Loyal • Muse | NamMin || BOOK 2#

II. Rumors and complications

"Excuse me, sir."

The man turns and softens his expression to see Jimin. He has a cross-body bag, full of medicinal plants he picked up from his mom's garden and a painting there is of the two of them with him. The man squats down in front of Jimin.

"Do you need anything?"

"I need to go to Hayak."

"Hayak?"

"Ummm The capital?"

"Ah, Hanyang" He corrects softly and Jimin nods embarrassed. "You're going alone?"

"Mom and Dad haven't come back and they once said they wanted to go to the capital. I think they'll be there, but my feet hurt and I wanted to know if I could ride in their carriage, please." He makes a pronounced bow that gets a chuckle out of him.

"Sure, sure, just don't throw away what's there OK?"

Jimin smiles and the man helps him into the cart. He had him for the two weeks of travel it took to get from Busan to Hanyang, but he was pleasant and tender company. He feels a little sorry for him, because he assumes his parents are dead. You can tell he's a little boy, and even if you wanted to help him, he has a big enough family to take care of to add a child. He wants to believe he will be okay. Whatever happened to his family and village, he got over it. Possibly he's a lucky kid and having a water dragon, he's sure to have something better ahead of him.

~ * * * ~

"Namjoon please! How many times do I have to tell you the same thing? Stop wasting time with that. there are too many things to do and you're not helping."

"It was a good class."

"It doesn't matter about the class, it matters that you help me. Your dad will be back any minute. What are we supposed to do if your dad didn't get to pass the guard exam? We can't just..."

His mom keeps nagging him, but Namjoon doesn't pay attention to her in the slightest. He's keeping an eye on something else. Much more relevant to whether his dad is part of the royal guard or if they will have to be peasants for the rest of their lives. His focus is on the boy who arrived about two weeks ago. Lost as a puppy and now working at one of the market stalls carrying things. He is very small in size so he always sees him with a red face and tears in his eyes. He gets to be cuddly.

His blue hair always stands out and gets darker if he is in the shade. Namjoon has not been able to get close to him, but between that stall and his mother's stall there is little distance. So there is a slight overlap. I would like to go and talk to him. Maybe be his friend and ask him if he has a place to live or sleeps on the floor behind the house for fun. There are weird people so don't rule it out.

"Bring the baskets in the back." His mother orders and Namjoon rolls his eyes in annoyance. "Now! GO! Why are you so grumpy lately!?"

"Because you won't let me go to class!"

"That's useless."

"It's not. He says I need it."

"Who? Namjoon stop talking to imaginary friends. You're not a little kid anymore."

Namjoon grumbles and the dragon that barely fits in the cramped space growls in disgust at that denial of his existence.

Pay no attention to her. An ignorant wanna-be ignorant is hopeless.

"but she's my mom..."

Loving her is not synonymous with being stuck with her. Come on, it's time for you to do what she said so we can move on.