life may not be fair but it sure is beautiful

Slash of fear

Jungeun clutches the paper in her hand as she watches from the shadows, becoming one with them in the process. She was observing the place that held her princess for the last eight hours and anxiety crept upon her like never before. Her train of thought always seemed to crash when it came to the condition the princes might be in. Her heart screamed at her to screw making a plan and just attack to get her out as soon as possible but her brain, after years of training, overweighed her heart and made her stick with her original plan. She would gather information by doing a stake-out, learning how many there were, how built and trained they looked.

She knew by now that there were three teams of people, each consisting of five heavily armed men. The building itself wasn't that big but it was built in a way that the guards couldn't see each other when they were positioned at their locations. This was the best situation she could have asked for.

Seeing that the second team was far less bulky than the other two, she decided that she would attack during their shift. Which was from noon to sunset.

The last thing she needed was sleep. She knew that she would take hours to fall asleep with worry slowly digesting her brain until there was nothing but fatigue. She returned to her campsite which she set up in a ten-minute distance. Knowing that a fire would give her away, she kept low and ate the cold rice she purchased from a few towns over. Something warm might have helped her feel sleepy much faster but she would have to make do with what she had. She gathered up her weapons; knives, her sword, a dagger, a bow, and an arrow saddle. She carefully started to sharpen their edges, knowing that her blows needed to be fast and fatal.

Killing was something she always wanted to avoid but when the princess' life was at stake, she wouldn't think twice before opening up holes in breathing bodies. Thinking back to the time that she killed a bunch of scum that shattered Jiwoo's feeling of self-worth by attempting to kidnap her, she felt nothing during it but afterward, it all came crushing down to her. She obviously didn't regret saving her but there was something truly horrifying about taking someone's life away that she couldn't shake away to this day.

Jungeun laid down, putting her head on a log when she finished making everything as sharp as necessary. Her eyes started to feel heavy as her thoughts crawled with panic and excitement.

-

She heard her own heartbeats as she looked at her target. The first guy she would take out was at the very back, holding his sword handle in a lazy manner as he looked lost in thought. Jungeun's consciousness tugged at her, saying that maybe she shouldn't kill him if she can avoid it. Jungeun wasn't a cold-blooded murderer, far from that, she was very sensitive towards death even. But this was not a situation that she could take risks. She whispered an apology that even she could barely hear and threw one of her knives at the man's heart, running towards him at the same time to prevent him from making a noise. He let out a faint yelp of surprise and pain as she caught him before he fell. Seeing that the blow wasn't enough to take him down Jungeun listened to her heart and just hit the man's head with the handle of her sword. He was knocked out cold.

"Jaemin? Is everything okay?" A voice said coming towards her and the bleeding guard. Jungeun swore under her breath and hid behind the wall. The other man approached them with his sword raised and he was about to scream to warn others when Jungeun grabbed him by his neck and jumped on his back. It took her a few seconds to slash his throat, feeling the disgusting aura of death on her hands. She managed to put the man down as slowly as she could and walked to the side of the building. The other man who was about twice her size was the most intimidating of the bunch. That's why she needed to take him down even before he saw her. Grabbing a stone from the ground, she threw it towards the bushes in front of the man, making them move a bit. Guard moved closer to the bush to investigate, his hand grasping the sword tightly at the moment Jungeun ran and stabbed him in his back, covering his mouth at the same time. It stood against everything she was trained for, but these bastards didn't play fair in the beginning anyway.

The only ones left were the men standing in front of the door which stood between Jungeun and the princess. She couldn't take them down without the other noticing, which meant that she would have to engage in a 2-1 sword fight. Even if she knew that she could win it, her heart was beating rapidly.

Deciding that the element of surprise was on her side, Jungeun leaned against the wall, watching the two with stealth. They didn't seem alarmed or ready to fight which made Jungeun exhale with relief. She grasped her sword handle before dashing towards them, striking one down immediately with a slash across his chest. The other, clearly shocked by his friend's sudden collapse, drew his sword a few seconds late. Those seconds were enough for Jungeun.

As the last guard stood at her feet, bleeding to death, she cautiously opened the doors. She sighed with the waves of relief that washed her over at the second she saw the princess, alone in the storage room. Her muffled screams of happiness filled Jungeun with joy. She rushed to Jiwoo's side, freeing her from her shackles.

"Jungie! I love you so much!" She cried against her chest. Her sobs were heart-breaking but knowing that she was in her arms soothed her heart. "Thank you so much!"

"Are you okay, noona? Are you hurt? Did those bastards touch you?" She asked choking back her own tears. Hours of panic, anxiety, worry, and fear drained her emotionally and physically. "Are you feeling well enough to walk? We have to get out of here."

Jiwoo got up as she cried and held on to Jungeun for support. "I'm fine, Jungie. I nearly bit off five people's hand off but I'm fine."

Jungeun handed her a dagger as they walked away together. Jiwoo looked at her intensely before stopping her. "Let's run away."

Jungeun stopped in her tracks, her heart skipping a beat. "What?"

"You heard me. Let's run far away while we can." She pleaded with a look that would haunt her forever. "I love you and I know you feel the same. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and the only thing stopping us now is not there. My father thinks I might be dead. We can be together."

Jungeun's heart ached as she screamed in her head. There was nothing more she wanted but her secret made it impossible for their end to be happily ever after. She shook her head and watched the princess' face morph into a frown. "There are things you don't know about me, things that I know for a fact would make you want to kill me for making you suffer through loving me."

That earned her a loud slap from the princess. "You know what Junghyun? Fuck you." She said, running her hands through her hair in distress. "I am willing to give everything I have to live with you. And this is your response? What could you be hiding that is so horrifying? That you killed people? I know that. That you slept with someone else? I can get over that. What is it, you goddamn piece of shit?"

Jungeun wanted to scream at her face, rip her clothes off, and let the whole damn world know that the mighty son of the general was not a son at all. But all she could do was impulsively grabbing the princess by her collar and smashing their lips together. There was no logic behind her action, only love, heartbreak, and lust. Those were also the reasons why she didn't hear the man coming behind her and the sound of her own knife flying towards her back. The pain was there alongside Jiwoo's horrified face. Her vision became blurry and the last thing she saw was screaming Jiwoo grabbing her sword and running towards her attacker.