Chapter 19 – [1805]

Breakfast followed the first sight of sunrise that morning. Many skips out on their first meal of the day due to labor or mainly because the common could not afford multiple meals a day, but not at Chuho’s home, which were hidden in the mountains just outside of Jongno. The youngster along with buddy Taeyong and Jin were still lost in the beauty of their sleeps. Chuho who was lying in the center had his index finger wrapped in and around Jin’s long, untidy hair as the two lie facing each other. Meanwhile Taeyong slept peacefully on his side of the bedspread. Their slumber was heading toward its thirteenth hour until a much older man with a balbo and bushy sideburns woke them. At the door he held and played the triangle dinner bell as an alarm to wake the juveniles.

“Jin, Chuho, Taeyong, get up,” he ordered. Taeyong was the first to budged and sit up once he had seen the figure at the door.

“Sir Hongkyang,” he mumbled tiredly.

“Get to work Taeyong. Hey Chuho, Jin, wake up,” the man identified as Hongkyang continued. As he proceed to play the iron bell. Chuho made himself smaller and moved toward Jin for cover, meanwhile the chubbier one felt the tangled in his hair. With soft grumbles Jin tried to separate Chuho’s finger from his black locks.

“Chuho, your—your finger is in my hair a-again,” Jin said this time with annoyance but still with his eyes shut.

“Why did you tie it around your hair again?” Chuho asked back in a small whisper. Hongkyang was aware that the two were still more than half asleep.

“Hey Chuho! Jin! Hurry get up!”

Taeyong who had removed himself from the bed got up to put on his outer blue attire. While focusing on covering his inner white layers, he made little effort to give Hongkyang a helping hand. The man, who was getting fed up banged the triangle bell harder before hollering. “This is the last warning Chuho and Jin!”

Jin who had finally give in to the noise sat up and ripped his locks away, “Is it morning already?” He questioned with a yawn.

“Put on your clothes Jin, have you forgotten what you must be doing today?” Hongkyang asked in a serious tone as he stopped ringing the bell.

“Is today the trip?”

“Yes so get up. Breakfast should be ready by now. You and Taeyong better go eat before the day get any older.” Taeyong and Jin left shortly after the hard tone of Hongkyang’s normally soft voice. The older then were left alone with a sleeping Chuho. “Chuho I’m only going to count to three. Afterwards I’m going to use my strength,” with no movements from Chuho still, Hongkyang began his count down, “One.. Two.. Three!” A short knife was drawn out from the strap around Hongkyang’s left forearm hidden within his long sleeve, as he tried to struck Chuho’s head.

With quick reflex Chuho blocked the incoming attack with a knife of his own, which had been withdrawn from under his strawed pillow. To stop Hongkyang’s force, Chuho was now in a kneeling position on the straw mat. Once their eyes met, Hongkyang saw that only the right eye of Chuho was apparent, then a smug was plastered on the younger’s dried face.

“What do you think? My friend Changwoo taught me this move,” Chuho said proudly. Without a second thought Hongkyang afflicted a sharp pain onto the top of Chuho’s head with an open hand. Chuho retreated with a grunt and rubbed the crown of his head. “Ow! Sir Hongkyang!”

“You rascal, the sword does you no good if you can’t even dodge a bare hand. Instead of playing around with the sword, you should practice your archery,” Hongkyang said before putting away his knife and taking a step back. The older re-composed himself then went to pick up the bell he had dropped in order to strike Chuho. The boy sighed heavily.

“I told you before Sir, I have too much energy to be a shooter. The sword allows me to be active and close to my enemy,” there was a pause as their eyes met once more, “Changwoo told me that.” Chuho concluded. Hongkyang sighed and turned to Chuho one last time before leaving the room.

“Forget about that. The boy you brought in yesterday, he’s awake,”

Chuho’s eyes widen. He had completely forgotten about the wounded foreigner.

Chuho watched with a disparaged expression as his father, Moon Jinhee, conversed with the alien. The young bandit was standing behind his father who had seated himself on the empty bed made of straw next to the blond boy’s. Hongkyang who too was present stood by the door and kept quiet. The white boy had some bruises and dirt on his face, but otherwise appeared healthy. The same lad was relaxed on the bed and once in awhile he would eye Chuho. With every exchanges Chuho grew more curious wondering if the boy had some mysterious interest in him. However, other than the brief and awkward eye contact Chuho tried to focus on the body language between his father and the stranger. He was aware that his father spoke their language as they trade with foreigners, but to hear it in person and personally he found it much more difficult to comprehend. While he was dying to know what they were talking, Jinhee and the boy had already gone through more than half of their discussion.  

“You said your parents are in Japan right?” Jinhee asked in English. Although he had a heavy accent, the boy made out what he was saying.

