Anahera

a Reunion

“Both of you just need to walk a few kilometers from here to reach the village,” Soojoo says from the carriage while pointing her finger to the road Somi and Lisa need to take. “Do what you need to do in there and we will meet again near the forest at the outskirt of the village.”

Somi nods, one that Soojoo returns. The latter then looks briefly at Lisa before she turns her head and leaves with the carriage, leaving Somi and Lisa alone.

“Come on, Somi,” Lisa says, catching Somi’s attention from the now unseen figure of the carriage.

They actually still a few kilometers away from the village but they agree it’s too dangerous for Soojoo to show her face at the village. So they divide themselves into two groups. Soojoo and the carriage will take the long road to circle the village and see the soldiers’ activity near the tower while Lisa and Somi will go to the village to buy some supplies and find information.

“I didn’t ask this before but what’s happen to them in that village, Somi?” Lisa asks the younger while keeping her eyes on the road

“They just did their job, unnie,” answers Somi. The word ‘stealing’ leaves unsaid.

“They tried to steal from the landlord of the village but things went really wrong. They ended up killed some of the villagers including the landlord daughter, a five years old girl…” Somi explains more and Lisa‘s eyes widen a little at the last part.” They also forced to flee to the forest without any food and goods. According to Soojoo-unnie, they were in the middle of scavenging an unfortunate carriage…” Most likely killed the riders too also leaves unsaid. “When an earthquake came and they encountered Chaeng-unnie. Soojoo-unnie able to somehow flee but her partner wasn’t so lucky. She also said she actually wanted to go straight to the tower but the situation that time was too dangerous, not to mention the villagers still after them, so she forced to left the village.”

“She rarely show and doesn’t say much about it,” the younger says again. “But I’m sure she’s worried sick about her friend and feel bad to been forced to abandon her.”

Lisa shakes her head a little. “Who knows a thief can be that loyal?”

“I think she’s loyal not because she’s a thief, unnie, but because she’s a friend.”

Lisa doesn’t say anything at that but she can’t deny this girl has a point. Even those that community deems as bad people still have somebody they care about after all.

“Like you.”

Lisa turns her head at Somi. The younger doesn’t look back at her, she keeps her eyes on the road. 

“Both of you have somebody you love so much, somebody you’re willing to sacrifice yourself for. While me…” Lisa can see Somi’s hand that hold the bag fidgets a little. “I’m confuse, unnie. Both of you are sure of yourself while I…I don’t know what I should do. I-I don’t like the thought we need to sacrifice one of them bu-”

“We arrive.”

Those curt words cut Somi off mid sentence. The younger girl flinches a little and looks at Lisa. The latter looks back at her as she says, “We’ll talk about this later, Somi. Come on.”

Somi nods and together they make their way to the village. Compare to the remote village where they met Seulgi, this village is much busier and lively. It really make that village seems like a dead village.

“Where should we go first?” Lisa asks with a slightly loud voice so her companion still can hear her despite the crowd around them.

“How about the market?” Somi suggests. “We can look for some supplies in there and there must be a lot of people in that place, make it easier for us to collect information.”