dark side of the moon | 1 (1/1)

She is very prideful. She never cries. How strong of a person she isShe by TVXQlet’s get down to business“I blame your side of the family.”The abandoned shrine behind the Kim estate was in a state of chaos.To the human eye, the old dilapidated house of wood was nothing beyond that. Tangles of cobwebs littered each corner, a thick layer of dust settled upon every surface, the stubborn smell of mold permeated the air, and the entrance – a shoji door which hadn’t been opened in decades, rattling under the merciless autumn wind – was littered with holes. Clearly, no one had wandered past the overgrown garden behind the Kim household and into the quaint alter for years. The practice of paying respects to the family’s ancestors had been lost throughout time, thus the shrine remained neglected. Forgotten.But, somehow, never empty.“I swear, if my hands were still tangible, I would punch you into next week!”There was a flicker of light, an eerie green that contrasted against the silver luminescence of the moon, and a loud growl erupted from thin air. “I’d like to see you try, you ugly hag!”Another ripple of that strange green color, this time stronger. The wispy silhouette of an elderly man appeared, his expression just as sour as his words, “you’re the one who wormed your idiot daughter into my family! We could’ve had a line of physicians or scholars had it not been for your spawn’s genes of dumbassery!”A curse, and then came the transparent figure of a middle-aged woman. In her hand she held a fan, and with quick flicks of her wrist, she attempted to cool her rising anger. “It’s not my fault your son was such a desperate whore! He fell for my daughter’s near non-existent charms so easily,” she spat, narrow nose in the air.“Oh. Should I be insulted by that?” a young woman, nose just as narrow, spoke up. She floated beside the older woman, her mother no doubt, and eyed her awkwardly. “...I feel like I should be insulted.”A man drifted over to her then and gave her shoulder a comforting pat. “Don’t worry, my love," he assured, "I think you’re very charming.”“Oh, really?” She turned to face him with a wide smile, eyelashes fluttering. And then, like a flash of lightning, her expression contorted into one of barely concealed rage. “Then why did you cheat on me with the baker’s sister, you animal?”Her husband answered by disappearing with the breeze.And so the bickering continued. As it grew in volume (and profanity), more and more spirits began to awaken. Portraits of grandfathers and their sons, aunts and their cousins, mothers and their nephews began to shift before yawning apparitions rose from faded paint. Grumbles of being dragged from their sleep could be heard beneath shrieks and insults. And soon, everyone somehow became involved in the untamed battle of slander. All to determine one thing.Who was the one to turn the Kim family into the disgrace it was now?“It was you and your cattle-humping twins!”“My sons? Don’t you mean your toad-faced husband?”“At least my grandson wasn’t an incompetent shoemaker!”“Says the one with the great niece who’s a crossdresser!”“Speaking of, we should probably talk about that,” a new voice, deep and powerful, suddenly announced. Silence gradually followed his words, all eyes darting towards the center of the altar. And there, beneath the largest portrait in the room, stood the ghost of the Kim family’s oldest recorded member. His dark grey eyes narrowed at the sight of his irate descendants, and with a heavy sigh, he addressed them all in a flat yet authoritative tone. “That girl...is an anomaly.”“Anomaly?” someone scoffed. “More like an utter sin.”"The very epitome!" another voice added. "An outright idiot!""If she were my daughter, I would...oh, I would really – I don't even want to think about what I would do!"Exclamations of outrage erupted within the shrine once more, all of them pertaining to the very teenager whose catastrophic actions warranted their awakening. Not a single spirit on Earth could rest knowing their family's legacy was so close to being irrevocably tainted by one foolish girl alone."Well, I think she's brave!" a tiny cry called out. Instantly, all eyes turned to the sight of a small girl, far too young to be amongst such old folk, peeking her head out from behind her mother's hanbok. She frowned at them all, faltering for a moment as she was faced with the judgement of every spirit in the room. They peered down at her in disbelief, some in disgust, but the girl did not relent. Shyly, she confessed in a low mumble, “I wish I was as brave as her. I can't imagine how scary it must be going to war. She's putting her life on the line to uphold our family's honor..." The girl pouts, staring back at her deceased family members with clear disapproval. "Instead of being mean to her, shouldn’t we mention how her brother abandoned his house the day before the drafting ceremony? He's the bad person here, not her.”There were a few mutters of agreement, some turning their nasty words to the eldest son and remaining patriarch of the living Kim family – twenty-year old Kim Hyunjoong. Though the title of patriarch was null and void now that he had high-tailed it out of their village with only a hastily-written note wishing his mother and younger sister good luck. The current war between their country and a neighboring land was a long and foolish one, and the boy had justified his escape as him not wanting to waste his life on a pointless fight for power that a family as poor as theirs would never see the fruit of. But that had left his mother and sister to fend for themselves in a world already overflowing with poverty.It was selfish. It was cruel. And Kim Jaehee, the only daughter of Kim Yoojin and the fallen Kim Soohyun, had taken it upon herself to hide and compensate for her brother’s self-centeredness.