Miyoung gulped when she saw Juhyun walking back towards Stoneguard. What was she doing? Why was she doing that?

“Juhyun…” She left out and her heart was torn when her handmaiden vanished from her sight. “Juhyun!”

“Lady Hwang?” Sooyoung called her, suddenly, making her and Heechul turn their heads towards her. “What are you doing there? We need to get moving.” The whole group was there waiting for Miyoung and Heechul to join them and resume their journey to Gwangju.

She gulped.

What should she do? Should she just get moving and leave Juhyun behind? The handmaiden who has been with her since days of old? Should she just start heading towards Gwanju and leave the two people Miyoung loved the most behind? How could she go on with that journey well without Juhyun and Taeyeon by her side?

“Lady Miyoung?”

“We need to keep moving.” Shindong called next to them. “Se we can reach Gwangju as soon as possible.”

The one pushing Miyoung forward wasn’t herself but Heechul, who lowered his head down and pulled Ginger’s reins with him. “Let’s go to Gwangju.” He followed, lowering his head.

Miyoung didn’t hide her tears.

~~*~~

“Can’t we just spend the night here?” She asked them, after roughly one hour of journey. It was completely dark and the sky was starting to stack up clouds higher. It would rain for it seemed.

“It’s about to rain. And I feel we are no longer in danger. Let’s just rest for this evening here. We can set up camps and tents here and we wait till tomorrow morning to continue our journey.” And there might still be time for Taeyeon and Juhyun to find them once they leave Stoneguard.

“We just had put our stuff together... Do we really need to unpack everything again?” Shindong complained.

“Stop being such a lazy pig, Shindong!” Donghae stepped up,dropping his bag on the ground. “Miyoung is right. No good use of us still walking at this time and hour. We set our camps here and prepare ourselves to sleep.” He stood at Heechul’s side.

Jonghyun and Minho joined him and agreed with the statement. “I’m down for it, to be honest. It will become difficult to continue in this complete darkness. And it’s gonna get even more difficult when the rain starts pouring. Let’s call it a day and get ourselves a good night of rest.”

Shindong grunted. “I just don’t want to unpack everything all over again!” He complained, just lazy and tired enough.

“Then spend the night on rocks and sand!” Minho shrugged his shoulders.

“But then I’ll have back pain!” He grunted. “Aigooo...Why life is so hard?” He wondered to himself.

“You don’t know what a hard life really is, chubby boy.” Yuri remarked.

“Oiy, don’t call me chubby!”

“Aye, don’t call him chubby. Because he is not just chubby, he is all-round fat!” Leeteuk added, retrieving a couple of smirks and giggles from the other boys.

Miyoung just turned her face towards Stoneguard, not minding the joke whatsoever. The walls of the village right now a couple of hours from distance where they settled. Miyoung closed her eyes, wishing that by the next day, Taeyeon and Juhyun would finally be by her side somehow.

They weren’t.

And the apathy on Miyoung’s overall expressions was evident. She was feeling completely empty, as if someone had cut one of her legs off, and now she couldn’t stand up and stay firm without the missing limb. She did not eat or drink anything through all that time. And she was barely saying words when morning came around and none of the friends they were all waiting for showed up.

“Lady Hwang…” Heechul’s voice was low and concerned. “C’mon… you need to eat something.” He tried to offer a dumpling bum. “You’ll get weak if you don’t.”

She just ignored him.

“Where are they, Heechul?” She asked him, wishing he had the answer. But he didn’t. She knew he didn’t have any answer. He was just lost with information as much as she was.

He sighed, giving himself a minute or two before speaking up again. He sat down beside her, trying to give her some company and emotional support. “You know... I kinda have an idea...but I don’t like that idea, so I much rather not talk about it at all.”

“You think we should come back and check up on them?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “But Taeyeon asked us not to. So I don’t know what to do.” He revealed. “He is usually right about stuff, you know? And his plans usually work out for some reason. His mind and heart are pure and he often gets away from problems just fine…it’s scary sometimes. It feels like the heavens bend their ways to always help him somehow.”

Miyoung closed her eyes.

“What if he is the one needing our help right now and not the heavens’?

Heechul looked up to the clear sky of that morning.

“What’s gonna happen to us, Heechul?” Miyoung asked, looking around them. “If he doesn’t come back? If Juhyun doesn’t come back? What’s gonna happen to us?”

“I don’t know...” He muttered.

“How could we get through this…?”

He sighed, allowing himself to just contemplate the horizon before them. “I’m supposed to write his story, you know.” He spoke up suddenly. Miyoung looked at him curiously.

“Write his story?”

