Desert • Flower | TaeJin || BOOK 3#

XXXI. Support that helps to believe

The first thing Jin sees when he wakes up is Taehyung. He can barely see enough out of one of his eyes. He tries to sit up in bed, but the pain makes it impossible. Taehyung wakes up from feeling it and stops him from trying any further. The lord greets him with a weak, calm and affectionate gesture.

"Take it easy, don't force yourself any further. You have been unconscious for almost a week" Taehyung communicates in a low voice. Jin takes a deep breath. He feels that he doesn't get enough air in his lungs. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Jin licks his lips.

"How's Yune? She's... She's okay, isn't she? Tae-"

Taehyung pats him on one arm.

"You'll go see her when you can stand. Worry about getting well enough to be able to get up, okay?"

He hides something. Jin can tell. However, he feels so bad that it is impossible for him to try to get up and go find out whatever is going on outside. Whatever has happened these days that he has unconscious. Taehyung stays with him until he goes back to sleep.

~ * * * ~

"We haven't managed to get her to wake up and her dragon is nowhere to be found" says Taehyung. Jin breathes heavily and crying looms to happen. Seeing the little girl lying on the futon. Her hair spread out on the pillow and her face pale with her eyes closed. "She's alive, the doctors who came to treat her say she's alive. They just don't know a way to get her to wake up."

"She has no pulse."

"She does, but it's so weak that neither you nor I can sense it. It's there, she has a chance to come back... We just need to know how to get it." concludes Taehyung.

Jin takes the girl's hand in his. He doesn't feel anything and her body is so cold. The nurse looks with pity at the kisaeng who is so worried. His gesture on the verge of crying as if she was really his daughter. Taehyung puts a hand on Jin's shoulder, gets him to stand up and takes him out of the room. Jin covers his face with his hands, distressed and tearful.

"It's my fault it will happen, I should have left before they did something to her. This-"

"It's not your fault. No-"

Taehyung gives an exasperated sigh before grabbing him forcefully by the shoulders. Jin looks at him in surprise at the shake Taehyung gives him.

"Stop blaming yourself for other people's tragedies. For something you didn't do. Where you got hurt It's not your fault! it's never been your fault!" Jin's lips tremble. Intimidated and shocked. It's the first time Taehyung treats him with such harshness. "Stop blaming yourself and start blaming those who are really a threat, who obey a wretched and disgusting man. I forbid you to blame yourself again."

Jin takes a deep breath and Taehyung stares him straight in the eyes. He nods shyly and the grip on his shoulders leaves to become a tight, firm hug from the lord.

"We will find the solution. I promise." He kisses him on the neck and Jin hugs him back.

"It's okay."

~ * * * ~

Jin sits in the middle of a garden and takes a deep breath, wanting to just take in the sunlight. He's still in his sleep clothes and isn't supposed to move from the bed. He's still pretty messed up from the beating he took. Jin rubs his face with both hands and looks up for a moment. He thought he was going to die and somehow, he would have preferred it to be that way.

Maybe then they wouldn't have hurt Yune, because she wouldn't have come out of hiding for nothing. Jin lies on Eunji who rolls in on herself to be a good bed model. Jin hums, stroking the petal scales of his dragoness. A pair of alpacas walk by, shy of approaching Jin.

"Maybe we're cursed to see all the suffering don't you think?" Jin asks Eunji who gurgles in pain and sadness.

"Master Jin."

The kisaeng raises his head and is surprised to find a group of Japanese. Eunji helps him up and the leader of that group approaches. She hands him a rather large and heavy basket filled with food, cloth and other things he is unable to make out. The group bows ninety degrees and the kisaeng cannot with such strangeness.

"We are sorry for what happened to your little girl and you. We want you to receive this gift from everyone. We hope everything can get better." says the woman becoming straight again. Jin widens an awkward, teary-faced smile, holding the basket tighter.

"Thank you very much."

. . .

"It's a very peculiar treatment from Japan. Only their vegetable dragons are able to grow these herbs." comments the doctor handing over the cup with the hot tea. Jin drinks it sip by sip. Taehyung nods to the doctor who withdraws after saying goodbye in a low voice.

"Do you think I can help Yune?"

"I don't think so. If so, they would have recommended it" Jin exhales wearily. "You have something in mind don't you? what do you think?"

"Jimin could cure anything, if only he was alive, I know he could do something for her," Jin says constipated, "but he's not... I don't think he's still alive for this moment."

Jin firmly believes that Hojoon finished him off. More than once it has happened that children used as sexual servants die from overexertion and harm. Jimin being so fragile, so weak and weepy... How would he survive carrying something like that alone?

"Oh, I understand... We'll find a way, don't worry too much. We'll keep her very well until she can wake up. I asked to make a crystal bed. After talking with lord Choi, we came to the conclusion that you and I will be able to make her recover little by little" He sits next to Jin who looks at him curious and quizzical. "Naturally you are curative for your dragon, just less effectively in the short term. The real problem wasn't that she wouldn't wake up, but that we can't keep her like this for so long-"

"She would starve to death."

"Exactly, but if I make a soil and keep it very fertile where you grow flowers and plants, she'll be fine because they're going to feed her nutrients and energy" He concludes the technical part and Jin looks more hopeful. "When the war is over, I can ask for assistance from the capital. I'm sure they'll know what to do for her there. There must be something... Leave it to me, okay? Before you know it, she'll be skipping down the halls as usual."

Jin nods with a faint, soft smile. Taehyung walks over and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

~ * * * ~

The reason why the bed will be made of glass for Yune is that way she will be less likely to pick up any external illness or get hurt. Sleeping among yellow flowers and pale green vegetation. Jin put a hanbok of the same pale shades on her. He is determined to keep her groomed as long as it takes for her to get better.

At the same time, he studies botany to know which vegetation can work best for her. Without hurting her and without giving her strength. The worry that at some point the army will return to take revenge for what happened terrifies him, but he tries to avoid thinking about it. Pretending that will be the next thing to happen.

Taehyung doesn't go out much. Not even to walk around the village like most of the time and he refuses to have him too far away. Even Seok seems to keep an eye on Eunji to make sure she's okay.

"My lord" Jin calls, the man opens one eye, half asleep. "Do you think it can improve...? The situation, I mean. That there won't be... problems this big."

"I want to believe so, but I'm not sure," he replies sincerely, Jin compunge the expression. Taehyung pulls him in for a hug and kisses his neck, "However, just like last time, if we stick together, we can cope. When we are separated, we are weak... I can take care of you, I thought I could, I realized that... I need you to take care of me too Could you do it?"

Jin opens his eyes slightly before giving a laugh and turning to hug him to Taehyung's surprise.

"Of course, my lord. It will be my honor to take care of you." he affirms giving him a kiss on his forehead.