Private Dog Days Are Over

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: ADRAS

​

Jun dropped into her chair with a sigh, sinking into the worn-yet-comfortable cushion. Her bones ached from toiling in the sand, her eyes were itchy and tired. Taking a nice, cool shower sounded like a dream but the effort to make it happen was too overwhelming. She opted instead to pop open her terminal and check for new holo-messages. Being this far away from any major settled system made receiving transmissions difficult; she’d been making weekly stops at the closest orbital station to refuel, restock, and reconnect.

Her tired eyes softened a bit when she saw the terminal connect to the station’s holo-network. She felt her shoulders sink as she skimmed through junk mail, hoping for a message from Aiden Porte . She missed him deeply on these long voyages across the starts and wished sometimes she could just pack him up and bring him along. Jun scrolled a bit more, nearly ready to log off for the night when a certain name stopped her immediately. “Aunt Hye?” Jun whispered to herself, seeing Inhye Oh-chai appended to the message.

Communication between Jun and the handmaiden who she called aunt but loved more like a mother had been sparse at best since they were both exiled from House Chiyo. The fear of being discovered by her father’s scions dissuaded them from speaking much more than a few holo-messages every couple of months. This most recent stretch had gone on longer, and Jun had begun to fear the worst. But there it was, a message from Inhye… and at the bottom, a set of coordinates.

Jun’s eyes widened. Was this a mistake? A trap, laid by the scions? Did they find Aunt Hye, assume her identity to get to her? Or was this finally a reunion? Jun leaned back in her chair, putting distance herself and the monitor. She twiddled the jaw-length braid of hair that hung by her face, wishing that Aiden were here to tell her what to do. He always knew what to do. Her eyes read and reread the coordinates a dozen times as she considered what to do.

“That’s… not far from here,” she said to herself as her nerves loosened their grip and the logic returned.

“That’s Adras.” She punched the data into her navicomputer, charting a hypothetical jump. The plot was much closer than she expected; Jun had enough fuel to make the jump, investigate the location, and make it back without stopping to resupply. The girl chewed her lip, weighing the risk. If this was a trap, Jun was more afraid of learning what became of Inhye than she was of facing the scions alone. But if this was real and she missed it?

Jun would suffer the endless “what if?” forever.

“R6, we’re jumping to Adras,” the girl said with conviction. Her rusted companion droid, who spent much of its time dreaming of new servos and fresh paint, whirred to the freighter’s controls and locked in their course. Jun gave the astromech a final nod, then sat back as the stars outside her viewport stretched from twinkling dots to long streaks of light.

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

By the time Inhye heard the distant rumble of a light freighter's engines, she had just brought the spicy tteokbokki soup back up to a simmer. She had started it soon after sending a holomessage to Jun mostly because she herself had forewent breakfast this morning, but also with the hope that the young woman would arrive sooner than later.

Inhye stepped out of the stove house. Three dogs of various size plus a dray greeted her right outside of the door. She squeezed past, shutting the door behind her, then walked out from under the structure's awning to look up at the sky. She spotted Jun's ship but didn't know if it was her niece or another contact from the Spacer Alliance.

In either case, she hoped that they would be mindful enough to land a good distance away from her rice paddies, orchard, and paddock where her horses currently were grazing. Also in either case, Inhye was going to feed them.

"Oi," she said to her four-legged shadows. "Let's get you some lunch so you don't beg for ours."

As the ship landed, Inhye gave the last dog a bone hanging from a drying string on the outside wall of the butchering shed. The dray wandered off, uninterested, and found itself a patch of grass to eat.

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: ADRAS

​

The Mako landed on the edge of Inhye's homestead. It was only a short walk between the freighter that Jun had called home and the much more permanent structure that her aunt called hers, but the girl's feet were hesitant. She'd made it as far as the end of the boarding ramp before halting and taking in the scenery. Adras was a beautiful world covered in rolling hills, snow-capped mountains, and gnarled bonsai trees that reminded her of the Atrisian highlands where she and her little brother, Aiko, would play when they were young. A calendar would prove that it was only five years ago, but to Jun, it felt like a lifetime had passed.

