(Y/N)'s POV
"I'm back home...." I gave a wide smile as we walked towards the entrance of Fuuga.

It has been a while since Hak and I visited Gramps in the village. Maybe I could even meet my little Tae-yeon... It's too bad that I didn't bring any presents, I promised him that I would come back and give him the best present ever. I guess this is one of the rare occasions where I break my promise. I shook the thoughts out of my heads, trying to think of positive things to change my mood. I then saw Han Dae and Tae-woo sleeping at the main entrance of Fuuga, still not noticing that we were in front of them.

"Han Dae! Tae-woo! You should know that you never fall asleep on duty." I scolded as I was waking the two by shaking their shoulders.

"W-What...?"

"Lady (Y/N)?"

I gave them a smile, giggling a bit at their confused faces. Their reactions were to be expected since we never gave any message we would come visit.

"Lord Hak?" Tae-woo glanced at the two that were behind me, making the other acknowledge their presence.

"You just came back today? It's been so long. About ten years, right?" I gave Tae-woo a confused face, it's only been three years...

"Was the General fired? Oh well, there's always next time." Han Dae said, making me noticed that the two looked more relaxed than they should be in their job.

"Lazy as usual." I sighed at Hak's blunt reply.

"We are the Wind Tribe. We live as freely as the wind~"

"Who sent these guys out to patrol?"

"Lord Hak!"

"Lady (Y/N)!"

As we were walking inside Fuuga now, people started crowding us as if we were famous people. I could tell that they were as shock at Han Dae and Tae-woo to see us arrive.

"The young chief and his partner has arrived!"

"It has been so long!"

"When did you come back?"

"Oh my, you're becoming more and more handsome~"

"Lady (Y/N) has grown more radiant than last time she visited."

I gave out a sigh, I wasn't still used to the unnecessary compliments and attention that they give us everytime we come back. I knew that it was because Hak was a general, but I still debate if it were because I'm the second grandchild of Gramps or when I captured a group of traitors that were hiding in the Tribe.

"Oh? Who is this?"

"Are you Lady (Y/N)'s maid?"

"Are you Lord Hak's woman?"

I started listening to what they were talking about Yona, but I wasn't able to hide the fact that I almost choked on my own breath with the last question. I turned to look at Hak, silently asking him what we should say.

"No. She is a castle court lady in training." I gave a reassuring nod at Hak's reply, internally thanking him that he was able to come up with an excuse on the spot.

"No way!"

"What's your name?"

"Where did you come from?"

When I saw Yona suddenly lost her balance, I took the chance to catch her before she fell on the ground. A worried expression was evident on my face, making me blame myself for not noticing Yona's weak state, she was avoiding to eat anything from before so that should've been enough of a sign. Hak walked towards my side, not even asking me if it was alright if he could carry her. But I didn't complain, he is stronger than me at the moment so I had no right to argue with him.

"Prepare a bed and a meal immediately." I seriously said as I directed the order to Han Dae.

"Y-Yes Maam!"

•
•
•

Hak already placed Yona-hime in a guest room that Han Dae was able to provide for us, which I already thanked him for. Me, Hak, Han Dae, and Tae-woo were in front of the unconscious Princess's room, discussing about important matters concerning the Wind Tribe.

"—So the reason why Gramps isn't here at this time is because he was summoned for an emergency 5 Tribe meeting, am I correct?" I asked the two Fuuga gatekeepers in front of me, giving me a nod in reply.

I glanced at Hak, giving him an expression that this was all too suspicious. Gramps was called into a meeting, just a few days after the night we fled, which was a huge scandal to the view of other people.

"Did Gramps... Elder Mun-deok said anything about what the meeting is about?" Hak questioned, trying to see if our hunch was correct.

"Elder Mun-deok didn't told us anything about what they were going to discuss about. If you ask me, it looked like even he didn't know what the emergency was." Han Dae pointed out with a sigh, looking like he was already tired from just talking.

"If you don't mind me asking (Y/N), what's the court lady's name? It's a bit suspicious that you both worry and care for her so much, like she's something more than a court lady..." Tae-woo raised an eyebrow with an expression that told us he was suspicious about our actions, while Han Dae was trying not to fall asleep.

Me and Hak both took a split second glance at each other, mentally telling the other to keep Yona's identity a secret. I turned my gaze back at Tae-woo, clearing my throat before I looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Her name is... Lena. She's been a friend of mine since I started visiting the Castle when I was younger, making me obliged to introduce my best friend to Hak. The three of us had a promise to take care of each other in the Castle, which is the reason for our obvious concern for her earlier." I gave a happy face, trying to look like I wasn't giving an excuse.

