Chapter Text
Sunghoon is bored. He’s been sitting in the left front pew of his local church in the village for two hours now. In that time, no matter how many times he’s been here, he takes the time to sink the details of the place into his mind. The church, a grand place, with the ceilings and walls adorned with holy paintings and gold details. The multi-colored window high on the wall illuminates the altar that the high priest usually speaks from. The marble floor shimmers and shines, surprisingly clean for the amount of patrons that frequent the only church in their area. It is midday, people are out and about doing various forms of business, leaving the church quiet but not empty. Many of the other helpers, pupils and acolytes move from hall to hall, going on to finish continuous churchly duties. He hears the scurrying of feet, the opening and closing of metal and wood doors alike, distant hymns and prayers being told. The noise that brings him out of his daze is the laughter of other small children outside playing a game. A noise from a game he’ll probably never play again if everything goes according to his father’s wishes.
Sunghoon’s father is talking to the high priest right now, trying to convince the holy father to let his son start his teachings as a servant of the church. Sunghoon may only be 10 years old but as long as he can remember his family has been devoutly religious. Starting meals by thanking God, praying in the morning and night, having his good fortune and accomplishments be acclimated to “the grace of God”, but also his misdeeds and “unruly” behavior be a sign that “God has given us a chance to correct your sins, this is a chance to repent”. If you asked him, it was exhausting.
Why was someone he has never seen, in fact no one has really seen, with his own eyes be such an important part of his life? Have this much control over his actions and thoughts? Deem what he does is right or wrong? He wants his mother and father to tell him they love him, not God. Curse this God. He wants to spend time with his friends who never talk about the good graces of God. What he wants is to be playing ball and tag and acting as soldiers who may one day save a beautiful princess. He also doesn’t want to leave them to be in the company of other believers of God, who willingly serve an entity and believe it can do no wrong. If his father succeeds in convincing the high priest to take him in and be a servant, he won’t have anywhere to escape like he did at home. He would be stuck in a more suffocating place.
While being engulfed in his negative thoughts, Sunghoon failed to realize the presence of another person in the pew across from him. As discreetly as possible, he tries to look as much as his peripheral vision would allow. Though they were sitting in the darker part of the church, the stranger had on a long black cloak that covered them head to toe, their pose looked like they were praying hard - hunched over, elbows on their knees and hands interlocked - with the only skin exposed being oddly pale hands. He doesn’t know when the stranger appeared or why they chose the pew directly across from him, but just like any other day in the church, he ignored any and all of those he deemed religious fanatics. Instead, he decided to go back to soaking in his own misery of being kept prisoner in a gold adorned prison.
* * * * * * *
It’s been another hour and a half now of Sunghoon sitting in the church, waiting for his father, and the stranger hadn’t moved since. Not even a centimeter. It was odd for someone to sit in a praying position like that for so long, especially hunched over.
Sunghoon had moved from his spot several times, standing at the open door to the outside, weaving in between pillars and other pews, standing near the altar (his father would have his head if he knew his son did such a blasphemous thing), and just all in all keeping himself occupied. But with all that movement and, all beit as quiet as he tried to be, noise, the stranger hadn’t looked up. It was beginning to get creepy, even the most devout followers wouldn’t have stayed this long and not tried any other forms of praying, like going up to one of the statues or lighting a candle. He started to become curious if this person had simply just passed away and chose the church as a weird last resting place (certainly something a religious fanatic would do in his opinion). They say curiosity killed the cat, but in Sunghoon’s mind, if he had to spend the rest of his life under the church’s thumb then checking on a stranger was worth it. So with cautious steps he made his way toward the stranger’s pew.
First, he took a seat on the edge, still a bit wary of how conscious the person was. After about a minute he scooted over a bit, then another bit after another minute, then another, and another, up until he was only a palm’s width apart from the hooded figure. He heard soft breathing, which meant this person was at least alive. Their hands were even paler up close and included slender fingers. Up close, the cloak did a good job at hiding most of the shape of the stranger’s body, but Sunghoon could still make out wide shoulders, and reasonably concluded it was probably a man (although he couldn’t discredit the amount of strong farm women he’s seen around, his friend’s mom being one of them who wouldn’t hesitate to throw him if they ever got too close to their apple tree again). He sat like that with, who he assumed was, the man for a good 10 minutes before gathering up the courage to try and peek at his face. He was sure no normal person would not notice a stranger closely leaning towards them, no matter how deep in prayer. It wasn’t until he was crouching on the ground right next to him that Sunghoon got to see a face he wasn’t expecting.
It was a young man with pale skin, just like his hands. With his eyes closed and slightly opened mouth (not enough to see teeth though), he seemed to be asleep. For a lack of better words coming to mind, Sunghoon could only think of this sight as ethereal. How could a human be so positively indescribable? For a man, he had soft features (even with jet black hair and high cheekbones), something he hadn’t seen often from any of the other men in his village. Now that he thought about it… he doesn’t remember seeing a man like him ever in the village before. Was he from here? A traveler maybe? It would explain the hood and that he seemed to be sleeping. It wasn’t very often that travelers stopped by their remote village though, so even in this rare event, it was the only reasonable conclusion. He didn’t look like a bad person, besides the hood, he looked relatively innocent and young. Couldn’t have been more than in his 20s. At some point, while being fascinated by this stranger and studying the details, the sleeping man started to stir. Sunghoon realized the odd position he was in a little too late as the man opened his eyes.