She took a lungful of cool mountain air and held it in her chest, savoring the freshness before exhaling and stepping onto the hard-packed soil. The calming breeze and distant whinny of a horse drew Jun nearer the homestead. She passed by a large boulder and reached out, running her fingers over its surface to feel the moss that had covered its top. "No sand," she said to herself, not missing her time on Tatooine. Not even krayt dragon bones could make up for the heat and blisters and sand.

A new scent called Jun's attention back to the settlement; the familiar smell of Aunt Hye's tteokbokki soup. Jun's mouth watered almost immediately, which in turn reminded her how hungry she was. That settled it for the girl. It was time to see her old friend once again.

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

"Bee!" called Inhye, realizing her guest was in fact Jun when she rounded the corner of one of her homestead buildings. She ran to close to distance between them and threw her arm around Jun in a hug. Normally, Inhye would either ask if she could hug Jun or wait until the girl initiated physical contact, but Inhye couldn't help it this time. Under the circumstance of reuniting with not just someone she cared deeply about but the only other being in the galaxy that knew the experience of exile from House Chiyo, happiness boiled over. Containing it was not an option.

Years of loneliness and shame evaporated from the former handmaiden's body.

She sighed into the weightlessness, pressed a gentle, motherly kiss into Jun's hair, and then remembered her boundary.

Inhye pulled back, stumbling a step into the slightly overgrown grass. "Chit," she muttered. It'd be the first time Jun heard her curse, and was a sign that her vocabulary was slowly being influenced by the change in direction her life had taken over the last few years. "Sorry. Come, come to eat." Inhye took another step back, then turned away to lead Jun to the covered outdoor dining table. Two settings were already made up. She took the large serving bowl from between them. "Sit there. I'll be right back."

And she was, with the bowl full of soup.

"I hope you're hungry, bee."

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: ADRAS

​

If it were anybody else with their arms around Jun like that, she'd have melted just to get away from them. But this time, she not only accepted the embrace, but wrapped her arms around Aunt Hye and hugged her tightly. It was like greeting a ghost - a warm, friendly, welcoming ghost. Jun had spent so much time believing that she'd never see Inhye again. Never hear her voice, eat her food. Never be called "Bee" again. Just thinking about it now was making her upset, but Jun was good at keeping tears from rolling down her cheeks. Aunt Hye would only notice them if she looked close enough through the thin layer of dirt that always laid over the girl's face.

Jun offered a gentle "Hi" when they pulled apart. She was completely unphased by the spot of profanity. If Aunt Hye knew even a quarter of the things Jun had seen and heard since fleeing to the Outer Rim, she'd faint. The only good thing to come of her constant running was Aiden Porte , and Jun had no idea what her aunt would think of her little Bee galivanting the stars with a lone Jedi boy. It was a conversation for another time, which Jun suspected would come more frequently than before now that she knew Inhye had settled someplace safe and hidden.

She followed the woman to the lanai where a table was set for two. Jun picked her seat and nodded at the offering of a hot meal. Her stomach growled at the thought of tteokbokki. Soon, Inhye was back with a big bowl of everything Jun missed about home, and none of what she didn't. "I missed you so much, Aunt Hye," the girl said as she ladled soup into the woman's bowl first. She lacked many ways to repay her for the meal, but this was a kind gesture of gratitude.

When their bowls were full, Jun glanced subtly at Inhye, curious to see if the woman still bowed her head in Atrisian tradition or if she would simply tuck in. Jun became embarrassingly aware that she herself had slowly forgotten to thank their ancestors for meals, but such a thing became unimportant when most meals were scrapped together or caught at the end of a sharpened stick.

