.eighty nine.
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"He has lost his mother, his grandfather, his home, everything he has ever held dear to him. I am the only person he has left."
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Minji stood in the hallway with two children in her arms, tears streaming down her face as she heard his footsteps growing more and more faint with every step he took away from them. Hajin had set Soo Hyun down on his feet and only held Eun Bi now. She cut the small distance between herself and Minji, and grabbed her by the arm in an attempt to get her attention. She tried to urge her to continue without Eun. "We have to go now if you want to escape. The soldiers are coming and we don't have much time." From where they stood, they could hear the commotion as Eun emerged into their sight. He did not struggle as they apprehended him. They asked him where the rest of the family was, but he refused to speak. Without his cooperation, they instead took him away to the presence of the king.
The general's daughter gave a shake of her head, refusing to follow. She only continued to stand there, as though lost in her own thoughts and her grief. "I can't leave without my husband. Without him...I am incomplete."
Memory after memory flooded her mind of the past six years. How it was all coming to an end so suddenly. Back when she first arrived in Goryeo, she never imagined the tenth prince would be someone important in her life. Now he was her husband who she loved dearly, who she had given four beautiful children. She could not let him go just like that.
She remembered how she and Eun fought in the private baths on that first day. How he seemed to hate her from the very start. She didn't know where she was, or why everyone kept calling her Hak Soon. She later found out that she was Park Hak Soon, the youngest daughter of Grand General Park. Her sister was Soon Deok and she was friends with Prince Jung of Goryeo, and Princess Yeon Hwa of Goryeo. Her life and everything she knew was gone, and she had to adapt to a new place.
She recalled how he had fought with her and Hajin at the eighth prince's home when they caught him spying on one of the servants. He had been so arrogant and mean to them, saying that he could do whatever he pleased because he was a prince.
She recalled how he gave her a ride to the eighth prince's house on his horse, immediately catching on that she didn't remember how to ride a horse and was scared to do so. He had found entertainment in watching her suffer.
How he walked her home one night after she left Jung in the palace.
His birthday party with all the other princes there. They were all happy to celebrate his eighteenth birthday and had gotten him drunk for the first time. Minji recalled how he had told asked her to marry him while being completely and utterly drunk beyond all reason. Minji thought it was a joke at the time, yet she didn't know he had been considering it for a while now.
She remembered feeling like her world was crumbling around her when he really did ask for her hand in marriage, and how that proposal ended up making more than one person unhappy. Soon Deok had wanted to marry him, since she had a crush on him since they were kids. Jung and Minji were unhappy because they had been promised to each other, to be married once they turned eighteen. Their plans had been interrupted by the tenth prince and the king had decided to please him.
Minji remembered her wedding day, and she wished she could have been happier in that moment. She didn't know that she would grow to deeply love her husband as much as she did now.
Their year of getting used to each other. Eun had fallen in love with her more quickly than she did with him, and when she became pregnant, she remembered being unsure about it. She didn't want to lead him on and make him think that she was in love with him. But she didn't want to stay waiting on Jung forever. She finally accepted that their love story had ended and would never be.
By the time Soo Hyun and Eun Bi were born, she had fallen in love with him. Raising the children and taking care of them became their one and only priority. They were happy together in their little house, away from the outside world despite the fact that the king wanted a new wife for his son. Minji wasn't liked by the other royals in the palace, but that didn't matter to her as long as Eun wanted her. His opinion was the only one that mattered to her.
She became pregnant with Jinki not long after the twins were born, and they suffered a lot hearing that their child might not make it. It was one of the more difficult times for Minji, and she recalled having arguments with her husband on a daily basis. But it was because the doctor was telling him the baby was killing her, and he preferred for her to live. He told her they could always have more children, but Minji didn't have the heart to kill their baby. She preferred to keep him alive, even if it meant that she would die, and that had turned her husband resentful of their baby.
After Jinki was born she was still very week, but she remained in rest and taking vitamins for several years. Minji tried to get her husband to warm up to their newborn son. But she just couldn't.
Their marriage was mostly blissful, until they tried for almost two years to have another child. They had been almost ready to give up when she finally became pregnant. Their little Eunji had been born just six months prior.
It all felt like it had happened so quickly. Six years together, and she now had to let him go. Minji refused to let him go without a fight.
