One of these was going to be the icon, but I HATED the first few drafts. I finished that one like two days ago just because I wanted to try out sketchy brushes again.

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who doesn't love to return home? after a long tiring day outside, who wouldn't want to fall into their bed and sleep till the sun came out the next day?

he had been away for over a week, attending a annual meeting with other influential young lords around the area as the face of the sect — his sajil's words, not his.

in his almost thirty years of living, the one thing he's pretty sure about was that he hates anything to do with business or politics. sure, he had lofty dreams of becoming a sect leader a long time ago but he's starting to think twice now. and when he weighed the pros and cons, he starting to believe that he just might not be cut out for this after all.

it was noon by the time he reached the foot of mount hua. dazed from hunger and the sun beating down on his head, he makes his way up the steep steps, one foot in front of the other until he sensed he was nearing the familiar red gates of home.

cheon-ah!

there on the edge, stood a person. the sun behind them shrouded their figure with a dark shadow. baek cheon squints, but still couldn't make out who it was calling out to him so affectionately.

cheon-ah!

he picks up his pace. and as the person's face became clearer in his vision, he started skipping steps just to get to their side sooner.

you're back.

who else had it been other than her? who else could it have been that would have called his name so sweetly? baek cheon felt a smile grow on his face as he walked over to her side.

to think i would see you on my way back. i must be lucky today.

he says softly, as he lifted a hand to tuck her stray hair behind her ear.

of course you're lucky. who wouldn't be lucky to see me?

she retorts rather cheekily, and the two couldn't help but laugh.

The room was dim, lit only by the faint glow of a lantern in the corner. The aftermath of the battle with the Demonic Sect had left its mark on Mount huas deciples, but none more so than Chung Myung. His body, battered and bruised, lay still on the bed for 2 days , his chest rising and falling rhythmically. For once, the ever-spirited swordsman looked peaceful, his usual sharpness dulled by exhaustion.

Yin Yue was also exhausted, not sleeping and eating for 2 days as she continues to kept watch over him

Yin Yue sat beside him, her arm tightly bandaged, but she barely felt the sting of her own injury. Her eyes never left him, taking in every detail of his face—the faint scars. She clenched her fist, her nails digging into her palms as she whispered to herself, “I have to become stronger. I have to protect you...”

Her voice cracked, and she pressed her lips together to stifle the sob threatening to escape. Her chest felt unbearably tight, the memory of the battle replaying in her mind. She had watched him stand alone against the overwhelming force of the Demonic Sect priest , his body a shield for everyone else. And then, she had watched him fall—bloodied and broken.

Tears slid down her cheeks as she stared at him now, her heart shattering under the weight of fear and guilt. He almost died. Again. Right in front of me.

Yin Yue’s body trembled as silent cries wracked her frame, her hands reaching out instinctively but stopping just short of touching him.

Her mind drifted to the past—a life she could never forget. A life where she had already lost him. The pain of that loss surged through her, raw and unrelenting. She clenched her jaw, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

“I can’t lose you,” she whispered, her voice barely audible in the stillness. Her gaze, dulled by exhaustion and grief, burned with determination as it rested on his face. “I need you to stay alive… to kill that fox demon.”

The room fell silent again, save for the faint sound of her shaky breaths. Yin Yue brushed a strand of hair from his face, her touch feather-light, as though afraid he would disappear if she pressed too hard.

No matter how hard she tries, the woman absolutely cannot wake up. So far, she can't tell if she's been asleep for hours, days, or weeks. All she knows is that, after all of this time, it seems like it's nearly impossible to wake up. All she currently feels is her body floating in an endless void, and everytime she attempts to open her eyes she's greeted by the same dark emptiness. She closes and opens her eyes one more time, and is still met with disappointment.

Why am I struggling so much with waking up? She thinks, and shortly after that she starts to feel like she's free falling. Suddenly, her whole body jerks in response to the falling sensation and her eyes fly open. She gasps, but relaxes when she notices she wasn't actually falling. That was the most intense hypnic jerk I've ever felt! She thinks, and is immediately caught off guard by the light assaulting her eyes.

The void had quickly faded away, but the sunshine beaming on her causes a great deal of pain. All she can do is rapidly blink her eyes until they adjust. After a while, the searing pain fades away and she can finally take in her new surroundings.