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

Some things from her old life she couldn't think of doing anymore—dressing in fancy hanboks and attending political events for instance—but saying grace was not one. She still did it at every meal, but often opted to recite the traditional prayer silently even when alone. Her thanksgiving had always been between herself, the gods and sprits, and the land, not Katashi Chiyo or his wife, though their money had been the facilitator of her livelihood.

Now, though, out here, there was not a middleman. Either she harvested her food, bought what she couldn't produce, and prepared it, or she went hungry.

Adras provided. When it didn't, well, freedom still blossomed from the ground and that sustained her for a time.

After praying, Inhye reached over her bowl to pick a persimmon out of the fruit bowl.

"I hope I didn't scare you, bee," she began. "With my message I mean. We should really come up with a code phrase to work into further correspondence." She took a juicy bite of the orange fruit before smiling at Jun. "Not that I'm afraid of Katashi's scions."

Oh, she had left that behind too: calling him lord.

"Have you heard anything about them of late?"

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: ADRAS

​

Jun’s mouth was full with the warm, spicy broth when Aunt Hye asked her question. “You didn’t scare me,” she said, telling a half-truth. Aunt Hye always knew when she was lying, though, so the girl carried on with her real feelings. “I suppose it was a little unnerving- I thought that something terrible might have happened to warrant compromising your home.”

Part of that was also anger. Adras was quite close to Jun’s stomping ground as a Coalition Jedi. If she’d known Inhye was this close all this time, she’d of course have visited long before now. If only the scions weren’t such a prevalent, untraceable threat. At their mentioning, Jun’s eyes narrowed.

“They found me once, on Stardrift Station. There was a spy ring on board, though - the Network. They hid me, kept me safe until father’s hunters were gone. I had to leave, they said. It was too dangerous for me to remain. I understood.” The ordeal felt like a lifetime ago, and she supposed it was. She’d come to the Outer Rim afterwards, nestling into the Jedi Coalition of Dagobah. Her studies too her to Kirdo III, Andelm IV, and most recently to Tatooine. Jun even risked a trip back to the Core to celebrate with Aiden Porte on Alderaan.

Now, she was back in the Rim, hiding from the threat of House Chiyo to the east and the encroaching Sith Empire to the west. At least she had Aunt Hye, even if only for a single meal.

“This is delicious,” Jun said with a huge smile. She hadn’t realized how fast she was eating until she noticed half the bowl was put away. Hopefully she hadn’t been eating sloppily, but it was hard to slow down after surviving on old Imperial MREs and womp rats.

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

Inhye smiled. She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her work tunic. That gesture and a few new phrases in her vocabulary were evidenced that living in the Outer Rim had already began to erode her noble etiquette. "And it's not got legs." In other words, it wasn't going anywhere. "You're going to give yourself hiccups eating like that." Inhye's concern was not just habit instilled in her over years of helping to care for Jun as she grew up on Atrisia. It was in part that of course but it was also genuine, akin to true, not ordered, parenting.

Then she frowned a bit, backtracking in their conversation. "I'm sorry to hear that, bee. You're safe for now and so am I." Though Inhye was comfortable with acting the part of a parent to some degree, she did not wish to coddle Jun for either of their sakes. Nor did she want to say something that might come off as a lecture, so she kept her personal philosophy to herself. She had learned to find and appreciate the peace in momentary stability. Getting through tomorrow, or even the next hour, was mostly a problem for the future. The present was simply for experiencing.

She added, finally taking up her chopsticks, "Stay as long as you like. Enjoy what's mine as yours." She grabbed up a rice cake and a fish cake. "It's not much, but it's enough." Blowing on the food first, she took the bite.

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: ADRAS

​

Aunt Hye was far too modest; what she considered 'not much' might as well have been a feast for the richest, most powerful nobles in the Core. She was too transfixed on actually eating the food to say as much, but she did slow down out of respect for the woman.

