HWARANG Rewritten✅

8. Sneaking out

Ji-dwi sat up in bed, pulling Sa-do, who was leaning against his bed frame till now, down to sit beside him on the bed. Sa-do was surprised but forced herself not to react. She didn't notice his sideway glance and the way his lips curved up.

"So you are saying this place is completely defenseless?" Soo-ho asked, needing to confirm but there was a huge hopeful grin plastered on his face.

Yeo-wool stated, "if you want to leave, you can leave. If you want to stay, you can stay." Then looking up at Ban-ryu he added as an afterthought, "but it might be best to leave, since everyone is going to be responsible."

"Do you think this crazy act makes sense?" Ban-ryu queried, as if he couldn't even believe the conversation headed so far in this direction.

"If you don't like it, you can tell them. But we will be outside by then," Soo-ho told him, waving him off. The two made a face as if they were going to start fighting but made no such move.

"He can't." Sa-do grinned devilishly as she elaborated, "if he tells, he will receive more punishment for ratting out his roommates." It was a perfectly valid point. The others smiled and Ban-ryu glared at each of them before giving a groan and laying back down in bed in an attempt to ignore them.

"So are you coming?" Soo-ho beamed at the Hwarang.

"I was in from the start." Ban-ryu's answer made the others smile as Soo-ho rolled his eyes at the noble and scoff at the absurdity of the situation.

Yeo-wool turned to the back of the room. "What do you want to do?"

Ji-dwi met his gaze and let out a short laugh that momentarily stunned Sa-do as she remembered that he was sitting next to her. "I will have to leave."

Yeo-wool gave a satisfied nod before turning to her, "and you?"

"I will go as well," Sa-do agreed easily with a wide smile which was returned by her quirky roommate.

Yeo-wool glanced at Seon-woo and prompted, "don't you have a reason to leave?"

Seon-woo, who had stayed quite through this whole conversation, deep in thought, finally stood up. "Let's do this."

The five of them sneaked stealthily through Seonmoon. Soo-ho, who was taking the lead, halted near the end of a turn before quickly ducking down below one of the windows. Yeo-wool, Seon-woo, Sa-do and Ji-dwi followed, mirroring his actions. "What is this? Did the wine not work?" Soo-ho muttered worriedly as he turned to Yeo-wool for an explanation as to why the guard was still out patrolling.

Confused, Yeo-wool peeked up before falling back down. "Did it not go through? I definitely gave him a bottle," he murmured, sounding vexed. Sa-do tried to look up to see what the problem was but Ji-dwi pushed her head back lightly, ordering her to stay down making her frown. "It's a wine that you cannot resist, even if you smell it."

Soo-ho made an action of punching the Hwarang, lamenting that, "instead of it being the end for the wine, it is going to be the end of us."

Fighting of Ji-dwi's attempt to keep her out of sight, Sa-do finally glimpsed through the vertical railings of the window above them. "Uhmm guys?" The other four turned to her before mimicking her and looking out. The sight made their jaws drop. The guard banged into a pillar before taking out his sword and attacking the pillar repeatedly.

"What did I tell you?" the usual confidence was back in Yeo-wool's voice as he said gleefully, "I said it's 'the end' wine."

Not wanting to waste time and risk getting caught, Soo-ho urged the others to move. "Let's go, let's go." They ran past the guard and reached the main gate of Seonmoon. They scaled the wall as quietly as they could, before jumping down on the other side. It had been a successful escapade. The five roommates crouched down below the cover of some trees.

"Let's meet here at dawn and go back in together," Yeo-wool suggested and everyone nodded in accord before they dispersed.

As Sa-do was about to get up, Ji-dwi pushed her head down again earning a glare from her. "You would have gotten hurt," he remarked, pointing to the low lying branched that would have surely snagged her, had he not stopped her. Slightly stunned, Sa-do allowed Ji-dwi to wrap his hand around her wrist and pull her away before dragging her up to her feet. She blinked a few times incomprehensibly.

She had indeed noticed the subtle shift in Ji-dwi's behavior around her. He had become more and more familiar with her the more she tried to avoid him. And she had not missed the numerous times he had helped her, even if it was with the smallest things. She briefly wondered if he knew that she was the one he met in Dayiseo and that he was the reason she managed to join the Hwarang.

Her eyes refocused, catching Ji-dwi waving his hand in front of her face. "Do you intend to stand here the whole night?" Sa-do didn't miss the teasing tone in his voice. She looked around to see that the others had already departed and they were the only ones left.

"Let's go," she said hurriedly, eager to leave his presence and clear her head. He always tended to leave her confused and disoriented these days.

"See you at dawn," he called out as the two went in opposite directions.

Not long after, Ban-ryu too jumped out and after looking around headed away.

Poong Wol Joo had said, after all, that roommates must act as a single unit.