Don’t miss the previous chapter!

“Jongin Oppa! What’s with those dark circles around your eyes?”

Inhyun gasped at her cousin who was tying his boots on the front yard bench, looking worn out and disheveled. “Didn’t you get proper sleep?”

“How can I sleep well princess?” Jongin wailed, pulling the little one to sit next to him. “Your bad brother sat upright next to me in the moonlight like a ghost all night… so how could I have slept soundly?”

“But I saw him sleeping right now.” Inhyun said, pointing into the house. “He’s fast asleep leaning against that medicine cupboard. Omma told me not to wake him up.”

“That’s because he didn’t get any sleep until dawn.” Jongin grumbled. “That girl… did she refuse breakfast as well?”

Inhyun nodded with a pout. “She’s still not hungry. Weird isn’t she? I mean I’m hungry almost all the time…”

Jongin chuckled and ruffled her hair, and stood up from the bench. “I’m stepping into the forest to fetch some herbs. When your Oppa wakes up, ask him to join me alright? Oh and meanwhile try to get that girl to eat something. Your brother won’t eat until she does.”

* * *

After staying awake until the skies tinged pinked for the dawn, Gayeon had dozed off with a severe headache, caused both by fatigue and hunger. Not long after, she woke up hearing a groan of pain coming from outside the room.

“You can’t leave such a serious wound unattended boy!” Baekhyun’s aunt was yelling furiously in the living room. “Look at this mess! You almost got a half-healed wound infected again!”

Baekhyun groaned in pain again, making Gayeon scoot towards the door and slide it open only enough to peek outside.

Baekhyun was sitting on the floor, leaning against a wall and holding his robe open, and his aunt was dabbing a pulp of herbs that made him wince every time she touched his abdomen.

“You’re not allowed to leave the house until you’re completely healed!” aunt Eunjo said in a warning growl, taking a cotton cloth to bandage the wound.

“But aunt-”

“No buts! You will be staying indoors at least for a week!”

Baekhyun sighed and rubbed his temples, and his eyes met the eyes peeking through the door.

Gayeon quickly moved away and snapped the door close.

* * *

“HOW COULD YOU LEAVE HER ALONE AND COME HERE? How DARE you show up alive when my daughter was taken away by that beast???”

A hard slap landed on Hyunjoo’s cheek, for the second time within the past few minutes, and sent the maid off balance and stumbling aside.

Gayeon’s mother leapt forward and grabbed her by the shoulders again, only to shake her furiously. “How could you leave her to be abducted and come here to tell us that…you useless wench…”

“OMMA!” Junmyeon pulled the two women apart, and caught his mother before she could grab the maid’s hair again. Still fuming with rage, the older woman wailed and dropped to the floor. “Who knows what they did to my Gayeon? How can I live when they take away my child like this???”

“I’m-” Hyunjoo’s words hitched with sobs, as she stood there, gripping her skirts and tears streaming down her face. “Forgive me my lady… I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have come… but Agassi wanted me to- to let you know she’s safe…”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW WHETHER SHE’S SAFE?” screamed back Gayeon’s mother. “That evil jerk almost killed my son! Now he’s taken my daughter too!”

“Take her away.” Junmyeon ordered the maids standing by, gesturing towards Hyunjoo. “Get a physician to check her condition.”

“At once, the maids obeyed him, and took the weeping girl out of the room. Hyunjoo had showed up at their doorstep not longer than an hour ago, pale and petrified, followed by injured soldiers and informing that Gayeon had been kidnapped by Byun Baekhyun.

“Be patient omma please…” Junmyeon dropped to his knees, and took his weeping mother into his embrace. “She’s safe… Gayeon is safe and I know it. No matter how furious Byun Baekhyun is, he’s still someone with military background. He won’t harm women or children. He will keep her as hostage but will not harm her because that’s the most beneficial for him…trust me omma she’ll be fine.”

“Find her Junmyeon-ah…” the lady wailed, gripping her son’s robe. “Bring my child back to me! I want her safely back here! I won’t live if anything happens to her!”

* * *

“Is she injured?” Junmyeon asked the nurse exiting the maid’s room. “Any injuries?”

“No my lord.” The nurse bowed. “She’s just traumatized and exhausted as it seems.”

“My mother is to be blamed for that.” Junmyeon sighed, peering into the room. “Has she fallen asleep?”

“Yes my lord, I gave her some sedatives so she can get the rest she needs.”

“You can leave now.”

Junmyeon waited till the nurse bow again and exit, and entered the room.

Walking up to the bed, he grabbed a stool and sat beside the bed, and stared at her reddened from the slaps earlier. A groan of frustration escaped his lips, jerking awake the girl who was not in a deep slumber.

“My lord…” Hyunjoo sat up and looked at him, and tears didn’t take any longer to well up in her already swollen eyes. “I’m so sorry… I know I’m in no place to ask for forgiveness but…”

“It’s alright.” Junmyeon sighed, and rubbed his face with both his hands. “It’s not like you could fight them, and it’s thanks to you that we got to know what exactly happened and…” he looked up at her, realizing that he was speaking with such honesty as he had never done before. “Thank you … for returning safely… Kwon Hyunjoo.”

Hyunjoo stared at him for a while, and without any warning, another outburst of sobs made her gasp for air and tear up again.

“For heaven’s sake stop crying now.” Junmyeon muttered, leaning forward and awkwardly pulling the girl towards his chest. “Come here now… enough crying… you- you did well Hyunjoo…” he patted her back, even more awkwardly, and the girl held him tight and buried her face in his robe.

“Forgive my mother. She’s terrified. She’s a mother after all… now stop crying will you? You’re just exhausting yourself Kwon Hyunjoo.”

* * *

“You know what hyung?” Jongin asked, throwing a sack full of strongly scented medicinal leaves over his shoulder. “We’re definitely brothers. Definitely related by blood.”

“And why is that?” Baekhyun smiled, secretly grateful for the way Jongin treats him like his own family when he clearly knows that Baekhyun was adopted.

“Why else? We both have a knack of disobeying our mothers. If not, would you have come here when they almost tied you to a tree and kept you home?”

“I didn’t come because I wanted to disobey them.” Baekhyun muttered, breaking the twigs that were getting in his way and following his cousin further into the jungle. “I just couldn’t stand being under the same roof as her.”

“I’m sorry hyung.” Jongin stopped, and turned to face his cousin. “It’s totally my fault.” He bit his lip, and ran a frustrated hand though his fringe. “If only I hadn’t suggested that stupid kidnapping…but you know I did that to keep your family safe…you know that right? Ugh… But it’s still wrong!”

“Nothing’s your fault Jongin.” Baekhyun patted on his arm. “I agreed to your suggestion because it made sense. Kim Junmyeon wouldn’t even dream of taking any rash movements when it’s his sister who is being held hostage. That’s the best type of protection we can get until I find who actually framed my father and-”

“And?”

Baekhyun sighed, dropped the bunch of leaves he had been holding and sat by the nearest tree roots. “Nothing.”

“And what hyung?” Jongin repeated his question, and sat beside his cousin. “Surely you can tell me, can’t you?”

Baekhyun heaved another sigh.

“I couldn’t watch her getting married off to someone else. It’s funny isn’t it? We’re worlds apart now and I’m in a position that cannot even dream of getting close to her… yet Kim Gayeon marrying another man is just...”

“The thought itself is driving you insane isn’t it?” Jongin peered into Baekhyun’s face. “You’re seriously in love with her aren’t you Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun rema