thief (of my heart)

-VI-

"First posture. The way you position yourself into is important," Jisoo carved an 'X' to a tree nine steps away from the cat-eyed girl. "Draw an imaginary line in your head. It should go from yourself to the target but the important thing is that it goes across your feet. Hold the bow and your shoulder to the target."

Jennie pursed her lips, held the bow up with her left hand and pulled the string with the other one. Since this bow is a recurve bow you don't need as much power to to pull the string.

"Place your feet shoulder-width apart." Jisoo instructed, eyeing Jennie's posture. "You need to stay firmer, I want to see your body form a 'T' shape."

Firm posture? Pft. That was like breathing for a princess. Is shooting that easy? Without much trouble Jennie straightened her spine, staying as straight and solid as a soldier on a parade. Then she lifted her chin slightly, thus stood upright and perpendicular to the carved spot on the tree.

She remembered countless lessons with the maids where she learned proper manner and posture at all times. She had to walk around with books on her head until it was time to sleep, learnt to eat correctly, meaning which of the different forks and spoons she uses to which time, bowed in perfect angles and had to choose her words carefully. If she made a mistake more books were added to her head. In the very beginning she messed up a lot and ended up with ten books, it was very hard to walk with them and she didn't manage more than one step, so she stayed glued on her spot until the sun set and it was time to sleep because if they fell down more were added.

"Perfect!" Jisoo beamed surprised. "Now do that again but this time pull the arrow out of the quiver and attach it to the string. Pull back the string using your shoulder muscles."

Jennie did as instructed, her sharp shoulder blades and collar bones immediately catched Jisoo's eye. They might be sharper than the metallic arrowhead, she thought. Although her biased mind must be speaking.

Her back was straight, her knees were apart as she pointed the arrow to the ground to attach the back of the arrow to the string with two fingers before she pulled it to her face as wide as she could to increase accuracy and form the 'T' shape.

"Use 3 fingers to lightly hold the arrow on the string. It will make your grip on the arrow more firm and allow better control."

So she added a digit to the string. A fourth finger was added when she used her thumb to support the back of the arrow, for it to keep straight as she had problems not to have a wavering aim. The second she managed to stay firm again she pointed the bow to the target.

"I can't help you aim. It's mostly instinctive. All I can tell you is to point the head to the target and choose for yourself if you look with both or one eyes." Jisoo sat on the ground, leaning against a tree behind her to watch over her. "When you are ready, just let go."

Jennie chose to keep both eyes open. She pointed the head above the 'X' and relaxed her fingers on the string, breathing in and breathing out before she released the arrow.

She missed. It didn't even hit the tree. She looked deflated in response.

Jisoo on the other hand didn't share that reaction. "Good start."

"What leads you to such a conclusion?" Jennie threw her a quizzical look. "I completely missed."

"Yeah you did," Jisoo nodded. "But that release was beyond clean. You only have to work on your accuracy and for that you solely need practice to get the hang of it. How firm you press the bow against your fingers, how wide you pull to let the arrow pierce the air, how high you aim to hit bullseye, you just need to feel it. You'll master it in no time, I'm convinced."