It was early morning, the sun had just begun to rise on the west and you were washing up in the bathroom before heading out to the fields for work. A fist slammed on the other side of the door and shouted your name, despite the other family members still sleeping.

“___________! Hurry up! I need to use the bathroom!”

There were about 12 people living in the same house as you, your grandparents, your aunt and uncle, parents, your younger brother and you. You have another sibling, an older brother, but he was taken away when you were only five so you don’t know where he is.

“Hurry up you slow cow! Or I’m gonna pee on your bed!”

You slid the door open with a forceful push and glared at your little brother with no expression in your lips but a deadly one.

“If you’re gonna keep acting like this, we’re gonna marry you off to an ugly man.”

He flinched back and you stared at him even harder, forcing him to gulp his fear loudly.

“Now wash your pants. They smell like piss.”

“Wha—” he interrupted himself then stared at his dirty pants, gasping at how sudden it was and how he didn’t feel anything. His arms frisked to cover the wet stain on his pants as he cringed his body together and watched you walk away with a regretful expression painted on his face.

“They’d want to marry me first before you.. crazy girl.”

He uncomfortably walked into the bathroom and did his business. You walked into the kitchen to find your mom cooking up a full breakfast enough for 20 people.

You asked her, “Mom, what’s up with all the food?”

“We have a special guest visiting today.”

“Is it cousin Taeil?!” you jumped up happily, hoping that it was.

“No honey, he’s preparing to go to the military. He doesn’t have time to stop by.”

“Aww..” you frowned, “then who is it?”

She smiled as she mixed the soup in the giant pot, “A very special man. He’s one of Joseon’s finest.”

“Well then," you took a bite out of a potato you found on the table, “why does he want to see us? Are we going to get recognition for making most of the rice for those city people to eat?”

She took out the spoon, tapping it on the edge of the pot to get rid of any leftover drops of soup, “We’ve always been known for making the rice… In fact, why don’t you help your aunt and uncle pick the rice in the fields right now? Breakfast won’t be ready for another 15 minutes.”

You smacked your lips and dropped your jaw, “But mom! I have to--”

“No buts honey. Unless it’s yours working in the fields. Come on, we have to have it nice for when our special guests shows up.”

You pouted, “Fine.. but I get a big portion of breakfast then ok?”

You pushed yourself away from the table, scooting your seat back.

“15 minutes only right?”

“Only if you finish your work by then.”

“Mom!”

“Don’t make me give your portion to your brother~”

You turned around and saw the little kid only wearing a giant t-shirt and a pair of underwear, “What? I’m out of pants.”

You rolled your eyes and lazily walked out to the fields with your mother still smiling at you, “She’ll marry a fine man one day.”

Your brother scoffed, “Not with that attitude. What a witch.”

You walked out into the morning sunrise to see your aunt and uncle picking rice seedlings all over the fields. You sighed and rolled up your pants then slipped on a pair of slippers so your feet won’t get too muddy.

“Auntie! Do you need help over there?!” you shouted from your front porch.

She said nothing and waved a no; you looked over to your uncle who had been finishing up his part.

“Ahhh..” you sighed as you walked on over to the fields and began to pick out sections of the grass along with your aunt and uncle. You finished the front section within 5 minutes and began to move to the far back section where the rice seedlings were ready. A sound of horse hooves with a carriage traveled to your ears. You looked over to the front of your house and saw four guards on the sides of the carriage. Your father ran outside of the house through the front entrance and quickly welcomed the guest with the rest of your family following up from behind. You however, hid deep within the grass away from everyone else, watching from afar. All of your family members bowed to the group.

Your father spoke up, “Ahh! My lord! Welcome! Welcome! Did you have a safe trip?”

You wiggled your eyebrows and thought to yourself, “Lord? Is that the king?”

The guards did not have much of a reaction but the man in the carriage replied back to your father’s question.

“Yes I did actually. Is your family doing well?”

Your dad looked back at everyone then to the guest, “Of course! Thanks to our lord!”

The man inside chuckled, “No need to thank me. Being happy is all I need from you.”

“Ahh.. you’re so kind sir! Would you like to come inside to eat? We’ve prepared a large meal for you!”

“Actually.. I would! Such a long trip, you think I would’ve brought some food.”

You watched the man slowly push away the fabric in front of him and revealed his face and body to the whole family to see. Two of the guards helped him out of the carriage and led him inside with your family’s guidance. You wanted to see what was going on but tried to stay sneaky. When you started to move around, the grass made a loud noise, catching the guards’ attention and making them immediately pull out their swords.

“Who’s there?!”

You froze for a moment then tried to sneak out of the grass again, this time without making a disruption. The guards watched you for a couple of seconds until one of them sent the another to check out what caused the noise. He walked all around the rice field until he got to the spot where the noise and grass movement was last seen, but then there was nothing there but dirt. He looked left and right then headed back to his fellow soldiers.

