Chapter 10 – [1800]

Chuho clapped his hands of any traces of dust as he came to a stall. After losing to the race he recalled unfair, Chuho had taken interest in something else and use the time all to himself. When he came to an immediate suspend behind the apple stall, he noticed how the seller, a chubby woman, was staring at him. Chuho knew it was due to the poor condition of his clothes that has many stall owners giving him dirty looks. It was something that Chuho hated about the people; how they were so quick to judge him by appearance when they were not any better off themselves.

Then again, it rarely bothers him as much as he despised the realization of the fact. After all, Chuho is a little thief, and he was no better than the people who looked down on him.

“Don’t come near if you do not have money.” The lady behind the shop warned him. But Chuho insisted anyway and stepped forward. “You dirty brat didn’t you hear me?” The lady snarled.

Chuho stopped in his steps when a certain scene caught his attention from the corner of his eyes. Chuho noticed a grown man with two children moving near the back of homes, where it was less crowded. Obviously, the three could have been related somehow as they were together, but it was the look in the man’s eyes and how carried himself, someone sneaking around, as he dragged and carried the two children with him.

Chuho was a child that would happily own up to accusations toward him being a thief because often it would result in short chases that amused him. But he was not a child who would avoid the ill feelings in his guts. Chuho was a troublemaker who loves to get involved with everything he finds suspicious. Solely for the purpose of entertainment, hence owning up to accusations he was unaware of. As the lady behind the stall continued to bark at him, Chuho slowly made his way toward the back of the homes and follow the trail of the unknown three.

“G-Geukjin! What are you doing? Release Eunmi and me before father finds out and you—” Changwoo demanded as he lay his small hand over Geukjin’s, trying to force them off from around his wrist. The color of Changwoo’s small wrist had begun turning pale when the grown man was squeezing it firmly. When the boy knew he couldn’t fight off his opponent with just a game of tugging, he decided to try resisting by digging his toes into the ground, but similarly, Geukjin was a lot bigger and stronger than him. Hence there was nothing Changwoo could do to stop the man. Meanwhile, the male carried Eunmi over his shoulder as if she was a light package.

Eunmi had a schmatte wrapped her lower head and over , to prevent her from screaming, Changwoo, on the other hand, was a boy who thought he was a man and can handle anything on his own, thus Geukjin was rarely concerned about Changwoo begging for help out loud.

No matter how much of a kid Changwoo still really is.

“Keep still and come along you little rat,” Geukjin growled. It was Changwoo’s first time seeing Geukjin so cold, so unapproachable. The scrawny lad who looked way older than his age for the first time was scaring Oh Changwoo; a child who’s hardly afraid of anything or anyone besides his father and grandfather.

Slowly but surely they were leaving the only area Changwoo and Eunmi were familiar with. The pair of siblings rarely played outdoors or at least not in unfamiliar locations. The scene of the loud village was slowly transitioning into nothing but wind in the trees' leaves. The only clear path was the dirt road before them and the direction they came from. The youth was left clueless as to where the older was taking them and he didn’t like the idea of being taken away from Jongno’s outer walls.

Once in awhile Changwoo would glance up to meet Eunmi’s mortified, watery eyes. In the moment when he did so, Changwoo’s mind immediately traced back to a time in the past, a past that has always made him angry. As their father was the Minister of Defense, it was most likely a requirement skillset that the official’s children knew how to protect themselves from situations such as that Changwoo and Eunmi were currently trapped in, but Eunmi was never the type to play with a weapon, in fact she hated the idea of fighting. Since then Eunmi was always and only a fragile girl who loves to play.

Changwoo began to notice the eyes of bypassers around them but not once did he tried to call for help. Until they have gotten deeper down the road where there were rarely people. It was then that Changwoo regretted his decision for remaining silent, and mindful.

Geukjin stopped dead in the center of the road and looked upon Changwoo. “Prepare yourself, this is where I kill you, young master.” The older’s frank words left Changwoo frozen and Eunmi squirming in fear. The older jerk the boy closer to him and once again dragged the two, but this time they were going off the road and into the woods. The moment they went into the bamboo grove Eunmi had started to muffle and Changwoo had begun rebelling by digging the Earth’s minerals some more.

Changwoo who was always a step behind Geukjin and Eunmi who was completely blind from what’s before they were both clueless as to their next destination. Which turned out to be an abandoned storage hidden in the woods. Geukjin was quick to eject Changwoo before anything else once he had kicked the unlocked door open, revealing the poor condition of the hut. Changwoo who had fallen first was forced to carry the weight of his younger sister just seconds after as Geukjin lowered Eunmi and shove her toward the boy.

