The sun was just about to rise in the east as Jongin left his rugged, wooden cabin. The forest floor had a makeshift dirt path that lead right into Fable Town from the heavily wooded area. Jongin would like to think that it was his sole masterpiece as he was the only one who lived in the forest, on the outskirts of the town. In reality his friends were constant and daily visitors to his humble little home so they were probably a big factor as to why the packed dirt path will never grow any type of plant again.

Jongin whistled a merry little tune as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and strode down the small decline to town. It was the dawn of autumn upon the small town, the leaves not yet changing colour but the cool morning air more prominent than before. Jongin caught a falling leaf in between his thumb and pointer finger and stuck it behind his ear. It wasn’t as romantic as a rose but Jongin prided himself on his great imagination.

As Jongin passed the first building in town, he caught sight of Sehun wiping down the windows on the front door of the diner, getting ready for another day.

“Hey Sehun, when are you going to let me chop those lovely locks off your pretty little head?” Jongin called out with a smirk.

Sehun turned to face Jongin, rolling his eyes in the process.

“Not until my dead body is being prepared for burial,” Sehun retorted.
“But even then, you better not because I will come back to haunt your sorry ,”  he said with a sniff, patting his intricately woven locks comfortingly. The bird’s nest, as Jongin put ever so delicately, was so long it almost reached the tops of the other boy’s thighs.  It was a wonder how Sehun could even hold his head up probably.

Jongin let out an obnoxious laugh as he continued along the main street to his destination. He greeted Baekhyun with a cheerful wave which the other boy returned as he brushed the fur of the golden retriever in front of him. Baekhyun runs the local animal shelter and it is a great delight to all the townsfolk. Baekhyun treated all the animals lovingly and they in turn behave well for him. Many of the townspeople visit the shelter often to help Baekhyun or simply play with the animals.

Joomnyun was busy restocking the shelves when Jongin passed by the general store. Grinning to himself, Jongin snuck up to the doors, unnoticed by the busy man who had his back to him. He then opened the doors abruptly and yelled “BOO” at the top of his lungs. Joonmyun flailed exaggeratedly, knocking down the row of chips that he had just shelved. Jongin ran away cackling before Joonmyun’s angry hands could warp around his throat.

Zitao was just about to unlock the doors to his hardware store when Jongin called out to him with a cheerful hoot. Zitao just nodded back to him, obviously not awake enough to respond with more energy. He opened his door and shuffled in, the store flooding with light as Zitao flicked on the switch.

Before Jongin reached his own destination, he passed by Minseok who was ringing up the cashier in the small open market.

“Where’s Yixing?” Jongin asked after the two properly greeted each other.

“Oh, he’s grabbing our fresh supply of apples in the back. They’re in season now so we were up late picking them from our trees,” Minseok replied, counting a few bills before storing them away.
“Noted. I’ll drop buy later and pick some up,” Jongin said before waving goodbye.

Finally, Jongin got to the front doors of the barber shop. He turned flipped on the light switch, illuminating everything in the shop. The lone barber’s chair was neatly facing the large mirror on the left side of the room. Jongin’s scissors were placed on the small ledge below the mirror, beside the magazines that he kept there for any customers.

Jongin typically spent most of his days drawing in his sketch book or dozing off in the barber’s chair. With Fable Town being a small, close knit community, not too many people showed up to get their hair cut every day. For the past few years Jongin came up with multiple ways to entertain himself. Sometimes he would go to other places and bother his friends when he knew that he would have no hopeful customers that day.

Today, like any other day, Jongin did a quick sweep of the already spotless floors and re-arrange some of his supplies before he picked up his scissors. He examined the blades closely and saw that the edges were slightly dulled from multiples uses. He walked to his back storage room and grabbed his sharpening block before running the blades across the charcoal black rectangle.

As he sharpened the silver blades, his thoughts began to wander elsewhere. His whole lifetime was spent in Fable Town with the same few people going through the same old routines every single day. But for the multiple years that seemed to have past, Jongin didn’t feel like he aged at all, and from the looks of it, neither did his friends. It troubled him at times when he tried to remember his childhood. The more and more he tried to think about it, the more confused he got because all he got was a blank screen. There were no happy childhood memories, no thoughts about his childhood friends or even his family.

All he knew was the fact that he had been living in Fable Town with the people that could very well have been his childhood friends and that he had no recollection of the past. The thought of not being able to remember bothered him more in the past but he had learned to accept that maybe that kind of information was not relevant in a town like Fable.

Jongin frowned at the blade he was sharpening, brow furrowing. He stared at the increasingly sharpening edge as he ran it across the dark block back and forth, back and forth…

--

Jongin whizzed through the trees, tattered shoes slapping against the branches as he hopped gracefully from one to the other. He whooped loudly as he held up a large pouch of gold, running a bit faster as he heard angry voices and loud clattering behind him.

He nimbly wove his way amongst the branches and leaves only slowing down when the loud voices and clanging decreased in volume. When he knew he was completely safe, he stopped running for a bit, stopping on a branch high above the ground to catch his breath. The adrenaline was starting to wear out and fatigue started to kick in.

When his heartbeat started to even out again, he set off again, falling into a slower trot as he neared a clearing. In the midst of the clearing stood a tall tree with an extremely large trunk, evidence of the many years it has been alive in the forest. Atop of one of the larger branches lay many planks of wood that were fashioned into a rather impressive tree house. There were rickety windows and a small door that had a small lock on the inside.

Weary, Jongin made his way inside of the house, making sure to lock the door behind before collapsing on the floor of the surprising spacious tree house. Setting his bow and quiver, Jongin messily dumped the contents of the pouch onto the floor.

Satisfied after counting 30 pieces of gold, Jongin put all the coins back into the pouch and hid it in a hole that he carved into the branch, located under a small floorboard of the tree house. Looking outside his window for any imminent threats, Jongin saw nothing but masses and masses of never ending trees.

Sure that no one would discover his tree house anytime soon, he took out his arrows and examined their small blades. Some of them were getting dull so Jongin took out the decently sized rock that he found a few weeks prior to the date and he started to sharpen one side of the arrow. Back and forth, back and forth…

--

Snapping out of his daze, Jongin looked down sharply at the scissors and block in his hand. His motions had stilled as the sudden memory had taken him aback. What was THAT? Jongin thought, staring at his own reflection in the mirror. It was so vivid that Jongin could have swore he was inside someone else’s body if not for the fact that he somehow KNEW it was himself.

The only problem was…Jongin never experienced anything like that in his life. Where did the memory from?

A/N I tried so hard to make the first chapter long but it's NOT LOL. I am also still cackling at myself for giving Sehun dreads. IMAGINE DREADLOCKS ON OH SEHUN'S HEAD OKAY? /slain. Anyways, which fairytale do you think Jongin is from? If you think you know, leave it in the comments haha (this one is pretty obvious tbh) And you have any speculations on the other characters in this story (some hints were already given out) feel free to guess which fairytale they're from as well. I'm probably not going to deny or confirm your answers though because I don't want to ruin anything. As always, if you enjoyed this story, please upvote, subscribe for more and comments to show me that people actually like this story! Thanks a bunch, see you in the next chapter!