Sulli had a virtually foolproof plan... or so she told herself. In truth, while she had thought a lot about her escape, these thoughts were more about how much she needed to get out of the never-ending confinement, than about how he planned on living afterwards. Perhaps it was because even the most desolate of lives would have seemed to be an improvement from her current situation. Any life, she had decided, would be better than how she had been forced to live. Seeing nothing but stone walls for 18 years was enough to drive a person to desperation.

In her mind, this was a new beginning. A chance at actually experiencing what it is to be human. She would go to a small village in the country, find a job in town and get a place to stay. To some degree, she didn't care how low her quality of life would be, since she only had to support herself.

As she walked down the eerily untraveled dirt path towards the nearest city, she realized just how cold it was. As a breeze gusted across her slight frame, the hair on her arm stood completely on end. She knew she would probably have to walk all day, but by the time night came, she was going to need somewhere to sleep.

Just as the sun was finally coming to rest behind the faraway hills to which Sulli seemed to walking, she managed to make out the shape of a cluster of peak-roofed stone houses in the distance. Outside the village were an assortment of farms, randomly dispersed over the hills and meadows. The view, just like every sight she had seen this far on her journey, rendered her breathless. She had never seen anything so peaceful and beautiful. The paintings and books she had grown up with never prepared her for what the outside world actually looked like.

While the village seemed large enough to lay low in, it was also small enough that it was probably ignored by the palace. Even if it hadn't been so ideal, she needed somewhere to stay the night.

After having reached what felt like the home stretch, she trudged towards the village.

"Minho-ah!!"

Minho's father's deep and rough voice propagated throughout their crammed home. His son, who had been downstairs in the dusty kitchen, turned his head to hear the message that was designated for him.

"Can you go fetch some more leather from the village?"

This wasn't an uncommon task for Minho, given that his family business was that of shoemaking. About once a week, he would go back behind their house to get Yomi, their old horse and ride to the other side of town where the material vendor was. Leather was an obvious requirement of their trade, which meant an occasional two hour ride.

"I'll be back in a few hours!" He called upstairs to his father before heading out the back door.

The morning air was musty and the temperature outside nipped at his nose and cheeks. He rubbed his eyes with his index and middle finger before running his left hand through his shaggy hair. Chronic lack of sleep barely ever crossed his conscious mind anymore, yet his body constantly felt the effects.

When he got to the tiny stable where they kept their lone horse, he prepared for the press-your-shoulder-into-the-door-and-turn-the-doorknob routine that he performed daily in order to shove the door open. This morning, however, he found that the door was already open slightly. Taken aback, he suddenly woke from his dazed demeanour. Hesitating, he pressed his ear to the crack where the heavy wooden door was open. He strained his hearing until, ever so faintly, he could make out the sound of... Snoring?

Carefully, Minho eased the already open door further ajar. Peering into the quaint and dark stable, he first made out the shape of his chestnut horse and then, behind the animal, he could see a figure lying in a pile of hay. As he moved closer, leaving the door open just a sliver behind him, he discovered that the person asleep on the ground was a girl, her eyes shut tight in a deep slumber. As she was clearly unaware of his presence, Minho seized the opportunity to examine the stranger. Her clothes looked simple enough, yet her hair and skin were unnaturally well-kept for your average royal subject. Somehow, she even seemed to sleep with grace and elegance.

For some strange reason, Minho wasn’t particularly mad that this stranger had decided to sleep in his family’s stable. Instead, he was perplexed and a touch amused. Where did this girl come from? Why was she here?

Unsure how to go about waking her up, he hesitantly went to touch her upper arm. Lightly, he shook her a bit, causing her eyes to flutter open drowsily and meet her unexpected new acquaintance.

The first thing Sulli realized as she woke from her overdue sleep was that there was a person standing over her, the second thing was that this person was a boy, and the third was that he was looking at her with a mixture of amusement and concern.

As soon as she was awake enough to become aware of these three things, she jumped up from the pile of hay and, to her shame, attempted to make for the door. Surely, this stranger would be angry, with trespassing and pure rudeness among her offences. As she made for the door, the boy pulled her back by the arm, his grip surprisingly unyielding.

“Let. Go. Of. Me,” she protested, taken aback by his audacity. Never in her life had anyone unwelcomely laid a hand on her.

He smirked. “I just discovered you in my stable without my knowledge and you think that I would just let you run away,” he mused, lightly blowing air out of his nose like a whisper of a laugh.

He positioned himself in front of the door and leaned against before releasing her struggling and thrashing arm.

“Now,” he began, “would you like to sit or stand while you explain yourself?”

A/N: Thank you very much to everyone who subscribed after just the first chapter. I know it was quite a bit of time between updates but I needed to regroup, motivate myself and most importantly find the time. I'll do better!