“Did you see anything?”

“Nothing. Must’ve of just been a rabbit or something.”

“Rabbits don’t travel around in rice fields.”

“Must’ve just been the wind then.”

You held your breath as you leaned against the giant tree by the side of your house. You carefully looked towards the left to see if the guards had been looking for you. Thankfully they weren’t, which let you sigh and relax as you continued to sneak around your house. After making it inside through the back, you hid behind the wall where breakfast was being served. You eavesdropped on the conversation going on.

“Oh! My goodness this is delicious!”

Your mother bowed, “Thank you sir.”

“I should come here more often. This chicken is so well cooked!”

The sound of him munching on everything made your stomach growl, making you clench it as an attempt to keep it quiet. Your brother looked back to see what it was but saw nothing and went back to waiting for his turn to eat.

The king sighed happily, “That was wonderful!”

“Thank you sir.” said your father.

“Now..” he wiped his mouth clean, “how are your rice fields coming along?”

Your father sounded hesitant, “Well.. we haven’t been growing them as quickly as usual because of the drought.”

“I see.. you’ve been running out of time Geonjoo.”

Your father cringed in his seat, “I know sir..”

“How do you expect to pay for the late rice?”

“I.. I’m not sure sir. I don’t have much to give you.”

The man looked around the room and knew that your father was correct.

“You’re right, but I still can’t let you go.”

“I understand sir..”

The king sighed, “I believe.. that you may have to sell someone in your family to make up for this issue.”

Everyone looked up at the king in fear.

“Sir my.. my family? I can’t sell them. I’ve already given you someone in the past..”

“It’s either your family or your land.”

Your mom looked over to her husband, “It’s alright honey. I’ll go.”

“What? No!”

“I don’t want to keep you away from your family miss. They’re going to need your cooking. Especially this young boy, he still needs his mother around. Now.. let’s see.”

The king looked at everyone, focusing on their outer appearance.

“Do you by any chance have anyone else?”

Your father looked at everyone in the room, “Um.. my daughter.. sir.”

You gasped loudly but covered your mouth immediately after, recognizing your mistake. Your little brother turned around again after hearing something but didn’t see anything and turned back around.

“I see. And how old is she?”

“13.. sir.”

“Would you be able to.. sell her.. as a slave?”

Your father looked up, “I’m sorry sir. I don’t think I can, she’s far too young.”

“You’re right about that. She’s too young to be a giseang and this seems to be your only option.”

Your father just looked down, trying to collect all of his thoughts together.

“I’ll give you a couple minutes to decide.”

The king got up from his seat and walked outside to look at the beautiful scenery of the countryside while your family sat still, hoping that your father would make the right choice. You snuck away from all of them and headed outside to check out what’s the deal with the king. But he only seemed to be looking out into your family’s rice field until another man showed up.

“Oh. Jungyu-ssi. What are you doing here?”

You looked at the other man’s appearance; he was wearing a blue suit with an official’s hat, making you think to yourself, “Who’s that?”

“I’m just travelling around. Sightseeing as you might call it. How about you?”

“I’m visiting this family about their rice farm.”

“You don’t seem too happy about it.”

“I’m never happy when having to put my citizens in danger.”

“So they don’t have enough huh? What do you plan on doing?”

“I’m letting the father decide.”

“Hey, if they have a daughter or a pretty girl, sell her to me. I’ll make sure that she’s be happy.”

The other man laughed and joked but the king had no expression whatsoever, “I’m letting the father decide. But if she is going to be sold, I’ll let him decide where she’ll go.”

You couldn’t take it anymore, the dreadful conversation between the two men outside of your house was making your ears bleed. You rushed back into your house, sneaking around still until you got into your room. You grabbed a load of cash, a dagger and a large jacket then stuffed all of that into a blanket and wrapped it up. You were about to run back outside but stopped for a short moment after hearing your mother cry from the kitchen. You frowned at the sound but continued to run back out of the house and away from it for as long as you could.

“I’m sorry..”

You started to cry, knowing that you’re going to leave your family behind. But you hoped for them to be safe and healthy, despite the challenges you were about to give them. You didn’t know where your destination was going to be but you knew the woods well and that’s where you started. You ran over all of the dead leaves on the ground but soon, you began to tire out from the running and the fact that you hadn’t eaten yet. You stopped and took a seat in front of the tree, leaning against it as you sighed. You looked up at the tree and all the others, hoping that they’d have some sort of fruit in it.

“Peaches..”

You your lips and pushed yourself off the ground, then tiptoed to try to reach the fruit but you just weren’t tall enough. So you picked up a rock from the ground and tried to throw it at the peach but that backfired. You missed the fruit and the rock ended up falling back down and hitting a spot underneath your eye, which forced you to groan in pain.

“Ahh.. damn it.”

