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Soo Yeon had completely bitten through her cuticle by the time her brother and Ban Ryu arrived at the house about an hour later.  She had also prepared two bedchambers and set the kitchen staff to creating a feast worthy of a king.  But even with all of her activity, she was unprepared for the state in which she found her beloved.

He was unconscious.  And burning up with fever.  She hovered as Yeo Wool and Dan Se carried him into the bedchamber that she’d prepared for him.  The palace’s head surgeon followed him into the room.  He examined him before turning towards Lord Kim Seub.

“We must wake him up.  And give him a variety of medicines.  If we don’t kill the infection, he will die.”

Soo Yeon, hovering in the doorway, whimpered.  But she squared her shoulders and stepped forward.  “Tell us what must be done.  And we will do it,” she responded bravely.

The doctor glanced down at her.  “What is this child doing here?  Take her away.  This is going to be gut-wrenching work.  It would try the staunchest of men.”

“No!” she cried out.  “You cannot send me away.  I will do it!  Whatever he needs done.  Please!  I will sit here by his side around the clock and nurse him back to health myself.  Just tell me what to do.  If he can be injured protecting the princess, I can stomach his wound and learn how to heal him.  He saved my brother’s life!”

The surgeon cocked his eyebrows and glanced at the councilman. 

“You heard the girl.  Tell us what to do!” Lord Kim Seub demanded instantly.

So the doctor issued commands, and the three of them set to work ministering health to the unconscious man.  Throughout the first hour of her vigil, Soo Yeon had to leave the room a couple of times to breathe deeply of the air in the hallway.  But she always returned to the side of her beloved.  Ban Ryu would not die.  Not on her watch.

She nearly lost those rice cakes when she witnessed the wound.  It was angry and deep.  Red and oozing.  But she swallowed and set to work learning how to clean it.  And bandage it.  The doctor insisted that it needed to be drained, cleaned, and bandaged several times a day.  Until it began to heal and the angry red heat of it disappeared fully.  He taught her how to cleanse it and pack it.  And, also, how to disinfect it.

But she was unprepared for the scream that erupted from the mouth of her beloved when the doctor poured a bottle of spirits over the wound.  The alcohol scalded Ban Ryu’s flesh, instantly rousing him from his stupor.  Her stomach completely flipped over as his shriek rent the air.  He sat straight up.  But then, dazed and confused, he fell back against the bed, his hands gripping the sheet underneath him.

“Good, sir, you’re awake.  I have a brew that you need to drink,” the doctor informed him dispassionately.

Ban Ryu opened glazed eyes and stared blindly up at the man.

Soo Yeon stepped forward and reached for the drink.  “Here.  Give it to me.  I’ll coax him into drinking it.”  She accepted the cup and sat down next to him at the head of the bed.  “Ban Ryu, come now, sit up a little and drink this.”

She reached down and slid her arm under his shoulders and pulled until he had sat up a bit.  Then she held the cup to his lips and began to slowly pour the liquid down his throat.  That parched vessel convulsed, and he coughed several times.  But she was patient with him, and after nearly a half hour of allowing the drink to trickle into his mouth, she’d convinced him to down it all.

The doctor then began to look upon her with some favor.  Perhaps the girl would do a good job of caring for the gentleman after all.  But the surgeon stayed by her side for the first day.  He wasn’t about to leave the brave hwarang until he could tell that the man was out of danger.

Ban Ryu kept his eyes glued to Soo Yeon’s beautiful face the entire time that she coaxed him to drink the foul-tasting concoction.  He didn’t understand what was happening to him.  Or why he was in this lovely girl’s embrace when he had been forever banished from her home by her appa a short time ago.  But he didn’t ask any questions.  He had his plate full just swallowing.  And staying conscious long enough to drink that awful stuff. 

His eyelids finally fluttered shut as he downed the last of it.  “Thank you, Soo Yeon,” he remembered to murmur as he slid off into unconsciousness again. 

He wasn’t sure how he could be so sleepy when his thigh was on fire.  But he just couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open.  Not even to gaze at her captivating countenance.

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed after a moment.  “He’s fallen asleep again.”

“It’s all right,” the surgeon murmured comfortingly.  “His body is fighting the infection.  He needs to sleep.  We will rouse him again if we must when the time comes.  But for right now, allow him to rest.”

She nodded and tried to relax.  But she could not.  She helped the doctor to bandage Ban Ryu’s thigh.  Then she sat down on her chair again.  Hovering over the injured man like a fretful mother.

That was when she remembered that the poor boy had no mother.  No gentle hand to guide him.  No tender touch to soothe him.  No sweet voice to encourage him or to sing him a lullaby.  Soo Yeon was, in fact, the only woman in Ban Ryu’s life.  And until today, her father had banned her from seeing him.

But she would never allow him to do so ever again.  Ban Ryu belonged to her.  And she was devoted to him.  She wasn’t about to leave him alone again.