And Heechul retrieved one parchment roll from his own satchel, unravelling it in the following moment. Miyoung turned her head to read the words he had written but did not manage to understand the text as it was written in Hangul. Miyoung didn’t know how to read Hangul. But that did not stop her from being in awe over his writing skills. It was a beautiful handwriting. “I want to enter the magistrate.” He said.

“The magistrate? You want to be a Scholar?”

“Yes!” He affirmed. “I want to study and become a maester of my own! Maybe even a counselor for the king!”

“It’s hard to get into the magistrate. Especially from people not belonging to noble houses.” Miyoung commented.

“I know. But Hanyang is the Sacred City! The capital city of dreams!” Miyoung stared at him attentively. She grew rather fondly of Heechul for the past day and thus she didn’t have the courage to tell him that the Magistrate wouldn’t really accept a bastard born so easily. Especially one that did not know how to read Chinese. So, not really wanting to shatter his dreams, Miyoung just gave him a timid smile of acceptance.

“I’ve been practicing my handwriting skills really hard for this.”

“It’s beautiful.” She added up. “It’s a beautiful handwriting.”

He smiled in gratitude. “And to keep practicing, I thought it would be easier for me if I get a topic of essay where it could be filled every single day little by little.” He exhaled. “And the topic I decided to get off was Taeyeon.”

“You write about him?” She asked, interested.

“Yes. I write things that happen to him, to us. Sometimes, I write about his subtle manners and gestures towards events and situations. And sometimes I try to figure what he could be thinking of or his feelings about things and people.”

“Must be an interesting story.”

“Taeyeon says it is a boring story.” He quickly hushed, chuckling a little for the memories of his friend saying those words. “But we’ve made a promise to each other.” He recalled. “We’ve promised we would go to Hanyang together and fill our duties together. He would finally find Park Minshik. And I would join the Magistrate. And that would be our happy ending.”

Miyoung felt ache for a second.

“But if something happened to him back there at Stoneguard… the story won’t end as it was intended.” “If something happened to him...I’m not there to write it off.” Miyoung closed her eyes. “And it kills me… to have his story unfinished...”

Miyoung wiped her tears with her thumb.

“I’m sorry, Heechul…” She apologized, sincerely. “I’m sorry for… making everything hard for you all. If it wasn’t for me…” She gulped. “You wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t have been in danger. And you would have stayed at Midsummar just safe without any worries.” “You were right when you said it was my fault…”

“I didn’t mean to imply that.” He corrected himself, shaking his head in a negative sign. “Taeyeon was right. You had no fault on this. You were just trying to run away from your husband. It just happened that you bumped into us.”

“And that my husband is a piece of .” She added up, making Heechul chuckle.

“Alrighty, alright!” Leeteuk stood up from his position, stretching his arms and neck, calling their attention. “Sun is rising and shining! Time to go back to the road, bastards~!”

“Ahh the sweet air from Gwangju, can you feel already?” Shindong came forward.

“Did you just fart, man?”

“What? No! I mean...”

“Lady Hwang! Lady Hwang!”

Miyoung heard someone calling for her at a distance and turned her head towards the voice. She quickly rose up from her seat, trying to find the people calling for her. Her heart started to fasten its beats. Could that be? Could that be him?

“Lady Hwang!” She frowned her brows when two men she has never seen before were running towards the group.

“Who are they?” Heechul asked beside her, not recognizing those men as well.

As the two men came closer and approached their camp, they both threw themselves to the ground, completely out of breath and exhausted.

“Oh my god! At last!”

“I...have...never...ran...so..much...in..my...entire...life!”

“We’ve...been...running...for...hours!”

Miyoung frowned, not understanding what was going on. “Is everything alright?”

“Wait a minute…” Donghae approached them. “Aren’t you the guys from the desert back there?”

Miyoung widened her eyes upon hearing that. Yes! They were! They were the horsemen harassing her, Juhyun, Sooyoung and Yuri in the desert nearby Midsummar! What they were doing there? And why were they calling for her?

“We...are…”

“Under Kim...Chang-Min...command….!” They were all completing each-other sentences due to their inability to breathe properly.

Kim Chang-Min? Wasn’t that the noble man from Yellowstone?

“Kim Chang-Min?”

“Yes! He ordered us...”

“To run...as fast as possible…”

“Towards Gwangju!”

“So...we could find you…”

“And… tell you that…”

“Kim Taeyeon...has been captured!”

“And Master Shin...is on his way to Stoneguard!”

“What?” The whole group said at the very same time.

“Master Shin...is on his way to Stoneguard.” The first man repeated.

“For Kim Taeyeon has been captured...and taken to the City Hall.” The second one completed.

“He... will be sentenced to death!”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter