“Chaeyeon.” He was being shaked awake wildly, a whisper resounding in his ear, making Chaeyeon wake up, instantly completely alert.

“What! What! What is it!?” he gasped when he saw a very awake (and very ecstatic) Choi Yena.

“Chaeyeon-ah,” he chanted again as he grabbed him in a hug. The young man grunted in pain.

“Did I hurt you?” Yena asked hurriedly.

“No, no, just... My chest hurts,” Chaeyeon supplied. He had entirely forgotten to unbind his s, and the pain now was formidable. It hurt to even breath.

“Oh, oh. Are you ill? What should we do?” Yena released him from the embrace.

“No, I just need to take a breather.”

“I’ll go with you!”

“No! I mean, I need to go to the bathroom, too.”

“Well, I’ll go with you. I also need to go.” Chaeyeon sighed inwardly.

“Alright.” Yena, despite the late hour, was pretty energetic, looking like he was basically containing himself from talking, knowing that waking up the rest of the men was not the best idea.

When they finally were outside, Yena spoke.

“Chaeyeon-ah, I thought I truly wouldn’t see you again. I thought my matters would settle quickly and I would be able to meet you later, but everything lasted longer than expected. When we were led here I had forgotten that you were probably waiting there for me, and I fell asleep like a bear,” he explained anxiously, gesturing wildly with his hands.

“It’s fine. I also couldn’t go meet you either.”

“Great! I mean, not great that we couldn’t meet there, but great that you didn’t have to wait for me at all.”

“Yeah, well,” Chaeyeon answered impassively, his thoughts on the problem he had on his hands. He would take away the bindings inside the bathroom, and then what? His s had always been small, and he hoped they were small enough to go unseen in the dark.

The bathroom was hidden behind some foliage, giving Chaeyeon some relief.

“Alright. I’ll enter first.” Yena nodded, and Chaeyeon took that as sign to open the door, and enter the room.

The space was negligent, but for that moment it had to do.

The bandage take off was difficult in such space, to the point of there being several times in which Chaeyeon fell into the letrine. Her body sang in relief (and soreness) when she finally managed to take them off.

‘Where do I put them?’ he asked to himself, the only solution being to hide them in his robes. He did so as best as he could, to then open the door to leave the bathroom.

“I’m done,” he announced to a bored-looking Yena.

“Ah, it’s fine. It crawled back up.” Chaeyeon grimaced in disgust.

“Alright then,” Chaeyeon sat next to Yena, who was now looking at the stars.

“Have you ever wondered if there is a purpose for the stars?”

“No.”

“I like to think they are the spirits of the gods, willing to take care of us here on earth.” Chaeyeon just hummed, turning to look at Yena when he felt his faze on him. “At least, I believe they will take care of me now that I am very far from home. It makes me feel like there is nothing I can’t do.” Chaeyeon’s heart ached in sympathy, which made her chastise herself.

“You haven’t told me much about yourself.” Chaeyeon sighed.

“I have two sisters. I need to find my way back home, to them,” it felt difficult to say, as if a bitterness coated his throat and mouth as soon as the words left him.

“Then you and I are very alike. We’re both away from home,” Yena replied more calmly, as if all the energy in his body had zapped away during the time Chaeyeon had been in the bathroom.

“Farther away than you think,” Chaeyeon mumbled under his breath.

“To tell the truth, I was very afraid when I first arrived here. I had no one to rely on anymore, and there was nowhere for me to go. It was by mere luck that I landed this job, and by mere luck I managed to find you.” The young man turned to look at Chaeyeon. “Since I first saw you, you seemed friendly, somehow collected. I may be older than you, but I feel like I can rely on you. You are reliable.” He turned to look at the night sky again. “I know I ambushed you with my presence and demands, but I just... I don’t want to feel afraid. I don’t want to be alone in this big world. I want someone to rely on.”

