A few days later, when Sungmin returned to the forest, the boy was still at the exact same spot that he had seen him the previous day.

This time, Sungmin brought him a pineapple candy.

It was a pineapple, cut into four pieces, then dipped into honey and air-dried to sweeten the fruit. As all pineapples had a natural sour flavour, covering the fruit with honey could cover the fruit with a layer of sweetness. First, a person would feel all the sweetness of the honey on the outside, then taste a little bit of sourness and crunchiness of the pineapple. It was a feeling that Sungmin had always loved and could never forget.

"Pineapple candy?" The boy had asked him in a moment of surprise.

"Yes, do you like it?"

The boy only shrugged at him.

"It tastes very nice! It is sweet on the outside, then once you bite into it, it has both sweet and sour flavour! It is my favourite food at the market!"

The boy raised one eyebrow at him.

"I thought pumpkin pie was your favourite food?"

"That too." Sungmin smiled brightly.

The boy returned his smile. 

"Besides," Sungmin continued, "pineapples feel kinda like you. Thorny on the outside, sweet on the inside."

These words caught the other boy by surprise. But before he could say anything in response, Sungmin already started on another subject.

"So, what do you always do in the forest?"

The boy did not seem to have an answer for him. 

Somehow, Sungmin had gotten used to the silence every time he asked him a question. 

Next to him, there were a few small branches from a nearby which had fallen to the ground on the previous day. Sungmin picked them up in a moment of boredom and built a small house from the branches. When he saw that the house could stand firmly on the ground, he picked up more branches and built another story for the house. Next to him, the boy started to notice his little game, and began to join in. He picked up a few branches and leaves from the ground and expanded the foundation for the house, creating a much bigger mansion.

"That's cool!" Sungmin exclaimed cheerfully.

The boy smiled pleasantly.

They continued to build the mansion to be much bigger and taller until it became too tall, and the branches and leaves all fell down on the ground again as if an earthquake had just hit the forest. 

"Oh no!" Sungmin looked at the branches and leaves on the ground nostalgically.

But the boy stared at the mess on the ground as intensely as if he was staring at what was left of his childhood. All that was once so glamourous and beautiful fell apart and was destroyed in just a blink of an eye. Without notice. Without a warning.

 "Hey," Sungmin called out to him as he was beginning to get lost in his thoughts again, "come with me".

As soon as he finished speaking, Sungmin dragged the boy to the nearby stream, where he jumped right in despite it being in the middle of winter.

Sungmin ransacked the bottom of the stream for a while. Then, when he was finally done, he brought up three stones, each as big as four of their palms altogether.

"People say the stones in this stream are magical. Take three stones and pile them onto each other. They will create a portal to Heaven, and a God can descend from Heaven to grant you three wishes."

As Sungmin finished speaking, the three stones were also placed neatly onto each other. 

"Put your hands on the stones like this."

Sungmin instructed as he himself put his hands on the stones and whispered his three wishes.

"My first wish is for my parents to forever be healthy and happy. My second wish is for there to any be anyone living in poverty in Joseon ever."

As he finished whispering the first two wishes, Sungmin suddenly opened his eyes to steal a look at the boy standing next to him.

"And my third wish," he smiled brightly as he continued to whisper, "is that one day, I will get to know this boy's real name."

The boy widened his eyes in surprise. He had not expected that Sungmin's third wish would be about him.

"Your turn", Sungmin spoke up again after he was finished with his wishes.

The boy slightly shook his head.

"I have never heard about this myth."

"It's not a myth!" Sungmin objected. "And you have never heard about it because you are not from here."  

"I live in Hanyang too." 

"But you are not from this area," Sungmin argued again. He was not about to admit that he had made up this whole thing just to make the other feel better. "Come on, try it."

The boy stood for a while staring at the stones on the ground. They looked perfectly harmless, but for some reason, at the moment, he suddenly felt a weight lifted off his shoulders. Something was drawing him towards the stones, and he suddenly closed his eyes. 

If he was granted three wishes, what would he wish for?

No, he did not need three wishes. He needed only one, and if that wish ever came true, he would never have to wish for anything else. Ever.

But when he opened his eyes again, his wish had not come true. 