“Ah … hello, sir,” Sunghoon didn’t have anything more to say than that. I mean really, what could he say to a stranger that you had been unashamedly staring at.
After a good pause and his face changing from slightly bamboozled to a nice smile, the strange man let out a soft, “Hello there.”
Another thing Sunghoon hadn’t expected was how gentle he seemed to be. He hadn’t scorned him for getting close or asking what the heck he was doing, rudely staring at someone he had never met. Just returned a greeting. It made Sunghoon feel a bit guilty, and explaining feltl like the best option.
“Uhm, I was just checking on you. I’ve been sitting over there, the pew across from you, and you seemed to be here for a while. You weren’t moving either so..”
“I see, thank you for your concern, your parent’s must be proud to have such a nice boy around.”
“...Thank you, sir.” Sunghoon had never been praised before like this, he didn’t know what to say.
“Beautiful church huh?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so. It’s our village’s only church so it was made quite well.” He didn’t want to bash about his hate for the church to a stranger who seemingly just wanted to make normal conversation.
“Well, if you couldn’t tell, I’m not exactly a local. After being to a lot of different places, this church is definitely one of the nicer ones.” Ah, so he was right, this man was a traveler. Even with the question of the man’s reason for being here answered, it led him to ask more.
“Uhm, if I may, where have you been before this? I’ve never left the village, and we don’t get many visitors, so…”
At that, the man smiled a cheeky smile. “Well then, shall I tell you about my travels?”. At that moment, Sunghoon sat down, eager to hear about the world outside of his miserable village.
* * * * * * *
The stories the man told were invigorating. He’d traveled land and sea, meeting all kinds of people and staying at all kinds of places. The way he described the sights, sounds and smells made it feel as if Sunghoon had been there with him. The man himself seemed to come to life the more he described his travels. Sunghoon had never felt more alive in the church before this, and it was all thanks to this man. It made him want to leave this place even more. But of course, that seemed impossible when he thought back to where they were.
“...and then, there was this cat from the man next door who meowed everytime it saw me, it was as soft as a cloud. I wish I could've… little man? Have I finally bored you with my stories?” With a wave in front of his face, Sunghoon realized his emotions must’ve shown on his face.
“Oh no, I love them. I just wish I could do what you do. Travel the world and all.” Sunghoon sank into the pew, dejected.
“Why not? I mean, you have your whole life ahead of you, surely travel would be an option at some point. Unless you have a family business to attend to?”
“Not really a family business, more like an unwanted commitment… The reason why I’ve been here for this long today was that my father was talking to the head priest… he wants me to join the church…”
“Ahhh, and let me guess… you don’t want to huh?”
Sunghoon shook his head, the momentarily forgotten despair of his situation coming back to him. He saw the stranger move closer towards him, taking Sunghoon’s hands in his.
“Well, since it seems your joining the church is beyond your control right now… and I recently have grown a little tired of being on the move… how about I visit you here? It doesn’t sound bad to stay in one place for a little while. What do you say, hmm?”
At that moment, Sunghoon couldn’t believe the thought that came into his mind. This man was a God send, he felt like a true savior of his soul. “You would do that for me? Really?”
“Why not? You seem like a nice kid, and it would be nice to have a conversation with a hum- uh, another person. So, what do you say, hmm?”
I mean really, how could Sunghoon say no. He wasn’t sure how often his few friends in the village would visit him or if he’d even be allowed to see them at all. But having someone who could more easily blend in with the rest of the patrons would give him at least some joy. So with a smile and furious nods, Sunghoon had made a new friend, a strange one who he didn’t even know of an hour ago. As much as he hated it, maybe this was a sign….
“Sunghoon!” His father’s voice broke through the empty church. In a flash, the strange man fixed his hood to hide more of his face and detached his hands from Sunghoon’s. “Come over here, the Father would like to speak with you about joining the ministry.”
“Coming father!” Sunghoon stood up abruptly and raced towards the aisle, then swiftly turned around to try and bid farewell to his new friend. Before he could even say anything, the man had given him a smile that could be interpreted as “No more need for words. See you next time.” And that gave Sunghoon the queue to leave.
As soon as Sunghoon was back at his side, his father asked, “Who was that you were talking to?”
“Ah, um, just a traveler. He stopped by to pray, so I told him about the church.” He kept out the majority of the details, wanting to keep his new found friendship a secret for once.
His father looked at him suspiciously for a second, but then moved on, seemingly uninterested. He began to walk towards the Father’s office, expecting Sunghoon to follow. Before he began to follow, Sunghoon wanted to take one last look back, but found the pew where the man was empty. I forgot to ask his name. I hope I see him soon. And with that, Sunghoon went to face his newfound future, hoping to soon meet again that suspicious miracle of a friend.