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They had backed Jungkook into a corner.  There were two of them.  He wasn’t afraid.  He had felled two men at once before.  Still, he was being cautious.  

“We just want an audience with the king,” sneered the taller one.

“You do not,” Jungkook breathed.  “You want to hurt the king.  I heard you say so.”

“There are more of us.  And they’re on their way.  Even if you slow us down, you won’t stop us,” the shorter one taunted him.

Jungkook rolled his eyes.  “Why does evil always think it has the upper hand?”

He measured both of them with his gaze.  He could take the taller one easily.  Slender as a willow, he would be easy to fell.  But the shorter one was quite burly.  He could use his weight to clear advantage if he knew what he was doing.  

As Jungkook was weighing his options, a girl suddenly appeared behind the two men.  Jungkook’s eyes widened fractionally as he noticed her.  

Go away!  You could truly complicate things!

He tried to speak to her telepathically.  But clearly, it wasn’t working.  She disappeared for a moment, giving him hope, but then she returned with a broom.  What was she going to do?  Sweep them away?

Jungkook did his best to ignore her.  He was afraid that if he looked at her, they would notice and grab her to use against him.  Finally, she backed away.  He decided to lunge towards the tall one first.  Hopefully, he would dispatch him quickly.  And then have time to deal with the short one.  

Jungkook’s sword had slashed the tall one across the cheek.  As the willowy man fell back, the portly one barreled towards Jungkook.  He would have tackled him.  But for one thing.

A timely placed broomstick suddenly tripped the round man.  As he fell, he wondered who had left a cleaning implement in the hallway.  And how he hadn’t noticed it before.  His sword went flying across the hallway to bounce off the wall.  Jungkook took advantage of the moment to dispatch the tall guard.  He ran his sword through him.  Then he grunted as he reclaimed it from the man’s slim flesh. 

Jungkook turned quickly to deal with the portly one.  But he needn’t have worried.  He moved just in time to see the girl smack the fat man over the head with the broomstick.  Lying sprawled on the floor, the man attempted to cover his aching head with his hands.  Jungkook rushed to her side.  He stuck the tip of his sword against the back of the man’s fat neck.  

“Put your hands behind your back.  Unless you’d like to be speared like your friend there,” Jungkook threatened with a lethal tone.

Jina stared up at him.  She was sighing with relief.  She’d been terrified when she’d seen him trapped between the corner and those two armed men.  

He didn’t even spare her a glance.

Just as she’d expected.  Perhaps she truly was invisible.  

Suddenly, Jungkook hissed at her.  “Come, hold my sword against his throat.  If he even dares to breathe, lean into it.”

His hand reached for hers and set hers on top of his sword hilt directing her fingers until she was holding it steady.  Then, he knelt on the man’s back and began to bind his wrists with a cord he’d pulled from his pocket.  A few moments later, when the man was well and truly bound, Jungkook stood up and retrieved his sword.  Then he bent over the dead man to make sure he was good and dead.  Jungkook found no pulse.  He was satisfied the man would not rise to dispatch them all.

Finally, he turned towards the girl.  His eyes raked her from the top of her head to her toes and back up again until his gaze found her face.

She was quite plain.  A slender girl – the kingdom was full of those.  With long, midnight hair.  Again, nothing special there.  Her countenance was rather dull.  Tan skin.  Once again, no oddity.  Pale pink lips of average length and depth.  A rather normal nose.  Eyebrows that barely arched.  Nothing in her face to draw his attention.  

Except…that her eyes speared him a moment later with her concern.  He paused as he gazed into their obsidian depths.  Once again, a very usual sight for the women of his land.  

She had no elegant carriage to her head.  Her nose wasn’t carved of marble.  Her lips weren’t pouty or begging to be kissed.  Her cheeks weren’t rosy.  She was, in fact, quite a bit tanner than most of the women he’d seen.  Did she sunbathe?  She could never be called an ethereal beauty.  

But she had managed to grab his attention.  With her bravery.  Or should he say, her stupidity?

