Heart rate skyrocketing, Namjoo raced through the trees. Brushing past overgrown plants. Not a sound around her but the spiny branches cracking underneath her feet. She nearly tripped again but she couldn’t stop. She had to keep going.

Namjoo didn’t want to be kidnapped. Become a prisoner of someone else here. Not here where her home wasn’t. She had to make it back first. She had to reclaim her life in the 21^st century.

Namjoo whimpered when she almost collided into the forest ground again. Legs speeding too fast for her own body to keep up. Glancing behind her to see the man lunging through the woods on urgent feet. His dark clothes slashing through the greenery, appearing like some beast. Her breath caught in . Hurriedly slipping the traditional socks off she tossed them aside and continued on her way.

The surroundings blurring into greens, browns, shades of dark red and various orange. Bright yellow light flittered through gaps in overhead branches weighing with shapely leaves. The drumming of her heart and the laborious breathing escaping was all she heard, as if she was abandoned here.

Skidding to an abrupt halt after ten steps when a clearing suddenly appeared in front of her. Just tall grass at the peak of their growth in an open space with no hiding spot. Spreading forever. The next forest over seemed a light year away on the other side. From her right the lake shimmered underneath the sunlight, but that was too far. And she had stopped swimming years ago. In these clothes she’d drown before she made it a lap out.

There was no sign of life. A village. Another hero to help her.

Namjoo hesitated as her brain churned. What if there were snakes in the grass? Some other animal waiting to pounce on her? Then she’d be dead meat before the man could capture her. This was the forest. The biggest danger that she didn’t know this area. How could she just cluelessly venture out there?

Everything inside her hurled.

What choices did she have?

Why, why, why was this happening?!

The gruff panting of the man became louder, his footsteps nearer. Namjoo bit her lip and jumped in spot unable to decide. Go forward or not.

Biting her lip, she took the leap. Running into the tall grass nearly half her height. A mix of wheat and unknown plants pricked her. The cool soil was soothing to her bruised and bleeding soles. Namjoo forged ahead to who knows where and what end.

She couldn’t lose. She would never forgive herself. Her father would shake his head and drop his eyes in disappointment that she hadn’t succeeded.

She would make it.

She would!

But her legs were tired. Her energy dwindling. The adrenaline was losing her. She was hungry. Her stomach ached from being so empty.

The sun was only half up but the heat was already unbearable. The layers of clothing only making it worse.

Namjoo turned when she heard a strange hiss followed by a grunt. Half panicked and puzzled when the man was nowhere to be seen. Shifting fully around, she hurriedly scourged the area. Worried if this was some sort of trick. Would he suddenly pop up and tackle her?

She backed up. Filled with dread and uncertainty. Eyeing her surroundings. So silent. The land filled with nothing but the grass. Had some sort of animal taken the man down?

Namjoo gulped fearfully. Imagining a tiger. A boar. A leopard or bobcat. Then her eyes swerved toward the forest some mile out behind her. Hearing the faint thud of footsteps. Five of them? Three? Four? Namjoo couldn’t decide upon the uneven thudding.

Three more seconds and someone plunged out of the thicket of trees on a galloping horse. Namjoo tilted her neck back to stare up at Chanyeol when he pulled the magnificent horse to a halt beside her. Her eyes rounded. Zooming on him. Sinking in the sight of her man on a horse having come for her. The plunge of her heart into her ribs was heavy and loud.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

Stricken, Namjoo managed a nod. Part of her felt stupefied. The bigger part speechless. As if she should have expected this and also…not.

This thing about Chanyeol coming for her made her feel a mixture of many things.

Chanyeol held his palm out. Namjoo stared at his offering. Couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised he hadn’t come down to help her up.

Touching his hand, she felt his fingers grip around hers and help pull her up. Her face bumped into something at his back. It was a thin wooden casket of arrows. She stared at the weapons not sure what to make of it.

Namjoo bumped into his back with a grunt when he turned the horse around. Her arms went around him awkwardly, fingers brushing his robe. She knew because she’d hugged him before. His back was broad and sturdy. Consisting of fine sculpted muscles from his years of swimming. Right now, it still felt the same.

The familiarity of this made her want to hug him tight and weep, because everything had been so strange and he was the only one she knew here. The closest she had to home. Namjoo pressed into his back and wrapped her arms around his waist. Clinging onto him securely as the horse trotted slowly.

Eyes passing through the strange dent in the tall grass and seeing a clump of dark clothes. One of the arrows standing vertically into the air. Discomfort sorted itself in her chest. Namjoo dug her fingers into Chanyeol’s robe. Denying what she just saw as she clamped her eyes shut.

They didn’t head straight back, but took a turn toward the lake. “I’m going to let Sun get some water and rest for a bit.” Chanyeol explained pulling on the horse’s reins to stop him.

“Oh…ok…” Guessing her moment of nostalgia was over Namjoo removed her arms from around him. Disappointed.

When nothing happened, she glanced at Chanyeol to find his cool eyes on her. Confused, Namjoo glanced around then when she caught his eyes again, he gestured for the ground.

