Different People, different feelings

Slap!

Yona jumped, half conscious.

"Get up!" The innkeeper cried, slapping her face again. "You can't die here!"

But Yona knew not what was happening at the time... everything felt like a vague, distance dream...

A fire had been lit around her, warming up the room.

The innkeeper, surrounded by other residents of the inn, worriedly looked on at the young woman sprawled on the itchy wooden floor. Her cloak had been removed from her slim facial features.

"We need cold water!" One man cried, "Otherwise she won't wake up!"

"Wait!" The innkeeper cried out, holding a hand to stop the man. "Look at her. She's shivering. She might have frostbite. Or hypothermia. And we don't have any water that's not frozen at the moment." touched Yona's face... "She's pale and cold."

Yona's eyes flitted slightly, and she breathed heavily... still not fully conscious.

A new trickle of blood slid down her nose, and she fainted again, feeling extremely sleepy...

"What's going on with her?" One of the men asked, and the innkeeper shook her head.

"I don't know, but she needs a doctor right now," The innkeeper snarled. "Her nose is bleeding, look. There's blood on the floor..."

Red water, lay at the young girl's face... darker than her bright red locks that were covered by brown dye.

"Oh, Ma'am Ji-ho, it's just that time of the month!" The same man complained.

"Women don't bleed through the nose at that time." A female voice broke through the crowd, which shifted.

A pair of siblings approached the girl.

They appeared to have a slightly higher status than the other residents, as seen when the residents fell back to give them more space.

A brother and sister, who were assigned to carry special goods to the castle.

"What's going on?" The brother asked. He recognized the window, which was freezing, the lack of fire, and the fainted lady.

The old woman sighed, seeing the pair of siblings.

"You two, thank goodness..." Ji-ho said. "This girl fell unconscious. Can you take her to a doctor?"

"Ooh, who is she, Ma'am Ji-ho?" The sister asked, her tongue clicking flirtatiously. "She's a looker."

The brother rolled his eyes. "Don't start that now, Bom, she might die."

He bent down and started to press at her white toes. "No way... was she walking around without boots? Her feet're cold as ice. Nearly no blood circulation. That's near suicide."

"Stupidity, indeed," The girl replied, taking a blanket out of her breast pocket and wrapping it around Yona's feet. "All I know is that Mom would never let us run off blindly down a mountain trail on our own like that."

"And what if she doesn't have a mother? Maybe she couldn't afford good boots," Ji-ho said flatly. "Save this poor child!"

The sister paused, sensing something off.

"Blood..." Her eyes blinked twice in alarm, noting a new trail of red falling down Yona's nose. "I have gauze in my pocket." She took out a piece of bandage, and knelt down on her knees towards the lady, pressing gauze to her nose, squeezing.

The young girl still did not wake up.

"So she's not a part of the castle's supply chain? How did she end up here?" The brother was perplexed.

"She said she came from a village in the mountains..." answered Ji-ho.

"Not from where, though?"

"I accepted her, as I do with any harmless traveller."

"Being a solitary traveler suits her stupid actions," The girl chimed in. "There are many villages around here. Maybe we can drop her off in the one she belongs to if she gains consciousness."

"She won't," Ji-ho said firmly. "I've tried to wake her to no avail." She checked her pulse. "It's weak. She's breathing raggedly."

"Then we'll take her to a doctor," The sister said, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder.

"But how? What hospital in Hiryuu Castle will take?" Ji-ho declared, looking around. "And what mode of transportation—"

"We have a horse," The sister and brother said at once.

The brother added, "She can sit in the middle, but Hiryuu Castle won't allow her to enter without a permit. We can take her to a doctor we know in Kuuto."

"Should we check her belongings?" The girl smirked.

"There's not much we can do at this point," The old woman sighed. "Do it."

The brother scuffled through her sack of things. "Big bag," he commented.

He noted that there was ink, apples, and some other things he didn't recognize. Something enclosed in a large box. He thought to open it, but the lid wouldn't budge.

After a few moments of futile scuffling, he put the contents back in the bag.

"There's nothing that can help us. We'll take her to a doctor in Kuuto."

"Thank you so much," Ji-ho got up and bowed. "I'm so sorry to take time out of your holidays."

