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Soo Ho hadn’t been able to sleep last night.  A terrible sense of foreboding had kept him awake.  But he wasn’t sure why.  He had no good reason to feel this insufferable tension, a suffocating fear that some evil was preying upon his beloved. 

He had followed his girls, as he now thought of both Jung Sook and Bo A, to school every day for the past two weeks.  Keeping a respectful distance.  But showing up to prove his love by silently protecting them from any dangers that might be lurking in the shadows of the early morning.

But this morning, he had broken with that new routine to confront Jung Sook out in the street before they headed to her school.  His inexplicable agitation had given him courage.  And it had paid off.  They had reconciled. 

But then, his father had denied his request to marry her with his blessing.  However, then Soo Ho had discovered that – unless his appa was wrong – she had lied to him.  Which simply increased the tension already brewing in his gut. 

He counted the hours until he would see her again.  With a weary kind of dread.  Because the foreboding was growing.  And now it was coupled with the knowledge that another confrontation was coming.  And he didn’t want to do anything that would sever him from her again.

––

After an extremely trying day at school, Jung Sook rushed home to begin making dinner for Soo Ho.  She and Bo A got out the door late due to another argument between two of the girls.  Jung Sook was weary of reprimanding young ladies who acted more like combatants in a war game than like the daughters of noblemen. 

At least, Bo A was a shining light in her life.  The sweet girl had begun to help with dinner preparations as soon as they’d walked through her front door.  They were in the midst of slicing vegetables when a knock sounded on the door. 

“I’ll get it!” Bo A offered with a smile as she ran for the front door.  Forgetting to leave her knife on the table.

A moment later, her scream shattered the stillness around Jung Sook.

––

Bo A opened the front door and froze.  Staring up at her father.

“Ahhh.  Just the frippery piece of baggage I came looking for.  I find that I’ve missed you, child.  No one but your mother to push around now that you’ve gone.” 

He reached out to grab her, and she threw her hands – one still curled around the handle of the knife – up in the air.  Which he took as a threat.  Cursing at her, he grabbed her wrist and hauled her up against him, yanking the knife from her grasp.  Her bloodcurdling scream filled the air around them.

And Jung Sook came running.  “Unhand her!” she commanded when she saw that the man had the knife pressed against the child’s throat.

He sneered at her.  “Or what?”

Gripping her own knife in her hand still, she held it out towards him.  “Or I will damage you!”

Where was this crazy courage coming from?

He snarled at her and tossed his daughter to the side to advance on the teacher.  “How dare you tell me what to do with my own child?!” he stormed as he stepped towards her.

As he came within two feet of her retreating figure, she suddenly smelled the liquor on his breath.  And her terror increased ten-fold.  She would not be able to reason with a drunk man.  She was still brandishing the knife at him.  But he was pointing the other one at her.  How she wished she had her sword.

He leapt suddenly, and she had only one moment to grasp.  She pulled her wrist back and flung it forward, and he screamed as her knife bit into his shoulder.  But, really, all she did was anger him.  And make him drop his knife as he reached up to pull hers from his flesh.

Her heart flew into her mouth, and her eyes widened as he turned on her with a wicked sort of glee burning in his gaze.  He reached out with his free hand and shoved her into the wall.  Hard.  Then his eyes slid down her simply clad form.  He extended the knife towards her while his other hand pinned her shoulder to the wall.  His unsteady hand wielded that knife uncertainly as he pressed the tip of it against her sternum and tugged upward to cut through her blouse.  It gapped suddenly, and she read the evil intent in his eyes.  And her terror transformed into horror.

“I’ll teach you to mess with my child!” his voice grated against her ear as he held the point of the knife against her now bare flesh.

Her eyes flew towards the doorway.  Where Bo A was cowering.  Shaking like a leaf.

Jung Sook closed her eyes.  Perhaps the worst part of this was that if he succeeded in his gross aim, his daughter would witness him raping a woman.

The blade of the knife began to bite into her skin.  He was applying more pressure.  If he kept it up, in a  few moments, that blade would slip beneath her skin and do her true harm.  The question was…would he transfer his focus to a different kind of damage before then?

She was frozen.  Unable to move.  He had her firmly pinned to that wall with the point of that knife and the palm of his other hand.  However, in order to rape her, he was going to have to move one of those hands.  The question was…which one would he choose?

Her eyes opened.  He chose his free hand, and she choked on her despair.  For that blade continued to bite into her skin.  He had her well and truly trapped.  He began to fiddle with the fly of his pants, and she nearly threw up.  A moment later, he was reaching for the skirt of her robe.  She closed her eyes again.  She would not look at that man while he hurt her.

But then, she heard an odd noise.  Like metal scraping against metal.  A second later, a horrid sound reached her ears.  Like a man strangling on anguish.  Her eyes flew open, and she stood shocked as his blade fell away from her chest, and he crumpled to the ground.

––

The first odd thing that Soo Ho noticed was her front door hanging open.  He hurried down the road and peeked through that open doorway.  What he saw had him running in the next instant.  As he reached for his sword and pulled it from its scabbard.  Eternally grateful that he hadn’t removed it after practice. 

A moment later, he was barreling through her doorway, as fast on his feet as possible.  He took one look at the man standing in front of Jung Sook, noted the knife pressed against her chest, and the way her attacker was grabbing at her skirts.  And a holy rage filled Soo Ho with such a mammoth amount of strength that he recognized that had he not been holding a blade in his hand, he would have separated the man’s head from his body with his own hands. 

But…he did have a sword in his hand.  So he utilized it.  He lunged forward and speared the man through the side of his back.  An odd angle to be sure.  But it did the job.  And kept Jung Sook protected at the same time.  He felt the tip of his sword hit resistance, break through it, and slide forward.  He heard the man’s odd grunt and gurgle.  Then in one smooth move, he reclaimed his sword and tossed it on the ground as her assailant crumpled to his knees before falling over onto his back. 

Soo Ho’s eyes flew to her face.  He watched her eyes open in shock, registering the still man on the floor before meeting his own gaze.  She was trembling. 

He took two long strides and caught her in his arms, tugging her up against his chest.  “Are you all right?” he breathed in concern as his eyes took in the gap in her shirt.  “Did he hurt you?”  Then he saw the blood trickling down her chest.  And he gasped.  “You’re bleeding!”

Dazed, she glanced down at her bloody blouse.  She reached up and touched the wound.  Her blood was slick and smelled metallic.  “It’s nothing,” she murmured flatly.  “’Tis but a scratch.” 

She smiled up at him.  “You came in time.”  She began to quake violently.  “I thought…I thought…”  Her eyes crossed the room to take in the horrified countenance of a tiny girl.  “…she was going to witness her appa…”

His eyes left her weeping chest to find the child. 

“I need to go to her,” Jung Sook whispered. 

But he kept his arm around her and steered her in the little girl’s direction.   As they approached her, Bo A glanced up at them.  “Is he…dead?”

As Jung Sook reached for the girl, Soo Ho released her and turned back towards the still form lying on the floor. 

“If he isn’t, he will be soon,” he murmured as he bent over the man and felt for his pulse.  It was thready.  “He won’t be hurting anyone.  Ever again.”

Jung Sook wrapped her arms tightly around the girl.  “I am so sorry, Bo A.”

“He really can’t hurt us anymore?” the child breathed in shock.

Jung Sook looked down at Soo Ho.  He met her gaze and nodded his head.  Then his comforting voice sounded. 

“He really can’t hurt you anymore, Bo A.  I’m sorry, but it appears I’ve killed him.”

The little girl closed her eyes, buried her face against Jung Sook’s chest, and burst into tears.