.fifteen.
Hajin and Minji had gone into the house where they met up with Chaeryung. Hajin had taken something out of her dress pocket and handed it to her servant, asking for a favor. "I need you to leave this in the fourth prince's room." She explained, placing the object in her hands. It was covered in a handkerchief and as she opened it, she revealed a small silver hair pin. It was simple, yet beautiful, adorned with a butterfly and pink beads. Both Minji and Chaeryung had been confused as to why Hajin wanted that placed in the prince's room. Hajin left them in the dark about where she had gotten it and why she wanted the prince to have it.
Her servant was instantly hesitant, for she knew the consequences of getting caught in that room. For one, a servant wasn't supposed to touch anything in a prince's quarters without the proper authorization. And for another thing, she knew Prince Wang So and she knew he didn't have the best temper. She knew that getting caught in his bedroom wouldn't be good.
"I don't want to." She vehemently refused at first. "He'll kill me if he finds me in his room."
Hajin reassured her with a shake of her head, all the while Minji only stood there watching the whole conversation quietly. "He won't be mad at you, I promise. He probably wants this back." Chaeryung tried to push the pin back into her hands, but Hajin insisted. "Please just place it somewhere he has to look for it."
Minji thought about offering to be the one to hide it, since she was the general's daughter and getting caught in a prince's room probably wouldn't be as bad. But she didn't know the layout of the eighth prince's home, nor did she know which room the fourth prince was staying in. Chaeryung knew it well, since she had been living there and cleaning the house for years. As a servant, Chaeryung also had the advantage that she could easily go unnoticed by the other servants while going into the room.
It hadn't taken too long for her to be convinced--although reluctantly--by Hajin, and the two girls left her to wait for her by the terrace that overlooked the backyard of the house. The two girls had been sitting together, having some tea when they saw a commotion in the yard. Chaeryung was being dragged outside by four other servants which were led by princess Yeonhwa. Hajin shot up form her chair and hurried to the edge of the terrace, squinting her eyes to get a better look. But they were sure that it was her. A concerned sigh escaped Hajin's lips. "Come on, Minji." She tugged on her friend's hand. "We have to go help her."
The general's daughter didn't hesitate and nodded in agreement with her. The two girls then ran into the house, making their way downstairs and towards the doors that led to the backyard.
Hajin was faster than her, perhaps it was the guilt she felt because she suspected that the punishment that was coming was her fault. As the two ran up, Chaeryung had been tied up and was being beaten with a stick while some of the other servants watched. Minji and Hajin looked in horror as they saw the blood stains on her back. Without thinking it further, Hajin stepped in and stopped the servant from giving her friend another blow.
"What did she do for you to hurt her like this?" Hajin demanded, furious.
"I don't need to explain myself to you." Yeonhwa replied arrogantly, nose in the air with pride. It was clear that she didn't like Chaeryung, but she liked Hajin even less. She thought that she was better than her in every way.
Minji tried to ask the same question, hoping that their supposed friendship would make Yeonhwa bend and inform them what was going on. "What's happening, Yeonhwa? Why are you doing this?"
Since it had been Hak Soon who was asking, Yeonhwa explained with a sigh, "This servant was caught in the fourth prince's room, stealing." She lifted a hand to show her friend the object that had been stolen when she was caught. The very same pin that Hajin had given her earlier that day. She silently gestured for the punishment to continue, but Hajin stepped in her way again, shooting her a warning look. Don't you dare, she glared at the other servant. Suddenly afraid, the other servant stepped back wearily.
The two girls looked at each other and then at Chaeryung who was wincing in pain and with tears in her eyes. They both knew that she wasn't stealing, and yet she had refused to talk and say that it had been Hae Soo to ask this of her. She had been merely doing what Hajin asked her to do. "She wasn't stealing." Hajin informed her, matter of factly. "She was only doing me a favor. I asked her to leave that pin in the prince's room, and I can't give you the details, but if anyone should be punished, then it should be me."
At that, Yeonhwa couldn't help but grin with delight. This was her chance to humiliate Hae Soo, and her sister in law's cousin was putting herself on a silver platter for the Goryeo princess. She didn't have to be told twice. Gesturing to the sixteen year old standing before her, she commanded the other servants. "Tie her up." She said, and Minji was pushed back by two other servants as they went up to Hajin, grabbing her by the arms so that she wouldn't escape. Two other maids untied Chaeryung and she fell to the ground weakly. Hajin was tied up in her place. Minji had tried to step in between them, begging Yeonhwa not to hurt her, but she was held back by the same servants who had untied Chaeryung.
Wanting to deliver the beating herself, the princess took the stick from her servant, griping it in her hand so tight and with such a vengeance that her knuckles had turned white in the process. She pulled her arm back, to get a good back swing, and threw her hand forward until the stick collided with Hajin's back. She winced in pain, but held in her screams. Her pride wouldn't allow her to show the princess how much it actually hurt.