"It's nothing," the sister said. "We were thinking of getting brother's wounds checked out tomorrow too."

Taking Yona's belongings, the siblings carried her to the carriage in their arms, got a horse on the ready, and left the inn.

She's too rich to be a commoner, the brother thought, as his sister held the unconscious figure of the maiden between them from behind the horse.

Yona's hair slipped down her ears, and her eyes continued to stay closed, her nose dripping blood.

The siblings carried her through the right crescent moon and stars. Particles of snow in the freezing winds trailed past them, as if they were in a blizzard, in the middle of nowhere. But the two knew where they were going, because unlike Yona, they were experienced in these treacherous parts. Any minor injury could lead to certain death because there was no proximity to medical help, but they were careful enough to not let a single creature scratch her... whether that be a snow bear, a mountain lion, or any others.

It was clear that if Yona had not been in their hands that night, she would have ultimately died.

Eventually, they arrived down the mountains, setting foot by carriage to Kuuto.

Riding through the streets, they gained some funny looks, being from the Northern parts and wearing coats that didn't seem to belong to Kuuto's regular folk, but they ignored them and went on their way.

The doctor greeted them with a smile that quickly turned into a frown when he discovered the unconscious woman in their hands.

She is sent by carriage to the doctor; one in Kuuto. The man accompanies her, he's at least 25 or so.

He doesn't like her very much, and he's accompanied by another woman.

A few people were with Yona, who is still unconscious.

Yona jumped up in a makeshift bed in a Kuuto hospital room.

"E-eh? What is going on?" Yona exclaimed aloud in fear..

She was enshrouded in darkness... she couldn't see.

No. There was a lamp lying next to her. She was... in a lit room. And she wasn't alone at all.

Next to her, behind her, underneath her, above her... were people... wounded people wrapped in bandages... some sweating with fevers and calling out water... and many nurses and assistants wandering, attending to each one.

She was in a hospital. An inn hospital?

Had she been kidnapped? She fiddled around her pockets, eyes wide with terror. Where were her belongings?

She was completely fucked without her bag — she didn't want to use such language, but it was the only way to describe her plight if that was the case.

"Don't worry, your bag is with the other two who brought you," a voice said, and she freaked out when an old man with glasses and a bushy mustache came near her face with a serious glare and frown.

"H-huh? Other two?" Yona gulped, shivering back away from the old man. "W-who are you?"

"I'm the doctor they sent you to," he said. "You fainted in the inn in the mountains they usually visit every week. Everyone there was in a panic, they said. They had to bring you here or else you would have died."

He held up gauze, and before Yona could stop him, had pressed it to her nose.

"Hhmph!" Yona protested, feeling immense pain from her nose.

"Don't make too much noise," The doctor grumped. "Look, I hate seeing my patients suffer, but it's a must. You gotta tune it all out."

"T-tune it all—" Yona grabbed the gauze herself, pressing it to her nose. She took it off. There were signs of blood. She screamed.

Everyone in the room gawked at her.

She paused mid-scream. "S-sorry," she mumbled.

The doctor rolled his eyes. "You're not the first one. The bleeding's almost gone, you don't have to worry. It was much worse when you came in here. But anyway, what were you thinking?" He growled, his glasses glistening. "Going to a mountain all by yourself... you could have been eaten by any wild animal lurking there! You could have slipped and fell on your head! You were so reckless, child!"

"I-I'm sorry," Yona gasped.

"Honestly, you should be thanking those two who saved you! Thanking them on your knees! If they hadn't brought you, you wouldn't be alive, do you understand?"

Yona nodded vigorously, tears growing in her eyes.

This was all a mistake. Even though she was the Princess, she was continuously being saved by others... why did she leave her home? What promise did she have to see the world her father had hidden from her if she couldn't even muster strength to live outside the castle? What right did she have to even defy him? She wasn't a Princess... she was nothing but a peasant.

"D-don't cry," the old man said awkwardly. "I don't have time to deal with that lousy sobbing crap. I need you to lie down. A nurse will bring you water."

"O-ok," Yona said quietly.

"Also, we have a porridge soup to bring you. Those are healthy things! Not like the Water Tribe stuff, but it's still healthy as much as Kuuto can be," the doctor added. "Hmm. Also, I forgot to tell you — you might have a disease."

