In Another Life
Hey guys, long time no see, this is just a spur of the moment view on what I think it might have been like if Hak hadn't been there with Yona for the whole journey and if he found her along the way afterwards.
They meet again in this story, just after the where the anime leaves off and the mange picks up the next arc.
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"So, it's decided then. We next set out for the fire Tribe's lands." Yona declared, her voice sure, as everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.
"Well then, with that settled, I think I'm going to head to down to the river and bathe. It's been a long day." She said, as she began making her way down the long and narrow deer trail that lead towards the river.
"Ok, just don't take too long, I'll be getting dinner ready shortly!" Yun called after her as the rest of the dragons made them selves busy.
Picking her way down the path, Yona allowed herself to take a long, deep breath.
It seemed as though it had been a lifetime since she last had the chance to bathe. Too long for her liking. But then again, it seemed like lifetimes ago that she had begun this journey, had met her companions. . . had fled the castle.
No. She would not allow herself to go down that road and wallow in any sense of self pity. She could not change the past no matter how painful, she could only continue to move forward as she was. It was time she left go of those nightmarish memories that haunted her. She needed to lock them away, and never let them out. They could fuel her fire, but she'd never again allow herself to be burned by those flames of hate and despair. Neither of those two things would help her people or the Kingdom of Kouka.
She forced herself to stop thinking of such things however as she made it to the river bank and began to slip off her shoes. For now, she should at least enjoy the luxury of being clean and having a goodnight's rest.
She'd only just begun to untie the ribbon around her waist when she heard the sound of an animal's footsteps coming through the trees behind her.
Assuming it might be a deer, Yona quickly went to grab her bow which she had stashed behind a nearby boulder earlier in preparation for her nightly archery practice. If she managed to get some extra meat for their dinner that night and have some left over to dry as provisions for the road, Yun was sure to be elated. It wasn't very often that they got the chance to hunt anything bigger than a rabbit or a few pheasants these days.
Bow in one hand and an arrow ready to be knocked in the other, she turned around and walked a few paces towards where she heard the footsteps last, careful to be as quiet as she could.
Using tree roots and rocks as a way to cushion the sound of her steps, she slowly stalked her way closer downstream where she could still hear the vague sounds of movement.
No more than ten paces away now.
As she came across a large yew bush, the last thing between her and her prey, she stopped and steeled herself for the shot. Knocking the arrow and slowly drawing back, she let herself breathe once, twice and then jumped out from behind the bush ready to let loose her arrow and bring home the kill. . . only to find herself frozen in place.
Instead of the large warm brown eyes of a doe, she found electric blue staring back at her with equal shock.
She could not move, could not make a sound, could not even breathe anymore.
How? How was he here? How did he find her? WHY was he here?
"Yona. . .?" came the hoarse reply from the man in front of her, the sound of it nearly shattering what remained of her heart.
A horse stood tied to the branch behind him, peacefully ripping away at the long grasses that grew down by the water where Hak still knelt down, water still dripping from his hair after washing his face.
He was the first to move, slowly rising to his feet and staggering a few short steps towards her seemingly in a daze. . . only to stop suddenly when she still did not lower the bow, arrow still taunt with her arms now shaking from the strain.
"Princess? . . . It's me, Hak. . . Wher-Where have you been this whole time? They said you were dead! That you fell off the cliffs in The Northern Forest. I had been away attending to duties as the general of the Wind Clan, and when I returned to the castle you were. . ." He trailed off, voice breaking slightly as he struggled to relive the moment he had returned to the castle only to discover the carnage and tragedy that had befallen the royal family in his absence.
Still, Yona did not lower her weapon.
"Did you know?" she said in a voice no louder than a whisper, her own voice shaking and hoarse as emotion tightened her throat.
"Wha-?" he began but she cut him off, voice now even and strong even as she fell apart inside.
"Did you know, what he was planning to do? Were you involved in anyway? I need to know."
Never could she had imagined pointing a weapon at him. Not at the man before her. But she had to know first.
Hak seemed stunned for a moment.
