Chapter 2 – [1790]

Yoomi clutched onto the fabric of her dress, lifting it to make running easier. Behind her, a trail of dust began to cover the air, forming brown clouds from her rushing steps, each a dreadful stomp. Her mind was troubled with sinister thoughts with each step took closer to the river, the same river that flowed through the nearby village Suwon, and the exact location she and Inpyo met earlier. Before their departure some moments ago, the two agreed that Yoomi would return home before the spring's heat get to her, meanwhile Inpyo insisted that he would stay longer to enjoy the sight of the river before heading back to the palace. However, now hoping that he was still there, Yoomi couldn't help herself but run as fast as her legs could carry her.

Approaching the sight she stood near the top to overlook the scene, thankfully Inpyo was still gazing over the water's surface and hadn't left. Unlike her, he appeared to be in peace, but it did not stop her from approaching him. While making her way to him she hollered out his name arresting his undivided attention before turning him around from his standing position.

Upon seeing her charging towards him, a smile lit up—a habit of his when she's in sight. "Yoomi—" Inpyo's words were suspended when Yoomi came crashing into him, her arms wrapping around his waist so tight and fast that it knocked the air out of him, and the side of her head glued to his armor plate. His growing smile began to falter when, even under his metal layer, he could feel the shivers the lass was emitting. Surely something must have scared the normally fearless Yoomi.

The question was what or who?

To comfort her shaking, Inpyo wrapped his arms around her upper body pulling and pressing her figure even closer to his. He was willingly balancing her cold trembles by sharing his warmth with her and when her quivers began to fade he decided to seek the reason for her sudden action. With their arms still locked around one, another Inpyo whispered into her ear, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

A sigh of despair left Yoomi's mouth, causing Inpyo's heart to race. Something was definitely wrong and it pained him more that a mysterious wrongdoing was done to Yoomi, his first and true love.

"Inpyo," she uttered with soft sniffles at first, "what should I do?" she asked, leaving him even more lost. Yoomi's sniffles grew every time Inpyo's heartbeat and he knew that her heart was beating just as fast as his. "My father," she started, earning all ears from the other, "is giving me away to his majesty, the King, as a concubine."

All of a sudden, it was his turn to feel shaky and unbalanced. Inpyo thought he heard wrong or at least hoped he heard it incorrectly. Or at most it wasn't his King, the powerful man he looked up to, respected, and wanted to protect for as long as they both lived. However, something else came to mind, if the King hadn't agreed to take in Yoomi than she wouldn't be given away. The King must have agreed.

"Say it again. Which King are you referring to?" Inpyo asked, with more soundness to his tone.

Yoomi forced the painful name out of her dried mouth, "Our King. Y-your father-figured, King Heo Pyeonghwa." At the ring of the one and only name, Inpyo almost wished he were deaf. In just one second he found himself unknowingly coming up with absurd thoughts. Was he to choose his King over his love? Or to fight the powerful man to keep his love? Despite any choices his mind had set for him, there was only one way he could think of to help their case.

The idea that would allow him to keep and have his Yoomi.

Even if he's going against his only father-figure, he wasn't about to give up his love just like that.

Not wanting to return home that late afternoon to lose moving into the palace against her will, Yoomi hid and stayed at a resting dwell near the palace. Inpyo had promised to come back for her if anything went wrong with his plan. Though his plan wasn't much of a plan in the end, instead it was him preparing himself to confront the King in person. 

When night finally visited, the King was resting in his chamber, solely for the purpose of waiting for Yoomi's arrival. But instead, the nation's ruler found himself coming face to face with a pleading warrior. Inpyo was on his knees with his head hung in desperation. The elder was seated in a chair made of wood but painted in black ink—and just beside the elder's feet was Inpyo.

"Why are you kneeling Inpyo? Won't you stand up and look at this old man's face?"

The King wasn't just Inpyo's father-figure. The orphan warrior felt as if the elder was truly his blood father.

"Your Majesty," Inpyo spoke, his voice was already quivering as he wasn't certain what to say next. Usually, he was outspoken but tonight he was a coward in front of the King. "This lowly subject of yours has a request," each word burnt his throat. No matter how many countless times he has saved or done the King a favor, he has never once asked for a favor. Instead, it was always the elder spoiling him.

"I will listen only if you raise your head," the King said in a gentle manner. The kind gesture was welcoming but guilt wouldn't permit the warrior to obey the ruler's command.

"I beg you, your Majesty," Inpyo said, he couldn't take the King's kindness anymore. If the other continued to speak gently then Inpyo may as well abort his plan. Though he wouldn't want to do so because no plan meant he would be giving up on Yoomi.

"Beg me? Why are you acting so strange Inpyo? Are you uncomfortable being this old man's personal guard?" The elder breathed a sigh of jolly when Inpyo didn't answer, then the lad alone began reminiscing in on Inpyo's past. "Before I promoted you, you used to be an ordinary warrior with no title attached. You were free to go and come as you please as long as you were following orders. But now you must feel suffocated to be stuck here with me for the night and every night to come,"

Inpyo quickly denied the elder's assumptions, "It's not like that your majesty," the last thing he would want the King to believe is that he was bored or tired of serving the moody elder.  

With a raised of his thick brows to express some relief, the King tiredly exhaled through his nose before continuing, "then what is it? What is your request? Tell me and I'll grant it for you,"

"It's....It's Lord Kim's daughter.." Inpyo trailed off, losing his determination to push on, "Kim Yoomi...."

Uncomfortably the elder's expression turned sour, though Inpyo was blind to it, "Lord Kim's daughter, Kim Yoomi?"

"Yes your majesty, Left State Councilor Kim Jaemin's oldest daughter, Kim Yoomi," Inpyo said. The joy within the King vanished almost instantly.

