𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃、𝗆𝗂𝗒𝖺𝗓𝖺𝗐𝖺 𝗄𝖾𝗇𝗃𝗂

꒱.✧ 感激 ;; rain, rain, go away

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Have you ever heard the story of how his majesty, the imperial sun, loses its ability to cry? It is said it was because the moon forbade them to do so. The people need light so his majesty must not cry, for it only brings darkness and heavy flood down the earth. It is not fitting for a King to frown upon their people. As a leader, he shall stand above and lift their face smiling and never falter.

Kenji remembered this story. It was you who told him about it. He was lying on the grass with you during the dead of the night. Both of you were staring at the stars for hours. The boy was relieved he found this forest glade when he was roaming around, gathering for firewood.

"Sometimes," Kenji turned his face to you, averting his eyes away from the starry sky. "I wished my father returned here so that I could personally throw him off the cliff."

In Ihatovo, when one commits crime, villagers tie them up and throw them off the cliff. You weren't so sure if your father was qualified to be a criminal. It wouldn't be a crime anymore if he returned from the city, would it? For him to be the cause of your mother's grief is a crime that not anyone is allowed to declare it illegal.

The sun-colored boy thought about what you had shared. And all he could think about was that maybe they were right. Just as Kenji heard from your mother, both of you were too young and that a pair of fourteen-year-olds create foolish dreams. But in his defense, adults - like those like your mother - were too unforgiving. It scared him how such despair can change one person in a span of time. Because if that's what happened to your mother, then would it be of you?

Your dreams were denied and yet here you are, enviously staring at the stars almost as if you're bound to make another one again. He watched your eyes imitate the light from the skies, masking the expression of sadness, morphing it into some kind of unreadable thought. Somehow, it made you look like you're okay. But Kenji knew you weren't.

"I have a few rare antiques at home. We can barter them so you can leave easily." Kenji offered it to you. You were surprised at first, eyes staring back at him, before you composed yourself and declined.

"I won't be leaving anymore." You told your friend.

"But don't you want to know what happened to your father? About what kind of life he has today?" Kenji had this painful look on his face when he was talking to you.

You shook your head, feeling the grass behind your hair as you moved them left to right. "Of course I would like to know that. In fact, I'm dying to go to the city and search far and wide to look for him." You admitted. "But the longer I thought about it, the more I feared that I would become like him one day and never come back. I only leave my mother in grief as well. I don't want to commit the same mistake that my father did."

Kenji looked back to the stars. He is now unable to draw words for him to comfort you.

But what he doesn't know is that you appreciate him. You really do. This peace Kenji had offered was so divine that you don't want to go back down in the village. You wished that the moon stayed forever and accompanied the night.

You watched the sky turn darker. Before you knew it, the clouds covered the entire view. You sat up, confused about the weather suddenly acting up. You weren't informed about it even. Then a realization struck you as the sky roared with their loud thunderclaps.

"I can't hear them..." Your voice trembled before Kenji who was alarmed by the next words you have. "The spirits...I can't hear them."