Survivance Affection

Chapter 5: Tired

Both Dokja and the woman he saved stood in awkward silence for a bit before she broke it. Her eyes sparkled in recognition as she raised an eyebrow.

“Wait, would you happen to be Sir Dokja?"

Cocking his head to the side, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

What were the chances that this random woman would be able to recognize his face? Pointing at himself, Dokja questioned "Huh? You know me?" She nodded right away, but Han Sooyoung was the one that spoke out next.

"Lady Jiwon?!" She exclaimed. Jiwon looked at the heiress with a similar look of shock.

"Lady Sooyoung..."

Figures anyone able to recognize him would at least know of Han Sooyoung too.

"Are you two familiar with each other?" They both turned to face him.

Han Sooyoung was the one to answer.
"Like me Lady Jiwon is the only daughter of her family, the Min Count household. You probably don’t remember but she was actually there with me when you passed out the garden.” Thinking back, Dokja did faintly recall Sooyoung sitting at a table with another woman before.

Heewon couldn’t help but add on to her.

"Isn’t she also well acquainted with Lady Seolhwa…?" she pondered, before quickly shutting her mouth. Not only her, but the other two women also tensed up as soon Lee Seolhwa's name was spoken, all of them falling silent and glancing uneasily at Kim Dokja.

"Oh, I see.." He muttered, and then nodded. It’d been his intention to distance himself from Lee Seolhwa and not associate with her at all. Though it looked as though that wouldn’t work, as the people around him were already anxious about his character’s blooming obsession towards her. Even if he couldn’t completely avoid being connected to her, at the very least he could start offsetting that image by showing people that he was no longer interested in her. So, he quickly changed the subject.

"Come to think of it, what are you doing here Lady Jiwon?" She stared at him, a flash of surprise briefly appearing on her face, before she looked down, her expression soon morphing into embarrassment as she clung onto the hem of her dress. She answered in a low whisper.

"Umm actually I...snuck out…," with every word her voice got quieter, her face becoming more and more red. After a brief pause, Dokja and Han Sooyoung glanced at each other before laughing jovially.

"H-hey, there’s not need to laugh at me!" the heiress huffed, shooting a meek glare, misinterpreting their laughter as mocking.
Dokja continued chuckling a bit as he replied, "No, no, it's just, we're sneaking out too!" he said, pointing to his two companions.

Han Sooyoung added, "If you're sneaking out too, you should come with us. We have some pretty good protection with us"

"Lady Sooyoung is correct; I’ll make sure to protect all of you from any other belligerent harassers" Heewon remarked proudly. Heewon turned back to Prince Dokja, wondering if he was alright with Lady Jiwon joining them.

"They're right Lady Jiwon,” he huffed lightly,” it's better if we accompanied you," She gave him an appreciative smile before bowing to him.

"Thank you Sir Dokja!".

He grinned at her
"No need to thank me."

----

The rest of their time at the night market proceeded without incident. After watching a puppet show, the group went around to buy anything that happened to catch their eyes, their arms quickly filling up with items.