Her heart hammered like a bird desperately flapping to escape its cage. Minjae wasn't sure if it was because Lee Seung caught her or because he was so close that she could feel the heat from his body.

"You are coming with me," Commander Lee pushed past her, with his sword in one hand and her wrist in another, dragging Minjae behind him. Her injured ankle protested, and she winced in pain. Her legs sank without fully folding, and Minjae hung awkwardly by the arm, halfway between sitting and standing.

"Please, Dari, I have hurt my ankle," she gasped.

Seung paused, giving her hand enough slack without letting it go so she could drop to the ground.

"Don't play tricks with me, Kim Minjae. You don't have anywhere to run," he said.

Her shock at him knowing her name must have been evident; he straightened and let go of her, a sardonic smile playing on his lips. Placing the tip of his sword's sheath lightly under her chin, Seung tipped her head up, meeting her eyes. "A flawless face like yours can be quite a liability in your line of work, Physician Kim."

Her eyes were not looking through him anymore, Seung observed with wry interest. They were wide and - anxious? Interested? Afraid? He could not tell. He had schooled his hammering heart enough so it settled into a steady beat, his mind alert to any shenanigans his willy opponent could be up to.

Minjae flicked her head to dislodge the sheath from under her chin and lowered it, hiding her blush at his underhand compliment.

"I am not playing any tricks," she said defensively.

"I am glad to hear that. Now, please stand up and follow me for questioning." Seung lowered his sword and walked two paces away, waiting.

His intense dark eyes had burned a hole into her at the inn, making her feel conscious and flustered. When he caught her arm minutes earlier, she felt he was peering into her soul. Acutely aware of him, she tried to gather her thoughts, which seemed to have turned into cottonwool. She rubbed her ankle, trying to feel if she had broken anything. Under her skirt, she quickly rotated her ankle and wriggled her toes. A slight cramp ran up the side of her left leg. So far, it seemed like a sprain and not a bad one. Nothing that her herb bandage and a good night's rest would not fix.

"Are you planning to spend the night on that cold, wet ground, or should we find a drier, warmer place where you can tell me all about the intel you were passing to your friend?"

Minjae's heart skipped a beat. How much had he overheard? "I don't know what you mean. I was here to meet my.....er....friend," she paused to give it a loaded meaning and hoped he would take it and leave it at that.

"And pray, what were you and ..er...your friend talking about?"

Lee Seung was nobody's fool. Minjae changed tactics.

"What were you doing following me at this hour, Commander Lee? Or do you have an ailment that brings you to a physician for a cure in the dark of the night?"

He raised an eyebrow at the use of his name and ignored her insult. Leaning casually onto a nearby tree trunk, he folded his hands across his chest, the hilt of his long sword gripped in his fist, hanging by an elbow down to the shaft of his boot at his calf, and drawled casually. "Let me be very clear, Kim Minjae. I am the one who is going to be asking the questions. You can answer me truthfully like an intelligent person who does not want to get into any more trouble, or I haul you to the interrogation room. And I need you to tell me who it was that vanished into the night so I can haul him next."

Minjae lifted her chin. "The nature of our relationship means we must meet at night away from prying eyes. There is nothing to tell. You are wasting your time. It might not be what you Yangban men expect of your women, but we commoners live differently. Though it would be terrific for people to know you were following me around into the night," she finished in a sarcastic tone for good measure.

"So it's going to be like that, eh? Then it will be a long night because I plan to learn everything about your spying activities before this night is out, and I am not quite partial to spending it out in the cold, at the mercy of those howling God-knows-what."

"Spying?" She croaked.

"Also, a list of people who will be at risk, as you mentioned. To be very specific, which 'target' are you planning to bring here? And why Cheongju? Who is the Captain? And the monk. It's evident we have an infiltration. Either tell me now, or I tie you to a chair and wring it out of you."

Infiltration? Dumbfounded, Minjae stared back at him. At a loss for words, she felt a sudden laughter bubbling within her. She clamped it down hard, tried to marshal her most respectful voice to her command, and failed miserably. "We are not.....spies, Commander Lee.." she said haltingly, dropping her head as she bit her lip to hide her ill-timed giggle.

Seung's brows knit together. Her voice was....patronising! He swore he could hear laughter in her voice. His mouth drew an angry line at the implied insult of her tone.