Minji struggled in the other servants' grasp, trying to help her friend, but they wouldn't budge.
From the corner of her eye, she saw a group of people arrive--the Princes of Goryeo. All of them excluding the fourth prince, who was technically part of the reason all of that was happening in the first place. The first voice she heard was unmistakably the voice of Eun, the tenth prince. He pleaded to his eighth brother desperately. "You have to do something, hyung nim!" Prince Wook merely stood there, in shock, torn between helping Hae Soo and defying his sister, or letting his sister do as she pleased--something he had always done.
His pleas were soon joined by the angered voice of Jung, who was quick to make a command and jump to Minji's rescue. "Hey! Let Lady Hak Soon go right now." He shouted, not too concerned at the moment about Hae Soo, and it was like she had suddenly turned into poison to the other servants. Their hands dropped and suddenly Minji was free.
In that instant, she didn't hesitate to jump in between Yeonhwa and Hajin, just as the princess was about to administer another blow. The impact had stricken the general's daughter across the face and she dropped to her knees, clutching her face in pain. There was a horrible stinging and she winced as she heard a ringing in her ears from where the stick had struck her. She didn't see what else was happening, her eyelids were swelling shut from the impact. But she heard the concerned voices of Hajin, Jung, and even Yeonhwa asking if she was okay.
At the same time, Wook had finally joined in, asking his sister to stop, just as the fourth prince stepped in between them, but Yeonhwa was frozen now after having hit someone she considered a friend. "I'll take it from here." The fourth prince said to Minji and then looked to Yeonhwa. "Who gave you permission to touch her?" He asked his sister, in regards to Hae Soo. "She belongs to me."
Suddenly, there were too many people surrounding her, but only Jung knelt by her side to see if she was okay. "Hak Soon." He said her name with worry, pulling her into his arms. "Aish, you pabo. Why would you get in the way?" He asked her, pulling away gently and cupping her face in his hands to assess the damage.
"I had to help Hae Soo." Minji reasoned, already getting used to calling her by that name in public.
Yeonhwa was scolded by her two brothers and her face was full of outrage that the two of them were quickly coming to Hajin's rescue. She had even asked if her fourth brother had any feelings for her, since he had never been one to shy away from scolding the servants when he thought they needed it. Everyone in town knew well what he was capable of, and they were afraid to even cross paths with him. She could barely see with her swollen eyes, but she recognized the voice as another prince approached them. Kneeling by her side, he touched the red lines and the puffy skin left behind.
"We need to get her some ointment quick." He said--it was the eleventh prince Wang Han.
"She was stealing from you!" The princess tried to defend herself.
But even her playful older brother, prince Wang Eun came to Hajin's aid. "She told me she found that pin in front of So's room." Quickly concluding that it wasn't his best lie, he tried again to salvage the situation. "No...I mean, I saw her pick it up."
"You really crossed the line, noona." Jung shook his head at her with disapproval.
"You too, Eun and Jung?" She looked to them with hurt.
With a mixture of emotions--anger that her brothers were taking Hajin's side, and guilt that she had hurt her friend--Yeonhwa turned and stormed off in a tantrum. Wang So had followed her, probably to continue their conversation out of earshot. That had only left Hajin with Wook, and he helped untie her. There was Chaeryung still on the ground, hurting from her own injuries. And there was Han and Jung helping Minji who was at the moment unable to see very well.
The eleventh prince helped her back on her feet. "I'll help you walk her home." He informed his youngest brother, but Minji had only been standing for about a half a second when the fourteenth prince swept her off her feet, taking her by surprise.
"Oh my God!" She shouted, blindly searching for something to grab onto. All she could find at the moment was the material of his gown.
"Or that works too." Han said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Wook had walked off with Hajin and Chaeryung, leaving a worried Eun behind. "She needs some ointment too." He said in a whiny child like voice and he tried to chase after them. "Soo-yah!" He called, but was stopped by Baek-ah.
"We should go home now, hyung." He said to his older brother who looked more like a younger brother to him.
"But Soo-yah needs me." The little prince complained with a pout.
"Our eighth brother will take good care of her." Baek-ah assured, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder in order to hold him back. "And Jung will take good care of Hak Soon."
Though Eun wanted to go with Hajin badly, he instead listened to his younger brother and the two returned to the palace. They would instead wait to hear news from their brothers on the health of the two girls. But it seemed that for the most part, Minji had gotten off worse than her friend.
-
im so surprised that this story gains reads super quickly, even when i update like once a month, or sometimes less often than that. i want to thank you all for being here and supporting this story even though it takes me ages to post something here.
like i mentioned before, i know its a lot of jung action. but i decided that he's gonna be my second lead. so get ready for a lot of jung feels as well, even though this is an eun fic.
once this story finishes though, i have more planned.
i was initially hoping to write a series. like one story per prince. so i hope that works out. thank you again for reading. have a wonderful night.
-clary