Walking the Path Chosen
Chapter 4: Mae Hee
by deadkitty1
More and more missions are undertaken and the name of the Red Crescent Moon Army becomes renowned by not only the common people, but by the higher class and the people at the palace. Choi Young gradually climbs the ladder to succession as he gains the attention of his teammates who praise his skills and admire his talent. Age had nothing on him. Mae Hee knew he would eventually reach her ladder of skills but she had no idea he'd come up the ranks so fast. Through most of the sparring and teamwork, they somehow ended being paired up and with each meeting, their minds grow closer. Young is fascinated with her ambition which is abnormal in an era where women could gain little from it, yet she breaks people's expectations and assumptions based on her gender with fiery ease. The men in the camp would never think to cross her as her intimidating demeanor scares off any boy wanting her attention. It's different with Young though. He takes in her grave attitude with respect and unwavering curiosity that he can't manage to shake.
Her extraneous hardworking ideals rub out on him as she is constantly working and improving her mind and body. As she keeps adding a step to her routine to tire out the weak, Young pushes his limit, hoping to keep up with her unreachable standards. She observes him with silent praise as he passes one test after another. She can't avoid him as he keeps coming up to her for advice and more information for training. He even discovers her secret spot by a big evergreen tree where she keeps to herself one day and receives a verbal beat down from it.
Everyone soon comes to know Young as Mae Hee's puppy, the warrior who won't leave her side. When he finds out she's not where he assumes she should be, he suddenly panics unnecessarily. Her independence strikes him as dangerous because with her short-fuse temper, she can attract a lot of danger. He also worries about her overworking and taking on more than her share, so he always subtly suggests pairing up or using a team to do the job even when she insists on doing it herself. None of the other Red Moon Warriors would brashly charge by themselves without a plan only her. It makes him more considerate of the girl than he would to any of the others and her constant state of flux just adds to his own state of nerves as he tries his best to protect the girl without her knowing. She would see his act of protecting her as her weakness and that would spurn a whole mess of trouble if she ever misunderstands. Try as much as he would, he just can't seem to leave her alone.
On one cold windy night, the pair team up to sink a Japanese ship floating on a hidden dock. There would be another team ambushing the enemy troops settling on land. The mission looks easy enough and the chilly weather isn't going to get in the way of it. The two creep through the darkness, communicating by movement. Young goes ahead to scope out the area and spots five men having a drink by the ship. He signals to her as she disappears for the strike.
The foreign man stands unaware with a drink in hand whistling a tune. He stops as he senses something wrong. Before he can put a finger to it, a slick rope wraps around his thin neck and in one pull it snaps the bone in half. The muffled moan brings attention to two of the men close by. They take a step forward and one gets hit by the throat, spraying blood while the other man has his stomach cut wide open spilling his intestines on the ground. Young feels the gripping rage from another behind him as he simply avoids the near lethal strike with a dodge. Finding himself face to face with the enemy, he engages in a fight. The man stabs and strikes three or more times with the quick Red Moon warrior following each one with a block. Feeling the enemy lag, Young uses it to his advantage as he deflects a half-hazard strike to stab him in the back. As he pulls out his sword, the man groans in pain, falling over in a dead slump. The warrior catches his breath and sheaths his sword as he begins to look for Mae Hee.
As he trails the side of the ship in silence, he couldn't help feeling worried as his line of sight fails to spot her movements, then before he shouts her name and gives away their position, she appears to give him the signal to leave. He observes her make her way out of the ship with the stealthy grace of a cat trailing the shadow. He didn't know he was holding his breath the entire time until she makes it safely inside the forest. The dazed warrior clears his jolted nerves as he gets ready to climb off the ship. Just then a yell startles him from behind. A cut strikes his shoulder. Red splatters his view. He takes his sword immediately stopping the man's next strike. He locks eyes with the attacker, watching in shock at the blood gushing from the wound through his back. It's the man he stabbed earlier. He's still alive!
