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A couple of hours later, Nani stopped moving.  “I can’t walk any farther,” she whimpered.  “My feet hurt so bad.”  Between the cold and the distance, she was spent.

Jin heard her and turned back.  “It’s just another mile.  You must make it.  Once you do, you and Jimin will both be safer.”

Uncomprehending, she blinked up at him.  Jimin glanced sharply at his friend.  “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain once we’re there.”

“There?  Where is there?” Jimin quizzed him.

“We’re going to see a friend of mine.”  That was all Jin said before he trudged on. 

Forcing the rest of them to follow him.

Jimin tugged Nani forward.  “Do you want to ride on my back?” he queried after a few moments.

“What?” she gasped, horrified by his suggestion.  She couldn’t imagine that Jimin would manage to carry her very far.  He was such a slender boy.

“I’m stronger than I appear,” he assured her as he stopped moving.  “Come along.”  He pulled his arm away from her before presenting her with his back as he squatted down.  “Jump on.”

Nani stared down at his back under the light of a moon that was growing stronger now as its red pool bled away with the passing minutes.

“Nani?  Come on.  We need to catch up with the others,” he insisted.

She leaned forward.  Tossing her arms around his neck as he locked his elbows beneath her knees before hoisting her off the ground.  Then he began to trudge forward.  Carrying her like she weighed nothing.  Gulping, she clung to him as her feet breathed several deep sighs of relief.  They began to tingle as she stretched them.  Then they began to throb.  She moaned.

“Nani?” Jimin’s soft voice sounded in front of her.  He was craning his head around to glance back at her.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she lied, not wanting to add to his burden.

“It’s your feet, isn’t it?”  He understood.  His feet were burning too.  “I’m sorry we don’t have horses.  But we’re almost there.”

“And you’re carrying me,” she muttered. 

He chuckled.  “Indeed, I am.”

To spare him, she ceased talking.  Hauling her around on his back must be taxing enough without carrying on a conversation too.

—

“This is it,” Jin informed them all twenty minutes later as they approached a little town.  He kept his eye out for the temple.  Soon enough, he’d located it.  “Wait here,” he insisted before walking up to the door alone.  He knocked on it and waited.

A minute later, it opened, and a short man appeared across its threshold.  Jin spoke quietly to the man before he disappeared again, closing the door behind him.  Leaving Jin out in the cold.  But less than five minutes later, a priest appeared as the door was suddenly swung inward again.

“Jin!  Come in, come in!”

“May my friends come with me?” Jin queried as the rest of them made themselves known by stepping forward.

The man glanced up, grinning at them all.  “Certainly!”

Soon enough, they were all huddled around a fire in a large room.  The boys had allowed Nani to stand directly in front of it.  Truthfully, it took all her stamina to stand there.  She was about to crumple to the ground.  Jin approached them, requesting Jimin’s presence for a few moments.  Nani glanced up to watch as he and Jimin left the room with the priest.  A moment later, her legs gave out underneath her, and she dropped down onto her bottom on the floor.

Alarmed, Jungkook glanced sharply down at her.  “Are you all right?” he queried as he squatted down next to her.

She nodded.  “I’m just…exhausted.  I was already tired before I went to bed tonight.  And then I woke up here.”

Jungkook simply blinked at her.  Not quite understanding her explanation.

—

Jimin spun towards Jin.  “What did you just say?”

“Jimin, it’s the only way she can continue to travel with any of us.  And we can’t leave her alone.  That would be just as dangerous.”

“But it’s a death sentence for her if we’re caught!” exclaimed the suddenly distraught young man.

“You won’t be caught.  Jiwoo has papers for you both.  You’ll have a new identity and so will she.”

“But how will I explain her…appearance?”

Jin shrugged.  “Let’s deal with one problem at a time.”

Jimin blinked.

“Are you opposed to the idea?” Jin queried.  “If you are, I can—”

“No!” gasped Jimin.  “I’ll do it.  I just…can I have a moment alone with her first?”

Jin glanced at the priest.  Jiwoo nodded at him.

“Yes,” the priest responded.  “You can bring her into this room to speak to her.”

Jimin gazed at the man and bobbed his head.  Even as he drew a deep breath.  The situation could be worse.  He’d already felt a natural affinity for the girl.  And she seemed to like him.  He turned back towards the room housing his friends and went in search of Nani.

