Migong - Book 1

Chapter 19: Child's Play

Hajoon gradually recovered, but he spent the first two weeks of his recovery in bed. Exempted from her normal lessons and training, Feiyan had been assigned to keep Hajoon company and teach him about Moutan. In her absence, Xia would accompany the Prince.

Feiyan was delighted with the change in pace and spent most of her mornings with Hajoon, teaching him words and making sure he was taking his medicine. In the afternoon, she was free to study or practice the sword as she wished.

Today Hajoon looked ten times better than he had when he'd arrived, and he was sitting up in bed. Although he was improving, the head maid had insisted on continuing with soft food, and Hajoon was currently eyeing a bowl of rice porridge with great distaste. He'd swallowed the bitter medicine soup with no complaints, but had drawn the line at more porridge.

Hajoon-Ge can be so cute! thought Feiyan.

"It's my favourite," Feiyan chirped cheerfully, as the maid put down the tray of pork and aged egg. Turning to her, she said: "It's alright, you may go. I can feed him."

Hajoon went red and then white.

"I...feed myself!" he hissed in his heavy accent. Glaring, he felt terribly embarrassed that he was being taken care of by a girl who was obviously younger than him. She sat on a high stool, swinging her short legs, her silver Shadow mask set askew on the side of her head, looking more like a cute dumpling than a trained assassin.

Feiyan blithely ignored him, eyes bent into crescents as she smiled.

"Mmmn, good job! Even though you've only been here two weeks, you already understand everything we say!" Feiyan crowed. "And your speech is getting better!"

She's...praising me?

The purple-eyed boy frowned, feeling a pang that he had not felt since the night he'd arrived.

"Here!" she said, hopping off the stool. Taking the tray, she carefully set it on his lap before he could protest and then dipped the spoon into the porridge. Standing on her tip toes, she said: "Hajoon-Ge say ahhh!"

Flushing, he raised his hand to push the spoon away, but somehow the small hand holding the spoon skidded around him, still hovering in front of his mouth. Blinking, he tried again with the same result.

What just happened...?

Feiyan smirked, but she also wanted to groan.

Argh! Father, he has absolutely no martial foundation! Did you mean for me to train him from scratch?! Fine, but first I need to convince him to eat...

Suddenly Hajoon moved, using more force to block her hand as she tried to move the spoon towards his mouth.

Grinning, Feiyan skidded her wrist against his, blocking back, and then shot her other hand out. Startled, he jerked, mouth opening in surprise as Feiyan pounced on him, shoving the spoonful of porridge into his mouth without spilling a single drop. The entire tray should have been upended with his thrashing, but Feiyan had expertly tapped the bowl and tray back down with her elbow. While the porridge sloshed up, it simply dropped neatly back into the bowl.

Hajoon had gulped down without thinking and then realized he'd swallowed the porridge.

"Y-you...You!" he cried. Trembling with dislike, he looked like he was about to cry.

Xing and Haruka, who had been peaking from the hallway, were both holding each other, trying not to die from laughter. They'd just been about to visit, but had opened the door to find Feiyan straddling the boy with a spoon aimed like a weapon. Rather than embarrass them with an interruption, they decided to escape instead.