“What were you thinking?” he suddenly thundered at her.  “Girls are supposed to be demure.  You should have been hiding behind a locked door.  Not throwing yourself in harm’s way!  You almost got me killed!” he barked at her.

Her face crumpled for a moment, but then suddenly her dark eyebrows lowered to cover the gleaming black gems she called eyes.  “You are nothing but an ingrate!  I just helped you to defeat the second man.  He was headed right for you and would have speared you in the back if my broomstick hadn’t interfered!  Next time I’ll let him slay you if that’s what you want!”

She was so angry she could feel tears swamping her eyes.  She turned away from him.  She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her weep over his brusque treatment of her!   She had admired him from afar for several months now.  But she had never expected he had such a wicked temper!

She had known she’d never capture his attention with her beauty or her physique.  But she had hoped her bravery might impress him.  Apparently not.  She bent to retrieve her broomstick.

“Girls were not meant to be warriors,” he chastised her.

Suddenly furious, she swung the broomstick at his legs.  He reacted in a flash, jumping high to avoid being caned.  He twisted his body at the same time and lunged for her.  A moment later, he had her pinned up against him, her broomstick in his hands and blocking her throat.

“Do you see how easy it is for a man to disarm you?  I could easily choke you to death right now.”  

He was panting with wrath.  Why was he so angry right now?  He could barely control his temper.  

But he knew why.  She had terrified him.  For a few moments tonight, he had pictured her with a slit throat or run through by a menacing sword.  In those visions, he had felt helpless.  

She was just an average girl.  But she epitomized the essence of what he fought for every day.  A secure kingdom for average citizens to live in safety.  For girls like her to breathe in freedom and comfort.  Secure from harm.

But she surprised him.  Even with that rod cutting off her air, she croaked, “Do you think you’re the only one worthy to die for your king?”

He inhaled sharply and dropped his arms.  She stumbled away from him, falling to her knees and gasping for air.  

“Let that be a lesson to you.  If one of them had gotten a hold of you, you wouldn’t be fighting for air now.  You wouldn’t require it anymore.  Or maybe they would have tossed up your skirts and taken you here in the hallway outside the king’s chambers.”

She was so angry now that she was seeing red.  What had she ever seen in this boy?  A beautiful face?  He certainly had no heart.

She was nearly blind with rage.  “Don’t worry. I won’t interfere with you again.  Next time, I’ll head for the king’s room and bar the door so they can’t enter when they overpower you!”

Tears were streaming down her cheeks now.  Jungkook was beginning to feel some remorse.  He hadn’t meant to be unkind.  But she had scared him silly.  His adrenaline was still pumping.  He had taken it out on her.

Of course, he had!  He was trying to scare some sense into the foolish chit!  She’d nearly gotten them both killed.  And he was sure those men wouldn’t have stopped at rape.

“Do you not understand what some men are made of?” he hissed.  “These men know no honor.  No shame.  They would take pleasure in hurting a girl like you.”

A girl like her.  What did that mean?

“You mean, like you just did?” she spat back at him.  “A girl like me?  You mean an average, plain, common, ugly girl?  You mean, a simple servant?  No princess.  No queen.  Just a girl meant to be used and tossed to the side.  

“I am plenty familiar with such men, I can assure you!  It’s not for nothing that I carry a knife on my person. And I can promise you it isn’t so I can slit my own throat!  I pity the man who tries to rape me!”  With those cold words, she turned and stomped away.

Why was it that all men disappointed her?  She’d thought she’d found a hero.  Someone to believe in.  Someone to fight for.  

But he was like all the rest.  He believed himself to be more important than her.

He stood in the middle of the hallway glowering after that infuriating, little girl.  Who on earth was she anyway?  What had she been doing in the king’s hallway at two in the morning?  She should have been sound asleep in the servants’ quarters.  The female servants’ quarters.

He shrugged his shoulders.  What did it matter?  He probably wouldn’t see her again.  He turned toward the king’s door.  It was time to inform Yoongi of the mess he had made.