He was just five.
A child, intelligent for his age, well-mannered, curious and innocent.
That's when his parents told him it was time for him to attend his first 'Supreme's Blessing'. He was scared, naive as he entered the place in new ashy grey clothes that many children of his age seemed to be wearing too. The rest, who were older had worn faded yellow clothes.
It looked so bleak and desolate as he entered through the huge gate with his parents and elder sister in a line. It wasn't much later when he was harshly pulled out of the line by men dressed dark green uniforms with a black vest on, which had a strange sign on it. He had a black mask on with black visor helmet.
"Eomma!" He cried out for his mother as the huge man dragged him away, out of the line to somewhere else. His mother's unnatural blue eyes bore in his own brown ones as she gave him a beautiful smile. A bit too beautiful for the situation.
"Let the kind Great Commander take you for your Blessings, darling."
And Namjoon had no other option but to let the man lead him.
They reached a huge empty building where the entrance was crowded with so many children his age with the same grey clothes as his. Pale, scared faces everywhere. These children felt the complete opposite of what the elders were feeling.
Maybe inside it was more fun?
Yeah.... that had to be it.
Maybe they give those expensive sweets you get on the small sticks with thick plastic wraps.
Suddenly, the entrance door opened with a deep, echoing creek. Mortified, he couldn't find the will to move when more of the Commanders came out, suits green but with golden and black swirls on the vest.
Crying children, all his age, were pushed in the place. Suddenly, Namjoon felt a bruising grip on his arm, just a bit above his elbow, when a Commander mercilessly dragged him in the hall. Biting back a sob, Namjoon let himself be led by them.
Passing several doors of a long hallway that never seemed to end, they finally reached in front of a door, a simple black shiny door, with the strange symbol he'd seen over the vests of the Commanders.
"Will you– let me go home... after this?" Namjoon heard someone say meekly.
He turned around to see a kid, frail and bony like him, looking up at a Commander with glossy eyes who merely grunted as an approval. Looking around, making sure no one was watching him, Namjoon made his way to the kid silently.
"Hey," he whispered, making sure to smile because his sister told that his dimples looked pretty.
"Hi! Is this your first time here too?" He asked, lips forming a beautiful heart-shape. "By the way, I'm Hoseok, but my friends call me Hobi!"
"I'm Namjoon but you can call me Joon!"
"So, after the Blessing can we meet again? Maybe at the park... or at school! Which section of Shun are you in?"
"In 'A'. Wha—"
The door opened with a bang, cutting them both off. The Commanders didn't waste a second to assemble the children into a line roughly. Slowly they all entered the room, mouth agape, jaws hanging on the floor.
It was a hall. A huge one. It was full of desks and chairs placed almost 3 hands away. Each table had a strange device with a screen, the surroundings hooded. Suddenly, a Hologram in the front of the room appeared, showing a person covered in full black, with only golden eye like shapes on the black mask.
The voice was deep, as it drawled in a way that it sent the children wriggling their spines uncomfortably.
Attention, my children. Today you are gathered here with your family to be bestowed with my, that is, the Supreme's Blessing's. However, you have to overcome a small but vital test, that will prove your love, loyalty and usefulness to your state in the future.
But, be very careful of your answers. Once done, you can't go back to clearing the mistake.
Wishing you all the smiles of Juğewal, hereby I, your Supreme, declare that we start the test.
Before Namjoon knew, he was seated atop one of the chairs with headphones over his ears. A click echoed around the room and immediately the boy felt his side visions being blocked, so that the only place he could look was the screen.
A small blue light lit up on top of the screen and a metallic sound flooded in his ears.
"Kim Namjoon, the son of Kim Pilsun and Hong Hanhee, you will be required to answer a set of questions. Please say 'Yes' if you want to proceed."
"Yes." Namjoon's heart gave a loud thump against his chest.
"You will be given three options. Look at the screen and after you understand the question, press red for the first option, blue for the second and green for the third. If you want the question to be repeated, say 'again'. Understood?"
"Yes."
The questions started, they turned from easy, to hard and then.... disturbing. Once the questions ended, a series of puzzles popped up with random letters on them. As he solved them, not once did he or the other kids heard the scream of a kid once in a while when the floor beneath them opened up, causing them to fall down, somewhere deep and dark.
It felt like hours had passed once he solved the puzzles. They weren't hard per se, but they sure were strange. He had to align them in a certain way to get a desirable result.
"Done."
The metallic voice whirred at his ears before speaking again. "Now, for the final task; sing the National Anthem of Juğewal."
"But I can't sing!"
"Sing the the National Anthem of Juğewal."
The little boy pouted before exhaling and starting to sing. The song wasn't his favorite; it gave him weird eerie chills whenever he sang it. Yet his father made him perfect the song, sometimes urging him to sing it twice a day and now he really knows the lyrics.
"When the Great Storm rose on the land of peace and green and the dark horse brought the doom...."
