HWARANG Rewritten✅

7. First friend

Chapter 7.
First friend.

Sa-do was cleaning the stables. They had a rough training session after the exam and her limbs were sore and aching with almost every move she made. She was looking forward to a good night's sleep. Because of their assignment, Sa-do had sacrificed pretty much all of her sleep and the exhaustion was starting to catch up to her. She didn't mind though as her efforts seemed to have paid off and she had passed the exam.

She was starting to feel a little drowsy but chalked it up to the lack of rest. As she was about to put some water in the trough for the horses the bucket trembled perilously in her fingers as she missed her footing and it all went dark.

...

  
Ban-ryu and Yeo-wool were passing the stables when they heard a loud crashing sound and turned just in time to see Jae-won collapse. The two Hwarangs rushed to their roommate's side. "What is wrong with him?" Ban-ryu grumbled, earning a slap on the back of the head.

Yeo-wool turned Jae-won to find a gash on his forehead from where he hit the edge of the stone trough. It was bleeding pretty badly. He carefully picked up the unconscious boy and said, "we need to get him to doctor Ah-ro. Get the rest of our roommates."

Ban-ryu sighed but did as he was told and soon, he met Yeo-wool in the medical room with Seon-woo, Soo-ho and Ji-dwi in tow. Jae-won was lying on the bed, still not awake.

"You are saying he just fainted?"

Yeo-wool nodded and Ah-ro sighed in frustration. That didn't narrow down anything. A person can faint for numerous reasons and unless she knew the cause, she couldn't administer any treatment.

"I think it's my fault," Soo-ho admitted guiltily. When all eyes turned to him and he explained, "Jae-won had been waking up early as I had been teaching him the Chinese text."

"You had been teaching him? But he was up every night with me, learning from Ah-ro," Seon-woo added.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion before Ah-ro finally revealed, "ah. That must mean that he is just exhausted. With all the reading classes between us two and your training and chores, Jae-won must have worn himself out."

Well that did sound reasonable. They had all seen how their roommate had been developing dark circles under his eyes and his unusual lack of energy as he dragged himself around through each day. The boy had overexerted himself.

Ji-dwi looked at the sleeping boy, his eyes fixated on his bandaged forehead. He was still unable to shake off the feeling of familiarity of the Hwarang. Why did Jae-won work so hard instead of cheating like the others when he didn't even know to read and write? The young King's respect grew for his secretive roommate.

"Don't worry. He will be fine. He just needs to rest. That's all," Ah-ro assured the boys confidently.

...

Sa-do groaned as she struggled to open her heavy eyelids. The sight of the unfamiliar room caught her off guard and she instantly sat up before realizing it was the medical room from all the rolls of bandages piled on the table on the side. The room was empty, but she heard footsteps and soon Ah-ro entered the room. "What happened?" Sa-do immediately asked, having no recollection of the previous events.