Cho Rip
Fear fuels hatred - which fuels the drive for survival. I know I am cornered. I know my time has come.

The wind howls eerily on the brown plain and I shiver, from fear or the cold I know not. The three assassins begin their advance on me, like big cat stalking prey, coming in for the final kill. Trained assassins they were - my fighting skills would be no match for theirs.

A flash of silver.
Pain blossoms in my left calf.

I snarl and slash back in anger. They move like shadow and slither away.

A scream. A gash now on my left arm. Blood drips down my robe. As the red liquid leaks from my body, I feel strong hatred coursing through my veins.

I swing my sword and it clashes with a metal staff. Sparks fly and the echoes of sword fighting ring in the prairie. It is stupid. I can't hold them off but right now I don't care.

"Cho Rip! Stop!"

Billowing black robes. Blur. Chaos. Amidst the sound of metal scraping, there is a loud fleshy sound of cloth and skin ripping asunder.

I feel no pain. Am I dead?

Then a voice, softer than I remember, calls a name. And then I see it.
Yeo Un, in front of me. A sword impales through his body.

He has shielded me.

"My Lord!" the subordinate begins in shock. He falls on his knees in front of Un.
"Leave! All of you," Un orders. "All of you! Now."

They are slow to follow the order. Though it feels like centuries it must have only been minutes. Now, the vast meadow contains only the two of us. It feels silent. The only sound is of blood dripping down, pooling at Un's feet. And the clank of twin blades as Un drops thems, bloodless, onto the ground.

Un finally gasps in pain as he presses his hand onto his wound. His eyes are dark when he finds mine.

"Is this enough?" he whispers. His eyes are trained on me, pleading, and imploring, for my forgiveness. A tremor of pain passes through him. He grimaces and I am in shock. Somehow, pain shoots up my side from the scar of Un's old wound. Guilt floods me and I am crying, my voice desperate and shrill, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

Then everything seems to happen in slow motion. Un drops to his knees and is crumpling onto the ground. I catch him in my arms to cushion his fall. As I cradle him in my arms, I realize the scar on his cheek had re-opened. A trickle of blood ran down his cheek.

Everything becomes blurry. My eyes were swimming in tears. Now with his broken body in my arms, my heart could not longer want him dead. I realize, he has been punished enough...

And then a voice calls my name.
"Cho Rip! What have you done?"

Dong Soo
I don't know what's worse. Knowing that my best friend is an assassin. Or seeing my best friend fighting for his life, in my other best friend's arms.

"Cho Rip! What have you done?" my voice is shaking with anger.

I leap off my horse. I am so angry I almost punch him in the face. Instead, I order Cho Rip to find help. Dazed, he follows my order and gallops away on his horse.

Un is lying on his side in a pool of his own blood, unconscious, his body shivering with spasms of pain. Joseon's best assassin - no, best swordman - dying.

A stream of blood is steadily oozing from his wound. Panicking, I run over and feel his pulse - his heart is still beating weakly. I cradle him against my body and I realize how thin and light he is. His head lolls against the crook of my arm. Blood, spit and tears are all mixed on his face.

"Un!" I shake him. There is a fear in my voice I have never heard before. "Un! Un-ah!"

He stirs.

"Dong Soo?" he whispers. His eyes snap open. He gasps. My heart breaks at the sight of blood spilling from his mouth.

"Dong Soo," he chokes out. His hands grasp at my collar. His fingers brush at exposed skin in my neck. As our skin touch, it feels like two sides of the same soul were colliding and the universe has collapsed to just the two of us. Yin and yang. Light and dark.

Then stab of sharp pain in my chest, more than the white-hot burn of skin parting against sharp metal and body ripping open. It is pain - like my heart was stabbed like this - but a thousand, a million times. It jolts me like I'm the one impaled...

I could see the white of Un'e eyes. He struggles to keep his eyes open. His grip on my collar tightens.

"Stay with me," I beg. "Help's coming soon!"

Un's eyes are dilated and unfocused. His voice hardly more than a whisper. "I can't... Forgive me..."

A fresh trail of tears steaks across his blood-stained face. I wipe it away but I realize more tears ooze out from his eyes. His eyes that gaze into mine. Full of darkness and yet full of love.

His shaking hand reaches out to caress my face. It's cold but I press it closer to my cheek. There is a hint of a smile on his face. There is a glimpse of heaven inside that smile. The carefree Un. The one that can live with an open heart. And for a moment, it feels like the past has vanished, and there is just now. And I wish for time to stop. But as my own heart beats seem like thunder in my own ears, I feel his life slowly ebb away.

"Thank you," he whispered. "Don't cry..."
His hand wipes away a stray tear on my cheek. But then everything threatens to swim together in my vision.

"Be happy," he said softly. I see the tears in his eyes too. He didn't want to leave...
And then his hand releases me and his eyes gently close.

Pain erupts in my chest and I cry like a wounded animal. I am yelling Un's name at the skies. Somehow, the skies open. Rain and tears merge as they fall down my cheeks. I lose track of time. Weeping, I struggle against the pairs of arms pulling me away from Un. Someone slaps me across the temple and stars dance in front of my eyes. Liquid is forced down my throat. And darkness claims me.

It's been so long. But I still visit the grave some times.
The grave is simple. An inscription with his name. And next to it, 'Joseon's best swordsman, and friend of Baek Dong Soo'.

It feels different without him. I thought of us as a trio - Cho Rip, Yeo Un and I. It's hard sometimes, to not hold it against Cho Rip, but he has realized his mistake. Everything had ended with Yeo Un's death.

I still sometimes wish he was here. I imagine that we will meet again, drink and laugh together. No more war. No more conspiracy. Just me with my loud mouth, laughter, and me doing more stupid things. My heart aches thinking of it.

Until then, there will always be a part of him that remains, here. Yeo Un. Be happy where ever you are. Until the day we meet again, wait for me. Wait for me.

Author's note: My way to deal with an entertaining drama's frustrating end. It was so frustrating I came up with two endings (this is one of them). This story is for two main reasons: 1. Cho Rip could repent from his mistakes. He acted rather out of character in the last episode. 2. If he had to die, Yeo Un did deserve a more dignified death, including one where he had a grave and was properly remembered.