“Jongdae,” Jinsu breathed out, her body quivering with relief.  She had no idea how he had managed to stumble across them in this neck of the woods, or what he was doing with a bow (because hadn’t Jino said it had to be locked away on the Attayear?), but the surety and power in his stance made her infinitely grateful Jimin had had the open-heartedness to befriend somebody so many years his junior.  Jongdae was just so utterly dependable.

And he also looked terrifying with the anger on his face and a weapon on his hands.  Jinsu was glad she wasn’t his enemy.  Like Hae Insu, Jongdae’s clothing was in browns and greens, allowing him to blend in with the background, and she could see that some kind of thin arm guard had been laced to the inside of his left arm, presumably to protect it from the bowstring.  His arms were completely steady as he held the bow raised, the tension obvious in the curve of the wood, and yet his upper body remained totally immobile.  Jinsu was sure that it was supposed to be a real strain to hold that steady if you were an archer, and some part of her brain registered that actually, Jongdae did have really well developed biceps, now she thought about it, but despite the fact that he was holding the flight of the arrow in line with his eye, he made it look absolutely effortless.

Alarmingly, Hae Insu didn’t consider this to be a threat.  He took a step forward.

“What are you going to do?” he laughed.  “Shoot me?  You can’t kill me.”

Jinsu stiffened and attempted to scramble back.  He was right.  Jongdae couldn’t do anything drastic or it would mess up a grandfather clause.

Hae Insu took another step towards Jinsu.  “I’m too important to kill,” he said lightly.  “And your life will be forfeit if you do.”

Jongdae didn’t seem to care.  The bow creaked as he drew it further, the flight now level with his ear.

“Stop.  Moving,” he grated out.

Insu spread his hands, moving closer to Jinsu again, and smirked.  “If you were going to shoot, you would already have shot me.”

Jinsu could see Jongdae’s temper boiling over.  She knew he was angry, and that Insu was despicable, but he still couldn’t—

“Jongdae!” she shrieked, but it was too late: there was a sharp twang, and almost exactly at the same time, a thunk of an arrow burying itself in flesh.  Hae Insu howled in pain.  Jinsu stared at Jongdae in shock.

“I said, don’t move,” he repeated icily.

There was a second thwack, making Jinsu start, and another yell of pain.  Trembling, Jinsu turned back to Hae Insu to see that he was still very much alive and standing – and that Jongdae and somebody else had shot him in the feet, pinning him to the ground.  She huffed out a little breath of relief, feeling the adrenaline beginning to fade, much as it had done after the tiger attack.  Who had shot the second arrow?  She looked around, trying to spot somebody.

But Hae Insu seemed possessed of a single-minded determination that was impossible to thwart.  He pulled the arrows out of his feet, casting them aside, and Jinsu balked, fear and disgust rising in again as he stomped closer.  She attempted to get to her feet and get out of the way, but her legs were shaking too much for her to stand.

“You’ll pay for that,” he growled, locking eyes with her even though Jongdae was the one who’d injured him.  His hand dropped to his hip and a heavy rasp of steel rang in Jinsu’s ears as he drew a short sword.

There were abruptly hands under Jinsu’s armpits and then Jongdae was trying to haul her away.

“You b*stard,” Hae Insu spat out, raising the blade.  Jongdae stepped round in front of Jinsu, shielding her with his body.  She wanted to scream at him not to, that he was mad to, and that Hae Insu didn’t know the meaning of stop, but before she could draw in the breath, something whizzed through the air and collided with Hae Insu’s temple, knocking him to the side.

Another object followed, striking true, and the man fell, poleaxed.

Jongdae breathed out a sigh of relief and gripped Jinsu under the armpits again, this time managing to haul her upright.

“It’s okay,” he told her.  She shrank against him, nodding.

“You’re an idiot,” she mumbled tearfully.

“You’re welcome.”

The space between the trees abruptly filled up with boys from the Attayear.  With some surprise, Jinsu saw two of them with a dead deer lashed to a pole they were carrying across their shoulders, and Han was with them, directing a few of them off into the bushes after some other deer that somebody (probably Jongdae) had apparently shot.  Jinsu didn’t really register much of what was going on, though, because her mind had gone oddly blank, and all she could really see was Hae Insu’s eyes with their dead gleam and how close he’d got to her.  For some reason, she’d broken out in a sweat, and all the voices sounded so very far away, as though they were at the end of a tunnel.  Her teeth were chattering and it wasn’t even cold.  She thought somebody might be calling her name, and then she couldn’t feel anything at all, or see anything.  Perhaps the world tilted.  Maybe Jongdae’s hands melted away.  She didn’t know.

“Sh*t, I think she went into shock.”

“Baekhyun, did you throw a rock at her as well as at the old ert?”

“She’s just fainted, give me some space.  Water, who has water?”

Then, in a much lower voice, “Block out Han’s view and give me a plastic water bottle, somebody, for the love of God.”

Jinsu’s entire body felt so incredibly tired and heavy.  Sleep.  Sleep was what she needed.  And—

Water splashed over her face and she jerked upright, spluttering.  Somebody caught her and held her in a sitting position, pressing a water bottle to her lips, and she dra