Chaeyeon couldn’t deny how touched he felt at his words, and, although their lives had nothing in common, their feelings were one and the same, feelings that Chaeyeon had always felt, ever since her mom died. At the time, she hadn’t permitted herself to cry, thinking that it was now up to her to take care of her sisters. As time went on, and her father became a mess, she confirmed her own belief to be true, and throughout everything she’d had to do, she’d had to swallow her fear, her naivette, and her pride, never once wanting her sisters to see the ugliness in her.

“Chaeyeon, are you crying?”

“Huh?” he touched his cheeks, feeling the wetness coating them. Wiping his tears hurriedly, he hid his face from Yena.

“Wow, I can’t believe I just saw Mister Tough Guy, Lee Chaeyeon, cry like a little girl,” he laughed, nudging Chaeyeon with his elbow.

“Shut up, ,” the younger man bit back, a reluctant smile peeking from his lips, pushing Yena when he finished wiping his tears.

They stayed the rest of the night watching the sky, sparsely speaking to each other. Chaeyeon felt grateful for the silence.

--

In the morning, right after Chaeyeon rushed to bind his s, he found himself at a court not too far from the barracks. Youngjin hadn’t arrived yet, so it left him with time to school himself to a calmer expression.

Staying awake until the break of dawn hadn’t been the best idea, that he knew now. Despite having had an uneventful, but enjoyable time with his new friend, exhaustion now coursed through his body. He had done it before, hundreds of times, to the point that his sleep schedule back home was a mess, but it hadn’t affected him at all. He could, more or less, always operate on auto-pilot, almost unconsciously going about his day. Now, it seemed that the world he was in now demanded more of his body, and a bad night sleep just made him fare badly.

He heard his neck snap as a force sent him to the ground. Gaping, he looked at the burly man who now towered over him.

“If you ever were to be like this on one errand, you’re bound to get killed,” the man said. Chaeyeon thought it to be fair, he was distracted. He tried to collect his wits and stand up, but the man, instead, tried attacking him with a wooden stick. Being more alert, Chaeyeon evaded the stick. The man swung the stick again, making Chaeyeon roll to his right, so that he could stand up quickly.

The man moved the stick slightly, positioning himself in an defensive position.

“You seem to be fast,” the man expressed, and, again, gave Chaeyeon no time to respond, as he tried hitting Chaeyeon with the point of the stick. The young man easily moved back, then moved to the left to avoid being striked. Chaeyeon moved, then, as fast as he could, trying to avoid Youngjin’s quick attacks. It reached a point where he was almost doing automatically, barely having to think about where to move or what to do.

“You are really agile, and your reflexes are good,” Youngjin said. Unexpectedly, he threw the stick at Chaeyeon, who ducked. It wasn’t the correct move, as Youngjin rapidly grabbed Chaeyeon’s arm and maneuvered him into a headlock. “But you don’t know how to predict your rival’s moves.” As Chaeyeon had done it before (and in a sense of dejavu), he kicked Youngjin’s shin. However, this time, his rival didn’t budge an inch, still grabbing her head in a tight embrace. “And you are weak.” He finally let Chaeyeon go, who coughed as his lungs filled again with precious oxygen.

“You are not as bad as I thought you were, boy. I think you will do just fine.”

Chaeyeon, still wheezing, slightly bowed. “Thank you, sir.” He knew there was no room for any other words.

“Well, I thought I would get to play around with you for a while, but it seems that you have enough ability to make it on your own. Return to your barracks, I will soon call for you.” Chaeyeon obeyed, bowing again.

Returning to the barracks, he was met with a sight that made him avert his gaze on reflex.

“Oh, Chaeyeon! We were called to the stable! Are you coming with us?” Yena asked, a little weirded out by Chaeyeon’s attitude.

“I-I don’t know. Master Youngjin told me to wait for him in the barracks,” Chaeyeon stuttered.

‘Get ahold of yourself! You are a man, too!’ The young man forced himself to look straight at Yena and disregard the changing men surrounding him.

