"Abi, it's okay. It's okay. You're safe now. No one's going to hurt you."
"L-Lady Dairyuu, th-they were... I-I'm afraid..."
"Calm down, Abi. You're safe now. You're safe."
Someone caressed the bandages around his eyes, and he leaned onto her hold.
"Please... please stay for a while... Lady Dairyuu."
|•••••|
"Hak..."
"Nani?"
There was a few moments of silence before she spoke up again. "Why am I left here as well?" Kija, Yona and Yoon left to go find Seiryuu while she and Hak were left to guard the place they were staying at. Hak wanted to smack his sister at the back of her head but refrained from doing so. "And what was that about sticking annoyingly close to Yona? You might have as well confessed to hime-sama." The former general flushed bright red, swerving his head to the opposite direction.
"Don't ask me," he grumbled out in annoyance. "And shut up about that." He closed an eye and used his other to glance at Yoru from the corner of his eye. She had let out a shaky chuckle and instantly knew there and then that something was bothering her, that something was making her unnerved and nervous about being here. In fact, he actually noticed the moment they arrived here but dismissed it as his imagination.
"Alright," he started as he faced her startled form. "What's going on?" She arched an eyebrow at his question.
"What exactly do you mean, Hak?"
"You can't feign ignorance, Stupid Yoru. You've been uneasy since we've arrived. What's wrong?" Yoru bit her lower lip in contemplation. Should she tell him? They knew about the truth about her being the descendant of Dairyuu but they don't exactly know the truth about her being Yoru, do they? She never told them where she came from or how his former Majesty Il found her. Basically, she was still an enigma to them.
"It is nothing you should worry over, brother."
"Just calling me brother and not by name already makes me suspicious, sister."
Yoru's eyes twitched in annoyance when she realized that he was right. She thought about it over and over again and wondered if it was the right time to tell him. "I..." Hak's ears perked up at the sound of her voice. "... you could probably compare the life I had before I served at the castle with Seiryuu's." A shiver ran down Hak's spine at the tone of her voice or lack of. The lifeless tone her voice took was unlike her.
It took a moment for her words to process in Hak's mind and when it did, he stiffened. "Wha..."
"... I grew up believing that I killed my father, though, Yunha-obaasama would always say to me that I wasn't capable of doing that. I was an infant, a newborn. In what way was I capable of killing him?"
"Yoru..."
"My mother... you could say that she couldn't really function well without a man in her life. So, my naive little self went into the village to look for man who was willing to take care of me and Okaa-sama. I was an idiot." Yoru humorlessly chuckled, lowering her head in shame. "When I arrived at the village, I had been subjected with glowers I didn't know the meaning of. I... I really tried, you see. I really tried to look for someone but no one seemed keen on having me around."
