Italic = Chinese (or Mandarin)

Normal = Korean

A month has passed since the event that took place at the garden. Chaeyeon and Jieqiong has gotten closer thanks to Jieqiong learning Korean with the help of Nayoung. They talked whenever they could be alone together. It wasn’t everyday but it made Chaeyeon happy. The princess invited her for dinner tonight. According to Jieqiong she wanted to have dinner with Chaeyeon everyday but she couldn’t because Nayoung said it might look bad with the other maids and they might envy Chaeyeon. As much as Chaeyeon liked having dinner with Jieqiong, she had to thank Nayoung for being reasonable. Chaeyeon would prefer to kept attention away from herself after all, especially the negative kind.

Chaeyeon was on her way to the palace medicine storage. It seemed that the princess was hurt while she was sneaking out of the palace doing whatever she was doing. When she came back, her body was full of scratches. It wasn’t serious injury but with the princess fair complexion and sensitive skin it looked pretty bad. Nayoung nagged Jieqiong all night while cleaning the cuts. Chaeyeon was there to assist Nayoung and she heard how Nayoung lectures Jieqiong. Jieqiong would steal glances at Chaeyeon mouthed something like “the stone Buddha is mad” or “Nayoung is too serious” which results muffled laughter by Chaeyeon and glares from Nayoung. She hummed happily as she walks to the medicine storage to get some ointment for the hyper princess. As she was passing by two maids that belong to the Queen’s quarter passed by her. She stopped at her track and bowed her head to them. They didn’t give her much attention because they were busy gossiping. As they passed Chaeyeon by, Chaeyeon heard a news she never thought she would hear.

“Did you hear? It seems that the mine north of the village collapsed. A lot of the slaves died.”

“Oh my. Poor them. Aren’t they new though?”

“Yes, it was the slaves that were brought here a few months ago.”

Chayeon froze when she heard their conversation. Her parents face flashed in her mind. Her heart sunk, thinking about the worst. Her vision started to blur, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to fall any second. When the first tear dropped to the ground Chaeyeon was already running. She ran like she never ran before. Her lungs burned, screaming for air. But Chaeyeon didn’t stop. She went past through the bamboo forest which was one of the farthest area to the princess’s quarter. She stopped at a pavilion inside the bamboo forest. She sat down at one of the stone step, as her ragged breath escaped from . Tears were still pouring out from her eyes. Her eyes had started to hurt but she couldn’t stop herself. A thousand of what if’s started playing inside her head. But what she fear the most was, what if her parents were dead.

She started wailing as the horrible thought dance in her mind. She needed to see her parent right away. She needed to make sure that they were okay. And if they were dead she needed to see their bodies with her own eyes. A rustled sound to her left attract Chaeyeon attention. Nayoung was standing there with puzzled expression, approaching Chaeyeon with cautious steps. Chaeyeon tears welled up again seeing Nayoung, who after all this month took care of her appeared right before her eyes. Chaeyeon ran to hug Nayoung. Nayoung welcomed Chaeyeon with open arms. As their bodies collided Nayoung almost lost her balance but regained it quickly. She Chaeyeon hairs, just like she did many times before when Chaeyeon needed her to. Chaeyeon cried in Nayoung’s arm, and Nayoung let her cry her heart out.

#####

It was hours before Chaeyeon finally calmed down. Nayoung and Chaeyeon were sitting at the pavilion. Chaeyeon was still in Nayoung’s arm. Small sniffled were heard every once in a while. When Nayoung sensed that Chaeyeon was getting quiet and her tears had stopped completely Nayoung retreated herself from the embrace to look at Chaeyeon’s face. The younger girl’s eyes were red, swollen from many hours of crying. Her lips and face lost its natural color, instead of the usual pink it was pale blue. It was probably due to dehydration. She looked so broken. Nayoung wipe Chaeyeon’s face with the sleeve of her dress. She took the younger girl’s face into her hand and looked at her sad eyes.

“What’s wrong Chaeyeon-ah?”

“Nayoung unnie… My, my parents…” Chaeyeon’s tears started to appear again.

“What’s wrong with your parents?” Nayoung asked, clearly worried.

Chaeyeon told Nayoung about what she heard. It wasn’t easy for Chaeyeon, she needed to stop herself when her breath got caught on , thinking about the possibility that her parents were gone. Nayoung didn’t say much but she listen to Chaeyeon intently. Nayoung could only feel sorry for the girl but there was nothing that she can do. Maids weren’t allowed to go out from the palace, especially the Korean maids. The Chinese maids were still given permission when it was really important, but the Koreans couldn’t do anything about it. Nayoung could only say “I’m sorry” repeatedly to Chaeyeon who was even more heart broken than before when she heard that it was impossible for her to know if her parents were alive or not.