Namjoon became out tune sometimes but managed to sing it correctly without stuttering or fumbling.
Finally, he it was over, he was led out of another door, the hoods still blocking the vision of other kids and headphones blocking any other noise.
As Namjoon exited through another black door, he wondered how Hobi was doing.
□
"There goes our King, our Great Supreme
The one who makes the lion quiver and avoid sunbeam.
He str-strides...."
Hoseok felt his hand go clammy with sweat. Once again he started singing as he tried to remember, his voice now shaky.
"T-The one who makes the lion quiver and avoid sunbeam.
He strides.... ahead..."
The kid waited, for any warning or anything to sound in his ears but it was silent, eerily silent.
"He strides up ahea— AAHH!"
That's when the flap underneath his chair opened and he fell down, heart thundering, a heavy lightness weighing down on him as he fell.
The flap closed once again.
A song started sounding from the screen.
"He strides ahead of crowd
His orders clear and loud
'Let the unloyals of our Juğewal never be seen.'"
□
He was in a room, a white room full of people with masks and white coats. There were several faded sea green curtains covering something, most probably a bed.
A lady led him to one of the narrow beds lovingly. "You will just need to be a brave boy now. Can you do that?"
Namjoon smiled bright, dimples popping out. "Of course I can! My noona says— ouch!"
The sudden pain hurt and a slow tingle started to spread from his neck to throughout his body. He looked up, expecting to see the lady's eyes crinkle in a smile but all he saw was a stern nonchalance as he never bothered to look at him once. Slowly his vision started to go fuzzy, out of focus. Namjoon blinked several times to clear it, opened his mouth to call out someone but all that came out of his mouth was a loud exhale. The voices started to sound distance, muffled as if he was still halfway in the haze of sleeping and awaking.
His body relaxed and just before he was about to close his eyes he saw someone with something sharp on his hand.
□
A blinding light seared through his eyes, making his head throb.
He opened his eyes and looked around. Oh. Everything looked beautiful. But... how did he come here?
His attention went straight to his hand where there was a small band. Namjoon.
That sounded familiar.... too familiar...
That... That's his name....
There were– other kids around him, smiling, laughing, playing around and normally Namjoon felt like he would have joined them but he felt a weird hollowness inside him.
Why am I here?
He tried remembering but his head hurt a lot, his eyes burned.
Noona's greatest Blessing... Eomma... Hoseok... Hobi... killed... who would you save...
"Hey." Namjoon flinched at the hand on his shoulder. He looked up. A lady. She seemed familiar, too familiar, the smile on her lips too unnatural, as if an image forced upon her face.
Sharp sting... brave boy...
"Why do you seem familiar?" He swore he saw her face slip but immediately it became bright. The smile looked quite scary now.
"Let's go meet you parents, Namjoon. Shall we?"
Parents...
He couldn't remember their faces properly. Eomma, appa and noona... his noona...
Why was he having such hard time trying to remember how she looked? Why were things about her seemed so hazy?
"What about Jieun noona?" Namjoon spoke quietly, not making an eye-contact.
The lady smiled. "Your neighbour?"
"N-No. My elder sister, Jieun... K-Kim..? Kim Jieun."
The lady tilted her head, silent, her smile stretching to her limits. Namjoon squirmed in his seat uncomfortably. This lady... she was kinda creeping him out.
"Oh, Namjoon.. I didn't realize you were so naughty."
Namjoon's eyebrows furrowed. Was this some kind of play? "What?" She brought her face closer to him, her lips bloody red.
"You don't have a sister, Namjoon."
□
"You're being silly, Joonie. You don't have a sister."
The little boy just gaped at his mother with an unreadable expression. Even her smile didn't seem comforting for even a bit. Namjoon didn't argue further but went back to his room.
He swore, he swore he remembered having a sister even of her face was... blurry. Kim Jieun. She couldn't disappear from the face of earth, right?
He glanced at the family photos. There were only him, his mother and father. No sign of his sister. But at every picture, it seemed that a space was left there, a bit too big to just be coincidence.
Kim Jieun. She existed. Namjoon was sure of it.
Going out of his room he entered his sister's that his parents claimed to be the storeroom.
It was nothing like the memory he recalled from, even if it was little.
As if something clicked in him, he opened the cupboard and opened a small door from the wall of it. He didn't even remember how he knew about it or who told him. The only thing he knew was a key. That was kept there.
When he finally found it, a voice echoed on his head as he remembered something.
"Find it once you're grown up. I can't. I won't be able to stay for long. They'll know."
Namjoon couldn't remember. Who would know? What would he know? The only thing he registered was that he had to find something to use the key on.
Because it seemed like nobody realized what was happening around them except Namjoon.
And he would damn well figure it out, even if it takes years.
_________________________________________
There it goes. I guess I won't be regular with this now uwu.
Also how was this chapter?
Truly an ethereal man... the man I need rn