Taemin stopped the horse before their gate, and jumped off of him. He grabbed the rein, opened the door, and hoped he could guide the horse to the barn without being noticed. It was fine until he heard a stick's knock, then he saw his father, who went to him from the bench under the cherry blossom trees. Lee Chulgi looked at his youngest son happily, and wanted to approach him, but Taemin shook his head, turned the horse in a way it could cover him, and led the animal to the barn.

He gave some hay to the horse after they had arrived. The boy did not want to go to the garden, so he walked through the barn in to the house, although he had to pass by his brother's bedroom, whats door was a little bit open.

Taemin always used the time, when his brother was not home, and because Taehoon was with his doctor he grabbed the moment, and entered the little room. The atmosphere was different, though, the layout was familiar to his own room. Taemin's bedroom was full of light, there were flowers in a vase, what were always fresh, and he had different kind of paintings, some handmade clothes, his old toys and little statues he made.

Taehoon's room could seem to be boring compared to his. There was dark because of the curtains, the flowers could be dead, the man did not care, so his grandmather brought him new ones. Taemin walked inside carefully, afraid of moving anything away from its place, because he knew his brother would notice it.

Because of the seven years they had never had the harmony what Taemin always wanted, but as he became older he accepted this, and understood his brother.

Taehoon's dream was to become a soldier, at least as great as his father or better. Taemin always looked at him with amazement as his brother was practicing sword fighting or arrow shooting, but anytime he tried it too the other children laughed at him, destroying his self-confidence.

He did not hear any noises in the house, so he stepped to the closet, and opened it carefully. It was the bedroom's tidiest and the most orderly part. Taehoon's fighting clothes and all of his weapons, what he had used in the wars, were inside of it. He saw Taemin once as he was playing with a sword, and the little boy immediately cut himself as he noticed his brother. It was three years ago. But now there was no one around, and Taemin, collecting all of his courage, took the sword from its place. He touched it like it was the most precious treasure in the kingdom, and slowly pulled the sword out. Taemin loved the scratched sound, what the weapon made. He held it in front of himself, and noticed his obsure reflection in the sword's blade.

"How can we look so similar, but not in every way?" he sighed and clutched his hair on the back of his head with his free hand.

It seemed like he had shorter hair, and now he was like he would have been his brother's twin.

"Darling, what happened?"

He shuddered as he heared his father's voice, and looked at the closed door. His mother and grandmother had arrived home, obviously; they could not see what he was doing. Taemin quickly put the sword back, trying to do it as it was originally, and closed the closet. He opened the room's door a little bit like it was before, then approached the window, and jumped out of it before they could have seen him.

"Are you sure he's home?"

Taehoon was there too. It was his voice. Taemin started to move back, almost falling down in a stone, but grabbed a bough, so he avoided the little accident, and ran to his own bedroom's window. When he looked inside it seemed empty, so he quickly climbed inside, and sat down on the bed, grabbing a brush so it looked like he wanted to paint something.

"Taemin, we've been looking for you everywhere." Myungok put her hands on her chest, where her heart was.

"I didn't want to bother anyone, so I stayed in my room."

"Oh, don't be sad." The old woman sat down next to him, and held his grandson's hand. "That girl was an annoying brat, and if you ask me she'll be worse as the time flies. It was just good for you she didn't like you."

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"I know." Myungok nodded. "But Taemin, do you remember what that foolish Seongi said? You have another chance. Don't worry, maybe you don't know what it is yet, but you'll be success."

"How if I don't even know what is it about?"

"I have a feeling you'll get to know it soon."

They smiled at each other, and Taemin leaned his forehead to the woman's. He felt safe in her arms, what ended at the moment the door opened, and an angry Eungi appeared.

"This boy had an awful day. Let's have dinner, and tomorrow you can fight as much as you want." Myungok offered with a peacefully smile, and stood up from the bed. "Taemin, help me with the dinner, please."

