Beauty Of The Sword

12: Busan Trip

The two days journey to Busan was as silent as it was when the troupe had initially departed from the capital. Even after asking for at least fifty times, Jungkook dodged Kyungsoon's question and did not tell why the medicine was required in such a large quantity urgently. The three meals they had before reaching Busan's town gates had a tense atmosphere emanating from Jungkook. If the horses had not been tired by the entire day of galloping, the troupe might have traveled through the nights as well.

Through two days of silence and chills, the group reached Busan's town gates and Jungkook stopped abruptly. Untying a scarf tied around his waist, he retied it to cover his nose and mouth and addressed the group, "You better do this too." The others followed the suit and the horses crossed the town threshold. 

Jungkook pulled the reins of his horse in an attempt to make it run faster towards wherever they were going. The other six did not fail to notice that it wasn't the hurry to reach their destination, but because he could not bear to look around.

Considering the amount of medicine they were transporting, Kyungsoon had assumed that some kind of plague had spread in the town. She had almost imagined people coughing blood and dying on the streets. After what they had seen in their journey till then, Kyunsoon was sure, she would not be surprised if that scene materialized in front of her. But what she saw, starkly contradicted her imagination.

The town was as silent as Jungkook had been. Faint coughing sounds could be heard occasionally from behind the doors of the houses. The eerie thing was that not a single person was out on the street. Only the shops that sold food were half-open. One or two people could be seen sitting outside the gates of the houses, mostly children. It looked as if their parents had let them out but forbidden them to walk around.

One thing was common to all the faces Kyungsoon saw. Fear and uncertainty. 

Jungkook stopped directly in front of a stone cabin and unloaded his horse beckoning the others to follow him and they walked inside.

The interior of the cabin was something Kyungsoon hadn't expected at all. It looked small but was beautiful. Carpeted floor with two mattresses on opposite walls, candle stands, and the sun shining through the windows, the stone cabin felt like a mini palace.

The scene would have been even more beautiful but the awe settled as quickly as it came when the six saw a male figure sleeping on one of the mattresses and a female figure looking at Jungkook anxiously.

"Jungkook!" She stood up and hugged him.

"What happened to him?" Jungkook asked, returning the hug.

"He came back a day after you left and..." The girl left the sentence hanging and gulped loudly before continuing, "And he is sick since then."

"Sick?" Jungkook's face displayed anxiousness to its fullest. "As in high fever?"

The girl didn't say anything but simply nodded.

As if on the cue, the male in the blankets stirred and the boys except Seokjin and Namjoon scurried to his side. Jungkook placed a hand on his forehead and withdrew it immediately. "He is flaming sick!"

"That's why we were waiting for you." An elderly man entered the cabin. "Have you brought enough?"

"Yes, Mr. Park." Jungkook bowed.

"Then don't worry. He will be fine." Mr. Park said. Glancing around to see unknown faces, he continued, "You all can go and distribute it according to what we had decided earlier. Rosie, please make our guests comfortable." To which, the girl nodded.