"Know, what? If you mean of the king's passing, no one knows who the murderer is or how he snuck inside the palace walls, they're still looking for them now under King Su-won's orders."
She shuddered slightly at the name. The title.
"Princess, I'm so sorry. If I'd only been there that night, I could have protected you both. I know there is no excuse and no way you may ever be able to forgive me for leaving you both all alone when you needed me most. I-"
Suddenly, Yona fell to her knees, relaxing the bow strong as she fell and dropping it to the ground in a clatter once there was no danger of it firing.
He had not known. He had not been involved. She could trust his word. Surely, he could not have betrayed her as he did that night.
No.
Hak spoke the truth.
She could see it in his eyes as he ran over to her, concern written all over his face.
"Princess! Are you all right?!" he cried, reaching for her as he lowered himself down in front of her, doing his best to check her for any external wounds that she may have.
"I'm fine," she breathed out before he could touch her.
"Princess, I don't want to push you in this state, but I have to ask; what are you doing here out with a bow and no shoes on? What happened to your hair? It's all shorn! How have you been surviving out here these last few months?" he rambled as he reached towards her again, desperate to hold her close within his arms embrace after being worried sick for months.
"What happened that night when I was gone?" he said in a whisper before finding his voice again.
"I knew you weren't dead. Something inside me just couldn't ever believe it was true no matter what any of the officials or Su-won said. Like there was something inside me that I knew would have died with you, but still it lived inside me, so I knew you couldn't really be gone. It just couldn't be true, so I left the capitol and my position as General to try and find you, or at least what happened to you all those months back and bring those responsible to justice."
Silver now lined the corner of his eyes as he did his best to hold back all the pain and heartache that had plagued him since he had first been told of her passing.
"You truly, don't know it was him, do you?" Yona managed to ask, before sighing in relief and throwing herself into his arms.
She wouldn't have been able to take it if Hak had been involved in any way. She couldn't face losing both her childhood friends in one tragic night.
"No, I don't but if you do, you have to tell me so they can be brought to justice. I know it may be painful to think back on but if you know who it was, please, you have to try." He begged her as he held her to his chest in a near dangerously tight grip as she buried her face in his neck, her own tears now freely sliding down her cheeks and onto the shoulder of his robe.
"Su-won." She whispered.
"What? What about him? Is there going to be an attack on him too?"
She managed a dry laugh in response to this, surprising even herself.
"He was the one to do it. Hak, Su-won betrayed us. He's the one who killed my father that night. He tried to kill me too, but I managed to run and hide from the guards until I was able to escape out of the castle through my mother's old private gardens that ran alone the outer wall."
His heart seemed to stop beating at her words as he tried to process what she was telling him.
"No. No, that can't be true, it was a horrific night for you that night, you must be mistaken somehow. The Su-won I know—"
"In his own words to me 'the Su-won you knew never existed'! If you don't believe me here's your proof!" she yelled suddenly, pulling away from him and crying with new vigor before ripping down the shoulder of her dress to reveal a long, white scar that ran down her shoulder and down her back.
Hak could only stare.
"You'd know his sword well enough to recognise this as something made by his blade." She said, her voice shuddering but strong as she enunciated each word through bared teeth.
Still, no words seemed to be able to leave his mouth as he tentatively, lifted a hand to gently trace the white line with his finger. His eyes widening before turning glassy once more.
It hurt her to watch as the pieces remaining of his own heart seemed to shatter in front of her. As the truth began to sink in and tear him apart inside.
She let him touch her though. Let him trace the scar and confirm what he now understood to be true.
They were both silent for a time as Hak moved on from the long white scar on her back that Su-won had left the night he had tried to kill her as she fled the castle, to investigate the other scars and marks she had gained during the months she had been gone.
Small cuts and fading bruises still littered her arms and legs from their time in Awa helping to stop the human trafficking incidents. Gently sliding his hands down her arms, he picked up her hands in his own. Felt the rough callouses that had begun to form with her nightly archery practice and the general hard work and chores she did throughout the day to help out their little group.
"Please." He said, no longer able to look into her eyes, "Tell me everything."
