VII

Weonju Adventure 

(Part 3)

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Her vision was a bit blurry as she opened her eyes.

As Seungwan slowly gains her clear sight back she realized that she was in a dark room…probably a warehouse or stockroom of sort with a torch by a few meters a way that made the dark room a bit brighter. But still it was dark and cold, she wiggled her body and realizes that she was tied up in a chair.

The doctor tried moving more of her body, but realizes that she was tied together with someone on her back.

“Jesus finally you’re awake.”

Voice that sounded so familiar made Seungwan do her best to turn and check it was the huntress aka Joohyun’s younger sister she was tied up with.

“W-What…last thing…I remember was-“

“You got hit by a tranquilizer, fell on my body, two idiots who was out for revenge to get my hard earned money trapped us in a net thing and now carried us in this smelly stockroom and now we await for the biggest dumbo one yet, their bitter boss I beat in a drinking match.” The familiar huntress sighed.  

The dark stockroom opened and now the thin hunter of the duo who captured them, approaches the doctor and huntress, who looked like she was gonna bite the hunter himself.

“Jimin-ah…and..um….” He looked at the handsome doctor just smiling kindly at him.

“Doctor Shon Seungwan, but you can call me Seungwan if you want.” Another kind smile was given by the doctor.

“Ah…yeah, anyways doctor and Jimin, the boss is about to arrive we are just waiting for him outside…anyways if you’re hungry here’s some bread and water.”

The hunter now breaks the warm bread to give to Jimin and Seungwan.

“Nahhh, I’m fine oppa, you’re the one who looks like the bread needs to tend to…share it with small oppa too.”

Jimin said it so casually that the tone indicated that she might have a love and hate relationship with these hunters, but she cared for them like her own brothers…except with money though, for money is money, whatever the huntress earned by herself it’s for herself only.

“Still…” The thin hunter didn’t wanna eat it.

“How’s your little brother?” She asks.

“Ah…his good, he’s about to take the exam to become a scholar, so yeah it’s good…doctor?”

He now hands the bread to Seungwan too, to eat.

“Ah no, I’m not really hungry..t-thank you…can I have some water though?” The doctor asked.

So now the thin hunter nodded and now poured a glass, he now carefully made the doctor drink in the water bowl he was holding.

“By the way Jimin…I know it’s weird to say this now, but you should spend on yourself too, I bet you have fat golden coin bags more than my 10 fingers can count, and yet why do you still keep the lame bow you have? It will break in a few more hit you know.”

“I will…I’m just saving on something.”

“Yahhh, what are you saving from anyways? Are you planning to buy a home?”

“No…just…something…very important…for my family.” It almost made her choke but she held it in.

“Jimin-ah…we’re so sorry…it’s just…you know how loyal we are with the boss…and we can’t help it…if he wants to have some share with the money, I’m sure…if you give him the half…he will let you go.”

“That’s a huge no, oppa.” She didn’t even consider the statement at all and quickly turns down the idea of sharing her money.

“How much money are we talking about…to be exact?” Seungwan interrupted.

Which earned a glare by Jimin to him, for she thought he was also interested in her hard earned bounty money.

“Yahhh, I’m not interested in your money, Jimin-ssi!”

“So then what? Are you going to pay them off?”

“Well….” Seungwan now sees the thin hunter have sparkling kind eyes, for him.

“Oppa, can you give me some time with the doctor…preferably alone?”

“Uh…sure, I do need to go back and check if the boss is here.”

He nodded and finally left the huntress and the doctor alone again in the poor lit stockroom.

“Can you stop thinking that your money will solve issues?”

“W-What? I’m not trying to do anything, I just…as much as possible if we can solve it in a much easier method without harming anyone, then why not do it?” She argued to the huntress.

“How can you be sure you’re not harming anyone?”

“Why, am I harming you?”

“Yes! You’re hurting my damn PRIDE!” The hardheaded Jimin shouted.

Kinda ironic from all the attributes she can find the similarity from other than their appearances, this very aggressive insistence of what they believe in, made Seungwan convince that Joohyun wasn’t different from Jimin. She understood clearly or atleast had an idea why the kid was being hard headed…especially about the money she earned.

