[Guest Writer: Takenoko] To Meet the Height of Birds (5/?) – A SKKS fanfic

I think I can pinpoint the exact second in the series when I fell in love with Moon Jae Shin. It is at the end of episode 6, in this one moment, where his smile captured my heart forever. But this is also the episode, I think, in which he inadvertently loses his heart. To Kim Yoon Hee.

 

Title: To Meet the Height of Birds (Episode #6)
Genre: General, Romance
Characters: Jae Shin, Yoon Hee
Words: 878
Summary: Your smiles have not blinded me yet…

o.o0o.o

Apples are his favorite fruit. He munches on them incessantly, eats them clean down to the core, and in fact, has been told by Yong Ha that the scent of apples lingers in his wake. However, whether this last statement is actual truth, or just Gu Yong Ha’s typical poetic nonsense, is anyone’s guess.

Apples are not that rare of a commodity in Sungkyunkwan, and used to be easy to get one’s hands on if one knew which ajumma was in charge of shipments from the orchards that week, but Geol Oh has found a formidable adversary in scholar Kang Moo, who in the past year has silently liberated bushels of apples from the kitchen without raising a single protest. Jae Shin works hard to keep up, though, and is usually able to sustain his fix through some clever business dealings with the pageboys.

o.o0o.o

After Lee Sun Joon gets his molgi, Jae Shin’s roommates are no longer to be found in their room, ever. The duo train tirelessly, from morning lectures to afternoon runs. And Kim Yoon Shik, who up until yesterday had looked like death warmed over, is now the picture of sparkling vivacity, even when standing in the chill of early dawn. Whatever he had been missing earlier, he seems to have found it –a newfound faith is fueling the fire in his eyes and blood in his cheeks.

Jae Shin sits on the steps and listens to the rhythmic whoosh-thunk of arrows flying true. He also hears someone’s stomach rumbling.

o.o0o.o

He is cornered immediately after breakfast outside the dining hall by Gu Yong Ha, who has the look on his face that means Jae Shin’s in hot water again.

“Sooo…” the irrepressible Yeorim begins, with a grin as wide as Headmaster Choi’s waist. “I saw what you just did with our Daemul, there.” The suggestion in his voice is far more than Jae Shin can handle without protest.

“What?”

“Oh, Geol Oh, Geol Oh, don’t try to play innocent. Why, however would you explain the loss of your apple that you just picked up from the kitchen moments ago?”

Jae Shin rolls his eyes. “It was an accident. I dropped it.”

“Ahh, I see,” his friend says, drawing a finger through the air to map out his train of thought. “So, let me get this straight: you go every morning to the dining hall expressly for our one allotted piece of breakfast fruit. You even go early so that you can pick out an apple, because apples are your favorite. You accidentally fumble while you’re holding this apple, you who can juggle knives in your sleep, and it just happens to land next to everyone’s favorite pretty boy, who, we’ve all seen, has been working quite hard of late! And he picked it up before you had a chance to reclaim it?”

“Yes,” he affirms, perfectly deadpan.

Yong Ha nods his head sagely, as if he believes him, but the twinkle in his eyes belies his acceptance of Geol Oh’s story.

“Alas,” he wails theatrically, as students begin trailing out of the dining hall. “Poor, dear Geol Oh! You are SO misfortunate! Accidentally dropping your favorite fruit that you cannot live without, your precious apple that was meant to be your only sustenance for the morning, and it’s immediately snatched up by some freshman! Your own roommate, at that! Oh, the betrayal! How can life be so unjust?” At this he throws his arms around Jae Shin as if to start crying on his shoulder, but Jae Shin shoves him non-too-gently in the ribs and ducks out from underneath.

“Shut up, people are staring,” he mutters, and quickly strides away from the scene.

Gu Yong Ha chuckles and waves gaily after him. “Don’t worry, good deeds are their own reward!”

o.o0o.o

When he walks into his room late that evening (after hiccupping furiously and trying to avoid the stupid women on campus all day) there are two apples, one red and one green, sitting prettily on his shelf. Kim Yoon Shik, who is already curled up in bed, stirs drowsily upon his entrance and murmurs, “Yeorim sa-hyung was quite…loud this morning. So I did some asking around…”

Jae Shin doesn’t know what to say.

“And as it turns out,” Yoon Shik says, cracking open one eye to look up at his roommate, “Kang Moo sa-hyung was bribing the fourth shift’s kitchen boy for a daily supply of apples, so I blackmailed him by threatening to tell the head chef.”

Jae Shin huffs softly in amusement, and elects not to tell him, for now, that he and the third shift’s kitchen boy have had the same arrangement for just as long, they’re just more discreet. Kim Yoon Shik’s eyes melt into two warm pools of delight at his laughter, and something in his chest turns a cartwheel at the sight.

“Thanks,” he manages, around a sudden lump in his throat.

“No, thank you,” Kim Yoon Shik says, as he rolls over to face Jae Shin fully, exuberantly. “For this,” he raises his still-healing hand, “and that,” and points at the apples, “and everything.”

“…for taking care of me… Sa-hyung, I’ll owe you when we win tomorrow!”

By the soft glow of candlelight, his smile is incandescent.

o.o0o.o

Thanks to everyone who's been reading and commenting so far! I think one crucial dynamic that developed throughout this episode is that Yoon Hee’s persistent and whole-hearted efforts eventually led Jae Shin to change his mind about participating in the archery competition. Because she needs him. Because she asked. Because for her, he is willing to risk everything.