✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

f o r t y s e v e n

The fog blurred everything in the forest.

Jisung dodged every trees getting in his way while keeping his eyes on Yunseo in front of him. Despite his injured leg, he could still run from anyone who's after them. The shouting from the royal horsemen slowly faded away but they did not stop from running.

Because there's certain someone who's following behind them.

When Yunseo took a sharp right turn, Jisung followed suit. He jumped to cut off a few branches to block the person's way but they dodged it.

Wait, there's two people.

He sped up while his hands were busy fiddling with the arrow and bow. Jisung glanced to the back and shot three arrows. Then he heard a grunt.

That will do.

He shot another one before catching up with Yunseo. Just when he saw the older, said guy jumped into the cliff. Jisung gasped.

What the hell–

He heard footsteps coming by. The guy realised he had no other choice so he took out a piece of cloth from his bag and wrapped it around his bum. By the time he heard a voice shouting him to stop, he jumped.

The rough ground and spikes from the trees scratched his skin until it bled. Jisung groaned every now and then as he slid down without control. It felt like the road was endless.

More small branches poked into his skin, giving scars everywhere. The guy covered his face and after what seemingly forever, he rolled into a river.

That hurts his injury more.

Jisung groaned in agony while trying to get up. He looked around in the dark and went to the ground a few feet away from him. His eyes caught a glimpse of Yunseo laying at the riverside. The older looked like he wanted to scream but was holding it in or else it will echo throughout the woods. Jisung chose to stay away.

His heart felt heavy. All of their plans failed because the troop came unannounced. What they did that night was supposed to be done in the morning but who could have expected that the crowned prince would come hours earlier than planned?

Now what?

༆

"Walk slowly."

Seungmin held a hand up to refuse the prince's help. He supported himself by holding the tree next to him. The guy nodded, "I'm fine, I can walk."

Yoongi let out a small sigh. Earlier when Jisung shot the arrows one of them nearly hit him but Seungmin took the arrow instead. Luckily it did not injure any of his upper body part but his leg.

"Taking the arrow for me is not your job. Now let me help."

"I'm already like your family's mini guardian, Your highness. Eunkyung might scold me for not protecting her brother." he joked but Yoongi shook his head. "I'm sorry." he quickly apologised.

"Did you hurt anywhere else from the explosion?" Yoongi walked in Seungmin's pace when the younger seemingly did not want any help from him.

"No, Your highness. Maybe just a small scratch on my cheek but nothing serious."

Yoongi firmly nodded. He kept his eye open to watch out for any of Yunseo's men. They had ran deep into the woods and it will take awhile to reach the other horsemen. Just a few minutes ago he received a report from his pager that his sisters and Minhyuk were safe, along with other (some are badly) injured horsemen and there's no death among them. A huge burden left his shoulders in a second.

The walk was quiet. Only rustling sounds were heard. The crickets had quieten down right after the loud explosion. It might have woken up a few other animals as well so they needed to be aware still.