Lies We Tell Ourselves
(Sujini)
She tells herself it's guilt she feels. She feels responsible for having dragged him into the mess he's in. For after all, if she had never met him, if she had left him alone and hadn't bothered him further, hadn't involved him in that whole affair with the Julno men and Lord Ho Gae, hadn't stuck her nose in places she wasn't supposed to like her Master was always telling her... Well, anyway, the deed was done; now he needs all the help he can get. So she takes her bow and her quiver and follows without a moment's hesitation, and doesn't think about how seeing him smile at her was like seeing the sun rise after days of rain. She falls in walking right beside him; ignores how it feels like the most natural thing in the world, as reflexive as breathing.
(DamDuk)
He tells himself he owes her quite a debt, for however many times she had saved his life by now. He has almost convinced himself that anyway it was her fault half of the time, for inserting herself in other people's businesses. Blowing into his life like a sudden gale and whisking him off into places and inevitable situations. He doesn't think about how his life was on a standstill until he ran into her; about how she was the irresistible force that propelled him once again into action. She amused him so he helped her, not because there was something in her fierce yet uncomplicated sense of justice that made his heart ache in ways he couldn't begin to explain. Certainly it was not because he found her sincerity like a fountain of fresh water, and if it was up to him he would drink from it forever. She is nothing but a nuisance, he thinks, as before he knows it, his feet had once more took him ever beckoning to where he knows she would be. As he listens to make sure she was following close by, a habit as instinctive to him now as listening to his own heartbeat.