"Aren't you going to eat? Princess?" Hak asks.

Jaeha snorts. The rest of the Happy Hungry Bunch also snicker.

"Why?" Geuntae asks, not getting the joke.

"Oh, nothing, just that our barbaric Thunder Beast over here isn't the best at cooking and Yona's least favorite food happens to be half-roasted fish and burned food," Yoon explains dryly. "Make one guess why that's so."

(A/N clarification: I got this detail from the YOTD fanbook!)

As chuckles break out, Hak shamelessly admits, "well, the food quality did increase a lot when Yoon joined."

'You weren't kidding when you said you could do everything," Geuntae says.

"Obviously," Yoon replies frankly. A bit too frankly.

Humility is overrated anyway.

Yona stares blankly, her appearance disheveled and her face grimy. She doesn't respond when Hak asks her a question, nor when he urges her to eat up.

She's becoming more and more weak as time goes by, Hak thinks grimly.

The princess on screen and the one Lili and Taejun know cannot be more different. Like day and night – one wallows in darkness and sorrow, the other lights up their lives with the warmth of dawn.

Both are Yona, just her at different stages of her life.

The scene cuts to Yona bathing in a glistening lake.

The men all cough, turning away as their cheeks heat up. And by the men… Lili sighs, realizing once again that she's the only female in the room.

"If I catch anyone looking I will take that you're giving up the rights to your eyes," Mundok growls, though how he'll do that is a mystery since his own eyes are firmly shut.

Kija goes an extra step further by covering his eyes with one hand and slapping his clawed hand onto an unsuspecting Jaeha's face, eliciting a surprised grunt out of the latter. "E-everyone look away!" he demands – even his ears are starting to turn red.

Hak finds his gaze being cast downwards as well, even though later it would be him on screen tending to Yona since she got attacked by leeches.

Lili rolls her eyes. "There is nothing –" she emphasizes the word " – to see over here. Yona's body isn't on display because it's blurred."

Kija slowly opens his fingers, his eyes half-closed as he peeks through the gaps to see that Lili is right. Jaeha slaps his hand away, grumbling under his breath.

The flush slowly dissipates from the men's faces, glad that they haven't witnessed anything inappropriate. They certainly don't want to come across as lecherous or debauched, regardless of their actual sentiments towards Yona – even Kyesook. No, it's especially because Kyesook is who he is that he must maintain a proper distance from Yona.

It's not just physically, Hak notes. Even after all this time, she has been unable to face the reality of His Majesty's death… or Soowon's betrayal.

Taejun nods seriously. "I can understand why she refuses to believe it. If it were me… Well, it'd be like telling me to believe that Brother killed Father to steal the position of the General of the Fire Tribe, except I saw the whole thing so he was coming after me to kill me too!" He falters. "Hmm, except I'm obviously not in love with Brother…"

Kyoga shoots him the stink eye.

"Eh, was that not a good analogy?"

"No," Kyoga snaps, his tone withering. "I do not appreciate being compared to Soo – errrr."

He shut his mouth before he made a grievous mistake, but the damage had already been done. He nearly called the king by his first name, dropping all honorifics. And he implied that he hated being compared to said king.

Kyoga is very, very screwed.

"Soo… Soo… Super terrible murderers was what I wanted to say," Kyoga attempts and fails to salvage the situation. No one is persuaded by his late save.

"Sure," Hak drawls.

"It's fine," Soowon says generously. "Sometimes our emotions get the better of us." He smiles in his usual angelic manner.

Kyoga swallows. "Thank… Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty."

Soowon taps his finger against his lips contemplatively. "Calling me that does sound very stifling. If you wish, you can just address me by name –"

"NO!" Kyesook and Kyoga both blurt out.

"It's fine, er, that is, thank you, Your Majesty, but I think I'll just stick to… Your Majesty," Kyoga finishes somewhat lamely.

"If that's what you are comfortable with."

"Ah!"

Hak whirls around at Yona's startled shriek, running to her side without hesitation.

