"Here, I'll help you climb onto the saddle." Jun-Ho said in a kind voice.
He stretched his hand towards Yoon-Yi expecting her to take it, but she simply stood there looking at his palm.
"If you don't want to ride with me, you can go with Shin." Jun-Ho continued in the same kind tone.
"I don't want to go with either one of you." She said quietly, not looking them in the eye.
"But you can't walk. It's a long way to town, it's at least…"
"I don't care." Yoon-Yi cut him off briskly. "I'll walk."
"Suit yourself then." Shin said curtly, jumping on his horse and moving away in sounds of hoofbeats.
Jun-Ho stood there for a moment, conflicted whether he should join Shin or remain with Yoon-Yi. It appeared she was not going to change her mind anytime soon, and he could not very well hoist her up on the saddle by force. Therefore, he jumped on his horse and followed Shin, making sure to keep a steady pace so Yoon-Yi could easily keep up them.
After she made sure there was enough distance, Yoon-Yi followed them slowly on foot. It was an arduous walk, having to trail after the horses uphill. Soon, her feet were aching, and her chest was burning from the heavy breathing.
'You had to be stubborn and refuse the ride. So what if you were scared of them? At least it would have been easier than to struggle like this. Damn ego!' She berated herself.
***
"This girl is stubborn as an ox." Shin huffed when he was sure Yoon-Yi could not hear them.
"Yes, she does remind me of someone else I know." Jun-Ho said looking at Shin pointedly, an amused expression plastered on his face.
Shin's mouth set into a thin line and he scowled at the path ahead but remained quiet. After a moment, he broke the silence again, this time his tone was serious and tense.
"Jun-Ho, are you sure it's a good idea to take this girl with us?"
"I never would have thought you of all people would be against this kind of deed." Jun-Ho said, giving Shin a sideways glance.
Shin looked flustered for a moment. After all, fifteen years ago he had been taken in by Jun-Ho's father. Without that act of kindness, he would probably be starving on the streets right now or even be dead. No wonder Jun-Ho was his son. They both had a compassionate heart, maybe too compassionate for the cruel world they were living in.
"I'm sorry." Shin said after a moment, bowing his head in embarrassment.
"Oh, nonsense." Jun-Ho said airily, waiving a hand. He was smiling at the man he thought of as a brother. "I know you meant well, and you are probably right. We need to be cautious, but what better way to do so than by keeping our enemies close?"
"You're right." Shin said with a sigh.
"Besides, the only danger that girl poses is to herself." Jun-Ho added chuckling.
Shin barely refrained from snorting at his friend's comment. Indeed, he had never seen someone as strange as her. She was both hot tempered and clumsy, making him feel puzzled and confused. Many people would have cowered at the sight of his sword, but she only looked angry. If he were to be honest with himself, he would say he admired her courage.
Little did he know that the thing he simply classified as courage, was in fact an instinctive reaction for Yoon-Yi, one she did not even know she had until now. Similar to how even a rabbit can bite when cornered, so did Yoon-Yi react violently when she felt threatened.
Shin's internal musings were suddenly interrupted by a piercing scream. He and Jun-Ho both turned in their saddle, looking around worriedly.
"Damn it! She's gone." Shin said under his breath.
Sure enough, Yoon-Yi was nowhere in sight. Another scream made the two men think that, in all probability, the source of the noise was the very same girl who was missing. Turning their horses around, they hurried towards the place where the screams were coming from.
A few moments later, they saw a bulky guy holding Yoon-Yi from behind and pointing a knife at her throat. Several others were coming out from the shadows, encircling them from all sides.
"Glad you could join us gentlemen." The man said with a sneer.
Shin and Jun-Ho stopped their horses a few feet away from the man and dismounted swiftly. Shin was just about to take out his sword when the man spoke again.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Or this pretty one won't be so pretty when I'm finished with her." he threatened with a malicious grin, moving the tip of his knife from Yoon-Yi's throat to her right cheek, pressing it slightly as if to make his point.
Feeling the cold metal on her face made Yoon-Yi shudder. She felt a sudden surge of emotion rising in her chest, engulfing her, suffocating her. The more she thought about it, the worse it became. Eventually, the anger, fright, and resentment broke the dam and let the feelings flood her.
"Are you kidding me?!" She shouted furiously at no one in particular. "First, I almost drown to death, then I get threatened by a madman with a sword and now this?! Could this day get any worse?!"
"Shut up woman!" The man holding the knife growled in her ear.
