Chapter Text
long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony.
then everything changed when the fire nation attacked.
no, i’m fucking with you. that’s not how this story begins. instead of an alternate universe asiatic continent, think south korea. and if you want to get real into it, think jeolla do. the sobaek mountains, hundreds of years ago, encased in the worst blizzard with the ugliest howling winds since Creation. why is such a sacred mountain, so close to the heavens, suffering in what was supposed to have been a peaceful, dry winter?
(a disgrace)
the youngest daughter from the heavenly gatekeeper’s family has fallen in love with a human.
(disgusting)
the youngest daughter is pregnant with a human’s child. this is unacceptable.
they cast her out from her home the night she is to have her child and for hours she wanders the snow, slipping and cold down to her celestial bones. the first hour, she meets a woodcutter splitting logs just outside of his cabin where he lives with his jealous wife.
“please, sir,” she begs him. “please, could i lodge with you tonight? i am going to have my child and the snow is falling so fast.”
the woodcutter is a gentle, kind man, and his heart softens for this unfortunate girl who has no other place to turn. asking her to wait, he leaves his wood in the snow and runs inside to ask his wife.
she berates him; “you fool, what are you doing speaking to strangers on nights when we need the wood in our small cottage the most? she is probably looking to take advantage of your weak heart and steal what little we have. now sit and have supper, we have more than enough wood for tonight.”
so he, for all his gentleness, is also a coward. she waits for another hour while the storm howls until she can stay still no longer and is forced to move so she does not freeze where she stands.
approaching the third hour of the storm, she finds an inn lighting up its surroundings with glowing windows. in it lives a widow with her daughter-in-law, and on the door of the inn there is a sign that welcomes travelers caught in the bad weather. the widow takes one look at the young, pregnant goddess and draws her lamp away from the window.
alone in the middle of the night, the girl feels her birth pains begin. she cries out and the forest moves with the strength of her pain; the pain of her rejection and the cold looks on her parents’ faces, the pain of her contractions as they send her staggering through the wood, the pain of calling for her lover but he does not come.
she cries out because she is a girl about to give birth in the snow and her child will die before she gets to see their face. she is ugly with the fear of it, the stars scattered through her dress and hair dimming and igniting and burning the ground around her. her tears melt through the ice as she screams and power pulses out from her to catch the attention of an old woman, far up the mountain, in a wooden hut.
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that is where the legend ends and the greatest love story ever told begins. in the old woman’s hut, the young girl gives birth to her half-human son and rejoices despite her circumstances. she names him park jinyoung; her own great gift.
nobody knows it yet, but his fate is decided from the moment he takes his first breath to cry. jinyoung will die to save true love, and the only love he will ever know while the half-human still lives will be tragedy.
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it’s 2017, you’ve got your village on a mountain, houses made of stone, and crazy fucking elders with their ridiculous legends. you also have your lee jihoon trudging up said mountain in the forest for wood that his great aunt demanded like the village doesn’t have a centralized heating system, or that renovating the shrines to run off of electricity instead of wood stoves would disturb the feng shui or something.
god, he hates this place. he’s 5’5 and weighs less than 140 lbs, holding a shitting ax and he’s going to slip and fall on the godforsaken snow and he’ll be found dead in this ridiculous lilac coat. jisoo’d probably enjoy it, too, with his ceremonial hanbok and his harem of halmeonis seduced by his eyelid creases and church-oppa aesthetic.
“fucking shit ,” jihoon trips over the icy path and fucking fuck i’m going to die slides down it helplessly for several meters. when he does slow to a stop, he grabs onto the closest tree and glares up the mountain, filled with rage and a little bit of hysterical terror
“WHAT THE FUCK, ” he fumes. “I HATE THIS FUCKING MOUNTAIN, THIS FUCKING SEASON, IT IS 2017 AND I AM HEEE EERE-” and he cuts off in a shriek because who is that? somebody’s just come out from behind a tree, perfectly unruffled and clean. he’s got a pretty face, like jisoo, but it seems almost out of place with his broad shoulders and strong jaw surrounded by frozen gray rock and ugly fir trees. his put-togetherness and the force by which jihoon is immediately attracted to him pisses him the fuck off and did that asshole just look at my fucking parka judgmentally?
“i am not about to freeze my nuts off for the sake of style,” he informs him. “i don’t know what it is with flower boys these days, but practicality trumps appearances and you’re going to lose yourself some potential babymakers if you stay out here any longer, jerkwad.”
the pretty man regards him, bemused, like he’s not entirely sure what business jihoon thinks he has in addressing him. curled like that, jihoon notices that his lips are feline and unnecessarily androgynous, and it has him swiping his own lips with the tip of his tongue unconsciously.
“i will not be freezing anything off,” flower boy tells him. “thank you for your concern. i am here on an errand, though. if you are able, could you direct me to the village i was told is located on this mountain?”
so then instead of a tiny, rage filled gremlin with an axe trampling through a forested mountain, you have a bewildered lee jihoon leading what could very well be korea’s next top model to his hometown.
(he has no idea, but it’s flower boy’s hometown too. he’s arrived to pay his respects.)
flower boy hums when they find the stone path that leads farther up the mountain. his eyes crinkle when jihoon whips around and glares at him, and when jihoon stumbles because fuck he’s gorgeous he actually laughs. “so,” he says, “you do know where you’re going. i thought you were one of the mountain trolls, but i’d never seen one wearing that kind of coat before.”
“what the fuck,” jihoon scowls. “of course i know where i’m going, i live here. and i’m not a troll, i’m not even that short, shut up.”
“i never said anything about your height,” flower boy hums again, endlessly amused. “by the way, i’m park jinyoung. it’s nice to finally meet you, lee jihoon. i’ve heard a lot about you from your great-aunt, and i’m staying with her for the next couple of weeks. i guess we’ll see a lot of each other.”