.seven.
When she returned home, Jung walked her all the way inside the house and to her room. The two of them ran into her sister Soon Deok in the hallway. She had just returned from the palace where she had been looking for Prince Eun, not knowing that he was at his eighth brother's house, fighting with Minji. The older teenager gasped at the sight of her younger sister. Her outfit, which was a light lilac color, was littered with dirt, her hair was a tangled mess, and there were even some rips in her clothes which she hadn't noticed at the time that she was fighting Eun.
"What happened to you, yeo dongsaeng?" Her older sister wondered, taking in her appearance.
Minji gave a shake of her head. "I'll explain later, unnie. Its a long story and I really need a bath." She turned to Jung and smiled at him politely, "Thank you for everything, oppa. I think I've got it from here."
"Got what?" He eyed her with confusion.
Soon Deok appeared equally confused by her words.
Again, she forgot that she was in the past and they didn't speak in slang. Their way of speaking was more formal and everything she said was taken in a literal sense. She sighed and repeated herself, though using different words which he might understand. "I didn't mean it like that. I said I'm fine now. You don't need to worry about me."
"Ah." He nodded in understanding, a smile playing on his lips. "You've got it." He repeated her previous words slowly and cautiously, in an attempt to make her feel less awkward about the way that she was speaking. The words were foreign to his vocabulary, as no one spoke like that in Goryeo. It was just like how she thought that wench was a popular word in that era, yet no one ever said it anymore in the present time. There were other--more informal--ways to insult a person.
Jung said goodbye to the two girls and parted from their house, leaving Minji with her sister in the hallway near her bed room. Minji entered her room and looked around for a closet where she could get a set of clean clothes, but there was none. She remembered the service had been the ones to bring her clothes in for her.
"I'll ask the service to draw a bath for you and then you can explain to me what happened." Soon Deok offered, full of concern for her sister.
Minji quickly shook her head. "That's not necessary. I'll just ask them for a clean set of clothes and I'll go bathe down in the communal bathing area." That was the place where she had first resurfaced as Park Hak Soon.
When he took her back home that day, Jung had explained to her that it was the largest bathing area in Goryeo and that it was divided up into two sections. One was for the common people, while the other was a more private and secluded area that was exclusively for nobles and other royalty. Her sister had explained to her that their mother was a noble, which meant that it would give Minji the status to be in the private baths. That was exactly where she wanted to go in order to attempt returning to the present time.
Her sister crinkled up her nose at her words. "I don't think its a very good idea to go there alone at this time of day."
Minji reassured her with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry, unnie. I'll be fine."
-
Back at the palace, Eun was taken to one of the court ladies for her to put ointment on his wound that was already starting to bruise. Ji Mong, Baek ah, and Wan Won were there with him, poking fun at him for getting beat up by a girl. When the court lady left them, Ji Mong stepped forward, on his face was a clear look of amusement as he observed the purple bruise that was beginning to form on the prince's skin.
