The Pheasant, that fell from the Sky || Hwarang

- 09 -

The sunset drew beautiful colours on the sky as Yeseul shot an arrow at the cobbled-together-target a few meters away from her. Her arrows were plastered all over the target and next to it. The young girl let go of the bow's string and picked up another arrow from the ground next to her. She had built the target herself and always hoped that it wasn't gone when she would come back to train. It was located on a field with a few trees standing on it. She put the arrow into the bow and tensed it. The dark blue hanbok she wore for archery gave her more space for these movements. She closed one eye to aim but got surprised by a sudden motion. Yeseul stopped aiming and looked in the direction of the motion. Yeowool stood there dressed in a light blue-greyish hanbok, a fan in his hand and with a content smile on his face. The young girl had to smile as well as she saw him. She was happy to see him again.

»No, go on«, the Hwarang encouraged her, »I would love to see you shoot.«

»Alright«, Yeseul said and started aiming again. She shot and hit the target but missed the imaginary animal by a bit. However, Yeowool applauded her.

»Did you guys sneak out again?«, she asked as she went to him.

»Well, only I sneaked out«, he corrected. Yeseul sat down to the foot of the tree and Yeowool placed himself to her left.

»You're earlier. Normally you sneaked out when it was dark.«

»I quickly jumped over the wall when the guards weren't looking«, he explained and looked at the sky a little dreamy, »It's a beautiful sunset, isn't it?«

»Yes, it is«, she answered a little dreamy as she looked up the little hill to the sky right behind it, »I like how there are so many nice colours in harmony right above us.«

»Yes, the colours are really beautiful. It has something calming, I feel like.« Yeseul nodded agreeing. For a moment they just sat there looking at the colourful sky and feeling the wind, that let the grass dance like waves. She had specifically put the target in place so the wind wouldn't blow the arrows away. But now the warm wind seemed to just go through the high blades of grass to make them dance.

Yeowool took something out of his pocket and showed it to Yeseul. »Look.«

It was the hairpin he had showen her when they first met and which she had pulled out of his hair the second time they met. Yeseul turned herself into his direction and smiled.

»You brought it with you?«

Yeowool nodded. »I took it with me for a long time, since it's so pretty.« He also turned himself towards her direction so that they sat opposite of each other.

»Can I?«, he asked and motioned to her hair. Yeseul nodded happily and bend a little forward to him. The handsome Hwarang took out her wooden hairpin making the rest her hair also fall on her shoulders before picking part of it up again and secure it with the golden hairpin.

»Pretty«, he said when he was finish. Yeseul smiled proudly. »I feel much more elegant.« She turned back and leaned against the tree. Yeowool followed her doing the same.

»Any news from the Hwarang House?«

»Yes, we all passed the second assignment.«

»Congratulations!« Yeseul was happy for him, after all he didn't pass the first one.

»And we got Head Disciples.«

»What's that?«

»They're our subordinates. We're supposed to learn together with them, and they are there to help us. At the moment we're training archery while on a horse. One of the Head Disciples, Seonus disciple, is Hanseong's older brother.«