“What? Hwarang House? Your brother?”

Jaein shrieked while hitting a block of wood onto the fabric she dipped in the river. She’s helping the young servant of her house to wash the clothes. She felt that she, as the stronger human being than her young female servant, have to help her carry all the laundries from her house, to the river, then back to her house. The servant was the only female company she had in her house aside from her mother. She often asked her late at night to sneak out from their rooms and climbed on the ladder to peep on youngsters hugging and kissing outside her house. Both of them enjoyed doing that.

Taemin was spotting her walking out from the house very early in the morning when he was going to check if his brother’s home before decided to tag along. Jinki was woken up around early in the morning and immediately escorted to the Hwarang House. Taemin was in panic after he figured out that Jinki’s room was empty and the house guard told him that officers from Hwarang had took his brother to their house.

“Well it can’t be because they’re recruiting Jinki-hyung, right? I mean your brother’s physical capacity is that of an elderly. He fainted after harvesting some herbs, let alone a combat.” Kibum suddenly appeared behind the two and tore them apart.

Taemin looked shocked to find Kibum’s sudden appearance while Jaein was really used to this. She knew her brother was a ninja and a really mobile one. He’s in the middle of patrolling when he spotted her and Taemin talking. The girl splashed some water to her brother’s face and laughed when Kibum exploded because he just styled his hair and that the accessories he wore was new.

Taemin caught a frog and chased Kibum away. He knew Kibum hated slimy animals with weird faces. For example, Kibum hated live fishes looking at him with their mouth flapping. Kibum then caught a glimpse of a grasshopper and carefully took it into his arm before presenting it to Taemin, who was very scared of bugs. Kibum had successfully turned the table and now chasing Taemin who was frantically running around the river, splashing water everywhere.

“Those daft punks.” Jaein groaned then stretched out her legs to the river, resulting in Taemin tripped over her leg, followed with Kibum’s landing on top of him. Taemin landed first-face into the water, making the Kim siblings and their servant laughed. Kibum quickly rolled his body away from the younger boy and helped him to stand. The frog and the grasshopper must have escaped during the collision.

Jaein was done with the last piece of fabric she’s supposed to wash and was in the middle of putting it back into the basket with her servant when Taemin tugged on her sleeve. “Jaein, I’m cold.” Taemin shivered next to the girl. Jaein sighed to the pretty boy and immediately wrapped him with her coat on top of his wet coat. “What about you?”

“It’s spring already Taemin, it’s warm enough for me. You know I have the constitution of a bear, don’t you?” Jaein smiled to the boy while patting him on the head. She then noticed a scarlet scratch on his right jaw. “Oh god, you got a scratch. I’m sorry, Taemin.” Jaein took her handkerchief from the pocket of her skirt and dipped it into the cold water before dabbing it on Taemin’s fresh cut.

“Really you guys just get married already!” Kibum shouted at them. He’s already standing up with the family servant next to him. Both of them were carrying a bucket full of fresh laundry, ready to leave. “Are you coming or are you going to propose to my sister?” He pointed his nose to the younger boy. He could see both of their faces flushed red.

“Kim Kibum you want to die?” Jaein roared and chased her brother swiftly into the trees ahead of them with Taemin yelling to the siblings, hand still pressing on Jaein’s damp handkerchief. He’s totally going to break into his father’s working room and find something to put on his scratch.

The four of them reached the town, Jaein asked her servant to go home with her brother first since she’s going to the market to buy something for Taemin’s scratch. For a moment she forgot that Taemin was a son of a physician.

“Help!” A female voice broke nearby. It was the daughter of the Jung family, Chaeyeon, or how Jaein liked to call her, Jinki’s eternal love. She was pointing to Jaein and Taemin’s direction. “Help, a burglar!” She cried again when a man passed her by in full speed.

“Taemin, you stay here, okay? I’m gonna catch that burglar.” Jaein said before she dashed herself forward to chase the running man, not hearing Taemin’s voice yelling at her and the fact that the boy’s too running behind her. Jaein saw the burglar took a left turn to the crowded part of the market to shake her off his tail, but Jaein was a smart girl. She ran faster forward and took a shortcut so she’ll be able to cut his path.

