Jungsoo rolled over the mattress, and ended waking up as soon as her body collided with the cold floor. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up on the floor.

That was when she felt the results of last night’s drinking hit her, making her dizzy with a splitting head ache. Rubbing her eyes with a groan she turned around, and saw another girl sleeping next to the place she had been on.

Memories started flooding in from the previous night, making the girl clap both her hands to , horrified when she finally remembered sneaking into Baekhyun’s room and lying beside him.

That’s all the girl could remember. She had absolutely no idea about how she returned to her room, or about who brought her there.

“Was it Baekhyun?” she mumbled while getting up, and walked out of the room rubbing her eyes, and swaying from side to side.

She didn’t see the small paper placed on her table, one end stuck to a book of hers.

“Meet me by the waterfall after breakfast. –Baekhyun-”

About half an hour later, Haesol too woke up and stepped out of the room, not even bothering to spare a glance at the small study table, hence not noticing the note at all.

* * * * * * * *

“Halmoni! How much are the flowers?”

Baekhyun crouched down in front of the old woman who sat in the market with at least a dozen baskets spread in front of on a mat, filled with all kinds of flowers. The elder raised her head and gave him a bright smile. “Which kind of flowers do you want young sir?”

“These. Lilies.” He pointed at the various coloured lilies in the middle of the mat.

“Since you are my first customer today, I’ll give you ten flowers for three silver coins.”

His nodded, beaming at her. “Halmoni can you then make me a beautiful bouquet using as much as lilies you want? I’ll pay you extra. Please use white, pink, red and orange.”

Holding the bunch of flowers closer to his chest, he walked back to the village and entered the woods. Thankfully he remembered the way, and went up to the waterfall all by himself.

Waiting had never been this difficult for Baekhyun. He waited for more than two hours, sitting idly on a rock by the flowing stream, his bare feet dipped in the icy cold water.

She has a lot of work in the house. Let’s wait...she’ll be anytime here soon.

He knew it was past noon, as the shadows of the trees started leaning the opposite way and the heat of the sun started increasing.

The flowers have almost started to wilt away.

Maybe she had to prepare lunch before excusing herself out...

Finally hearing footsteps brushing against the rock surface, he whirled around, face enlightened in a bright smile.

The same facial features, same doe eyes, but it was not the person he was expecting to see.

It was her brother.

Baekhyun hurriedly got onto his feet, turning around and walking up to the young physician. “What... what brings you here at this time Kyungsoo?”

One bushy eyebrow cocked at him inquiringly, as he held up a piece of paper in his hand.

“I found this in her room this morning.”

Staring at the paper in front of his eyes, Baekhyun remained silence until Kyungsoo decided to talk again. “I thought I made myself clear last time. I’m not planning to allow my sister to have any kind of relationship with you.” he said looking straight into Baekhyun’s eyes with a piercing glance. “Thankfully I saw this before she did. If you’re planning to confess or something, just forget it Captain Byun.” He eyed the bouquet of flowers in the other’s hand.

“What do you know about me to act like this?”

Baekhyun finally spoke after a brief silence. “What do you know about my feelings for Jungsoo to interfere like this?”

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but sound annoyed. “I’m being absolutely serious here Kyungsoo. I’m not playing around with your sister.”

“Do you remember Song Nayoung?”

“Who?”

Kyungsoo scoffed. “You don’t even remember the name. This is beyond what I imagined.”

“What are you talking about?”

The physician glared back at him. “Don’t you remember a girl who worked in an inn in the capital? Her name is Song Nayoung.”

Baekhyun narrowed his eyebrows, trying his best to recall the somewhat familiar name. “So what about her?” he asked back in the end.

“I saw you going all the way with your vulgar behaviour with that girl... and with another girl within a few hours all in public. That was my experience on my first day in the capital.” Kyungsoo finished his words with a mocking smirk. And he watched Baekhyun growing uncomfortable in front of him.

“Nayoung and I were betrothed to marry before she left the village. And I wasn’t much hurt because I thought she did what was best for her, but then I heard a nice lot of facts about you on that day and it changed my mind entirely Lord Byun Baekhyun... Disgusting.”

Baekhyun turned paper white, and didn’t dare utter a single word.

“After seeing you hooking up with the girl I used to love, and after seeing how she was totally tricked by a playboy like you, do you still expect me to sit back and watch until the same man seduce my sister as well?”

Nothing came out as a reply to his rhetorical question.

“You’ll swear that this time you’re serious and will keep Jungsoo happy and all... but how can I believe in you? I’m sure that even you are not confident about yourself.”

His words were brutally hitting Baekhyun with painful truths that he tried to ignore the most.

And Kyungsoo continued. “I don’t mind my sister having a relationship with someone from the city. I won’t mind even if she’s married to someone from a rich family... I’m not that narrow minded. And given how decent your friends are, I wouldn’t have minded at all if she loved you if you were also a man just as decent as them.”

He sighed. “But unfortunately you’re not. Forgive this lowly peasant for not knowing his place and being rude to someone of noble birth like you. But you’re no match for my Jungsoo. I don’t want her to love someone who’s not worth of receiving her love. So please give up on that idea of yours and move on.”

With that he turned around, and walked away without even waiting for a reply.

The bunch of lilies dropped to the ground.

* * * * * * * *

Sehun lied in his room all morning and afternoon, recalling the incident that happened the night before.

“What’s this?” he stared at the girl in horror, taking a step behind and releasing her from his hold. The girl averted her eyes from his, head turning down with a sigh.

“Taekwoon helped me escape, but before he came out of the camp for my aid, two guards caught me.” She bit her lip. “Or rather they tried to catch me, but I ran away nevertheless, but one of their daggers ended up giving me this cut.”

“Just... exactly how painful is this?”

His voice broke, and he ran careful fingers over the edge of the deep half healed cut on the pale skinned thighs. “Just how hard was it to bear with this Ying? I assume even Jungsoo didn’t know about this one. If she knew, she’d definitely brought you home and treated you.”

The girl shook her head. “I didn’t tell or show anyone my lord... and I wasn’t planning to show you either.”

Covering the wound, he pulled down the hem of the towel with a sigh. “How could they do this to a girl...” pulling her into his embrace, he heaved sigh yet again. “Just how hard were things for you...?” he muttered, caressing her head gently as she encircled her arms around his waist.

“Ying,”

He spoke, still holding the girl in his embrace.

“Yes my lord...”

She replied, raising the head that had been resting on his shoulder for some time.

“Do you want me to take you and move back to the capital? I mean... I can talk things out with Chanyeol hyung and leave right now, if you want me to take you.”

The girl broke the hug, and shook her head with a smile. “There’s no need my lord. I know you’re staying here for a good reason, so I can wait.”

He took her hand, softly interlacing their fingers. “I’ll take you back to my place as soon as possible. I mean it Ying, but I’m sure it won’t take much longer for us to come up with a clear plan.”

She nodded, the smile still lingering on her lips. “I’ll patiently wait until you’re done with your duties my lord. I’m not in a place to ask for anything...so I’m grateful enough that you accepted me like this.”