I hope this chapter is okay!! >.<

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It wasn’t the tree’s fault, but he couldn’t help but kick at its bark over and over, his foot indention slowly starting to form as he continued to kick it over and over again. Junsu grit his teeth hard as he wiped away the stray tears that fell down his cheeks.  He hadn’t bothered to go back to the camp site, he didn’t want everyone to see how much of a baby he was, not after that little fight, and god Taecyeon would only bombard him with multiple questions and possibly even want to hurt someone if he got Chansung’s name out of his mouth.  His foot paused mid kick as he sniffled, using his sleeve to scrub at his wet cheeks, hoping to wipe them away.  He finally managed to take in a deep breath, lowering his foot down and onto the ground, his head hanging.

‘Should have just stuck to what my book said about first loves are always complicated.’

He mumbled, kneeling down to dust off his shoes that had managed to collect a good bit of wood dust from his constant kicking of the tree.  Hanging his arms over his knees now, he let out a huff, blowing at the bangs in his way, his lower lip pouting.  He felt like such a child sitting in the middle of the woods pouting by himself; Taecyeon would be so ashamed with his attitude; but how could he help this?  A man he thought was more than just a simple crush brought him back to reality, a thief and a prince, a man in love with a man?  It was abnormal as it could get, but last he checked it was the heart that chose, not the status, and his heart ached by the fact that Chansung was being so cruel about these things.

‘Aiish!’

Junsu screamed now, ruffling his hair roughly before jerking his hand down beside him, he was about to fall backward and sit on his , but instead, his ear twitched, the sound of leaves rustling, branches just slightly swaying as if being moved aside; it wasn’t something a normal person would think to listen for, but Junsu’s ears had been trained for these things, for anything.  He stood up slowly, a knife slowly slipping from the inside of his boot, he hated how it wasn’t his best one, but he had used it against Wooyoung in their little match, and he dragged Chansung off before he could get it back!

Being as still as possible, Junsu gripped his knife hard, his head turning just enough to glance over his shoulder.  It was as empty as it had been when he first got here, but he definitely wasn’t alone, he could feel someone, well he wasn’t sure if it was someone, but something literally, cautiously, approaching him from somewhere.   Swinging the knife in hand he felt the move and quickly his heel, swinging the knife into the air, ready to strike whatever was now behind him; but instead he felt his wrist being snatched, his knife being flicked from his hand and his body almost coming off the ground as he came face to face with a complete stranger.

Junsu was sure this was a man, his tall height, he was lean, but built and hell was he strong, his grip tight on Junsu’s wrist as he held it high above his head.  His face was hidden, only his lips and nose could be seen.  He wore an all white cloak that helped with hiding his identity.

‘Wow, I did not expect that to happen!’

The man now spoke, sounding rather surprised and cheerful as he seemed to be looking and Junsu, the prince wasn’t sure as he took in a shaky breath and swallowed, the last thing he needed was to be caught by this guy and taken away from the rest of the group without them knowing…  Junsu twisted his captured wrist in hopes to get it free, but the grip only got tighter and he couldn’t even seem to pull it down either, this situation was turning out to be bad the longer time passed.  Junsu’s heart was pounding hard in his chest as the man glanced at the tree behind him.

‘You must have been pretty angry too, not many people can dent trees like that by just kicking,’

This man continued to talk as he inspected the tree for a bit longer before moving back to Junsu was trying not to show that he was a complete wreck on the inside, his tongue his bottom lip, his eyes as serious as he could get them.

‘Let me go.’

He finally managed to demand as the man smiled, lifting him a little higher,

‘You tried to stab me with a knife, I’m pretty sure if I let you go that you will try to do that again~’

He spoke lightly, his smile so smooth he didn’t seem to be worried at all, like if he really did let go it wouldn’t matter if Junsu did or not.  Swallowing hard again, Junsu tugged again, why couldn’t he pull himself out of this?!  Finally a thought came to him, something Taecyeon had taught him once before, it had been so long that he had completely forgotten about it.  Gripping his hands into fists, he managed to twist himself around, his wrist jerking forward, it was amazing he mustard to finally use all his strength to get the man’s hand down back to his level, his other hand quickly grabbing the man’s hand that darted towards his, combining them both as he gripped hard and used his legs to lift the man; damn was he heavy, but he managed to go over his shoulder, Junsu’s wrist slipping from his thankfully, but he still stumbled forward and practically on top of the man as they both scrambled to do something.  Of course somehow Junsu was just a second late, his whole body being encased by the man’s arms, they weren’t even as big as Taecyeon’s, maybe Chansung’s size and he could feel them squeezing his body down to the bone.  He cried out in pain as he was lifted off the ground.

