Thanks for the reviews! They make me really happy! Unfortunately, I don't know how to answer to them so I will just reply here. Guest(Jan15), I noticed that my first intro chapter has some odd sentences. I might change that chapter later a bit, so that it sounds better. But the content would stay the same. What happened in those five years will be a part of my main plot and will be slowly shown throughout the story. As rhi17e and Darcy de Venus noticed the 'red crescent headband' was not just a simple gift without meaning. ^^

Emm4life: I agree with you. We rarely get the closure we need in a show after all the struggles. We never get to know if everything turned ok for everyone as you said. In Eun Soo's case, for example, I personally would have wished to see how it looked like for her after she finally settled in after everything. Some sweet happy ES-CY, King-Queen, Woodalchi, Lady Choi moments would have been really nice.

I apologize for any grammartical mistakes. I will try to find them in the next days (btw I will start to look for a beta-reader after chapter 7. First, I want to see the reactions of the readers)


The sun was high as they sat side by side beneath the beautiful tree. Everything was quiet on the little hill except for the faint rush of wind through the leaves. Peacefully, Eun Soo rested her head on Choi Young's shoulder and closed her eyes.

"Ahhh, how I missed this," she quietly spoke without opening her eyes, nuzzling her head into his neck and taking in his masculine scent which she had missed so much. How could she ever had thought that it didn't smell good? It was intoxicating. Better than any perfume or cologne…

Choi Young looked down at her with a soft smile before he put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him, enjoying her soft body against his.

"Five years ago, I tried to come back but…" she hesitantly muttered into his neck as she tried to grope for words.

"But, the heaven's door didn't let you," he finished her sentence. He had thought about the events many nights. When he had woken up and hadn't seen her next to him, his first thought had been that he had failed again. He, who had killed more men than a human-being should in his lifetime, hadn't been able to protect the woman who risked her own life to stay with him. Had that been the punishment for all his crimes?

But then, they had told him that the Prince of the Court from Deokseong had been found dead in front of the Heaven's door while the High Doctor had disappeared. That moment, he had known she had gone through the heaven's door back home. She was back with her family and back to the place she belonged. She was finally safe, again. Although, for a moment, he had felt relief, his heart had soon tightened and hurt in a way he hadn't been able to understand. The following days, he had avoided his chambers as much as possible, not wanting to see or to feel the emptiness there and wandered around aimlessly. After some days, the king ordered him to take his sword and get back to his duties as the general of the Woodalchi's. Reluctantly, he had walked into the chambers, contemplating if Imja was all right and happy…because he wasn't.

Then, he had seen her heavenly canister with the flower in it, and he had remembered her words: " How I feel, have you thought about it? I would live, of course. In my room in the heaven world, I would just live. Day after day, having to face people I don't know. Blabbering things that I don't even mean all day long. And when the night time comes, I would just return to an empty room. Everytime I fall asleep, I will call out at least once. "Are you there?" I know...that there won't be any answer. Even then when I wake up in the morning, I will live another day like that. Like a dead person. What it means to live like that, do you not know? Because you will be like that, too…"(1)

These words had given him the faith he needed and brought him back. Imja would come back because she felt the same like him. He just had to wait and he did. He had waited until she finally really came back to him.

He gently smoothed her hair with one hand, soothing her in his own way.

"Yes," she said sadly "I had everything ready. I didn't lose time. I rushed to the hospital and took with me as much as I could in that short time. However, when I went through the gate again, I didn't see you. Later, I realized that I went farther back in time. For all those years, I was scared you died that day, you know."

He gently placed his free hand over hers, squeezing it lightly. "The Woodalchi found me. They brought me to the royal healers and after some rest I went back to my duties," he explained simply, leaving out the fact that he had been in a very critical state. He didn't want to worry her for nothing. If it weren't for the rare fever remedies they obtained for her when she had been poisoned, he probably wouldn't have made it. His fever had been running too high and only those remedies had been able to break it. Afterwards, he had needed weeks of rest before he could get back on his feet.

Eun Soo sighed relieved. "Thankfully. You could have died from hypothermia," she said musingly, trying to remember his exact condition on that day. Didn't his heart stop for a while? Shouldn't his condition have been more sever? But after some seconds, she just dismissed the thoughts since they didn't matter anymore. He was alive. Only that counted.

Suddenly, she lifted up her head and looked at him with a bright smile. "You know what? You are lucky that also for you five years passed," she spoke in a teasing tone, trying to change the gloomy mood she had just created. They had just reunited! She should be happy instead of sad!

"What?" Choi Young asked, dazzled by her hair. The change of position caused her hair to light up in a flame of gold and copper under the sun which came through the branches.

"Yah! Are you listening to me?" Eun Soo glared at him in a way that distracted him even more. Instead of looking intimidating, it had completely the opposite effect. Her glare reminded him of one of those little stray kittens, Dae Man always smuggled out of the palace grounds before the royal servants discovered and killed them.

"YAH, Daejang!" He blinked once or twice, opened his mouth as though to speak, closed it again, and shook his head as though to clear it. Then he cleared his throat and tried again, "You said," he fast thought back through their conversation, "I should be lucky that five years passed here as well. Why?" he finally asked confused.

Satisfied to have his attention again, Eun Soo cheerfully continued with her thought, "You see you were already four years younger than me. If I had come back to the same time I left, that would make me nine years older than you…We had this one Idol called Lee Seung Gi back in my time…He had this one song. It got soooo famous…Girls went all crazy when they listened to it…it was a about a dongsaeng-noona relationship and…"

Amused and relieved at the same time, the general watched her jumping excitingly from one sentence to another, waving her hand back and forth to emphasize some of the strange heavenly words. Her eyes danced with mirth and joy; and her cheeks were tinged with a slight blush from the wind.

