04

THE TEXTILE PROTÉGÉ

“Argh!” Seungri grunts while inspecting his white cloak which had torn on left sleeve. He wouldn’t fret about it if only it’s not his favorite robe that was knitted by his late mother herself.

He paced back and forth while brooding helplessly on how he will fix the cloth. He is muttering a series of phrases such as ‘Oh No!’ ‘Cannot be’ and ‘Ottokae?!’ in panic. He doesn’t know how it happened but he just found out that there’s a huge hole on the armpit area of his cloak.

“YAH! Stop fussing and pacing around! You’re making me dizzy!” he heard his Top hyung yelled.

Seungri turns to their hyung like a pregnant woman while he complaints.

“Hyung!!! Ottokae? My cloak is ruined! What should I do?” he cries out.

“It’s just a cloak, maknae. Buy another one then. Just stop whining like a kid who lost his lollipop and spare me with your ranting,” the older guy said nonchalantly while massaging his temple.

“HYUNG!” Seungri exclaims in horror hearing such words from Top. “I can’t just buy a replacement. This cloak is specially made for me. It has sentimental value. My late mother knitted it just for me only. How can you say such cruelty?” he added frantically.

Top, on the other hand, massaged his throbbing temple even firmly. Seungri knew that his whining makes his hyung frustrated and aggravated.  But he does not care for that moment. All he cares about is how he will able to mend his problem. Though, he noticed that Top looks troubled as soon as he entered the house.

First thing first, what is he going to do with his favorite cloak?

“Aish! Don’t be a sissy over something as petty as such thing. You are giving me a headache. Do you know that? And just for this time, shut up and use your brains for once. Go to a textile store and ask them to repair the damn cloth,” Top said through gritted teeth when he guessed Seungri wouldn’t ease down.

The young lad stops purring and beams at Top as if he just cast a miracle upon him.

“Oh God! Hyung you are such a genius! Thank you!” he cheers up and embraces Top in delight much to the latter’s dismay.

“Ugh! Get off me! You are disgusting human being!” Top grumbles while trying to tear off his arms around him.

“You know I love you hyung, right? Saranghae oppa!” he kids.

Top feels revolting shivers down his spine and quickly pushes Seungri away from him. He feels goose bumps forming from his head down to his toe.

The two continues goofing around when Jiyong and Taeyang entered their house in deep discussion. They are too serious to notice them.

“Tomorrow find her immediately, Taeyang. I have a guess she’ll be our lead to find the other Priestesses,” the two heard Jiyong say. Their ears perk up with interest. “The sooner we find them the better, we only have few days before the festival,” he firmly stated to Taeyang.

“I got it, Ji. I’ll find her first thing tomorrow morning,” Taeyang nods while removing his cloak.

Top and Seungri looks at each other perplex.

“What are you two talking about?” top breaks his silence and curiosity asked.

“What about the Priestesses?” Seungri chirps.

“Jiyong and Taeyang share a knowing glance and then look at them. The leader sighs while folding his cloak.

“We can’t say that we really find one. But for now, we already had a hunch,” he started.

“How?” Top asked.

“While we are roaming around, we came across or the right term was I bumped into her. She is a young girl for that matter. And when I touch her, I felt something with her,” Taeyang supplies what happened earlier.

Top and Seungri look at each other.

“And you assumed that she’s a priestess?” Top mused as he raised a brow.

“No. however, Taeyang and I decided to keep an eye at her. Who knows? She may be the one or she may be a lead?” Jiyong shrugs. “The bottom line is, she’s something we should watch out for,” Jiyong interjects.

“So I will be spying on her tomorrow. If our hunch is correct then we can finish this mission as soon as possible. We still need to go back to the Heaven and Earth Temple. Daesung is expecting us with the Priestesses,” Taeyang added.

“But how can we do that, hyung? We don’t have the means to know the Priestesses unless the right time to unleash the powers will come. And I believe that it will be on the festival according to Daesung,” Seungri pointed. “Are we going to wait for that time?”

Yes and No, maknae, Jiyong responds seriously. “Yes, we will wait for the festival to unleash their powers. No, we won’t be waiting for that time to make a move. While we are waiting for the Blood Moon which is the same day as the festival, we will keep our eyes to that girl. I have the feeling she’s our key to find the other three Priestesses,” he adds.

Seungri nods in understanding while Top was thinking deeply. He is contemplating whether to tell them about the Herbal Doctor that he found suspicious as well.

“What’s the problem hyung?” Jiyong asked noting how Top frowns.

“Huh?” he answers in lost.

“You’re frowning. Do you have anything to say?” Jiyong noted.

Eerie silence follows as the three looks at Top curiously. They wait for him to speak.

