of moonlight

The message came around 8AM, a reminder of a promise she made on a whim. She did that more often than she wished. She did that too many times for her own taste. Opened her lips to say something along the lines of maybe and ended up agreeing and giving in. Granted, it always depended on who was doing the asking. In this case, it’d been her agent and she could never quite refuse the gentle wrinkles across her face whenever she wanted to put in a request for Jisun to follow through. She had that way about her, that reminded Jisun of her now long deceased grand mother. 

She was soft to the touch, when she would wrap her arms around Jisun for a congratulations or a goodbye, it would feel like being wrapped in the most comfortable of blankets. Thick yet supple. Jisun had a hard time letting go of these little moments and the lady knew it, she knew it so well that she made it a regular thing, almost as a reward, whenever Jisun absentmindedly agreed to something that she was suggesting for her PR growth, she would thank her with an embrace, kiss her cheek and all would be forgotten and given. 

It was now 9AM though and Jisun was having second thoughts, regrets. She had no desire to rise and leave the comfort of her apartment to head to a children’s hospital and help them paint anything they wished to paint only for the press and for the children too. Mrs. Hong had insisted that she had to think of the children and Jisun was thinking of the children. She had no stand as to how much she liked or enjoyed their company, but thinking of them did make her have a sense of horrible dread at letting them down. 

To distract herself, she’d spent the last hour scrolling down her contact list for someone she could put on the task of replacing her--maybe. Or maybe just volunteering, she didn’t want to face Mrs. Hong if she didn’t show herself at the hospital and only sent someone else to do the job. She couldn’t, she truly couldn’t. She now had a name though, sprung from her bed to roam around, unable to stay still whenever she used her phone to make a call or send messages. In this case, she was recording her voice ;

Would you, Han Jaewon, like to offer me your talent to make some children happy on this, oh so, beautiful Sunday?

Most of the times, when children pondered on the question and then dared themselves to ask, eyes wide open and curious, where do babies come from?  

Their parents even feel bashful about the idea of telling them the truth. The truth that they know and have been taught only at a certain age. As adults only can you really know what the mystery of birth really mean and how it was that you were conceived and not chosen, sometimes not wanted, but there you were, in the world and nothing could undo that.

At least not until you truly understood what it meant to exist in this world. 

Before we weigh the cons and pros and speak of the negatives that sometimes may push some to their last expectations of what life had to offer them in this lifetime. We return to the concept itself. 

Take the idea, the conception, the way it was built. Science uncovering truths, helping the world understand how everything was to come as one. Religion, putting its shoes in the making of the earth, of the species that inhabit it. Both going along, separating at an intersection, although they could happily meet and decide to go in parallels. But they diverge, divide themselves, fight to overpower the other.

The knowledge between both shook the balance of the world at its core.

This story was not about any of that. Once again, distraction came along in the shape of what we knew. What we understood. What we learned. What we observed, what we took for granted. 

Two opposite sex out of desire bond, fuck, create a life. 

Or we can use a softer and less crude set of words for the romantics ; they make love. 

Love was an important aspect of this tale. 

Here was why. 

It played a part that no one, not even the most hardworking of scientists could uncover this truth. It lied in a link that no one could think of putting together. If you could connect the dots in the sky, with the stars that adorned it at night, you would still never be able to shed light on this truth.

The truth was, not every conceptions was as straight as a shot. There were many other underlying truths behind the biggest of them all. Children were gifts, it didn’t matter if they were mistreated or treated like precious jewels. They were gifts, put out for a reason. To populate and keep the world going. Many might not see the importance, the reason why it was made to be as such. But it was the simple and clear truth.

We procreate to survive and not go extinct. 

So do the stars. 

The universe was first, the immense and vast emptiness of it was all overwhelmingly alone in its existence before the planets were made to exist. Before earth had been known as the world as we knew it, there was space, stars and the moon. 

The first child the moon gave to planet earth was not the first man on earth. Because her power were limited, she had to be granted permission to give, she had to be approved by something stronger than even her own need to see that her owns are prosperous. She could only give to humans for one, she could only give to humans who truly desired a child but could not for some reasons.

Some very strong reasons, less a miracle was accorded to them. 

She was part of that miracle, a prayer to God was but a whisper. To mother moon, it was a wail she felt in every crates of her surface. For every cry that a mother gave for a child, the moon mourned a thousand times harder. 

The first child the moon gave to a mother was because God took pity on the sobbing wounds of mother moon, tearing through space and taking away the stars at night one by one. It was in dire time, it was to calm the tremors of the universe, to not lose what made nights magical for night dreamers who wanted to watch what they could not attain.

The gift did not go without some suffering. However, mother moon could watch over her first star on earth and insure that no matter what, she would be allowed to intervene in their fate. That was the one condition that she’d never relented to the rules of this contract. 

