Chapter 2333 BC
Im Young Soo had two very close childhood friends, Wang Yao and Honda Kiku.
Yao had been his first friend. He was of similar age with the Korean, but he usually was
the mature one of the two. The Chinese and the Korean had always been in a world
closed off from everyone else. That is…until Yao grew curious of the outside world.
Yao and Young Soo had been playing together as always, getting into arguments and
fist fights. One would yell out, "You jerk! Leave me some too!" While the other would
retort, "I'm doing you a favor, fat-ass!" It was really a daily procedure. One day, while
they had been engaged in one of their more literal fist fights, they somehow tripped
themselves and managed to tumble down a hill in a wheel-like motion, slapstick-
comedy-style. The result ended up with them both drenched in the pond at the bottom
of the hill. Both of them were unharmed, and eventually, the silence burst into roaring
laughter. But there was another little country in this mix.
He was quiet, very shy, and seemed easily startled. This young country wasn't that
much younger than the other two, yet still significantly younger. He had what looked
like a paper fan in one hand and a small bucket in his other. Very quietly, he hovered
over the small pond, with an incredibly serious aura. With a quick flick of his wrist, he
somehow managed to land a small fish into the bucket with his paper scooper. He let
out a relieved, contented smile, looking rather pleased with his self-accomplishment.
He raised his trustworthy paper scooper once again with that same serious aura. But
just before his scooper hit the pond's surface, he ended up at the floor of the pond
and it's lukewarm waters. 'Was this the end? Is this how I'm going to cease existing?
By drowning? Me, Kiku Honda?'
It was only after Kiku started to flail his arms around in a desperate attempt to make
a signal for help that the other two countries had stopped laughing and finally noticed
something was wrong. In their fall, Yao was cushioned by Young Soo, and Young Soo
was cushioned by Kiku. But because Kiku was too short, he was completely hidden in
the murky waters of the pond. The two older countries quickly got up and helped the
smaller nation up. Kiku's face had been completely covered in mud!
"Che, who's this shrimp?" Despite his snippy retort, Young Soo's actions were much
kinder. He took one of his oversized sleeves and used it as a wash cloth to wipe away
the mud, using the water from the pond that they were now standing in. With an
almost snobbish air around him, Yao stood rather distant from these two. Well, at
least until Young Soo finally got all of the mud off from the younger nation, uncovering
a beautiful face.
'It really is a beautiful face.' Yao thought. It had been love at first sight. He was always
fond of his Korean buddy, which was fine. Young Soo was always fun to hang out with.
He was oblivious most of the time; not really paying much attention to his surroundings.
Yao's motherly instincts had kicked in the first time he had met Young Soo. Young Soo,
although a small nation, was actually pretty strong. He was indeed very difficult to tie
down. He would easily get offended by neighboring countries, and because of that, he
was teased often. But Yao had found that charming and felt he had to protect his naïve
friend. Yes, he had to protect him! And now, those same feelings had rushed back as
soon as he saw Kiku's adorably shy and scared face. Yao became overly excited. Giving
his old friend a great big pat on the head, Yao grinned from ear to ear. "Let's go dry
ourselves!" Yao was only overjoyed, but the young nation seemed to misinterpret the
Chinese one's intentions.
'Why is that mean bully hurting the nice boy that helped me?' Kiku couldn't understand
Yao's enthusiasm. The only thing he did understand was that this Young Soo guy was
very kind and gentle.
Very kind.