The Hwarang men are gathered in the main courtyard, wearing their red warrior uniform two days later. Princess Sookmyung stood in the podium— the Assistant Chief Instructor on her right while Chunhwa stood on her left together with the Hwarang General. They are also wearing a different set of uniforms except the Hwarang General.

The Assistant Chief Instructor discreetly looked at the princess in hesitation and a little disbelief before addressing the Hwarang men below them.

“We will divide into teams for hunting training.” he starts to announce to the men before them.

“Hunting?” Sooho echoes to himself, confused.

Master Bujae continues, “You must know hunting is the best way to train ride and shoot.”

Yeowool sighs as he finds himself observing the two maidens standing up in the podium instead of listening to what the Assistant Chief Instructor was telling them.

“Both of them are pretty.” he then says, while Hansung openly gapes as he stared up at the podium.

“But somehow, only one is reasonably fierce while the other is such a pain.” he looked at Chunhwa and then at Princess Sookmyung.

“It’s very strange that they are very close when nothing seems to be common between the two of them.”

Hansung on the other hand was still gaping— he was openly admiring Chunhwa who looked dashing even while standing motionless beside the princess, her eyes were the only ones moving as she looks at each one of the Hwarang men to see if they are paying attention to what the Assistant Chief Instructor was saying.

She was clad in another set of uniform that was almost similar to the princess if not only due to the white colour dominating her clothing plus the armour like cloth on her shoulders similar to the Assistant Chief Instructor, and her hair that was tied up in a high ponytail as always. He closed his mouth and sighed with a smile full of wonderment on his face.

“You may catch a rabbit, and you may catch a bird but whoever catches a deer first shall be the victor.” Master Bujae continued in the background while Princess Sookmyung’s eyes travelled towards the Hwarang men and stopped at Sunwoo.

Yeowool, who had noticed her eye movement followed where she was looking at and realizes that she was indeed looking at Sunwoo. He then looked back up again at the princess and heaves an amused sigh.

“I can tell where the Princess’ heart lies.”

He turns his eyes at Sunwoo. “It is so obvious.”

Jidwi, who was beside him, turned his head to look at him after hearing what he had said. He looked at Princess Sookmyung and also followed her line of sight that was ending towards Sunwoo who is in front of him.

Yeowool turned to look up again, at Chunhwa this time.

“Well then, how about you Miss Chunhwa?” he says, “Where does your heart lie?”

After indirectly asking that question at the same time, Chunhwa— whose eyes were travelling towards them caught his eye. The two of them shared a few seconds of eye contact before she looked away towards the Assistant Chief Instructor.

The Hwarang blinked for a moment, and then a smirk made its way up to his lips.

“This is going to be interesting.”

“Is something wrong with the Princess?” Ahro asks, her eyebrows furrowed in worry when Princess Sookmyung’s bodyguard had visited her in the doctor’s room.

“She went to the hunting grounds, but she has been unwell since yesterday. I feel worried.” the female bodyguard answers her, looking worried as well.

“What is wrong with her?” the female physician asks again and the other shook her head with a sigh.

“She could not sleep. She was dizzy early in the evening and she skipped dinner. Can you go to her?”

“Of course, I will go.” Ahro nods without hesitation.

“She is in the woods behind Hwarang House. Go to the largest fir.” the bodyguards says and the physician started to check her medicinal materials in order to help the princess.

Banryu, Sooho, Jidwi and Sunwoo were gathered together inside the forest. Banryu, Sooho, and Sunwoo were checking their bows and arrows while Jidwi was silently thinking to himself. They all turned around when they suddenly heard horse’s footsteps trotting its way towards them.

The quartet parted into pairs to give way towards Princess Sookmyung to pass by. Banryu and Sooho immediately bowed their heads in respect while Sunwoo looked at Princess Sookmyung with a frown before bowing his head down a little. The princess stared at him as her horse halts and he looked up once again at her, his face still in his signature frown.

