Promise- Minsung

Chapter Forty Eight

Jisung's life had turned from day to night in a matter of hours.

He had stood out, staring at the mountains for all of half an hour before he had walked back to his room to find Hei-ran missing from her bed.

At first he had brushed it off. Yongbok or Min-hyung must have taken her to breakfast. Maybe she had been crying while he was out and they stopped by and took her with them.

Jisung had brought Yeong with him to breakfast only to find that Hei-ran was not with any of his friends.

The entire palace had been flipped upside down in the mad search to find the princess.

She was not found.

And a few hours later, Minho would be reported missing by General Kim himself. They had been searching for Changbin at a village. Where the group was separated and Minho went off on his own.

Next thing they knew, he was taken by some strange man in all black, perhaps a Black Mask, heading towards the mountains. Presumably to the Western Kingdom. They had lost him.

By some miracle, they had found Changbin. He was in the village, unconscious. When he had gotten back to the San Palace, he found Yongbok overjoyed and Jisung grief stricken.

His story was that he had been kidnapped. Perhaps by the people that took Minho, before he was left at the village. He didn't know where he had been, didn't know who had taken him.

And there were no leads to finding either Hei-ran or Minho.

Min-hyung quickly wrote home to King Lee that his youngest brother and niece had gone missing and there was no way to find them.

Jisung was left alone with just Yeong by his side, Minho and Hei-ran suddenly torn from his life like they had never been there to begin with.

Everyone was searching for them.

And they were not found.

(One Week Later)

Minho groaned.

His head hurt like there was a bird trying to peck it's way out.

He sat up slowly in bed and squinted. It was dark with just a small lantern lighting up the stone room he was sleeping in. He looked around and found... nothing. The room was entirely empty aside from the bed he was sleeping on and a lantern on the ground.

He stood up quickly. Wait... where was he?

Everything came rushing back all at once, making him almost double over. "Changbin, that bastard!" Minho glowered as he punched the wall. "I will kill you..."

The door cracked open for a split second, a small head of hair peaking in and taking in Minho's risen state. "Oh, you're awake. Just wait a moment please!" she said before she slipped back out, closing the door behind her.

"Wait!" Minho raced to the door, banging his fist on it. There was no way to open it from the inside. "Come back! Open this door!" he banged again, his fist stinging.

He leaned on the door for a few moments before stepping back, holding his head. Maybe it had been from when he had fallen, but Minho had a feeling that his brain was just having an overload.

He had been taken from the river by someone and brought to someplace... but where was that someplace? Where was he, and where was his family and the San Palace? How long had he been out? Why was he even here?"

After a few minutes, the door opened once again.

Minho leapt from the bed, his eyes going wide as he found himself face-to-face with the White Mask. The same one that he had been saved from when Black Masks raided the Han Palace. The same one he had seen riding away from the hill where Hei-ran's mom was buried.