Chapter Sixteen

~ Acceptance ~

The population in Gelo is less than that of the other cities in the Three Kingdoms. Some might think that being the only city that had managed to get free from the hands of Encian royal family, they would get more people but that is not the case. Gelo is a deadly city with its very cold weather. There was no electricity to keep them warm. There’s little to no food when a storm hits them. The only way they could get some was to travel to Bufera by foot — which they do occasionally for the food but also for the gossips — or hunt down ferocious lions at the icy mountains.

It was Elder Kim that kept the number of Gelan people from dwindling more. She was a healer and a leader. The idea of making everybody live together in a big community was hers — pooling their resources together to lessen the mortality rate. It was a proof of her intelligence, a characteristic that her grandson doesn’t enjoy very much.

“It’s nothing, Ma. I just burned myself by accident when I was building a fire on the mountains.” Xiumin lied even though he knew it was useless.

“By accident?” the old woman scoffed. “That scar is shaped like a flake.”

It does look like a snow flake, but his grandmother need not to know that. Why did he even think that she wouldn’t notice it when he removed his gloves? Of course, she’ll see it. She may be old but her eyes are sharper than his.

“Did you do it to yourself, eh?” Elder Kim probed. “Thinking a burn scar is better than ink?”

“What? No!” he denied. “It was an accident, Ma. Why don’t you believe me?”

His grandmother snatched his right hand. “Let me have a look, then.”

He stayed still, watching as she looked at the scar intently. It was on the space below his index finger and thumb. She touched it with her finger and frowned. A look, which Xiumin had started calling ‘Ma’s thinking face’ when he was a child, descended on her face. She poked at the scar more before letting go of his hand.

“Have you been trying to connect to, um,” she paused, “Spirits?”

“What made you think that?” he said in shock. “And no, I’m not.”

“That scar wasn’t from an ordinary fire, Minseok.” She called him by his given name seriously.

He knows that already. But how did the old woman know that?

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” she narrowed her eyes at him.

“None,” he lied again. “I’m not hiding anything.”

She pinched his side. “Don’t take me for a fool, boy. I’ve known from the day you were born. I was the one who pulled you out of your mother.”

He rubbed at the place she pinched at. Even with all the layers of clothing, it hurts. “What are you talking about, Ma?”

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