“Grandma, tell us a story!”

Sara, Jiyoung, Junsu, Chris, Leeteuk, and I were sitting by the fire in a lodge.  My family had taken a vacation at a ski lodge this winter break and we were staying from Christmas till a few days after new years.  Sara was my sister and Chris my brother.  Jiyoung and Junsu were siblings, but they weren’t related to me.  They were Chris and Sara’s friends so they came along.  I invited Leeteuk to come with us as well since he was my fiancé.  Chris was dating Jiyoung, and Sara was just friends with Junsu, for now at least.  Sara was just a little shy, so her relationships didn’t start as early as others’ did.  I was actually younger than Chris but he didn’t want to get married yet.  He loved Jiyoung more than anything, he just had a few internal barriers to break down before he proposed.  Leeteuk and I were engaged for a year, since college was getting in the way of planning our wedding, and well… we were only 19.  We were high school sweethearts and he proposed at the beginning of our first year in college (after following me to college instead of going to college across the country).  This was our second year in college.  Sara and Junsu were both juniors in high school, and they were friends.  They met in sophomore year and have been just friends since then.  By this, I mean she is unconsciously friend-zoning him with her naivety. 

Along with us six kids, my parents and grandma were here as well.  It is our family tradition to take a big vacation over winter break each year, and each “kid” gets to invite one of his or her friends along.  This year, we were staying in a nice lodge in the mountains, with that “hunter’s den” feel and a huge fireplace in the lobby.  Scattered around the common areas were other small fireplaces and we were currently sitting at one.  It was 9 ish and we were tired after a long day of fun.  Leeteuk and I hit the snowboards hard, and the other four skied a lot.  At one point, Junsu and Sara hiked around in the snow some, and we were all wrung out from being so cold and wet all day. 

I gripped my hot chocolate tighter in both hands and tucked my feet under me, snuggling up to Leeteuk and trying to get warmer.  My eyes shone with longing and excitement, since my grandma was my role model.  She always told the best stories, ones that no one else ever told or even knew about.  Leeteuk tightened his arm around my shoulders and wrapped the fuzzy fur blanket around me, including me in his cocoon of warmth.  We were sitting on a huge armchair that fit both of us and was situated next to the fire.  Another, smaller armchair across from us held my grandmother.  Chris was sitting in one corner of a short red couch with Jiyoung’s head on his lap.  She was curled up with a blanket as well and humming softly while he her hair.  Sara and Junsu were sitting on the floor in front of the fire, leaning against the brick wall that was the beginning of the fireplace.  They had a blanket on their lap and they shared a cup of coffee.  Grandma grumbled and resituated herself while taking a sip of tea.

“Yeah? Which one?” her voice sounded like memories and time.  Sara piped up.

“The Legend of the wolf boy and the sad girl!!” she sparkled.

“Ahh, just like always my dear.  I think it is both of your favorite story, eh?” she said nodding towards Sara and me.  We smiled and nodded vigorously.  It really was my favorite.  Grandma looked into the fire and heaved a small sigh.  The flames danced off of the walls around her and her faced glowed in the fire light, making her look younger.  She started in a firm voice.

“There was a time in South Korea, when a little girl was born.  She had loving parents and eventually gained a younger sister.  She grew up happy in the city, but soon she came down with an illness.  Her lungs were bad and she had to take medicine.  It cost her parents a lot, but they still loved her.  She withdrew from school and began studying on her own, but her grades were bad.  She became very sad and soon, her father had a heart attack.  He left her and her sister and mother some money, but the very bad son of the business partner took it all for himself and began to covet the pretty, sick girl.  The family moved to a house in the country, bought by the bad son.  He liked controlling the girl and her family.  The girl was no longer happy.  On the first night of the new house, the girl heard something outside and became fearful.  She went outside and into the barn next to the house, but was knocked down by something.  Her mother came to get her, and they slept.  The next day, they discovered a wild boy near their new house.  He didn’t speak, but ate so much that they were shocked.  He was ragged and dirty, with long hair and scared eyes.  The mother wanted to help him, but the girl held him in disdain.”

All of us were enraptured by her story and our eyes stared off into space, not seeing the present, but stuck in a farmhouse in South Korea.  The fire crackled, Junsu put his arm around Sara and she laid her head on his shoulder.  A few others had gathered around our little fireplace and listened with rapt attention to the wise voice of my Grandma.  My eyes drifted shut and I snuggled deeper into my love’s arms.