"What about her?" The King's tone immediately turned into one of his famous grumpy-elderly-tone, a sign that assures Inpyo that he wasn't going to get anything his way tonight if he can't convince the man.

"I love her," knowing he was losing, Inpyo resorted to persuading the King instead. "I heard, you went to her home and sent her gifts. I heard your majesty was going to take her in as a concubine tonight, but your majesty I—"

"Enough!" The King slammed his clutched fist against the arm of the chair, basically the only objects keeping the King in his seat. "Who gave you the rights to speak up and against my admiration for this young woman? Let alone a request regarding her?" Inpyo was lost but did not interrupt, "Was it a mistake to promote you in rank? Why must you make me regret it so soon?"—Inpyo flinched a little when the King's voice was like a storm raging over his head—"Where does a slave learn how to bite the hand that fed and raised him?" The harsh words that poured out of the King's mouth were hard to process. For some reason, they felt like true thoughts the King had been hiding. "I provided you with a home and promoted you in power, yet you've become greedy!? The daughter of my State official is out of your league!"

Inpyo lifted his head, hoping to talk the King out of wanting to have Yoomi, a woman the King barely knew. "Your majesty—" The elder turned away from Inpyo's pained eyes and instead kept silent, though one could clearly hear his heavy, angry breathing. "Your majesty, please allow me to marry Yoomi. Please think of her highness, the Queen, and do not bring in another concubine to harm her pride. I beg you—"

"Her pride?!" The elder barked, this time glaring right into Inpyo's eyes, "You've gone mad. Be gone from my sight or I will call men to take and lock you away!" Without giving Inpyo a chance the King was already screaming for guards to enter, "Men! Come and take this dog away!"

Though Inpyo hesitated about leaving right away, as he was more than stunned by the King's reaction, he did not wait to be surrounded or cornered. Inpyo got up and made a run for it when a few guards came into the room. Though he didn't want to inflict any pain onto his co-guards, he had no choice but to release his sword from its scabbard and make good use of it. As three familiar faces appeared before him, Inpyo could see the clueless look on their faces. They were just as shock to see him as he was with the King's orders. In the end, the three swung at Inpyo at the King's command.

The night lasted long as Inpyo fought and ran his way through the halls that seemed endless, and through entrances that looked all-too-similar to the last. Inpyo thought he knew the halls like the back of his hands, however, unfortunately, tonight even they have betrayed him as he loses his way around them.   

Yoomi, on the other hand, had her palms pressed together and prayed for Inpyo's success the whole time he was absent. Her endless prayers led her nowhere when the sound of men crashing in could be heard on the other side of the door, to the room where she was in alone. "Yoomi! Come out right now!" She recognized the voice instantly as it belongs to her short-tempered father. Her breathing picked up and her eyes shook in horror.

Alone Yoomi tried her best to keep quiet, she sat on the floor, hiding behind the bed made of straws. But no matter how skilled she was in staying still or remaining silent, she was soon lured out by the sound of Inpyo's presence.

Inpyo was chased to the front door of the dwell where Yoomi stayed, and at every corner of the yard in front of the domicile, Kim Jaemin's men were seen armed with a variety of weapons. Not just Inpyo, but Yoomi too was blocked from vacating the area safely and soundlessly. It didn't take long before Inpyo and Jaemin's gazes met one another with a sense of resentment. "Isn't it his Majesty's most beloved pet? Yeo Inpyo?" Jaemin said aloud, a sign that had his men gathering like flies that has discovered food.

"Lord Kim, may I ask you?" Inpyo said, "Why were you going to give Yoomi away? How could you do something like that to Yoomi and her highness the Queen?"

Not taking Inpyo's concerns too seriously, Jaemin managed to roar a mockingly laugh. "Poor puppet. Do you want to know? It was her Highness the Queen who personally asked that I persuade his majesty to take in Yoomi. She saw that Yoomi could make a great queen and kindly offered me the idea. But because of a fool like you, Yoomi has ruined my reputation by running off and hiding with an orphan and peasant like you."

Anger flooded Inpyo's system. Talking down to him was nothing to get emotional about, but talking about his Yoomi as if she was just an asset to be used, worn, and thrown out made Inpyo angry. Without a clean calculation of the number of enemies that were around him, Inpyo found himself completely outnumbered and overpowered.

The painful groans of harmed and wounded men frighten Yoomi. Uncertain of what was happening, she stood up and heads over to open the door to a safe crack. Her eyes widen intensively the moment she saw Inpyo in the center of beatings. Without thinking, she rushed out and tried to shove her way through the violent act. But the height and strength of each man hovered her and bordered her outside of the circle. Until finally the eardrum-breaking tone of Jaemin's demanded a halt.

Yoomi took the chance to break through then when all men have stopped and stood in their tracks. Yoomi was in shock to find Inpyo lying on the cold, hard ground, unconscious and with blood oozing out from a cut made on the side of his temple. "Inpyo, Inpyo get up!" She cried with her face covered in sloppy tears and her warm hands clapped against his firmed cheeks. She felt powerless as she couldn't concentrate on his condition. Was he breathing? Will he be alright? Can she help him? 

"Pick her up and drag her away," Jaemin ordered. Hearing her father's words, despite worrying about Inpyo, Yoomi tightened her nails into Inpyo's clothes, hoping it would wake him up somehow or at least keep her lock to his side. But she was defeated by the power of three men. As Yoomi was pulled away from the sight of a curled up Inpyo, she couldn't stop calling his name. Jaemin looks down at Inpyo's motionless body and spat a ball of saliva onto the younger. Then before leaving the body, Jaemin cursed, "Let's see how well you'll live now without the King's support, you useless peasant."

End of Chapter Two.