Jiyong woke up in the middle of the night, feeling thirsty. At first, he tried to ignore it but he was unable to keep up to it. He grumpily climbed out of bed, rubbing his eyes irritably. He went to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.

 

He was on his way back to his room when a cold wind swept the place, making him shiver. He looked around, wondering where it could have come from. In doing so, his eyes chanced upon the curtain being gently blown by the wind. He must have forgotten closing the window being graced by the curtain. He grumpily walked towards it, planning to close the wretched window. He does not really care less about opened windows but after what happened to the lady meat vendor’s house, he could not risk leaving any part of the house opened. Just as he was about to pull close the window, a shadow moved outside. Sensing it, he leaned closer to have a better look. Everything outside seemed so quiet and dark. He glanced up at the sky and saw the dark cloud covering the moon. Somehow, he was fixated at the cloud when another gush of wind blew it away. The moon came back to view. As he straightened up, something very pale and smooth greeted him, making him yelp and jump backwards. If he was fainthearted, he could have screamed already. With the way his heart’s beating inside his chest, he would have said he’s having an episode of anxiety attack. The brown orbs suddenly blinked, bringing him back to his senses.

 

Slowly, his heart calmed down upon recognizing the girl standing motionlessly outside his opened window. He sighed in relief and stared at the girl. Her already tiny face looked even smaller with her bushy hair carelessly left hanging. Everything around her was dark; she was even wearing a black dress that her blankly pale face stood out like a sore thumb. One would think that there’s a head floating in midair.

 

“Hey” he cleared his throat, getting closer back to the window. “What are you doing here?”

 

She tilted her head to the side and blinked. Without saying anything, she held her hands up. Jiyong looked down and saw a wooden frog. He lifted his eyes back to her face. He was not so new about girls showing him some affection and admiration but there was something different about this girl that made him uneasy instead of being flattered. But aside from that, he was not able to hold down the amusement bubbling up to the surface of his head. Suddenly, he felt so strangely wide awake.

 

“Wait there” he told her and went back to his room to put something decent on. On his way out, he grabbed a jacket hanging carelessly on the rack. He made his way to the door and out of it. He gave a little shiver upon feeling the cold air hit his skin. As he looked sideways, he saw the girl still motionlessly standing on her spot. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she was a statue.

 

He walked up to her and cleared his throat again. The girl then turned sideways and blinked at him. “Aren’t you cold?” he asked.

 

“No” she answered.

 

“Oh, I see” he quietly nodded. “So. . . is that for me?”

 

She did not say anything. Instead, she wordlessly shoved the wooden frog on his hands and started walking away.

 

“Hey, where are you going?”

 

“Cottage” she answered without looking back.

 

“But – hey!” he called when she started running. He ran after her, feeling rather stupid for doing so. He hissed under his breath upon seeing the impossibly fast girl up ahead. “Hey, hold up for a second!”

 

The girl suddenly stopped and turned to face him. “One second” she said and turned away again. She was about to start running again but Jiyong was able to grab her arm.

 

“Are you playing?” he panted, being over to catch his breath. “Just. . . don’t try running off like that again, will you? You’re giving me quite a race”

 

“You look tired” she drily observed.

 

He was not sure if she was mocking him or she was simply being stupidly honest. He lifted his head to him and looked for any signs of mockery on her face. However, her face remained blank. He slowly straightened up and let go of her arm. He wasn’t really known for being a patient person but the girl’s a mystery to him that he subconsciously desired to unlock the person behind that eerily blank and beautiful face. “Why did you run off like that?”

 

She just blinked at him.

 

“What on earth is wrong with you?” he irritably demanded.

 

“We should sit” she said instead. “You look tired”

 

Without waiting for his response, she went on sitting on the concrete ground with her feet outstretched in front of her. She glanced up and focused her eyes on the moon up in the sky.

 

Jiyong had the urge to hit or punch something. The girl’s weird - that is pretty much established. The way she appeared in the middle of the night with a wooden frog on her hands then running off like a madman added up to that. “How did you know where I’m staying?” he asked.

 

“The moon looks different tonight” she said.

 

Jaw clenching, the lad could only sigh. He should have known better than to have a serious conversation with her. “It looks the same for me”

 

“No” she said, shaking her head. “It isn’t as white as before. It is partly yellow tonight”

 

He felt stupid sitting in the gutter in the middle of the night with a girl who seemed to be interested with the moon than having a serious and sane conversation with him. A lot of things came to his mind that he wanted to ask her but thinking that she’ll give him out-of-the-topic answers, he thought otherwise. As silence stretched between them, his senses somehow caught the things going on around him that he would not notice from the place where he came from. He used to find the chirping noises annoying but now that he had no other things to listen to, he welcomed it. He could even hear the crispiness of the fallen leaves being blown by the wind or the soft whispers of the swaying branches. He wondered if he could truly last in this kind of environment. Honestly, his resolve was slowly dissolving, he was afraid that any day from now, he would find himself running back to his parents.

