A year has passed and things are normal in the master’s castle. He hired another servant after Ahn Daniel. Then another. Then another. But he discards them not long after. They couldn’t do their jobs properly is what the master said. Too many times had he wished that he could take Ahn Daniel back. He’s the only one who can do the things that needed to be done without needing to be told to do so. He slumped on his chair and heaved a sigh. That was when the new servant came in with a letter in hand. He read the letter and smiled.

“When was the last time that you visited us, my lord?” Laughed Lee Chanhee, a cousin prince of the master.

“When was the last time you invited me over, cousin?”

“Ah, but you know you can always drop by.” The master’s cousin smiled at him.

They were in the middle of their chat when the master caught a familiar face. Far too familiar, he felt his chest ache and his heart beat faster. He knows the face but somehow, it looks unfamiliar, new, foreign. He’s smiling. The master hasn’t seen Ahn Daniel smile before. Not in the seventeen years they have been together in his castle. Not once. The master looked at his cousin.

“I heard Niel was serving you before my twin brother found him on the street, almost dead.”

“Almost dead?” The master couldn’t explain but his ribcage felt like it is squeezing his heart and lungs, it pains him.

The cousin nodded. “Byunghun found him on one of the streets while we were riding and brought him with us here. He didn’t talk. He simply stare at us when we speak to him, we actually thought he was mute.” The cousin laughs. “Cousins Jonghyun and Changhyun came to visit often. Somehow, they took a liking to him. They would keep him company, tell stories and joke around him. After a month, he was talking back to them, sharing stories, though not many of them pleasant.”

The master cleared his throat then looked back to where Ahn Daniel is, playing hit the ball by the beach with their cousins. He looked at his smiling face, his happy aura, and though he couldn’t explain it, he cursed himself. Somehow, he felt like he was the one who prohibits the boy to smile for the past seventeen years of his life.

Another day has gone. This time, they were out to hunt. Ahn Daniel has been knowledgeable of his former master’s presence and decided to keep out of his way as much as he can. He stayed by Jonghyun and Changhyun’s side all the time. These two are also cousins of his former master but Ahn Daniel couldn’t see any resemblance in their characters. These people here are loving and caring.

One second they are walking happily in the forest, the next second, they are face to face with a wild bear. Each of them have spears in their hands but none of them but the master knew how to hunt. And he showed just how good he was when he struck the bear right in its eye when it moved to attack Ahn Daniel, or Niel as what his cousins love calling him now.

Niel was scared for his life, that’s a given. But he trembled even more upon seeing that the master have him in his arms right now, and that he is really close to him. The master didn’t like the fear he saw in Niel’s eyes. And he couldn’t understand the pain it brought in his chest to see that the fear was laced with anger.

Bang Minsoo hasn’t talked to anyone about his inner turmoil since the day his servant walked free from his slavery. He doesn’t want him to go yet he doesn’t have anything to stop him from doing so. He has maltreated him, he admits to that. But only because he doesn’t like the thing he feels every time the servant is around him. Every time the servant casts his cat like eyes towards his direction. How his presence affects him. The master doesn’t know what to do about what he feels and so, he resorted to cruelty. Maybe if he had made the servant suffer, his own suffering from not being able to tell him those things would be quenched. They will be even. But no, it didn’t happen. He now know that he was a fool to even think about it. It’s taken a year without his servant to realize that he love him.

When the servant walked out of his castle, the master thought that it’s for the better. He wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. The servant is free from the master’s cruelty, and the master is free from dealing with his hidden feelings for the servant. That day, he believed that what he felt was nothing but an illusion and Ahn Daniel will never hear the better of it. But he has decided. He would tell his former servant.

“So what, you save me from a bear and you think everything bad you did would be erased?” Niel said, angrily.

“I know. I’ve been bad to you.”

“Bad? You call that bad? You’re a monster! You’re a devil! The demon in the flesh of a man! If not for Byunghun, I would be dead!”

Minsoo felt a tug on his chest when Niel said his cousin’s name as though he as praising him to higher heavens. “And if I hadn’t killed that bear, you would also be dead!”

“So now I owe my life to you?” Niel screamed back. “I’m sorry, master, I am at your mercy, please command me whatever. Do you want me to say that?”

“What? No! I’m just trying to make a point here.”

“What point?”

“That I saved your life too. At least treat me better than this.”

“That would’ve been easier if you have treated me as a human.” With that, Niel left. Again, without looking back.