“The mother brought him to their house cleaned him, and fed him.  He was like a loyal dog.  The younger sister started to play with him and brought him to play with her friends too.  The girl was interested.  She started… “training” him, and he listened.  She started smiling again and she taught him so many things.  They were enraptured.  The boy's eyes were captured by her and never looked away.  Her eyes were captured too, and her smile was more often.  She was happy again.  She taught him to write.  She asked him if he knew about snow.  She told him to learn how to read a book, a book about a snowman, so he could read it to her one day.  Their love was the purest form of love that has ever shown itself.  All of this love was built, when the boy uttered not one word.  He did not speak.  While the boy and girl fell in love, the bad son became jealous.  He did bad things and blamed it on the boy.  The bad son knew what the boy really was.  The boy was punished, and kept locked away like an animal.  One night, the bad son was in a rage, and let the boy out, convincing the boy that the girl was not in love with him.  The bad son told the boy that the girl would love the boy if he found her broken guitar.  He told the boy that an innocent family had the guitar.  The boy was single minded and began to search for the guitar.  To others, it looked as if he was attacking the family, when really he was trying to gain back the girl’s love.  But the girl never stopped loving him.  The villagers came with pitchforks and fire and tried to threaten the boy, but the girl, the sick girl, put herself between the boy and the angry villagers and said she would talk to him.  The bad son was furious and began hitting the girl.  She fell to the ground defenseless, yelling for the boy to wait, to stop, to be a good, nice boy.  But he grew angry at the abuse of his one love and he began to change.  The boy was a wolf.  The wolf attacked the bad son and killed him.  All the villagers were shocked, and the boy ran off with the girl in his arms.  He brought her into the forest and protected her.  She found out what he really was, he was a monster designed only to love her.  She didn’t care.  Her love still remained.  They fell asleep, happy in the brief peace they shared together.  When the sun rose, the girl was alone in her bed of leaves, and she heard the villagers looking for her.  She hoped the boy was safe.  She began to walk towards the sound of the villagers, but the boy was following behind her.  She cried.  She shed diamond tears of fear and sorrow.  She told the boy to leave, to not follow her.  She cried with an unparalleled sorrow, and her heart screamed a scream that has never been heard before.  She told the boy to leave.  The boy shed a tear.  The boy who never cried, shed a tear for his beloved and wished to stay with her.  He uttered two words, he spoke for the first time, in a voice soft with agony.  Don’t go, he said.  The girl and the boy cried more.  She hit him and told him to leave her, but he stood there, shedding tears.  The girl left and was found by the villagers, but the boy lived.  The girl and her family left the house, but before she left, the girl wrote something for the boy.  The girl left him a note, telling him to wait.  She left it in his room, his place of solitude, and as she walked out, she left a trail of tears in her wake.  She left the place and went with her family.  The boy returned to the house and found her note.  He listened to her and waited for her, waited without aging, waited and waited, learning, for her until she became gray.  Finally the girl returned to her house with her granddaughter.  One night.  One night was all she asked, one night at the house.  And when her daughter was asleep, and the world was quiet, the girl, the graying woman, went to the room of the boy.  Such was her anticipation as she placed her hand on the doorknob to his room.  Such was her hope.  She opened the door and such a sight befell her, she cried tears that had not been shed since she was a girl.  There sat the boy, waiting for her like she said, unchanged.  She told the boy to not wait anymore, and the 2 lovers embraced in a love more passionate than any kiss.  Such was the girl’s guilt of living while the boy was waiting.  Such was her sorrow of her age.  The boy spoke and the girl froze,  “The same.  Hands, lips, eyes, nose, hair, all the same.  You are so beautiful.  So much… I’m missing you so much.”  And the girl cried, and the boy cried.  Snow was falling outside, and the boy read the book.  The boy read the book to his love until dawn, when the spell was broken, and the daughter was awake.  The girl left again and as the boy watched her go, a single tear rolled down his face, holding a world of love and mourning.  Still the boy waits, not by her command, but by the command of his heart.  Still the girl visits, aging and loving the same as she did when she was a girl.  Time passes and things change, but never will the love of the wolf boy and the sad girl fade or whither.  It is the single strongest love in the history of time.  Such was the legend of the wolf boy and the sad girl.”  The last strains of the story stayed in the air the way a note does after a sad song.  I held my breath and stray droplets fell down my cheek.  As my eyes opened, I was met by the sight of a crowd of people gathered in this little corner of the mountain, listening to my grandmother tell the story of her life.  All those present, like me, had tears shining on their cheeks, and far away looks in their eyes.  Snow fell, and still the boy waited…

Thanks for reading!!!! :D I love you all!!! :) please comment! I don't think it is very good but i wrote it cause i love writing so... haha i hope you like reading it!! :)