Beauteous [ˈbyü-tē-əs] adj. - Beautiful, especially to the sight

A small smile graced itself onto Mihyun’s face as she stared at the swaying tree branches through her car window. The slight breeze blew cherry blossom petals away from their mother branches as they took the first steps to an unknown destination. The tall stems of grass waved to Mihyun as she drove by, and she would have waved back if she didn’t want to be ridiculed by the other occupant of the car. The world truly had so much to offer.

The world was a beautiful place.

The car turned an abrupt corner, and Mihyun’s brief smile quickly disappeared as the sights of nature vanished to be replaced by a series of large gray buildings.

It was the people living on it that were ugly.

Mihyun tore her eyes away from the window to instead stare at her hands that were resting on her lap. She didn’t want to see what the world had to offer any longer, because those things, were anything but beautiful.

“Are you excited?”

Mihyun’s gaze lifted itself from her lap to transfix on her father who was sitting across from her.

“Are you excited?” he repeated, assuming that Mihyun hadn’t caught his earlier words.

Not at all. “Very,” Mihyun’s soft voice answered. Her father seemed pleased with her short reply, and turned his happy gaze out the window. Unlike Mihyun, he appreciated the sights that he saw; after his 40 years of living, he had already become immune to the indecencies life had to offer.

The corners of Mihyun’s lips twitched downwards as she stared at her father with disappointment. He would always treat Mihyun with great care and generosity, and she truly loved him for it. She just wished that he would treat everybody the same way he treated his precious daughter; it was a wish she knew that would never be granted. Her father was relatively young in age, but the gray in his hair and the wrinkles on his face had intensified from all the stress that had built up over the past years. He was a successful business owner, and with success came worries and problems. Despite the aged features of the man’s face, he could still pass off as relatively handsome.

In Mihyun’s eyes, however, he was ugly.

Today was Mihyun’s 16th birthday, and as a reward for being the best daughter anybody could ever wish for, Mihyun’s father decided that she was finally old enough to follow the customs of the upper class.

She was finally mature enough to receive a Noye – a slave.

“We’ll be arriving in a few minutes, and you’ll finally get to pick one out,” her father spoke again. He smiled fondly at his beautiful daughter. “You can bring him to school and brag to all your classmates since they probably won’t get one for a couple of more years.”

Mihyun nodded, and her father’s smile broadened. Mihyun wasn’t one to speak much, and it was one of her qualities that her father loved so much. Mihyun was generally pretty perfect. She was polite, quiet, respected her elders, a highly intellectual student – the dream child that any parent would want.

It was customary for children to receive a Noye from their parents on their 21st birthday as a gift for their maturity, but Mihyun’s father decided that it wouldn’t hurt to give Mihyun her’s a few years earlier. After all, she deserved it.

The car came to a stop, and so did Mihyun’s heart. She hadn’t prepared herself for the horrifying sights she would soon see. Her father, on the other hand, laughed merrily as the car door opened for him to step out. “Come now, daughter.”

With her fists clenched tightly at her sides, Mihyun slowly stepped out of the car behind her father. Before she could even get a glimpse of the ugly people around her, she quickly trained her gaze on the ground.

“Ah, you’ve arrived! We’ve been waiting for you all day! This is the birthday girl, I presume? She’s beautiful!”

Mihyun took a quick glance at the person who had praised her before averting her gaze. Hideous.

“Thank you, Woosung,” Mihyun’s father laughed as he clapped the man merrily on the shoulder. “Let’s give the birthday girl her present as soon, as possible, alright? Please us to the hallways.”

Mihyun cringed at the word. The hallways. Mihyun had never gone through the hallways herself, but she knew what was done there. It was there that Noyes would be lined up to be chosen, each of them attempting to be on their very best behavior due to the fear of not receiving dinner if they weren’t.

“Come, Mihyun,” her father called out. He then followed his words with a light scold, “Don’t just stare down at your feet. You have to be polite and greet the others.”

Mihyun hid her small fists behind her back and smiled up at him, nodding her head in response. She turned to what she assumed was the owner of the Noye house and bowed. “I apologize for my rude behavior.”

Woosung seemed momentarily surprised at her mannerism and laughed merrily. “You’ve raised your daughter perfectly, Chando!”

Mihyun’s father beamed proudly, and he placed a hand on the shoulder of his daughter. “I must have saved Korea in my past life to have received a daughter this perfect.”

The group of three soon arrived in front of a set of grand, wooden doors, and Mihyun quickly inhaled a deep breath.

“Here we are! Choose carefully, Mihyun,” Woosung showed off his yellowing teeth as he pushed a bright red button to open the doors.

It was horrible.

It was absolutely horrible to see all those faces staring back at her. They weren’t ugly faces, not at all, but they weren’t beautiful either. Mihyun suspected that once upon a time each one of those faces radiated valiant beauty, but after being tainted by the ugly aspects of humankind, they lost their shine. They were now blank canvases with tinges of hope and anguish painted across their features.

Mihyun stood frozen in front of the row of Noyes, and her chest constricted in pain once she got a glimpse of just how long that hallway was. It all got even worse when she was suddenly met with a chorus of broken voices.

“Welcome, Master Mihyun.”

“Well, Mihyun, go on. Make sure you choose carefully,” Mihyun’s father stated as he gave her a gentle push.

Mihyun stumbled a few steps forward, and her tight fists flew to her chest as a way to put up with the pain. The hopeful faces that stared at her engraved themselves into her mind, and she blinked several times to get rid of the tears that flew to her eyes. I wish I could take all of you. I wish I could take all of you and let you all free. I’m so sorry.

Mihyun hadn’t gotten any farther than midway through the hallway until the sudden sound of a slap caused her to jerk her head upwards. She stared straight ahead to see a worker of the Noye House standing in front of one of the Noyes with an angered expression on his face. The worker had silky blond hair that sat perfectly on his scalp. His eyebrows had been perfectly plucked, and his doubled eye lids accompanied his large eyes nicely. His moist, bow shaped lips contrasted to his defined jaw line. To others he would have been considered as handsome, prince-like, almost.

To Mihyun he was hideous.

“Jaemin!” Woosung barked angrily, embarrassed that his valued customer and his daughter had witnessed such a sight.

Jaemin’s head shot up, and he opened his mouth to shout angrily at the person who dared to spout his name in such a scornful tone, but stopped once he saw Woosung. “Father!” he called back with a smile.

Mihyun mentally scoffed. Of course, like father like son.

“Did I not tell you earlier that we would be having valuable guests today?” Woosung scolded as he gestured to Mihyun and her father.

Jaemin’s eyes turned to Mihyun’s father before resting themselves on Mihyun. She quickly became uncomfortable with the man’s intense gaze, and shifted her gaze to look at the Noye Jaemin had just attacked.

He had a childish face and possessed doe eyes that were too large for his small features. There was a large red imprint on the side of his face, and Mihyun wanted nothing more than to permanently tattoo a similar feature onto Jaemin’s cheek.

“I apologize, father,” Jaemin stated, not sounding very sorry at all. “Sehun was mouthing out again, and seeing as how he doesn’t seem to care about blows to himself, anymore, I decided that he might shut his mouth if his precious hyung wa