“Oh…you want me to get off first.” Namjoo lifted her leg up from the other side of the horse and slid down. Falling ungracefully onto her knees because she’d been so high up. A pair of feet landed next to her. Namjoo glanced up to find Chanyeol dusting his hands.

Muttering to herself why he couldn’t be a gentleman and help her off first she watched him grab Sun’s reins to lead him toward the clear water. The gentle waves slid onto the thin line of dirt between water and grass before rolling back out. Birds were chirping here. A family of trees stretched around them. Filling this side with a fresh deep green.

Moving under a shade Namjoo sat down on a patch of grass and observed her feet. Her soles were cracked and bleeding. Stinging really badly. She wished she had some aspirin on her. Bandages and really good healing balm like Neosporin or something so she wouldn’t scar.

Namjoo quickly tucked her feet inside her skirt when Chanyeol approached. While the horse roamed across the shoreline, he sat beside her. Not too closely. The gravest sign that there was no intimacy between them. Something about that really hurt her. Just like the way his eyes broadened when she asked for his name, like she had committed an inappropriate act.

Namjoo thought about the dead man back there with the arrow in his body. Had Chanyeol hesitated before shooting him? Or did it come naturally to him? To kill?

She’d known Chanyeol for a long time but the steel in this man’s eyes when he looked at her…

“You’re really a general,” Namjoo quietly stated. Staring at the grass near her.

For some reason this Chanyeol was really not hers.

Not her Park Chanyeol.

Namjoo didn’t want to believe it.

She couldn’t believe it.

The absurdity of this…

That this Chanyeol was not her Chanyeol. The man who loved her.

“What is your name?” he asked. The voice soft and soothing. So alike her Chanyeol’s.

The bitter truth was piercing. Namjoo looked at him not knowing what to say. Taking in the nature around her. This wasn’t a park reservation. There was no sign to say this area was restricted or a post to explain this area’s importance and history. A person couldn’t simply drive by and stop to soak in the beauty of nature. There were no campgrounds in this area or tents pitched up by a hiker stopping to rest.

The biggest fact was that she wasn’t waking up from this nightmare.

“I’m,” Namjoo answered, “Namjoo.” Saying with a depth to her voice to get him to wake up, if he was hers. “Kim Namjoo.”

My father owns a line of Geoha museums around the country.

“Do we know each other?” he asked.

Holding his eyes, Namjoo somberly said, “I’m…not sure.”

She turned away.

This was not her boyfriend. This wasn’t her Park Chanyeol.

ꞜꞜꞜꞜꞜ

On the way back she held onto Chanyeol less tightly. This unfamiliar man was off putting. Felt distant.

“Young Miss! Young Miss!” The man she’d first seen came running toward her when she entered the courtyard limping. “Oh no! What happened to you?!”

“It’s ok. I’m ok.”

“Come.” He urged. “You need some rest.” Sympathetically whining, “Why did this happen?”

After one of the servant girls gave her medicine for her feet she was back in another pair of traditional socks. A tray of depleted food sat before her on the table in her room. Clean now. Everything back in its place; the bed remade. Now that there was food in her stomach she felt better. Kind of.

He was a bandit, the servant girl had explained to her, who had stayed at the bathhouse after paying a half pound of gold. Madam Cho had let him slide under her nose because of the money.

Namjoo wanted to wring his neck now that she had the energy, but he was dead. If she was back home, he’d not just get a slap on the wrist but a heavy fine and jail time.

The knock on her door made her turn.

“Yes?” she called out.

The door slid open and Minseok appeared carrying a wide grin on his face. Rising to her feet Namjoo said, “I was going to come find you.”

When he noticed her gaze on his arm, he held it up. Pulling his sleeve to show off the long bandage – what was just tapered cloth – wrapped around his wound. The blood had turned into a dull color.

“Uh…maybe you should see a doctor.” Namjoo uncertainly told. “There could be an infection. That knife could have bacteria and germs on it.”

“What?” he raised his brows, lost. Then dropping the sleeve, he waved her off, “I’ve had worse injuries.”

Namjoo almost grimaced from imagining what else the guy had experienced.

“Anyway,” he stepped inside and magically pulled out a tiny bottle from inside his shirt and handed it to her, “I heard your feet were injured. This should help you feel better.”

Namjoo stared at the plain purple bottle with no label or instructions. She couldn’t tell what it consisted of. What were the ingredients? Was it FDA approved?

Smiling awkwardly, she accepted his kindness, “Thanks.”

Crossing his arms, he smugly grinned, “It helps me all the time whenever I get cuts or stab wounds.”

“Stab…” Namjoo winced, “wounds?”

“Yes,” he nodded his head for emphasis. “You can have it.”

Namjoo turned the jar around in her hand. She wasn’t going to use it if he’d used it already. Where his hands had been and what had been on his hands during the usage made her shudder. Did he not know of hygiene?

