"Jae-ha!"

Sen caught his waist and pulled him back, just barely saving him from falling out the window. She propped him up against the wall and glanced at his wound. The sword had not pierced his heart.

"Haha, serves you right! What does it feel like, watching your lover die?" the soldier goaded. "At least you spared the Lord his energy—ah!"

As he spoke, Sen picked up the object nearest to her and brought it down hard on his head. The cheap bronze mirror broke into tiny shards when it met his face. The soldier staggered. He tried to hold his ground but Sen efficiently shoved him out the window. As he fell, a brief thought flashed through his head—had it been right to pick this profession? Before he could answer it, he landed with a thud, never to rise again.

Upstairs, Sen examined Jae-ha's wound more closely. Looking around, she found a small jug of alcohol and poured it directly into Jae-ha's wound then dabbed away the blood with her sleeve. She didn't dare bind it up for fear that other men of Kum-ji would find them during that time. She glanced at the door. Hate it as she might, Jae-ha was right. There were probably more soldiers by the exit. She grudgingly glanced at the window and let out a defeated sigh.

"Get on my back," she said, turning around. "I will help you escape."

"I don't want to crush you," Jae-ha replied softly. "Your hand is hurt and you look so frail, I'm afraid you'll get hurt..."

"Feel free to stay," Sen replied. "Remember that I've done my best to persuade you, so I hope your curses fall on another when Lord Yang's feasting on your flesh fried lightly in—"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Jae-ha muttered, wrapping his arms around her neck. He took a deep breath. The medicinal scent appeared again. "Same for you. Don't blame me when I flatten you out by accident."

Sen stood up shakily and shooting one last wistful glance at the door, stepped out the window. A piercing pain shot through her palm as she dangled from the windowsill, trying to find the best way to climb to the window beneath them when she heard voices from the hall.

"Hey, where's Yu-baek?"

"Wasn't he assigned to this room?"

"Why's there blood on the floor? Hey, Yu-baek!"

"Yu-baek, where are you? Yoo-hoo!"

Sen grit her teeth and jumped. She landed horribly. Her hands couldn't get a good grip and she slipped to the next floor, hurting her wrist in the process. Jae-ha's arms around her shoulders tightened.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. Sen ignored him and jumped once more, landing on the ground next to the unfortunate Yu-baek.

"It'll be faster if we both walk," she said, setting him down. "Here, lean on my shoulder. I know you should not be moving, but this is the best I can do."

They hurried through narrow streets and dark alleyways. Every now and then, Sen would say things like, "The patrol never goes here," or, "Some drugged man killed three officers there. No soldier in their right mind would follow us in." Most of the time, she was right. Jae-ha only caught glimpses of soldiers twice. Sen was quick to change direction when they did, muttering things along the lines of, "Patrolling here? I bet they just came to drink at Na-lim's."

Luckily Awa did not have city walls. Where the houses ended, the forest began, and into that forest ran Jae-ha and Sen. Although their pace slackened, they didn't stop until nightfall when they reached a spring. Jae-ha collapsed, his face a pale green. Fresh blood gushed from his wound. Sen ripped her sleeve off and began to undress him with nimble fingers.

"You're quite experienced with taking off Kai-style clothes," Jae-ha teased, though his voice faltered mid sentence.

"Still in the mood to joke?" Sen asked with a slight smile. "Lord Yang's second most hated person really is something different."

"Only second? I feel slighted."

"Other than you, there is still Gi-gan," she replied. She poured a little water onto his wound with her hands, making him wince. Carefully, she began to bandage him up. Jae-ha hissed painfully as the cloth pressed against his injury. Sen looked at him with guilt.

"Forgive me," she said. "I should've taken you to Gi-gan's, but I can't take another step and neither can you, by the looks of it. I promise to bandage you up properly tomorrow, okay?"

Jae-ha nodded, too tired to speak. A cold gust of wind passed over them and he involuntarily shivered. Sen noticed and covered him with her warm overcoat. Jae-ha pushed it back.

"What about you?" he protested.

"I'm not the one about to faint from blood loss," she replied. "I don't feel as cold."

Whatever was left of Jae-ha's resistance collapsed. He pulled the coat closer and inhaling the faint smell of medicine, fell asleep.

The night passed away in the blink of an eye. Jae-ha woke up early from the throbbing pain in his chest and found himself covered not only with a coat but with clothes that, although not his, were definitely familiar. He sat up slowly and glared at Sen, who sat cheerfully by the spring with nothing but bindings on her chest covering her upper body. Jae-ha's robes lay at her feet in the sun.

"What on earth—" he began. Sen turned to him with a smile.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully. "Are you feeling better?"