Her reaction is wrong. A voice spoke in a deep recess of his mind, but Seung was too annoyed at her for not taking him seriously to pay attention to it.

To add insult to injury, she looked up at him and smiled, the moon deciding to shine its light on her dazzling face just at that moment.

And her smile trapped air in his lungs.

And he realised he was also unsettled because he didn't like her meeting people at night, no matter her reason.

And that it was none of his business that she met people at night.

And that he wanted to make everything she did his business.

And that he had to remind himself he could only make it his business because it involved Ganghwa Island.

It made him very ill-tempered.

"Get up."

"I cannot. You can see I am hurt," she complained prettily.

She didn't sound hurt. Seung was beginning to wonder if she was faking her injury.

"I saw you move that ankle. There is no reason for you not to walk on a slight sprain. I am this close to calling the guards and arresting you."

She sighed. Putting a hand beneath her, she made a great show of trying to raise herself and winced loudly. "I would not do that if I were you, not if you want to explain yourself why you dragged an injured, unarmed female physician to the prison in the dead of night to the Mayor or the Governor."

Lee Seung's eyes glittered dangerously.

Minjae bit her tongue. She had hoped to put him off for longer by exaggerating her injury so Ko Yoon could safely get out of the woods into the barracks, but she knew she had crossed the line. Her heart began to pound as he uncoiled himself and walked to her with excruciatingly slow, measured steps.

"Never threaten me, Physician Kim. I do not care who you have wrapped around your little finger. You can safely store them in your sleeve pockets. Now, either you come voluntarily, or I will force you," his voice was dangerously low.

The wind gusted, and a shiver went through her. Her mind raced. She knew he would not arrest her, at least not right away. She could slow him down considerably with her limp while coming up with a plausible explanation of the meeting without giving anything away. She just needed to buy a few more minutes until Yoon escaped safely.

"I really can't. It looks like I have a bad sprain."

Sighing, Seung went down to his hunches. He placed his sword flat next to his folded knee resting on the ground and reached out for her ankle.

"Show me," he ordered.

Minjae drew her ankle closer to herself. "I am the physician. I can take care of it myself. I just need to get home."

It didn't escape his notice the speed with which she moved the 'injured' ankle. His mouth tightened. Patience was never his strongest suit.

"You are not going anywhere until you answer my questions." Grabbing his sword, he stood up and stretched his free hand. "Here, hold it."

She looked at it, making no attempt to do anything of the sort.

"Why do we not speak tomorrow, Commander Lee," she asked placatingly. "As you can see -"

He scoffed. "So your accomplices can make an escape at night? I don't think so." He tipped his hat up, planted the tip of his sword on the ground, placed both his hands on the top of the sheathed blade, and, using it as a support, leaned closer, looking over the sword at her. "Get up."

In reply, she stuck her toe out and let out a long cry of pain. Very convincingly. Too convincingly.

Rolling his eyes, he bent, caught her by the wrist, and pulled her to a standing position. She stumbled and started to go back down.

"Aish!" He blew a breath of exasperation. "That's it! I warned you."

Before she could fathom what he intended, Seung shifted the sword to his left hand, bent, wrapped his right arm around her thighs, and, in one swift motion, hauled her slim frame over his shoulder.

Sudden panic constricted her heart.

She recoiled.

"No!" She squirmed. "Put me down, put me down!" She twisted violently, digging her nails into his back, rearing, pulling her knees up to his chest, straining against his arm with all her might. "Put me down!"

"What the -" Those nails hurt! Seung did not expect her to thrash so viciously. Trying to hold on to her wildly buckling body with one hand and the sword with the other, he lost his footing to the soft, uneven mush of the forest floor beneath his boots and tumbled. She almost flew from his arms backwards, but he grabbed her even as he went down, letting go of his sword and cushioning the fall with his arms around her shoulders.

And now she twisted beneath him. "No!" She screamed in panic. "Let me go!" She brought her fingers to rake his face, and he caught her wrists instinctively to save himself, trying to subdue her with the weight of his body.

"No!"

The more he tried to control her thrashing, struggling to keep her nails from digging into his skin, the more violently she twisted.

"Calm down! Calm down. I am not going to hurt you. I-am-not-going-to-hurt-you," he all but yelled into her face.

She stilled momentarily, and he could see the white of her panicked eyes, and something painful twisted inside him. He rolled off her.

