"You are bound to him as he is now bound to you.

                   From today, you are no ones, but eachothers."

T E N

"Mama," Little Jinki whispers.

 "Do I really have to get married?" The woman at his feet, loosening and tightening the laces on his best pair of shoes, looks up at him. She sighs as she brings her hands up to fix a loose strand of her child's hair. "Jinki, darling, you're not getting married. You are getting bound. It's a good thing, a happy thing." She smiles heavily, blinking away as her son raises more questions. 

"I know but. . ." He quietens down even more, "He's a guy, isn’t he? The one I’m getting bound to?"

The woman stays strong, daring to look back into the child's innocent eyes. There is only so much she can explain about this. 

"Well, you wouldn't want to get bound to any sneezy old girl now would you?" She laughs dryly, “He’s a good one, he picked you." She fibs.

Tears stream down Jinki's young face. "I would—if —if she was like you." The woman instantly pulls her son for one last hug. Even though her efforts of combing his hair one way is ruined, and the poor fabric he wears crumples and folds, as his mother, right now, she has the right not to care.

"I don’t want to go away, I don't want to be bound, I —I don't even know him!"

His screams are muffled into her shoulder, right now Jinki wants nothing more than to suffocate here, right now, in his mother’s arms.

'You're not going away," She coos, "You'll come back, today is just your celebration." She regretfully lets go of her embrace and glances into her son's tear filled eyes. As heart shattering as it is, this is the time they live in; this is the fate that is cursed on them. She has to bear with it, he has to, because in the end, they are the nothing but the unfortunates. 

"Listen, Jinki. Jinki I love you very much. But you know, i know, that here, you have to do this. We don't have the skills that the people in Main City have Jinki. So you have to promise me, that you'll try your very best to make it out there and when your age comes, you have to move in with him. You have to provide for him, as he will provide for you. 

You have to keep him safe like he'll keep you safe.

You have to love him Jinki, love him much more than you love me."

Jinki screams and shouts, tears pour out of his eyes as he chants," No, No, I will never! No, no."

The woman finally stops, stops being strong, stops being proud, and lets her own tears fall.

"Please Jinki, please. Forgive me, please do this! It's the only way, it's the only way."

She falls at his feet and Jinki's little heart breaks into pieces at the sight of his mother like this. 

It is up to him now.

Just like any other unfortunate child, he has no other choice.

A man, most likely from Main City, taps Jinki's slender shoulders in the most subtle way.

As Jinki dries his eyes and spins around, he manages to catch a glimpse of another boy, maybe a little older, dressed a little better, on the other side of the worn out curtains.

 " Lee Jinki of 2024 and Kim Jonghyun of 2022's bounding will now commence.."