“Alright, well. I’ll see you later then, Chaeyeon!” Yena answered, having already finished dressing. He rushed towards the other man who were already heading towards the stables.

Crossing the room, he sat on his mat, waiting for everyone to leave. One by one, each man left the barracks, barely sparing a glance at Chaeyeon, who tried his damnedest to blend with his own mat.

It took a while after everyone had already left for Youngjin to arrive, and when he came to see Chaeyeon, he came with another person.

“Boy,” the man greeted, giving a short nod with his head. The man behind him gave no greeting, but he looked as he was the same as Chaeyeon, a delivery worker.

“Sir,” Chaeyeon greeted, bowing before standing up.

“This is Daehwi. You will accompany him to take a letter to Jinju, to teacher Kim. The letter will be given to you at the far right side of the outer palace wall. As soon as you receive it, you both will go on. Teacher Kim is going to be waiting for you at on the flower pavilion, only at nighttime. Any questions?” At Chaeyeon’s negative, the man gave a wry smile. “Good, off you go.”

Daewhi, who had been quiet and stoic during Chaeyeon’s and Youngjin’s interaction, was now more affable, smiling at Chaeyeon as they went on their way to receive the letter.

“This is your first job, eh?”

“Yes. I recon it’s not yours?”

“No, I have been doing it for a while, but it’s the first time I have been put in charge of someone.” At that, Daehwi puffed up his chest in pride.

“So we were sent on a suicide mission?” Chaeyeon asked teasingly, hoping to see a nice reaction out of the man.

“Of course not! Rest assured, I am strong and agile, I won’t let my dongsaeng die on his first delivery.”

“How do you know I am your dongsaeng?”

“How could you not be my dongsaeng? What are you, eighteen? ”

“Twenty."

“Woah. You aren’t messing with me?” At Chaeyeon’s arched brow, he let out an amazed “Woah”.

“Sorry, hyung. Anyways, I have worked here longer than you, so I won’t let you die.”

“I am in your care, then,” Chaeyeon said. “So, if the letters we deliver are a secret, why are we getting this one in the morning?”

“Well, as far as I know, the client said that there were people watching over them at night, so an inconspicuous meeting in the midst of daylight is less suspicious.”

“Makes sense. And, how are we travelling?”

“Well, the supplies we are taking are minimal. Master Youngjin calculated that we would collide with a caravan going back to Geumsong, so we are meant to ask for some supplies from them. We aren’t going through the main roads because we could be intercepted.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound complicated at all.”

“We are couriers. Did you expect something else? Going on carriages?”

“No, I am just making an observation.”

“Well, let’s hurry then. This one letter must be delivered as soon as possible.”

--

The travel wasn’t anything that Chaeyeon didn’t expect. It was just like his journey to the capital, except with more care and secrecy. Daehwi, although effectively younger than him, was obviously more experienced than him. However, Chaeyeon, having had experience in selling drugs, knew a thing or two about security measures for them. Nothing had happened in the first days of travelling, except one night.

Chaeyeon had been having a dream-less sleep, when a rustling shook him completely awake. Looking at her side, she saw Daehwi sleeping soundly. Extending his hand as slowly as possible, he pinched Daehwi’s leg, waking him up instantly. He looked at Chaeyeon, who only put a finger on his mouth, signaling with his other hand to listen.

There it was.

Daehwi looked into Chaeyeon’s eyes, communicating wordlessly that they would run in the opposite direction of the sounds.

At the count of three, they ran, and immediately heard a man hollering behind them. Turning back, Chaeyeon saw three men pursuing them. Their clothes were tattered, so that meant they weren’t sent to kill them. Or were they?

It was difficult losing them, as the men were also fast and the foliage wasn’t thick enough to blend with it. Fighting didn’t seem like an option for them, as they were obviously more inexperienced and the men probably had knives.

“We aren’t losing them. Take the letter and I’ll distract them,” Daehwi panted.

“Are you insane? There are three of them. What if they kill you?”

