As Gayoon gets back to her room, Hyuna were standing there, waiting for her. Gayoon walked into her room followed by Hyuna. When the other servants left the room, Hyuna went straight to the princess.

"Gayoon, where were you? How come you didn’t ask for me when you went out? You know how dangerous it could be?!”
“Calm down Hyuna, I’m perfectly fine, you see?” Gayoon was trying to calm her down. But Hyuna was far from being calm.

”Where did you go?”
Gayoon sighed, tired. “…I just went out to take a walk…”
“You…went to see her didn’t you?”
Gayoon looked away after Hyuna’s accusation.
Hyuna shook her head.

”everytime you don’t want to tell me something you would look away… Why did you go see her?”
Gayoon turned back around, this time more serious. ”Why are you questioning me Hyuna? You never do that…”
Hyuna was irritated. ” I am not trying to question you but I guess I am questioning you because you are paying too much attention to her!”
Gayoon denied that immediately. ”No… I don’t…”
“Gayoon, I’ve known you since young, I’ve being following you since young, we were always together, you think you can hide from me?!”
Gayoon stood silent for a moment. ” I…didn’t hide anything from you…”
Hyuna folded her arms and kept talking.

”I heard from my men that you went to take a medal…Did you give it to her already?! She didn’t even pass the test yet! She might not even make it out alive!”

After those words went out of , she regrets it because she can see that Gayoon was hurt by her words.
Gayoon tries to look calm.

”I…didn’t give it to her yet, I … kept it…and was ready to give it to her at the end of the trial…” and then she turned around “I’m tired, I’m going to bed…”
Hyuna knew that she hurt the princess and she knows there’s nothing she can say anymore to make her feel better so she just excused herself and left the room.

When she gets out of the room she felt relieved.

“Why am I being so aggressive toward Gayoon…what’s wrong with me… at least she didn’t give her the medal yet…Arg Why am I like this?! it’s all this Jiyoon fault! Why does the princess pay as much attention to her… I hope she will die tomorrow!!!”  

She keeps walking away loudly, back to her own room.
Gayoon felt relieved too, she managed to lie to Hyuna, it was always hard to lie to Hyuna because she knows her inside out since small, no matter what she does or hide, Hyuna will be there to help her even without her asking for it. She knows her so well, but this time she realizes what she had done.

“What’s wrong with me? Why am I lying to her for Jiyoon…why did I even give the medal to Jiyoon already…of course…she’s a very potential guard, having her by my side I will feel safe…yes…that’s why…”

When she closed her eyes, all the scenes that she was saved by Jiyoon came back, as she fell asleep.

The day of the survival test have arrived, all the guards have got up early, eating their breakfast in an apparent normal morning. They were enjoying possibly their last meal together, laughing and making fun of each other, trying to enjoy their last meal together. No one could possibly know who would survive this test, they all know that some of them will not make it, like every other years, almost half of the team would be gone. Jiyoon felt weird seeing everyone smiling when they know they might die, but one of her senpai tap her on her shoulder and said.

” Don’t look at us like we are happy, deep down, all of us are scare, all of us are petrified, but we wouldn’t want to worry each other right? We wouldn’t want our last memories together to be sadness, so let’s enjoy our last meal all together so that our final moments together were a joyful time.” He smiled at Jiyoon making her feel weird.

“Cherishing their last moment happy together…Wow…What about us? We were raised to be cruel…when we have this kind of survival test, what do we do? We all go eat by ourselves, thinking how to survive thinking how to make the others fall, preparing our own weapons without a single thought of any other members. We would do everything on our own, we would have been already glad if the other didn’t plan of tricking the other, it would have been perfect if we can move on by our own so we won’t get drag down. What’s the point of being in a team, what’s the point of helping each other, smiling at each other knowing that we will most probably not see each other after or might end up using each other as a shield to survive, but look at them…it’s so different from how I was raise…is this what they call friendship? Is this what they call a family?  thought Jiyoon.

After eating, she was looking around for someone, she haven’t seen her in the breakfast, so she took some bread and fruit and went to search for Sohyun. She finally found her at the backyard of the training camp.
Jiyoon called her.” Hey”
Sohyun turned around and smile:” Hey…”
“Where were you? I didn’t see you at the dining room, here’s some food for you” Jiyoon tried to help her.
Sohyun took the foods and thanks her but she was just staring at the sky.
“Come on, eat a bit, you need energy…”
Sohyun smile bitterly ”Yea…I guess…” she starts to bite into the bread but as soon as she bite on it, her tears was coming down.
Jiyoon was surprised. ”Hey …why are you crying??” once again she doesn’t know what to do with this girl.
Sohyun jumped on her and hug her tight. ”Jiyoon ar..What happen when someone die? Will they go to heaven? Will they go to hell? Or will they stay on earth and follow us everywhere and look after us? Jiyoon ar…I’m…scare…What if…I die?..What if..”
Jiyoon wrap her arm around Sohyun, once again surprise by her own reaction. ”Shhh….” As she pat her head “It will be alright… Sohyun, honestly I don’t know what will happen when people die but, I’m sure of one thing, when someone’s about to die, they will go through their most precious memories once again before leaving here…”

It was something that she had heard once, and she felt like it was a nice thing to say.

Sohyun held Jiyoon tighter. ”So…We will have no place to go?.. I will be left alone somewhere, not knowing where to go? Not know who I will see? I will be all alone?”
Jiyoon gulped, she don’t know what to say to make the girl feel better but all she knows is that at this rate, this girl will just commit suicide in the test, she have to encourage her or make her feel safer at least, so she let go of the hug, held Sohyun hand and looked straight into her eyes.