He felt at ease again. She was back. All those years, his heart was heavy from all the uncertainty. However, seeing her smiling and laughing, made his heart feel relaxed again. He knew that they still needed to talk. He needed to know if she had been all right; that nothing happened to her. But that could wait. Wasn't that the reason why she so sudden changed the topic?

Later. He would ask her later.

-.-

Tapping a finger against her lip thoughtfully, Eun Soo cocked her head and stared at him.

"Oh! I just noticed that you grew facial hair."

He blinked at her quizzingly, his eyes following her finger which she unconsciously traced along her lips.

"I know that men in this century love to grow some facial hair but in the world where I grew up, men rarely do that anymore. I am kind of used to it. They even use bb-cream to make their face look flawless and since we are kind of a couple and I should have some-"

But before she could finish, he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers, cutting her off. She made a faint startled noise and pulled back with wide surprised eyes.

"D-daejang?"

"Imja still talks too much," Choi Young muttered softly, grinning at her attractively before he ducked down and captured her lips again, snaking one hand around her waist. With his other hand he tenderly cupped the back of her head while he slowly savored her lips. Her eyes fluttered close and she leaned into him as she slipped her arms around his neck and pulled them closer to each other.

Compared to their first kiss which had been rough and dominating to show his claim on her, this kiss was quite the contrary; instead of claiming her for himself, he offered himself to her. I'm yours, it said. And if you will have me, then…it promised

Those silent words turned her stomach inside out and set her whole body in fire. She opened her mouth beneath his and whole-heartedly accepted everything he offered.


Back in the tavern the Woodalchi were spread all over the place, laughing, talking, drinking and eating joyfully. They all enjoyed their free time after another little victory over the Yuan. They deserved it. Thanks to the defection of Yi Ja Chun(2), they just got another province back. In the last five years, they reclaimed their territories west of the Yalu River back; something which they wouldn't have been able to achieve without their General.

"Yah! Has someone prepared food for our General?" Vice General, Bae Choon Seok ,asked.

"I did, Sir!" One of the newer recruits, Seung Bae, shouted. He suddenly widened his eyes as if he remembered something, "Sir? I forgot to tell something. There was a rather suspicious woman here earlier. She was stunned to hear that this isn't Yuan territory anymore. Later, I saw her sneaking around and listening to our conversation about our General."

"What? As an Woodalchi you shouldn't have waited this long to tell us. It could be another crazy woman like the Evil One!" Choon Seok scolded the younger man. All the Woodalchi who had the luck to have an encounter with the dead Evil One shuddered at the same time. That person was someone they would never want to meet again, not even in their nightmares.

"Seung Bae , Dae Man and Daek Man come with me. Jom Oh keep the boys in line," the vice general immediately commanded.

All four warriors shouted "Yes, Sir!" at the same time, jumped up from their chairs, grabbed their weapons and rushed out of the tavern.

-:-

When they reached the hill, they were confronted with something they never would have expected. A woman was in their daejang's arms and they looked like in an intimate position.

"A-are D-d-daejang and t-that w-woman eh…k-… I m-mean, eh " Dae Man stuttered flustered as he furiously pointed on his lips to show what he meant. "D-do you think the woman is f-forcing herself on him?"

Daek Man started to chuckle stupidly while Seung Bae quietly whistled about the scene in front of him.

"Hahaha no, I doubt that! He is a willing participant. He looks like he is enjoying the moment very much. We sooo need to tell that to the boys. No one would have guessed this!" Daek Man chuckled.

"Now, we know what our General does when he is alone here," he grinned while wiggling his eyebrows which earned him a whack on his head by Choon Seok, "Don't talk about our General like that," he scolded the young recruit who rubbed his head.

The vice general curiously looked at the scene. Wasn't that… No, he shook his head before he finished his thoughts. It wasn't possible. She went back to the Heaven years ago.

But then again, their General would never…eh…entertain himself with another woman. It was not in his nature.

"I think that person is the High Doctor," he finally said seriously.

All three heads snapped in his direction, gaped at him with wide eyes, surprised by his words.

"You mean the famous woman from the Heaven who melted the ice-cold heart of our-YAH! Why did I get hit again?" Seung Bae rubbed his head again, glaring at Daek Man this time.

"Stop talking nonsense. Daejang never had an ice cold heart. He has one of the warmest hearts I know. He just never knew how to express himself before the High Doctor came," Daek Man explained as he tried to find any indication from afar that the woman was really THAT woman.

"I want to see her from close up!" Dae Man exclaimed and started to walk but soon felt himself harshly pulled back, almost tripping down on the ground.

"Are you crazy? Daejang will kill us!" Choon Seok hissed at him, "We should go back before he discovers us!"

All three Woodalchi warriors sighed unhappily before they turned around and headed back. They still wanted to live. Sigh, but at least, they would have something exciting to tell to the other Woodalchis. It was not like they could catch their composed General all the time in such a situation. This would be fun!


A/N: Done with another chapter :) While writing the chapter, I noticed how complex Choi Young's character is. It is hard to grasp since he has so many layers and you could write a long essay about him. I will need to rewatch some scenes to get his character's inner thoughts and how he reacts to certain situation (LMH did a good job in acting him out!). What I noticed though is that he always was attracted to Eun Soo:to her personality AND physical appearance: lol her legs, eyes, lips, hair etc...he acts totally man when it comes to her pretty features, he just knows how to make it not too obvious & he is too much of a gentleman(or too shy lol).

Sooooo, what do you think about this chapter? Worth to continue this story?

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(1) ep 23 (credit goes to Viki's subbing team for this drama!)

(2) he is the father of the first Joseon king who was the reason why the real Choi Young got executed.