Chained - A Jae-ha Fanfiction

Chapter 4

The next morning Rensa was awakened by the familiar banging on her door followed by the laughter from the children.

"Rise and shine, Cripple!" They shouted. "Time for you to do nothing!"

She sat up and Yona groaned.

"What's going on?"

"My rude awakening has arrived." Rensa sighed and scooted over to the chest in the corner. She pulled on a clean dress, and then used her crutch to get to her foot. Yona sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Why isn't she answering the door?" One of the kids asked rudely.

"Because she's too slow!" Another answered.

Rensa ignored the comments and carefully picked her way through the messy room. The laughter stopped suddenly and she heard a different voice shouting.

"Leave! Don't you kids have better things to do?"

She knew who was speaking and she was not pleased that he was the one defending her. She opened the door and there he stood with his back to her, watching the children run off. His arms were folded and his back was tense. She could tell he was worked up.

"Good Morning Jae-ha." Yona greeted when she came to the door.

He whipped around and smiled at them. "Morning!"

She liked the sparkle in his eyes when they weren't filled with judgements. She pushed that thought aside and dropped her gaze to its usual place, the ground.

"What was all that commotion?"

"Some kids messing around." Jae-ha explained.

"You'll get used to it. If you ignore it they leave eventually." Rensa commented moving past the conversing friends. Yun was working by a new fire and a sweet smell was wafting over to her. She sat beside him like the night before.

There two tents set up closer to the forest edge, and there were blankets strewn around the ground, she guessed it was how the men slept.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Yun handed her a bowl of rice. She let herself smell the scent for a few seconds before taking the first bite. It was sweet and reminded her of a dessert. She was not used to eating such delicious food. For the past few months she had been living off the fruit and the herbs she collected around the forest's edge. She allowed herself to selfishly think they could stay for a while longer, so she could eat better, and hear more of their strange stories. Maybe even find out if the others truly did have extraordinary abilities.

She knew they could not stay. They were travelers and obviously had a destination.

The attractive voice she did not want to hear asked a question beside her. "Why do you let them treat you like that?"

"I did not ask for your help." She said coldly then took another spoonful of rice, while staring at the grass in front of her.

"That doesn't answer my question." He replied calmly. He seemed so carefree and didn't take any offense to her rudeness towards him. That bothered her more. She did not want him prying into her personal matters, yet she got the feeling if she didn't give him an answer, he wouldn't leave her alone.

"Because if I were to... fight back... They would treat me worse." She mumbled and set her half full bowl in the grass that held her staring gaze. "It's better if I stay in the background and go unnoticed. I cannot care about trivial matters." She kept her eyes on her food, not daring to see the expression on his face.

"Like the village children antagonizing you?" Jae-ha asked, seeking deeper clarification. She nodded once.

"I think that's kind of weak." Yun piped up.