Yona's gauze dropped to the floor.

"I'm not one for subtlety. I tend to be a cruel doctor, people say, but I think I'm just being honest," the old man told her. "I do genuinely think this wasn't just hypothermia you had."

"W-what?" Yona gasped. "How do you know th—"

"I'm a doctor," he replied. "You pick up on these things. You were coughing... and there was mucus falling out of your mouth and nose, not just blood. Seemed to me like there was something in it akin to an illness of some sort. You had any headaches recently?" He turned a bushy eyebrow to her, but Yona had questions of her own.

"W-what's mucus?" Yona was unable to understand anything that man said, so she asked that question.

"You silly country bumpkin girl!" The old man's face went red as he lost his temper, and Yona was instantly reminded of Soo-Won's red face when she'd had her last conversation with him. She'd wondered why... if she'd upset him. He'd been quite angry with her, hadn't he...

No. She wouldn't think of him anymore. Never.

"I'm just trying to know what you mean!" Yona argued.

"Well, ALL you lot don't know ANY medical terms!" He gurgled out with impatience. "Only God knows why I keep getting these rural people as my patients! Why couldn't they have gone somewhere else?"

"That's cause no one'll accept us anywhere else," a young man appeared from behind her bed, speaking to the man, along with another girl.

"Hmph! You all just take advantage of my kindness," the old man ruffled his robes angrily and huffed his way to the next batch of patients.

Yona's breath quickened as the two bent down and sat at the edge of her bed. Her legs shrank away from them.

Am... I going to die? She thought, her heart racing. I'm... ill...? Is that doctor right?

"Not everything that old bat says is true," the young man spoke gently to her, and Yona was reminded of Soo-Won yet again. She didn't know what to think. Feelings weren't going... they weren't going no matter how many times she tried to leave them. "I'm sorry he said that."

Yona shook her head. "A-are you two the ones who—"

The young man nodded. "You looked terribly ill when we found you. Even for a country bumpkin. What happened to you?"

Yona felt an urge to jump at the man, hug him, and tell him her life story. His demeanor reminded her of Soo-Won, even if they didn't look the same at all. He had shorter hair and brown eyes, and for whatever reason it warmed her frozen heart, but... she didn't. She didn't.

She didn't want to be rash any longer. She didn't want to be too trusting.

Am I going to die? Do I deserve better?

This isn't fair! I can't take this!

"I was... traveling through the snow," Yona said. "In the mountains."

"You didn't wear any coats or winter wear?" The man questioned. "Well, I'll stop. I'm sure the doctor already scolded you enough..."

"No, it's fine. I had no money. I wanted to—" Yona paused, remembering Rin-go. "To get to Kuuto, to find a place to work."

The girl next to him shifted. "Well... that's difficult as is."

She smiled at Yona, holding a bag. "This yours, right?"

Yona's eyes widened.

The girl handed it to her. "Keep it safe."

"I-I will." She took it. "Th-thank you both so much," she bowed to them. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

The Yona of a few weeks ago would have never... bowed down to them.

But then again, the Yona of a few weeks would have never felt mistrust towards Soo-Won.

The boy introduces himself. "I'm Dal. This is my sister Bom. We live in the mountains."

"O-oh..." Yona said. "What do you both do?"

"Hunt and deliver meat to trade, mainly," The boy stood now, with his hands crossed. For some reason that reminded Yona of Hak. Without thinking... Yona started to chuckle.

These were mountain people... but they were kind mountain people. They'd saved her life.

The girl was surprised. "Ohhh, what's this? You're still a looker," she exclaimed, landing on her bed with a thump.

"Looker?"

"So? What do you say?" The girl inched closer to Yona with a knowing smile. "Do you want to... do you know... with me?" She batted her eyelashes and made a flirtatious movement with her shoulders, which especially confused Yona.

"...Eh...?"

"Stop it, sis," The brother said. "I can tell she's not interested in women."

"I'll wait until she actually says that aloud, thanks bro," The girl snapped, and then turned to Yona, who was more confused. "Sorry," she said apologetically. "Are you interested in women?"

"Huh?" Yona said.

"Not in the friendly way, more in a... you know... way?"

Yona was so stunned by this language that she didn't know how to respond.

"Oh, cat got your tongue? Well, it doesn't matter to me, she's even more attractive now. What do you think, bro?"

