Mabsuli Blood || txt

Thirty-One: How to Lose Yourself (pt. 1)

14 years ago...

"Are they okay?" eight-year-old San asked the doctor as he walked into the hallway. Yeonjun perked up in his lap, watching the doctor with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry..." the doctor sighed, and San felt his heart drop. "We couldn't save them." San's gaze dropped to the doctor's shoes as Yeonjun looked back at him quizzically, not quite understanding what the doctor was saying. "I'll... give you some time alone." He scurried away, leaving the two children alone on the bench outside the hospital room.

San's mind was racing. This wasn't supposed to happen. His parents were supposed to be walking out of the hospital, patched up and ready to get back to work in the next few weeks. Not be dead because a group of apprentices were careless with the equipment and his parents, noble and selfless, used their magic to get them out before they were ultimately crushed under the warehouse. They were supposed to be okay. The Crystal was supposed to protect them.

So why weren't they alive?

"Sannie? Where's Mommy and Daddy?" San breathed in deeply, suppressing his tears, before fixing his six-year-old brother with a smile.

"They're in a better place now, Junnie," he said, ruffling his hair.

"Can we go with them?"

"No, Yeonjun."

"Why not?"

"Adults only." He booped his nose with a smile as Yeonjun scrunched his face at his words. "Now come on." He set his brother on the floor and grabbed his hand. "Let's go find the doctor."

And he led his oblivious little brother away from his parents, whose bodies were still in the hospital room behind them.

Those same bodies were lowered into the ground at the cemetery merely a week later.

"No! Take them out!" Yeonjun was screaming, tears streaming down his face as he fought against San's hold. The attendees watched with pity as San began to lead Yeonjun away, the little boy still not having any idea of what was really happening. All he knew was that these people were taking his mommy and daddy away from him, and he didn't like that.

"Junnie, you need to calm down," San choked out through tears. But Yeonjun didn't listen, only continuing to scream and cry for his parents.

"I want Mommy! Sannie, I want Mommy!"

"I know, Junnie," San sobbed, burying his face in Yeonjun's hair. He wrapped his arms tightly around his small body. "I want her too..."

And at the edge of the cemetery under the Crystal's watchful gaze, the two newly orphaned brothers cried in each other's arms.

How could the Crystal let this happen...?

The cries and breakdowns continued throughout the week, right up until the day a woman came to take them away from the only house the boys had ever known. Yeonjun put up quite the fight, and it took San promising him a new toy to get him to leave. "Welcome to your new home, boys!" she declared when they arrived, gesturing to a yellow bricked building that took up most of the plot it was built on. Children ran around in the open backyard space, wildflowers swaying in the light breeze. There was a wooden sign above the door, painted with a sparkling purple.

Magic Island Orphanage.

"Ah, you must be San and Yeonjun, correct?" a woman with an apron thrown over her dress said as she walked up the path to meet them. Yeonjun hid behind San, and he picked him up as she arrived in front of them.