Jimin suddenly lunged as his ire got the best of him.
Jin jumped back, narrowly missed by the sword flying for his heart.
“Please! We’re best friends!” he cried out. “Are we really going to kill each other over a girl?”
They circled around each other.
“She’s not just any girl, and you know it!”
“But I didn’t know you were in love with her when I kissed her!”
Jin’s mind flashed back to his first meeting with Eunjeong. He had been riding his horse through a forest when he’d come upon the pretty maid walking the trail that led to the next village, which happened to be his destination. As he had ridden towards her, only her back to his view, he had taken in her long, wavy, midnight locks. They were unbound and reached her waist. They were gleaming in the sunlight streaming through the trees. Suddenly, a bird had cried out overhead, and she had turned her face towards him, her eyes pursuing the white-naped crane.
Jin was stunned. This woman was exquisite. She left him breathless. He tightened his hold on the reins and galloped towards her. Her eyes met his, and he saw a rare courage rising in them.
“Halt!” she commanded, raising her right hand, palm held out facing him. She stood squarely in the path, feet planted, exuding a queenly air.
He came to an instant stop. “I wasn’t going to ride over you, you know?”
My goodness, she was magnificent. Her dark eyebrows arched beautifully over her clear, obsidian eyes. They shone like two jewels in the sunlight. The long, straight bridge of her nose ended in a perfect slope to join the space above her rosy lips. There was an echoing blush on her high cheekbones. His heart was instantly taken.
She appeared to be quite young. Nineteen, maybe?
“I had no idea what your intentions were. You were riding hell-for-leather towards me!”
“If you believed I was going to run over you, wouldn’t it have been prudent to depart the path rather than end up a messy spot in the middle of it?” The temerity of this woman!
She was fuming up at him.
He jumped off his horse, dropped the reins, and strode towards her, reaching out to pull her roughly against his chest. Then his mouth descended towards her own with a rapidity that made her heart race.