“Jimin-ssi..tell me, what are you planning with your money”

“I told you, keep yourself out of my and my family’s business.”

“Are you planning to buy off whatever contract Joohyun has in the House of Pink Blossoms?”

It was met with silence, which somehow convince the doctor that she was right with what she guessed about Jimin’s mysterious hard headedness.

“What’s it’s to you?”

She grunted as if she was able to scoot away when they shared the same rope that was tied on their bodies.

“So what’s the plan then?”

Jimin sighed and finally decided to reveal her plans since the doctor seems to know a lot by just observing the past few hours she and him being tied together.

“I’m not really gonna rat out my unnie you know….”

“….I just….”

“…I know she’s being forced in that situation…”

“…and it’s not fair…”

“…to unnie…”

Jimin stops and tries her best not to tear up.

“…I just wanna help my unnie…in the best way I can…”

“…because…I don’t want her to keep putting herself in danger…”

“....I know I’m being such a hardheaded daughter to our mom and a cold mean younger sister to my unnie…”

“…but I wanna save her from that stupid capital that made her a slave of it! I-If I have to hunt for all the bears and boars in the Weonju forest, I will do it…just so she doesn’t have to go back to that stupid capital!” Her determination to save her older sister was very evident as she kept shouting the last part of her sentence.  

“I have my reasons…why I became a gisaeng, and why I haven’t told my family about it…money is part of it, but there is something else as well…”

“I admire…your reason Jimin-ssi…and now that you have explained it to me…a part of me understands why you keep doing this stuff…for your family…for Joohyun…”

“…you see, this is why you should talk with Joohyun, because the both of you need to communicate, if she doesn’t know that these are your real feelings, about her choosing to maintain her real profession…then how are you able to convince her to stay? Or even take your side?”

She didn’t answer the questions the doctor threw at her.

Jimin was finding it hard to speak but finally lets out a pouty tone.

“Unnie…is scary…and…she will never…l-listen to me…even when she and I met when she got back home a few days back, my knees were shaking because she just stared at me…even when she was speaking in a soft apologetic voice the way she glared and said “I will not leave my profession just because you said so Jimin.” was so freaking scary Ahjussi. ”

The doctor can’t help but let out a small laugh, all this time Joohyun and she, thought that the kid was mad in feeling disgraced by her sister’s profession, that’s why she was upset with her own loving sister. But turns out the girl was just putting a front because Bae Joohyun, was not an easy woman to back down in any argument even with her blood related family, to which the doctor disguising as a man, can attest herself.

This is why Seungwan, who did her best not to fall for the beautiful woman…

Is now tied up next to her sister…

All because she can’t help…

But want to be with Joohyun…

And…

To be there for Joohyun…   

“Why do you think she acted that way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did Joohyun…stood her ground and didn’t wanna leave the profession in question, for now?”

Jimin’s own words that she ate as she realizes the doctor was making her see from her own perspective of thinking if Jimin does things out of recklessness with what she wants and can do for her love ones, in her attempt put them away from harm she thinks they are in, without asking….she was just the same with the doctor who was trying to fix things with his money he wholeheartedly wants to give to help, but can mean insulting to some people who he didn’t even ask for his help.

“B-Because….Joohyun…unnie…has pride too.”

The doctor nodded.

“We grow up thinking how the world is such a black and white place, nothing in between…but as you grow up that line in between the bad and the good is actually a huge pit of grey area that makes you realize that the world has a lot of things it can’t fully categorize as neither of the two, because of how bad, nature and past actions by other people has put us, as the present bearer of the consequences…”

A solemn look on the usually cheerful doctor’s face was showing as he spoke like he experienced things too that made him think of life this way.

“Lucky enough if you have good parents, good brothers and sisters, good relatives, good friends and even good strangers who can shield you away from the grey pit that makes other people succumb to the evilness of the world, it’s quite neat huh?” Seungwan politely grinned.

He was insinuating how lucky the young girl was that she had her mother, and especially, her sister who is doing her best for their family.

“Jimin-ssi…I’m not saying you should wholeheartedly accept your sister’s decision to become a gisaeng, but…you have to atleast see and hear for yourself why she chose that path, it’s all she has been asking from you and you have been pushing her away…all because you are afraid she will get mad, but she has never been mad at you…she worries for you and just wants to have her family back to her side too."  

