"I hope they made it to the beach."

For days he had been running, always running, with the hope he would be the one they were following. Sometimes it was quiet in the forest. Just the sound of the animals breaking the dense mute of a lonely forest. It was at these times when he didn't feel their presence around him that he felt fear. Hours he would trek in circles and zigzagged patterns thinking that maybe they'd lost his trail. Only after he heard the baying of the hounds was he certain they were after him again. Only then was he able to continue on his meandering path to nothing. They had to follow him. At least until they got to the cottage.

"Please Jinki! There has to be another way. A way for us to all escape. I've got money and once we get to the coast, we would be home free."

"We could be free. For a moment. But once we've gone, they'll start looking for us. And they won't stop until our blood is on their hands. Don't you see, Minho? They are out for flesh and we'll be running the rest of our lives until their bounty is paid."

"Then send JiAe away and let me be here beside you. Jinki...I can't live this life without you. Even for a minute. I-I can't."

The cottage looked the same way it did all those months ago. A rusty lean-to with bare floors and sparse furnishings. It was a hunting lodge that had served generations of villagers with the memories of many a winter's keep carved into its weathered walls. Walls that sheltered two freezing bodies caught in the forest that day in December against a blizzard no one saw coming. Walls that had provided cover as lifelong friends transformed into clandestine lovers. Walls that stood guard as Jinki made love to the only man he would ever love, the only man that he would betray his martial vows for.

The moment Jinki saw Choi JiAe, he was smitten. She was a vision of loveliness, from her perfect face with its large almond eyes and plump round lips, to her delicate curves set off by mile-long legs.He remembered Minho telling him about his younger haif-sister who was being raised by Minho's father and stepmother, but he had no idea she would be of any interest to him. Honestly, Jinki assumed he would live as a lifelong bachelor as no one interested Jinki more than the chase of a good hunt and the camaraderie of good friends, especially that of his best friend, Minho.

Both having lost their mothers in childbirth and being raised by their halmonis, their friendship was as deep as either imagined a brotherhood could be. Minho was the only one Jinki could tell about the isolation he felt around the other kids for being unable to celebrate holidays with a mother and father because Minho understood. For his part, Jinki felt like Minho respected his hyung often came to him with teenage growing pains, grateful for the elder's wisdom. They were pratically family and when JiAe accepted Jinki's request to court, it would be a year later that they would actually become brothers as Jinki made JiAe his wife.

Jinki still loved JiAe. As he locked the doors and windows of the creaking shack, Jinki's thoughts stood with his wife. He wondered if she would be able to make it to Busan in her state. The last night he spent with her, he saw the exhaustion in her once glittering eyes and the pallid complexion of her formally flawless skin ate at his guts. Jinki had done this to her and now he was abandoning her to fate and his prayers that she could hold it together for another day. From counting sunsets, Jinki figured he had been running for eight days and the coast was a three day trip from the village by foot. With the need to travel in darkness it would take longer but JiAe’s precarious health made the journey that much harder. Yes, Jinki thought of her just as much as he thought of Minho and once again, he prayed for them both.

"Heavenly Father, it has been years since my last confession. Almost as many years have passed since I last stepped foot in your house. We both know this will be my last confession. As a born sinner, I have committed countless acts of betrayal to your holy word and for that there is no forgiveness. I have forsaken my wife by coveting another. I have harbored lustful thoughts for my own and basely allowed myself to indulge in sinful acts with another man. All of this I have done and without true remorse. For as much as I hate the man I have become...I love Minho. Father, I love him and I am sorry that I have soiled so many with that love. Please forgive them, for I have sinned and in days the village will send me to you for final reckoning."

They lay under the floorboards in the pantry. Jinki had seen them that fateful week. Those first couple of days spent after the blizzard had a bored Jinki exploring the old building and now he was certain he knew this place inside and out. Working on that belief, he began lifting the loose planks and immediately Jinki saw them catch the light. Pulled from their hiding place, the two swords were a sight. Old, but dependable...they would serve a warrior after years of slumber.

Loudly, it was the dogs that signaled their arrival, the sound growing like a storm outside. Soon dogs were join by horses and shouts then voices. The jumble of noise barreled closer and closer and the unrest grew. Their thirst for judgment was here at his feet. An abomination that affronted the morals of a town whose leaders were fathers to their own grandchildren and men who stole when crooked deeds could be covered with coins. Covered. If it had been covered then maybe no one would have been bothered by their love. But someone saw them kiss and after that, there would be no way to go back to ignorance. Now was the chance for all of them to say, "At least I never did that" and prove their virtue.

Close enough to hear their breath, soon the pounding began. They were going to break the door down, the locks only slowing their progress. Jinki just needed those extra seconds to grasp his weapons and utter a last request.

"Lord, please protect my child. Let our sins dies with me. Let it only happen to me."