#####

It was dinner time. Chaeyeon was walking behind Nayoung, walking to the princess’s dining room with the other maids bringing the food with them. When they finished setting up the table Nayoung called the princess to the dining room. The princess emerge with paints all over her face, hands and clothes. Apparently Jieqiong was painting. Nayoung told one of the maid to brought wet cloth which Nayoung used to clean the princess’s face and hands. It was unknown whether the expensive silk dress would be savable or not, looking at the amount of paints that stick to it. Jieqiong like always told the other maids to leave so she can eat in peace with Nayoung and Chaeyeon.

They were eating and the princess wasn’t saying much, she was too busy eating. It was rare for Jieqiong to be so focused on eating and less on talking. When Jieqiong wasn’t so starving anymore she started talking to Nayoung. She asked Nayoung about random stuff and her activities while she wasn’t with Jieqiong. Jieqiong was about to talk to Chaeyeon when she notice the grim expression on the girl’s face. Jieqiong hadn’t seen Chaeyeon looked like this before. Chaeyeon didn’t touch her food at all. Jieqiong was starting to sorry when Chaeyeon seemed to only space out even when Jieqiong was staring intently at her. It would usually result in Chaeyeon bulshing, but today was different.

“Chaeyeon? Are you okay?” Jieqiong asked Chaeyeon, her tone was filled with genuine worry.

Chaeyeon didn’t respond and kept staring at her bowl of rice which was untouched.

“Chaeyeon? What’s wrong?” Jieqiong asked again.

It was unexpected when Chaeyeon suddenly stood up from her seat, eyes glaring at Jieqiong. Her eyes were full of agony and anger. Jieqiong was puzzled by the sudden change of attitude. The sweet and shy Chaeyeon was glaring dagger at Jieqiong, and she didn’t know why. Nayoung was evidently nervous by the unforeseen situation. Nayoung glanced back at fort at Jieqiong and Chaeyeon, observing their next move. Jieqiong stood up from her own seat. She carefully approach Chaeyeon. Jieqiong was almost in front of Chaeyeon when Chaeyeon eyes started to well up with tears.

“Chaeyeon?”

Jieqiong was truly confused by this situation. Chaeyeon tears started to drop to the floor. Jieqiong swiftly went to Chaeyeon’s side to erase Chaeyeon’s tears. Jieqiong was well on her way to do so when Chaeyeon pulled away from her touch. Jieqiong felt her heart sunk when Chaeyeon stepped back from her touch. Eyes filled with tears and anger looked at Jieqiong straight. Jieqiong was speechless, not knowing what was exactly going on and why it was happening. Jieqiong wet her lower mouth, nervously looking at Chaeyeon. Jieqiong opened only to close it again. Chaeyeon rain of tears kept flowing. The room came to uncomfortable silence except from the breaths of its current occupant until Chaeyeon finally spoke.

“Why did you have to take me away from my parents?” Chaeyeon asked, her voice sound truly heartbroken.

“WHY?!”

Chaeyeon’s scream startled both Jieqiong and Nayoung. They stared at crying Chaeyeon, speechless. Never in a million years Jieqiong and Nayoung thought they would ever hear sweet little Chaeyeon scream. They were wrong.

“I hate you!”

Chaeyeon said while looking at Jieqiong before she went and ran off to exit the room, tears streaming down her cheeks. Nayoung and Jieqiong were dumbfounded. It took them awhile after Chaeyeon ran out to process the situation. While Nayoung had a gist why Chaeyeon acted that way Jieqiong was completely puzzled. She was in the blind. Jieqiong mouth as dropped wide, but not a sound was let out from it. Jieqiong took a seat back at the chair. Her head were down for a while, utterly confused. A few more minutes passed before Jieqiong looked at a sympathetic Nayoung staring back at her.

“What just happened Nayoung?”

#####

It was close to midnight when Nayoung and Jieqiong was in the latter room. Nayoung was sitting on the princess’s bed, while the princess’s head was on Nayoung’s lap. Jieqiong was facing toward Nayoung’s stomach. She was quiet for hours, eyes closed and her breaths flow were even. It was as if she was sleeping, but she wasn’t. Nayoung ran her fingers through her princess’s smooth silky dark hair. Combing it with a wooden comb. Giving a bit of comfort to the princess’s erratic mind.

“Nayoung?” Jieqiong started, her eyes were still closed.

“Yes Jieqiong?”

A small smile formed on the corner of Jieqiong’s m