when one looks back to their childhood, one remembers the vivid springs of laughter, climbing trees and reaching out for the stars, and making flower crowns in fields of flowers. but when [name] looked back at her youth, it was void of those colorfu...
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chapter 72. one and three hundered
[ the only one... ]
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school.
it sat quietly along the busy path of titheport island, where merchants shouted over one another and ships came and went like restless birds, yet the little building remained untouched by the chaos; small, wooden, and warm, its windows open to let laughter spill into the streets.
luna always slowed when she passed it. barefoot against the dust of the road, a straw basket nearly as big as her back bouncing lightly with every step. inside it: firewood, unevenly stacked, and fish she had caught with her own two hands as usual.
she would pause by the window just enough to peek.
inside, children always sat neatly at their desks, clean and still in a way she could never quite understand. their clothes weren't torn, their hands weren't rough, and their eyes... their eyes were focused on something invisible to her.
a woman stood at the front, smiling gently.
"now, class," the woman said, her voice soft but clear, "let's go over numbers again."
...numbers? luna blinked.
she leaned a little closer to the window, her fingers curling against the wood as she listened, head tilting slightly.
the teacher drew something on the board.
symbols.
strange ones.
"one... two... three..."
the children repeated after her in unison, their voices bright and confident.
luna's brows furrowed.
"...num...bers..." she whispered under her breath, the word unfamiliar on her tongue.
later, on her walk with hak...[name] found the courage to ask.
"say, hak..." she started, her voice bright with curiosity as her hands weaved the usual horrible flower crowns, "yer smart, right?"
hak blinked, caught off guard. "...huh?"
he raised a brow, shifting slightly where he sat. "i guess, yeah... i go to school, so..."