When she examines the world around her, she notices that everything is blurry. This No matter how hard she tries, the woman cannot wake up. So far, she can't tell if she's been asleep for hours, days, or weeks. All she knows is that, after all of this time, it seems like it's nearly impossible to wake up. All she currently feels is her body floating in an endless void, and everytime she attempts to wake up she's greeted by the same dark emptiness. She closes and opens her eyes one more time, and is still disappointed.

Why am I struggling so much with waking up? She thinks, and shortly after that she starts to feel like she's free falling. Suddenly, her whole body jerks in response to the shocking sensation and her eyes fly open. She gasps, but calms down when she notices she wasn't actually falling. That was the most intense hypnic jerk I've ever felt! She thinks, and is immediately caught off guard by the light assaulting her eyes.

The void fades away, but the sunshine beaming on her causes a great deal of pain. All she can do is rapidly blink her eyes until they adjust. After a while, the searing pain fades away and she can finally take in her new surroundings. Unfortunately, everything is extremely blurry.

This is fine, she thinks, I just need to put my glasses on… When she tries to feel around for them, she notices that her hands are bound behind her back with a rope. There's a cloth tied around her head to stop her from talking, but on the brightside, her legs are free. Why would you leave the legs alone? Whoever tied me up did a shitty job, she thinks while trying to not panic and continues analyzing the situation.

She turns her head and notices she's been sleeping on a raggedy wooden cart with some straw under her. She can hear hooves clopping on dirt and sees that the tree line above her is moving. After turning her head to get a slightly better view of the front, she notices a man in the front seat.

She assumes he kidnapped her, and her heart begins to pound when the gravity of the situation seeps in. This man kidnapped her, she doesn't know where she is, she's literally half-blind without her glasses, and they're headed to who-knows-where. She has no idea what he might do to her. Is he going to sell her to human traffickers? Murder her? Cook and eat her?

She doesn't want to stick around and find out, so she'll have to act soon. He looks like he's taller and beefier than her. If she runs and he pursues her, there'd be a high chance that she'd get caught again. But running is better than just sitting there and doing nothing, so she decides to try to escape.

The woman raises her pudgy legs in the air and swings them back down so she can use the force to sit up. After doing that a few times, she's finally successfully sitting up right. Then, she slowly tucks her knees under her and carefully stands up. The cart's movements are unpredictable and rocky, so she has to concentrate on keeping her legs stable. Now it's time for the hard part: jumping off of the moving cart.

Jumping off without injuring herself is going to be impossible, but it'll be worth it. It's either that or stay kidnapped. She just needs the courage to jump off. Do it, pussy. It's now or never. Do it! Do it! Do it! She tells herself, but she keeps standing there. Her heart feels like it's going to pop out of her chest as she tries to perceive the depth between the cart and the ground. She can't tell how high the cart is, and the blurry vision makes this situation even more terrifying.

Fuck it, parkour! She screams internally and finally takes her leap of faith. When her body hits the ground, she rolls a couple of times, and thankfully doesn't break anything. When she stops, she attempts to get back on her knees like earlier. When she manages to stand up, she hears a man yell,” Get back here, little girl!”

Little girl!? Who does he think he is! I'm grown and he has the gall to call me that? ‘Little girl’ my ass- she thinks, but snaps out of her thoughts. Right now really isn't the time for that. She needs to start moving before she gets kidnapped a second time.

She starts sprinting as fast as her short legs can, and she thinks her escape plan is going well so far. When she peeks behind herself, she notices the man has started pursuing her. She tries to give herself some form of reassurance by remembering she got an earlier start, but it doesn't help much. She just needs to focus on running as fast as she can.

I need to keep moving, and when I lose him, I'll- “Hey, watch where you're going!” Her thoughts are interrupted by someone screaming in front of her. The woman was too focused on the man behind her to notice she was rapidly approaching someone else. She tries to avoid him, but ends up tripping instead. As her body is being flung forward, the guy flawlessly dodges her before she can fall onto him. She hits the hard ground face-first, and after all of this she's decided that this is the worst day of her life.

“Damn, that looks like it hurt! Did you learn your lesson?” The guy she almost crashed into starts asking her, but there's no way in hell she's sticking around to answer him. She rolls over and gets on her knees for the third time today, but before she can get on her feet she hears her captor scream at her again. When she looks back, she notices that the distance between them is rapidly closing. He's too quick, and there's no way she'll be able to escape now. Her eyes widen as the panic sets in, and her gaze turns towards the man she almost ran over.