An undressed Yona sits on the ground, one hand clutching her chest as water drips from her hair. Leeches cling onto her bare legs, which Hak begins to flick away.

"Hak…" Mundok begins warningly. "What did I say I would do to those who dared to watch the unclothed princess?"

"You would gouge out their eyeballs?" Hak supplies nonchalantly.

"Get over here!"

"I'll pass."

Mundok stands, his chair skidding back. Then he begins chasing Hak around the room, whacking at Hak who always remains just an inch out of his reach. This continues until King Hiryuu has to step in to break up the never-ending chase, leaving both of them as well as the eager watchers who have been cheering for them winded.

"They live in ponds and swamps. They suck blood," Hak explains in his usual casual tone.

"Blood…" Yona mumbles.

"Don't worry." Hak glances up. "It's no big deal…" he trails off, noticing Yona's nakedness for the first time.

Mundok opens his mouth to scold Hak again, but someone else steals his thunder. Literally.

There's a cracking sound not unlike that of thunder when Kija slams one hand onto his chair, smashing it into splinters as he stands, yelling, "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

He shoves one dragon claw into Hak's face. "You demonic, lecherous, depraved pervert!"

"Hold on, let's not overlap the pervert character," Yoon begins but is cut off by Kija.

"Indeed Jaeha has been right all along, you are the most dangerous beast of us all! You are a prancing lion in wolf's clothing –" how that line even made sense to Kija is beyond them " – and you must atone for it! At times like this, one must punch at the sky! Sumerge in pure clouds! And –"

"And there is a bug on you," Hak says boredly.

Kija stops in the middle of his tirade and leaps. Jaeha would have been impressed if he hadn't leaped onto him.

"What the hell?" Jaeha grouses, suddenly finding Kija clinging onto him like a koala bear.

"Where? Where?" Kija glances around wildly. "Where's the bug? Get it off, get it off!"

Shinah's eyes track Kija's body all over. Once. Twice. "There is… no bug… Kija," he says eventually.

"Ehhh?" Kija shrieks in confusion, still hanging onto Jaeha. Jaeha has to physically pry him away – Kija's closeness is quite unsettling recently though Jaeha can't fathom why – and he can't quite meet his eyes as he says forcibly, "and now it's time for you to return to your seat… if you hadn't wrecked it."

No worries, King Hiryuu's voice echoes throughout the chamber. There's a swoosh sound and the fragments of the chair start to piece themselves back together again like the pieces of a puzzle completing themselves, until a whole chair remains.

More than a few gazes are tinged with awe. Every time they forget that King Hiryuu is a god… Well, he always reminds them with actions like this.

Kija settles down, complaining about how betrayed he feels over Hak's lie. The only one who is listening to his rant is Shinah.

"I'll put your clothes here." Hak turns around immediately and practically flees. He knows he'll have to get used to scenes like this, but telling himself that and believing it are two separate affairs.

You better not get too used to sights of the princess bathing, Mundok thinks darkly.

He thinks of Yona's unresponsiveness, likening her to that of a doll. His thoughts turn into resentment towards Soowon.

Are you satisfied… with ruining all that, Soowon?

Satisfied? Soowon thinks. No, if satisfaction was what I was aiming for then I have failed horribly. But if it was bringing about the rise of Kouka… then I have succeeded.

He glances around at the generals in the room, barring Taewoo, and his mind tells him that he did the right thing. Yet his heart stutters.

Right thing? Can anything that involves murder truly be right? He shoves the sneaky thought away from his mind. His father, the bravest and strongest man he knew, went on conquests in the name of Kouka all the time.

Death can be justifiable. It has to be.

Just then, Hak bumps into something metallic. He picks up a familiar hairpin – the same one that Soowon gave to Yona, recognizing it immediately. Anger clouds his features when he realizes that Yona is still holding onto something as useless as that.

"I'm starting to hate that hairpin," Yoon grumbles. If he were Yona he would have thrown it out long ago.

"You aren't the only one," Jaeha mutters, receiving many nods in return.

Later, the pair is on the move again, to cover more ground before the sun sets. Throughout it all, Yona's gaze remains vacant and listless.