You lightly tapped on your cheek to check for any major injuries but it seemed like nothing, so you continued to try to get the peach into your hand until someone else stole it from you.

“Huh?”

You looked over to see a boy that was wiping the peach with his sleeve.

“Hey! That’s mine!” you said to him.

“Oh really?”

He tossed it up and caught it, doing this a few times just to tease you.

“Yeah! Give it back!”

You tried to reach for it but he held it high up in the air.

“That’s not fair!”

“You could at least say please.”

“Could I please have it back?” you whined.

He gave in and handed it to you as you immediately snatched it into your hands. He looked down at your face, just to see how you look, but then he realized that your face had started to bleed. More specifically, a cut underneath your eye.

“Hey!” he moved closer to you but then you flinched back and kept your fruit away from him, “no, I don’t want your food. You’re.. your face is bleeding..”

“What?”

He tried to touch your face to check again but you moved even farther away from him and dabbed your finger on your cheek. Once you touched your face, you looked at your finger and saw drops of reddened blood on your fingertips. You tried to just wipe it away but then this boy grabbed onto your arm and stopped you.

“Don’t.”

You tried to get him to let you go but then he kept his grip tight.

“Let me go!”

“Put your arm down first.”

You glared at him and slowly listened to his request, putting your arm down as he asked. He let go of your arm and dug into his bag, pulling out a clean, damp napkin and some kind of tiny jar. He gently tapped the cloth onto your face where the wound was and for some unknown reason, you didn’t resist and just stayed calm. He took off the cloth and put it back into his bag, then lifted the lid off the jar.

“This is going to burn a little.”

He picked up a small bit of the yellowish paste inside the jar and gently rubbed it onto your wound, making you cringe a bit from the slight burning sensation. You seeped in an inhale through your teeth.

“Don’t worry I’m almost done.”

You tried to endure it for the next few seconds until he finally took his finger off.

“There. Now it should heal in a few days. Don’t touch it until then.”

You looked worried and confused but nodded your head to his command.

“Why are you out here anyways? Little girls don’t belong in the woods.”

Your expression changed into a glare again, “That’s none of your business.”

“Then.. why aren’t you at home?”

“I just wanted to get out.”

“You should go back soon. It’s dangerous out here.”

“I always go out here. It’s no big deal.”

But you were proven wrong. You heard a growl from behind and noticed a big wolf ready to eat you alive, forcing you to flinch back and fall to the ground fearfully.

“Don’t worry. I’ll save you.”

The boy picked up a stick off the ground and held it in front of the animal.

“What are you doing?!”

“I’m saving you!”

“But you’re gonna get hurt!”

“If you don’t then it’s ok!”

“You’re an idiot!”

You tried to throw the peach at him but missed and flew past the wolf. The wolf chased the peach and left you two alone for the time being.

The boy sighed, “See. I’m not hurt.”

“That’s because I saved us.”

He shrugged his shoulders and sat down beside you, making the both of you laugh.

“Really, you shouldn’t be here. Go back home.”

“I don’t want to.”

“What are you going to do then? Get eaten by wolves? Hurt yourself by trying to collect food?”

“I have money! I’m ok!”

He sighed and shook his head at you then reached into his bag and pulled out a peach, handing it to you for you to eat.

“Here. Since you’re so hungry.”

You waited a few seconds but took it into your own hands, “How do I know that you didn’t poison it.”

“I just saved your life, you think I’d tried to poison you?”

“.. I don’t know.”

“Come on, just eat it. Or else you’ll starve.”

You looked at the peach, wiped it with your sleeve, then took a big bite into it, experiencing heaven.

You looked at him with your eyes wide and mouth full, “How is this so sweet?!”

He smiled, “I just come from a place with a lot of food. Good food. What about you?”

“..Nowhere..” you mumbled.

“Well then.. what’s your name?”

“________. And you?” you said before you took another bite.

“(_______). It’s nice to meet you _________.”

He smiled at you and you wiggled your eyebrows at him, not used to experiencing such a thing.

“Hey.. since you don’t have anywhere to go. How about you stay with me?”

You only widened your eyes even bigger.

“It’ll be fun. You’ll get to eat a lot of food too.”

You gulped your chewed food down and stopped eating. He stood up and held a hand out for you to grab onto.

“Come on, it’s ok.”

You were hesitant but trusted him with your future, therefore, you placed your hand in his and he led you out of the forest.

“Are you sure about this?”

“It’s fine. My dad likes helping people.”

You both left the forest the same way you came and expected suspiciousness from this boy.

“See! He’s right there! Let’s go meet him!”

You looked over to where he was pointing and immediately cringed your body together, letting out a few, short gasps every couple of seconds.

“What’s.. what’s wrong?!”

You shook your head and threw his hand off of yours, running back into the forest with tears running down your warm cheeks as he called out for you.

“Hey! _________! Come back!”

But you ignored him and escaped the one place you loved most, for now.