“I won’t die,” Daehwi answered.

“You are being an idiot. If you charge towards them, I’ll stay, too.”

“They are not as strong as they look, and they most likely don’t know how to fight. They are thieves, they only rob weak people.”

“The more reason for me to stay. I am not as useless as I look,” Chaeyeon said firmly.

“Okay, then, hyung. What do you suggest?” Daehwi asked rhetorically, but Chaeyeon did take the challenge.

“If I’m not mistaken, we passed a ditch. If we managed to fool them into falling into it, we would shake them off.”

“And how to fool them?”

“We could try and hide in the foliage, make them believe we fell into the ditch. When they come to see, we push them into it.”

“It’s a risky plan.”

“But it’s better than engaging them. We are not fighters.”

“That much is true.”

And so they did. Finding some bushes next to a tree, they hid there, huddling as close as they could, hoping they wouldn’t be found before time.

“Where are they? Where are those kids?” the man, who seemed the leader, asked.

“Boss, they probably fell on the ditch.”

“No, they wouldn’t be that stupid, would they?”

Both young men looked in rapt attention as the boss walked closer to the ditch, his underlings following behind him.

“Should we?” Daehwi whispered.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Chaeyeon answered in equal quietness.

They sneaked behind the men, crawling slowly as to avoid making sounds. At Daehwi’s prompt, Chaeyeon hit the back of an underling’s knee, weakening his leg enough to fall into the ditch at his push. Daehwi also pushed the other underling, who, aided by a small rock, also fell into the ditch. The only one left was the boss, but both young men decided to run instead of staying to fight the man.

“You pieces of !” the boss roared as he ran behind them, as opposed to helping his underlings, like Daehwi and Chaeyeon expected.

Maybe he was fueled by his anger and wounded pride, but his speed was greater, managing to catch Daehwi’s robe and yank him towards him. The latter managed to avoid the knife the man tried to plunge into him, getting out of the man’s grasp.

Chaeyeon also stopped, looking back and forth at Daehwi and the man.

“If you just had stayed asleep, we would just have taken your supplies, but you had to wake up. Now I’m not letting you get away,” he announced menacingly.

Daehwi was on the ground, making the other young man realize that, although Daewhi hadn’t been stabbed, he had been hurt by the knife. Chaeyeon got closer to the man, hoping to have him place his attention on him. Predictably enough, the man tried attacking him.

Chaeyeon evaded the swings easily, moving backwards to make the man turn his back on Daehwi.

“Stop moving!” the man angrily exclaimed, still swinging at Chaeyeon.

As he was getting tired (and more panicked), Chaeyeon had to think quickly. Moving unexpectedly to the right after the man had taken another swing at him, he slapped the knife, managing to make the man throw it onto the floor and hurt his own hand. Hissing, he tried grabbing the knife, but was embraced by the man, who threw him onto the floor. In desperation, Chaeyeon grabbed onto his pants, pulling them down, effectively managing to take the man off-guard, enough to quickly crawl and snatch the knife away.

The man tried to grab Chaeyeon, but he was faster, plunging his knife into his ankle. The man howled in pain, falling to the ground, unable to keep himself standing up.

Hurrying to aid Daehwi, Chaeyeon only took another cursory glance at the man, knowing it would be near impossible for him to stand up again, even less to run after them.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, it’s just a scratch,” Daehwi responded, revealing a superficial cut on his hand.

“You-” Chaeyeon said, surprised, still heaving.

“I waited to see how long could you hold up without needing my help, but you never needed my help at all.”

“So this was just a test.” Chaeyeon didn’t know whether to be angry, frustrated, or indignant, and in the end chose a combination of all three.

“Not really. At least, not in the way you think it is. I saw you easily evading his attacks, so I wanted to see what you could do.”

“And?”

“I don’t know how did I ever mistake you as a dongsaeng.” Daehwi flashed a smile at him.

