol knitted his eyebrows, worrying that he'd start scolding him immediately, but ended up gaping at him when the man burst into laughter 

"We'll just let them dry as we walk I guess. For now you can put them on that rock, and thank you for washing mine aswell." He pointed at the one sitting under the now intense sunrays and Cheol, as ever, followed what he was told.

"Oh and come eat, we'll have a lot of walking to do today." He added beaming at him, Cheol bowed his head as he sat at the opposite side of the hollow trunk, Hyun didn't raise any question as he handed him his bowl.

The soft chirping of the birds filled the silence well enough, and they ate quietly.

❁ --------❊--------❁

The small wind chime hung on the shoji door, its jingling was soft as usual, almost sounding shy and reserved compared to the chatter coming from outside, much like the small figure sitting in the room, observing, waiting listening to every little clatter.

"Hey! How much money did we make from last times' vials?" a voice rung, breaking that tranquil atmosphere and the navy haired child flinched, scooting closer to the moldy, cold walls sitting behind her, it was the only thing she could feel with her back.

"I dunno, enough to get more stuff to not have to steal money for a while, but we might run out of it soon" the other voice replied loudly.

Were they having the same conversation again? It felt like it and she decided it wasn't worth listening to them, yes, making up images of what the wind chime looked like was a better idea.

Maybe it was cerulean blue, like her hair.

"It's about time we get some more blood from her anyways."

Maybe it was a clear red, like the bird she had managed to catch a glimpse once, or the way that kind man's hair she saw in her dreams looked like...

"Go get the tolls then you idiot, she's in the room."

Her breaths started to come in as strained ,her tears dampened the bandages resting on her eyes and she shook her head, no-focus on the wind chime, it could even be clear or white.

The sliding door opened with a sudden jarring sound, she knew what was coming, she had no reason to cry and scoot away into the corner.

"Come on, we fed you well this last month, not crying is the least thing you could do" one of them said calmly, her mind drifted off, she wanted to ignore everything.

'Mangtae yeonggam¹  will come take you away if you try to leave the house '

She would always shake her head at him and point at the window, the warmth inside the house would always make her really sleepy, but that day snowflakes were fluttering onto the ground, sleep wasn't an option.

 Nam-Jil would cross his arms 'No, we're not going outside, you'll get sick. You know we can't leave the house now, but how about this" he started " One day I'll take you to see the capital, okay?' 

If only she had listened, she thought as she slumped against the ground, left alone in that cold room as the windchime picked up its pace along the wind currents.

Author's notes

1- the Mangtae yeonggam, its literal translation from korean being the Sack Man is a tale about an old man who carries a sack to kidnap children who misbehave. It's a common folktale in Europe, but it's also very used as a tale to scare children into behaving in Asia.