Jae-ha shook his head and pointed at his clothes. "Explain."

"You were shivering this morning, so I covered you up," she said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Your original clothes were clotted with blood, so I washed them. Why?"

"Give them back!"

"Are you sure?" she asked, surprised. "They're still damp."

"I'll live with it." He tossed her her robes. "Put them on."

"What? Are my super seductive chest bindings dirtying your eyes?" she asked, getting dressed. "I did not wish to flaunt them, but I was expecting you to awake much later."

"That's not the point."

Sen looked at him suspiciously. In the end, she just shrugged.

"Whatever you say. If we're done with the matters of fashion, we should start going."

She leaned down to help Jae-ha up, but since his body was still a little stiff, he fell back again. He tried to stand up a few more times and finally succeeded after the fifth attempt. Following his directions, Sen helped him hobble through the woods. While leaning on her shoulder, Jae-ha noticed that he had been wrong the day before. Sen's eyes were not black as he had thought, but a very dark brown. Her face also seemed a bit different by daylight—if one squinted, it could even be called pretty. Perhaps if she would enhance her beautiful eyes with makeup, she could draw more attention. From what he recalled, her body, although a little too thin, was what was considered the beauty ideal. If only she would wear something a little less formless and a little more revealing...

While he was analyzing her qualities, he felt her arm give away under his weight and he stumbled, almost falling on his face. Sen caught him in the last moment with an expression of guilt.

"I'm sorry, I've just never seen such ships and forgot about you," she explained, pointing at the pirate ahead of them. Jae-ha decided to consider it divine punishment for his earlier critical thoughts and shook his head.

"As long as we're here, I don't mind."

When they got closer, an old lady hurried down to meet them.

"Captain Gi-gan..." Jae-ha called. This greeting seemed to suck away all of his strength, for after he spoke, his knees trembled and he dropped his head on Sen's shoulder.

"What happened?" Gi-gan asked, sharply.

"He was accidentally stabbed, ma'am," Sen replied readily.

The woman raised an eyebrow.

"How do you accidentally stab someone?"

"It's a surprisingly common occurrence, ma'am," Sen began, her eyes lighting up, "rather common indeed. I once had the pleasure of meeting this charming young man who happened to stab an officer at an inn one night. Poor fellow, he swore he didn't know it was an officer and that he'd managed to stab him to death without any pain, yet he was convicted and hung the very next day. There is no justice for accidental stabbers in this world, as I can prove to you, ma'am, with another anecdote of a—"

"For heavens' sake, please stop!" the captain cried. "Get to the point or I'll die before I hear the end of it."

The light in Sen's eyes faltered then dulled as she took a deep breath and explained again, now keeping strictly to the topic at hand.

"And now if you'll excuse me, ma'am," she said, "I need to treat this man who got stabbed accidentally because of me. May I have alcohol, gauze and a clean piece of cloth, ma'am?"

After taking care of Jae-ha, Sen was summoned to the captain's cabin. She found the old lady smoking a pipe while studying a map.

"There you are," she said, looking up. "A nice little pinch you've gotten me into. My right hand man was taken out because of a woman!"

"Precisely, ma'am."

"It's all your fault, you know that?"

"I know my wrongs, ma'am."

Gi-gan sighed as she knocked the ashes out of her pipe. "I know this is sudden, but I have a favour to ask of you. My hands are already full with these pirates of mine. Could you help out by looking after Jae-ha?"

"I was Lord Yang's lover, ma'am, yet you place so much trust in me."

"We all make mistakes," Gi-gan said. "You don't love Kum-ji, do you?"

"I doubt his own mother did, ma'am."

"Do you want to go back to him?"

"I would be signing my death sentence if I did that, ma'am."

"There you go. As for assassinating Jae-ha, you've had multiple chances to do so. Why'd you do it under the eyes of so many when you could've killed him off simply by leaving him in the brothel?"

"Reasonable," Sen admitted. She bowed slightly to Gi-gan as she said, "I'll be staying, then, ma'am. My talent as a seamstress is exceptional, so if you need any sewing done, I'd be glad to be of assistance."

"You'd earn more than your living if you did that," Gi-gan laughed. "You don't mind washing clothes stained with the blood of injured pirates, do you?"

"Mind? It's my favorite pastime, ma'am," Sen replied. "I wash them morning, day and night. If there aren't any available, I get a pirate stabbed in a brothel, ma'am."

Gi-gan smiled as she began to search in a large wooden chest. After a moment, she tossed a set of clothing at Sen.

"Your sleeves are ripped, right? Go get changed."

After expressing her gratitude, Sen bowed deeply and left the cabin. Looking up at the sky, she grinned. She had taken a liking to this captain of Jae-ha's.