She sat up. To soothe her, Seung extended his hand, almost touching her face. "Don't be afraid -"

To his horror, she clenched her eyes shut and covered her head with her hands, crossed at the wrists with the palms spread and elbows jutting out, protecting her face that was turned away from him as if she expected to be hit. His hands fell to his side as he put his weight on his knees and leaned back on the heels of his boots, his heart thudding.

She immediately crawled away from him and then let out a whimper as if in pain. She gasped and flipped over to a sitting position with her weight on the hands placed behind her, using them and her feet to edge away from him backwards, dragging the accumulated leaves of the fall and winter with her.

"Calm down. I didn't mean to frighten you." His voice rang out uncomfortably in the woods, echoing back to them.

It was as if she didn't hear him, or perhaps it frightened her more. Shaking her head, she kept moving away from him, her face frozen in hysteria and shock.

He felt a strange squeeze in his heart, unable to bear the terror on her face.

It tore him to realise Kim Minjae had been abused. Was it her husband and his concubine, as the rumours said? What had the bastards done to her? Seung felt a furious rage rise to his throat. At that moment, Seung forgot why he was there; his only desire was to protect her from whatever demons chased her.

"Kim Minjae, please listen to me. I am not going to touch you," he said with fierce gentleness. He sat on his hunches, his hand extended, his palm open in a reconciliation gesture. "It was wrong of me to do that. I am sorry. You do not have to fear me. Do you understand?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She finally stilled.

Lee Seung looked at the woman before him. She started shaking in the aftermath, her teeth chattering as she drew her knees to her chest and hugged herself. Though it was too dark to see the colour of her face, he knew it was ashen.

The unfamiliar pangs of remorse drummed his conscience. He had a million questions to ask, but she was too distraught. It struck him that she had not spoken a word since he had released her from underneath him.

Seung swallowed. Suddenly, it was crucial for him that she saw him with trusting eyes.

"Physician Kim, I am sorry...are you all right?"

She raised her eyes at him. Magnificent eyes glistening with unshed tears and - rage. "How dare you?" her voice shook.

Seung could not meet her blazing eyes, flinching from the pain he saw in them. He had never treated a woman like he had just now and had no justification. There were rules and protocols to follow when interrogating a suspect, regardless of how heinous the crime was. This was a grave matter, and he should be taking her under custody, not manhandling her. His only loyalty lay to his men and his King. No matter how distasteful it was, that would have been the right way.

Seung brought a finger to his temple, rubbing it. He had let his emotions rule over his pragmatic senses for the first time.

"I apologise." He expelled a long, frustrated breath. "Look, Physician Kim, I am sorry for my behaviour. If I could undo it, I would. But you must understand right now, you are a suspect of something truly dangerous. The right thing to do would be to call the guards and arrest you for espionage."

"Then just arrest me! What stopped you?" She asked furiously.

You. It came unbidden to his mind. Lee Seung had broken all protocols. For reasons beyond his comprehension, his first instinct has been to protect her. And he realised he desperately wanted her to be innocent of whatever transpired here minutes ago.

"We shouldn't even be having this conversation. I might be putting my men in danger because I do not know whether I am speaking to someone innocent or a woman who could be guilty of treason. And I need your co-operation. I want you to answer some questions before deciding if it warrants an arrest. As you mentioned, you are a respected figure, and I don't want to displease the Governor either," he made up as he went, and the way she straightened, put her knees down and brought her hands to her lap suggested she was listening. He had to make her trust him. He told himself that even if she was guilty, sometimes this was the best way to get a person to confess. "I promise you will not be disrespected in any way. You have my word. But dispel any doubts that I will not arrest you. However, if I do, I cannot protect you from torture. But if that is what you prefer, I will do that."

There, he said it. He could have laughed at himself. He was allowing a probable criminal a choice to be arrested or go free.

She bent her head and looked away.

Seung heard a slight rustle behind him. Jumping to his feet, he whirled around, his eyes narrowing, his hands reaching out for his dagger sheathed in the sleeves of his dongdari. He belatedly realised his sword was well within Minjae's grasp. Mentally berating himself for losing his senses, Seung studied the newcomer and the woman, alert.

Kim Minjae made no move to go for the sword.

"Noona, are you all right?" The man was tall, with slim shoulders, a clean round face and possibly around his age. His dark eyes under bushy eyebrows were fixed on the woman sitting amidst the leafy mush and fallen twigs.

Minjae lifted her eyes to the young man and swallowed. She nodded at him wordlessly.