A silent air took over for a few minutes, Seungwan just waited for Jimin to give her a full of attitude reply but she didn’t, the girl was somehow just taking it in and finding the most appropriate words on how she wanted to convey her gratitude to the sweet and kind person she was now seeing in a better light.

“I miss mom and unnie.”

“They do too you know.”

She stared at the doctor with a raise eyebrow, which can be interpreted that she was wondering what has the Bae women and this mysterious handsome doctor’s bond had been since she has been absent in their residence.

“I-I mean…I’m not acting like I’m a welcome stranger in your house! But I had lunch with y-your mother and sister! I talked to them and just felt it!” He hurried to defend himself.

“Doctor Shon?”

“A-Ah yes?”

It was hard but those words were full of meaning as she uttered it.

“Thank you…”

“…thank you for the kind honest words…for coming here…I don’t know much about you…but I do know my sister is not the type to trust people easily…especially men….so…maybe you are good…”

“…maybe….”

The younger girl lets out a laugh.

“…But I’m still on the look out!”

She made sure never to let the doctor feel ease as she ends her grateful words with a threat for his life if he ever hurts her sister.

“Ah…yeah...it’s nothing, you’re welcome Jimin-ssi.” He tried his best to turn and show his Seungwannie smile that made people feel how wandorable he was.

“Man I just realized with how both awe inspiring your talk is and absurd that we are even having this conversation by being tied up together…you must really like my unnie to go to these lengths huh?”

The younger woman bursts into laughter again, while the doctor can only reply while he was flustered.

“Y-Yahhhh! Even if I didn’t like “like” your sister that way….I would have still help her you know…as a f-friend…or sort!”

Jimin laughs again, even louder now.

“Yeah you’re whip for my unnie, doctor Shon!” She laughs again.

That made the doctor only shy, silent and red.

“I’m just joking…but yeah, you’re cool…or whatever.”

Tsundere Jimin assured the doctor with a nudge by making their right shoulders meet, that even the doctor felt so awkward since she didn’t know how to react at the sweet girl that now was making her want to protect this younger sibling of the woman she has fallen for.

“Jeez…anyways, where are the men?”

“AhhH!!!!”

“HelPPP!!!!”

“Stop please!!!!”

“I WON’T FIGHT BACK!”

Screams and what seems to be fist fight rumble sounds was being made outside, made the doctor and huntress puzzled if another villain has arrived or whatever their imagination can come up with.

Finally as the door opened they both saw a tall, brown skinned, handsome gentleman and Seungwan just knew who it was.

“Miss Bae?”

“Woah so handsome.” Jimin thought to herself.

“Miss Bae?” The familiar good looking man asks again.

“Uhmm…yes?”

“I’m Captain Kim, you must be the younger sister of Joohyun-ssi right? She sent me here to save you.” He gave a polite smile.

Of course the younger girl thinking that this man was another of her sister’s suitor…or worse, customers only answered the handsome brown skinned bulky man with a cold stare.

“Young Lord Shon.” He bowed now to the small handsome man who was just pouting at the love rival he had with Joohyun.

The small handsome doctor tried his best by appearing aggressive to the tall fit captain, by standing straight and clearing his throat to make his voice deeper.

“Ah…hello, Captain Kim.”

The young lord/ well known doctor, looked threatening at first, but to be honest the longer Soo Hyun looked at the doctor, he couldn’t help but giggle at how cute his love rival is as he looked like a white puffy Samoyed dog in front of him. 

Seungwan as a white puffy Samoyed dog in Soo Hyun’s imagination.

“Yahhh why are you smiling! I’ll have you know I got hit by a sleeping arrow-“

“Small dart..Doctor.” Jimin corrected.

“W-Whatever, I was hit by a small dart! And got captured, but if I didn’t wake up being tied…I-I would have beat up those men too!”

“I see…well you are tied up and I’m here to save you too Young Lord Shon.”

Captain Kim was removing the ropes from their body, when a familiar gisaeng makes an entrance to rush in the dark storage room/ stock room / warehouse, it was Joohyun who saw her sister and the doctor who was still being untied by the captain.

“Jimin! Seungwan!”