Young knocks the sword right out of the pitiful enemy's hand as he stabs him one more time for good measure. The man lets out a guttural groan with clumps of blood streaming from his mouth as he curses the clumsy warrior in language he didn't understand. Young could not look away at the mess of blood. It covered the man and the ship and even where he stood. It was everywhere! He grieves at the tormented death then tries to remove his sword from the body. The dead man's hands lock lightly around it, refusing to let go. Young only tugs a couple of times before he abandons it and jumps ship but not before the huge blast rips through everything, even him. Burning pain and shock ripples through his body to the point where it just shuts down.
In a distance, Mae Hee watches in horror as his body drops into the cold water. With her nimble feet, she takes off as much of her clothes before jumping into the freezing water to save him. She needs to make it in time. A strong person like him can't die! Not yet. She knows his worth is important for the Red Moon Army and the future of their country. He cannot die.
Mae Hee struggles to bring him on shore as she checks for a pulse. The heartbeat staggers to be heard. A sound triggers her attention as the light of the burning ship erupts to expose the full damage done to the warrior. Part of his arm and shoulder suffer horrible burns and so does his face with the clothing almost melding with his skin. Working fast, she rips off his shirt and pulls his pants off with ease. She in turn rubs her body and him dry with the remnants of dry clothing she left on the shore while trying to avoid the clash of the cold wind sending her into a fit full of shivers. She desperately would give anything for a fire or shelter against the weakening cold but she needs to focus in order to save him.
Nobody would make it through this kind of searing pain overnight, even the image of the burnt skin and the constant suffering trauma would bring even the strongest person down. With no choice, she gathers her hands and places them on his shoulder. A dim glow builds as the burnt skin rebuilds anew. It spread throughout his body fixing the tissues and nerves. Soon the pain dissipates. Young's face slowly relaxes and before long, not even a trace of a scar remains marked on the skin. She moans a sigh as she clutches her hand on her chest to regain a steady heartbeat. Her time is once again given away. Using inner power drains a person's own life force but hers in particular takes a big chunk out of it. She never considered her life as valued. It's the life of others that will help bring the future she has been imagining while she makes the best of her time and place now.
Mae Hee picks a perfect spot with plenty of cover and foliage. She piles a bunch of dry leaves on top of Young to keep him warm before she herself succumbs to sleep. The cold wind can try as it may, but it fails to blow through the spot to freeze the couple. Even the stony hill keeps a good cover from the light as it keeps the couple safe from invading enemies.
The night crawls on a slow pace until one of them starts to awaken from the numbing feeling on his shoulder. When he inspects it, he jumps out of his skin at the sight. Mae Hee, trying to keep warm, has fallen asleep on his shoulder right by his side. Her profile is so close, he can see the wave of her eyelashes flicker from his breath. He tries to rattle his head on the events that happened to have her and him end up in such an awkward situation and also how to pry himself out from such a compromising scandal. His thoughts come to a stop as his body suddenly tenses at the faint rustling within a few feet away. Before he can spring into action, he feels the coldness of a knife unsheathe by his side. The once peaceful sleeping beauty is now wide awake but the position they're in can hardly be seen as threatening. It in fact looks like a lover's embrace after a passionate intercourse which can only come by their close hug and by their lack of clothing.
Young reads Mae Hee's eyes and feels conflicted in following it. She glares in extreme measures and he forcibly obeys by pulling her closer to his embrace while the voices get louder. For a split second, their cover can get blown. They can be killed. They will cease to exist. In that stillness, being next to her in the face of death, dieing to protect someone, a friend, it didn't seem so bad. It would be the kind of death he'd rather have as many of the warriors have passed away in the same instance.
The voices stop, noticing the couple among the pile of leaves. Respecting the couple's intimacy, they retreat elsewhere, disappearing with each crunch of a leaf. Young never noticed her scent before and the smell is distinctly familiar to him. Something akin to winter like mint. He becomes immerse in trying to identify the smell that he fails to notice Mae Hee's awkwardness growing as the seconds tick by. He's hasn't released his hold over her, in fact he leans closer, breathing deeper. It finally gets too uncomfortable for her and she pries his arms away with force, shoving him down with brute strength. By chance the stray blush on her cheek remains hidden in the night, though it's evident the tingling in her body could not be erased and it's more than just the cold wind blowing through her skin.