 

“You are new here” she broke the silence.

 

“I am” he said, glancing down.

 

“You should not have come here” she said. “You should go back to where you came from”

 

“I can’t do that” he chuckled bitterly. “At least not now or tomorrow or the next day or next week”

 

“I do not understand” she earnestly stated, her head tilting to the side.

 

“You wouldn’t so there’s really no use explaining it to you”

 

“You sound bitter and angry” she observed yet once again.

 

“Oh yeah?” he chortled.

 

“Yes, you are” she nodded. “Human emotions are so easily recognizable but very confusing and hard to understand”

 

Jiyong watched her face and wondered hos she was brought up to make her look so black, even talking about emotions like they were foreign to her. Maybe the blankness contributed to the reason as to why people or men in particular overlooked her beauty. Or maybe because her beauty’s so unearthly that it somehow gives the impression of being eerily unnatural. The girl would have caused chaos if she was in the city and IF she was properly groomed. Unlike her appearance, she smelled quite decently – a combination of damp earth and water lilies. He shook his head and looked down again.  “You speak like you’re not a human being yourself”

 

“I only questions human emotions, not being one”

 

“Emotions are only part of the more confusing life” he said. Unable to help himself, he laughed lightly, quite not believing those words came from his mouth. “I guess you being ignorant about it make you luckier than me”

 

“I do not believe in luck”

 

“What do you believe in then?”

 

She blinked at him. “I believe that if there is life, there is also death”

 

“Trust me, everybody believes in that sort of thing”

 

“You speak so differently from my mother”

 

“Maybe you should try talking to other people aside from your mother” he returned. “You might be surprised with how normal I sound to be”

 

“My mother said people are not to be trusted. They are corrupted”

 

“Most of US are” he agreed. “And if your mother did believe that, why did she let you come here tonight?”

 

She did not say anything.

 

“Your mother knows you’re here, is that correct?” he asked.

 

“No”

 

“You sneaked out?”

 

“Yes”

 

“Why?”

 

She tilted her head to the side. “The wooden frog”

 

“You came down just to give me the wooden frog?”

 

She just blinked at him again. Should he laugh? Should he be annoyed? His curiosity for the girl was slowly turning into annoyance. How ignorant and ridiculous could one person get? But can he blame her? She was obviously brought up differently.

 

“You should return to your place before the night of the disappearance of the moon and the stars from the sky arrives”

 

It was his turn to blink blankly at her. First, he couldn’t quite decipher the meaning of the words. Second, it was probably the longest sentence she said in one go. “What do you mean?”

 

“Leave this place before the darkness eats the moon and the stars”

 

He grew more confused. “I honestly cannot understand a word”

 

She stood up and looked down at him with fearfully blank brown orbs. “Leave; and you shall be saved. Stay; and you shall be cursed”

 

“You’re not making sense” he frowned, getting to his feet. He patted his bottom to dust off the dirt. “What-? Hey!”

 

He does not have the patience to run after her anymore. He just stood there and watched her fade into the shadows of the night. Nutcase – that’s what she was. He his heels and headed back to the house.

 

Sleep evaded him as his mind tried to work out the girl’s words. In doing so, he remembered he does not know her name yet. As time ticked past by him, he finally surrendered making sense of her words. His body and mind then succumbed to sleep.

 

 

Meanwhile, Sandara arrived back to the cottage in no time. She quickly went to the comforts of her blanket on the wooden floor and held the wooden figure of the smiling young man. After staring at it, she set it back beside and blinked her eyes closed. Unknown to her, a pair of eyes was watching her from somewhere in the darkness. Something intense filled the person’s eyes while a silver dagger rest silently on the person’s pocket.

 

 

 

 

Morning came quite peacefully. Sandara attended to her usual chores before heading to the tree at the field to pass time. Her mother was not that well yet so she let the old woman take her rest. Something was odd with the wind but as usual, she did not pay heed to it. With her legs outstretched in front of her, she stared blankly ahead and wondered if she could go down town later in the evening to see the young lad again. She was not so sure how long it would take him to believe her warning but she perfectly made it clear to herself that she would continuously see him to warn him and make him leave the town. The young guy was a stranger to this town, he should not be counted as one of the townspeople whose ancestors had wronged their Mother. His ignorance of the past events could be made as an excuse to exempt him as to what is about to come.

 

She jumped to her feet upon seeing a familiar figure from afar.  She ran through the thick jungle of straw grasses while keeping her eyes on him. Upon reaching him, she blinked countless times. “I told you not to return here”

 

“Well, yes. . . .” he stalled. “But I remembered you haven’t told me your name yet”

 

“I do not know your name either”

 

“I didn’t tell you?” he mumbled mostly to himself but Sandara heard it so she shook her head in response. “I’m Kwon Jiyong. You can call me Jiyong”

 

“Jiyong” she repeated blankly.