“Hyung just spill it. What is it?” Jiyong coaxes him.

“Um…” he mumbles then clears his lump that forming on his throat.

“You found something, haven’t you?” Taeyang said as matter-of-factly.

Top sighs defeated before he confessed.

“The other day… I helped someone. We… we bought her child to the Herbal Doctor because her child was ill,” he started.

“And?” the three said eagerly.

“The Herbal Doctor… I felt something to her. She is…I don’t know. I just felt unusual power with her,” he finally said.

“You mean… she’s a possible candidate too?” Taeyang asked.

Top nods.

The four of them fell quiet pounding everything they just encountered recently. So far, they got two possible candidates maidens as the Priestesses. Both Taeyang and Top felt atypical to both ladies. It must be mean something.

“Okay! Therefore we have two persons to watch over. Taeyang is in charge with the young girl while Top hyung , you keep eyes on the Herbal Doctor,” Jiyong orders.

“Neh!” both lads agreed.

“What about me, hyung?” The maknae chimes in.

“You and I will search for the other two, of course!” Jiyong rolls his eyes at him obviously.

********************

TOWN’S TEXTILE

Seungri read the placard in front of the store. Just like what TOP said, he went to the town market and search for a textile store as soon as the morning came. Holding his cloak he entered the store as the door’s wind chimes made a sound.

The store is not big but enough for the five sewing machines to fit in. many huge textiles in different colors are scattered on the table and floor. Bunch of seven clothes hang displayed in the corner. There are also displays worn by three mannequins.

The whole place seems busy. Only the sound of the machine can be heard. The tailors looked up at him and stop what they are doing for a second. Well, expect for one.

An old man stood up from his machine and approached him. He looked at him through his spectacles.

“What can I do for you, young man?” he asks.

“Um… Do you do repairs here?” he answers.

The old man nodded.

“Great! Um… here.” He gives him his cloak. The latter accepts it. “There’s a huge hole on the left sleeve, on the armpit. I hope you can mend it,” he added.

The old man spreads the cloak to check the problem. After that, he turns to one of the tailors there which is the person who ignores Seungri’s presence. The one who’s oddly the only woman working there.

“Yah, Chaerin-ah!” the old man calls out.

The woman looks up revealing her small cat-like eyes. She had platinum blonde hair and she wears a ragged dress that was fitted on the upper part but flows freely down to her ankle. Her open robe overlaps the dress up to her boots.

“Neh?” she says leaving what she was doing for a moment. She momentarily glances at Seungri then back at the old tailor man.

“Can you do his cloak? It has hole right here.” He shows her the part where is the hole located. “It’s a minor problem. Our hands are full already,” the latter added softly.

“Oh, okay! I can handle that,” she said while getting the cloak from him.

“Thanks, Chaerin-ah,” the old man said and gets back to his own work table.

Chaerin nodded and turns to Seungri.

“It will takes few minutes for me to finish this. You can get back later if you don’t want to wait,” she said with non-committal tone.

“Uh… arasso,” he reluctantly answered. He hesitated first and looked at his cloaked longingly before deciding to leave.

“Psh. It’s as if I’ll ruin this,” he heard her snickered before he is totally gone.

********************

Chaerin is known as the Textile Protégé. The only woman who works at the tailoring shop. She can make a sack looked like silk with her magical hands and creative fashion sense rolled into one. She’s definitely an item.

And it’s another busy day in the Textile. They’re a bit understaff with orders piling up so they have to double their work time.

She was focused on the dress she is currently making when the talk she had with her sisters the other night flashes her mind. She suddenly became conscious with her birthmark on her clavicle. It feels surreal but she can feel warmth at the same time. She doesn’t know how or it’s just an imagination but she heard a low animalistic wild roar.

She furrowed her brows in bewilderment. Did she… did she really heard it right? It’s impossible that the sound came from her birthmark, isn’t it? That’s absurd.

Chaerin’s trail of thoughts was interrupted when she heard her boss called her name. She looked up instantly leaving her job for a meantime. She noticed a man standing beside her boss probably a customer. The boss asked her if she can take the cloak to fix for the newly arrived man. She takes it and told the man that it will take her few minutes to mend his cloak. She suggest to him to go back later after she finished it.

She saw some hesitation from his eyes though he said okay. Somehow she felt offended. He clearly didn’t trust her to do the work right. That’s a big blow on her pride!

She is Chaerin, the textile protégé! Sewing and dressmaking is her forte. She is the best in the town when it comes to fashion and textile. That’s a no-no to her. She will prove to this guy what she is made of!

Does he not know who she is? That’s a shame then.

But come to think of it, the lad isn’t familiar to her as well. He must be a tourist then or a traveler who happens to visit their small town because of the festival. Yet it doesn’t give justice to her.