The man turned to him and gave him a bow. "I am the one you want, Commander Lee. Please let Noona leave." Seung could detect animosity in the young man's voice.

"Let me be the judge of that. Identify yourself."

The man reached into his sleeve.

"Keep your hands where I can see them," Seung barked.

The man froze.

"I was taking out my name tag, Sir. My name is Ko Yoon. I am an eighth-ranked cavalry soldier in the Central Army." He gave a soldier's bow to Seung.

Seung hid his surprise and kept his face inscrutable. "Do you know the penalty for disregarding an order? I can strike you down for misconduct right at this moment. But I will give you a chance to explain yourself." Seung steeled himself. "I want to see you both at the provincial interrogation room in thirty minutes."

The man fell to his knees. "Please do not take Noona there, Sir. I will answer all your questions."

Seung saw the fear in his eyes.

Lee Seung was the Commander of this garrison, a position only next to the Governor in power. The significance of a commoner woman cowering in his presence wasn't lost on him. He had fought against the abuse of women all his life. Bile rose as he realised he was at the receiving end of such a suspicion.

Seung looked at the young man contemplatively. Ko Yoon had not needed to return, yet it was apparent his sense of honour compelled him. More interestingly, he was trying to protect the woman despite knowing that he was so far down the food chain that Seung could slice his tongue off for insubordination, and no one would bat an eyelid. His connection to the woman was strong enough to put himself in harm's way, and it was evident it was not romantic. Seung also had the gut feeling that the woman would not have divulged a thing about Ko Yoon or the nature of their dealing, regardless of the threat he posed to her.

"I give you my word she will not be harmed under my watch. But I need answers. What intel were you speaking about?"

There was a rustle on his left as the woman straightened herself.

"Can we trust you, Commander Lee?" The woman asked. He looked over at her. She had regained her composure, her voice steady, soft but firm, and she was studying him openly.

Relief mingled with guilt and something else he could not name. The next moment, Seung remembered his position as the Commander of this godforsaken island. He ran his fingers across his temple. "It depends on whether I can trust you."

"Noona -"

"It's all right, Yoonah." Minjae lifted her outer skirt and drew out the inner petticoat of lighter and coarser material. Holding an end with both hands, she pulled at the fabric in the opposite directions vertically. The fabric tore about three inches. She readjusted her grasp and pulled at it horizontally. The fabric gave away to release a neat strip of cloth. The moonlight streamed from the cracks of the trees, illuminating the top of her head and throwing her face in relief, light dancing on and off her face as she moved efficiently and astonishingly gracefully. Long, elegant fingers searched around for something in the ground. She dug out a small log and placed it in front of her. Placing her injured limb on it, she eased away her shoe, then rolled down her stocking, revealing a slim, white, perfectly formed ankle attached to an exquisite foot with an elegant curve, unblemished skin and long, well-proportioned toes crowned with neatly trimmed squares for nails.

Seung's throat went dry.

She was ravishingly beautiful and so graceful that watching her attend to something as mundane as an injured ankle was akin to witnessing her dance to an unknown melody only she could hear. Seung felt his heart leap and quickly averted his eyes. He noticed Ko Yoon had already turned his back towards them. Seung felt his ears warm as he realised he had been watching her like a deviant. Flushing, he turned a little more away from her but then reminded himself he had to keep her in sight to prevent her from playing any tricks.

Comforting himself with thoughts of his duties, he turned back but kept his gaze on a vague spot ahead of him.

But in his heart, he already knew she would not pull any tricks.

He could see her movements without actually looking at her. She was wrapping the ripped fabric around her ankle expertly like the physician she was.

"We are not spies, Commander Lee. But what we speak here also cannot be shared anywhere."

Bringing his focus back to the job and shaking off his uncommon attraction to the woman like some unwanted cobwebs, Seung kept his voice non-committal and hard. "I will decide after I hear what you say and what I need to do with the information you give me. And don't think of making anything up."

"I will tell you what you wish to learn about Ko Yoon and my conversation that concerns us, Commander Lee, but I have some conditions." She moved her bound ankle this way and that and then eased her stocking over it.

"I promised not to disrespect you. Other than that, you are not in a position to lay down any demand.