‘What in the world do you think you are doing?!’

A feminine voice cracked through the opening, startling the man who whipped his head in the direction of the voice.  Junsu was at least able to get a look towards the direction also, this one was a woman for sure, a slender figure obvious underneath that same white cloak she wore, and she even had the same mask with the hood hiding away the rest of her.  She stood at the edge of an opening with her hands on her hips, you didn’t need to see her face to know she wasn’t happy, her posture was enough as the man instantly let go without another word, Junsu tumbling to the ground, his hitting it hard; It didn’t matter to him though as he scrambled to his feet, breathing heavily, the breath had been knocked straight out of him, and the fight earlier with Wooyoung, well with having a fever the past few days his energy level was shorter than it should be.

‘You don’t just go around attacking random strangers like that!’

She was yelling at the man now, pointing her finger in his direction as he approached her, his shoulder obviously slouched, a hand placed a top of his head,

‘But he tried to attack me with a knife!!’

The man defended, crossing his arms over his chest, his cloak blowing in the process, revealing a rather well equipped belt that had Junsu’s eyes going wide, what if that man had used that stuff on him before that woman got here?!  Just the thought of it sent shivers up his spine, all he had was a knife and that was god knows where now!  Placing a hand over his beating chest, he placed a hand over his chest, taking in a deep breath; he was sure that if he tried to run now it would be pointless, that guy was a lot faster than he was that was obvious when he couldn’t even turn around in time.

‘Hey, are you alright?’

The woman’s voice was so close now, it caused Junsu to gasp again, a sweat drop rolling down his cheek as he turned to be face to face with the woman, these two were either incredibly trained human’s or not human’s at all, because it seemed they like to approach people without any warning or barely any sound, or maybe the new buzzing in his head was making it hard for him to concentrate on movements.  Nodding his head up and down, he pushed the thought from his head, the woman’s hand resting on his shoulder.  Junsu was quick to flinch away, shrugging off the woman’s hand, backing away.

‘Hey hold up, I’m not going to hurt you!’

She quickly stated, reaching after him, but Junsu stood up straight, finally gathering himself, his energy wasn’t completely there, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t put up much of a fight, but if he could just run fast enough, he could maybe make it back to the others.

‘Listen, I know my husband probably frightened you, but I promise you I won’t hurt you, and neither will he as long as I’m around, but you don’t look well…  I can help you if you let me?’

The woman spoke soft, her hand outstretched as though he was some animal she was trying to get to come to her.  Junsu felt like an animal for sure, but he stared at the woman for a long moment, a smile had formed on her lips and her hand remained out to him.  It was a little risky to even think about accepting this, Junsu narrowing his eyes, keeping his hands at his side.

‘W-Who are you?’

Junsu asked carefully, staying a good ways away as the woman dropped her hand, her face was calm as she looked towards the man who was apparently her husband, he held a sour look on his face, his arms crossed over his chest, the fact that he had been stopped from handling Junsu roughly seemed to be irritating him, the woman shook her head before turning back to him, her hands being placed on her hips as she stepped forward; Junsu only took a step backwards at the same time.

‘We are the protectors of this forest.’

She replied while patting her chest and then pointing to the man behind her with her thumb, Junsu cocked an eye brow.  Protectors of the forest seemed like a far stretch, but then again, there were a lot of strange things in this world, Hyorin was proof enough, so having forest protectors, well it wasn’t impossible.

‘We’ve been here a long time, interaction with passersby’s aren’t normal, but someone…’

She threw a glare over her shoulder to the man who huffed and decided to lean against a nearby tree, the woman continued,

‘Usually most people don’t damage their surroundings so it was odd that we found you kicking at a tree.’

‘I found him!’

The man spoke now, his wife rolling her head back, he could see hints of brown hair pulled back into a pony tail.  But still the mask made it impossible to see any type of facial feature besides her thin nose and feminine lips.  The woman caught him staring and laughed lightly, Junsu snorting and crossing his own arms.  She pulled back her hood though, a long ponytail flipping over her shoulder, fingers pushing back bangs.

‘Why are you guys wearing masks?  You could be lying about everything you just said and maybe you want to kidnap me like everyone else does!’

Junsu spat now, his eyes managing to catch the glint of silver from the corner of his eye, his knife maybe only a few feet away, he wasn’t sure if he was able to grab it, but if he needed to dive for it, he would, but he couldn’t take his eyes off either of them…  He could possibly side step casually over to it if the woman tried to get closer, but she didn’t seem to be moving or wanting to move as it got rather quiet.  He could feel her stare from underneath the mask and it was making him feel rather uneasy.

