The Errant Mouse [4/?]

[honou_no_izumi]

Title: The Errant Mouse
Series: 화랑/Hwarang - The Poet Warrior Youth
Characters: Sammaekjong/Kim Jidwi, Kim Yeowool, Kim Suho, Mumyeong/Kim Seonu, Kim Aro, mentions of Queen Jiso
Summary: If Jidwi hadn't gone to Park Yeongshil's house that particular night, how will things inevitably change?

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"—your sister had told me that your mother seemed to have chosen me for something..."

Jidwi stared at her face with worry. "What did Sookmyung say to you? What did my mother want with you?"

She hastily gripped Jidwi's arm to try to calm him down. "I didn't know, she didn't say. Though your sister did mention that they're annoyed with me. I guess because my brother claimed that he's you when we're in Baekje."

Jidwi's breathing started becoming rapid as she frantically tried to reassure him. "It's okay, Your Majesty... I'm fine. Nothing's happened to me yet, so you don't need to worry about me too much."

"But this is my mother we're talking about. She wouldn't hint at anything if she wasn't planning to do something about it. And she did try to kill you before. And after I disobeyed her last time to save you, she wouldn't have wanted you to continue to be anywhere near me. She would've tried to figure out a way to get her hands on you."

"I'll be fine."

Jidwi shook his head at her. "No, I don't think so. Not when she could also use you against Seonu. After what happened in Baekje, my mother's even making use of your brother to be a decoy to keep people from finding out that I'm the real king."

Aro rolled her eyes at him for saying the K-word. But now Jidwi's worries got to her as well. She knew that nothing's good gonna happen after the stunt that her brother did.

"This is bad... I knew that your mother would not be pleased with my brother's actions."

"This won't do. I need to get you somewhere my mother won't reach you. I need to get you as far away from my mother as I can!"

Aro shook her head at that suggestion. "No, I can't leave. With my father being out of the capital, I'm the only physician available to treat the people here in case they need help!" She bit her lips as Jidwi was still looking miserable. "We'll do it like this. I'll head back to my house for a bit to get my things and stay here for a while. Would that be all right for you?"

Jidwi nodded rapidly. "Yes... we can do that. I'll even send Paoh with you just to be safe. Just stick to Paoh at all times until you're back here, okay?"

"Yes, and you be careful too, Your Majesty. About tonight. Please don't do anything rashly."

"I'll take note of that."

xxx

"—I was reminded of that wine that you mentioned before."

He still couldn't believe what length he would have gone to help his Hwarang kids. Even to the extent of pretending to be a simple drunkard at the household of the highest court official of Silla. How did he end up over here?

Oh, wait. Because Seonu asked him to draw out and distract the people in the Park household. That was why he was here.

Then again, since he was already here... he might as well try to fish out something from Park Yeongshil. Since there shouldn't be any doubt that Park Yeongshil had been the one who has sent the assassins to the Hwarang house a few nights ago. It'll be nice if Park Yeongshil would slip out some incriminating information that he could make use later...

But Park didn't seem to want to budge from his queries so this might be tricky to do. And he didn't want Park to realize that he wasn't as drunk as he pretended to be. And then something caught his eyes as Wehwa stared down towards Park Yeongshil's right wrist.

"Now that's interesting... what a pretty looking bracelet you have there. It looked quite expensive."

Park hastily covered the bracelet under his sleeve to stop him from taking a closer look. "This is nothing. It's a small souvenir that a relative had found during his travels so they thought that the gift would be to my liking. It wasn't that expensive, to be honest, but still looked quite luxurious."

Wehwa chuckled mirthlessly. He knew what he saw. His old eyes and memories haven't failed him yet, and he was still able to recognise that bracelet anywhere at any time. It was the mark of a king, the same bracelet that he used to see the previous King Beopheung wear in the past. So that explained where the bracelet had gone to. He'd asked Jidwi before about the bracelet when he found out about his real identity and the kid had told him about how it ended up with Seonu and later disappeared. It's been bothering him for a while so that explained why that scroll that said about the King being in Hwarang had the drawing of the dragons.

So Park Yeongshil had it on him all these times. And the gall of the old fox to even dare wear it on his undeserving wrist! If he had been much younger he would've—!

"Father!"

"Father, it is I... Banryu!"

Kim Wehwa glanced up as Park Yeongshil dashed out towards the door. He chuckled at the sight of the commotion outside that he could barely glimpse. Guess there's someone else having the same idea as Seonu did.

xxx

"I had a bigger gripe to take up on them. I was hung for no reason although I did not know them."

The mood was quite merry between the four of them. Their mission was a success and none of them had gotten hurt. It was really such a good achievement!

Suho glanced towards Seonu and Jidwi as he lugged the few bags of medicine supplies onto the cart that they've taken out from Master Ahnji's shed. "So what's with the talk about the butcher shop and the two guys back there at Banryu's house?"

