♣♧♣ Chapter 2 ♣♧♣ “Hyungggg, my feet hurt, can we take a break yet?” Sungmin whined, yelling in the process so Jongwoon, who was at least 25 meters in front of him, could hear it.   Jongwoon sighed and rolled his eyes before standing still and turning around. He could tell from afar that Sungmin was panting due to exhaustion, and that his feet were obviously hurting because he was dragging them as if they were only a burden stuck to his body.   Jongwoon took a few steps towards Sungmin, while Sungmin continued dragging his feet towards Jongwoon. When Sungmin was within hearing range, Jongwoon spoke.   “We almost reached the top, we can scan the surrounding area from up there and find a good hiding place, alright?”   They were making their way to the top of a small hill. It was completely covered with grass, and with no trees nor forest nearby, they could not afford taking a small break. Jongwoon’s parents had told Jongwoon before he left that he had to be careful. That the East and West were still at war and that any open fields were not safe.   The only reason they had chosen to go on top of the hill, was to help them navigate. They hoped to be able to see any town from up there, and taking the risk of being seen by either the Western or Eastern army was worth it. Though, if they could choose, they hoped the Eastern army would discover them. After all, Jongwoon was ought to go to the East, and, if by chance the Eastern army did not kill them on sight, they might be able to help the both of them with their travel towards the East.   It was still better to not be discovered though.   It took them around 15 more minutes to reach the top of the small hill. The sight was less fortunate than they had hoped. In front of them were more hills, some similar to the one they were on now, and a few covered with forest. The forests did make it hard to see in the distance, and any smart town would be located near the foot of a forest covered hill. Even if there was a small town located nearby, they might oversee it due to the trees. It was yet another disappointment in one week.   They had been traveling for over a week now. In these seven days they hadn’t seen any town on their way, and Jongwoon started to doubt they were heading the right direction. They needed a town to confirm they were going the right way, and to buy some provisions. They were running low on food. Jongwoon had no idea what they could do if they ran out of food, and still hadn’t come across any town yet. He wondered if they would even be able to survive for two weeks if it continued going on like this. His parents had told him that the travel might take up to two or three months, and with Sungmin continuously complaining about his feet, and needing a break every other hour, it would take them more than 6 months, really.   “Break… now?” Sungmin puffed, leaning on Jongwoon’s shoulder to prevent him from collapsing right there. Jongwoon sighed silently, but not silent enough for Sungmin to not hear it, and pointed towards the nearby forest which started at the foot of the hill they are currently located on.   “We’ll hide there,” he answered, and Sungmin nodded in reply.   They semi ran down the hill, Jongwoon supporting Sungmin all the way, and once inside the forest they looked for a nice large log to sit on. It had just rained, and the whole forest was muddy, staining their still relatively clean clothes as no other. But clean clothes were really the least of their worries, so they just sat down on a rather dirty log and sighed relieved as they threw off their shoes and stuck their feet in the mud.   “Oh, that feels GOOD!” Sungmin exclaimed, as the mud crawled in-between his toes. “I bet girls would do a murder for mud of this quality,” he added, on which Jongwoon had to laugh.   “I bet when we arrive at the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, our feet will be the only clean and well treated body part we have,” Jongwoon joked, and they laughed genuinely. The laughing slowly faded, as their situation started to crawl back into their minds.   “I’ll do better from now on,” Sungmin broke the silence, as they both had been engulfed by their own personal thoughts, while scanning through the abandoned and rather eerie forest. It was completely silent, not even the sound of an animal could be heard.   Jongwoon glanced over to Sungmin, and Sungmin continued, “I know I’m keeping you up… I’ll try to endure the pain of my feet more, and work on my condition.”   “Keeping me up? If it wasn’t for you I would still be stuck at that bridge from day one,” Jongwoon replied, thinking back on how they had stumbled on a rather fragile bridge hanging over a very wild river on day one. Jongwoon had insisted to just head back home, because crossing that bridge would be complete madness, but Sungmin had just walked across the bridge, proving that there was nothing to worry about. After 2 hours of reasoning, Sungmin jumping on the most weakest spots of the bridge, and threatening with that they would no longer be friends if Jongwoon wouldn’t cross the bridge in that instance, Jongwoon had been convinced and had run across the bridge with the speed of light. Without Sungmin, he would either still be hanging around that bridge, too ashamed to return home, or tried to walk around the river, which was pretty much undoable and would have caused at least one month of delay, as he had to walk more to the north, while he had to head south and then east.   “I’m pretty sure you would’ve found a solution to that problem, like you always do, Jongwoon-ah. I’m not inventive like you,” Sungmin said sadly, staring at his mud covered feet.   “Well, the mud was your idea, I think that’s pretty inventive,” Jongwoon countered, staring at Sungmin’s mud covered feet as well.   Sungmin playfully hit Jongwoon’s shoulder and laughed, “You know what I mean.”   “I might be more inventive, but you are more independent. We make a great team, alright?” He smiled at his best friend, “Now, let’s stop being sentimental and enjoy the last 5 minutes of this break before your feet shall suffer again!”   Sungmin pulled his right foot up, splashing some mud in Jongwoon’s face, before hugging him, “Thanks.”   “No, thank you.”   ♣♧♣♧♣ Youngwoon made good progress on his travel. He didn’t have a human companion who could slow him down, he only had a dog with him. And Youngwoon was probably slowing the dog down more than the dog was slowing him down. He has a lot of respect for the stamina she has.   He had come across a small town 2 days earlier, and had bought some provisions on which he could last at least another week. He had also bought some extra chicken for Killer, but she mostly got her food by hunting down cute rabbits who chose a wrong time to cross the path Youngwoon and Killer were following.   They had to be careful though. They had already encountered a rather large legion of the Eastern Empire, who’d happened to walk on a path down from theirs. Youngwoon had watched them walking by, by looking over the ledge, and they had kept silent for one more hour to make sure they had all passed and weren’t followed by another large legion. No one else had come after, and so they had continued their journey.   But that had been yesterday, and today he hadn’t encountered any hardships yet.   Another bunny swooped across the path, just 10 meters in front of them, and Killer instantly dashed forward, after the bunny.   “Killer, NO!” Youngwoon yelled, hoping that she would hear it and would stop her chase. She is a very well trained dog, and she always listened to Youngwoon. But in order to listen to her boss, she needed to actually hear him.   She was obsessed with bunnies. For her, it was like candy. Nothing tasted better than a cute bunny. It was like a hopping heaven, of which you could take a bite with just a little effort.   For Youngwoon, bunnies where a pain. For him, it was like a hopping annoyance. Killer would completely forget to be a good and well behaving dog, who knew perfectly well they were on a rather dangerous quest, and would be able to blow their cover at any time. Youngwoon tried hard to keep Killer from running after each bunny she saw, but he had failed 5 times already this far. And they were only traveling for 1 week. Even though it had went well until now, it was just waiting for when it would go wrong, and Youngwoon knew that.   Youngwoon instantly dashed after Killer, hoping to not lose her out of his sight, and no longer yelled after her. Yelling would only make things more dangerous, especially if there are people from whichever army close by.   Luckily, Youngwoon was used to running through forests, after his dog, dodging any branch or bush on his stride. He ran and ran, until he found Killer innocently munching on the bunnies ear as if that was the best part. Youngwoon sighed loudly.   “How many times do I have to tell you, DON’T DO THAT?!” He asked, as he grabbed her by her scruff, leading her back to the path they had abandoned. She made a somewhat crying sound, made sure the bunny was coming along with them, and slowly started walking herself again, so that Youngwoon could loosen his grip on her neck.   Once back on the path, she let the bunny fall down on the ground, jumped on Youngwoon, who was unable to take the sudden weight and therefore fell down, and his face.   “Ah, gross, go away,” Youngwoon complained, even though he minded less than he showed. “Okay, okay, I surrender, you win, I forgive you,” he eventually said, as Killer showed no sign of stopping the unless he would forgive her.   She barked contented and stepped of his chest. Youngwoon sat up, whipped his face of dog saliva and small pieces of bunny, and stood up. Killer was already happily munching on the bunny again, and Youngwoon took a seat next to her. Maybe it was okay to have a short eating break, after all, she deserved it. And so did he.   ♣♧♣♧♣ “Do you hear that?”   “Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”   “… How can you not hear that? It’s louder than your dad singing in the shower.”   “Are you making fun of my dad’s beautiful voice?”   “No, I’m just saying he… Wait, don’t change the subject, you! Just shut up and listen!”   Sungmin placed his palm over Jongwoon’s mouth, who struggled for a few seconds, when suddenly the sound of a gun going off was heard. He instantly stopped fighting Sungmin and stared at him rather frightened. Sungmin, too, was shocked by the sudden sound of a gun. It’s true that he had heard a sound before, but that was from people talking, not from guns going off!   “Was that-“ Jongwoon started, but was interrupted by Sungmin pushing him into the bushes next to the road they were standing on. Jongwoon grimaced as he landed in the middle of some thorns, but made no sound as they could hear a horse and cart closing in on them, followed by more horses.   Another gunshot was heard, and Jongwoon instantly crawled towards Sungmin and held his hand tightly. He was so not made for adventures like these. Sungmin the top of Jongwoon’s hand with his thumb in order to soothe him, while listening to the sounds carefully.   The horse and cart halted right next to their hiding place, and at least 3 other horses with very vociferous riders closed in on it.   “What is it, that you are transporting?” One of the men asked, probably to the owner of the cart.   “N-Noth-Nothing,” this one stuttered in reply, and the vociferous men laughed excessively.   “Open it,” the man was ordered, but he didn’t comply. He stuttered some more about being incapable to open it as he hadn’t had the key, and the men laughed some more, before things turned more serious. Clicks where heard, making evident that the guns were ready to fire yet again, and Sungmin’s hand was about to die down because of Jongwoon’s even tighter grip.   From within their hiding place, in the middle of some thorny and rather painful bushes, all they could see where the cart its wheels, and some horse feet. They both had their backs faced against the scene, but glanced up towards it anyway, out of curiosity. And maybe to feel more safe. Sitting next to rather violent men, hiding in nothing but a few stingy bushes, and not being able to see where exactly they were standing was a very frightened feeling. Them being able to see some feet gave them a sense of security.   “Open it now, or we will make sure you will never turn other requests down again,” one of the violent men said on a rather threatening tone. Both Sungmin and Jongwoon gasped as if the man had just spoken to them instead of someone else, and hoped dearly that the man would just comply and open the damn thing already.   “Plea-Please, I-I.. Ke-Key,” the man stuttered, begging for the men to reconsider what they had just said. Trying to convince them that he really had no key, and really couldn’t open it.   “Very well,” a man replied, and they could hear the man of the cart sigh in relief. Both Jongwoon and Sungmin glanced at each other shortly and sighed relieved in unison. But that relief was short. A 3rd gunshot was heard; the supposed cart owner slid down off his horse and fell on the ground, right next to where Jongwoon and Sungmin were hiding. Right in front of their view.   Jongwoon shrieked loudly, and Sungmin instantly jumped on him and placed his palm on Jongwoon’s mouth to make him be silent. Jongwoon’s breathing was uncontrollable and loud, and Sungmin stared him straight in the eyes with a comforting look. Well, as comforting as possible, Sungmin himself was feeling rather scared and shocked as well.   Luckily, after the shot was fired and the man had fallen on the ground, the shooter and his companions laughed loudly, and shot a few more bullets straight up in the air as if celebrating their deed; therefore they missed out on Jongwoon’s shriek completely, and him and Sungmin stayed undiscovered.   The men tried to open the cart for a bit, shooting at the lock, using anything to crick it open. But when it finally gave in and opened, they were d