‘Let me show you something.’

She implied now, a light breeze lifting her cloak, that light breeze picking up and blowing hard at Junsu who was instantly knocked down from the sudden breeze.  His mouth hanging open; eyes wide as he hit the ground with a hard thud, his eyes barely having time to blink, mind barely processing the action before he had the woman in his face, a hand instantly being placed on his forehead, his body being slightly pushed back.  He was completely frozen, it felt like his heart could have completely stopped, not only was what had happened a bit scary and turned his tough demeanor into complete mush, this woman was now on top of him and about to do god knows what.

‘You’ve been sick the past few days, you’ve gotten better obviously, but it’s not gone, and it’s causing you to be less aware of things.’

The woman was smiling as she spoke, her hand being removed from his forehead and carefully running down his cheek.  Junsu let out a shaky breath,

‘H-How…’

He began but was instantly shushed as he suddenly felt light headed, a strange feeling running through his body.  It was a quick feeling, but the moment it had gone away, the feelings from earlier, all the sweating, no energy; he felt like he could get up and run around in circles and be completely fine.  Did this woman completely the sickness out of him?  Pulling her hand away she moved back and allowed Junsu to stand, his movements quick and easy as he did so.  God he hadn’t felt this good since he had left the castle.  Forming the words wow on his lips he paused before looking up, the couple standing side by side now, the man looked amused and the woman looked happy to prove her point.

‘Are you guys from the village not too far away?  We just came from there, like it was full of nothing but medics; we even have one traveling with us.’

Junsu spoke now; he wasn’t going to give any names for safety reasons, they didn’t need to know everything, but the woman’s tricks that reminded him slightly of witch craft was neat, kind of like Suzy and her powers. Maybe they could do some good for the others, and make sure Chansung was really okay… Even if he was mad at him, he still wanted his well being in check.

The atmosphere seemed to have turned awkward as a silence moved between them, Junsu shifting just slightly as the couple looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads.

‘No, we know of what village you speak of, but we aren’t from there…’

The woman spoke, the man nodding his head to agree; Junsu puckered his lips, but shrugged off the suspicious feeling before pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

‘Well, is it alright to ask you a favor, I have friends, or a friend in particular I was wondering if you to take a look at him?’

Junsu spoke now, and as if he hadn’t spoken of the village at all, the two laughed, they seemed amused by his asking.

‘Just moments ago you weren’t very trusting of us, but now you trust us enough to take a look at your friend?’

The man laughed, Junsu obviously annoyed,

‘Well it’s not every day a man sneaks up on you.  You would have probably attacked me too if you were in my shoes… But I see now that you really mean no harm and this friend of mine, well he had just woken up from internal bleeding, we have a witch that helped our medic and he seems okay but…’

Junsu fell silent, he couldn’t help but worry about Chansung even if he was being a , and even if he seemed okay; he went around for so long trying to protect him and it was his fault all this happened to him in the first place.  Looking up it was the man who was standing in front of him now; and it did scare him, but not as bad as it did the first time, these two were fast; he was starting to get use to it.

‘Sounds like you care about this friend a lot.  But we haven’t interacted with others in quite some time, so I don’t think it would be a hassle, I’m pretty sure my wife doesn’t mind either, her healing skills are getting rusty~’

He cooed, earning a glare from his wife who stuck her tongue out at him, he only continued to smile while turning back to Junsu.

‘May we ask your name?  Or is that too much?’

He asked, Junsu having to think for a moment, he trusted these two, to an extent, and he had no idea what he would do if they actually knew who the prince of Daegu was.  He would have to settle for his nickname to start with things, if they found out later who he really was and reacted badly, well then he would deal with that later, the others would be of help too.

‘June, my name is June, and can I ask yours?’

He asked, the man nodding his head,

‘Please, just call me Jae Hwa, the woman over there, my wife; you can call her Mi Hi.’

He responded, gesturing to his wife who gave a small wave; Junsu bowed slightly, out of habit of course, but neither seemed fazed by the formality.

‘Then lead the way to your friends June, Mi Hi will do what she can to help them~’

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A/N: A Chapter of only Junsu, how interesting, I had planned this completely different, and I debated the events I had in mind for a little while actually, but this is how it came out, I also thought about for a while whether or not I wanted to reveal Mi Hi and Jae Hwa so soon, but I thought might as well~ They'll play an interesting part in the story~ Plus you'll get to see what happened to them!  Forgive me for the short chapter by the way!  I plan to start writing the next one as soon as I can!