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He was waiting for her.  The next morning.  As she passed by the hwarang complex. 

He approached her.  Hesitantly.

And she noticed. 

She glanced up and smiled at him shyly.

“Hi, Soo Ho.”

But his normal amiable demeanor was not in evidence today.  Instead, he bent a sober gaze upon her. 

“Is it all right if I walk with you this morning?  If not, I can follow a few yards behind.”  His voice wasn’t as bold as usual either.

She frowned.  “What’s wrong, Soo Ho?”

“That’s the problem.  I don’t know.  But for some reason, you thought you had to lie to me.  If you didn’t want my company anymore, all you had to do was tell me.  I would have left.”

Her heart sank.  “I…”

She turned away from him as tears suddenly stung her eyes. 

She had hurt him.  That was the very last thing that she’d wanted to do.  It was, in fact, the reason that she’d lied to him in the first place.  Because she knew that he wouldn’t understand. 

“I do want your company,” she mumbled.  Still not facing him.

“Do you?” he breathed.  “Do you really?  You’re not even looking at me now.”

He reached out to touch her arm.  She flinched as his fingers brushed her sleeve.  He drew his hand away.  Abruptly.

“That’s another thing.  You always pull away from me.  Every time I try to touch you.  I’m not going to hurt you, you know.”

She was frozen.  Trapped in a memory.  That just kept echoing in her heart.

He grabbed her and shoved her up against the wall.  Then he shouted some obscenities…in her face.  Before his hand followed those words.  She flinched as his palm connected with the already bruised flesh of her left cheek.  She whimpered.  Instant tears slid down her cheeks.  Following the sting.

Soo Ho was about to give up – and walk away – when he realized that she was trembling.  But it was the pitiful sound slipping past her lips which alerted him to her distress.  He moved closer to her.  And disturbed the tears flowing down her face.  And felt his heart catch.

“Jung Sook?” he whispered.  “What is it?  What’s wrong?”

Her eyes were sealed shut.  “Please,” she spoke so quietly that he almost couldn’t make out her words.  “Please don’t hurt me.”

“I won’t,” he answered, his heart shattering at the tremor in her voice.  She sounded like a tiny child.  She looked like one too.  Cowering before someone much stronger.

“Jung Sook?”

But she wouldn’t look at him.

“Did your husband…?”  He allowed his voice to trail off as he saw her tense at the mention of her husband.  He cleared his throat and began again.  A little less specifically.  “Did…someone…hurt you?”

Her eyes opened suddenly.  She looked away, refusing to meet his gaze.  “Hurt me?” she echoed softly.

Trying again, he reached out his hand to touch hers lightly, but she flinched and pulled away.  He stood, staring sadly down at that beautiful hand of hers.

“You never let me touch you,” he whispered. 

And her stomach flipped over at the tenderness in his tone.  But she had learned long ago never to trust a man. 

“I don’t like to be touched,” she finally murmured after a few silent seconds.

His eyes were studying her face.  Sorrow was swirling in their depths.  “Why not, Jung Sook?” he finally breathed so quietly that she almost didn’t hear him.

She glanced his way, and the expression on his face undid her.  She moved away from him.  “I just don’t!”  She kept walking. 

She had broken her rule for this boy.  She’d let him come within ten feet of her. 

Frustrated with herself for allowing him access to her – and for encouraging him to become familiar with her – an action that had unlocked those horrid memories – she spoke roughly, “I need to get to school.  I have much to prepare for today.” 

She didn’t even say goodbye; she simply kept moving down the road.

“Please don’t flee from me,” he whispered.

But she didn’t hear him.  She was already too far away.

Soo Ho gazed sadly after a girl whom he was truly beginning to admire.  He stood still for a long time, wondering who had abused his new friend. 

But he began to follow her before she disappeared completely.  Though she had fled from him, he would still protect her.

––

The next morning, she passed by the wall and didn’t see him.  Her heart sank.  But she understood why he was deserting her.  She walked silently all the way to the school.  It was only as she was turning to shut the door behind her that she caught sight of him and realized that he had followed her the whole way.

Just to ensure that she was safe.

Her heart broke as she continued to close that door without speaking to him.

––

That afternoon, she dismissed school an hour early.  She just didn’t have the energy to finish the day, and Ae Cha and Ah Jin were still feuding.  Once the classroom was locked up tight, she headed to the market to pick up some ingredients for dinner.  She’d been wanting to bake for a while.  Though as she perused the stalls, she realized that Soo Ho was the reason for that desire.  She’d wanted to make him a treat.  Just to see a smile light up his face.

Still, she’d enjoy a treat herself.  Wouldn’t she?

She wandered through the market and caught sight of a darling, little girl following close behind her loud father.  Jung Sook noticed that she was pitifully thin.  All too familiar with such a circumstance, she watched the child for a little while as Jung Sook slowly crept up alongside her.  When the father stopped to speak to the owner of a particular booth, Jung Sook caught the child’s gaze and smiled at her.  She held up a clementine. 