"I do think I am. When we committed to what we have been doing, we pledged an unwritten bond that we would not endanger our friends no matter what. As you must have already deduced, what we do might not be completely above board, but I assure you, we do nothing wrong. You should perhaps arrest us because, Commander Lee, if you decide to let us go, you will also become complicit in what we do."

Seung stared at her. "Do you know who you are speaking to? How dare you try to threaten an officer of the Joseon King?"

"Noona -" the young man interjected, and Seung could trace a faint underlying panic in his voice.

Kim Minjae raised her hand in a gesture to silence him. Seung watched in astonishment as the young man shut down.

She was, very clearly, in command.

"Dari, I am speaking to the man who commands this island now. I am well aware of that, Commander Lee. My friends and I are also aware that there might be unrest brewing from the north, and hence, our work becomes even more important and urgent."

Their eyes locked.

"Let's go to your inn," he said.

"We cannot go there. We cannot afford anyone else overhearing what we have to discuss." Her dainty stockinged foot went into the sleeve of her shoe.

Seung was getting more intrigued than worried. He hadn't ruled out treason yet, but the more he heard, the more improbable it sounded.

Their reactions were all wrong for spies caught in the act. Either they were too good, or this was about something else. But his gut instincts told him it was the latter. He had spent enough time with infiltrators, snitches and moles to understand that much.

But the woman had accepted that their actions could be illegal, so he was treading on dangerous ground.

"All right. Let us go to my house."

"Your house?" Kim Minjae sounded on alert.

"Yes, no will disturb us there."

She removed her bandaged foot from the log and tried standing up. Both Ko Yoon and Seung automatically moved to give her support. Much to his annoyance, she ignored his outstretched hand and grasped Ko Yoon's, hauling herself up. He balled his fist crankily. She tested her ankle to see if she could trust it to hold her weight. Then, she let go of Yoon's arm, squared her shoulders, pulled herself up and met his eyes.

"Commander Lee, Ko Yoon cannot be seen with me outside. We are not supposed to be on talking terms. And I cannot come to your house. No, I will not come to your home at night. You can arrest me, but if not, either we speak here, out in the open, or please call me tomorrow morning. I give you my word. I will meet you wherever you want me to."

Seung stared in surprise and reluctant admiration at the magnificent vision before him. Overcoming her terror just minutes ago, Minjae faced him unflinchingly. Her speech and bearing were so refined and commanding that he would have been convinced she was a high-born Yangban woman if he hadn't known better. Obstinate yet soft-spoken, injured yet resilient, cornered yet formidable, he had never met a woman who could hold her own in a situation so stacked against her.

Ko Yoon stepped forward. "Commander Lee, I will come with you, stay as long as you want, and answer all your questions. Can you please let Noona go tonight?"

Seung studied both of them. Both Kim Minjae and Ko Yoon were not a flight risk. There was little they could do overnight. Even if they did, tracking them down would not be too difficult. Ko Yoon's concern was genuine, and Minjae was no longer faking her sprain. Seriously or not, she was injured. She probably aggravated it when fighting with him in panic.

Seung sucked in an ashamed breath. "All right. Physician Kim, you will see me tomorrow morning at my house, at the second hour of the rabbit, right at sunrise. Soldier Ko, you will spend the night at my house."

He could see relief flooding her face. She nodded and bowed.

With that, she started limping towards the rim of the forest., with Ko Yoon falling behind her.

Heavens, she was stubborn. Seung looked around, and then, using his height to his advantage, he tore off a thick limb of a low-hanging branch, knifing it to shear it from the tree. He knocked it a couple of times on the log she had dug out earlier. Satisfied, he joined her. "Here, use this for support."

She took it without protest, looking grateful. "Khamzahmnida Dari," she said simply.

And just like that, his heart turned over in pleasure.

A quarter of an hour later, Seung watched her disappear into her house, a small, warm, sturdy mud and stone structure with a thick double thatched roof that whispered secrets of a past he wanted to be privy to.

Seung turned to Ko Yoon. "Tell me everything you know about Physician Kim's marriage."

A look of uncertainty flashed on his young face, but Ko Yoon complied. "She was married very young. After her husband divorced her, she came here with her father and has lived here since. That's all I know. In fact -" the man stopped, his eyes clouding.

"In fact, what?"

"She is the strongest person I know. I have never seen her like this before." His tone had a ring of accusation. Seung looked away momentarily, guilt assailing him.

"Was she abused by her husband?"