It hurt me a bit that I was lying to them, people that were brothers to me. But I kept convincing myself that I wasn't lying, that all of it were true, except for Hak being the one introduced to her, Yona being a court lady, and that she is a person named 'Lena'. Tae-woo didn't stopped giving me weary looks, making me give him a nervous smile at his long stare. He opened his mouth to speak but was soon stopped when a younger voice was heard.

"Big brother Hak! Big sister (Y/N)!" A small blonde boy said, running up to me and Hak as he hugged us both on our waists, not knowing he was squeezing us together.

"Umm, little bud? Maybe you should give us a separate hug. Me and Hak can't move..." I laughed awkwardly, feeling myself brushing my arms with Hak's as our cheeks were almost touching.

"O-Oh! Sorry Big sis~" My little bundle of joy released us from his tight hug, making me give an apologetic expression at Hak for the awkward closeness.

I knelt down in front of Tae-yeon as I gave him a big hug in return for his tight one, making my happiness come back to me with a simple hug.

"I missed you so much little buddy! You don't know how much I think about you when I'm at the Castle." I pulled away from the hug, placing both my hands on his shoulders as I gave him a sad smile.

"I'm sorry for not bringing a gift today. My visit here was sudden that I didn't have time to find you a present like what I've promised..." I didn't expected Tae-yeon to give me a bright smile at what I said.

"It's alright big sis~ You're presence today is the best present you could give to me!"

I giggled at Tae-yeon's answer, making me and the two gatekeepers 'aww' at his cuteness. I lightly pinched his cheek as I just wanted to squeeze him in joy so much! I finally removed my hand from his cheek, holding out my hand which he gladly took.

"You can greet Hak later, okay little bud? We were discussing about grownup matters before you greeted us with your happy presence. So I want you to go into this room behind me and greet Miss Lena so you can cheer her up. That's a mission that I'm trusting you could do, alright?" I asked the young boy with a serious face, earning a fast nod and a salute from him.

"I won't let you down!" Tae-yeon gave a quick hug to Hak, making the general ruffle his hair before he sent him inside the room.

I then turned my attention back to the three as I had a neutral expression on my face this time.

"I'm sorry but we can continue this conversation later. I want to see how Y-Lena is doing, I hope you all don't mind that. You two can come inside as well, I'm sure she'd be happy to meet new faces." They answered with a firm nod, giving me approval to go inside the room.

As I opened the door silently, the conversation inside could be clearly heard from where our positions are. Their conversation weren't personal so I didn't regretted anything, it was a bit funny though.

"Are you a friend of my big brother and sister?" Tae-yeon asked, which I guessed was the Princess, showing us she was now awake.

"...Probably." Yona-hime replied, making my heart crack at the unsure answer.

I was almost trampled by Han Dae and Tae-woo as they immediately opened the door wide open to go to the crimson haired Princess. Me and Hak saw them both kneel in front of her as it looked like they were...crying?

"That's so sad! (Y/N) looks at you like you're her best friend in the whole Kingdom! If she knew you look at her as something less than that then she'd be heart broken, her only friend not thinking she's your friend." Tae-woo announced, an irk mark forming on my head at his audacity.

"If they're just friends then she doesn't see anything more in him. Poor Lord Hak's feelings are so unrequited." Han Dae said as he was crying with Tae-woo.

But before the two could say anything more to the princess, both of us stomped on their backs to shut them up. I glared at Tae-woo that was below me, feeling him squirm a bit at my treatment.

"Do you want your eyes gouged out?" Me and Hak said in unison, asking the person that was below our foot.

I then looked at Yona as I gave her an apologetic smile, noticing that I've been silently apologizing for a few times now.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that Lena. These men could be so bothersome at times." Yona replied with a confused look.

"Who is L-"

I instantly went in front of Yona and covered her mouth with my hand, silencing her for almost blowing her own cover.

"Your name is Lena. You are training here to be a court lady. While we're here, I will treat you as my best friend instead of a Princess. Understand?" I asked as my face was only a few inches apart from Yona, seeing her slowly nod in reply.

"That's good then." I turned to where Yona was staring, what I saw made my mood from before return.

Hak was shielding Tae-yeon's eyes from us with a [mocking] disapproving expression on his face, while Han Dae and Tae-woo were covering their own eyes as they had a shocked expression instead.

"I wasn't doing anything that Tae-yeon shouldn't see, baka!" I already removed my hand from Yona's mouth, trying to chase Hak around the room.

I was trying to kick or shove Hak, but he was avoiding all of it. I was getting more and more annoyed that I haven't even laid a finger on him for a few minutes now, in which made me didn't notice what Tae-yeon asked Yona-hime.

