Guardian | YUTA

Chapter 4

Yuta heard Jungwoo let out a yawn, the third one from the past five minutes. He checked his watch and saw that it was almost midnight.

The path was still empty in front of him and Yuta knew that there was still a long way to go before their first checkpoint.

"Tired?" Yuta asked the males behind him. Mark and Haechan shook their head while Jungwoo simply smiled.

"I think we can stop for tonight." Taeil suggested. Yuta nodded his head in agreement.

"Why don't we stop at that strip by the trees and set up for the night?" Yuta said. None of the others disagreed.

...

"Princess?" It was Jungwoo. Miyeon stood up and opened the carriage door to see the boys beginning to set up tents and prepare a fire.

"Are we camping here for the night?" Miyeon asked. Jungwoo nodded.

"Jungwoo, can you help out here?" Haechan called out from one of the tents.

"Are you good?" Jungwoo asked her.

"Yes, I'm fine, you can go help the others." Miyeon reassured him. Jungwoo gave her a small smile before running off.

Miyeon looked around their camp. Taeil was starting a fire while Haechan and Mark were setting up tents, now the help of Jungwoo. She looked around for Yuta, but couldn't find him.

As she walked around, she saw that Yuta was at the back of the carriage, going through various boxes as he hummed to himself. Miyeon walked up to him, making his head turn towards her.

"Can I help you?" Miyeon asked. Yuta glanced at the boxes, which were all quite large and full.

"Um." Yuta said, biting his lip as he looked around. His eyes settled on something inside the box and smiled as he took it out. It was a large brown bag.

"Can you bring this to Taeil?" Yuta asked. Miyeon nodded and placed the bag in her hands before taking the rest of the box, closing the back as he stepped down.

The bag was surprisingly full and decently heavy, proving to be a challenge as Miyeon walked towards her royal advisor, who had a fire going. She followed Yuta, placing her bag beside the box after he had placed it beside Taeil.

"Thank you." Taeil said as he opened up the box, revealing a few pots and vegetables. When he opened up her bag, she saw that there was rice inside.

"Need water?" Yuta asked, picking up a large water jug from inside the box.

"Yes, that would be great." Taeil replied. Yuta glanced at Miyeon.

"Would you like to come as well?" Yuta asked. Seeing that there was nothing to do, Miyeon nodded her head, quickly following him.

They walked down to the river in silence, the sound of nature surrounding them. The hill was a little steep, so Yuta let her hold onto his arm as they walked.

"Do you get to go outside a lot?" Miyeon asked, trying to start conversation.

"Whenever you're not causing trouble." Yuta replied with a small grin.

"Tsk, so always." Miyeon said.

"Often." Yuta corrected as they arrived at the river.

Miyeon adjusted the purple cloak her mother had given her as Yuta bent down to fill the water jug. He brush the hair out of his face, focused on filling the jug.

Miyeon took the time to look towards the other side of the river, at the line of trees. She wondered what could be possibly be beyond that.

She heard Yuta sigh and noticed that the water jug was filling quite slowly. She recalled what her parents had told her.