Her stars would never suffer a loveless childhood and a poor growth and at night, mostly when she was full and took over where she belonged, they would always seek to find her light when she called for them. 

However, this tale was a tale still to be told, or known. It was after all, a hidden gem among all other gems. A condition implanted from the very first given star, to be kept until the very last, or the moon may wail for eternity as she would be denied the joy of giving to the earth and keep her owns away from extinction.

pleasant, comforting… albeit a little uncomfortable. regardless, no one will ever catch jonghyun admitting to it out loud. for all intents and purposes, this is his favorite past time at the moment (it’s never been and she knows it, though they both indulge one another). “that tickles,” he offers the comment just as quietly as she does, a mere remark as she passes the brush atop the bare skin of her back. despite the mess of paint and brushes around them, the young man feels at ease, almost relaxed. 

jisun takes a pause between her comment, perhaps too taken in by the colors and the brushes, perhaps too focused on whatever picture she’s painting across his back. jonghyun lets the quiet moments stretch, not a second thought to spare to them. she’ll continue when she’s ready. though for a moment, his mind goes to the past, pulls up a few memories from the mentioned time and he plays a little game to see if he can guess what she’s going to bring up now. tigers and zebras… he loses this silly game, his mind recalling naps and gardens instead. “hey, that was a pretty good question. the stripes look sort of alike, captivating and… flowy.” 

he watches from the corner of his eye as she leans forward to gather more point, feels a little disgusted at the excess on his back but bites back any comments on it, waiting patiently until she spreads across. “which do you think look prettier? zebras or tigers?” he’s getting kind of sleepy now, the sensations on his back akin to the feeling of fingers running up and down — it makes him remember naps and sick days accompanied by loved ones.

to convince him to this task, a rather enduring one even for herself. her skills were on par with the illustrations, or the ability to stay focused. or else she would be quite a failure of an artist if she couldn’t be able to draw across human flesh. it’d been one of her favorite things to master too. 

the skin made for such a precarious path for the paint to stick, a different sort of paint had to be used too. the original material too toxic for human’s skin, she always had to make sure to not be poisoning her model, that was important. she also had to make sure to practice, practice and practice some more before doing the actual work.

that was because some people thought they understood the process of staying still, not even moving a muscle, because the skin stretches and the painted lines move with it, if not dried during the action, it had to be redone. sometimes, only because she was a perfectionist, made as such by years and years of mastering the art she was proud of. so to get jonghyun here, it hadn’t taken just today. it’d been a rigorous routines of let me try please? how about today? tomorrow maybe? is today a good day? 

then a day of making him give in for just a small image across his shoulder blade, which didn’t need him to stay still for too long. then a bigger picture for another time. the truth was, jisun had had one in mind from the his twenty-first birthday. something about the way he’d looked on the day she’d dragged him out of his house to properly celebrate had made her think of this right here. the memory of what she’d just questioned him with.

his answer had her laughing, but did not break her from the task at hand. before giving him an answer, she had to finish this one line, give it a perfect thin stroke at the end. “they both have their beauty, and they look nothing alike, jonghyun. zebras are fine lines and lean and look majestic, but tigers,” jisun’s brush moved in the middle of the heads of the animals meeting, they had to be graceful, a mesh, one that was so unlikely that it just had to look natural. 

much like the innocence in his words which she could still remember today. “they’re fierce, they look like fearless warriors.” 

a warrior and a royal, they were fitting. not usually in the same space, one meant to serve the other, but there were stories of warrior princes and kings. she was keen on believing that the greatest kingdoms were built only because their kings had fought with them on the battlefields. 

“Remember when we were six,” She was speaking with a delicate tone, everything about her education had raised her to never break out of this volume. Even among a screaming crowd, Jisun would never think of raising her voice. Let the other yell like animals in a jungle, she was a feather in every situations. For now, that light as a feather body was put still on top of his back, a straddle necessary for the paint lines she was tracing over his back. It was a beginning of a painting, the design of something majestic that--she made him promise to not ask or pester her about until she was done with it. 

it is without surprise, that she was given to a life where she would prosper. after all, she’s the rarest of all presents. she’s not the first, and will not be the last, but like every other ones that have been given to the begging hands that sought them, they are treated like the wonders they are.

that is to say, her childhood, her teenage years and her adulthood will never encounter any difficulties. she will always have a proper health, her appearance will always surpass those of others. her wealth will never fail her. where she wishes to invest, she will prosper and attain any goals she sets for herself. 

there won’t be any set backs, every obstacles will be a teaching lesson, but not a lesson that will make her kneel in despair. she will not need to be strong, if she wishes to be weak and still obtain the good grace of the universe, she shall obtain them. 

her balance will never tip heavily on one side. she will be fair, but only when it serves her own purpose. those who seek to undo her will find a deserving end. she is protected by every stars in the night and the beaming light of her dearest mother.