The young noble men and women of the capital seemed to have a little more hangover from the Moon Festival last night as they gathered at Okta— the most famous club in the capital— the next morning. The noble men and women were watching the Okta performers dance and play music, some of them were purely talking and enjoying their time over their drinks while some were just inside to relax.

Jidwi was smiling as he tapped the side of his cup with his forefinger— matching the rhythm of his tapping to the beat of the music outside the private room where he and Pa Oh, his bodyguard sat. The Hwarangs were given a day off for two days as a reward for doing excellent in their performance last night at the Moon Festival.

“Why are you so happy?” Pa Oh asks looking at him and Jidwi turns his head to him, smile still present in his handsome face.

“I’m withering inside.” he adds, looking worried.

The young King turns his head away as he looks a little distant.

“I am glad, that the first person I told my identity to was Ahro.”

Pa Oh frowns lightly, “She is not that pretty to be honest—”

He stops as Jidwi snaps his head towards him warningly but seemed to appear unaffected at the younger’s look as he continued.

“Did you not see the maidens here at Okta? Compared to them, her face is totally...” he trails off, making hand gestures towards his face.

“That is your problem.” Jidwi says looking blankly at him. “You have such poor judgement of women.”

“I don’t know about that,” Pa Oh says, suddenly looking serious. “But I do know that the Queen will not just ignore this.”

The young King turns away from him and looked straight ahead with a hard look.

“If anyone tries to harm that girl, strike him down...even if it’s the commandant.”

Pa Oh falters at that.

“This is an order.” Jidwi turns to look at his bodyguard as he told him those words. His body guard’s face twitched with hesitation but nonetheless stood up, his head bowed down.

“I shall obey your command.”

“Also, it seems that we have another situation at hand.” the young King says, gripping a little bit tightly on the cup in his hand.

“What do you mean, Your Majesty?” Pa Oh asks turning his head as he remained standing.

“Do you remember the visitor that came with Sookmyung in Hwarang House?” he says, gesturing for the older man to take his seat.

His bodyguard then sat back on his chair, a confused expression on his face.

“Did you mean Lady Heo from the North, Your Majesty?”

“That’s right.” said Jidwi, his expression unchanged. “And guess what, I found out something interesting last night.”

He looked at Pa Oh as he continued.

“Chunhwa is back in Silla.”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty but our Chun— our Chunhwa is what? What did you say just about her?” stuttered the older male, looking completely stunned.

Jidwi looked away from him again, his expression turning darker.

“Chunhwa has come back in Silla. The Lady Heo who was sent in Hwarang House together with Sookmyung...is her.”

“My Lady, is there something bothering you?” Damyi asks with a concerned expression as she looks at Chunhwa, who was staring blankly at her reflection in the mirror.

Chunhwa had decided to stay at Hwarang House the next day, as she wanted to familiarize herself more in the area. She had actually slept in almost the whole morning because of staying up late last night after the festival.

“You haven’t spoken a single word since your late breakfast, it worries me.” she adds as she continued brushing her hair.

“Damyi-ah.” Chunhwa mutters after a few seconds, still staring off into space.

Damyi’s hands automatically stopped brushing as she looked at her through the mirror.

“Yes, My Lady?”

“Do you remember Sam Maekjong? The boy I used to talk about when we were younger?”

The question made her servant furrow her eyebrows in thought while her hands started to braid her hair.

“Ah, yes.” said Damyi, face lightening up in a smile as she remembers the said boy.

“I still remember your stories about him especially when I first became your lady’s servant.”

Chunhwa couldn’t help but smile as well.

“That’s right. I remember telling you almost everything I remember about him.”

“However,” Damyi pauses as she puts on the last hair ornament in her braid. “Why did you bring him up all of a sudden, My Lady?”

“I think,” Chunhwa sighed, her eyes finally moving up to meet hers in the mirror. “I think I found him.”

Her maid rushes down by her side suddenly at that, wide-eyed.

“Come again, My Lady? Are you saying you have found your first love?”

“Yah, what do you mean first love?” the young maiden turns to her servant, looking scandalized.

“I— I never said anything about that!” she adds stuttering, a shade of pink dusting her pale cheeks.

“Yes you never did,” Damyi lightly chuckles. “But from how you tell me your stories when we were younger, it sounded like you were in love with him.”

“Yah.” Chunhwa pouts, looking defeated.

“But My Lady, is it true? Have you really found him?” she looks up at her with curious eyes. “If so, when? Was it last night at the festival? Is that why you had suddenly left?”

She looked down at her and sighed once again. “To be honest, I don’t really know if it was him.”

“Huh? How can you say so?”

“I saw something he had when we were younger, but...”

“But?” Damyi blinks up at her, anticipating her next words.

“There’s something inside me telling me that he’s also not! I mean, he still had that authoritative aura around him just like when we were younger and that...thing.”

Chunhwa turned her full body towards her maid, face contorted into a mixture of confused and frustrated expression.

“But something inside me doesn’t feel right.” she continues, looking down on her lap.

“Maybe it’s because you haven’t seen him for so long, the idea of finally seeing him once again refused to sink in to you yet.” Damyi tries to comfort her at least, reaching out to hold her hands that were placed on her lap.

“Ah, I don’t know!” Chunhwa huffs as she looks at her maid with a small frown. “My head feels like it’s going to burst the more I think about it, I really don’t know.”