When night descends, they decide to rest in a small clearing crawling with bugs.

Kija pales dramatically. "B-bu-bugs," he chokes out, using every bit of willpower in him to restrain himself to prevent history from repeating again.

"Oh yes, these are bugs, how smart!" Yoon claps his hands. "You have now managed to identify bugs, good job."

"He's mocking me. He's mocking me, isn't he?" Kija asks, getting silence as his reply.

"Jaeha!" he whines, unhappy with the lack of response.

Jaeha sighs. Why him? "Yes, he was mocking you."

Kija brightens. "I knew it. I was right!"

"How nice for you."

While Hak assures Yona that the insects are harmless, Yona pats at herself. Her movements turn more insistent as her eyes darken, something like panic replacing the dullness in them.

"She was looking for the hairpin, wasn't she?" Yoon sighs. "Just throw it away, Yona!" he begs, even though he knows that she wouldn't, since he would later see it again.

"It was the first time she felt an emotion other than apathy ever since she was chased out of the castle," Lili notes. "All because of that hairpin."

The only place that hairpin belongs is impaled inside the king's heart, Jaeha thinks darkly, but doesn't say it aloud. Unlike some other people – cough, a certain impulsive dragon, cough – he has way more restraint than to make himself Public Enemy Number One.

"What's wrong?" Hak's perceptive eyes zero in on Yona. "Did you lose something?"

Mundok shakes his head. "You already knew, so why bother asking? You were the one who took the hairpin, after all."

Kyesook blinks. "Hak took it?" Despite his acuity, he wasn't able to pick up that.

The Happy Hungry Bunch just glances at him. "Wasn't that super obvious?" Yoon says flatly.

Kyesook shakes his head. "You guys certainly know a lot about Hak…"

They're not quite sure what he's getting at.

Or maybe you know nothing about him, Kija thinks snarkily, but a look tinged with warning from Jaeha is enough to make him zip his mouth.

Yona shakes her head mutely.

As the fire crackles, Yona recalls Soowon's words to her, and how he was the first person to make her love her hair. As she leaves to go somewhere, Hak asks where she's going. Yona dithers, and Hak assumes she needs to relieve herself.

"Did you seriously fall for that?" Mundok growls, displeased with how lousy of a guard his grandson was being.

"Of course not," Hak scoffs. "I gave her the benefit of doubt, but some part of me did acknowledge that there was a possibility she was going to look for the hairpin. I just… didn't want to listen to that part," he adds softly.

"I can't believe Yona disliked her hair so much. It's so beautiful," Lili says enviously. "I love how the light glints off her red hair."

"Zeno too!" Zeno agrees. "The little miss's hair sparkles like the light of dawn."

Yona begins to retrace their footsteps, undoubtedly looking for the hairpin. The tree leaves rustle ominously, and when she glances behind her, her gaze fills with fear at the sight of a snake.

"What were you doing, Hak?!" Mundok glares at his grandson, annoyed that Yona was in such grave danger.

"Don't worry, Mister would save her from the snake," Zeno chirps.

"And how do you know this?" Kyesook asks suspiciously.

"Oh, Zeno has been following the mister and the miss since they got kicked out of the castle," Zeno reveals nonchalantly.

"WHAT?!" several people shriek.

Zeno just shrugs.

What a fearsome stalker, Joongi thinks with a slight shudder. Perhaps his outward innocence is but a facade…

I was never the Soowon you knew… to begin with, Soowon's words replay in Yona's mind. If anyone stands in my way… I will eliminate them.

"No!" Yona screams as the snake strikes.

"A snake. How fitting," Kija sneers.

"Temptation, deceit and treachery," Yoon notes. "Those are what snakes are symbolic of."

Those three words do seem to fit a certain king very well.

Soowon feels something prickling at him. He kind of… Alright, he admits it. He kind of feels bad for Yona. It's not quite regret, it's not exactly guilt, but just… it's an uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling that gnaws at him slowly, growing more and more persistent over time.

