All kinds of love should be respected, isn't that right, Soyeon?

Shuhua didn't know how she managed to keep running, but she didn't stop. The thin branches whipping her bare legs felt as sharp as knives as they scratched bloody furrows into her pale white skin. Her ragged breaths tore at her lungs but she forced herself forward. 

She said she'd be waiting for me. I just have to get to our spot!

The sound of hooves, faint at first, gradually grew louder. Guttural shouts echoed throughout the barren forest, the cacophony crashing through the trees. Shuhua chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw the glint of blades. It would be close. She lowered her head and put on a final burst of speed as she sprinted through the woods and into a clearing. 

Soojin-ah, I'm here!

But the clearing was empty. Shuhua spun around in a circle, looking wildly around for a sign of her Soojin.

"Soojin-ah?" she whispered as loud as she dared. "Where are you?"

But no one answered, save for a lone black raven that cawed as it alighted on a branch above her head. It cocked its head at her, its beady eyes fixed on her panic stricken face. 

Shuhua desperately clutched at the bundle in her arms. Soojin wasn't here, and the riders would catch up to her any minute now. Where could she go? There wasn't anywhere to hide in this dead forest. Did Soojin abandon her? She shook her head and pushed that thought from her mind.

Impossible. She promised. 

But as Jimin and Jungkook galloped into the clearing, Shuhua had trouble remembering what exactly she and Soojin had promised each other. And when Moonbyul arrived and drew her sword, Shuhua looked up at the darkening sky and realized this would be the last time she would see the stars.