“Wow, what an honor,” Chaeyeon answered in a monotone, making Daehwi laugh.

“Yeah, yeah. I know you don’t need my approval, but you have it anyways. Let’s go.”

--

The rest of the journey was quiet, and Chaeyeon found out how monotonous it could be seeing the same environment day and night, only being able to cross through it, hoping that they were going through the right path.

Delivering the letter wasn’t that difficult either. Dirty and unkempt, they raised no one’s suspicions. Their clothes were those of any other peasant, so they just blended right it, making it easy for them to give the letter to whomever was Teacher Kim.

When they were coming back, however, they encountered a caravan that was apparently taking some supplies to Gyeongsu. Coincidentally, he found Yena, who was now wearing a farmer hat, trying to make one of his companions laugh, and failing.

Daehwi asked them for some supplies, and the leader of the caravan, Baegeon, who seemed to be a friend of Daehwi’s told them to stay for the night.

“So, how did it go? Did you encounter something exciting?” Yena asked as everyone sat around a fire, eating some meat.

“Just some thieves. We managed to escape,” Chaeyeon answered as nonchalantly as he could, wanting to not make a big deal out of it. Thankfully, his own hand injury hadn’t been deep, either, so it was easier to hide.

“Well, at least that’s more exciting than what we have gone through thus far,” Yena shrugged. “You see that guy?” he continued, pointing at a man who was now devouring his meal. “He doesn’t laugh, ever. I took him as a challenge, but no luck so far. He doesn’t budge. He just walks there, all high and mighty, probably thinking he is better than us.”

“He can’t be that bad,” Chaeyeon countered. “Maybe he has no sense of humor.”

“Only a dead person has no sense of humor,” Yena grumbled, making Chaeyeon roll his eyes. There are many people Chaeyeon has known that either have no sense of humor or have a very distorted one.

“Well, have you only spoken to that guy?” Chaeyeon asked, truly curious about Yena’s journey.

“Well, no. There are other guys that I’ve been talking to, but honestly, they are not that interesting.”

“So you have a special interest in that guy?” Chaeyeon teased Yena, wiggling his eyebrows. Yena only looked at him in horror.

“Shut up. I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea by hearing your non-sense.” Chaeyeon cackled.

“Well, I don’t know about you, tough guy, but I’m pretty beat. I’m already going to sleep,” Yena said, stretching his arms.

“You go ahead. I’ll be taking a bath.”

“A bath? In that shallow lake?”

“Better than anywhere else.” Chaeyeon stuck his tongue out. In reality, he hadn’t felt safe enough when he was traveling with Daehwi, so taking a bath was completely out of the question. Now, though, there was a group of people, probably more prepared to take out any petty thief. The guy without a sense of humor seemed capable enough. And, it seemed more improbable that someone would come out looking for him and discover his secret.

“Fine, fine. Good night. Don’t drown.”

Chaeyeon walked to the lake. Nearing towards a bush, he slowly took off his clothes, tuning his ears to any person trying to find him. He decided on not feeling the water’s temperature first, instead, getting into the lake immediately, knowing that, regardless of the temperature, he would still want to take a bath.

Carefully rinsing her body, Chaeyeon sighed in pleasure. It had been the first time she had taken a bath in weeks. What would happen when she was in her period? The mere thought made her cringe.

Her mind, now completely empty of the urgency of the day to day tasks, invariably went to her sisters. What would Chaeryeong be doing at this hour? Probably already asleep, Chaemin at her side. Or that’s what Chaeyeon would rather believe.

“Chaeyeon!” She screamed as a young man jumped from the shadows.

“Hahaha! I can’t believe Mister Tough Guy would...” Yena’s voiced trailed off as his expression morphed into one of surprise and confusion.

“C-Chaeyeon?”

----

Hello, BigDinosaur again! Hope you also enjoy this chapter. Thank you for commenting and subscribing. As always, if you have any feedback, don't hesitate to send it my way. I really want to know what you all think about it.

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