Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

4 Innocence

Around 16 years ago

"Akira!"

She turns around so fast, her lopsided grin never leaving her face as she looks at the person who called her name. She lifts up both of her hands and waves, happy to see her best friend coming over to her.

"Emira," she says through a pout, ready to make her daily complaints to her best friend. She pulls Emira so that she can sit together with her on the floor at their usual playing spot, hidden somewhere in the palace garden.

"What did Yunho do again this time?" Emira chuckles, her 11-year-old self a few inches taller than Akira, who's only 9 years old. Still, despite the three of them having a small age gap, they're the best of friends ever since they're children.

"Did you know what Yunho suggested just now? He said we should steal some of the cupcakes they just freshly baked from the kitchen, but I didn't want to. He was practically begging me to go take them because he said they looked delicious. But when both of us got caught!" Akira pauses as she opens her arms wide, illustrating the situation to her best friend, "He didn't want to admit that he was the one who wanted them. He put all the blame on me, then ran away!" She frowns, "Then I got scolded by Mrs. Krone, she wouldn't give me dinner."

Emira only has this small smile playing on her lips, listening to her friend run her daily complaints to her. "Then? Did Yunho leave you alone?"

Akira huffs before shaking her head. "He did run away at first but then he came back and gave me his dinner because he felt sorry it was his fault. Then he gave me candy, but I don't know where he got it from."

"He's just too afraid to own up to whatever he did, but as long as he admitted his mistake and apologized, both of you are still friends, right?" The older one tries to reason it out. With her being the oldest, she's always the one having to resolve any conflicts between them; Akira being the courageous, outspoken one while Yunho is the more reserved, cowardly friend.

"I guess," Akira traces shapes onto the soil, dirtying her fingers, but it's not like she can see any colours. Everything is just... black... white... and everything in between. "I mean, it's not like I have any other friends. I only have you and Yunho."

"One day you're going to make him cry for kicking him in the butt," Emira jokes. "You're always too blunt and scary, do you know that? Yunho is a soft boy, it's a wonder how he can stay friends with you."

Akira crosses her arms. "Well I guess that none of us has a choice, so we're stuck with each other." She smiles, "But Emira." She scoots closer to the older, holding her arm eagerly. "You like being friends with us, right? Even though both of us are only servants and you're royalty." There's no malicious intent behind her words, only an innocent child not understanding how severe their differences in ranks are.

"Of course," Emira replies, although slightly hesitant. "The three of us are best friends, and," she pauses, "nothing can change that. Not even our blood colours."

"Right?" The younger's face lights up. "So what's your favourite colour? Is yellow pretty to you? I want to know how the colours look because Yunho says they're pretty! That idiot said that his favourite colour is the rainbow because they're all pretty and he couldn't choose. What's yours?"

"Black," the older one decides. "I think that black is really pretty. The colour goes well with anything." She only keeps quiet with the fact that the younger's blood colour is black. She feels sorry towards Akira, how the latter is completely oblivious to the fact that her blood colour is black and not yellow. She should've told her, but that would mean going against her mother's orders to the whole palace to keep quiet about the child's blood.