"Wishes are not for vain dreamers," Sungmin spoke softly as he read the look on the boy's face. He smiled brightly, "as my mother always said, they are a goal for you to aspire to."

He had not known it yet, but that smile and those words would forever be ingrained into his mind. Like the teachings of a God to his followers. He would take them all in as if they were his own religion. And, on these darkest days of his life, maybe he had found a little lifesaver for his drowning self. 

"Come one, let's go to the market!" Once again, Sungmin pulled him out of his endless thoughts and dragged him out of the forest.

The market near the Lee residence was more crowded than usual.

On the main street, groups of people holding farming and gardening tools as weapons were rallying and chanting something loudly. Sungmin and the boy stood on the side of the road and watched them from a distance. This was the first time that they had ever seen such a commotion at the market.

As groups of people continued to pass by, there was a name that appeared constantly among the protesters.

"Hey," Sungmin turned to the boy to ask, "do you know who Minister Jun is?" 

Sungmin had not noticed, standing next to Sungmin, the boy began to shiver uncontrollably. His fists clenched together tightly, and Sungmin could hear his teeth grit loudly.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Sungmin asked with a clear concern in his voice. He was about to say something else when he saw the boy widen his eyes in surprise. Sungmin turned to look in the direction he was looking. A group of city guards was approaching the protesters, but it was clear that the boy was only looking at one person.

"What's the matter? Do you know him?"

Sungmin had not even finished his questions when he saw the boy dash through the crowd of protesters to get close to the guard. On his way, he picked up an axe someone had dropped on the street and held it tightly in his hand. In his eyes, Sungmin could see clearly an unspeakable rage.

"Hey!" Sungmin tried to call after him in a sea of people with all kinds of movements and noises, "Stop! This is dangerous!"

But the boy was already on his way and out of his reach. 

Sungmin quickly followed him and made his way through the sea of protesters. Occasionally, a few protesters unknowingly bumped into him and pushed him to the ground, but Sungmin quickly picked himself up and navigated his way to where the boy was heading. There, a tall and thin guard was marching towards the protesters with his troop. As quick and unexpected as a wind on a summer day, the boy dashed toward the guard and aimed the axe at him. Luckily, the axe only hit his arm. The guard immediately turned to look at his attacker with a look full of anger. A guard next to him kicked the boy away from them, which led to him falling roughly on the ground nearby.

"Little prick," said the injured guard.

The guards were about to approach the boy for a further examination of the culprit of the attack when they heard a sharp "Stop!" from another direction. As they turned around, all they could see was another young boy, standing with a solemn look on his face. "Do you really want to hurt a five-year-old boy?" Sungmin said firmly.

As he got closer to the guards, they could see more clearly the well-dressed boy standing in front of them, which made them stop in their step immediately. It was obvious that Sungmin was not from a commoner family, and guards of their ranking would not dare to think about the consequences of hurting a child from a noble family. But the thin guard's rage had seemed to cloud his judgement. He continued to turn around and began to kick the boy lying on the ground.

"Stop it!" Sungmin continued to shout out to him, but he seemed to ignore his every word.

Seeing that the guard had no intention of stopping, Sungmin quickly jumped onto his back to prevent him from further hurting the other boy. The guard struggled for a minute with the weight on his back which restricted his movements. He tried to throw Sungmin down, but his arms wrapped tightly around his neck like a hungry anaconda wrapped around its prey. Finally, the guard found a tall wall nearby. He pushed Sungmin into the wall with all his might. 

"Stop!" 

This time, Sungmin heard the boy's voice as sharp as a knife.