“But going to war in his place? A man’s place?” a teenaged spirit sneered, arms crossing within his sleeves. “She’ll bring immense shame unto our entire family. We will never live this down.”“Well,” the head elder exhaled, “then I suppose it's a good thing we’re dead.”did they send me daughters“No, but they sent me.”Changmin looked down at his newest task with a wide and proud grin. He puffed out his chest, his robes (onyx in color and intricately designed with the symbol of the Kim family: the elephant) billowing in the wind from where he stood atop a large stone. And his Task – or Master, as he was demanded to call her by the elders, though that would never happen...not in a million years – merely blinked at him, somehow unimpressed by his ethereal presence.“But I asked for a miracle. Not some little boy.”Changmin’s fuschia-tinted eyes nearly bulged from his skull. “Little?” he squawked. Jumping down from his metaphorical high horse, he landed in front of his Task with a scowl. Distantly, he admitted there was a stark difference between their heights; Changmin hardly passed her waist. But he would never say so out loud, no way in hell. “I am not little,” he growled instead.His Task raised a dainty eyebrow at him. “And I was born a man.” She cupped her breasts in a crude way to emphasize her obvious sarcasm and Changmin gagged. "How exactly can you help me? Look at you and your stubby legs...you're like a munchkin."“What the – you...you know what? To hell with this,” Changmin snapped indignantly. Turning on the heels of bare feet, he began to march his way out of the clearing his Task had taken shelter in for the night. She couldn’t even build a tent properly from the look of things, but she had the audacity to talk down to him. Unbelievable, these humans!  “I am a millenia-old spirit of fortune. I don’t need this disrespect. Your ancestors sent me to help your bumbling ass so you don’t tarnish generations of hardwork and dignity, but if you want to go on and do that, be my guest! It’s not like I’m the one who’s risking getting her head chopped clean off by –”“Okay, wait…” His Task grabbed at his sleeve, tugging on it as a small frown graced her pillowy lips. “I’m sorry,” she relented, eyes the color of silver wide and beseeching. “I want your help, really I do. I just...I’m just a bit stressed out.”Changmin turned to her and rolled his eyes with a scoff. “Gee, I wonder why.” He yanked his sleeve from the grip of her lean fingers and spun to face her once more. It made him angry having to crane his neck to meet her sad gaze. “You are a mess. Do you know that? You’re a huge fucking mess and you are unworthy of my presence.”“Thanks for the reminder,” his Task huffed bitterly. Seeming to find pity on him (the audacity), she lowered herself until her knees pressed into the grass beneath his feet. If not for her clearly trying to appease him and his childlike stature (not to mention overall appearance; he’d have to be another eight thousand years old to resemble someone anywhere close to her age of eighteen), Changmin would have been relieved at finally being able to speak to her face-to-face. Alas, life was never fair to him. If it were, he wouldn’t have been given the job to track down some headstrong wild child on a mission to kill herself, reverse drag queen style.“I don’t understand you humans,” Changmin blurted out. His Task stared at him in confusion. “Why would you ever give yourself this burden? Your brother could have easily been caught and brought back home. Why did you assume a position that was meant for him?”His Task was silent for a moment, eyes falling to the nervous tangle of fingers which rested on her lap. She pursed her dried lips, lost in thought, before her tongue peeked out to moisten them. And it was only then that Changmin realized just how young and clearly feminine this girl was. A lithe body with hair too long, neck too slender, and cheeks too round. There was no way her plan to act as her brother in this war would work. Only men could be in the army, only men had been forcibly drafted, and this Kim Jaehee was a whole woman in every sense of the word. It was more apparent than the sun in the sky.She was doomed.His Task's voice, light and melodic and oh so telling, snapped Changmin from his appraisal. “I'm doing this because my country needs as much help as it can get,” she answered finally, “and because my brother deserves to be happy.”Changmin wanted to smack her. “The ancestors were right. You are an idiot.”His Task gave him a dry look. "I could've gone without hearing that.""Well, it's true. Only an idiot would sign themselves up for a death wish like this. If the enemies don't kill you, the emperor will because there's no way you can get away with this. Not alone.""Then help me," she pleaded, and reached for his hands despite Changmin's hiss at being touched by such a lowly creature. They were soft as they wrapped around his wrists, yet her hold was tight and unyeilding. "I'm sorry for calling your legs stubby. I'm sure you'll be more of a miracle to me than I could ever imagine."She was cajoling him, Changmin knew she was. His mind was screaming at him to just go back home and dub the girl a lost cause. This was a suicide mission, a disaster in the making. He and his reputation shouldn't have to be dragged down with her, the request of her ancestors be damned. There was no point in doing this, no point at all.Changmin sneered at his Task for a long time, refusing to speak his thoughts aloud. Go home, his mind whispered. A mere human isn't worth it.Said human looked about ready to cry. "Please..." came her weak exhale.Changmin simply continued to look at her.It was only after she began to fidget uncomfortably under the intensity of his stare that, with a dramatic wail of frustration, he lifted one of his hands to give her head three firm pats. “Fine," he grunted. 'I’ll help you. But only bec