The Innocent: A Sequel to Hwarang: The Saga of the Sooks Book #3

Chapter 8: Never Again

He was waiting for her. The next morning. In front of his wall. The one he kept propped up every day with his own back. She laughed as that fanciful thought caught her imagination on fire.

For a moment, she saw him dressed in his finest hwarang robes as he held the walls of the city up under his own strength. And they bent when he moved away from them. But when he returned to them, they stood tall and strong once more.

She shook her head. Soo Ho was hardly a romantic figure. What on earth had happened to the inner workings of her mind that she had seen him as such for even a millisecond?

She must toss all such absurd notions into the dustbin. Soo Ho was a ridiculous boy.

Who had staunchly defended their queen. And mourned her loss. He'd also bravely come to Jung Sook's own rescue when that vagabond had attacked her. Then that ridiculous boy had insisted on being her bodyguard and seeing her safely to school. Still, she didn't want to admit that she had felt even a momentary bit of relief because of his presence those two days. She was not accustomed to counting on others. Especially not on a man. Or a boy.

And she had no wish to become acclimated to such a thing.

Yet she greeted him cheerfully enough as she began to walk past him. A moment later, he fell into step beside her.

"You didn't think you were going to walk to school today without me, did you?" he queried in disbelief.

She sighed. "You really don't have to follow me every day. I've been walking this route for a year and a half. I've been attacked exactly once."

"Ah, but I'm the one who stopped that attack. If I don't follow you, who will stop the next one?"

"Who's to say there will be a next one? You dealt with the culprit, did you not?"

"Yes. But, surely, he's not the only vagabond waiting to accost an unsuspecting lady."

She grunted.

"But...I have a suggestion that might help. And it would increase your independence too."

Curious, she glanced his way. "What's that?"

"I could give you self-defense lessons."

She stopped walking to stare at him. "Self-defense lessons?"

"Yes. Martial arts. I could teach you how to disable a man with only your thumb."

"Really?" She arched two less-than-delicate eyebrows at him. "Wouldn't you be afraid that someday I might use my knowledge against you?"

"Against me?" He scoffed. "Never." He sniffed, but then his face grew serious. "You will never have any reason to fear me." He spoke softly, without bravado. Very unusual for him.

She glanced sharply at him. Had he figured out that she feared men?

"That is a kind offer," she inhaled deeply, "but I think that I would make a very poor student."

"But you're an excellent teacher. How could you make a poor student?"

She smiled. Amused. "Haven't you heard that the best teachers make the worst students?"

"I rather think that is a wrong supposition. It seems to me that the best teachers must have also been the best students."

"Mmm. Sometimes, that is true."

"Were you truly a poor student?" he asked curiously.

She shook her head. "No. I was most thankful for my education. So I studied hard."