Rewrite the Stars [COMPLETED]

47

A month had already passed and there was no trace of Y/N. Cheoljong can already feel the veins of his head popping out due to stress and impatience, the humiliation after that day never did leave his soul. He acted so foolish in front of the village's people, and until now, he could never, ever forget that moment when the people began laughing at him but stopped after he threatened to kill them.

Y/N's escape was still a mystery.

No matter how hard he tries to think and connect everything that happened like a puzzle, but there was only one piece missing. Cheoljong couldn't figure out who it was who helped Y/N escape. It was impossible for him to escape on his own, especially when his prison was guarded by number of guards, and he was aware that Heonjong was too weak to move.

Now, there he was, laying on his bed while staring at sky from the opened window of the small room. He couldn't even remember when was the last time he slept well, every single night, his head was occupied.

But until he heard footsteps coming.

Cheoljong lifted up his figure from the bed and eyed the door, expecting that the visitor was one of his servants. As the door slid open, Jo-Sik entered the room with a red envelope in his hand.

"What is that?" Cheoljong asked and saw how the man bowed before handing it to him.

"One of Kwon-Yul's guards found it under the boxes of Heonjong's prison." Jo-sik spoke politely, once again bowing before stepping out of the room. Cheoljong was once again, left in silence. Only the light from the small gas-lamp and the envelope accompanied him inside his own room, but then followed by the loud beating of his heart.

He could still remember the last time that he found a note from his cousin's room, the day that he found out that he was still alive. And now, he felt like everything is going on repeat.

He slowly ripped the top of the envelope, then opened the white folded paper. Cheoljong's eyes widened as he saw the note written by red ink, it was blood.

It contained only a sentence, but as he finished reading it, everything made sense.

Everything made sense, from the time when Heonjong's existence was spread to the town, until his escape.

It was the missing piece on his puzzle.

"You thought I'm dead but you're wrong.

-Im Nayeon"

It has been a year ago when he ordered to execute Mingyu, together with his children with Nayeon. Im Nayeon, his right hand as soon as he sat on the throne, the woman she loved for years since he was sixteen. But also the woman who broke his heart, when he found out that she was just there to spy on him, when she was just there for the sake of his cousin.

Telling his servants to execute the woman he loved was hard, and so he didn't tell them to do it. Killing every single member of Nayeon's own family, she left the woman alive, locked up in one of the cells in the palace.

Every day, he tried to reach out to her, to apologize and to get her back, but none of his efforts worked. He tried to convice her, to come into his arms again, but Nayeon would rather die than to be evil, with him. He knew, it hurts him to see Nayeon suffer more each day in his hand, when she knows that he, Cheoljong, was the one who killed her husband, Mingyu.

After realizing that he had no hope, that Nayeon will never give him another chance, he brought Nayeon down in the woods, locking her inside the dungeon with nothing to eat, nothing to drink, with no other destination but death.

But death isn't Nayeon's destiny. 

The woman was there, up on a high tree where she built her own hut, with the perfect view of the woods. There, she sighted every soldier that tried to hunt down the missing prisons in the palace, the King's cousin. There at the top, she could saw every danger that might come in her way.

And there, she kept Y/N.

After a long night of dragging Y/N's weak body along the woods after her battle with the palace's soldiers in silence— by killing them with her arrows— she cured every cut on the man's body, she wiped every single drop of blood that stained his skin. For about three days, Y/N did nothing but sleep due to the pain on his body, then he slowly recovered day by day, until now...

Nayeon was watching him from the window of her hut, Y/N had set his feet on the ground below, swiping his sword along the wind under the light of the torch, together with the moonlight.

She was locked inside the dungeon for a days, and it wasn't easy. At all.  She experienced how starving really felt like, to the point that she had no strength to stand due to the pain on her stomach. She experienced how painful it was to have your throat drying. Due to those circumstances, she had to do everything to keep breathing. Nayeon had to eat even her own clothes just to survive, she had to drink her own urine just to have the strength. 

 It was hard.

But she knew she had to do it to save Joseon, to save Y/N. For her to get the revenge she has to do for her family. 

"Hey, it's getting late." She shouted from the top of the tree, Y/N quickly snatched his sword from one of the trees' trunks.

"I'm coming up." Y/N returns with a smile.

A month still isn't enough to recover, Y/N still has bandages around his body. Some cuts on his skin were still there, he couldn't walk straight yet. He has been struggling to move before but now, he's been better.

"Are you sure you're not hungry?" Nayeon asked as soon as she saw Y/N's shadow on the door, she was near one of the tables and trying to light up another torch.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thank you, Nayeon."

A month that they've been living together, Nayeon never told Y/N about everything that she's been through. Only the thing that Cheoljong tried to kill her, but she managed to escape.

"How do you feel?" Nayeon asked.

"A lot better." Y/N sighed and settled on the floor made out of bamboo woods, they were tied up with a thick vine. Y/N ran one of his finger along the rope, smiling. "I never knew that you had skills to build something like this."

"It wasn't easy." Nayeon smiled and took one banana leaf, giving herself a serving of their food for the day, grilled fish. "I would never know anything about this if it wasn't for your bestfriend."

"Mingyu." Y/N chuckled and nodded, remembering how Mingyu loved crafting. "How long has he been gone?"

"A year."

"And how long were you here?" Y/N asked.

"Six months, I think?" Nayeon answered while chewing on her food.

"Where were you the other months, then?"

Nayeon almost froze on her place, but managed to make it not-so-obvious. She didn't want to tell him, she don't want Y/N to know.

"I was locked up." She shrugged, trying to brush off those awful memories of herself inside the dungeon.

"And then—"

"Tell me about your plan." Nayeon quickly interrupted snapping her fingers as if the thought suddenly appeared inside her head. Y/N seems to get the bait, the man quickly forgot about what he was about to ask and began to think of his plans. "You don't have any, don't you?"

"I want to kill him." Y/N chuckled, he found looking at his fingers more interesting than looking at Nayeon's eyes. "I want to get revenge for everything that he's done to me... to you."

He stood up from where he was and accompanied himself near the window, staring at the only star that was on the night sky. It was beautiful, it's light was too bright to not catch his attention.

"I'm coming back for you, okay?" He whispered, as if talking to someone. "Wait for me, Joohyun."