“Joohyun…ssi, didn’t I tell you to wait-“

The worried Joohyun who didn’t listen to Captain Kim’s words to wait by the safe place before they made sure the place was secure, runs to embrace her younger sister to stand from her wooden chair.

 “Are you okay? Did they hurt you in anyway?” The beautiful unnie asks her younger sister.

She knew they were still in not good terms, but it was instinct that made her rush herself and now kept checking her younger sister from head to toe to see any kind of bruising on her body, Jimin now pinches her older sister’s soft cheek and smiled.

“I’m fine unnie, they didn’t hurt me…they are actually nice…it’s their bully of a bald boss…whose rude and mean, so if Captain Kim is planning to arrest them…please don’t….I beg you.”  

“Are you sure? They did kidnap you and force you in this stockroom.”

A question posed by the captain who was still untying the handsome doctor.

“Jimin-ah! We should punish and jail them!” Joohyun says with so much worry.

“It’s fine…really, unnie…can we just go home? You wanted to talk right? A-Also I need to explain and apologize for a lot…to mom…and you.” She held the hand of her smaller elder sister.

Joohyun was so surprise to see her hardheaded sister change tune, and finally sighed out of relief for she felt, Jimin and her can talk better now.

“Okay….let’s go home.”  

“Unnie…aren’t you gonna check up on Doctor Shon too?” The younger sister says with a silly grin as if she was insinuating she knew that the doctor and her older sister had “something going on” and she was approving of whatever they had with her smile.

Joohyun didn’t know why she sensed it, but just knew that whatever it was Seungwan’s charm to win people over had an effect on her younger sister. As she finally secures the safety of her younger sister, she sees Seungwan now standing from his tied chair. 

“Seungwan, are you also oka-“

“JOOHYUN!” Seungwan shouted.

“You b*tch that boar was mine to hunt and you just had to steal it away from me and now got my team arrested too!” The big bald headed bearded man now made his way to the open door and threw an arrow about to hit Jimin…but was pointing now on Joohyun.

Jimin pushes her sister away from the path, she was able to catch the arrow on time and prevented the dangerous situation, the guards that accompanied the captain tackled the man, and he was subdued while Joohyun…

Well good thing the handsome captain was able to catch her on time on his big trustee arms and now like the romantic books he would read to make himself more romantic towards the female gender, the time somehow felt so slow for the captain as he stared eye to eye with the beautiful gisaeng he still loves deeply with his heart.

“Are you okay?” The concerned good looking captain stared at Joohyun.

She pulls away from him, and now touches her own head from the sudden rush of being pushed and now carried by the captain.

“What’s wrong Joohyun? Do you need something?” The captain was about to touch Joohyun’s forehead.

When his hand suddenly got a painful slap by a familiar doctor’s hand.

“Aigooooo, a mosquito almost bit you Captain! Good thing I killed it, tsk tsk tsk.”

The captain knowing that there wasn’t any “mosquito” now glared at the handsome small man, Seungwan feeling bold slaps the tall brown skinned fit man’s forehead.

“Mosquito again?” The captain’s serious face was twitching as it wanted to be mad at the love rival he had for the top gisaeng.

Seungwan stared at him like he was a big brown muscled bulldog ready to bite at the white Samoyed who slapped his forehead.

Soo Hyun as a brown muscled Bulldog in Seungwan’s imagination.

“Nah, I just wanted to check if I can reach your forehead by slapping it.” He says with a bit of arrogance.

“Why you small doc-“

The gisaeng who wasn’t aware of the tension the two...men were doing because they were fighting over her,  now recovered from her head rush and got in between the white puffy Samoyed and big brown muscled bulldog about to have a dogfight over her.

“Seungwan, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah…I’m fine.”

Now imagine this…

If Joohyun was very careful in checking the head to toe of her sister, what more to the doctor she was worrying about eversince they parted in the town market a while ago?

The beautiful gisaeng now even checked his rough yet lovely hands to check if he harm himself, his beautiful face that was just staring and politely smiling at her as if assuring her that he was fine, even made him turn around to check if he had any scratches or what now, just so the woman can check…her lover…er….her unlabeled special person was fine from head to toe, and front and back.

