It’s not that hard to pretend to be Forrest, especially since our facial features are identical.

Of course, I’m taller and broader than her. But that doesn’t change the fact that we have the same almond-shaped eyes and thin nose and red lips. Some people have argued that my face is "too pretty for a guy,” but that was before I showed them that I could pack a punch just fine.

It only takes a wig (and damn—those cosplayers who wear wigs on a daily basis must have difficult lives. The thing hurts. A lot). Once I’m wearing a wig of long, blonde hair, I see my sister in the mirror. Well, a more gangly, rough-faced version of the ever-ethereal Forrest, but decent enough to pass as her.

Nana doesn’t have good eyesight. If I sit down and don’t speak, she often mistakes me for Forrest. That’s when she starts to tell me details about our family’s past and I really learn the full extent of her story about our lineage and what Forrest’s fate will be once she becomes the bride of Khaol, the God of Pain.

It’s nutty, yes. But it’s also Nana. And I don’t have it in me to tell Nana that gods and aren’t real. I mean, it’s common knowledge that Santa Claus didn’t exist, either, but it takes a special occasion or a special kind of asshole to break that news to little kids, right?

That’s my situation, except I’m afraid that telling her would induce a heart attack or something. Nana’s stories sometimes get weird, too. She actually believes that there are gods of trees and leaves and wind and metal. What’s next? The god of fancy silverware?

But the one Nana worships the most is Khaol. Apparently, our lineage has always provided human brides for the formidable god of pain.

Khaol has a very tragic story. And like all tragic gods, Khaol started as mere mortal.

Khaol hasn’t always had white, silvery hair. When he was Khaol the General, he had long, raven-colored hair that went down to his waist (I don’t know which era he’s from, but based on Nana’s story, Khaol the human must have lived in a time when long hair on men was considered desirable). Like his name implies, Khaol was very strong and a dedicated fighter. He was the reason why the Kaiser has won so many wars, and he was the reason why usurper’s heads were staked on a pole right in front of the Kaiser’s compound.

Unfortunately, Khaol fell in love with the Kaiser’s concubine. The concubine wasn’t the official wife of the Kaiser, but a young woman that the Kaiser had only touched once. While this didn’t really diminish the fact that a mere commoner was having an affair with a royal member of the family, Khaol was still the very reason why the Kaiser had achieved so much. When Khaol’s affair with the concubine was discovered, Khaol expected the Kaiser to forgive him, or at least limit his punishment to banishment.

Instead, the Kaiser tortured him, along with his whole family and the concubine’s family, in the worst imaginable ways. The torture lasted forty-four days, and when the Kaiser had run out ways to inflict pain upon them, he asked his men to decapitate them all.

Khaol’s fate ended on a pole right in front of the Kaiser’s compound. His tragic love affair served as a cautionary tale to remind people never to defy their ruler.

The gods took pity on Khaol, though, and granted him immortality.

Of course, with that wonderful gift came a curse.

Khaol’s curse was that he would experience great pain whenever he felt human emotions. He was the perfect god to represent pain, because he was practically unfeeling and thus incapable of empathy. He would spend all eternity devoid of any anger, pity, jealousy, or love.

I have heard Khaol’s story countless times since I was a kid, and until now I still couldn’t decide if he had been blessed or doomed.

Nana, on the other hand, felt an insurmountable amount of pity for Khaol. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Nana was secretly Khaol’s concubine, given how much she talked about him.

At the end of the day, though, Nana always insisted that Khaol needed a human companion. Even as a god, he still craved something warm. He missed the feeling of being human. So we, the Clandor family, provide him brides. The Clandor family always bear exceptionally pretty females, all born with milky white skin, silky hair, and thick-lashed eyes. When my mom was pregnant with Forrest, Nana has already anticipated that Forrest would be the bride for Khaol, given that the Clandor family hasn’t provided him any brides in the last three generations.

Instead, Forrest absolutely refuses to believe any of Nana’s story, even for the sake of humoring her.

But, well… maybe that’s the reason I was born into this world. To be the substitute for The One who refused to be chosen.

I put on the ancient bridal robes that Nana had prepared, adjusted my wig, and steeled myself to not say a word for the entire night. And then, with a heavy feeling and even heavier hair that I could ever imagine, I stepped into Nana’s house as Forrest Clandor.

This, as I come to know, was the best and worst decision that I’d ever made in my whole life.