BLOODLINE // WOOSAN

2

Growing up the way he did, Wooyoung cannot say that he has ever experienced so much attention before in his life. And, he's loving every bit of it.

After four months of training, the men who enlisted at the annual Halawell Infantry Legion signups between January and April are now fully ready to join the service. The presumed worst part, the harshest military training during the hottest possible days of the year, is over now. The eighty men who made the cut now travel down the street together, walking two-by-two in a parade held just for them. Even better is their destination: the Choi castle. The royal family will be honoring them for their hard work and dedication soon. It is tradition under this king to do this with the new recruits each year. And that, other than the satisfactory feeling as though someone other than Mingi finally finds him useful in this world, makes Wooyoung so, extremely giddy.

He, along with his best friend, have made the final cut. At least a million times before they ever even enlisted, Wooyoung had adorned grand smiles as he would promise to Mingi that they would make it, not only speaking from his natural reassuring and confident nature. Whenever the pair had free time at the farm where they grew up at, they would conduct their own amateur training for the militia together, like a little obstacle course near their shared barn. The actual militia training has surely been something he's never quite experienced before, of relatively higher difficulty than he could ever manage on the low-budget obstacle course that he grew used to back home. But luckily, Wooyoung has been able to complete this task without dying. He and Mingi are alive and well together once more.

The friends truly have spent practically their whole lives together. And now, they get to be two of the only eight men in the first year's first cohort. Together like always, like forever.

They made it. Plus, the ravenette gets to see the one man whose appreciation means the most of all, Prince Choi San. This will be the most spectacular day of his life!

Due to initially being created to protect the royal family centuries ago, the military hall is just down the street from the castle. A lot of the village people are gathered on either side of the street between either building, both the poorer— if able to come— and the richer. They cheer for their new protectors, almost as happy about their graduation as the grads themselves are. Wooyoung doesn't believe he's ever seen a street so full of love and life; he ponders with a dreamy sigh as they march down it in their full uniforms, never before on even this familiar street. He considers himself lucky enough to be able to see it daily, though, but... these days, it's not as lucky for one reason:

"Dear friend, I must confront you with something."

Mingi's attention snaps from the screaming citizens he passes to his best friend. His glimmering smile, however, still remains. "Whatever is it?"

"I have seen Prince San not in the past month at all. For he has been within the garden not, nor has he visited down the street since." Wooyoung wrings his hands with worry, and if it weren't for the hundreds of people— of all ages and backgrounds, he scarce can take it in still— who cheer him on right now, he wouldn't still be smiling back. "For him, I am filled with much worry. Whatever happened, do you think?"

Mingi chuckles in disbelief of the strange way that the shorter is behaving. After all this time, they're finally being initiated as true members of the Halawell militia, yet his best friend's thoughts still consist only of his missing eye candy. "Likely, he is absent, for you prove quite a bother, dear friend."

Wooyoung snickers at this response, denying it with a shake of his head. Impossible, he thinks. "Hard no. Though, I have heard once of a rumor from Byeongkwan of the tenth cohort, whether true or not I am uncertain, that-"