While they were together in the kitchen, everything was perfect and calm. Myungok told him funny stories about her own younger ages and about the lot of troubles with Taemin's dad, who had always looked for adventures. As the dinner was ready and they sat around the big table the good mood was over, and in the beginning no one talked. Finally Chulgi broke the awkward silence.

"Taehoon, what did the doctor say?"

The young man swallowed the food, and straightened himself in the chair before he answered. Taemin envied his serious and manyl features, but he could not do anything about it.

"We are going to continue the treatment, and he suggested that I should try to use my injured arm more" he looked down at his left hand, what was covered by the clothes, but the burnt skin was seen on his wrist and hand. "For now it seems we're on a good way."

"We're glad to hear that" said the grandmother happily.

"Oh, right" Taehoon realized something, as he looked at the old woman in front of him ", grandmother, did you go to my room today?"

Taemin choked on the rice, and reached for the water, what was really suspicious for Taehoon, but he did not say anything, just watched his brother's movements. Myungok was not silly, she understood everything.

"Yes, my dear, I thought I should tidy up your room, why?"

"I told you I can take care of my closet."

"Oh, yes! I always forget it, but you know I enjoyed the cleaning so much I did it in your closet too."

Taehoon knew something was wrong; there was nothing clean in his room but his closet.

"Taemin." Eungi's voice broke the chatting. "We'll go back to the Han house, and apologize, did you understand? We let Han Nari calm down, and..."

"Han Nari?" Taehoon shouted. "You destroyed your chance to be Han Nari's husband? The whole city's men could sigh in relief now, little brother."

The dog looked up in the corner, when he heard his name, but nothing interesting happened, so he went back to sleep.

"Watch your mouth." Eungi scolded him. "You know Taemin doesn't have other choice."

"Seongi said I do."

Everyone looked at the youngest son, who became the middle of the attention. Eungi put her chopsticks down, and poured some cold water to herself.

"What did Seongi say?" Chulgi asked, curiously.

"Nothing." Eungi hissed, and continued to eat.

"She said Taemin has another chance, and he doesn't have to marry Han Nari. It's so important Seongi got uncertain about the marriage, how interesting, isn't it?"

"I'm sure she drank too much again before sleeping, and it wasn't a vision just a weird dream." Eungi teased. "Even if she's right, Taemin still has the chance to make things up with Han Nari, if he stays in his road."

No one could argue with it, so everyone was eating their dinner, and although Taemin had hundreds of thoughts in his head, he stayed quiet.

*

In the other day's afternoon Taemin was almost done with a painting. He looked at it proudly, and thought it needs some more brush . He bit his bottom lip, as he always did, when he was concentrating, and wiped his long locks away from his eyes, not caring with the paint on his skin.

Suddenly he heard a bugle call, what made him drop the brush down, and it rolled through the room, leaving small paint patches behind itself. Taemin heard the sound of the crowd from the street, the steps in their house and the door slammings. He was curious what was happening, too, so he ran to the corridor, and followed his mother, who went after her husband and her eldest son.

"The Kim family! Kim Chobum!"

An older man was reading names from a list, and when the men stepped to him, they got a little paper roll. A young man stepped before an older one, what made a woman cry next to them, and Taemin could hear clearly their words from his family's house's gate.

"Oh, Kibum!"

"I have to do this, mother" he smiled at the woman with an angelic face, after he got the paper roll.

"The Lee family! Lee Chulgi!"

Taemin's heart skipped a beat as he heard his father's name. The man gave his stick to his wife, and went to the paper roll, limping, but his eldest son stopped him and bowed. Because his left arm was injured he reached for the paper with his right hand, but a voice stopped him.

"No!"

"Taemin..." said Myungok, worridly.

"You can't go, you're injured already" he said quietly, so just those could hear him, who were close to them.

The man on the horse wanted to give the paper to Taemin, but Taehoon did not let him.

"He's underage. He's only sixteen!"