She bent near the girl and whispered, “I love these.  Do you like them?”

The little girl bobbed her head as her eyes lit up.

“Would you like one?  I have an extra,” Jung Sook kindly held out the orange fruit for her perusal.

The child’s face was suddenly illuminated with a great joy.  But her sweet expression was instantly followed by an aching disappointment as she shook her head violently from left to right.  Before Jung Sook had too much time to wonder at her refusal, her appa’s booming voice sounded.

“Bo A, stop dawdling!  And follow me!” he snapped.

Her eyes didn’t even meet Jung Sook’s again as she fled to his side.

The young teacher frowned.  She was all too familiar with such men.

A while later, as she stood examining apples from one cart, she cringed as she heard a familiar sound.  The ire of a man, voice raised in anger.  Against a child.  Jung Sook turned in time to see the precious, little girl from earlier flinch as her father raised his hand above her head.  Preparing to hit her.

As he let that hand fly, it was abruptly stopped by a stronger hand.  Jung Sook stared in shock as Soo Ho caught the man by the wrist.  Preventing him from slapping the child across the face.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the man roared in his face.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Soo Ho breathed coolly.

Which only served to infuriate the man further.

“What I am doing is none of your business!” the father returned irately.  He glanced around as though looking for help.

“You were about to hit an innocent child in the face.  I can tell by looking at her that she is clearly terrified of you.  So I imagine that you have hit her before.  But I could not stand blithely by while you damaged such a pretty face,” Soo Ho answered carelessly.

The man suddenly yanked his arm free of the younger man’s grasp.  He prepared to punch Soo Ho in the face.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a chill voice spoke from behind him.

The man turned in surprise towards another young man dressed in the same garb.

“You are about to accost one of the king’s personal soldiers.  You’ll spend the night imprisoned if you so much as touch a thread on his robe.”

Jung Sook stared in wonder at the man’s impassively cold countenance.  He was staring down out of heavily hooded, limpid, obsidian eyes.  A scowl darkening his face.  An air of glacial haughtiness cloaking his features in a frigid wind.  Briefly, she wondered if this man was Ban Ryu.

The older man gulped and reached for his child.  Grabbing her roughly by the arm.

Jung Sook winced as she anticipated the worse beating that the little girl would now be suffering at home.  Soo Ho had just been trying to help.  But he didn’t understand the hatred and fear that motivated the girl’s father.  Or the vengeance that he would be quick in wreaking on that tiny body.

But she did.  So she stepped forward.

“Sir!” she called to the man.  “Is this girl your only child?”

“No,” he responded grudgingly, “I have three more of the curst whelps.”

“Is she your youngest?”

The man bobbed his head.

“I am here to make you an offer.  I assume you wish to marry her off soon?  But you’re worried about finding a man who would want such as she.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.  “What are you getting at?”

“I will take her off your hands for a while.  And train her to be a proper wife.  So that you can find her a good husband.”

His eyes raked her.  “And who are you to be training my daughter?” he asked roughly.  Snidely.

Jung Sook, her skin crawling simply at the prospect of speaking with this cretin, drew herself up to her full height and lifted her nose a couple inches higher in the air.  “I am the headmistress of an elite school for girls.  I will train your daughter in all the household arts so that she will make a proper wife.”

He frowned.  “A school for girls?” he mocked her.  But as she continued to stare him down, he demanded, “And how much will this be costing me?”

“How much are you willing to pay?” she asked artlessly.

“Nothing,” he responded breezily.  Then he tugged on his daughter’s arm.  “Come along.”

“I am willing to take her on.  Free of charge,” Jung Sook spoke crisply, garnering his attention once more.

He turned back towards her.  Suspicious.  “Why?”

“Because I recognize your frustration.  And I wish to remedy it.  I know that little girls are a handful.  And you are a hardworking man who simply wants to rest after a hard day’s work.  But little ones are often under foot.  In the way, as it were.  I would be willing to school her.  She could pay for her education herself.”

“How?” he asked dubiously.

“By becoming my apprentice.  I need a helper.  Of course, I would provide her living quarters and food also.”

Utterly shocked by this woman’s odd offer, he gaped at her.  “You’re willing to take her off my hands?  Completely?  Feed her?  House her?  Educate her?”

She nodded.  “Until her education is complete.  Of course, by that time, she’ll be old enough to marry.  And much easier to find a husband who will take her.  Since she will have been properly trained.”

Soo Ho stood staring at his brilliant girl.  Biting back an enormous grin.  Jung Sook was a mastermind.  Hiding beneath a rather ordinary countenance.  An innocent one.

She had wiped it clean of all calculation.  But he could see exactly what she was doing.  Hopefully, the girl’s father was clueless.

“Can anyone vouch for you?  Who attends your school?”

Jung Sook was quick to name off several of the daughters of the royal council.  The man’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. 

But then he squinted once more.  “If you’re teaching such highfaluting girls, what would you want with a simple tradesman’s daughter?”

“As I said, I need an assistant.  Of course, the daughters of the council will not act as my servants.”

