The night was dark, a perfect cover for illegal activities. Raina ran on the roofs of houses, adorned in black robes, concealing her from view.Reaching her destination, she jumped down from the roof and slipped into a little alley where her buyers were. Handing them the sack of books, she nodded at the leader, her longtime business partner and informant, Park Tae Joon.

 

 

Making sure that they left safely, Raina journeyed back home. She had already handed the small girl to a good family who were willing to take her in.  Entering her room, she shrugged off her outer robes, removed her black mask and stared at her reflection in the hand mirror she picked up. A girl determined, defiant eyes stared back at her. Raina then set it down and got ready to sleep. There were so many things she had to do the next day. Her activities as the Lustful Student, were going to start by taking down the corrupt officials, beginning with her father.

 

 

 

 

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(For the scenes where Banryu says Aro is very good at storytelling, it will be Banryu saying that Raina is the doctor who knows a lot about a man's body. She knows it very thoroughly and he plans on visiting her for her help with his body because she's a doctor.  He doesn't know why he feels guilty as soon as he says this but continues to provoke Seonu ignoring the strange feeling in his heart.)

 

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At Sutabaksu, Raina sipped her tea while Sooyeon stared at her, inquisitively. 

 

"Did something happen between my brother and you?" Sooyeon asked all of a sudden, causing Raina to choke on her tea. Seeing her reaction, Sooyeon gained an angry expression on her face.

 

"What did he do to you? I swear, when I see him, I'll kill him." Sooyeon muttered determinedly. 

 

"He didn't do anything," said Raina after having stopped coughing. "In fact he's far much better than his sister who didn't move a finger as her friend nearly choked to death."

 

"Don't be so dramatic. Then what is it?"

"What is what?"

"You feel so different these days. As if your tough exterior is mellowing, finally allowing the barriers around your heart to crumble."

 

At this Raina was lost for words. Seeing that her friend had noticed all of this, she asked "What would you do if there were three--" when she was interrupted bu the arrival of Pi Jooki who looked as if he ran all the way. He supported himself by holding onto the table and panted. "You're...needed..at..Hwarang House."

 

 

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Raina arrived at Hwarang House and headed straight towards the instructor's office, Pi Jooki guiding her. On her way, she didn't notice Suho, who she walked right past, as the wind blew her hair back nor his remark, "Oh no. I'm in trouble," while clutching his chest, his heart beating fast. 

 

Entering the room, she walked up to where Master Wehwa was, seated at his table, calmly eating crushed rice. On the table, in front of him, lay her notebook. Staring at it in confusion which slowly turned into anxiety and panic, she watched as he flipped the pages until he stopped at a certain page and displayed it. There inscribed, was the mark of the Lustful Student, her mark. Raina groaned slightly, cursing her foolishness. How could she have handed her private notebook to a stranger without realising that she scribbled something very incriminating in her book?

 

"I know that you're the Lustful Student. I will not alert anyone of this information if you agree to becoming the resident Physician of the Hwarangs. I trust that you will consent."

 

Raina glared at him before turning her back on him when he said, "And try wearing female clothes for a change instead of parading around in men's wear. It just adds fuel to the rumours," as she exited the room.  

 

 

Descending down the stairs, Pi Jooki who had been waiting for her, lead her to where she was supposed to treat the Hwarangs. Quickly she began treating the Hwarangs who had minor cuts and bruises along with a couple of bloody noses as well. Her last patient was Hanseong, the cute guy who she had played football with. Eyeing the cut on his arm, she said, "I think you'll need stitches. Do you think you'll be able to handle it?

 

 

"Of course. I'm a man." said Hanseong, in a weird deep voice that caused Raina to exclaim out loud. "You're so cute," she said, pinching his cheek.

 

"I'm not cute, I'm manly!" He protested. Raina just smiled and handed him a dried root. "It's a painkiller," she said holding it to his mouth.  Hanseong reluctantly opened his mouth and chewed the root. "Ah, it's bitter!" He exclaimed in his normal voice and froze before continuing in a pseudo-deep voice. "I mean, it tastes fine." Raina hid a smile at his attempts to appear manly as she stitched his wound. She just finished his treatment when Jidwi burst in, grabbed her hand and dragged her away. Casting an apologetic look over her shoulder at Hanseong, she let herself be dragged by him until the came to a stop.

 

 

Jidwi dragged her to the bench where he seated himself and patted the spot beside him. She didn't comply. "Isn't a doctor supposed to treat her patients, no matter how troublesome they are?"

 

"As long as you know." Raina said before sitting down next to him. "Where you were injured?" she asked not seeing any physical wounds. 

 

"Not physical but mental," he answered, making himself comfortable on her lap. Raina watched in disbelief as he cracked an eye open and said. "I didn't get a wink of sleep because you weren't there. You're responsible for my insomnia so let me sleep like this for 30 mins. Okay?" Closing his eye, he soon fell asleep, emitting a soft snore, which Raina found cute, once in a while.

 

 

30 minutes soon passed and Raina hadn't realised that she had been staring at his face for the entire time he was sleeping. On registering her actions, she stood up quickly, uncaring of Jidwi who fell on the floor and hurried out, heading towards the warehouse where Seonu was locked up, a fact she had heard from Hanseong, her cheeks aflame. Jidwi who stared at her in confusion, caught sight of the Queen who was strangely staring at the retreating figure of Raina with a shocked, disbelieving expression on her face. Jidwi wondered why.

 

 

As she came across the locked room where Seonu was, she couched near the lock and with the help of her butterfly clip, jiggled the lock, opening the door. Entering the room, she closed the door, ignoring Seonu's shocked gaze. As she turned around, she was met with the worried face of Seonu. 

