I Find the Mountain God Most Delightful

^Look at me, actually flirting with a mountain god!

The year Su Han returned to her hometown to attend school, she met a graceful, striking young man on the mountain.

Beneath the heavy clouds, he lay on a large rock, looking relaxed and at ease.

Birds perched on his shoulder, and the maple trees couldn't conceal his beauty.

Su Han was momentarily entranced. On a mountain where late autumn had left the trees bare, she saw a flash of lush green, as if everything were flourishing again because of him.

Across the wilderness and dead trees, she glimpsed the world's rarest beauty.

It stirred her heart more than love at first sight.

In that moment, she thought he was a god. Her restless heart suddenly grew calm.

-

After a year of studying in the countryside, Su Han had spent the entire year secretly in love with this young man.

He always sat in the back row of the classroom, either lazily closing his eyes or gazing out the window. His looks were impossible to miss, yet he was so quiet, utterly out of place amid all the noise.

He was so quiet that when he stopped coming to school for a long, long time, nobody even cared. It was as if he'd disappeared without a trace.

Su Han climbed for a whole day and night to reach the temple at the mountain's peak and pray for him.

That day, the sky was buried beneath thick, unbroken gloom, even more desolate than when she first arrived. Rain began to fall before long. The steep path was treacherous, and as she descended, her foot suddenly slipped. She nearly fell off the cliff.

Her heart clenched. The next second, she fell into a warm embrace.

"Are you blind? Can't you watch where you're going?" His voice was cool, like the distant chime of a temple bell, with a hint of concern.

Su Han opened her eyes and smiled gently. "I'm not blind. I can still see you secretly following me the whole way."

In the thick white mist, his hair was platinum blond, and a golden mark sat between his brows. He looked just like the divine lord in the clouds she'd seen in an ancient painting.

He really was the mountain god. He really was a god.

*

Later on, the god stayed by a little girl's side from high school through college, then through her working years, all the way to the end of her life.

He looked after the clouds, the wind, the flowers, the grass, and every living thing on the mountain.

She danced among the clouds,

never knowing that she had stirred the heart of this divine lord into a misty haze.

Classical dance artist * Little god disguised as a boy

Loves the lively human world * Unfamiliar with the ways of mortals

-When she arrived, the skies were clear and all the plants flourished.

For thousands of years, dynasties rose and fell, and the seasons came and went. The little god had grown weary of bringing clouds and rain day after day, and instead found peace on the desolate mountain.

He never knew when a little girl had appeared and entered his domain.

Her eyes, gazing up at him, held tiny glimmers of light, brighter even than the glazed tiles in the palace back home.

Blurb finalized on 2021.12.21

Theme: Perhaps it's a romantic fairy tale