It's the annoying buzz of a bee beside his ears, one that he can't quite catch; it's the little niggling thought at the back of his mind which he can't quite get rid of; it's the remnants of his nightmare that he can't quite forget.

Hak swoops in from nowhere, embracing Yona protectively as the blade of his guandao stabs into the snake.

"Zeno would have stepped in if the mister were even a second late," Zeno says randomly. It was probably supposed to sound reassuring. Instead, it just makes him sound a bit creepy.

"… Just curious, where were you at that time?" Hak asks, slightly impressed with how silent Zeno had to be for him to be undetectable. Then again, Zeno has lived for over two thousand years, and they're only beginning to uncover his secrets.

"That tree over there." Zeno points at the screen. "On the highest branch."

They all glance at the tall tree silently.

"Zeno is very good at climbing trees," Zeno explains off-handedly.

"And stalking people, apparently," Hak comments dryly.

"And stalking people." Zeno doesn't deny it. Far from it – he is as cheerful as ever. The generals in the room wonder if there is even anything that can make Zeno flare up with anger or keel over with despair. They somehow doubt it.

Frazzled and panicked over Yona venturing so far, Hak tears into her, chastising her for her reckless action.

"Do you want to die?" he ends off angrily.

Yona flinches.

"Yeah, I know, that might have been a bit harsh of me," Hak says before Mundok can tear into him again.

"A bit? Try a lot," Kija huffs. "Though the princess was being rash."

Slither.

They have a more pressing problem at stake as they've just walked into a snake lair. Hak carries Yona, staggering when a snake bites him.

More than a few people wince. Taejun even turns a little queasy at the sight.

"You were lucky that the snake's bite wasn't lethal," Yoon comments.

"You can identify its species based on that glimpse?" Kyesook demands, tapping one finger against his armrest somewhat agitatedly.

Yoon sniffs. "Of course. Who do you think I am?" He flicks his hair a bit arrogantly.

Kyesook stops tapping.

Just what is it with Yona gathering the most bizarre group of such rare talents?! If she's not planning a rebellion, what else can it be? And he hates… he hates that he's almost covetous of the power of the four dragons, of that young lad who is wise beyond his years and worst of all, the Thunder Beast himself.

If there was a way to leash the Thunder Beast and use him with Soowon's safety guaranteed, Kyesook would have taken it even if it meant jumping headfirst into hellfire.

Hak is unyielding, and he breaks into a mad dash, evading the snakes as he flees with Yona in his arms.

A feeling of admiration washes over Geuntae. The sense of duty in Hak was so strong that it overrode all reasoning, allowing him to defy logic to carry the princess to safety.

Most impressive indeed.

"Use me… as your shield," Hak says grimly, sweating profusely from the exertion. "That… That is what I'm here for."

Yoon's brows slam down.

When the four dragons are gathered, the sword and shield which will protect the king shall awaken, and the Red Dragon shall restore the dawn at last.

Why did Hak's words remind him of that prophecy? Specifically how he referred to himself as Yona's shield…

Yoon's frown deepens. Maybe – no, that may be too far-fetched and he's just grasping at straws. It's still too early, much too early, to even tell anyway.

Later, Hak bandages the wound on his leg, gritting his teeth through the pain.

He reassures a concerned Yona that he's fine, before whipping out the hairpin.

"Was this what you were looking for?"

"Oh, you totally knew that was what Yona dear was looking for," Jaeha drawls. "Tsk-tsk for confiscating the hairpin from her."

Hak's fist slams out, and Jaeha swiftly jumps out of his chair, causing Hak to almost punch Kija instead.

"I don't remember asking for your opinion," Hak says to Jaeha, withdrawing his fist. "Damn, I missed," he mutters annoyedly.

"JAEHA!" Kija yells, betrayed.

Jaeha drops back into his seat.

"Sorry, Kija dear," he says reflexively.

"It's – wait, what?" Kija asks, doing a double take. He wonders if his ears heard it correctly. "Kija dear?" he repeats incredulously.

Jaeha shrugs. "Just a habit."