 

"What are you doing here?" he asked anxiously.

 

"I was invited here. I'm the resident physician, at the request of Master Wehwa."

 

"You should have declined. You're not safe here."

 

"I'm capable of taking care of myself. And if I'm not able to, I always have you here so what's there to be fearful of?"

 

"This is a place filled with men, men who have no contact with any women except for certain days and being the only woman here, they'll try to take advantage of you!" He yelled as Raina cleaned his wounds. Her hands fell to her lap as she somberly said. "Then you shouldn't have gotten hurt. You're wounds are my biggest concern right now." Seonu stayed still as she resumed dabbing at his wound with a damp piece of cloth.

 

She ten continued to speak, "I already know that all the Hwarangs know me as the doctor who knows a man's body better than a man himself. I don't mind it. As long as the people I care about know the truth, it's alright with me."

 

"But I'm not alright." said Seonu, taking hold of her arm, staring into her eyes. Raina was lost in his eyes, his gaze being too much for her to not acknowledge the effect it had on her.  Breaking eye-contact, she stood up from where she had been kneeling in order to have better access to the wound near his eye, her arm still in his limp hold, when Seonu suddenly stood up and pulled her by her arm, which he had been holding, and hugged her.

 

 

Raina couldn't move as she felt him gently her hair. She could hear his heartbeat, her ear on his chest and feel his torso vibrating as he spoke. "I don't want to see you hurt. Not now, not ever."

 

 

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Raina left Hwarangdo with Pi Jooki who was escorting her back home. At his question of why she looked so weird, Raian's mind reflected on what happened between Seonu and her in the warehouse.

 

"By the way, are you really sure that Seonu is really your brother?" asked Pi Jooki cautiously. 

 

"What do you mean by that?" she asked. Pi Jooki stuttered and stammered under her piercing glare before saying, "It's just that he said that the necklace was his friend's.."

 

As he trailed off, Raina's mind flashed back to that night at Okta. The man she had save from being executed by one of Banryu's followers. The man who had helped the injured man out of the premises had been Seonu? She hadn't really looked at his face but thinking back, it was definitely him. And this brought the question, 'what had happened to his friend?' When she saw Pi Jooki's curious face, she cast away all of her suspicions and doubts. From what she had seen, Seonu wasn't one to deceive people and that was that.

 

 

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In the morning Raina who was at the tea-shop Pi Jooki owned, forced to wait for him to her to Hwarangdo even though she said she could go by herself, was shocked when Pi Jooki informed her of the first test the Hwarangs had to face. They had to relate King to water and base it on a Chinese philosophical text that Seonu hadn't even heard of.

 

Arriving at her quarters, Raina stored her stuff and sat on her bed, wondering how she was going to help Seonu with his task when someone stormed in. It was Seonu. 

 

"What do you think you're doing here again?"

 

"I told you. I'm the Hwarang's physician from now on."

 

"Do you not know that nearly all of the men here are dirty-minded?"

 

"I have you here. Besides, who's going to help you pass this test when you can only read a few letters?"

 

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It was past his curfew and Seonu was out of his room with Raina. She was teaching him to write and this time when she told him to go ahead and write, he took her hand and placed it on top of his. "It will go faster this way" he said and Raina accepted it. She held his hand in both her hands and slowly guided him as he wrote, making sure he wrote properly, unaware of Seonu staring at her as she worked. How her hair fell in front of her face, how she slightly stuck her tongue out in concentration, how her eyes were a beautiful chocolate brown. One such day, before he knew it he was leaning in and when Raina turned her head, they were nose to nose. Raina who had no idea how they got this close, did the only thing she could do to diffuse the tension. She dipped her hand in the liquid charcoal and poked his cheek with her inky finger.

 

"Yah!" Raina giggled at Seonu's indignant expression.

"You think this funny." he said copying her.

He released his hand from her grasp and drew a couple of moles on her cheek with the brush even though Raina tried to doge him.

 

"Stop it." she said in between giggles and Seonu did stop, captivated by her laugh and mesmerizing smile. Raina taking advantage of this, snatched the brush out of his hand and drew a big mole on his forehead and started laughing at how ridiculous he looked, unaware of Jidwi's jealous gaze from where he was standing as he observed them.

 

 

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The next morning, Raina was approached by Jidwi who was calling in his favour for supposedly saving her and asked to join Seonu in the late night classes. That night, the passive-aggressive war that took place between Jidwi and Seonu was ignored by Raina who had no idea why Jidwi had asked to be taught by her even though he could read, let alone why the duo were childishly fighting.

 

One night it was only Jidwi and her. Seonu was running late as he had something else to attend to .  Raina was drawing the word 'butterfly' in a way meant to teach disabled children. Apparently Jidwi really saw the butterfly come to life because he asked her to draw the word 'King'. Raina left the room as the ink had run out and when she returned with a tray of ground charcoal and placed it on the table when she stopped in her tracks. Her bag was open and some of her belongings were on the floor. Bending down, she picked them up and placed it back in her bag. "You could have picked them up if they fell, you know?" she remarked, slightly annoyed as she turned around and was met with the looming figure of Jidwi, causing her to stumble a few steps back, hitting the wall.

 

 

"Are you the Lustful Student?" he asked. Raina's eyes widened. She saw her book in his hands as well as her notebook which Master Wehwa had returned, flipped to the page where she had drawn her symbol. He pointed at the same symbol which was inscribed near the penman's name on her book. Placing the books on the table, he took a step forward.

 

"TELL ME! Are you the Lustful Student?"

 

"So what if I am? What are you going to do? Report me to the Que-" She was cut off when Jidwi, who had cornered her until there was practically no space between them, kissed her.

 

 

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hOPE you like it

Andrianna2016