3 AM. A strangely quiet room. Younghee sits up and her eyes flicker around her familiar room tiredly.

A missing presence. She slides off her bed quietly, careful not to disturb her sleeping parents. She jumps onto Youngjun’s bed; it is just as she suspected—Youngjun is gone. She pulls the blanket off and runs her hand over his bed, finding that it’s still warm. Hoping he had simply gone to the restroom, she steps out of her room into the hallway and heads toward the restroom.

Empty, once again.

Younghee presses her lips together in a fine line, frustrated. She grabs onto the stairway’s railing and gingerly makes her way downstairs. After checking all the rooms, she finds that Youngjun is missing, but she knows exactly where he is.

Not thinking about it twice, she grabs her boots, a thin coat, and an oil lantern, and she departs.

It was silent outside, so silent. Younghee only hears her soft intakes and outtakes of breath and her boots crunching in the snow, which barely helps fill in the silent void.

She concentrates at the path ahead of her instead, not wanting to trip on something idiotically. The darkness only makes the silence worse, and she feels her heartbeat quicken. Cursing Youngjun mentally, she picks up her pace.

She finds herself in the depths of the forest that she’s known her whole life (she could practically dodge each tree with her eyes closed) and stops, looking left, right, and all around her.

She calls Youngjun’s name, and worry builds up within her when the only reply she receives is the echo of her own voice.

After walking for a few more minutes, she sees a light in the distance.

“Youngjun?” her walk becomes a jog and she chases the glow. “Is that you?”

“Noona?” Youngjun’s familiar voice calls out, filling her entire body with relief.

“Oh thank god,” she mutters. “Get over here.”

She slows to a stop and waits for him to reach her. And when he does, she does not speak and she does not move. Youngjun bites his lower lip, knowing that Younghee wants him to explain what he was up to. But he stays silent, forcing Younghee to speak first.

“I was worried,” she states. He only responds with a small nod, knowing very well that she’s worried. Her relieved feeling is replaced by an irritated one. She’s too tired to say anything more; their ears are only filled with the sounds of each other breathing and the soft clatters of their oil lanterns dangling from their hands. “Let’s go home.”

She turns away from him, and he swears he can feel her disappointment reach out from her entity and touch and surround him; it isn’t a pleasant feeling. He walks up by her side, taking in a deep breath of the cold, fresh air.

“Sorry,” he forces the words out dryly. “I—“

“Save your explanation for tomorrow,” she cuts him off. A short pause, and then Younghee grabs hold of his free hand. “Come on, before umma and appa wake up and find us gone…”

“Okay…”

They tread quietly back home; Younghee is struggling to keep her eyes open, but her eyes shoot wide open when a shout pierces the silence like a blade.

“Halt!”

She turns around swiftly, pulling Youngjun behind her protectively. When they see who it is, they both bow down immediately.

Decked out in armor and a cape, the imperial guard stares the two siblings down.

“What are you two doing out here so late at night?”

“My younger brother wasn’t feeling well, so we took a walk for fresh air,” she lies, grip on the handle of her lantern tightening.

“Next time just open your window or just walk around the town premises,” the guard sneers. “We are going to fence off this area soon anyway.”

Younghee desperately wants to ask him to elaborate, but she only nods bitterly and turns on her heel, walking back home with Youngjun by her side.

The next morning, news had spread around the town that construction on a wall in the southern regions of their settlement would begin the next morning; it was just as the guard had said, Younghee recalls. Men and boys above fifteen were to work on it, which means Youngjun has to as well.

And speak of the devil—

“I’m home,” Youngjun says to no one in particular. His entire body is quite filthy, cheeks smeared with black dust. Younghee looks up from her needlework and notices a gash on his left temple.

“Hey, what happened?” she asks, looking up from the cutting board.

“A part of the mine collapsed,” he says, very nonchalant about the situation. Her heart almost stops.

“D-Did anyone get hurt seriously?”

“Um… I don’t think so.”

“That’s a relief,” Younghee sighs. “Wash up