In the meantime, Jinki was walking back from the Hwarang House with Jonghyun. Jonghyun saw the fuss from the staircase of the gate and immediately dashed towards the crowds with his hand gripping on his sword that’s still covered safely in the metal case. Jinki, with the stamina of an old man of his, tried to keep up with Jonghyun’s speed behind him.

Jaein leapt and stood up right in front of the startled burglar. “Stop it right there! Give me that bag or I’ll hand you to the guard!” She roared fearlessly. “Give me that and I’ll give you one silver. You’ll only get two bronze with that.” She tried to bargain but the burglar was looking left and right. He then took a knife from a butcher nearby and caused the crowd surrounded them to oohs and took several steps backward. But the girl in front of him won’t budge like a rock. Not even a hint of fear was seen in her eyes. “Oh believe me you just made a mistake.”

Seeing that, Jonghyun was about to jump to the scene, but then Jinki’s hand grabbed on his arm. He roared that a girl was going to get stabbed, and got replied with Jinki’s smile. “Let her, she’s not as delicate as she seems.” Jinki beamed his smile to his face. “Just watch it, let her have fun a little before you barge in. Watch and learn, Jonghyun-rang.”

In panic, the burglar darted towards the unarmed girl. Jaein quickly read his movement and took out her fan. She spread her fan and positioned herself to where the knife was heading. As predicted, the burglar aimed for her stomach. So she bent a little, guarding her stomach with her fan and let the sharp piece of metal pierce through the paper of her fan before she folded it and flipped it with her hands so now the knife ended up in her hand.

She darted forward, passing the burglar and aimed for his back. She harshly nudged the burglar’s back with her elbow so he fell forward before kicking on his lower back to make him fall completely to the ground. Jaein sat on the burglar and forcefully locked his arms behind his back with her own two hands. “Silla guards, I caught the burglar! Do your job right this time and get this rascal behind the bars!”

The burglar struggled under the girl, just to get hit on the head by the unusually strong woman. “Shut it! You declined my offer for silver, so this is what you get! No matter how hard your life is, it’s not okay to steal.” Jaein saw the guards walking towards her direction. “Hey, you guys better do a great job for Silla next time. You let a girl catch a burglar and call yourselves guards, you’re joking.” Jaein said bitterly to the guards while setting the burglar free from her weight.

“Who’s that girl?” Jonghyun whispered to the boy next to him.

“Oh, that’s the royal Master Kim’s daughter.” Jinki smiled. “You know, Hwarang leader Master Kim. She’s the hidden princess. I don’t know how long you’ve been kept in the Hwarang House, but many young men in the village are eyeing on her.” The two then witnessed Taemin, covered in Jaein’s pink coat running towards the girl before scolding her for her reckless act. “And that’s my brother, Taemin.”

“Hyung, are they…special friends?” Jonghyun said, it seemed like he doesn’t know what he’s saying until Jinki grinned widely at him. To be honest, he’s a little bit in awe with the girl’s ability to catch an armed burglar with just a fan in her hand. It was written all over his face.

“What? You’re interested in her? Should I call them here?” Jinki teased. “Jaein, Taemin!” He waved to the youngsters. “Don’t worry, they’re just friends.”

“Hyung!”

“Jinki-oraboni!”

The two happily hopped towards the man with his hand up to the sky waving at them. Jaein was the first to hug Jinki, followed by Taemin behind her. She blabbered about how she worried that he might get recruited as Hwarang with his weak physical strength, completely ignoring the man curiously looking at her with sparkles in his eyes.

“Jaein, Taemin, this is my old friend, Jonghyun-rang.  Taemin you might not remember him since he went to the Hwarang House when he’s 7.” Jinki introduced the youngsters to the Hwarang soldier standing next to him. The siblings could see Jaein’s expression changed really fast from being excited, blushed, and gloomed.