Seonu chuckled. "Oh that? Just something that happened during the Hwarang inauguration day..."

Yeowool frowned at him. "Was that why the two of you were late on that day?"

"Yeah, that afternoon was so wild..." Seonu paused before turning to check on Jidwi. "You okay?"

Seonu tried to check on Jidwi's arm as Jidwi seemed to be strangely sleepy and almost yelped at the sight of blood on his hand after touching the injured arm.

"Isn't that blood?" Suho exclaimed as Seonu nodded.

Seonu glanced around the house as he wondered where Aro went at this time of night.

"Where's Aro when you needed her?" he spoke aloud as Jidwi answered him.

"Aro's at Hwarangdo because I told her to..." said the young king, before grinning for absolutely no reason.

"Why—?" Seonu was about to ask as he caught Jidwi in his arm before the youth could fall off the table he's sitting on. He immediately started carrying the young king on his back. "This won't do, I'm taking you back to Hwarangdo," he said to the somewhat befuddled Jidwi.

He turned his attention towards Yeowool and Suho. "I trust that the two of you could arrange for these supplies to reach Makmang village safely."

"Sure! You get Jidwi back while we deal with things over here. Don't worry about this."

Seonu nodded them off before turning to head back to the dormitories with a young king on tow.

xxx

Seonu gently put Jidwi on his bed before untying the wristguard that Jidwi had been wearing. To his relief, Jidwi hadn't actually made his injuries worse and the blood that he noticed earlier must have come from the fight with Dogo and his minion. He snorted.

At least he didn't have to bother Aro so late for this. Though he wondered why Jidwi wanted Aro to stay in Hwarangdo.

He let out a sigh. Jidwi looked very vulnerable, sleeping like this. Guess even if he hadn't reopened the wound in his arm, the fight earlier would have drained the young king's strength. Seonu grabbed a nearby blanket as he covered Jidwi's prone body with it.

The door behind him suddenly opened as Seonu turned around to see Paoh rushing over. He gave the old man a slight nod before leaving the room.

There was something else that he needed to do before he could call it the night.

xxx

"I am Park Banryu, you see! I am the future king of Silla!"

He couldn't brush off what he heard Banryu said at his house. Was that what Banryu's stepfather had been planning? Were they the ones who have been trying to kill Jidwi and the one who had sent the assassins from before to kill him?"

Seonu thought about the scroll that appeared at the pavilion a few weeks before. He could still remember that the scroll had some marking that was similar to the markings on Jidwi's bracelet. Did the bracelet found its way to Park Yeongshil's hand somehow?

It was a long stretch, but it was worth for him to check it out.

It was almost too easy for him to sneak into the house after the earlier fiasco. Guess no one had noticed yet that they've stolen the bulk of the medicine stash that have been kept at the storage shed.

Looking at the sleeping old badger, a stray thought crossed his mind to put his knife near the old man's neck after what happened a few nights ago. See if the sneaky badger could sleep so peacefully after this. But he pushed that thought aside. He turned his attention towards a table nearby and immediately he noticed the familiar-looking bracelet. He picked it up and shoved the bracelet inside his robe.

It's about time that this bracelet returns to its rightful owner...!

xxx

When he opened his eyes again, it was already late into the afternoon. His initial reaction was to get up immediately from bed; which was really a bad idea as his body suddenly remembered that his right forearm was badly injured. The wound didn't hurt that much initially yet now his right forearm was hurting really bad every time he moved the arm.

Jidwi let out a long sigh. Suppose he needed to put a sling on the arm.

A slip of paper caught his eye as Jidwi grabbed it with his good arm. It was a note from Yeowool, telling him that he had special permission to be exempted from the day's training lesson due to his injuries. So that explained why the others didn't even bother to wake him up.

Then again, it was still surprising how he could sleep this long with this pain.

"Paoh?" he called aloud as old man popped in from outside the room.

Paoh cautiously sneaked a glance around the room before whispering softly to him. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Can you help me get to the physician's room?"

Paoh immediately rushed to help before Jidwi's attention turned towards his left wrist. He frowned. He thought that he was imagining it, feeling a familiar weight on the wrist that he hadn't felt for quite some time. He shook his sleeve at a slanted angle, letting gravity to pull down the sleeve as he was greeted with an unexpected sight.

Was he still dreaming right now? His old bracelet was back on his left wrist! How did that happen?

He frowned again.

"Paoh, how did I get back here last night?"

A flash of memory of being carried on the back by Seonu popped up into his mind without warning. Was that a dream, a memory... or a wishful thought?

He turned to look at Paoh as the old man started talking.

"I was helping Miss Aro to rearrange the physician's room to allow her to stay there for a few days. And when I got back to check if you have returned I saw Master Seonu leaving the room. There was no one else inside the room afterwards besides Your Majesty so..."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked again as Paoh nodded his head. Jidwi went quiet after hearing the answer.