Y/n sat in a flower bed on the secret garden behind her room. Her knees were up to her chest resting her chin on them. Areum's words floating and looping over her head over and over.
She's my half-sister.
Tears rested on her lower lids. Her entire body quivered. She had been the odd one all along because she wasn't Master Gyeong's biological daughter. Only Areum.
How could her mother hide such a thing? How could neither of them tell her something worthwhile?
The tears sprang from her eyes as she sobbed quietly. Everything felt numb. Master Hak Kun wasn't home. He was out in a gathering at another officer's home. Sun Hi had the night off, leaving her alone in the big house.
She felt so small. Confused. Stupid.
But, she wasn't that person anymore. She wasn't a female anymore. Lee y/n was gone now. It didn't take long for her to realize that this whole drama was worth nothing. After all, she had a new family. A family that really appreciated her. That accepted her for who she was and wanted to be. With her left sleeve she wiped her tear trails and stood in her feeble legs. She looked up at the moon. A small smile twitching at the corner of her lips. There was a tepid feeling as the wind blew her hair.
In her hands, she cupped some fallen flower petals. She brought them to her salty lips. With a soft kiss over them, she raised her hands and let the wind carry them away.
"Goodbye, Lee y/n." She murmured as the petals blew into the night air farther and farther away.
She smiled inhaling her freedom. Her lungs filling with the richest blooming perfume she had ever inhaled. Everything felt perfect. Almost unreal. The petals vanished from view, just like the lump over her shoulders from all those years ago.
She didn't remember at what time or how she ended in bed. But when she woke up, she noticed she was in her room. It was a bright morning and it seemed almost afternoon. There was a bruising pain on her scalp. As if she had hit her head really hard against a boulder.
"What the heck?"
"Master Hyo, here is something to help you." Sun Hi said stepping closer to her. She held a small flask with a green colored fluid in it. The lovely maid poured some in her small palm and massaged y/n's head with it. A cooling sensation overtook the back of y/n's head. She sighed relieved. The cooling numbed her headache.
"Master Hak Kun was really worried when he found you collapsed in the back garden."
Y/n looked at Sun Hi and tilted her head befuddled.
"What did you say? I was collapsed in the back garden?"
"Yes. I'm sorry I wasn't here. It was all my fault."
"No. No, it wasn't. I think I remember slipping."
Sun Hi sighed relieved as she kept her hands busy in y/n's head.
"Where's my father?"
Y/n asked stretching her body a bit. Sun Hi bit her lip nervously while stepping away from y/n.
"He has gone to a meeting with the other Officials concerning something the Queen wants."
Y/n's eyes widened with fear. The worst thought flooded her mind.
She knew. The Queen. She knew y/n was alive.
A wave of horror twisted her abdomen.
"Oh no."
Y/n stepped away from Sun Hi and headed out the door in a rush. Sun Hi ran behind her.
"Please, stop. You must not go."
Y/n paused in front of the door and turned to look at her. Her father was in the Queen's castle, but she couldn't go? That was absurd.
"Sun Hi, I must see my father. Please."
Sun Hi got in her knees and bowed down to y/n. She was sniffing too.
"Please, Master. No. It's too dangerous to go there."
In the pit of her stomach, y/n felt something jolting, but seeing Sun Hi like that broke her heart. She had maids all her life but never had she met a more noble and pure hearted maid as Sun Hi. With twisting guilt, y/n helped her up from her knees and smiled at her.
"Alright. Is there brewed tea?"
Sun Hi nodded with tears sliding down her cheeks and a smile of relief.
Y/n sat down eating breakfast while reading letters from the girls in town that praised her. She had nearly forgotten how popular she was with Kang Hyo's identity.
"Master, you have a visitor. It is Yi Myung Dae's daughter, Yi Hae Won."
Y/n's eyes widened with joy at the mention of her best friend's name. She sprang from her chair eagerly and ran to one of the common rooms in the house.
As she walked into the room, she felt someone smash against her chest and sigh relieved. Y/n stood there paralyzed and confused. It was minutes before Hae Won pulled back. Her eyes were scanning from head to toes. A veil of fear clouded her swift eyes.
"Y/n! You are alright. Oh, thank God."
Y/n was utterly perplexed at her best friend's strange behavior. However, Hae Won paid no attention to her curiousness.
"Have you been out to town yet?"
Y/n shook her head while looking at her hesitantly. Hae Won ran a hand through her hair and sighed.
"Y/n, we are in serious trouble. Well, you are in serious trouble."
"Why? Did something happen? Did someone find out?"
"No! That would be the second worst thing to happen!"
"Then?"
"She,"
"She?"
"Queen Jisso is building a Hwarang."
It was as if the whole entire world collapsed around her. Y/n's world was finishing in fire and water. Her entire body took a shudder of fear. And then the feeling returned once again. The pounding on the back of her head, her chest tightening, the failing of her breathing. Everything was happening so quick.
"Y/n!"
She heard Hae Won shout. Y/n's face landed harshly on the ground. It was a minute of complete agony before everything blacked out.
"Oh, she's waking up."
"Her eyes opened!"
The light pained her the very first few seconds she opened her tired lids. It felt as she had woken up after eating something sour. When she turned to her side, she saw Master Kang Hak Kun standing next to her holding her hand. Just by reading his face, she could tell she had caused him great worry. And that was something she hated. To worry people.
"Y/n, you are alright. I am here. Your father is here."
Y/n frowned while sitting up. Master Kang Hak Kun tried to put her back down, but she refused. Sun Hi walked in with a tray of food and tea.