Feeling the jealous eyes of both Captain Kim who was trying to win the gisaeng back and Jimin who was just in awe how her sister was even more affectionate to Seungwan that she felt insulted at how the doctor seems to be her top priority, Seungwan finally makes the beautiful Joohyun, worrying.

“Yahhh!! Joohyun w-what are you doing I’m fine!”

“Are you sure? You might be one of the best doctors in Joseon, but that doesn’t mean you know everything! Remember that time you slit your finger when you were peeling the potato when we were cooking?”

“Oh there’s we and we were cooking now????” Jimin twisted her head as she interrogated the doctor, that Seungwan swore the huntress didn’t have any bones in her neck.

Even the Captain’s eyes, looked like it can light the dark warehouse with how hellbent it was to burn Seungwan with how mad he was that Joohyun and him are already in the “we are bonding through cooking stage”.

“I-I..well, I-“

The nervous Seungwan finally was saved by her own stomach that rumbled.

“Captain Kim, can we please go home now? My Seungwan is hungry and Jimin must be tired, can we just discuss what we need to discuss tomorrow?”

“My?” Jimin whispered.

“We need to discuss?” Seungwan asked to herself.

Both notice something from Joohyun’s statement, but different priorities as Jimin was giggling at her sister’s so called ownership already from Seungwan, while the doctor was now worrying what was the discussion the beautiful gisaeng was talking to the good looking captain.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The cloudy night sky.

The company of the Captain that was about to take home the women and the doctor, involved in putting in a carriage the Bae sisters inside it, while Seungwan back riding the horse the captain was using.

Captain Kim reasoned that there were no other horses Seungwan can rode on, and the carriage can only carry the women, so Seungwan was forced to backride on the big brown horse the captain had.  The doctor can’t help but feel the captain was doing this in order to make “him” feel emasculated (lol) by making the small handsome doctor even hugging his waist for support, but to be honest the woman pretending to be a man can’t help but just giggle since she remembered her brothers would do the same to her.

Difference only being is that her older brother and twin brother was just too protective of her that’s why they personally would do everything in their power to make sure Seungwan didn’t hurt herself, to which she would challenge everytime by playing manly sports, riding horses with leashes, and even learning sword fighting and archery.

Her smile she had on her face suddenly disappeared for those memories she tried not to think about suddenly made a rush and now made her miss her brothers, even her strict father…and most of all, her mother.

“The stars are out tonight, we must hurry since the rain might catch up on us.” Captain Kim stared at the sky.

“Ah…that’s right.”

A tired response was made by the doctor.

“Young Lord Shon…do you like Joohyun…ssi?”

“Hmmm?”

“You heard what I said, you’re not deaf, do you seriously like that beautiful and special of a woman?”

It was awkward, to even admit it in a place where they were just a few feet away from the carriage that Jimin and Joohyun was riding, while she herself was backriding the horse of her love rival, but it seems like the captain was bent on getting an answer so Seungwan finally replied.

“Yes, I do like her.”

“I see.”

“Are you not gonna ask why I like Joohyun? Or how serious I am with her?”

Soo Hyun lets out a weak laugh as he turns his head to make a quick stare with the doctor behind his back, with that statement alone, anyone would have known already that Seungwan was serious with how he already prepared a response to explain his affection for the top beautiful gisaeng.

“I think you wouldn’t have visited Weonju for her and get tied up both figuratively and literally to her affairs, if you’re not that serious since you have a lot of duties in Makdong like the spike of patients and recent hiring of new nurses and doctors in the clinic that is now about to become a full pledge hospital isn’t it?”

Young Lord Shon found it so weird how the Captain responded to “his” statement.

“H-How did…are you spying on me!?”

“I am.”

“Yahhh, you better start explaining yourself or I will paralyze your nerves, with the most critical points in your body!” Seungwan rolls up her sleeve and was about to pounce on the back that was expose to her.

“It’s not me, it’s the Crown Prince, Prince Sehun.”

She was still rolling up her sleeves when she stopped and found it so odd and shocking that the Prince of Joseon who vowed to be her best of friend has now asked the captain to spy on her.

“What do you mean?”

“Joohyun-ssi replied to the Prince’s letter right?”

“Ah yes, it was I who mailed that