Rewritten Fate (Akatsuki no Yona Fanfiction-New)

Assassination Arc (IX)

Seeing Yona leaving the room, Hak made a move to trail her again. He jumped down the roof and started to follow Yona when he was stopped by a voice.

"Brat."

He mentally flinched, taking a deep breath as he turns to face the caller, who was none other than Emperor Joo-Nam. 

"Your Majesty." He bowed respectfully toward the Emperor. 

'I'm screwed.' He mentally sighed. He should have known that the Emperor would know about his little spying action. He just prayed to the god that the Emperor would let this one slide.

"Do me a favor and look after that little kid, will you?"

He startled a little. Looking up at the Emperor, he saw the Emperor's gentle expression directed to him. 

He never once thought that the Emperor would personally ask him to look after Yona; after all, he wasn't part of Yona's bodyguard. 

'At least not yet.' He mentally added. But now that the Emperor had brought it up, he couldn't refuse to do so. Hak lowered himself and knelt in front of the Emperor. 

"I will, Your Majesty." He said.

King Joo-Nam gave him a satisfactory nod. 

"Go on then, Young One." He said, dismissing Hak. Hak stood from his position and gave him one last bow before leaving to search Yona. 

He didn't know why the King did what he did, and it certainly was not his business, but he wouldn't go back to his word. 

'Even if he didn't ask, I will do so.' He thought as he looked around for his redhead princess.

***

She was too caught up with her thought that she didn't realize she bumped someone. She almost fell down, had the person didn't change her. She looked up and realized that the person was Hak. He gave her a concerned look. 

"What's wrong, Yona-sama?" he examined her up and down and noticed that Yona was holding a long baton. He glanced for a brief moment before looking back at Yona. He could see that she had a blank look. 

Her eyes looked so distant, it seemed as if she looked far passed him. For a brief moment, a slight pain rushed inside his heart. 

'Just who are you looking at, Yona?' but he swallowed it down, buried the unspoken question.

Unbeknownst to him, Yona was actually reminiscing the past, of her failure. 

Looking at Hak's face made her even sadder and guiltier. 

She remembered his past self, she remembered all those journeys they had gone through, she remembered the love she had for him... she remembered the regret of not telling him her feeling before it was too late. 

'I lost you before I could even hold you... if only I was more honest with you... and with myself.'

A single tear slid down from her warm, round eyes, followed by another one, and another one, until soon, a steady stream of salty tears flowed it was way down her pale cheek, releasing the sadness and sorrow that has been held inside of her for all this time but still she did not make a sound.

Hak eyes widened as he watched the stream flowed down. He didn't know what he should do, he was never good with handling a crying woman, and certainly still wasn't good with it. But couldn't bear to see her crying like this, his heart throbbed painfully as he saw the tears fell down. 

He pulled her to his chest, embraced her tightly as she let out her sorrow. Because that was the only thing he knew how to do, the only thing that he could do for her.

And that was the last straw for Yona to let loose. As much as she tried to hold it in, the pain came out like an uproar from her throat in the form of a silent scream. 

The beads of water kept falling down one after another, without a sign of stopping. In the embrace, she tried to scream, but her voice was melted by the sound of the place. The muffled sobs wracked against her chest. The world turned into a blur, and so did all the sounds. The taste. The smell. Everything was gone. The last painful emotion slammed against her before she lost the feeling of feeling. Everything darkened into nothingness as she passed into the oblivion of unconsciousness.

Hak didn't know how long he stayed in that position. He didn't care about the wetness on his shirt. He rubbed Yona's back, trying to ease her tension. Her body shook a little as she poured her sorrow out. He could felt that his arm started to tire out, but he ignored it. He stayed like that until he felt some weight on him. He realized Yona had cried to sleep. Without much choice, he piggy-back her back to her chamber.

He made sure to avoid any servant because he didn't want to go through all the trouble explaining what happened. He tucked her in her bed, watching her sleeping in silent. 

He noticed that her eyes were swollen and red; tears were still visible at the edge of her closed eyes. He looked at her with a mixture of hurt, pain, sadness, and love. With one rough hand under her chin, he angles her face toward him and kissed away the tears.

"I will protect you, Hime-sama, even at the cost of my life."

He gave her one last look before leaving her chamber. 'I will protect you, your future, and your love. I will not fail you again, I swore.'

***

When Yona woke up later, she thought that was all a dream. But then, her swollen red eyes were proof that all of that was real. She once again broke down in front of Hak, this time was much worse than before. She hid her face between her hands, feeling really embarrassed as she remembered what happened.

Her face was red, and she pouted a little as she looked at her reflection on the mirror. "Hak will certainly be the death of me." She didn't know how to face Hak anymore.

'Damn it! This is so out of character of me! Can I just bury myself in a hole?!'

To Be Continued