Jidwi watched the small exchange as he was between them, taking note of everything. He looked up at Princess Sookmyung while the princess moved her eyes towards Banryu and Sooho who still had their heads bowed to her and finally started to move her horse forward— completely passing by them.

The two finally lifted their heads up and the four of them watched her finally canter her horse away from the quartet and deep into the forest.

“How is she so different from her mother? Especially from Chunhwa that I heard was very close with her?” Sooho asks in disbelief, he then sighs with a dreamy smile on his face.

“Chunhwa is so warm and so womanly just like the Queen that she might as well be her daughter instead of the princess.”

Jidwi looked at him, not amused at what he had said.

“What is he babbling about?” Banryu turns to him, annoyed.

Sooho looked at him and sighed in exasperation. “I’ve said this before and I can’t believe I’m going to say this once again.”

“You do not know real women.” he said, turning to look at Jidwi as well. Sunwoo turned his head towards the three.

“If I learned anything from meeting countless women, it is that a woman does not show her true feelings and for me,” Sooho looked at a distance with a faraway look. “The Queen and Chunhwa are the most womanly women of them all.”

Sunwoo almost rolled his eyes at what he had said, shaking his head in disbelief and completely ignoring him. Jidwi on the other hand had looked as if Sooho had offended his ancestors.

Banryu sighs in exasperation, tapping his chest with his knuckle.

“You are so consistent and you’re not even addressing Miss Chunhwa with respect. You guys are not even close.”

“What do you mean? We will be in the future.” Sooho says incredulously and Jidwi looked at him once again, curious. Banryu shook his head.

“How could you sound so sure about that?”

“I want to marry her someday, if you must know. So of course I am sure.” he said, looking at Banryu with a smug expression.

“I can’t believe you actually have that hidden level of confidence within you. I don’t know what to say, really.” Banryu shook his head, feeling so done with the Hwarang beside him.

Jidwi seemed to be in a complete shock at what he had just heard when at the same time, Sooho turned at him and noticed his expression.

“What?”

He continued to look at the other in complete shock before coming to his senses. He shook his head and looked away.  “Forget it.”

Princess Sookmyung halts her horse as she reached a certain part deep in the forest. She took a deep breath, slightly panting before kicking her horse slightly to move once again and turned to the right.

Ahro was walking along the forest, looking left and right as she try to find the largest fir tree that the female bodyguard was talking about. She continued to walk further into the forest, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion when she cannot find tree let alone the princess.

“Where is she?” she says, looking around. “The biggest tree, where is that anyway?”

Little that Ahro know however, was that Princess Sookmyung is actually standing a few meters away from her on top of a small hill— hidden by the trees and the leaves as she watches the female physician look for her.

She raised her arrow to her eye level, the point of it following the physician who was walking in the distance.

“Is this it?” Ahro stops as she looked at the large tree in front of her. “Princess Sookmyung!” she calls out, looking around the area.

“Princess Sookmyung! Where are you?”

The princess looked at the point of her arrow and then towards the female physician shouting her name, she then remembered the Queen’s words when she summoned her a few days ago.

“You must eliminate a girl named Ahro.” Queen Ji Soo says and Princess Sookmyung looks up at her.

“Do it within Hwarang House and do not let anyone see. Do you understand what I mean?”

Princess Sookmyung took her bow and started to draw the arrow into the string. Chunhwa then suddenly crossed into her mind as she pointed her arrow towards Ahro who was still calling out to her.

“Chunhwa eonni, do you know a girl named Ahro?” Princess Sookmyung asks when she visited the older female in the shooting range field the same day after meeting the Queen.

“Ahro? Yes, of course.” Chunhwa nods, “She is the physician here in Hwarang House and she helped me one time with my indigestion.”

“You should get your health checked with her as well. She is a good physician and also a friend of mine.” the older female tells her with a smile.

