ɐqouʇ.

[closeness]

The details of Nam Finn's birth are quite strange, but that seems to be the way of half-borns. What we know is this: Finn had been raised thus far as a normal boy in a normal city with normal friends and interests. There had always been a strangeness to him, of course, for he was someone who liked to stray beyond the beaten path, flowers always bowing to him as he passed. He likes reading but he likes exploring more, taking trains to the ends of their lines and back again, walking until his feet are sore.

An average student, he is often daydreaming in the back of the classroom, doodling fantasy landscapes in the margins of his notebooks. (Or he is skipping class once in a while with his childhood best friend Jisoo.) The guidance counselor tells his father that he could push himself so much further if he put in a little more effort. Finn dabbles in a bit of everything – sketching, writing, photography, even a little soccer – but he hasn't found something he'd like to commit to.

Introspective and easily lost, there had always been a voice in the back of his mind, whispering unintelligible secrets that he couldn't quite decipher until one day Finn fell asleep on the train to his home in the outer edges of the city and woke up instead to a world not quite like his own.

Like Alice following the rabbit, he followed those whispers and climbing vines calling him further and further out until he could feel Seoul turn itself upside down. Or perhaps it was Finn somersaulting himself. Either way, it was as if the world had been black and white and he could finally see in color, discovering a world of magic that had been there all along. It was there that he learned of his true parentage, that he was born to cherry tree guardian, that he possesses some magic of his own, though he doesn't quite know how to use that yet. It manifests in plants greeting him as he passes, trees shielding him from the sun, and sharing a little connection with creatures. It wasn't until he met Puppy, his half-brother, that things began sliding into place.

Shy and sensitive but always eager to lend a helping hand, Finn doesn't think he's cut out for this world, but he's grateful to have found friends and family to help him find his footing.