thief (of my heart)

-III-

If the events from last night took a toll on Jennie, she didn't show it. Not in the least. Jennie warmed up quickly to her two companions. That's how she is, her trust is easy to gain. The hard part is to keep it.

"Are we there yet?" Jennie whined and leaned her head back onto Jisoo while they sat on Trojan.

"No, princess." Jisoo responded exhausted. The princess seems very impatient or rather eager.

"Are we now there?" She tried again nonchalantly.

"We are not." Jisoo sighed. This has been the tenth time she answered her question with no.

"How about now?" She didn't give up.

"I told you we are no- Never mind. We are there."

"Finally!" Jennie squealed. Her eyes watched the town ahead of them. Only a gate separated them. "How are we going to pass that gate? Should I just command them to let us through?"

"Leave it to me." Jisoo grinned and pulled up Jennie's hoodie to hide her face. Call it gut feeling but she thought hiding Jennie's identity is the right thing to do for now.

Trojan came to a halt in front of two guardian knights. "Who are you?" They said and stood firmly in front of the gate.

"You don't recognise us?" Jisoo shook her head with a sigh. "Maybe I expected too much from this town, what a pity." The guards frowned.

She jumped down from the horse and bowed. "You see, me and my partner here are on a tour. Have you two heard of Marananda?" She asked with a knowing smile.

Now Jennie also frowned. Marananda is an Indian monk who was sent to the royal palace of Baekje from China. He introduced the Buddhism in Baekje as state religion, Jennie knew him personally.

"Of course we have." One of them stated. "What about him?"

"Well, we are pupils of Marananda who are here on a mission to teach every place in Baekje proper Buddhism. Which is why we will bless your home with knowledge as we have done with previous towns." She stood firm and didn't waver. Her face was serious, yet friendly enough to convince them.

They immediately let them through.

"Since we let you through can you give us some special advice?" One of them asked nervously.

"Eat chicken." She said simply which widened Jennie's eyes in an instant. It was the first best advice that came up in Jisoo's head.

The raven smiled and passed them while holding Trojan's lead rope to pull the horse and Jennie who was still on his saddle along.

Once the guards closed the gate behind them Jisoo threw Jennie a grin. "See? Easy."

She noticed Jennie's face fell. "What's wrong?"

"Jisoo...." Jennie sighed deeply and hid her face in Trojan's back in embarrassment.

"What?" She questioned dumbfounded.

"...Buddha advised his followers not to eat an animal that had been purposely killed for you." She mumbled.

".....He did?" Jisoo rubbed the back of her head and grimaced.

Jennie nodded.

"Oh." She pulled on Trojan's rope and started sprinting ahead.

"How was I supposed to know?" She laughed at her lack of knowledge on the subject she just sold as her forte. "Either way let's disappear before they realise."

The streets of the town weren't crowded. There were few people. Seems like this place is protected enough. Many barracks were visible with drunken men. Jisoo couldn't see any females. Maybe this town was mostly populated by men. She stopped by a horse stable to let Trojan rest and helped Jennie down like usual. Then she gave the owner of the stable all the money she had left to let Trojan stay for a day.