Kija seems convinced by that and drops the matter. Now if only Jaeha can convince himself… along with the rest of the Happy Hungry Bunch currently eyeballing him…

Yona's expression collapses. She takes the hairpin gingerly and stares at it.

"I won't forgive Soowon," Hak says suddenly. "But aside from that… I want you to live."

His wish hasn't changed, Hak realizes.

At first he just wanted the princess to survive, where her living another day was a victory in his eyes. Then he grew greedier and wanted her to live for herself, and to live for them – the new friends, new family she had found along her journey.

And now… he wants her to live the life that she deserves, the life that can give her happiness, the life where she's the heroine of her own story instead of the victim in a villain's tale.

His lips turn up. Watching Yona's life, he supposes the last part of his wish has come true.

Hak shoves aside all his negative feelings about the hairpin – so long as it sustains the princess, he'll be fine with it. No matter what it is.

That's how it has always been, Hak acknowledges.

He will sacrifice every bit of himself if it's for Yona's sake, and he will do so gladly.

When Yona and Hak rest against a large tree trunk, Yona glances at Hak's injury again.

"I'm alright."

Joodoh almost snorts. Right, as if Hak wasn't sweating enough to fill a river…

As a seasoned swordsman, he has been trained to recognize his own body's telltale signs of being under the weather or worse, so he can gauge right away that Hak was in no way "alright" at all.

Yona jumps. Hak dispels her fears by saying that he won't fall to a snake bite, and then suggests they get going.

Yona asks why they've headed into the mountains instead of to a village where there's food and medicine. Hak replies shrewdly that some people may turn them in for a reward since Soowon could have sent out portraits of them.

"So did you send out those portraits?" Lili asks, curious.

"I didn't." Soowon doesn't elaborate more.

"I bet a certain advisor wasn't happy about your decision," Lily presses. Indeed Kyesook looks peeved at the jab which is also the truth.

Soowon stares back at Lili calmly. "I trust Kyesook and his judgment, but where our opinions differ, my mind won't be swayed that easily."

In short, he's not as weak-willed as Lili seems to think he is. Joongi clicks his tongue in disapproval of his daughter's words.

Lili flushes. "I wasn't implying – ugh, never mind."

"Then where are we going?" Yona asks.

"I'm afraid now that the only place we can seek refuge… is the Wind Tribe's capital, Fuuga. My hometown."

End of Chapter 5: I'm Just Breathing

"That's a sad title for this chapter," Taejun says, staring at those three words despondently. "The princess was really like a doll who would only talk if you spoke to it and ate if you told it to…"

"Though not anymore, thankfully," Lili replies, mustering some cheer in her words. Though Yona's situation as of this point was quite, well, bad, to say the least, she is pretty sure that things will start to go uphill for the princess who has been backstabbed and watched her father get stabbed.

She hopes.

"The Wind Tribe… I'm looking forward to seeing your tribe, Hak," Kija says, his eyes shining. "I've never been to the Wind Tribe before."

"Me neither…" Shinah pipes up.

Kyoga's gaze darts between the very sheltered Kija and the plain suspicious Shinah, whose somewhat creepy mask and Ao perching on his shoulder only serve to make him stand out more, and not in a good way. "Somehow, I can't say I'm surprised."

Hak waves a hand. "My tribe is full of a bunch of good-for-nothings," he says, thinking of the lazy attitudes of certain members. Like their current general.

Free like the wind my foot, he thinks dryly. More like aimless like the wind.

"But if you're that interested…" he gestures towards the screen. "Then watch."

All in agreement with Hak's words, King Hiryuu quickly brings up the next chapter.

Princess, the Wind Tribe… is already in sight.

A/N:

Starting from the next chapter onward, what they're reacting to (the bolded words) will be written in past tense. I originally wrote in present tense for convenience and because I'm more used to it, but I have decided to change it because it's not very logical since whatever they're watching has already happened.

Also I'm not even sure if the author would ever go back to the prophecy but I have always speculated that perhaps Hak is the mentioned shield. Let me know your thoughts!

Next chapter is waaay longer than this one so I shall slowly trudge through it XD

See you all next time!