"Oh, sod off!" Yoon-Yi snapped, trying to wriggle herself out of his hold but to no avail. The man was stronger than her.
She was scared beyond reason; adrenaline was coursing through her body like poison. If anything, it made her feel more reckless than she usually would have been. All precaution had been thrown to the wind. She tried to fight off her captor by scratching and biting at his hands, but a sharp pain on her right cheek made her stop instantly.
The man, finally tired and angry with her fidgeting grazed her cheek with his knife. A thin stream of blood fell down her white skin. It hurt and that only made her anger rise even higher. Blood was pounding in her ears and her heart beat faster than ever. She wanted to go home, she wanted to be safe surrounded by her family. If this was a nightmare, she wanted to wake up.
At the sight of her blood, Shin's eyes widened for an instant, before narrowing dangerously. His fingers were itching to grab the handle of his sword, but he had to pick the right moment, otherwise Yoon-Yi would be placed in a more dangerous situation. His mind was thinking furiously of different strategies in order to get out of the current predicament with as little peril as possible.
Then Yoon-Yi's shrill voice reached him, hitting his ears before he could decide on a plan.
"Don't just stand there looking like a pair of idiots! Just cut the bastard in half if you must!"
Tears of anger and frustration rolled down her cheeks, mixing with the blood from the wound.
Seeing her tearstained face, Shin realized something. Yoon-Yi wasn't necessarily courageous like he thought earlier. In all appearance she was frightened to death, but she had something else, something he'd only seen on the battlefield.
Some of the most dangerous warriors he had fought with had that same look, that fearlessness in their eyes when faced with hopeless circumstances. Even in the face of death they would not back down, they would still fight.
Yoon-Yi's eyes showed the same determination, but he could see her resolution starting to falter. If they did not save her soon, she would break.
"Shin we have to hurry!" Jun-Ho whispered urgently as if reading Shin's mind.
"I have a plan, but it's reckless." Shin said under his breath.
"Even more so than what she has been doing? If taunting a kidnapper isn't reckless, I don't know what is." Jun-Ho said, and Shin could pick up the tinge of admiration in his voice.
"We need a diversion to create an opening so you can shoot an arrow at him." Shin said, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration.
"Are you mad?" Jun-Ho cried out in a frantic whisper. "What if he kills her?!"
"It's a chance we have to take." Shin said simply. "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." Jun-Ho nodded making a subtle movement to grab his bow from his back. No one even noticed his hand move. "I still think this plan is nuts, though."
"It's been noted. Now get ready."
In the meantime, Yoon-Yi felt her legs shake. She didn't know how much longer she could keep herself standing, both from exhaustion as well as nerves. Then, she saw Shin looking at her, staring at her intensely. A second later he looked from her eyes to her hand, then back to her eyes again. Baffled by the strange gesture she risked a glance down at her own hands and she saw it, the hairpin tightly clutched in her left hand.
Shin raised his eyebrows questioningly and then the idea hit her like a hammer.
'The pin, I can use the pin. Sure, it won't get me out of this mess but at least it'll give this scum something to remember me by.' She thought angrily, grasping the metallic object tighter between her fingers.
Without warning and taking everyone by surprise, Yoon-Yi let out a yell and stabbed her kidnapper in the hand with which he was holding her. He yelped and retreated a step, but as he did so, he let the knife scrape Yoon-Yi's neckline. She winced and ducked out of the way, just in time to see the head of an arrow shooting right past her. It hit the man in the chest, the force of the impact making him double over.
Meanwhile, Shin had taken out his sword and was wreaking havoc through the other men. By the time he was finished, they were all heaps on the ground.
Yoon-Yi gazed around, trembling all over and breathing heavily. She winced, feeling a warm liquid trickling down her neck, soaking the collar of her blouse shirt. She raised her left hand to her chest, holding close the hairpin which was now bloodied. It left traces of blood on the white silk, but she did not care. In that moment she felt safe holding her tiny weapon close. That object was the only familiar thing she had in this awful world she landed into, and she did not want to part with it.
After shooting his well-placed arrow, Jun-Ho had hurried to Yoon-Yi. He saw her body shaking and reached out his hand, trying to touch her shoulder, but she flinched. With a violent jerk she pushed his hand away and took a feeble step away from the young man.
"It's alright. It's over now, you're safe." Jun-Ho said calmly, as if speaking to a frightened child.
At his words Yoon-Yi looked up at him, her eyes growing wider. Her lips parted and a loud, shuddery sigh escaped from her mouth. Then, as if her entire body had shut down instantly, she crumpled to the ground.