The Drabble Diaries
by Tomoyo-chan
Disclaimer: I do not own Moon Boy, the korean manhwa by Lee Young-You.
Rabbit in the Moon-Palace - August 13, 2012
They told him he was a prince. He believed that, for children accept things as they are. They told him he had been taken by an evil witch, but was now returned. He took that too. The woman who had been his mother had punished him for running in the house just this morning. He didn't want to go back.
They have him candied fruit and soft pillows and let him run as much as he wanted. They gave him a new name - his old one they told him - and he was no longer the boy from before but was now Yu-Da, prince of the moon palace.
And whenever he broke his toys, or when his eyes hurt and turned red, or any of a dozen minor tragedies, they took him to see all the rabbits in cages. They looked at him with eyes as red as his own. Their long ears quivered as they reached though the wire of the cages as him. It should have been frightening, but he loved to see them, all grasping fingers and crying voices.
And then he met the girl who didn't cry. Myung-Ee never cried or called out, even as those around her worked themselves into a frenzy of sound. Sa-Eun said she was already dead inside and he didn't understand why Yu-Da came back time after time. The others were more fun to watch. But Yu-Da didn't think that was true. She wasn't dead inside. She was watching him.
Once and only once did she speak to him. Sa-Eun had gone to watch a fight a few cages over and for a few moments they were alone.
Run, for we cannot. Run, or else you will die.
Yu-Da had laughed off her words. He was the prince of the moon palace, nothing would ever hurt him. His fox servants brought him anything he ever wanted. No one would ever hurt him.
The girl was gone a few weeks later. A new screaming girl was in her cage. Yu-Da lost interest in the rabbits. Without Myung-Ee they were just noisy animals who hurt his ears.
He barely thought of her, let alone her warning, until the day he was presented to Hang-Ah. Then he had wished he had listened. Had realized he was not a fox prince but a rabbit prisoner. For now he was staring at the sharp teeth of his executioner.