APPLICANT #10

the runaway, jo yumin

He cannot contain his excitement. He is going to see her again after so much time – and even if it does not seem that much, for him it felt like an eternity. She is his savior, his way out. He misses her every day. As he is making his way to her house though, there is an unsettling feeling in his chest preventing him from breathing peacefully. He does not know what it is. Something is going to happen, he knows it. He opens the door of Jungah’s house, and his heart stops. He does not want to see her that way, tied to a chair, unable to talk, tears of fear rolling down her cheeks. He knows what is going to happen if he does not move quickly. He sees the way his parents look at him, how his brother smirks with an air of cruel happiness painted on his face. He knows he needs to move, to save her, to just do something. He does not hear himself beg, but his throat hurts enough for him to know he is screaming. But then, time stops as he watches his father coming closer to the girl he wishes to protect, he watches as the man that raised him takes a knife and puts it on . He watches as blood trickles down as the dagger cuts the skin sharply, precisely – the blade of an assassin. He has done that countless of times, for him it is nothing; for his son, the world is crumbling down. It is too quick for the boy to close his eyes and he knows the flesh was not the only thing this red dagger cut that day.

He had lost count of how many hours he had run. He was exhausted. He didn’t know where he was not where he was going even, he just knew he had to go on. Nowhere was far enough, anyway. His parents were trained to be assassins: they were trained to find the location of someone quickly enough for them not to notice it. No matter where he was, his parents could still find him. His legs hurt. His wrist hurt – he did not even remember that he had fell a few hours earlier. He sat down, he needed to eat. Collapsing would do him no good, so even if this short break could cost him his life, carrying on this way would get him killed even before his parents could reach him. Searching through his bag, he took out a few bites of dry meat he had stolen from the kitchen. While he ate, he took a look at his right wrist. The skin was red and had doubled in size. Now that the adrenaline had started fading away, he could feel the pain. He tried his best to wrap a few bandages around it, hissing at the pain, then stood up. It seemed he was still alone, but he knew not to get relieved too fast. After another minute, he took off again.

To be honest, he did not remember falling. The last thing he remembered was that he was in a small village and he had noticed big white walls a few miles away from here. Then, his vision started fading and everything was black. When he was waken up a few minutes -hours?- later, the first thing he saw was a kind face. He frowned, not recognizing the man, but it hurt too much to move. As if running without eating a drinking for hours was not enough, the beatings he had received from his parents a few weeks prior had not seemed to fade away. He focused on the man again and saw his lips moving. Was he talking? He could not hear. The man seemed to frown in turn and helped him sit before handing him some water. Somehow, Yumin’s senses did not seem to feel threatened and he drank without thinking, before looking at the man with a clueless expression.

“Who are you?” his voice was hoarse and as low as a whisper. Right. He had not used his voice for days. “Where is this?”

The man smiled kindly, “You are in Miere, a small village of the Kingdom of Luce not far from the capital. It seems you collapsed in front of my clinic. My name in Kwon Soonyoung and I am a physician!”

Soonyoung beamed at him and helped him stand up. Yumin let himself be taken into the clinic, where the older man auscultated him. He brought him some food and water when he was done, and started chatting while bandaging the teenager’s wrist with a disapproving stare.

“When did you break your wrist?” he asked.

”… Three weeks ago.”

“You should have gone to a physician as soon as you had this, it will take months to recover.” Soonyoung sighed, then smiled softly. ”There, all done. You need to be careful with that now. So, what is your name? Where do you come from?”

“I am Yumin, Jo Yumin, and uh-“ Yumin bit his lip and hung his head low. He did not want to talk about it. Just thinking about Noctis brought back bad memories. Soonyoung seemed to notice his discomfort.

“Well, then, Yumin, welcome to Miere! It seems you have been travelling for a while, judging from your tired look, so what about staying here a few days? I would also like to keep an eye on your wrist.”

Yumin looked up to Soonyoung, who was smiling. No matter how he looked, he could not seem to find any kind of mischief in those eyes, nor any sign that could indicate that this man was about to betray him. No, the only thing he noticed was kindness. Pure, genuine kindness. The boy found himself nodding slowly. Time would make him understand that staying had been the best decision of his life.

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