Chaeyoung came to an abrupt halt, her eyes wide, her stomach sinking with dread, her mind spinning, and her arms tightening around the little boy’s body protectively.

Seeing Official Yang’s vile face had always made her uneasy, but to encounter him in this moment where she held another’s life in her hands – that was the worst possible scenario she could envision.

“Are you aware that you are assisting a criminal right now?” the older man sneered, taking a slow step forward.

Chaeyoung took one step back, “listen, why don’t we leave the child out of this and handle this as adults?”

He laughed boisterously in response, “oh how naive you are, little princess. This is why you will never be a successful ruler. You try to save everyone even when they cannot to be saved. You are weak, and you do not know how to discipline your people.”

“Let the boy go,” she said with more force, her tone authoritative and her eyes stern, “that is an order.”

“I do not take orders from you,” he narrowed his eyes, his jaw set in anger, “you are a mere fugitive.”

He took another step forward, and Chaeyoung reciprocated by taking another step back. It was clear that she had stalled for as long as she possibly could, and the old man was growing impatient. His bloodlust-glazed eyes burned with anticipation, like a hyena carefully watching its prey after being starved for several days.

She scanned the eerily quiet streets slowly while continuing to take slow steps backwards, trying to maintain a calm expression despite the constant pounding in her heart.

Within a few seconds, her eyes caught sight of an open gate a few steps to the left. It appeared to be some sort of an abandoned oil factory, judging by the lack of lighting within and the empty wooden barrels outside the battered door. Although it wasn’t the ideal hideaway destination, it was the closest vacant building. It wasn’t just the best option, it was the only option.

Before she had even decided on a plan and before Official Yang could pounce on them, Chaeyoung’s feet began moving on their own accord. Without another second of hesitation, she sprinted towards the abandoned building – her sore legs moving so fast that she practically floated through the dark streets. Long wisps of her hair whipped against the side of her cheeks as she kicked open the squeaky front gates.

Faintly, she could hear him following behind her, his steps much slower and exerted.

The little boy’s quivering breaths creeped against her neck as Chaeyoung transferred him over to one arm. Then, she used her free hand to slam the gates closed, locking it with a loud click just before Official Yang caught up to them.

An expression of amusement had filled his wrinkled features, as if he was enjoying the unexpected challenge she was providing him with. He stuck his hands through the iron gates, reaching for Chaeyoung’s neck, but she flinched away before he could touch her. However, in doing so, the warm evening wind blew her long hair closer to his greedy hands. And he wasted no time clamping down on anything he could get a hold of.

She gasped in pain as he grabbed a handful of her hair, tugging her closer to the gates. But, before her body slammed against the cold iron barricades, she used her free hand to clutch his wrist and twist it away from her body with such force that an audible crack rang through the air – followed by an agonized scream. It was as if her body had kicked into protective mode and instinctively remembered the techniques Taehyung had spent so much time teaching her. This is what he had been preparing her for.

As soon as Official Yang had released her hair, Chaeyoung continued to run towards the building, storming through the entrance at the speed of light and once again locking the door after her. She whipped her head around the empty room, her eyes taking too long to adjust to the pitch-black interior. All she could see was darkness.

She quickly placed the boy down and yanked open a heavy set of curtains from the one window in the room, allowing a single stream of moonlight to illuminate the area. The first thing she noticed was the amount of oil barrels stacked against the wooden walls, some of them had even tipped over, leaving streams of dark fluid on the floor that wreaked of rancid oil.

Only having a few seconds left to spare, she rolled one of the largest barrels she could find against the entrance door and prayed it would buy her a little more time.

Beads of sweat had formed on the back of her neck and her breathing had become ragged, but she had no intention of slowing down.

She crouched down in front of the little boy and held his hand, her heart breaking at the fear displayed so vividly in his clear, round eyes, “hi, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Chaeyoung.”

Smiling at the boy, she squeezed his hand reassuringly, “what’s your name?”

“Mansae,” he said so quietly that it almost sounding like a whisper.

“Listen, Mansae,” she said softly, though her eyes flashed towards the entrance briefly at the loud creaking of the gates, “there is a very bad man following us right now and we need to play a game so he doesn’t hurt us. Do you like playing hide-and-seek?”

His eyes began filling with tears, but he pursed his quivering lips and nodded slowly.

“Okay, Mansae,” she spoke in a slow, calm voice, “I need you to run upstairs as fast as you can and find the absolute best place to hide. Somewhere the bad man will never ever find you, okay?”

Again, a nod and a soft sniffle.

“Don’t worry,” she smiled at him reassuringly one last time, “I won’t let him hurt you.”

The sound of fists pounding against the front door startled both of them for a second. And then, she abruptly nudged him towards the stairs.

“Go!” she whisper-yelled, causing him to scamper up the creaky staircase quickly.

As soon as she saw his tiny figure disappear out of sight, Chaeyoung rushed to find her own hiding place, stepping behind the door with her back pressed firmly against the side wall. She silently picked up a broken piece of wood the size of her arm and waited while Official Yang shoved his body against the door repeatedly, causing more and more pieces of it to crack each time.

Her heart was pounding so loudly that she was afraid he could hear it from behind the entrance. She held her breath, internally counting down the seconds until he would break through the weak door.

Three. Her hands tightened around the damp piece of wood.

Two. The door had almost completely been torn down, bits of it flying through the air like it had been hit by a tornado.

One. His hand reached through the hole he had made to unhinge the lock.

With a long, dreadful screech, he had swung the door wide open. Chaeyoung pressed her back even closer to the wall as the door almost slammed against her, otherwise taking care to remain as silent as humanly possible.

She could make out a faint orange glow from where she stood and knew he had lit a torch to help him see clearly.

As soon as he had swung the door closed, she jumped out from behind it with the intention of a surprise ambush. Swinging the wood with as much force as she could conjure, she hit him in the ribs with a loud crack, causing his breath to hitch in pain. Utilizing this opportunity, Chaeyoung swung again, but he had already recovered.

Before Chaeyoung even realized what was happening, he pulled out his steel sword and sliced it through the air, cutting through the wood effortlessly and just barely missing her fingers. She dropped the small piece remaining and took up a defensive stance as he circled around her with his sword clutched tightly in one hand and the torch still held high in the other.

Just the sight of him holding a torch was enough to trigger the memories of the fire from 7 years ago.

Quickly, she tore her gaze away from the fire and blinked back those thoughts, determined to focus on the present. She would not allow him to win twice.

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