Just as Damyi was about to open to give her mistress a reassurance about her concern, a male voice outside Chunhwa’s room made an announcement.

“Lady Heo, Assistant Chief Instructor Bujae is here to see you!”

The two maidens inside the room looked at each other, sharing a confused look.

“The Assistant Chief Instructor?”

“So you’re saying it is not Banryu?” Yeowool asks as he pours himself a glass of drink.

He, Hansung and Sooho sat inside another private room in Okta— Hansung sat beside him while Sooho across from them.

“How are you so sure?” he adds, his focus on the drink he is pouring but his question was directed towards Sooho.

“That punk,” Sooho starts, looking thoughtful. “He bites his lips when he is being wronged. I saw him do that.”

“But he never did that when Lady Heo was talking to him about the destroyed instruments last night.” he looks at Yeowool and Hansung, “He would not do something so petty, over his dead body.”

“I cannot tell whether you are enemies or friends.” said Yeowool, amusement sparkling in his eyes. “What I can tell though, is that your conclusion about Banryu has changed with the influence from the judgement of Lady Heo towards him.”

“How strange...” Hansung says, looking at Sooho with wonder. “He knows everything else but about the chest.”

Sooho look at him confused as he took a gulp from his drink while Yeowool at the same time immediately covers Hansung’s mouth, looking at the youngest warningly— Hansung glaring cutely at Yeowool’s action.

“Stop it with the chest, will you?”

“I apologize for not being able to tend to you sooner after the festival. There were a few things I had to take care of but it’s not enough as an excuse, My Lady.” Master Wi Hwa says, bowing a little as Chunhwa sat in front of him in his office.

A while ago, Chunhwa was visited by the Assistant Chief Instructor in her quarters to check on how well she is adjusting while staying at Hwarang House. He had also apologized in behalf of the Chief Instructor for not being the one to checking on her as he was currently busy since it was just a day after the festival.

She reassured the Assistant Chief Instructor that it was alright and that she will be the one who will visit the Chief Instructor instead as she had something to discuss with him at the same time.

Chunhwa shook her head with a small smile, “It’s alright Master Wi Hwa, I don’t mind at all.” she reassures him.

“I truly understand your job. Besides, I’m the one who feels burdened for bothering the Chief Instructor of Hwarang like this.”

“Please don’t feel burdened, My Lady. It’s an honour to have you visit the Hwarang House.” said Master Wi Hwa, chuckling lightly.

“Well it’s also an honour to be here in Hwarang House, Master Wi Hwa.”

“Well, how do you find my Hwarangs so far?” the Chief Instructor asks the first question that came into his mind.

 Chunhwa paused, as she think of a proper answer.

“Well, although there had been some unforeseen circumstances during the festival, they were able to execute their performance splendidly. Somehow it makes me set a higher expectation and look forward to more of their possible potential as Silla’s future warriors.”

Master Wi Hwa smirks at that, looking proud.

“Aigoo. Hearing those kind words from you towards my Hwarang makes me feel so proud yet burdened for being their Chief Instructor.”

“Indeed, they are lucky to have you, Master Wi Hwa.” she smiles.

“Although,” he pauses, “Have your impression about my Hwarangs being cocky still applies given that they have impressed you with the way they have handled the situation that arose during the festival?” he looks at her with an eyebrow raised.

Chunhwa looked at him with a serious expression in return.

“Ey,” the two of them faltered from their serious expressions as she laughs a little while Master Wi Hwa smiles at her.

“You know I only said that because I felt that he was looking down at me and Princess Sookmyung because we are women.” she shakes her head.

“I can’t believe that those boys haven’t changed, looking at us like we aren’t also capable of the things they could do just because we are girls. We’re not children anymore.”

“I’m surprised you can still remember your childhood here in Silla, My Lady.” the Chief Instructor says with a fond smile.

“To be honest, I only remember a few right now. It’s been a very long time after all.” she lightly shrugs.

“Aigoo, if only your grandfather is here to see you. I bet he would be so happy to watch you grow up into a just and beautiful maiden. However,” he looks at her, expression curiously polite.

“Besides being an observer in the preparation for the festival, not to sound rude, is there any other reason as to why you were sent by the Queen here in Hwarang House?”

“Actually, I believe that is the main reason why I had to come to you personally, Master Wi Hwa.” the light smile that Chunhwa previously had slowly faded into a serious look.

Master Wi Hwa’s facial expression had also slowly changed, mirroring hers.

“The Queen had actually sent me not to observe, but for an entirely different reason.”

Author's Note:

I just want to say HELLO to my new subscribers hihi.
So...I updated. I'm feeling a lot better now than I last did after
updating the last chapter. My temperature rose up a couple of
hours after updating and I was nervous 'cause I thought they
would rush me to the hospital because my fever was like 39
something celcius and I kind of went delirious lol but thank
goodness it went down so yay for me still alive and clicking the
update button. kkkk so I guess it's a yay for update and nay for
double update next week. Awww :( lmao I love you guys!

Anyway~ I hope you guys like this chapter!!
Hope my silent readers could drop some comments as well!
Your comments serve as an added motivation to me. hihi : )

And sorry I'm so talkative in my a/n's XD

- flyingjunmyeons [20170513]