tojours pur. not just a crest, but a legacy and a promise. as a boy, you traced your family tree with soft fingertips, skirting around the scorch marks and picking at the paper with prim, perfect nails. above you, a wall of constellations and stars; your heritage delineated in the cosmos. you were a proud child — arrogant by nature and bolstered by your parents’ insistence that you were exceptional by virtue of blood and birthright. a hero of myth in a world of mortal men.
but when you were tall enough, when you scrambled over the walls and emerged into the world beyond your father’s kingdom, you found yourself standing toe to toe with an uncomfortable truth. when you played with the muggle children in the back alleys and up the closes, when you fell and skinned your bony elbows, your wounds were still fringed with grit and dirt. you compared battle scars and felt your heart sink as the realisation set in. there was no ichor in your veins. you all bled the same.
but you clung onto faith. you wanted so badly to believe in your legacy that, when you shouldered your way into a carriage with three other boys and proclaimed yourself to be a god, you clawed and spat at the bright-eyed stranger who told you it wasn’t so. we’re all the same here, he said smugly. you’d better just get used to it.
and as it later transpired, you were the same. four boys connected by four threads of fate — all red and gold. your stomach dropped and your cheeks flamed as you slunk towards the lions’ den; the dark eyes of your family boring into you from across the hall. it was your first taste of an othering. you wrote to your mother and told her of your troubles and creeping doubts. you begged her to explain and to set your mind at ease, but she did not return your letter.
and as autumn turned to winter, as you edged closer to your new companions with all confidence of a mean stray, you began to wonder.
the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. you were brothers in more than just name — and you did have a name; a shared moniker chosen over the course of long nights spent scheming and laughing and swapping secrets. you would have split your palms and sealed your fates together gladly.
but as you grew older, and as your shadows grew longer, you began to sense that you'd been cast adrift in a dark ocean. the waters yet uncharted were deep, and dark, and home to unseen monsters — but you knew them all too well. they smiled back at you in the mirror and in polaroid photos; once-treasured memories, now turned sour. you’re one of them, aren’t you? sirius black. dip your head below the surface and you’ll grow scales and sharp teeth. do it, and you'll be free to swim.
you’re struggling to stay afloat, and you’re starting to sense that your friends would sooner see you tugged down by the current than hoist you back to shore. there’s both light and dark inside you, but maybe your light is different to theirs — the cold fire of a star on the brink of collapse. . .
No era tan malo como parecía. Aunque las peleas a puños se le daban excelente y tenía un (pequeño) vicio por los cigarrillos, Kang Hyuk era noble y de buen corazón.
A solas y sentado en un viejo sillón, recordó las tardes de años atrás haciendo el tonto con Kim Sung Kyu, riéndose de cualquier tontería y practicando artes marciales juntos. Él, con el paso de los años, había ganado un lugar en la vida del menor y lo llegó a querer tanto como a su propio gemelo.
La amistad entre ellos dos, había surgido de los gustos en común entre ambos y la personalidad tan distinta de cada uno. El mayor, aunque más fuerte y musculoso, era el más tranquilo de los dos y quien había evitado en más de una ocasión, que Hyuk se metiera en problemas mayores. A su muerte, el menor perdió la mitad de su equipo y el mejor amigo que había tenido.
Miró al asiento donde solía sentarse el mayor, estando ahora vacío y sonrió. Una foto de él con los hermanos Kim adornaba a un costado de este, todos sonreían de forma alegre, ignorantes que esa sería la última que lograrían tomarse.
A la sombra de Kim Sung Kyu, él cuidaría a la hermanita que había dejado desprotegida, hasta el día que los tres pudieran reencontrarse, cuidaría que nada ni nadie llegase a lastimarla.