‘I’m sorry, Chunhwa eonni. It looks like I have to kill your friend by the order of the Queen.’

Chunhwa was walking in the forest, her arrow and bow at ready. Hansung was walking behind her a few steps away, following her. Finally giving up in ignoring the Hwarang, she turns around towards him with a curious expression.

“Are you following me?” she could not help but ask him straightforwardly. Hansung on the other hand looked away, pretending to be nonchalant as he cleared his throat.

“W-Why would I be following you?” he stutters, blowing up his cover.

Chunhwa sighs, “Well first of all, you have been behind my back from the moment I entered the forest 30 minutes ago and don’t you try making the excuse that you are also going on the same direction because this forest is big enough for us not to take the same path.”

“Oho. What kind of accusation is that?” Hansung furrowed his eyebrows at her, trying not to look guilty at her words which were all completely true.

 The female blinks at him, frowning. “What’s your name?”

“Me?” the Hwarang points to himself.

“No, I’m asking the tree beside you.” Chunhwa deadpans but then shook her head with an exasperated sigh.

“Of course, it’s your name that I am asking. Who else is here besides the two of us?”

“Oh!” Hansung grinned, his lips turning into a box like shape. “It’s Seok Hansung, Miss Chunhwa.”

She raised her eyebrow at that, “Seok? Perhaps are you Minister Seok Hyunjae’s grandson?”

“Also, aren’t you the one who is always absent during sparring training?” she looked at him in disbelief.

Hansung couldn’t help but look down and blush guiltily at what she had said.

“Yeah, that’s me—“ he looked up at her, only to freeze in shock as he looked behind her with a horrified expression.

Chunhwa looked at him confused, immediately noticing his facial expression.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“B-b-b-boar.” he stutters, pointing his shaking finger behind her. “There’s a wild boar behind you coming towards us.”

“W-Wild boar?”

Just as she turns around to look behind her, the wild boar wails at them— running as fast as it can towards their direction. Wasting no time, she grabs Hansung’s wrist as she yells at him.

“Run!”

The two started to run away as fast as they can from the raging animal, Chunhwa taking the lead. Her eyes scanned their surroundings and her eyes immediately spots a tree a distance away from them that they can easily climb into in order to escape from the wild boar.

She drags Hansung forward, shoving his back towards the direction of the tree.

“Quick, climb up that tree!”

She let go of him and he quickly climbed up the tree— when he had finally reached a sturdy spot to sit on, he then stretched his arm out towards her in order to help her climb up faster.

“Give me your hand!”

Just as Chunhwa was about to give her hand to him when it’s her turn to climb up the tree, her foot slipped after she stepped in a wrong place in panic and she slid down the ground.

“Miss Chunhwa!” Hansung shouts in panic and she closed her eyes as the wild boar nears her.

She crossed her arms in front of her body to protect herself— waiting for the attack to come but fortunately did not happen as two arrows shot the wild boar’s head.

The pained wail of the wild boar made her open her eyes as she watch the animal fall down on its side just a few steps away from her.

“Yeowool hyung!” Hansung couldn’t help but shout in glee.

Chunhwa looked at the direction where he was looking at and saw another Hwarang mounted on his horse, holding his bow on one hand.

“Oh?” Yeowool’s lips formed into a small ‘o’ as he looked at the wild boar he had shot. He looked at Chunhwa, whose mouth was slightly ajar while looking at him in shock.

He smirked in amusement.

“I never thought I could do something amazing like that.”

Author's Note:

Chunhwa and Hansung's running scene got me singing to BTS 'Run'
while proof reading this chapter lol. My smol Taehyung baby so cute. :>

So yeah, it's time to officially introduce the third male lead in this
story besides Jidwi and Sooho. Muahahahahah. I guess you guys
had already seen him coming or maybe not but anyway~ I trust
you already know who he is, right? kkk

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

- flyingjunmyeons [20170527]