"In the Castle, Hak is rude." This suddenly made me and my target stop in our tracks, looking at Yona with a slight surprised face, Han Dae and Tae-woo joining the shock.

"Ah-no, insensitive. Umm, has a bad attitude." I covered my mouth with my hand, holding back my laughter at Yona's answers.

"Oh, and not cute at all. And-"

"Oookay, enough. We understand." Hak made a 'stop' gesture with his hand as he had an annoyed face.

I couldn't take it anymore as I let out all the laughter I've been keeping to myself, soon being followed by the other two male's laughter.

"Miss Lena, you're the best!"

"N-N-N-Not cute at all!"

"Thank you for giving Hak his payback for me!"

We kept on laughing as we were holding on our stomachs from our loud and intense laughing at the scene. When I saw Hak started kicking the two, I immediately started to get away from them, but Hak noticed. We now switched places from what happened before, I was now the one annoying target and Hak was the annoyed chaser. The difference was that this time, Yona was able to smile at our silliness.

•
•
•

I was walking with Hak towards where he said Yona was, feeling the gentle breeze hit my face as it swayed my (H/C) hair. We were just walking in comfortable silence, something that we often do when we have a chance to go somewhere together. I moved some of my hair that got in front of my face which made me tuck it behind my ear, letting me notice that Yona was up ahead of us. I started to walk in front of Hak, leading him to Yona's direction. I was actually a bit surprised that Yona wanted to take a stroll, after what happened back at the Castle, I thought I'd never see her do something she wanted without someone guiding her. I saw Yona-hime was talking to the woman that was supposed to be the one 'teaching' her how to be a proper court lady, it made me sweat drop at how she just placed a stack of dirty clothes for Yona to wash without any guidance given. A few seconds passed and we were on each side of Yona with a small pile of clothes.

"Don't worry Princess, we got you covered." I gave Yona a thumbs up as a smile was on my face.

We just continued walking, this time heading to the direction of the river to clean the clothes we were carrying and teach Yona how to do laundry. I noticed that Yona looked like she wanted to say something, before I could point it out, Hak had beaten me to it.

"What is it?"

"...I can play an instrument and dance... a little."

"You mean that ear wrenching noise you play?" I gave a small glare at Hak, giving Yona a reassuring smile.

"Don't listen to him, you know he's just trying to get on your nerves. You're just not investing time on learning to play an instrument is the case, and your dancing is... extraordinary?" Even I questioned myself at the choice of words I used, earning a noticeable pout from the Princess.

"You've gone back to normal just a bit."

Hak bluntly pointed out as I stared at Yona with shock.

"Huh...?"

"Never mind." I gave her a bright smile before I started walking in front of them, still following the familiar path to the river.

I didn't knew that Yona was staring at me with an astonished expression, since I was just whistling to my childhood song. They soon got beside to me again, making us look like an odd group.

"I didn't know you two had a little brother, he's adorable like you (Y/N), but the opposite of Hak." I hid my snicker with a 'thank you' to Yona, a bit surprised she opened up more to have room to compliment me.

"Tae-yeon is the same as me. He's an orphan that was taken in by Gramps. He just can't abandon orphans." Hak said with a nod of agreement coming from me.

"But the difference with Tae-yeon is that he has problems with his lungs even before he was took in, making him have a weak body. He exhausted himself too much yesterday, so they're keeping close watch on him." I smiled sadly, the remembrance of his (asthma) attack's hit me like a ton of bricks would, too painful to bear.

"Oh look, we arrived." I changed the topic when I noticed the stares they were giving me when I started to wipe the forming tears from my eyes.

Hak began placing the clothes at the far side of the river and started helping me separate the colored from the none colored, while Yona walked to the river to see it clearly I guess.

"You can do the laundry in the water over there." Hak said without glancing at Yona while I was still separating the clothes.

"The river here is the life source of the Wind Tribe, so keep in mind that you should cherish it and not waste any of it."

"I... can't do it."

"Hey you haven't even done anything yet!"

I sighed as I stopped separating the clothes while Hak turned to Yona with an irritated face. We abandoned our stations to go beside Yona, a look of tiredness was on my face while Hak's was annoyance, but it soon was wiped off our faces when we saw where Yona was staring at.

"I can't because there's no water..."

"The river, has dried up?"

We all stared below us where the 'life source' of our Tribe once was, the clean and continuously flowing river was replaced with small puddles of water. It didn't even reach the standards of a pond, it were all just a land of puddles. A situation like this will sure cause panic from the people. I just hope that we could find a safe and reasonable solution for something like this...

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Published:
7/2/20

@icedlemntea - Thanks for this person for making me happy to post new chapters~ UwU

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