"Stop it, Bom," said the brother. "Can't you see you're frightening her? Do you see women like that, you?" He asked Yona now.

"Um... women... can see each other in what way?" Yona questioned cluelessly, stunned beyond belief. "You don't mean, romantically, do you?"

"Of course I do," the girl replied. "I'm not the first. Or do you think otherwise?" She looked at Yona, rather judgmental. Her teeth bared, and now she looked threatening.

Yona was beyond stunned, and her mouth hung open.

"Er—no!" Yona finally said hastily, and then added, as the girl continued to glare at her. "I mean, you're the first I've seen, but you exist still."

"Well, are you not interested?"

"Um... well..." Yona felt rather awkward, and even slightly afraid.

"if you're not interested, nothing I can do. I'd like to marry a looker like you though. One day I might."

"...Women... can marry other women?!" Yona asked again, trying to process it. "Is that... not legal?"

"Who cares what King Il thinks," The girl replied, still sounding rough. "I'll do what I like, and marry a woman I like. I can't help my hormones."

"I... see."

"You're still cute, even though you hit a rough patch," The girl chuckled, and Yona was still rather shocked at the way she treated her. "Got a boyfriend, cutie?" The girl asked Yona.

Yona's expression darkened.

"If you wish for a truth, it's that you should not be here, and because you are, you're only causing me trouble," Soo-Won's cutting remark.

"I told you, Soo-Won. She is the reincarnation of Hiryuu. You are not like her. She needs to be protected and cherished as a gift from the Gods." Her father's hostility.

"...No," Yona said slowly. "I... just want to live alone. Away from stupid discord and trouble."

"But you walked right into it, cutie!" Bom exclaimed, taking a seat next to her on the bedside. "If it weren't for us, you'd be dead!"

The brother nodded, some feet away.

"If you want, you can marry him," Bom said, and the brother glared at his sister. "Bom, shut up! I'll find my own woman!"

Bom laughed in kind. "I might steal your woman if you aren't nicer to me, bro!"

"Dal... is your name, right?" Yona said to the brother.

"Yes," The brother answered reluctantly. "I broke up with my own girlfriend a few months ago, that's why Bom is so keen on playing matchmaker for me."

"Oh... sorry..." Yona said. "Was she from your village?"

"No, a neighboring one," He said. "It's because of the distance between our villages that she could no longer deal with going between our family and her own. There were a lot of fights and discord. But I don't want to get into my life story." He looked at Yona suddenly. "Hm?"

Yona was staring into empty space, in deep thought.

"Hey, what's going on with you?"

She was taken out of her thoughts. "Er... nothing...just..."

Their clothes... they truly were mountain people, it seemed.

She guessed some people could be honest. Even if they acted like Soo-Won in a way. But nevertheless...

She fell back into her bed, feeling sleepy.

"I don't think I'm in a place to think of something so silly like romance right now."

Yona woke up again with a parched throat. Hours had passed without her knowledge

It appeared the doctor and nurses never gave her water in the end... was it that they didn't want to give it when she was sleeping?

She was getting a huge headache... dehydration... or was it an illness? Gauze was in her teeth and nose.

She held her bag tight, wondering if she should eat some fruits... then realized it was too light.

In a frenzy, she opened her bag, and realized that all of her things were missing.

"Doctor!" She screamed, and the doctor's head wheeled around from the far end of the room. "Where are the two that brought me here?"

"Oh, they... left a while back," he replied, disgruntled by her bad manners. "Told me they said goodbye to you. Don't you remember?"

Yona screamed, tearing out her gauge.

They'd lied to her. Stolen her belongings. Fled with the money. "Kind mountain people"? They were thieves.

"Honestly, these country bumpkins never learn..." The doctor shook his head, complaining to another patient. "You think they'd have better memories, being in the wild so much... hey, hey! HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

The girl who'd he tended to jumped out of the bed and run out of the hospital room, cloaked up and carrying a bag of new belongings.

"THIEF!" He screamed, but it fell on deaf ears; the girl was practically flying so far that she could no longer be tracked.

"Your Majesty, are you ready?" Kye-Sook called from the mansion.

"Yes," Soo-Won replied serenely, without raising his voice.

