(I'm just amazing- a triple update?! Be sure to check out the previous two chapters if you are tuning back in to my story!)

     "W-what?"

       "You heard me," the boy told her, crossing his arms over his chest. He was clad in a simple black tunic that was way too thin for the weather. "You'd better give me a good reason to let you live."

       "I-I," Hwayoung fumbled for words.

       "Look," the boy snapped, raw anger surfacing on his perfect features, "I, unlike you, don't have all night to sit around and cry," Hwayoung felt her cheeks and was surprised to find them wet with tears. "So, if I were you," the boy leaned in so close to her face that the fog from his breath fanned over her cheeks, "I would start talking."

       Hwayoung audibly gulped, almost going cross-eyed at his proximity.

       "I have to save Jongin," she whispered, feeling foolish sitting in the log, unable to run or move.

       The boy in front of her burst into laughter at her statement, the sound cruel as it bounced through the trees. "You're joking, right?" Hwayoung shook her head slightly. "How could a girl like you save him?"

       "I came from the village," Hwayoung mumbled through her pain. "They are coming, they're searching the woods to kill the wolves."

       At her words, the boy grew serious. "What. Did. You. Just. Say."

       "The villagers are going to kill him!" Hwayoung practically screamed at him. "Please, you have to listen! They could be here at any minute, and if they find me here with you, there's no telling what may happen to us."

       The boy stared at her for a moment as though she had fallen from the sky and landed right there in front of him.

       "Come on," was all the boy said, hoisting her up easily with one arm and beginning to stalk off at a fast pace. Hwayoung, with her injured side, could not hope to keep up.

       "Wait," she panted, "I can't walk that fast."

       The boy groaned for a minute, staring up at the canopy of tree limbs in exasperation before turning around and throwing her over his shoulder. 

       Hwayoung screamed in pain as she came into contact with his shoulder. The boy looked surprised at this, and shifted his grip so she rested comfortably in the crook of his elbow, but was able to sit. His strength both impressed and intimidated the girl.

       "Where are we going?" Hwayoung asked. "Are we going to Jongin? I told you I have to see him. It's important."

       "Shut up," the boy growled. "If what you said is true, then we both have to be quiet."

       After a short pause Hwayoung nodded in agreement, but her nerves got the better of her. Being carried by a mysterious and hostile male stranger to meet another boy she had talked to once while he was half delirious deep in to the woods understandably put her on edge.

       "Hwayoung," she spoke again. "My name is Cho Hwayoung."

       "I told you to be quiet," the boy snapped, but he did not sound quite as hostile as before.

       After a while of silent walking, the tall boy came to a stop beside a dense thicket of trees one could hardly dream of pushing through.