"Sung Hyun you are being summoned. The crown prince would like to see you." An eunuch bowed slightly with his hands together.

She bowed back, preceding to follow him in silence. Her mind consciously evaluating every possibility of convincing the prince of releasing her. 'In return of me teaching him how to shoot an arrow through another arrow he'll set me free? Or maybe some swordsmanship?'

She thought of every possible stipulation she can make in return for her freedom. After all a prince's dignity, like a king's, lies on whether or not he keeps his promises.

The eunuch announced Sung Hyun's arrival at the crown prince's chambers and the magnificent wooden doors opened. Intricate craving into each and every inch of the door. A dragon. The symbol of power and nobility .

The chambers were even more elegant. Magnanimous decorations with only two colours, black and golden.

The crown prince Yeon seok sat on his throne. The one belonging to prince Chin Hwa was nothing compared to the magnificent decoration on the crown prince's. But it wasn't only the throne, it was Yeon seok.

He sat with his back straight, his broad shoulders made him appear even more confident than the aura he exuded.

"Teach me that technique you did yesterday." he commanded.

Sung Hyun cleared her throat. She was always forced to speak in a rough manner, a deep voice so she wouldn't raise suspicion that she wasn't what people thought she was. That was sometimes hard ever since she hit puberty as her voice naturally got thinner. She cleared her voice again.

"I need to watch you shoot some arrows first. That technique requires a very high level of control." She explained, if she could get the prince to follow her instructions she be able to manipulate him with much more ease.

"Sung Hyun you lowly life! You do just as the crown prince says in an instant." His eunuch screamed, spitting all about in angry contempt.

The prince shooed the eunuch. "Leave us alone you're interpreting me."

"Yes, your highness." he said, shooting daggers at Sung Hyun with his eyes as he shuffled out of the room.

Prince Yeon seok clapped his hands together. "Very well. Let's go shoot some arrows right now." he dictated, grabbing his bow from the rack it was displayed on and striding ahead.

"Show me three shoots." Sung Hyun demands just as the reached the shooting range. The prince without hesitation, grabs an arrow shooting after minimal concentration. Each arrow was very close to the middle circle.

'He's not so bad he has good aim but it may take him a year before he can master the technique.' Sung Hyun rubs her chin as she observed they way he held the arrow and his bow.

"Use your wrists. The wrists play a big role." She states, pointing to his hand. "In all three times you've shoot your wrists were stiff."

Yeon seok's brows creased, "Aren't the wrists supposed to be stiff? So as not to interfere with the arrows momentum?" he questioned doubting her abilities as a teacher.

"You see this is why this is an advanced move, moving your wrist requires extreme delicacy." She grabbed a bow from the table, tugging at the thread. "Imagine you have a gold string tied to a bucket of water... you must swing the bucket around really fast if you don't want the water to fall, right? But if you swing just a little too fast the gold string will break." She elucidated the vision she had in her head that helped her concentrate.

Sung Hyun grabs his hand,which seemed to be almost twice as big as hers, positioning each of his fingers on the string.

"Although it's not nessassary, and frankly it may look stupid or unprofessional, I like to point at my target with my index finger with the hand holding the bow."

The prince nodded, "Like this?" he said trying to mimic her as much as he could.

She smiles in satisfaction,"Perfect, now try shooting." The arrow barely got to the board. After all, he wasn't used to this technique of holding the bow and arrow.

"Try again." She orders. The arrow got a little more closer to the third circle.

She adjusts his elbow so that he can pull the arrow with more ease. "Again."

...

Sung Hyun walked through the stone pathway leading to the same lone storage building she climbed yesterday. She'd spent the whole day trying to teach the crown prince the arrow technique but to no avail. It took her years to learn the technique so she couldn't blame him, but she secretly hoped he'd be a prodigy so she'd get a ticket out of this sick place faster.

The air was quiet and calming. No sweating eunuchs who's snoring could be heard from outside the palace walls. She dreamed of having her own quarters but of course that's impossible in a palace as a mere eunuch.

Sung Hyun spotted a figure on the roof. Right around where she's been sitting yesterday. It's the same mysterious man who had saved her yesterday.

He spotted Sung Hyun as well, sending her a small toothy grin, "If I fall...will you catch me too?" he marvelled at her expression.

Startled, Sung Hyun shook her head, "D-Don't fall! I don't think I'm strong enough to catch you!" She stammered as she got into a stance ready to catch him if he were to actually fall.

He chuckles amusement melting into his features. "You're an interesting man." he beamed as he returned to looking at the sky.

Sung Hyun joined the man up on the roof. Both laid down with their hands as cushions against the hard tiles. The moonlight lit up their eyes.

"What do you do in the palace?" Sung Hyun breaks the silence.

Adjusting his head on his forearm, the mysterious man answered, "What do you think?"

Sung Hyun snuck a look at him, "Well you're obviously not an eunuch like me because you're not wearing green... You're not wearing guard clothes either... Are you a scholar?"

"You could say so." He stated shrugging his shoulders. It was clear to her that he didn't want to share to much about himself.

"Never mind." she said with a low irritated grunt.

The man turns his head to glance at her, "What's your name?"

"Sung Hyun." She motions with her chin, "And you?"

"Young-Min."

As the two were busy with introductions, seemingly innocuous footsteps lurked in the back of the house.

A man jumped on the roof. A white mask with read strings hanging from the edge of the eyes. She'd never seen such a peculiar mask. Without any context to what he was fighting for, the figure in black drew his sword. It wasn't seconds before he lunged at Young-Min.

On instinct, Sung Hyun unsheathed her sword, flicking her wrist as she jumped in front of her new friend. She held back her opponents first swing. Young-Min watched as Sung Hyun and the man with the white mask fought to dominate the others sword.

Sung Hyun was a step ahead, reaching for a disarming manoeuvre before an arrow plunged into her shoulder. As the pain surged through her body she lost a second of concentration and masked man took the opportunity to reach for a cut.

Adrenaline took over as the reality of the situation took over Sung Hyun, she must retreat. With all the power she could muster she pushed with her foot trusting her backwards, just as his sword met with her side, forming a deep gash on her abdomen.

Young-Min, who's body was still in a deep sense of shook, found it moving on its own. He grabbed Sung Hyuns sword, blocking the masked man from finishing her off and the man backs off taking the chance to run away. Young-min scans the trees in the direction from which he arrow came for and noticed a shadow of a man manoeuvring his way through the trees to escape.

This all happened in seconds as Sung Hyun tried to keep her consciousness as her eyes slowly engulfed the darkness of the night. She stumbled about as her body gave into the pain and she collapsed. Young-Min caught her right before she hit the rooftop, his arms wrapped around her.

He held onto her little body, "Please don't die." he whispered.