 “I honestly don’t know what will happen Sohyun but, I will be with you no matter what, I will hold your hand if we were to go to hell alright? I will protect you, you will be fine” then she hugged Sohyun once again.
Sohyun giggled. ”So if I go to heaven you won’t hold my hand?”
Jiyoon smiled bitterly to her. ”If there was heaven and hell, then for sure I will be going to hell” she rub Sohyun’s hair “Come on, let’s go, you ready?”
Sohyun smiled at Jiyoon, she felt so happy, it felt like a confession…she quickly shakes her head.

“No no, what am I thinking?! Sohyun ar! Survival test is coming up! No time to think about this!”

 Then she look at Jiyoon once again who was holding her hand walking toward their battlefield

“God..If…If I make it back alive, I will…I will…clear my feeling and ask her…”
As they reached there, all the other soldiers were there all equipped. They were glad to see that Sohyun was walking toward them determinate, honestly they were all worry about Sohyun, she has the skill but she’s not confident and she’s scared, so they were concerned that Sohyun would fail, and obviously they all treated her like their own little precious sister.

The two soldiers reach there and put on their equipment and grab their weapon and were ready to face their survival test standing next to the groups.

The commander stood up in front of them. His stare was cold and detached, not facing anyone in particular.

”Welcome, to the final survival test!" He shouted with energy.
"I guess you know what is your objective here! There's the lost forest ahead of us. Cross it and reach the end, where the black lake lies. However, we have set up some special gifts for all of you, including a dozen of very well prepared prisoners, former soldiers of our enemies, willing to do anything to get a free ticket to go back home!"

Jiyoon frowned, could it be that some of her allies would be here, trying to escape?. Usually those who were captured, committed suicide or were killed during torture sessions. Such cruelty was used in this kingdom too, even if they would pretend to not do it.
"So be on your guard and do your best!" the commander kept talking. "I hope I will see all of you at the end of this. Good luck"

The first ones to go were the ones who had showed the worst skills and the lowest grades. It could be both an advantage and a disadvantage as well, because they had the chance to reach first the end, but the enemies that the commander had mentioned were there, ready to steal their supplies and kill them.

Jiyoon had to endure that her comrades were leaving and she would be the last one. The commander watched her leave and immediately he started to move as well.

The lost forest was a deep, intricate forest that was at the foot of the mountains. It had a variety of wild animals, irregular landscapes and this time, ferocious killers waiting for them. The place earned its name after the local stories of ghosts and supernatural beings that supposedly inhabited the place.

Jiyoon kept running for a while until she stopped to take some air and regain some of the energy. According to the other soldiers, three days were necessary to cross the forest and get to the black lake for an average person. Jiyoon didn't dare to push herself any further, she thought that she had to keep her energy for the fighting that she had to face and even if she could avoid the others, it would require all her attention. A real challenge.

Jiyoon continued her road, guided by the sun. The back lake was at the North West and she had to keep her path. She spotted some of the soldiers, running and looking visibly nervous, making more noise than her. She stayed quiet as they kept their path and she continued, taking a detour to avoid a big tiger, and crossing an abyss that would have killed an imprudent traveler. It had been easy until this moment, she thought. All too easy.                     

Until she heard shouts and she can’t ignore those screams, clashes of metal, ringing in the air. The massacre had started, but she should stay away. Her goal was to survive, to win and prove her talent... the princess would recognize her as a guard, she would be so close to her main objective.

However, she starts to run towards the source of the commotion, she is breaking all her rules.
“You are not a heroine, what the hell are you doing?”
She finds three soldiers, lying on the floor, they are covered in blood. Jiyoon looks ahead and she can see someone raising his sword towards Sohyun and another one was behind her. She was an easy prey, too weak, too fragile. Jiyoon shouts at them and they stops right there. They recognize her, and they think that she was an ally, but she takes out a knife and throws it at one, stabbing on his head with fatal precision. The second one attempts to run away, but two more soldiers pops out of nowhere and kills the prisoner instantly.

Sohyun falls on her kness, crying with desperation and shame. The others kept staring at Jiyoon in awe but in fear as well. They had seen her stare, her precision, her lack of hesitation.

“Are you ok, Sohyun?” One of them asked.
“Stand up, Sohyun!" Jiyoon shouted and the younger girl obeyed. Jiyoon was furious, she had broken another rule. Helping someone.
"Look at me, idiot! These guys are not joking! You could had killed them, you had a sword they were using tiny knifes!"
“s..sorry, unnie, I just!"
“If you want to survive you can’t be weak! That’s why they put us here. You have to kill or be killed! Remember that!”
The others were silent. Jiyoon was annoyed at this whole situation.
Sohyun swallowed her tears. “We can’t survive alone, Jiyoon..... Sooner or later........ we are going to need each other. No one...can win a war alone.”
Sohyun might be weaker than her, but she had a good point. Jiyoon frowned and nodded.
“Fine.....Fine. But you have to be more careful and aggressive, do you understand? And you too!”
The guys nodded. “You take the lead, Jiyoon”
“Fine”. Jiyoon muttered. Now everything was going on completely out of her plans. She had become their leader. And being a leader was something out of her skills, she thought with frustration. She had been working by herself. Now she had to babysitter Sohyun and those guys as well. And soon the night fell upon them as they continued their road.

Make a fire in the open would be like sending a signal to the others. They had to find a shelter or something similar, to hide any light that might attract enemies, both humans and animals. The guys, named Minhyuk and Sungjae found a suitable cave. It was going to be their refugee for the night.  Jiyoon had ordered them to clear any possible trace of footsteps and adding some quick traps. It was a risky situation. In a cave they would be trapped and protected as well. But spent a night in the cold forest could be a torture without any source of warm.

However, there wasn’t any choice for her to keep her façade. She had to guide them until the black lake…

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Once again thank you for your support!!! <3