Chapter Text
Shuhua hates the world she lives in, but it wasn't always the case. It all started 11 years ago, when her reality fell apart. People started to kill mystical creatures driven by fear and religion. Dragon, angered by the humans trying to hunt its kind, burned down half of Shuhua's hometown before it was killed. That part of the town unfortunately was where the girl's home was. Her parents have died in that fire, the way she survived is still a mystery to her, as she only suffered a small burn scar on her left leg and otherwise was left unharmed.
After the fire has died down she was taken in by the nuns to the orphanage at the other side of the town.
That is exactly where we are now, behind the fence and cold stone walls of the place that Shuhua truly despises. If she had a choice she would have left a long time ago, but the town of Capere is a small place. Shuhua obviously sneaks out frequently, she's a trouble maker if anything, but she can't really leave the town because of the guards at the entrance of the Capere. Recently her task of sneaking out has become harder as the headmother Iseul has become sick of her actions, now most of the guards around the town have been informed that if they ever see her they are obligated to bring her back. As if her life wasn't hard enough already they also made someone stand at the orphanage gate to prevent her from running away. But it is bold of them to think that Shuhua doesn't know every inch of this horrible facility, after all she has spent 11 years here. Most of the nights she has entertained herself by searching this place to the best of her abilities, from the basements that Iseul always takes her for punishment to the attic that's always closed off. She managed to find a few secret rooms like a library, which she wouldn't expect in a place like this. After all, the ability to read could get you to be considered a witch. That's stupid isn't it, why would God order to kill people just because they can read, that is exactly why Shuhua doesn't really believe in this entity that has only caused her pain and suffering.
Don't get her wrong despite everything she still plans to run away she just needs a plan. A plan that is quite hard to make when you need to at least pretend to follow the orphanage’s rules, she has had enough of beatings as it is, the headmother hates disobedient children but that is exactly what Shuhua is, she does anything but listen.
Every girl in the nuns’ orphanage knows the rules by heart, this is how they go:
1.Prayers seven times a day- After waking up, before and after every meal(there are three meals a day), before going to sleep.
2.Obligatory church visit every Sunday.
3.Visit at the orphanage chapel at least once a day.
4.Must be present during every meal unless the headmother decides otherwise ( breakfast 7a.m., lunch 12p.m , dinner 6p.m.)
5.No leaving the assigned rooms after 8p.m.
6. No leaving the orphanage territory without supervision.
7. Everything that the headmother says needs to be listened to and followed no matter the circumstances.
Following all those rules takes quite a lot of time, time that Shuhua would rather do anything else. The worst thing is that this orphanage gets girls ready to become nuns and honestly that's Shuhua's worst nightmare and that is exactly why her escape has a deadline, till she turns 18 so she needs to get out of here in 3 years.
That is her current goal and luckily for her despite being mostly isolated from the outside world there is one person that's willing to talk to her outside of the orphanage walls. That said someone's name is Han Jisung. He's 3 years older than Shuhua and works as a guard. His posts are often near the church and that's how she managed to talk to him. She first met him a year ago when he first started his job as a guard. Shuhua usually doesn't engage talks with guards as it's quite risky, she only did this because it was someone she has never seen before, luckily for her it turned out that they share quite the same beliefs about the world, unlucky for her he's also never been outside the walls of Capere so there was not much he could do for her but share stories about as he calls him his “best friend” Minho, that is also a guard, Minho's sister and her friends. Honestly she would like to meet them someday, they sound like fun people to be around, unlike the kids in the orphanage that are too scared to talk to her because they are afraid to get in trouble.
Han once told her that one of the girls owns an inn at the outskirts. She wanted to go there, she even tried once but because of the quite long distance that led to the outskirts she got caught. That was exactly two weeks ago, she restrained herself to not get into any major trouble during that time in order to wait for orphanage mothers to let their guard down and find a right moment to sneak out. This time she'll find a better route to get to the outskirts as after finding out that she was caught previous time Jisung helped her to understand the city layout better and told her where she should expect the most guards, thanks to that she managed to think of a plan. She'll leave next night at around 2 a.m since nuns should be less alert at that time and her roommates will be asleep. Getting to the inn using all the workarounds and hiding from guards should take her about an hour. She needs to get back at around 5a.m since that is the time that nuns that were not on a night guard should start to wake up.
This time Shuhua was positive that her plan will work. She was so excited to meet new people and curious if they'll be like in Jisung stories. She always wondered if he ever told them about her. Though she's sure that he told Minho. After some time that she has spent with Han she came to the conclusion that Han tells Minho everything. Shuhua's not stupid she can see the sparkles in the boy's eyes every time he mentions his “best friend” ,those are the same eyes she remembers her father had when he looked at her mother, that being said she believes they are more than friends but who is she to say. She never mentioned it to Han, respecting the boy's privacy and understanding the risks of loving a person that has the same gender in this society. To be honest she never really thought much about it before as to why are people so afraid of love? That only gives her more reasons to believe that the entity she's forced to worship is no God but Devil in disguise if anything.
Tomorrow will be the day she'll meet new people, that should help her with her goal of running away from this orphanage and leaving this horrible patriarchal, religion driven town with people who can't use their own brain behind.
Tomorrow she'll make the first step.