But Sungmin suddenly felt an excruciating pain in the back of his neck. Everything around him suddenly went dark. His body felt like it was flying. As he slowly fell to the ground, the boy's voice was still echoing in his ears, although he could not figure out what he was saying. Before he knew it, he already had fallen into one of the deepest sleep that he had ever had.

~~~~~

When Sungmin opened his eyes again, the sight of his room gave him an extremely cozy and comfortable feeling.

His head was still hurting. He used one hand to slightly touch it. It had been nicely dressed with bandages and medicinal herbs. 

As Sungmin looked around, he could see a bowl of medicine and another with light congee in it. His parents had obviously been in here taking care of him. He lied down on the mattress again, trying to remember what had happened and who had brought him here.

The door to his room was suddenly creaking, and Sungmin saw a small figure quickly getting inside before quietly closing the door.

The room was only dimly lit. The figure sat next to him and put a bunch of flowers with a sweet scent on the table. Sungmin could not see the colour of the flowers clearly, but he knew, it must have been something from the forest.

"Hey," as soon as Sungmin spoke, he realised that his voice was still hoarse from shouting at the guards the previous day, "are you okay?"

The boy only stared at the bandages on Sungmin's head.

"How... did I get here?"

"I... carried you here."

"How did you know where I live?"

"There's only one Lee mansion in this area."

Sungmin widened his eyes in surprise, then nodded his head. Even though his family had moved to a more remote area of Hanyang, their reputation was still significant. It was not difficult to search for a noble Lee family in the whole area.

"I'm so sorry," Sungmin heard the boy speak up again, "you got hurt because of me."

Sungmin shook his head, "it's not your fault. Are you crying again?"

"No."

"Crybaby." Sungmin smiled at him. "So, who was that man yesterday, the guard who you tried to attack?"

The boy shook his head relentlessly. In his eyes, Sungmin saw again the rage and hatred that he had seen in the other boy's eyes when they first saw the guard at the rally.

"He's just a very bad person.  He hurt my parents."

Sungmin's eyes widened in surprise.

"He hurt your parents?"

The boy nodded without an answer. On his face, grief and sorrow had slowly replaced the rage and hatred that once were present.

"Did it... feel good when you attacked him?" Asked Sungmin after another long silence.

The boy was surprised at his question. And even though he did not understand the point of the question, he gave a straight answer off the top of his head.

"No."

"Exactly," Sungmin continued, "Confucius said, 'before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves'. Revenge is never a good idea. If you're gonna do something, do it out of justice, not revenge."

The boy listened carefully to every word like a student listened to his teacher. Somehow, he had also felt that the boy lying before him was not a five-year-old boy, but a wise man in old age. He was suddenly reminded of his father, a man with so much wisdom and vision ahead of his time, and who had never yelled at him once even when he made the biggest mistake, but always took the time to teach him right from wrong. At that moment, he suddenly could think more clearly than ever, and his mind was made up on what he wanted to do with his father's name. He wanted to say something else to Sungmin, but the other had already closed his eyes peacefully.

The scent of the flowers had started to spread throughout the room. 

Before anyone could find him there, the boy quietly made his way out of the room, and into a different wing of the Lee Mansion.

~~~~~

It took Sungmin a month to finally recover from his injury and be allowed by his parents to get out of his bedroom for a walk.

Once again, he made his way to the forest, to the clearing where he and the boy had met the second time and always spent time there.

This time, when Sungmin arrived at the clearing, there was a pumpkin pie placed neatly under the shade of a large green tree. Next to the pie, a pineapple candy stood peacefully, as if the two had always been an item and could never be separated.

Under the pumpkin pie, folded in half, was a letter written carefully.

"Dear Pumpkin Pie,

I have to go to a place far away from here. Hanyang is a dangerous place for me, and I have no one here to protect me. Not anymore. Thank you for accompanying me these past few days, and thank you for your words when I was in my darkest times. I finally know what I want to do with my life, or more importantly, what I have to do. Just like you said, revenge is never a good idea. So I promise I will never do anything as stupid as what I did that day again. Instead, I will become a much better, much stronger person to seek justice for myself. I hope we can see each other again one day when I have already achieved my goal.

Until then, take care of yourself.

Pineapple."

In the wind, the scent of pumpkin and pineapple blend into each other, creating a new food in a forest full of trees.

Just like the boy, Sungmin had suddenly found his calling among the million possibilities that he was given. Joseon was still filled with injustice and misery, and powerful people could easily use and harm people of lesser status and the powerless. The boy was just one among hundreds of thousands of others, and Sungmin could finally see clearly that as soon as the class system in Joseon still existed, people would still suffer from these injustices and poverty. He was determined to put an end to this and change Joseon for the better. And maybe when he finally did it, he would have the chance to see the boy again.

Sungmin folded the letter as it was and put it safely in his pocket. 

That year, spring seemed to have come earlier than ever before.