Outsider ? Woosang

A/n: This symbol ~ indicates a scene change or a POV change.

If you looked at Yeosang, the first thing you'd think is that he's different. Not in the 'oh this guy has a unique face, so handsome' or 'look at his eye colour, is that natural?'. He's different as in you'd widen your eyes and slowly back away from him, trying not to make eye contact while at the same time staring at him, wondering if he actually exists.

One would think having no marks on your face in a world full of people with marks wouldn't be that big of a deal, but unfortunately for Yeosang, it is.

Where he's from, the mark on both your cheeks defined who you are, your status, your personality, how powerful your magic is. It's like the world would wreak havoc if marks didn't exist. Yeosang personally thinks it's a bit dramatic really, never quite understanding the significance of them, why people let it rule their way of thinking to such an extent.

He'll never understand because he doesn't bear a mark, he never has. Early on in his life, Yeosang knew he was different. He and his mother, who also didn't have a mark, lived in the outskirts of the kingdom, isolated from everyone else. He never left that area, his mother telling him to stay home while she went into the village to buy necessities, always covering her face.

The one time he begged her to take him out into the village it was magical, literally. Being unmarked came with the additional downside of not having powers. That day, he had seen something he had never seen before, people using magic in their daily routine like carrying heavy things, growing crops, and even entertainment. He remembered watching a puppet show with other children, mesmerised at the dolls that were moving by themselves.

It would have been a nice memory if his mother hadn't forced him to cover his face because after a while, barely being able to see anything, he tripped, revealing his face to the crowd at the market stall.

He still remembered the sound of the collected gasps, the disgusted and shocked faces of the children his age, like he was a disease ridden animal. He hadn't come back since then.

And ever since then Yeosang had grown up to be bitter at the world, for making he and his mother seem so vile that he even hated himself at one point, for having 10-year-old Yeosang painting marks on his face with the juice from berries, then angrily wiping them off, ashamed that he had dared to think that he'd fit in.

An old lady visited them occasionally, who seemed to be the only person not appalled at the way they look, bringing them baked goods and showing Yeosang magic tricks. He had no idea who she was though, his mother didn't say anything about her either, he didn't mind since he could learn about magic from her. Magic would have made their lives a lot easier especially for his mother who was sick. He couldn't care less about marks, but he's always wanted magic.

The question of why they were different was constantly asked by Yeosang but always dismissed by his mother, saying he wasn't old enough to fully understand. By the time he was 18, she had passed away, leaving him all alone.

Yeosang spent the next few years of his life depressed and alone, not wanting any contact with the outside world. It was them who made his mother like this, she had been sick but unable to get medicine all because of her lack of marks. He stayed in his little home angry at the world.

He made sure he'd never have to leave his patch of land, growing all the fruit and vegetables himself, hunting meat out in the woods instead of going to the village and having to cover his face. He even gathered lumber for the colder days, chopping the wood with great effort.

Yeosang acknowledged that he will have to live like this forever, living a strenuous life while the rest of the world used magic.

Ever since his mother passed, he lived isolated, never once even coming in contact with another person for around 2 years.