FARAWAY JINSARI;
Min-Seok watched as the two before him walked hand in hand chattily leaving him to throttle behind them.
His eyes followed the pair with a mixture of fondness and envy swirling within him.
"Lee Nana" he whispered, his voice barely audible over the forest sounds.
He quickened his pace and catching up with them.
"You guys should wait for me!!"
Kim Nana turned and her bright smile seemed to be a welcome for him.
" We weren't leaving you behind Min-Seok. We can never leave you behind"
Ji-Hoon nudged him playfully.
" You're just slap because you're fat. That's all"
Min-Seok chuckled, his earlier pangs of jealousy dissipating.
"Yeah yeah, and you're too slim because you have nothing to eat in the village"
They all bursted out laughing.
" We need to return Lee Nana. The Chief won't be happy with his if he finds out we went into the forest" he continued saying scared.
" Father won't even notice that we're missing and before he knows it, we'd be done fishing and back home. No one would know where we went to unless you tell anyone. You're fond of doing that" Nana replied.
" Are you going to tell on us tell tale or are you coming fishing with us? Which one?" Ji-Hoon asked
Min-Seok couldn't give a definite answer. He didn't want to seem like a coward before his friends and definitely not before Lee Nana whose face his eyes intermittently lingered on at intervals.
She was the daughter of the village chief while he was just the son of a woman who had escaped the famine of Joseon. Ji-Hoon was one too and had escaped with his mother to Jinsari before her death but he knew that he stood no chances against him.
While Ji-Hoon was tall and having the broad shoulders, 10 years like he was and with a pretty face that could be mistaken for a girl's, he was just ordinary or something less of it. With fat body and a fat cheek which made it almost impossible for him to run fastly the way Ji-Hoon usually did.
He couldn't compete with at anything and fighting for the Chief's daughter with him would be a fruitless effort considering how close the two had already become.
"But your father the chief has banned everyone from going far away from Jinsari, not even the bushes. You lost your necklace remember and we don't even know who stole it. Now we're disobeying your father again? That's not good" he continued to whine.
" If you're coming with us then you say it and if you're not, you turn back and return home and tell on us. I'm so tired of you Seok, you're always a killjoy" Ji-Hoon complained.
"We're just going fishing Min-Seok. If we catch one or two fishes, then we'd be on our way back to Jinsari. We've been fishing even before the necklace went missing and nothing happened. Father keeps telling people not to leave the village but they always return unarmed unlike how he makes it look like we'd be killed. If it's the punishment we'd be given you're scared of, then you can turn back and return home before my father notices that were absent" Nana said.
Ji-Hoon began to chuckle.
"You just gave him an avenue to runaway likes scaredy cat he is"
"So what's your decision going to be?" Nana quizzed him again.
He stood decisionless for a few seconds before he heard the footsteps of a man approaching and immediately walked up to rejoin them and they all continued walking, ignoring the footsteps they heard.
A man emerged from a bushy path and his eyes met with Lee Nana's gaze in an intensity that made her scared.
She immediately increased her pace, so did the boys by her side.
"You" the travelled stopped and said as he turned.
Kim Nana almost pissed on her pants out of fear.
He wasn't dressed like someone from Jinsari and he didn't look like one either, so his dressing alone made her reconsider if Min-Seok had been right asking them to turn back to return home.
They all turned out of courtesy to hear what the man had to say.
"Me?!" Ji-Hoon asked holding his chest and giving the man a questioning gaze.
He was the oldest by months in the group and thus, he felt it his responsibility caring for the others, especially his beloved, Nana who was dar younger than he was in age.
"No, not you. The lady with you"the traveller replied and is words made Min-Seok clutch the fishing spear he held tighter than it was before fearing the intentions of the unknown man.
"Me?" Nana said.
"Yes you" he continued and brought down his traveling bag made of clothes tied in a strap way.
He bowed at her feet and this action made Nana and her comrades more confused than they already were.
"I see the prophecy. I see her in you. The future empress of this great nation"
" Excuse me sir, I think you've seen the wrong person" Nana immediately replied and turned hoping to walk away from the confused and suspicious man before her.
" No child. You are the right one. You are her. The future I see in the prophecy. You will become the Empress of Joseon Dynasty. It is written in your destiny"
Min-Seok and Ji-Hoon exchanged incredulous glances with each other before bursting out into an uncontrollable laughter.
"Sir, we have no money to pay you for any readings. So please,if you will let us, we will like to continue with our journey" Ji-Hoon etched.
The man nodded his head in the negative, still looking at Lee Nana which made her more scared.
"I speak truths. You yourself will become something you never imagined you would. And she, she would carry the fate of many lives on her shoulders"
" Nana can't become an empress. There is no dynasty in Joseon, only Kingdoms. Besides,she is just the daughter of the chief of Jinsari, how do you want us to believe she will one day become and empress" Min-Seok asked, being acquainted with Joseon more than the others as it hadn't been long since when his mother came down to Jinsari with him because of the famine.
"Remember my words, they shall echo through time" the man finished and stood to walk away while the children still stood watching him leave before setting off on their journeys again.
*--------------------------------------------*
Dawn was quick approaching and Lee Nana had a hard time settling her mind.
She feared for her comrades, the punishments they would receive because they had wasted alot of time, even though she would receive double of them as the chief's daughter that ked them astray to disobedience.
What was worse was that they couldn't even catch any fishes. What excuse would they give her father who would ask for evidence of the fish they caught.
Ji-Hoon kept on looking at her and Min-Seok noticed how his eyes could not leave her even for a split second.
If there was anything like dying for someone else, Ji-Hoon would be he first person to volunteer to die for Nana, unlike him who would hesitate because of his mother.
He loved Nana so greatly,but sometimes he was also jealous of the adoration Ji-Hoon worshipped her with, it was almost as if no one else existed nor mattered before him except Nana.
"The village seems awfully quiet. I do not hear the giggles of the children nor the bleating of the goats in the pen" Min-Seok noticed and put forward, hoping his words would lift the quietness that seemed to want to engulf them.
" You're always noticing things, Min-Seok the fat" Ji-Hoon cajoled and Nana bursted into a laughter with him.
" She was always supporting him" Min-Seok said in his mind.
They passed the last tree that separated Jinsari from the village and could finally see their native Jinsari now.
Min-Seok didn't fail to notice something amiss.
"The smoke is bigger. The mother's won't be cooking anything that would require that kind of smoke"
"Can you keep quiet sometimes? What are you? One of the mothers to know that they can never need a fire with that kind of smoke?" Ji-Hoon shot back angry he was always finding faults all the time.
" No. Listen,do you hear anything? We're almost home yet no noises. There's a big smoke and there's this foul smell I perceive"
Ji-Hoon was getting ready to reply him when Lee-nana raised her hand and stopped him.
"Min-Seok is right. Something is not right!!!!"