"Wow," Taemin said looking at the horses in the royal stable. The horses of the royals were so beautiful, but of course, he did not know which horse belonged to whom. He guessed that the only white horse in the room belonged to the princess but even about that he was not sure. Everyone was so handsome and the choice was difficult, but he had to pick one before someone come and caught him. "Which of you will I take?" He wondered aloud. 

To his surprise, most of the horses answered him loudly or with one footstep which caused clouds of ash to appear beneath them. "Which of you wants to come with me?" He asked them as if they really understood what he was saying. He advanced into the stable to the farthest compartment where there was a handsome brown horse with a white spot on his forehead, on his three legs were white socks and on the fourth one black.

"Hello," Taemin said to the horse that raised its head from the bowl of water he had just drunk from. "You want to come with me?" He heard voices from the horses behind him, the horse in front of him remained silent and just stared at him. "It's going to be fun, get out of this place, you look lonelier than the other horses," he told the horse. Suddenly he saw a basket with apples, he walked over to it which made the horse wag his tail and shake his black mane, "Do you want an apple?" Taemin asked and to his surprise, the horse nodded his head once and walked closer to his gate. "If I bring you an apple, will you let me take you with me?" The horse stared at him again.

"Sorry, I know the other horses want to come but I choose you, I'll buy you apples, I’ll take care of you, maybe I'll bring you back here if I have a chance." The horse looked at him and then at the apples, Taemin took one apple, which caused the horse to lower its head and smell the air causing unwanted air to come out of its nostrils and move Taemin's hair away from his face. The young pirate gave him the apple and then opened the gate leading the horse out of his compartment, tapping a saddle on it, all the saddles close to the horse were luxurious and decorated with precious stones but Taemin took a plain-looking saddle, not fancy at all and the horse did not resist.

He arranged the leashes skillfully and took the reins, he took with him the horse that walked behind him very obediently. Taemin even stole a nice amount of apples from the basket and put it in a sack he placed on his back where there was a supply for a few days such as food, water, and a thin blanket for the night. The robber walked the horse towards the large doors of the stable causing many horses to flutter their tails and make cheering noises, surprising him that no stable boy or guard came to stop him. And as he thought, his captains were still inside the palace, which explained the number of guards outside.

Taemin, already outside the stable, got on the horse that walked towards the big gates. Suddenly, a loud call was heard and a roar of four guards ran into the palace did not notice him. Now, Taemin knew he had to hurry out. "Let’s go," he said and kicked the horse's side to make him fasten his pace. The kick was not strong at all but the horse quickly realized they had to hurry and without a warning started galloping towards the open gates, two guards standing by the gate were so frightened that they did not know what to do, whether to chase the horse or not.

Taemin hurried out of town. He galloped in the direction he guessed was east. When he left the city he climbed a hill not far away that overlooked the city. It was early evening and the sun was no longer in the sky but there was still a light that slowly disappeared. The young pirate decided to get off the horse and look at the city. "So what is your name?" He asked the animal that did not answer with rejoicing nor stamping. "How about Sagwa,” the horse looked at him and then shook his mane before approaching the human brings his head closer to the face of the boy who immediately him. “Goes with your love of apples," Taemin giggled.

At a late hour when the sky was already black, the young pirate came to a small town, a transit town where people stopped to stay overnight before continuing on to the next big city. Taemin managed to get a small room with the amount of money Key brought him without asking. He left his horse outside his room where there was a place to tie him with water and hay. No special questions were asked of him. During his stay in the place he could not fall asleep, he stared at the bracelet next to him thinking about what he was doing, why was he doing all this way to get that bracelet back? What does this say about him? Did he really fall in love with a prince who he never stopped seeing in his dreams? What does a prince think of him? if he even remembers him.

The traditional bracelet symbolized love, after all, it is an engagement gift from the residents of Jeju. What does that say about his relationship with the prince? On one hand, he wanted to give it back to the prince, so he could give this gift to his future fiancée, but on the other hand, he said to himself, you and the prince are now bound, you like him you just have to know if he likes you back. Taemin let out a loud sigh causing his horse to stomp his foot outside of his room.

The young pirate woke up the next morning, he wanted to get to Gaya as fast as possible because he didn’t get far yesterday. Sagwa was ready to ride and even looked more energetic than the day before. "Ready for a long day, Sagwa?" Taemin his horse as he took him out of the area where he slept. "You look better than yesterday." When they left the area where there were a few people, the pirate gave his horse an apple from his bag. According to his plan, he will reach Gaya within a day and a half, he’ll sleep on the road and not in a guest house, he will try to get as far as possible both day and night. After all, in five days, according to what he heard from people in the guest house, it takes four days to get to Kimhae in conclusion.

Taemin set off. He knew he would reach the forest at some point that would eventually be the passage to the kingdom of Gaya, more properly like a long path that crosses the kingdoms called “the neutral path” that runs the length of the smallest kingdom of Korea and separated Silla and Paekche from it. Taemin realized he knew when he would get to that separation trail, he just hoped the time it would take him to get there would not exceed the time he hoped to get to Kimhae.

When he got to Paekche forest he knew that this is where his journey begins, riding in the forest can take so long, that's why it would take him five days without the forest but when he got to the forest he knew that getting to Kimhae would take him at least a week but it would not stop him. Tae and Sagwa entered the forest and slowly tossed between the trees, the forest was not as dense as it sounded, at least not so dense. At one point, Taemin heard a sound of water and made his horse stray away from the road south towards the small river that appeared behind the trees where they could stop. A full day of riding and finally getting to the river was what Taemin thanked for.

The pirate got off his horse and let him be released by the river, they both drank from the fresh water and Taemin filled his water tank, which was already half empty, then he lay down on his bag and looked at the sky. His hands fiddling with a bundle on his sword. "What do you think I can say to Minho? I mean I can’t suddenly appear there, I have to get into the palace in some way, obviously not through the main entrance to the palace, but maybe through a window?" Taemin looked up to look at the horse that was just staring at him. "What?" He asked as if his horse could understand him but the horse did not answer, he just waved his tail and approached him. "What do you even think about?" Taemin sat down and the head of his horse, which lowered his head. "What I am certain of is that I think too much about Minho."

His horse shook his head, causing Taemin tol back over his bag, his horse turned and went to the river again. "You're not helping me," Tae murmured. Taemin and Minho barely spoke, that is, they did talk to each other even had a whole conversation, but what would happen next? what would happen if he really came to the prince's room, stood in front of the taller one, what would he say? What will the prince say? Taemin let out a sigh, which made his horse, again, look at him. The pirate felt as if his horse was rolling his eyes at him. What a nice horse.

After that time in Jeju where they just walked parallel streets just staring at each other, Tae's heart pounded every time he thought of it, when he woke up from dreams about fire and the prince in its light, fantasizing about a kiss and shaking his head when he realizes he did it again, each time the boy wonder, how can you fall in love with someone so quickly? He remembered that night at the ball, where he was dressed as a girl, Minho hunts him down with his eyes and takes him to dance with him and talk to him, and every so often asks him from where he is known to him. Now, Taemin was on his way to that prince, not knowing what was going to happen or how he would make things happen.