But Hajin insisted, snapping her out of her thoughts and tugging on the sleeve of her friend's dress. Both the twins had weepy eyes, afraid but not completely understanding what was going on. They thought their father had left, but would be coming back shortly as he had promised them. They didn't know what Minji knew in that moment. That it was very likely that they would never see him again. All they would have left of him were memories, and memories faded with the passing of time. "What about your children? Think about them from here on out. You have to continue for them. It is what Eun wanted you to do."
Minji gave a nod of her head, agreeing with her, but still refusing to leave. "Of course the children are important to me. They are as much a part of him as they are of me. But I cannot just leave without him. Eun is my husband, I must go to him and be by his side. Han and Soon Deok are perfectly able to defend and take care of them. But I need to try. I need to help protect him. I have to be by his side until the very end." Without another word, she set Jinki down on his feet by Hajin's side and then handed her months old baby to her. Eunji had woken up by this time, but remained calm as she was handed off to someone else.
Now with tears streaming down her own face, Hajin tried in one final attempt to stop her. "Eun wanted you to continue without him."
"I can't, I won't." Minji replied with a firm shake of her head. On her face was now the slightest hint of a sad smile that she forced onto her face if only to reassure her friend that everything was all right. "He is my husband, and I am his wife. He has lost his mother, his grandfather, his home, everything he has ever held dear to him. I am the only person he has left. If I can't be with him until the very end, then I cannot truly consider myself his other half."
"Eomma..." Jinki called out to her with a weepy voice, his little hands held out to her.
He didn't want her to go because something told him he would not be seeing her, or their father again. At this point, the twins feared the same. Only Eunji was oblivious to it all, since she was only about six months old. She would not remember their parents like the twins who were five, or Jinki who was three years old. They would always miss them and always wonder when they would come back.
"Take them to my sister and tell her to keep them safe." Minji said, and knelt down to hug the twins. They didn't want to let her go at first, but she pulled away from them. She then kissed Jinki on the forehead, and finally said goodbye to Eunji. She told herself that they would be safe, that Soon Deok and Han would be good parents to them. But she had to go with Eun. Just like she had told Eun when she almost perished giving birth to Jinki, she had to think that she would see them again one day, if even in another life.
With tears in her eyes, Hae Soo didn't try to stop her again. She knew her friend would not be changing her decision. She instead nodded at Minji's final request and turned with two children in her arms and the other two following behind her. Each of them held onto her dress to keep up as she led them away from the palace. She headed for the caved that were hidden behind the private baths.
When she heard their footsteps disappear in the distance, Minji turned and blindly guided herself through the halls of the palace, determined to find Eun. The palace was mostly the same, from what she remembered, and she was able to make her way out to the courtyard where everything was beginning to unfold.
Hajin led the children over the tall boulders that separated the palace private baths from the public ones. It also separated them from a row of trees surrounding the property and the hidden system of caves. The twins were first, then Jinki, and lastly she climbed over with Eunji securely in her arms. It was difficult and the children were very brave throughout the whole journey. Then they went into the dark cave which had been closed off with rocks and boulders just days prior. They had no light to go by, since Hajin didn't want the soldiers to spot them from a distance. It was a long walk through the winding passages of the caves, but Baek-ah had asked her to engrave the path to the docks in her mind. Left, left, right, left, right. Hajin recalled the turns in her mind.
She released a breath she didn't even know she had been holding in when she saw the light at the end of the tunnel and she smelled the ocean water. She could also hear sea gulls in the distance and as they got closer, she could make out the figures of three adults and two children--two men, who were more than likely Baek-ah and Han, a woman who was likely Soon Deok, and the two children.
As they made their way out of the caves, Hajin could see their expressions drop at the realization that Eun and Minji were nowhere to be found. It was only Hajin, accompanied by the four children. Behind them was no one else. The moment they were in plain sight, the twins ran into their uncles' arms. Hajin placed Jinki down on his feet and he ran to his cousin Hei Ran's side, hugging her tightly.
"Where is my sister?" Soon Deok asked reluctantly, already knowing the answer. Her heard had dropped before she even heard the answer. "Where is Hak Soon?"
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i included a set of flashbacks and stuff that already happened in the story to trigger some nostalgia. but i hope you have all liked this update.
tomorrow morning i have to get up early to drop off some stuff at school. but when i come back i'll post two more updates. so please stay tuned for that, everyone. thank you all for reading and supporting this story.
it has meant the entire world to me.
i hope you all have a wonderful day or night!
-clary