She gathers the dry yet still damp clothing from the branches and throws his to him in annoyance. He picks it up, getting the cue to dress and leave quickly. He trails closely, matching her speed and stride through the rocky terrain. Usually he'd keep quiet during their walks, respecting her leadership in handling the getaways, but now with the cold air circulating his brain, he finds his questions just too overwhelming to keep in.
"How-how am I alive?" he mutters intimately curious.
Mae Hee flashes a look back pointedly telling him to keep his silence. Her eyes search for any unusual noises before stepping through another area. As her pace gets faster, Young can see she's doing all she can to avoid answering him. Sadly, he's unable to stop.
"What happened? Did you save me? How did we get up on the hill?" he pesters. She didn't even bother shutting him up as she launches forward into a valley. The warrior in turn steps over a log and propels forward next to her. She shoves his blockade easily with her arm, concentrating on the direction of their camp ahead.
Not willing to ignore the issue, he continues, "And why were my clothes gone? And yours too? Why were we... Did we do something?"
She skids to a stop as her eyes pop out in alarm. She has the sudden urge to tie him up with her whip and leave him on a branch to freeze to death at his idiotic bluntness. Has he no idea the pain she went through to save him? And the embarrassment she subjected herself to for him to be alive at this very moment?! That mouth of his needs a lesson in manners.
"Choi Young, I would never put myself in a position like tonight unless there were dire circumstances. As you can see, we were in dire circumstances," she explains haughtily through the brunt of her teeth. "You were injured badly. I was exhausted from healing you. Yes, my inner power is healing. Plus you were wet. So was I. It-it was cold. It still is actually."
She quiets as flashes of his naked skin race through her memory. Her hands clumsily undressing him. While healing, her hands had to touch his shoulder, his face, his chest... Rearing back her pride, she yells, "So does that explain things now?! Do I need to go further?"
Sensing he might have gone a tinge too far and embarrassed both of them, he accepts the information while she continues tracking their way back to camp. He stares at the outlines of her back, feeling guilty for his incompetence at misjudging a kill then burdening her to save him and use her inner power. He wanted to prove she didn't need to work alone and yet he's done the opposite. The fault lies with him and his carelessness. His ego needs to be kept in check. It's only by a stroke of luck Mae Hee saved him, next time he will not be so lucky.
Once they set eyes on their camp, Young shuffles up to bow in gratitude and shame. Taken aback, she stares at him weirdly.
"I'm very thankful for what you did to save my life. I know you must have sacrificed a lot to save me. I'm sorry to be a burden. I will do better next time," he said.
Mae Hee touches his shoulder to get his attention and to meet those eyes. She shows him a small smile as she tells him in a gentle voice unlike her at demeanor at all, "Young-ah. I do not leave my teammates behind, not when I know I can save them even if it cost me my life. Do not place every mistake on you. While placing the dynamite, I could've checked to make sure the enemy was fully taken care of, so the fault lies with me too. Let's just learn from this and thank the gods we made it out alive."
They share a brief moment of understanding as they go to report to their commander. While they stroll in to be greeted by their pledged brothers and sisters, Young brushes his shoulder unconsciously remembering her hand's grip against it. Mae Hee in turn could not face him directly in the eye without thinking about his body holding hers in the forest tonight. Even as they go through separate tents, regale different stories of their mission (cutting out the part in the hill), and go to bed, they end up stuck in deep insomnia, staring in the darkness as each scene hits them all at once. Her scent sticks inside his senses as he tries to breath her out. His eyes seem to penetrate her mind as she flusters in panic. Also the warmth of each other's skin accidentally stamps the intimate touch in their hands as a permanent memory. Young clenches his hand as he hits his fist on the ground, punishing such sinful imaginings away. Unfortunately, it's only the beginning of their tale as first love usually starts with an embarrassing crush that leaves a lasting impression on both of them.