“Yes, we went to Japan for a short vacation but…. I was left onboard and when I asked the Captain to turn back the boat he wouldn’t. So I—”

Jinhee lifted a hand to silence the boy, “What matters more is if we can find you a way back home. I will have my men look into the next shipment. Maybe then I can get you a way home,” Jinhee said calmly. Chuho grew bored and impatient from the soft interaction and cut in to get the gist of what was happening.

“Father, what happened to him? How did he end up in the mountains where I found him?” Chuho asked in earnest hoping he’d get an answer. Instead his father exhaled a heavy sigh and ignored his interjection.

“The one who rescued you was my son, the boy behind me,” Jinhee indirectly introduced the clueless Chuho to the blonde.

“Oh, why hello,” the non-Asian boy smiled to Chuho making his eyes wide open, “if it hadn’t been for you I would have been in grave danger,”

“Is he talking to me?” Chuho asked as his eyes fall between the face of the blonde and the back of his father’s head.

“He’s grateful you found him, if not he may have been in trouble,” Jinhee translated after a turn of his head.

“Ah,” Chuho mused, “right, does he have a name father?” Chuho questioned. Unknowingly something told Chuho that he should ask for the foreigner's name since it would be interesting to know how non-Korean names sound like.

“My name is Denis King,” the white boy jumped in surprising Chuho but plastered a soft smile onto Jinhee and Hongkyang’s face, “see when I was on the boat some of the crewmen were Koreans. I picked up a few words from them,” the boy explained with a proud, wide smile.

Frightened, Chuho pulled his head back, “What’s with that smile? Are you that happy I don’t know what you’re saying?”

His question brought laughter Hongkyang and a growing smile on Jinhee’s face.

As the two oldest men recover, Jinhee quickly laid out orders, “Hongkyang and I have matters to discuss. Would you stay here for a bit Chuho and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere?” Chuho replied with a click of his tongue.

“Actually I wanted to ask if you’d allow me to go on this trip with Sir Hongkyang too,” Chuho said after a moment of silence and before his father stood from the bed.

“Taeyong and Jin will be accompanying Hongkyang. You can just stay here and look after Denis until I find a way to send him back home,” Jinhee did not give Chuho a chance to rebel and instead left with Hongkyang in moments. Chuho could only sigh as he eyed their leave, just to face the same smiling Denis.

With a small scoff Chuho breathed, “Seriously, what’s with that smile?”

Jungook sat in his chair and overlooked an empty room. His only company was Taeyo, who had done most of the talking so far. “As you wished I had Teacher Daniel’s body transported already along with your message to the underground traders. When we hear from them I will report to you their response,”

“Good,” was all Jungook said before standing, then before leaving the quiet space he relied one last request, “while you return to Jongno with Yungjeong and Wootae, anything worth concealing should be kept from Inpyo, understood?”

“Yes, I understand my Lord,” Taeyo answered as he bowed and listened to Jungook’s descending footsteps.

The largest of the three fancy bright litters in the front carried Yungjeong while the other two carried goods. Taeyo mounted on a brown horse at the very front while Wootae rode on another at the end. Beside him was the grown filly without a bridle and saddle. Peeking back, Yungjeong was still impressed by the animal. He wondered what drove the animal to follow so closely without any physical or direct control. With Taeyo closer to him, Yungjeong decided to question his interests, “Sir Ji Taeyo, you know, that animal without ropes. Whose is it?”

Taeyo turned his head to get a good look at Yungjeong, “It belongs to no one, but it follows young master Wootae,”

A mere disbelief smirk was pursed onto Yungjeong’s lips as he further investigate, “If it follows Wootae then wouldn’t it be Wootae’s?”

Taeyo wasted no time to answer, “A horse without a name has no identity. A horse without an identity has no owner. That’s why in the past five years no one along with Wootae has given that animal a name,”

Curious by the mindset behind it, Yungjeong wore a bigger smirk, “So an animal without a name has no owner. Then it’s right to say the one who thought of this idea also think a person without a name has no owner as well, right?”

“I wouldn’t know, the idea wasn’t mine,” Taeyo dodged.

Yungjeong then looked over his shoulder and knew then the idea must have came from Wootae. “Interesting, I never knew a child could be this interesting,” the official whispered to himself while wearing a smudged smirk. As they close in on Jongno the silence dragged on. Toward the front gates of Jongno, a party of five passed them. Three of the five rode on horses meanwhile two men were on foot. The group wore mainly grey except one who stood out.

From the shape of the body, anyone could tell it was a woman. She had long silky black hair that rested on the saddle behind her. Covering was a red veil that falls near her s, meanwhile her whole attire was that of nothing but white. With only her eyes exposed, it was still obvious that she was a beauty. Her skin was as white as white can be and smooth as smooth can be. As the group advance by, Wootae felt a strong presence from the party.

And right as he turned his head to watch them pass, he noticed an object flying toward him at incredible speed. It took less than a millisecond before he realized what it was.

An arrow was heading straight toward Wootae’s chest at 150 miles per hour.

End of Chapter Nineteen.