Chapter 1.

Mark inhaled deeply and let air leave his chest 3 seconds later. He needed to do that, or he would lose his mind.

He retraced his every step. All the way back to the first steps he remembered taking across the bridge connecting his house and Ten’s. That was a happy memory, his mom and dad were still alive and Ten was bright and beaming. He remembered the very first time he ran across a branch and took his first leap to another tree. He wasn’t that high up. His father was at the lower branches and Ten was leaping from tree to tree around him to keep an eye on him. Mark clung onto the branches of the other tree. The feeling of being weightless taking his breath away and clinging to his legs.

  “Great job!” Ten cheered and joined him in the same tree. “Now, are you ready for another leap?”
 

Mark flew from tree to tree. Ten was crisscrossing along with him, always one above or one beneath. They were in perfect harmony. Ten stopped up to re-do the bindings on the sleeves of his shirt. They kept their clothes close to their bodies so that they didn’t get caught by branches. Mark reached to fix his own and fixed the leather gloves.

The sun was getting low. “Let’s go back!” Mark told the other and slammed his hands together, to get the blood flowing, before he ran off the branch and fell to one below. Ten was quick to follow.

He remembered the harvest festival, and how they drank spruce beer and ate braided sweet bread. The time the girl from three trees west of Mark’s house handed him a letter that he lost the same night and never got to read. Then his mother fell ill, and he forgot to ask her what had been in the letter. He remembered her olive skin, frizzy hair and green eyes vividly. How the glow of fire had settled on the high of her cheekbones. He wondered what she had written in that letter? Did she mourn his death? Would she fear him when he returned?

His dear mother had the most beautiful storm grey eyes that contrasted her name; Sunny because she was born during the Dry season. Her hair was dark brown and her skin paler than his father’s. She always said he looked like her but had everything his father had; black hair, brown eyes, and golden skin. His father was called Silver. Mark’s grandmother had loved silver and his grandfather was named Gray, so she wanted a name inspired by him. He died of the same fate. Killed by Wrous while defending Mark’s grandmother. She died shortly after Mark’s birth. He never got to know her. Only that her name had been Fir, and that his father always quoted things she had said. She had taken care of his mother when she was pregnant because she was young when she got pregnant with him. His mother had told him it was the happiest moment of her life. Becoming pregnant and having a healthy child was still a privilege. Therefore, they threw a party in the village and celebrated his birth. Only two other kids were born the same year as him in his village. One of them fell ill and died, the other was the girl who gave him that letter. Someone, he would probably never see again.

What if he hadn’t gotten the decease? What if his mother was still with him? What if she had died and come back?

 

One thing Mark knew was that she would never have allowed them to take him away. She would’ve come with him, she would’ve fought for him.

Her only wish in this world, was for Mark and Ten to find a place to call home and find people they could call family. “Family makes life bearable and love makes it magical.” She had told him when they were watching the stars together. It had been just her and Mark, but the words resonated within his soul.

And who was his family, now that he had lost her and his father?

It was Ten. The one who followed him to where he had been exiled to. The one who ran with him when danger came, who sealed his lips shut in order to protect Mark… Two others did too. Jaehyun and Johnny. They stuck with him and fought with him. Jaehyun trusted him and supported him even when Mark made mistakes.

Taeyong whom he had thought was his enemy was his friend and brother in war. Taeyong with his white eyes as bright as lightning started the wildest chapter of Mark’s life. He was the leader of their group before Mark gained the strength and confidence to take over. Taeyong was the sword, the fighter that didn’t back down before he had won. Taeyong was loyal. Loyal to Ten who he protected to the very end but failed to protect against himself.

Mark’s throat clenched shut painfully. Tears threatening to escape his closed eyes. The sound of the wires snapping off the walls and Taeyong’s body meeting with the floor of the lobby seemed to have integrated themselves in Mark’s body, he could feel it in his chest and shoulders and deep in his gut. Ten’s scream resonated inside of him as if he too had screamed Taeyong’s name, but all he did was watch the other fall.

That wasn’t even the first death he had witnessed in his life, but the first one where he hadn’t gone completely insane after watching it. His mind and body and continued as if life was normal and an important person hadn’t just been torn out of his life. His dad had left him empty and desperate. Hansol had left him in a dissociative state where he left his body behind. Se Hun