Against the cool mountain breeze, Jun's entire body felt warm. Her belly was full of delicious homemade soup, her heart was glad to reconnect with Inhye, and her hopes had risen tenfold after hearing her aunt's offer to stay as long as she liked -- not needed, but liked. She'd seen a small portion of the homestead on her descent and approach, but she couldn't tell how expansive the operation was. It had to be sizable, though, she thought, if Aunt Hye was supporting the majority of her personal needs. Her nav computer indicated Adras' capital was a relatively large city, but how far away it was from here she did not know.

"How long have you been here, Aunt Hye?" the girl asked. "Did you find this place, or build it yourself?" There was no skepticism in Jun's voice, only genuine curiosity. She knew just how hard it was to do either, start or repurpose a homestead.

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

"Since soon after your clever trick," Inhye replied. She was referring to how Jun had got out of an arranged marriage and away from home—or what, back then, had been her home. Talking her father into an alternative way of bringing House Chiyo honor was clever, yes, but much more brave. Inhye, not knowing that the girl had a plan to save herself, had tried to reason with Katashi. All that had accomplished was Inhye's exile.

"And a bit of both," she added. "I hired a ship captain I happened upon in the spaceport at Jar'Kai. I told him to fly in any direction until he needed to land to refuel. Once here, I wandered into a marketplace in Nezan, the capital here. This property had been in legal limbo for a decade and a half or so before all that was finally worked out so that the Outer Rim Development Corps could auction it off, and that's just what they had who's now my superior doing." She set her chopsticks into her bowl and waved an arm to the horizon in one direction. "These buildings were here but in some disrepair, plus the land was overgrown and wild.

"Your father made sure that I didn't take much more than the clothes on my back away from his Estate when I left. What little else I had I used most of to pay my space fare." Inhye smiled, anticipating that Jun might feel sorry for her having to give away some of the last heirlooms she had of her heritage. "Ai, don't make that face. I was happy to part with what I gave the captain. On the other hand, I wasn't willing to part with what was left, but my supervisor gave me the deed free of charge with the stipulation that I'd join up with the Corps.

"I'm not indentured, don't you worry about that either. I can quit whenever I want and stay here to live, I'll just get some roommates to keep up the farming. But I won't stop." Inhye shook her head. "I much prefer serving the soil beneath my feet than a noblewoman who's afraid to step on it barefoot after a bit of rain."

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: ADRAS

​

Jun chewed the inside of her bottom lip. She knew that Inhye didn’t blame her for her father’s actions, didn’t resent her for what happened behind the curtain in House Chiyo… but she felt a nauseating pang of guilt nonetheless. She slowed down her eating, now poking at her reflection in the soup. It was rather impressive, now that she considered it, but she felt it was more luck than wit that saved her from the altar.

“Father is such a-” Jun started, catching herself before she could say something cruel. It was obvious that she still felt everything just as much today as she did the day she left. “He was content with me trading my future as a housewife for the life of a Jedi, but he didn’t know that I fabricated my acceptance into the Order,” Jun revealed. “For months, I lied about having been chosen by a fictitious Jedi Master. Partly to console myself, I suppose,” she admitted with slumped shoulders. Jun had been at the Coruscant temple for nearly eight months without a Master, a truth that Katashi soon discovered during a surprise visit to see her.

“When he found out, Father was furious. He tried to take me back to Atrisia, but I fled. Now he sends me holovids of himself and Mother with hollow smiles, promising no repercussions if I return to marry a noble man they’ve found for me. No punishment, they say, yet they send armed scions to hunt me down and drag me back.” Jun breathed hard, trying to push the frustration out with her lungs. She didn’t want to be a noble, didn’t want to marry a man older than her, didn’t want to end up like Mother - the only boy she’d ever liked was… well, far from here.

After another moment of quietly stirring her food, Jun looked up at Aunt Hye through watery eyes. She wasn’t a cryer, but the tears were ready to fall at any moment. “I’m so sorry,” Jun whimpered softly, apologizing not for herself but for Katashi. “I’m glad you got away. This place is so beautiful and honest. It suits you, Auntie.”

