"Sungjong I can’t reach it! Stretch higher!" A small girl, cheeks blushed from her struggle to climb on the tree, urges on her best friend. She steps on his shoulders to get more length; two little children forming the height of an adult.

The other one, quite the fragile looking boy, huffs from exhaustion. He grumbles at how pushy she can be, and attempts to tip toe to gain higher momentum. Beads of sweat fluster his young face, obviously more than the girl’s, and honestly anyone walking by would’ve wanted to awe in complete adoration for the two! And at the highlights of their age, with all the chubby cheeks and their ambrosial baby voices, who wouldn’t want to just eat such delectable children?

A plump apple perching on the bottom of the flourishing tree stumbles on a low branch, taunting anyone nearby to try to reach it. In this case, two little children. The idea’s skeptical though, seeming that there’s a single apple tree venturing in a local park, especially in Korea, which is no where at all near the plantations of China or Western Asia.

"Nayoung, can’t we stop now? We’re too short!" Sungjong whines his little heart out, knees wobbling like jello. As a child, perfectly acceptable, he’s always been one to ask adults for help when he’s at any problem, and that is after all one of the many benefits to being a kid. Oh what he’d do now for a mature assistance!

"No, we can’t! Don’t make me tell my Mom about the time you ate my Popsicle without permission!" The more outgoing one threatens at her companion, eager to finish what they’ve started.

Sungjong gulps down her warning, pouting at his bad luck. It was a very hot day, and he had finished his strawberry Popsicle in a mere five minutes, while Nayoung barely started it! The burning weather made him more whiny than usual, and so the climate’s the one to blame for him snatching her Popsicle, not someone so innocent as himself! Sungjong groans at how unfair this situation is, knowing that he’d never live down what a small nuisance even this can be.

"Y-You wouldn’t dare!"

"Try me. Come on Sungjong we’re so close!" The adventurous child spreads her arms sorely longer, the exhilaration of grabbing hold of the fruit at the breach of her fingernails. She wiggles in delight at how close she is, making the boy below her grip her legs tighter in fear that she’ll fall.

"I don’t think I can hold on any longer, I’m tired and you’re stepping on my shoulders too hard!" And with that complaint, the energy of his little self drains all together and Sungjong cripples himself to the soft grass awaiting his head to rest upon. He exhales a sound of relief, glad that his job is over.

Nayoung screams at the top of her lungs, somehow gaining the wittiness to jump from impulse and she shoots her arm upward to snatch the apple. Right before gravity takes its’ toll, her fingers tug on the bottom of the apple and she can feel the stem break from its origin.

A cheer expels from before crashing on top of a poor Sungjong and the little girl raises her arms to keep the fruit in her hand from touching the floor, looking as if she had just won a medal and wanted to show it off to the world. She gets off her friend and the two of them admire such a gorgeous looking apple.

"It’s so red!"

"It might be poisoned!"

"Sungjong, don’t be silly. The skin’s so shiny! I’m gunna eat it." Nayoung wipes the apple with her shirt, ready to taste such a delicious looking fruit.

She gives a quick glance at a hesitant Sungjong and dives her premature teeth to the apple. A thought about the chance that the paranoid boy may be right, that the apple could be poisoned flashes through her options, but she shoos it away with a crushing bite. Her eyes widen when a taste sweeter than candy or even sugar itself flushes through and Nayoung jumps from the satisfaction of her sweet tooth.

The crunch she makes amplifies the two’s eardrums and even the young boy can’t help but rub his stomach in need. Nayoung offers a bite to Sungjong; the sun’s rays gleaming down on the fruit as if mocking him that he’s too chicken to eat it. Not wanting to seem like a wimp, the little boy has no choice but nod and sink his own teeth to the hard core of the apple. He gasps in amazement.

"It tastes so good right!"

"Oh no no no Nayoung! We’re gunna die!" Sungjong shrills, his hands frantically rubbing his tongue to get the savor off.

"Sungjong-ah! Stop acting like such a girl. I know that you want another bite of this apple." She sticks the apple right on his face to emphasize her point.

"What?! I know that you know that I don’t want another bite of this apple!"

Not wanting to lose, Nayoung chirps back, "Well I know that you know that I know that you do want another bite of this apple!"

The boy huffs a sigh and raises his head. "Well I’m gunna be the better person and finish the apple for you like a gentleman."

And without any idea of what they’ve now done to themselves, the fruit’s venom flows one with their pure blood—an everlasting serum bodied inside them where with every bite is a tank of more poison. Each split second becomes a chance for the virus to spread through their small five-year-old souls and wrench them ‘til death. But they simply throw their mouths into the desire for such a scrumptious looking apple, chewing it until it reaches the pit of their tiny stomachs.

How can an apple, something so above suspicion, turn into something so sinful? Had the two little children known what this harmless play could uphold, they would’ve never even think about walking by the fruit tree. Not a single thought.

But what’s done is done. They can’t take it back.

It’s the gift of immortality, the weight of inhumanity, and the strength of the indestructible.

The Poisoned Apple.

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Ah! i had trouble in deciding what sort of font I should use to make it better relatable to the story, and if only they had a size 15! I wanted to use 16, but I figured that it might be too large, and 14 (the one I'm using) seems a little too small TT__TT. Oh poowie. Anyway, hope you guys like how it's beginning so far!!!