i won't let you go

seven

"are we close to the northern border?" seulgi wonders as they rest near a lake, her toes in the cool water. jaebum sits next to her, cleaning some gutted fish for their lunch.

"a few days away, yes."

"that's too soon!" seulgi complains, "you still have to teach me things."

"like what?"

"how to properly gut fish, archery, putting up tents, hunting...whatever else you can come up with."

"oh? if i would have known you were interested, i would have taught you." jaebum teases, "though it sounds like you're just stalling because you're not ready to be in the northern territories."

"does it matter? you're taking me there regardless."

"it is my job."

"teach me something." she complains resting her head on his shoulder.

"do you really want to learn archery? i can teach you a little."

"yes please."

"fine, youngjae finish this for me." jaebum rinses his hands off in the river before helping seulgi to her feet, "we'll practice over here."

jaebum sets up an area, it's away from people and he shoots an arrow at a tree as a guide. "we'll aim for this tree specifically."

"show me, show me." seulgi chants, getting excited.

"we'll use this blunt arrow so you don't pierce anyone." jaebum explains, handing the bow over to seulgi, coming up behind her to help fix her stance.

"woo! go seulgi!" mark cheers from where he's fishing.

"why is this harder than it looks?" seulgi complains as she fails to keep her arrow set up in the bow, she goes to put her arms down but jaebum stops her.

"patience, seulgi."

"that's rich coming from you."

"do you want to learn or not?"

"i'm sorry teacher jaebum."

"you're too tense, you should keep a relaxed grip on the handle, and then when you're ready to attach your arrow hold your bow horizontally, carefully place your arrow like this." jaebum demonstrates though seulgi's not even paying attention, too lost in staring at his profile, "are you paying attention?" he whispers and seulgi giggles before attempting to focus again. "you want your fingers on the string with your index above the arrow, and the other two below the arrow. when you draw, you pull the string with your back muscles..."

"is that why your shoulders are so broad?"

"cute... you pull the string so that your pulling hand is under your chin, the string touches your nose and lips, aim using your dominant eye, looking down the arrow, align with your target and release." as jaebum explains the details, his hands are positioning and working with seulgi to shoot her first arrow. it's a blunt arrow, not sharp enough to pierce through the bark, so it bounces off the surface instead. "see? now you try." jaebum goes to fetch the arrow for her, returning and helping her set up. "relax, your grip."

"okay, i think i'm ready." she counts to three and then releases the arrow which instead falls straight to the ground.

"let's try it again." jaebum suggests, "remember, position your fingers like i taught you." seulgi nods her head, doing so, this time when she releases the arrow, it flies straight towards yugyeom, almost hitting him in the head.