The older then reach in and hauled the door shut before them. “Thank your father for your deaths!” The man hollered from outside then straightaway fished out a rusty lock from his pocket, the lad then quickly lock the children in. Hastily he draws two matches from his pocket and lit them up before dropping them onto the side of the hut. Lastly, he scans his surrounding for any unwanted witnesses, when he had convinced himself that there were none the fellow hurried out of the scene, leaving two children locked in a shack to be engulfed in the colors of yellow, orange, and red.

As the fire quickly outgrew the height of the walls and onto the roof, Changwoo and Eunmi were struggling to think straight. Eunmi had resorted to holding onto the arm of Changwoo and closing in behind him. The eleven, on the other hand, was looking for available, untouched walls as sweat formed on his temple and his breathing began to pick up. “C-Changwoo do something, I don’t want to die yet,” Eunmi begged in a low cry.

“Eunmi, don’t stay too close to me, it’s too hot,” Changwoo muttered first but the girl insisted.

“No! I’m scared! Do something!”

Panic grew on Changwoo and for the first time, he felt afraid. “Is anyone out there? There’s someone in here! Please help us!” Changwoo cried aloud. The smoke from the flames moved in slowly and soon fogged their vision and sense of smell. Presently they started coughing as the smoke invaded and clog their healthy lungs. “Please someone!”

Then by the door, they heard a loud thump. Changwoo and Eunmi glimpse toward the direction of the sound.

“Hold on!” They heard a voice from outside. The voice belongs to a child the same age as Changwoo, Moon Chuho was the child. From the outside, Chuho was trying to break down the door with a large, oddly shaped rock. The door came crashing down only after the third try as the fire has already eaten most of the door’s strength. Once the door fell open Chuho moved closer to the entrance, waving the cloud of smoke away from him. “H-hey come out.”

When the silhouette of Changwoo and Eunmi charged toward Chuho, the smaller boy quickly fled to the side to avoid a collision. The moment Changwoo and Eunmi set foot outside, they quickly met the ground again, gagging for clean air and hemming out smog.

Chuho stood his ground and observe the other two, Changwoo had become quiet after gasping for air, meanwhile, Eunmi was still hawking. Chuho’s eyes were soon glued to the motionless Changwoo. “Are you okay?”

At Chuho’s question, Changwoo dug the earth with his nails and formed a fist. “I’m going to get him,” Changwoo said in a low and dangerous tone. “He’s going to pay for doing this to us.”

“Hey, did you hear me?” Chuho asked, this time Changwoo stood up in a flash and toss the dirt he had managed to clawed from his hands. He took a few steps toward the boy, invading the boy’s personal space.

“Where did he go? Which way did he go?!”

Chuho was taken aback by the other’s sudden behavior. “He went that way,” Chuho pointed to the direction just past Eunmi, meanwhile locking eyes with Changwoo. Without further ado, Changwoo stormed off before Chuho could sneak a word or two in. Chuho scoffed a little as he felt offended for being ignored, “What’s his problem? What can he do to a grown-up?”

Changwoo sped past Eunmi and tried to track Geukjin down, but Eunmi who had caught on quickly stood up and ran a few steps after Changwoo. “Changwoo! W-where are you going? Let’s go together!”

After a few more steps Changwoo came to a halt and spun around slowly, where he gazed into Eunmi’s worried yet terrified eyes. “Eunmi, go home and tell father what Geukjin had done. I’m going to follow him.”

“Why? There’s nothing you can do!” Eunmi said instantly. Her breathing began to pick up and sweat rolled down her chubby cheeks. “Even if you go what are you going to do! I don’t know how to tell father! What if something bad happens to you, don’t go Changwoo!” Eunmi cried, her voice echoing through the woods.

Though Chuho could careless about Changwoo's safety, he shamelessly into convincing Changwoo, “She’s right. Even if you go after that man now there’s no way you can catch up to him, not even if you can run faster than me. And I'm pretty fast,” Chuho hasn't got a clue what the deal was between the three of them, though he did witness a crime done by the adult male. Changwoo quickly scans the area once more just to be sure that Geukjin wasn’t around, then lastly he clutched his hands into fists. 

Chuho who was the only one who had really saw the way back to Jongno led the small pack back. Once they were outside of Changwoo and Eunmi’s home, the sibling walked in together with draggy feet. Changwoo who felt empty for a moment spun around to face Chuho, the nameless boy. Then slowly he closed the gap between them until he was in speaking range and where Chuho could hear him even if he was whispering. “Today you saved my sister and me. I may be simple minded but I will never forget what you’ve done. So I’ll like to repay you, but I’m not sure how to if you have anything in mind then—”

“Would you teach me about the sword?” Chuho asked frankly, causing Changwoo to widen his eyes.

“H-how did you know that I knew about the sword…?” Chuho flashed Changwoo the biggest and widest smile the boy has ever seen before replying or rather confessing.

“I threw an apple at you earlier,”

End of Chapter Ten.