He found her sitting on the floor.  Jungkook glanced up at him.  “She’s spent, Jimin.  We need to find her a bed.”

Jimin swallowed.  She’d have a bed soon enough.  “Nani?  Can you come with me for a moment?” he quizzed her quietly.  He reached down to give her a hand up.

As he pulled her to her feet, he noticed how her eyes kept sliding closed.  As soon as she was standing, he slipped his arm around her waist and drew her close to him before leading her from the room.

Once they were alone, he helped her to sit down on the pad on the floor. 

“Nani.”  He stopped abruptly.  Just how was he supposed to do this? 

He cleared his throat as she glanced up at him.  “Yes?”

If only that were her answer to the absurd question that he was about to ask her.

He knelt on the floor in front of her.  Collapsing onto both of his knees.  And gazed into her pretty eyes.  He took another steadying breath.  “Will you…marry me?  Tonight?  Right now?”

Her gasp resounded around him.  “What?”

“It’s the only way I can ensure your safety,” he rushed on.

“You want to marry me?” she sounded dumbfounded.

“Yes.”

“But…you don’t even know me.”

“Well, you seem to know me.  And you can’t continue to travel with seven men unless you’re married to one of us.  If you’d rather have Jungkook or Jin or—”

“No!” she gasped.  Leaning forward.  “No!  If I must marry, then I…of course, I want to marry you!  I just,” her eyes grew round in her lovely face, “I just can’t believe this!  I’m about to marry Jimin?”

He sighed.  “You do know, of course, that I’m not the Jimin you knew.”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, I never knew him,” she mumbled.

“What do you mean?” he quizzed her.  Utterly confused now.

“I never even met Jimin.  In the world I’m from, you can see and hear people who are thousands of miles away from you.”

“What?  How is that even possible?”  Disbelief flowed across his face.

“I—I’m not sure how to explain that.  There’s a way of transmitting a picture and sound….”  Her voice trailed off as incomprehension flooded his countenance.  “You don’t even know what a picture is, do you?” she realized.  “It’s like looking in a mirror.  How you can see your own face?  Well, I could see your face – I mean Jimin’s – and I could hear his voice.  I watched hours of him talking and playing around with his friends.  After a while, you begin to feel as though you know the person on the other side of the screen.”

“The screen?”

She frowned.  Trying desperately to explain twentieth century technology to someone from an earlier era.  “The mirror that displays the face of another.”

“I see.”  He grimaced.  “Not really.  The thing is…you won’t be marrying him.  You’ll be marrying me.  A scholar – a simple scribe – from the king’s court.  A hunted scholar.  A fugitive.  Only, I’ll have a new name.  And so will you.  We’ll start a new life.  Together.  If not with me, then you’ll have to choose another of the guys.”

She swallowed.  “No.  I’ll do it.  I’ll marry you.  I mean…what choice do we have?  I have no idea how I got here.”

“There’s one more thing, Nani.”  He hesitated.

“What?  What is it?”

“I might just end up owing you my life.  By marrying me, with our papers dated a month ago, it will appear that I truly am someone else.  With a wife, I will be unrecognizable as my old self.  By marrying me, you’ll be saving me, Nani.”

A beautiful smile suddenly blossomed on her face, and she reached out to throw her arms around him.  “That’s the best news I’ve received since I arrived here!”

His arms came up around her.  “It is?”

She nodded.  “Yes.” 

She adored the old Jimin, and this new one seemed just as precious to her.  Perhaps more so.  He’d carried her a mile on his own back!  He’d given her his coat nearly as soon as he’d met her.  He’d used his own body to shield her from harm.  And now he was choosing to marry her.  To protect her from living the uncertain life of an unwed girl caught in a perilous time teeming with soldiers and unknown dangers. 

Her voice sounded softly in the tiny room.  “Let’s do it.  I’ll marry you, Jimin.  Right now.”

And so it was that Nani found herself standing in a tall hall uttering vows to her favorite Bangtan boy.  Of course, in this period, he wasn’t one of the Bangtan boys, but she hardly saw any difference between Jimin’s former – latter? – self and his eighteenth century one.  All she knew was that in a couple of minutes, she’d belong to him.  And Jimin would be – quite unbelievably – her husband.  And she – to the envy of millions of ARMYs – would be his wife.