Kye-Sook was surprised to see the young lord carrying a bag. Surprisingly, he hadn't asked any servants to pack everything; instead, he'd done it himself. It wasn't easy; he hadn't even learned to do his own laundry himself, but he'd insisted to Kye-Sook to let him.

Behind his back, though, Kye-Sook made arrangements for his servants to pack more... extra belongings.

It wasn't that Kye-Sook didn't trust the young lord... but in a way, he had raised the boy, and sometimes he felt that he wasn't the best in all subjects.

Kye-Sook still had faith in his abilities... one day, he would match the light that Yu-Hon had shown Kye-Sook himself as he lay in the battlefield, a dying crippled boy.

Until that day... it was Kye-Sook's responsibility to raise him.

Today, the two of them would be going on an incognito mission to the Fire Tribe.

Kye-Sook's disabilities were kept under wraps... no one knew he was crippled. That was precisely why he was chosen on this mission. A necessity.

No one would think a crippled man would be the future king's most trusted advisor.

The two of them were dressed in commoner attire and wigs, leaving on a carriage, ridden by a man of commoner rank.

It was arranged through an informant that the young lord knew for years — don't ask Kye-Sook who it was, he had little interest in personally meeting every single one of the boy's connections besides them giving the proper and necessary information — and the driver that another driver in the Fire Tribe, a man that knew of their plan and detested Soo-Jin, would be there to greet the two as they set out later by convoy. Of course, his background had been immediately checked to eliminate all possibility of betrayal.

In addition, the young lord had also brought one of Lord Yu-Hon's special bodyguards to assassinate any traitors to his future empire.

This would be a dangerous endeavor, but a necessary one and the both of them knew it. There was no room to doubt any longer... the more they waited, the more Kouka Kingdom's fate lay in a precarious limbo.

As the carriage rode by Kuuto streets, another carriage sailed by in haste in the opposite direction.

Kye-Sook sat in the front seat within the carriage, and noticed that the drivers were a man and woman in heavy coats, and another woman with brown hair, unconscious... but he was not interested, so sourly looked away to the back seat towards the young lord.

Soo-Won, on the other hand, was too busy scrolling through the pieces of parchment with Gyosho script in the back seat.

God

Dream

Soul

He skimmed through it, up and down.

Joy

Love

Further.

Health

Hair

More.

Fate

And...

Shine

King Hiryuu

Crimson

Lord Soo-Won's face twisted into a scowl, and he folded the parchment back into his bag.

"Ah," Kye-Sook's voice came defly from the front seat. "You took her papers, didn't you?"

Soo-Won looked up.

"Yes."

"Hm. I was right, then. I thought I heard them." Kye-Sook commented dryly. "Her words were quite unpleasant... I just saw your expression. You must be feeling growing resentment towards Princess Yona, Lord Soo-Won."

Lord Soo-Won did not reply, but he did not negate Kye-Sook's words. Kye-Sook took this as a positive thing.

"I don't blame you. She's King Il's daughter. Of course she will be loyal to her father until the end. It's best to cut the bud before it grows."

Hours later, when Soo-Won and Kye-Sook's carriage reached a destined point and they both began to set out on horse on convoy, a tall messenger run past the Sky Tribe forests...

The man was from Hiryuu Castle, but Soo-Won did not recognize him...

They continued to travel through the nature...

About an hour prior to Soo-Won leaving his mansion with Kye-Sook, Hak was running carelessly through the snow, trying his best to find the Princess.

He was very knowledgable the mountain trails very well, having travelled with Mundok several times on the way to the castle.

Later on, he arrived at an inn, hearing of a young sick girl who fainted.

Asking for a description, he asked for her eye color. But the inn-owners and witnesses didn't see.

What they said was that the woman had short hair.

"Was it red?" He asks. They said, no, it was brown.

She was a commoner who came through a village.

He announced then to the inn people that Princess Yona was missing.

Was that Princess Yona?

It couldn't be, they said. The girl looked like an ordinary commoner. She was far too stupid and ill-mannered and dirty to be a Princess, they said.

In addition, they said... it seemed like she didn't seem to want to speak to anyone.

Hak was left confused. Discontented.

If he didn't find her, then... he'd probably never see the Princess again. If she got kidnapped or killed, he'd never forgive himself.