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

Inhye shrugged at Jun's apology, but smiled. "No matter, bee," she said. "That water's flowed under the bridge and is now far, far out at sea." The corners of her lips turned up further and she flashed her teeth. "I refuse to let a man who isn't my husband give me wrinkles."

Not that Inhye was interested in men anyway. She had yet to tell Jun that they had at least the defiance of a so-called proper marriage in common. In had been habit to hold her preference close to her chest since she first recognized it in herself during childhood.

Silence descended upon them for some minutes as Inhye went back to eating. After a sip of the broth from the lip of her bowl, she set it back down and asked Jun, "Do you want a tour?"

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: Inhye's Homestead, ADRAS

​

"Yes, please!" Jun said, nodding eagerly. She was grinning ear to ear, which was rather adorable in itself but made even better on account of the smudge of broth that sat in the corners of her mouth. Jun noticed it quickly and dabbed it away with a handkerchief. Giggling, she folded the cloth and placed it beneath her empty dinner bowl. "I want to see everything," she affirmed.

Jun had explored and even lived on several homesteads across the Outer Rim during her travels, but none of them had the same radiance as Aunt Hye's. Few even had grass, let alone verdant valleys and majestic snow caps like Adras. It was truly a treat just to breath the fresh highland air - of course Jun wanted to see every inch of the place.

In some small ways, it would be like making up for lost time with Inhye. Seeing how the woman lived, what it took to keep this place going, it would close the gap that had wedged between the two of them.

 

[Inhye Oh-chai]

As Jun made her excitement known, Inhye stood from her bench, leaned over the table, and set her bowl in Jun's. She picked up the pair and began walking towards the closest patch of grass between two outbuildings. Rapping the knuckles of her free hand against the wall of one, she announced, "This is the courtyard shed." She knocked against the other shelter's wall. "And this is the stove house. Where my magic happens."

Soon enough, they came to a durasteel cylinder sprouting up from the grass. "It's a bit muddy here, be careful." It was only after the words came out of her mouth that Inhye realized that the warning was probably wholly unnecessary. Jun had been living on the run for months; mud was the least of her worries now, but it was hard to shake the habits of a handmaiden when in the presence of nobility. When Inhye took a knee on the ground, the soil squelched softly. She reached to pull a level, causing a stream of water to pour from the spout, then quickly rinsed their bowls and chopsticks.

"This is my well," she added. "I'll come back with soap later. I've not been completely uncivilized." She gave Jun a wink before beginning to stand.

Just as she did, the three dogs and one dray came bounding towards them from the direction of the courtyard.

"Oh! Say hello to Guseul, Jang-mi, Baek-hyeon, and..." She bent back down to catch the dray's head in her hands, smiling. "...and Ho-seok, the best dog in the Southern Systems!" Jun might recognize the name as meaning tiger.

Ho-seok bleated proudly as if he understood her aside for being praised one way or the other.

Jun Chiyo​

 

[Jun Chiyo]

Tags: Inhye Oh-chai
Location: Inhye's Homestead, ADRAS

​

Jun was wholly attentive, taking in every detail with intent. She knew that a lot of hard work went into this place, but Jun was still envious of the peaceful life Inhye had lived since absconding from the court. She giggled at the magical stove shack.

“I could teach you how I season womp rat,” the girl said playfully. “It tastes better than you’d expect, but plenty of salt and bittergreens makes anything taste better.” The operative word being better, not good; good was reserved for food like Aunt Hye’s, which was already working its magic on Jin’s spirits and body alike. It was astonishing how quickly one can forget the value of food that is not only nutritional, but delicious as well. Eating as a necessity versus eating for pleasure was one of many luxuries Jun had forgotten.

She was incredibly grateful for Inhye’s skills in that regard.

The sudden arrival of animals pulled Jun from her attentiveness to the mud, drawing both her eyes and her smile toward the courtyard where they came from.

“Hello, you four,” Jun said as she giggled and met them with head pats. “You keep good company!” She said to Inhye.