Before she could even get a single word out however, they were interrupted by the sound of someone calling her name.
Immediately, Hak sprung to his feet and stood in front of her as a man with green hair came walking out of the forest towards them.
"Yona Dear? I thought I heard you yelling just a short while ago and thought I'd come check to make sure you were alrigh—" The man cut himself off short as he looked up to see Hak Guan-dao already at the ready and Yona still collapsed on the ground behind him, tear marks evident on her face and the shoulder of her dress still down and off to the side showing her scar.
In no more than a second after taking this in did the man swipe up six daggers from somewhere hidden in his clothing and held them between his knuckles at the ready and the promise of imminent death in his eyes.
Hak tensed, but before he could make a move, Yona managed to get to her feet and run between the two of them, holding both her arms out.
"Stop! Jae-ha, Hak put both your weapons away!" she yelled, but neither of them would relent just yet
"Princess, who is this man and how does he know your name?" Hak said evenly, not lowering his weapon and inch.
The other man chuckled, "I could ask the same thing. Who are you exactly and what were you doing down here with Yona-dear while she was trying to bathe no less? Spying on a girl like that really isn't beautiful you know."
This comment did seem to provoke a reaction of sorts but not the one the other man had expected. Hak simply cocked a head at Yona in question.
"You were down there to bathe? What on earth were you doing with a bow an arrow then?" he asked, giving her a confused look.
Yona only sighed in disbelief that that was what finally got him to calm down before she spoke.
"It's a long story, and one I am most willing to tell once you both put away your weapons. Hak, this is Jae-ha. He has been a travelling companion of mine for a while now and has helped keep me safe this whole time."
Once she saw that Hak would comply as he seemed to relax and put his weapon down into its familiar resting position at his side, before she turned to look at Jae-ha who still seemed wary and confused about the whole situation.
"Jae-ha, this is Hak. He's one of my longest childhood friends from when I lived at the castle. He wasn't there that night and I only just told him the truth of what happened then. He's no threat to me of any of you." She explained calmly.
Recognition at the name slowly fell across Jae-ha's face as he remembered the name of the young man, Yona always mentioned whenever she spoke about her past.
"Ah, I see, so you're the famous Hak then?" he said, putting his throwing knives back into the secret pockets of his clothes and reaching out his hand to Hak in greeting.
A smile twitched across his lips at Jae-ha's words as Hak stretched out his own hand and they shook and he gave Yona a sideways look.
"Famous, am I?" he asked her.
Yona only blushed in response and muttered out a quick 'barely' before going off to retrieve her bow and shoes leaving him to watch her go.
As the two men were left alone however, Jae-ha took notice of the look on his face as he stared after the spot where she'd last stood.
A sly smile began to creep its way across his own face as he put two and two together, between how often Yona spoke of this man and the look he gave her now.
"So, friends was it?" he asked, breaking the silence and drawing Hak's attention.
He gave him a suspicious look in response. "Yes, as she said earlier, we've been friends since we were kids. Why do you ask?"
"No reason. It's just its been awhile since I've seen a guy stare after a girl like that." He teased, faking nonchalance and seeming to strike a nerve.
"I was told she was dead these last few months." He ground out.
"So, I figured. Still, she talked a lot about you, you know. You certainly are special to her at least."
Before he could say anything in response, Yona re-emerged from the trees and called them both over to follow her back to camp so she could introduce Hak to the others and explain everything that had happened since they had separated last.
{*****}
Hey guys, so I know there are a lot of other fics out there about 'what if's' and 'what might it have been like if Hak hadn't been there with Yona the whole journey and this is just the kind of reaction/interaction that came to my mind when I thought about it so I thought I'd write it down and see how it turned out. Purely a spur of the moment kind of thing but we'll see how long this lasts and where it goes for now.
I also wanted to apologise for not having updated in so long. First year of Uni on top of possibly moving and all sorts in between has kinda taken up a lot of my time and mental capacity for creativity has been at an all time low
Hopefully once I'm on Christmas break, I'll have the chance to pick up the pace again and get some more stories going/continuing.
Thanks for reading anyway and hope you guys are all doing good!