He could never face King Il either.

The man who had lost his wife to bandits... now losing his only daughter... the man who had been kind to him growing up, giving him buns to eat and speaking to him everyday happily, entrusting him with a task and duty.

The guard that had already braced himself to die for her... because he loved her dearly... even if she never knew of it. Even if she rejected him.

And the man she was supposed to marry, Lord Soo-Won... her relative... what would Soo-Won think?

In the end, he had never really gotten to speak to him about Yona after the martial tournament.

"Hak... I have to go."

What would they both think? King Il? Lord Soo-Won? Would they cry together?

Would... he cry?

The Princess's smile... her cheers... her blushes towards Lord Soo-Won... her constant annoyance at his antics...

Hak just wanted her to return to normal.

He left the inn.

No matter how exhausted he was, it didn't matter. He was expendable. Even if he was a tool, he didn't care about his energy levels. No sitting, no relaxing for him.

The Princess needed him, he convinced himself. She needed him as a tool to live...

Yona ran across the streets of Kuuto, bustling everywhere, lights everywhere.

She was lost.

She was afraid.

She didn't know where she was going...

"OW!" She yelled out, as she had bumped into a large, burly man.

"What was that for, you slut?" The man said angrily.

Yona was stricken. Sl...? She wasn't a...

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"Apologize!" The scary man held up a hand to hit her, and she somehow dodged it.

Was it due to her dreams... her reflexes, she didn't know.

For some reason, she hadn't dreamed of anything between fainting and waking up to find her belongings missing. Why was that?

Was it because she was ill? Because she was dying?

Because she was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be?

This was... the Eastern Underside District of Kuuto.

Without intending to, Yona found herself, surrounded by a group of people supporting the burly man. A group of burly men.

Why did she leave the hospital... oh, she was incorrigible! She was so faint... she was about to get beat up and worse... she could never fix her recklessness!

"Face our ringleader," one of them said. "He'll give a good punishment for not apologizing."

No... she had to fight here! She had to run... she had to keep running... this place was unsafe!

She'd be found, black and blue, tied up, and her father might even...

Was this all fate, or free will?

Was she going to be tossed around like a ragdoll, or was she going to have autonomy?

Relying on her memories to guide her was a mistake... she had nothing now her bag was gone... she was fucked.

Suddenly, a man shrouded with cigarette smoke, a man with yellow curly hair and a stubble, with dirty robes and sandals, walked up to Yona, who'd fell on the ground in weakness to bow.

Yona gasps.

The man in front of her... why did she recognize him from a vision?

But she couldn't remember which one.

She clutched her head, in lots of pain. "Agh..." She groaned, grabbing at her bag, but then realized it had been snatched by one of those burly men.

"What's the big idea, Miss?" The man tilted his head warily. "If you make more of a racket, the truth is gonna spread throughout the capital. Although Won might take it easy."

A/N:

Sorry for hiatus. Glad to see people keep up with this story still!

Anyone know who that man at the end is?

Yes, I added a canonically gay character, we need more of those you know.

Even though the brother and sister saved Yona's life, it's not like they can't betray her... and Yona is realizing that again and again. Every time it breaks her even though she thinks she's learned better. She's not sure what to do with this.

They are country bumpkins and lead different lives from her... probably they don't even have any money... is stealing wrong or right? Were they good or bad people? What is the right thing to do? Yona hasn't really reminisced on this yet, but she will soon. Yona is freaking out and ill it seems. With what? She's still naive and spoiled, it shows when she doesn't know that gay people can exist and accidentally says something triggering (luckily for her it's not taken as offensive... eventually), she can't escape a truth she's known for the past 15 years that easily no matter how hard she tries unfortunately... change isn't as quick as she wants. That's why she trusts too easily, and runs out of the hospital room without thinking.

Yona is though, forced to steal from the doctor, did you catch that? It's unfortunate...

It's not like Kye-Sook necessarily wants the throne for himself... is it? His relationship with Soo-Won is interesting... he's not his friend but not his enemy... it's hard to tell what's up with him!

Of course, no Soo-Won POV as usual, so it's not easy to tell what Soo-Won is thinking. I'd love to read your speculations!

Hak's feelings are being revealed more and more... he's REALLY in love with Yona huh. He won't just give up in the face of despair.