"Really? He doesn't look like one." The man looked at Taemin, then gave the paper roll to Chulgi. "Tomorrow you or your eldest son have to show up."

"But..."

"Taemin." His mother pulled him away. "Do you want to bring us even more shame?"

This time he could not wait for his father's nice words, because the man felt humiliated, just as Taehoon, who went inside of the house with Chulgi to talk about this alone. The tears burnt Taemin's eyes as he looked after them, but he escaped from his mother's hands, and ran after them.

The door was closed, but it could not stop him, and entered the room. The two men were sitting at a table, and read the paper roll. Taemin's eyes were perfect, so he could read it too. The japanese attacked some village, not so far from the palace.

"Taemin, leave us alone." Chulgi said calmly, but Taemin could see how nervous he was.

"I can go too! Then Taehoon would have time to continue the treatment, and he can go to the next war! Why did you tell him I'm underage? You two saw he didn't notice it."

"But your superiors would."

"It would be better, dad. Taemin would not survive one day in the camp. Do you have any idea what happens there, little brother? Yes! Life and death fight! And it's just the beginning. Waking up early in the morning, and training until sundown or longer. After that, the enemy can show up anytime... Do you think you could kill anybody? Come on, Taemin."

"If it means you two will be alive, then yes, I could."

Both of them looked up at him. Neither of them had seen the boy as determined and confident as now. He even clenched his fist, what Taehoon never saw before.

"Well..." Chulgi cleared his throat. "Even if you're right and they wouldn't notice your age you should believe your brother. Taemin, you didn't get any training. You don't know what to expect."

"I'll learn it."

"No."

"But..."

"I said no!" Chulgi raised his voice, what stopped Taemin, and he ran out of the room.

As he left the house the sky was covered by dark clouds, a lightning appeared above the Lee family's house, and after the thunder it began to rain. Taemin stepped out of the roof to feel the cold drops on his body. He sat down to a statue in the garden, and let the rain to make his clothes and his raven black hair wet.

He could see as they made light in a room, and shadows appeared, what he knew well. Taehoon stepped forward and bowed before his mother. So they made the decision; it will be Taehoon.

Taemin bowed his head down, and tried to avoid his tears. His brother could not use one of his arms, so he did not have any chance in the war against the japanese. He looked up again, but only saw darkness.

He got an idea so suddenly, he had to do this before he changed his mind. Taemin stood up from the dragon statue and ran to the family temple. He lighted a censer whats scent calmed him down and he started to pray. The boy sneaked in to the house, in to his brother's bedroom. Taehoon was sleeping and snoring loudly. Taemin looked down at the young man, and carefully touched his wrong arm.

"You'll be proud of me, hyung" he promised, and put the paper roll on to his heart, before he stepped to the closet.

He took a deep breath, and reached for the clothes and the sword with shaking hands. When he took the clothes down from the closet, the snoring had stopped, but Taehoon just rolled on to his other side and started snoring again.

In his own room Taemin closed the door and went to the mirror, where he clutched his hair, what was almost reaching his waist, and with a confident movement he guided the sharp sword through the long locks. He cut it until his hair reached to his chin, and even then he cut some more locks off too, to be more like his brother.

When he was ready he swept the locks under his bed, and put his brother's clothes on. He saw him many times, when he was changing his fighting clothes, so it was easy for him. Taemin took the sword too, and went to the barn.

The black horse neighed loudly, so Taemin ran to him, and caressed his head to calm the horse down. He led him out slowly, but before they left the barn Taemin sat up on the saddle. He adjusted his sword, and made sure to bring the paper roll.

It was not late to turn back yet, Taemin thought, but then he heard a thunder again, and kicked the horse's side. The animal was so fast Taemin could not even look back at his home. He made a decision.

The thunder was heard inside of the house too, and Myungok started to murmur something. The old woman started to shake, she opened her eyes, and shouted:

"Taemin!"