 

“Yes” he nodded. “Can you tell me your name now?”

 

“Sandara” she blinked.

 

“Sandara” he smiled, surprised with how beautiful it sounded in his ears. “It is a beautiful name”

 

“You should leave now” she said and turned away.

 

“Are you really this. . . blank?”

 

Sandara just went on her way, not minding the guy trailing behind her. Jiyong, who got a bit offended and annoyed, sighed in exasperation. He tried to calm himself down first before going after her.

 

“Sandara!” he called.

 

“You SHOULD leave” she repeated, suddenly facing him. “It is not right for you to linger here. My mother shall see it wrongly when she comes about. I shall meet you later instead”

 

“Later?” he ushered. “Are you going downtown tonight? What time? Hey!”

 

He was far beyond being annoyed. But he can’t understand why he always finds himself wanting to see her. He reasoned out that it was mere curiosity. Maybe when he finally figures her out, he’ll wander away from her. He stood there wondering if he should follow her or not. She said she’ll meet him later but where? How? And what time? He can’t tell what’s going on in her mind or why she wanted to meet with him. If she was any of those girls, he’d say she was asking him for a date but no, Sandara’s very different.

 

Impossibly different.

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the day went on. As the night descended, Sandara patiently waited for her mother to fall asleep so she could go downtown and meet with Jiyong. She was sitting by the window, gazing up at the sky when she felt a presence behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw her mother.

 

“I received a message” the woman said. “Hurry, we are needed in the forest”

 

“There is problem” she concluded.

 

“It seemed likely so” the other nodded. “Come”

 

Sandara could sense the tension charging the forest air.  Surprisingly, it bothered her so. It was odd for her to feel the way she does for she never felt anything like that before. With her usual quietness, she kept it to herself. She never saw the need to tell her mother for what she feels seemed illogical and irrelevant at the moment. She does not know why there were called but hearing the urgency in her mother’s voice, she could say it is not one of their usual gatherings.

 

Upon reaching the clearing, Sandara immediately picked out the noise of a sobbing girl in a hushed and muffled way. But she kept her head and eyes straight on as she and her mother went to join the line at the very front. It seemed like they were the only ones the others were waiting for because right after they joined the line, their leader and speaker spoke up.

 

“We gather once again unexpectedly tonight, my brothers and sisters” he said. “This gathering burdened me for I have grave news to tell everyone” he paused. He looked at his brothers and sisters one by one. “It has been known that a sister of ours betrayed us. This sister has been part of our family for a long time, so as her mother and her mother’s mother. Our sister has deliberately disobeyed one important rule. And that is making contact to a man living downtown”

 

A chorus of disapproval brushed along every mouth except for Sandara. Her eyes were fixed on the bounded girl. She knew her. The girl was two years older than her.  Sandara knew the girl’s mother, too. In fact, the said mother was standing beside her. She tilted her head to the side and let the words of their leader sink into her brain.

 

“She just not made contact to the said young man but she befriended him and alas, loved him! But she can be saved” the leader went on. “She can be saved if she declares repentance and swears to never commit the same mistake again. She can be spared if she sincerely and genuinely return to us with all of there is for her to give. She can be redeemed if she could bring the young man she had confessed her love and devotion with here in the altar. She can be welcomed back if she can sacrifice the young man to our Mother, if she can willingly offer his life to our Mother through her own hands”

 

The leader went to the girl and took the cloth off from .

 

“Mother!” the girl cried. “I love him. What’s so wrong with loving someone?”

 

“Declare your repentance and I shall acknowledge you as my daughter. Offer the young man to our Mother and I shall embrace you with warm arms” her mother said.

 

“No!”

 

“You are no daughter of mine!” the woman then hissed. “Traitor!”

 

“Sister” the leader softly said. “Declare your repentance. State where your loyalty lies and you will be spared”

 

“How do you expect me to take the life of the person I love?” the girl demanded. “This is not right! How can I be so forbidden to love when our Mother fell in love with a young man from the town it-!”

 

SLAP!

 

The leader turned to face the others, looking very sad and weary. “Bring her to the table” he waved off. “Her betrayal has far gone. It cannot be tolerated anymore”

 

Murmurs of agreement rented the air.

 

The silver dagger was once again brought out. For the second time, the leader went in front of Sandara and knelt down. He held his hands carrying the dagger to her, offering. “The honor is yours”

 

Sandara blinked and took the dagger. The hilt felt familiar yet foreign to her. Upon reaching the table, she looked down at the girl. “You betrayed us”

 

“No” the other shook her head. “I just learned of the word love”

 

“But we love our Mother”

 

“It is a different thing”

 

“So different that it will bring you death” Sandara said.

 

“I accept my fate but please save him. Save him, I beg you. Do not let them hurt him. Do not let THEM control you Sandara, my friend”

 

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