Ko Yoon looked troubled. "I do not know. She never speaks about it. And I do not give ears to rumours, Sir." Ko Yoon's head was bowed, but his tone carried a distinctive warning.

In other words, Ko Yoon was too loyal to Minjae to say anything more. Seung knew he would not get much out of the man. They reached his home twenty minutes later, and Seung's servant showed Ko Yoon to a small, well-appointed chamber. Seung locked it from outside, pocketing the key. "Don't try anything smart."

Seung could have asked more questions about the encounter and probably gotten him to divulge everything he needed to by morning, but tonight, he had more pressing things to do. He was not done yet with Minjae. He would get to the bottom of the reason for those terror-filled eyes, and he had a fair idea of where to start digging for answers.

Kim Minjae limped to a lamp underneath a latticed window and picked it up. Then, she sagged against the wall, closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She felt tears pressing against the shutters of her eyelids hotly, warring with her to let them squeeze through, but Minjae kept the lid on them tight, refusing to give in.

She had worked hard to create the hard-boned outer shell, so no one could ever peep inside to witness the demons underneath that carefully curated surface. And she had foolishly let it crack open in front of that one person who should never have seen that side of her.

A dark figure stirred from the corner of the room.

"Kim Minjae?"

Gasping, she blinked hard, stubbornly pushing her tears away.

"Aboji! You are not asleep yet?"

Kim Seo Jun was sitting in a corner with several medicinal pouches on the table before him. But he was looking at her intently.

"You hurt yourself."

She could detect a faint lace of worry underlining his voice.

"It's nothing; it was a misstep," she said.

"Come here, child," his voice was kind, but there was an unmistakable authority.

Kim Seo Jun was not someone you trifled with. At an imposing six-and-a-half feet in height, he made a formidable figure with a thick black beard with a silver line in the middle, a wayward crop of salt and pepper hair tied into a severe bun on top of his head, a broad nose that had been broken at some point, and deep eyes set in wrinkle cornered grooves that had weathered many a storm. In his younger days, Kim Seo Jun spent his time thundering into wrestling rings, and his opponents yielded to him like twigs in the face of a whirlwind.

He could still axe his way into a giant tree in minutes. However, now, he preferred devoting his time to making medicines and caring for a grandchild and two daughters, one of whom spent most of her time tending to others.

Minjae obeyed and slowly made her way to him. Gently depositing the lamp to a side, she folded herself in front of him, taking care not to put pressure on her injured ankle.

"Your nightmares chasing you again?"

He always knew. Mainjae raised her luminous eyes at him and swallowed a lump.

Kim Seo Jun quietly got up. Minutes later, he returned with a tray with two steaming cups of liquid.

"Tell me," he demanded calmly.

Grasping the cup with both her hands, Minjae did as she was told, words pouring out of her in front of the man who had reminded her what unconditional love felt like at a time when all hopes had been lost.

The light in the lamp flickered steadily. Kim Seo Jun carefully transferred some of the dry powder in the large mortar and pestle into a small, clean pouch. He repeated it for a few more bags, never wavering in his attention to detail, his massive fingers big enough to crush a bone measuring the exact amount of the dusty powder with delicate precision each time.

"How do you feel now?" Though he did not look at her, his voice was warm

It was a simple question. But for Minjae, they opened floodgates of feelings she was not ready to feel or even acknowledge. The question gnawed at the emotions that were still too raw, emotions that she could not afford to experience.

And just like all of the times before, she did not answer.

"You must learn to let go of your past, Kim Minjae. It's a war you must win, child."

Her vice-like grip over her emotions, battered and brittle over the hurtling disaster her life threatened to become, broke. The tears she had been holding back spilt over. "Aboji, I tried to let go of my past long ago, but it refuses to stop chasing me. No matter how fast or far I run, I can't seem to outrun it."

Reaching out, Kim Seo Jun took her cold hand in his and patted it comfortingly. "I wish I could help you chase away all your shadows, my sweet child. It was not your fault. It was never your fault. I can only assure you that you at least do not have to worry about Jo Sung Ha ever again, so you are safe. And till the day this father of yours breathes, no one will harm you again."

Minjae nodded gratefully.

Kim Seo Jun packed away the pouches on his table in a crate by his side. "Do you intend to tell Commander Lee?"

"Yes, Aboji."

"What made you decide that?'

Minjae paused. "Because...because he is kind and honourable. But most importantly, he does not mind bending the rules if the need arises."