The man stood staring at her.  His gaze raked her from head to foot again.  Her answer seemed to satisfy him.  Then he turned towards his daughter.  “If I give you to this woman, will you work hard?  Prepare yourself to be a proper wife?”

The little girl slid a surreptitious glance her way while her father’s eyes were still on her tiny countenance.  So Jung Sook beamed at her briefly before wiping the grin off her face.  The man was none the wiser when his gaze found hers again.

His daughter distracted him once more by bobbing her head furiously.  “Yes, Appa.  I will work hard!  I will honor you and Eomma.”

The desperation in her tone was clear to all present.  Except for her father.  Who still seemed to be considering his options. 

Finally, grudgingly, he turned towards Jung Sook.  “Give me the address.  I assume you’re meeting tomorrow.  I will have her eomma pack her clothes up and bring her to you in the morning.”

“Very good, sir.”  She took a few steps towards them to speak in a more confidential tone. 

Once she had satisfied the man, he turned away, all his anger having fled.  As Jung Sook watched them go, she sighed with relief.

“Wow,” a soft voice suddenly sounded in her ear, “you just adopted a daughter.  You realize you’ve taken on a responsibility that will cost you years of your life.”

She turned to glare up at Soo Ho.  “What business of yours is it?  Besides, it’s your fault that the man was in such a towering rage!  I had to come to her rescue.  Because of you.”

“Because of me?” he asked, outraged.  “That man was already in a rage.  He was about to hit that poor, little mite in the face.  All I did was stop him.”

“No.  What you did was push him from anger to fury.  And the only one who would have paid the price for your interference was that sweet child.  I can guarantee you that he would have taken it out of her flesh once he had her alone at home.” She turned to stare after the little girl as she disappeared into the crowd at the end of the street.  “Hopefully, I have stopped him.”

Narrowing his gaze in perplexity, Soo Ho stared down at her.  Uncertain how to respond to her surety.  “You were willing to give up your freedom to rescue that child?”

Her eyes met his again.  And she bobbed her head definitively.  “Yes.”

He saw an inexplicable sorrow enter her gaze then as her eyes left his to seek out that little face once more.  But it was gone.

“I just hope that he keeps his word,” she whispered.

A troubled tremor crossed Soo Ho’s countenance then.  “What are you not telling me?” he breathed.

Her eyes avoided his as they searched the crowd.  “I must be going.  I have a lot to prepare if that child is coming to live with me tomorrow.”

As she turned from him, he reached out to grab her softly by the arm.  Again, she flinched.  And tore her arm from his grasp.  Then she glared up at him. 

“Excuse me!” she declared hotly before turning away from him.

With no little interest, Ban Ryu watched this interaction between his friend and the child’s would-be savior.

“Soo Ho, you have yet to introduce me to your friend,” he drawled coolly.

The woman’s lovely eyes sought out his face.  And she smiled.  “Hello,” she greeted him.

Quite cheerfully.

Not at all in the cold fashion to which she’d just treated his friend.

Ban Ryu found this rather intriguing.

“Jung Sook, this is my friend.  Ban Ryu.”

Her eyes instantly lit up.  “Oh!  You are Ban Ryu!  It’s wonderful to meet you!”

The gentleman’s eyebrows shook the heavens as he darted a quick, inquiring glance at his friend.  “Have you spoken of me to this lady?”

“Indeed, he has,” she responded happily.  But then she frowned.  “I wish you all the best,” she uttered cryptically.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Ban Ryu murmured as he glanced her way again.

“I told her about you and Soo Yeon,” Soo Ho mumbled.

“What?!” his friend asked, alarmed.  “Nobody knows about that!”

“Don’t worry.  She’s safe.”

Soo Ho’s quick reassurance warmed her heart oddly.  Jung Sook glanced his way.  Sharply.  He sounded like he had absolute faith in her.

“He’s right, you know.  I won’t breathe a word of your little romance to anyone,” she whispered in a wisp of a breath that even Ban Ryu barely heard.  “But I am most sorry for you both.  I’m praying you find a solution.” 

She took a deep breath.  “As must I.  I need to head home and ready a bed for that child.  And prepare some food too.  It appears to me that they’ve barely been feeding that little girl.  She’s sure to be starving when she arrives on my doorstep tomorrow.  Good day to you, gentlemen.”  She bowed slightly to them both before melting into the crowd.

They watched her go for a few seconds before Ban Ryu turned towards his friend.  “Now who was that delightful creature?”

Soo Ho glanced up at him.  And frowned.  Completely unprepared for this discussion.

“The beautiful Jung Sook, eh?” Ban Ryu smiled at him.

Soo Ho peered at him as his eyes sharpened.  “You think she’s beautiful?”

“She sure was when she was defending that poor creature!” Ban Ryu’s voice rang out with admiration.  “She was magnificent!”

Soo Ho frowned.

“Don’t worry.  I’m not your competition.  But…I wouldn’t let that girl get away if I were you.”

Soo Ho took his friend’s words to heart.  And went after her.