“Psh. It’s as if I’ll ruin this.” even before she could think, she already blurted out her infuriation. She doesn’t have any idea if he heard it, though, since he already left.

She is pissed off by the guy’s doubt in her capabilities. She doesn’t like the feeling at all.

So she gets back to her work station and work on her newly assigned job. She scrutinizes the white plain cloak and crinkles her nose in disgust. She really can’t stand seeing plain and dead-looking clothes.

“Aish! That guy dares to give me a doubtful look as if I’ll ruin this ugly cloak of him. Huh! Let’s see,” she mumbles bitterly.

And then she began knitting the cloak that only takes full ten minutes for her to finish. She smiled smugly at the result of her work. The old white cloak is good as new. However, the guy is not yet coming to get his cloak so she put it to the side first and focus on her other works.

The lad doesn’t show up yet after an hour. She is starting to wonder where he must be gone to keep this long. She even thought that the cloak is precious to him. Too precious to entrust to her. She scoffs and looks at the white cloak.

It really bugs her to see how plain it looks like. It’s as if the innocent clothe is begging her. She is really tempted to remake it. To at least add some character to the old looking poor piece.

“He wouldn’t mind, will he? I just want to add some work into it. It’s too plain. Beside he should thank me for free charge,” she said can’t resist the temptation. She grabbed the cloak and starts fixing it.

After a while, she smiled while nodding at her work. The old and plain white cloak transformed now. Chaerin put some sequins on the front and sleeves making it look alive, not just plain. The sad feeling she had while looking at it was gone and replaced by satisfaction.

Just then, she heard the wind chimes made a sound indicating that someone entered the door. She looked up and saw the same guy earlier. However he’s not alone anymore. He is with another guy who had annoyed expression on his face.

“I’m sorry if I just came back now. Is my cloak finish yet?” he asked her.

Chaerin nodded and handed him the cloak which she wrapped with brown paper.

“Thanks. How much?”

“That costs ten bronze coins,” she responded.

The guy nodded and paid her with the same amount.

“Don’t you want to check it?” she asked. She wanted to see his reaction to what she did.

The latter stills for a while then smiles at her eventually, before tearing the wrapper. Chaerin looks at the man before her expectantly. However, it looks like the lad didn’t like what he saw. He drops his jaw as soon as he got the glimpse of what she did with his cloak. He was shock in a bad way. She saw his eyes turns to slits as he clenched his jaw this time.

He looked at her with anger in his eyes.

“What have you done?!” he yelled angrily at her.

“What? I just did my job,” Chaerin answered warily. “Why is there any problem?” she added.

“Problem? You are asking me that? Look! Look what you have done with my cloak!” he raised his voice while shoving the cloak on her.

“Seungri calm down,” his companion said as he tries to reprimand the latter.

“No. Hyung, she ruined my cloak!” he shot back while glaring at her.

“I did not! In fact, I fixed it. Look it doesn’t look plain and sad anymore!” Chaerin explains emphasizing the word ‘fixed’.

Seungri strides towards her with heavy foots step. His face is red in anger. He narrowed his eyes at her as he reached her.

“What did you say?” he said dangerously.

“Seungri!” the guy behind him shouted to stop him.

“Don’t stop me, Jiyong hyung. This girl is insulting me,” he said seriously mad.

The man named Jiyong sighs heavily.

“Maknae-ah… I understand but try to be calm and talk to her,” he softly reasoned out.

“I am insulting you? When I ever do that? Correct me if I’m wrong but between the two of us, you are the one insulting me,” Chaerin defended herself.

“Ha! You deserve that. I, on the other hand, did not deserve this kind of service. You ruined my cloak. You put this trash which I did not ask you to. Because of what you did, I felt insulted and offended!”

Chaerin flared up. How dare he call her effort a trash?!

“Seungri…” Jiyong tried to interfere.

“How ungrateful!” Chaerin remarked harshly. She snatched the cloak from him and grabbed the scissors on the table.

The two men widens their eyes in shock watching her forcefully removed the sequins on the cloak. She almost ripped the entire cloth. After she made sure everything were removed, she turns to Seungri and throws the cloak at him.

“Are you happy now? If so get out of here and never come back!” she yelled and turns her back at them before they can say anything. She fisted her hands on her side as she fumes.

“YAH!” she heard Seungri yelled at her.

“Seungri enough! Let’s get out of here,” Jiyong stopped him and drags him out forcefully even before he can do severe damage at the store.

Chaerin exhales loudly once they are out. She really can’t believe that guy. After all she did, he’s not happy? She just hopes it will be the first and last time they’ll meet.

ARE YOU STILL ALIVE? DEFINITELY 2017 IS OUR YEAR :)