"What happened to me?"
Y/n asked while taking the clay cup from her father's hands. She sipped and relaxed at the warmness of the liquid in her stomach.
"You fainted."
Y/n nodded while drinking from the tea. Hae Won walked into the room with polished eyes and crossed arms.
"Hae Won, you're still here."
"Tell him, y/n. Or I will."
Her eyes were tense over y/n. Y/n wanted to understand what she was saying. She really did. Hae Won's stare completely swallowed her whole making her feel a bit concerned.
"Tell me what exactly?"
Master Hak Kun asked looking from Hae Won to y/n. The way that Hae Won acted was the same exact way she acted a long time ago when y/n......
When y/n was terribly sick. Nobody ever knew what she had. No physician ever found a single cure or remedy for her. The only way she would be fine it was by keeping all impacting problems away from her, but that was the theory since she was just a child back then. Many thought it was a mental problem. And her family had even concealed her for some time. Y/n couldn't be seen after she turned eight until she was mature enough to be accepted and educated enough to be in public.
Years Ago
"Hae Won! Hae Won!"
The little girl ran after her friend. They were both playing in the front of the Lee's house. Everything was fine. When y/n finally caught Hae Won they laughed so hard and fell on the floor. They laughed and laughed until one of them ended up crying. Hae Won was the one crying. She was at the verge of peeing herself too.
Y/n laughed at her and stood up placing her hands on her hips.
"Hae Won,"
She said and as she was about to continue, y/n felt as if the sun kept getting in her way. It blinded her and a thumping sound in the back of her head made her entire skull drill with pain. Since she was a child, y/n gripped her head and cried out in pain. Hae Won stopped laughing and saw her friend. Her little knees had succumbed making her land heavily against the floor. Hae Won rushed to her side and began to assist y/n as much as she could.
"Y/n. Y/n are you alright? Y/n!"
But the youngest would just keep screaming in pain. Her breathing was agitated, and her face was pale white. Hae Won was so scared she tried to scream, but when she opened her mouth to scream, nothing came out.
Y/n's mom was coming back from her usual tea hour with her friends when she saw the little girl crying in agony. Hae Won cried with y/n in her arms. She sobbed her heart out.
"Y/n! Y/n please!"
She kept screaming. Y/n's mom rushed to them and checked y/n. Her daughter was good as dead. Her skin was sweaty, and she nearly didn't have any pulse.
"What happened? What happened Hae Won?"
Y/n's mother asked carrying her daughter in her arms. Hae Won kept crying unable to talk. She was too scared.
And since that day, Hae Won couldn't visit y/n often. Ever since y/n had nearly died in her arms, Hae Won was simply afraid it would happen again. That's why she tried to avoid y/n. Hae Won felt guilty for some time before one day she had eavesdropped in her parent's conversation, well, most of the town knew anyway. That y/n was sick. Although it had removed her guilt, her concern never blissed away.
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Y/n sighed and turned to look at Master Hak Kun. Hae Won herself couldn't stand to be in the room remembering was simply enough to make her heart dread. She left from the room and slowly closed the door behind her.
"Master, there is something you need to know about me."
"That is?"
"Some say I'm mentally sick. Some say it is an illness. But in reality, I don't even know what it is. Nobody does. It just sorts of happens. My body gets too emotional to a point where it can't hold on and shuts down. There was even one time when it shut down for half a week."
Master Hak Kun frowned in slightly. He must have had heard rumors about it a long time ago. The entire town knew, yet, no one dared to provoke her. Master Gyeong would have anyone's head if they dared to pick on his children.
"But you seemed fine before."
He said calmly. That was true. Most of her attacks were usually when she was younger. That's when she had been under care the most. Ever since she had seen Areum troubled, it all came back.
"Most of my attacks happened when I was younger."
"Then what made them come back?"
"Not so long I met my brother, Areum, in town. He told me something that caused me to feel sick for the first time in years."
Master Hak Kun nodded connecting the missing piece of information he was missing. He knew someone that had had the same problem as her. It was his mother. She used to faint out of nowhere. It was in one of those unfortunate days that she passed away due to her body just refusing to go back to normal. But y/n was young. She had a long life ahead of her. Y/n wasn't going to die. He was going to do whatever he could to prevent the same thing from happening. Hak Kun was going to save her.
"Don't worry, y/n. If you trouble your mind, your immune system might just become feeble of just the thoughts."
Y/n smiled as Master Hak Kun tapped her hand with his softly. Hae Won entered the room with a normal face again. Yet, there was still a bit of remaining trouble in her eyes. She looked at Master Hak Kun and sort of had a telepathic conversation. Master Hak Kun sighed and nodded at her.
They both turned to look at y/n. She gulped feeling a little bit insecure.
"Y/n, there is something you must know."
She didn't know if this was going to cause her another attack. She really hoped it didn't. Y/n tried to prepare herself for the worst. It was the only way her brain wouldn't be surprised and attack her entire body.
"What is it?"
"Queen Jisoo is building a Hwarang. That means that she will choose her Hwarang herself. Remember when I told you about my story about my family?"
Y/n nodded knowing exactly where he was going with this talk.
"Unfortunately, she has decided to wreck my family once again and has chosen you as one of her Hwarang."
Hae Won ran a hand through her hair. Master Hak Kun called Sun Hi and waited for her. The small maid came in and bowed her head.
"Prepare me a horse, Sun Hi. Master Kang Hyo is going away from the Capitol. Tonight."