“About earlier,” Namjoo began, “for helping me. Thanks. I’m sorry you got hurt.”

The boyish grin on his face made her guiltier. “You don’t have to apologize.” Perking up, he added, “The general should apologize for stealing my horse and using my arrow. My expensive arrow!”

Namjoo managed a smile.

“Don’t worry about that.” Minseok playfully exclaimed. “I’ll deal with the general when we return home.”

The smile eased off her lips. “You’re leaving?”

“I came to see you before we left.” Minseok explained.

But not Chanyeol.

“Then, have a safe trip.” Was pretty much all she could offer.

He gave her a curt nod before leaving the room closing the door after him. Namjoo waited a moment. Soaking in the realization of the moment.

This to them was just like an inn or a hotel would be for her. A resting spot for several nights before a person left for home. Probably she would never see Chanyeol again. He wouldn’t remember her, wouldn’t think about her. Because he wasn’t hers. He didn’t know her.

Opening the door Namjoo hurried down the hallway. Yearning and longing anyway. Out the front doors. Arriving in time to see the group of horses riding into the marketplace. Unable to find Chanyeol’s back through the troop of men in their armored suits.

ꞜꞜꞜꞜꞜ

“Hold on,” Chanyeol called when Minseok came running toward them and started getting off his horse just as the second in command took hold of his horse’s reins.

“Where are you going?” Minseok wondered.

“I forgot to give her balm for her feet.” Chanyeol told. “She was injured.”

Climbing onto the saddle with a grunt, Minseok explained, “Don’t bother. I already did.”

“Oh…” Chanyeol’s tone dropped. “You did?”

Grinning proudly, Minseok nodded. Pulling on his horse’s reins to start him, he teased, “If you worry about another lady, our lady Chunghee will be heartbroken.”

As the horses started moving, Chanyeol couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder. Eyes searching for a last glimpse of the bathhouse.

Minseok’s voice averted his attention, “By the way, you owe me new arrows and some chips for Sun.” he patted his stallion.

The trek to Hanseong took a regular ten days of constant pauses for rest and meals. The guys heehawing together and planning excursions during their vacation period. Camping underneath starlit skies and taking advantage of the cool temperature at nightfall. Resuming the road home to the gates of Prime Minister Jin’s home. Spanning 20 different buildings and hosting four different families – each an extension of Prime Minister Jin’s family.

His four wives made his life dramatic if not chaotic. A distant nephew of Jin Haejin, Chanyeol had been sent to stay with him since he had joined the military, because where he lived with his mother in Kyongsong was too far.

The uncle had gladly opened up his home for him. It was an honor to have a general in the family he’d been told, because Jin Haejin had more daughters than sons. The old man had given him a separate quarter to share with home friend Minseok. Proudly regarding him as his own son and to make this home his home.

The manor was dead quiet when they walked in through the heavy red doors. A tiny lazy river flowed through the home courtyard. Overflowing with lotus flowers with tiny boarded bridges every quarter mile out. Tonight, the ghastly moon was floating on its dark surface. Passing the outer buildings, he and Minseok weaved their way around to their quarters.

A solid white structure with red paned windows. The sidings a matching sharp red. The roof slanted lowly so that even if it rained water could not get inside. Pushing their way through one side of the blue doors they entered into a modestly decorated home. A long polished wooden table placed in the center of the room. Surrounded by three chairs on each side. Ahead, a desk they never used. On it sat golden dragon statues noses barely touching and a porcelain vase. Behind the desk a window opened up to a view of a potted Japanese tree said to be a thousand years old. Too big and arched with drooping branches threatening to touch ground.

Three red beams held up the building on each end where separate doors led to different rooms. Sighing loudly Minseok was already on his way to bed. It was late at night. The temperature was turning cold. Chanyeol’s feet were sore. He’d like to go to bed, too.

Instead, when he reached his room furnished simply with a bed, a circular table in the room, and some drawers against the walls he sat down at the edge of the bed. Reaching over to light up the lantern on the nearby table he began unloading his baggage. A cloth sheet he had securely knotted.

Inside consisted of his clothes. His jar of healing balm. Dried meat to snack on wrapped in a separate towel. A necklace from his mother. Aside that was the other item he’d brought.

The shoe from the bathhouse.

From when he’d fallen into the bath with Namjoo. She’d left it when she left. It had floated on the water appearing lost and alone.

He’d meant to return it, but it kept slipping his mind.

Something about her made his logical thoughts go fuzzy. At first, he thought she was just imprudent. Asking so boldly for his name when she didn’t know her place. Running off during their conversations and leaving him stupefied. Two times.

Something about her tugged at him.

The air about her was different in the woods. When she’d held him during the horse ride…his heart had raced. For the first time. If they’d passed each other on the road before he couldn’t remember, but there was something he couldn’t bring to fruition about her.

Chanyeol held the pink shoe embroidered delicately with flowers into the flickering light.

Thinking about the way she’d become melancholic by the lake. How it had made him sad momentarily. This thing about that woman, what was it?

Who exactly was Namjoo?