The dark-haired man traces where her eyes were, and suddenly darts towards her kidnapper. She doesn't care about that right now, and just wants to escape to safety. All she needs to do is get back on her feet, start running, and then-

BAM! BAM! BAM! All she can hear is the distinct sound of fists mercilessly pummeling someone. The woman turns around and squints her eyes to get a better look, and the villain is getting his ass handed to him. Not even five seconds later, the fight was over and the smaller man reigned victorious.

She's stunned while she watches him calmly walk back to her. He doesn't seem that big, but he still managed to knock out that guy. Saying she's impressed would be an understatement. “Come here,” the victor says when he approaches her, and she scoots back. Her nerves are still high after the anxiety-inducing events she just experienced. He scoffs and continues,”I'm just trying to help you.”

Her intuition tells her he's not going to do anything, and, considering what just happened, he doesn't seem like the type to hurt random people for no reason. She turns around and lets him untie the ropes. After untying them, he undoes the cloth that the captor had stuck in her mouth. She can finally speak! “T-Thank you,” she mutters out, and her voice is a little hoarse. She's thirsty, her body is sore from laying on hard wood for so long, and her wrists have marks leftover from her bindings. The woman has no idea how long she was unconscious, but based on the evidence, it must've been a really long time.

It's a good thing she almost crashed into this random guy. He saved her life, so she feels like just thanking him isn't enough to show her gratitude. “How can I repay you?” She asks while rubbing and staring at her wrists. “Preferably with money or food,” he replies bluntly. A tiny snort comes from her, and she decides that she likes him and how forward he is. People like him are easy to talk to.

She gets up with ease thanks to being able to finally use her hands, and searches herself for anything she could repay him with. The woman doesn't find anything valuable on her person, but when she looks over at her captor, she gets a genius idea. She makes her way over to the presumably unconscious man. The piece of shit hasn't moved or made a sound, so she assumes it's safe to approach him. The woman picks up a stick and pokes him a few times to make sure he's still out, and thankfully he is.

She searches his pockets and finds a half-full coin purse on him and takes it with zero remorse. What's he gonna do? Steal it back? He's out cold! She wastes no time getting back to the dark-haired man. “Please don't judge me,” she comments.

He shrugs and doesn't seem bothered by her actions. “I don't care. He probably deserved it, anyway,” he replies nonchalantly. “I hope this is enough,” she says while giving him a handful of coins. She can't exactly tell if she's giving him too much or too little. She guesses it was an okay amount, because right after receiving the payment he says,”Thank you!” and turns around. He has a pep in his step when he walks off thanks to the money he just recieved, but the woman he just saved still needs him.

“W-Wait!” She blurts out, and he stops and looks back at her. “I don't know where I am…” “You're on the outskirts of Shaanxi.” “Shaanxi?” She asks. It sounds familiar to her, but she can't put her finger on where she's heard it before. No matter how hard the woman tries to remember, her mind keeps drawing blanks. She starts getting a small headache while trying to remember, so she rubs her temples in an attempt to ease some of the pain.

The young man in front of her notices this, and after an awkward pause he continues,”You really don't know where you are, do you?” “Nope, no idea,” she states while brushing the dirt off of her. She hopes she'll get to take a shower soon. He points at the cart she was previously in,”It looks like you guys were entering the area before you ran off.”

Her light-colored eyes try to look at the cart in the distance, but it just looks like a blurry brown blob to her. She isn't even sure why she tried looking. Maybe it's because I'm so used to having glasses? she guesses. “Were you entering Shaanxi, too?” She asks while attempting to keep eye contact despite her half-blindness. His eyes look like two fluffy dots to her.

“Yeah, I was on my way to Mount Hua before you almost ran into me. Speaking of which, I'm going to start going now,” he says and begins walking off again. “Wait!” She exclaims and follows him. She tries her best to keep up with him, but it's a struggle. He's in a hurry to get to this place, and doesn't plan on slowing down anytime soon.

“What is it now!?” He asks and snaps his head towards her. “Can I follow you for a little bit? At least until we reach a town or something. I need to figure out what I'm doing and where I'm going,” she pleads. “I guess, as long as you don't cause any trouble or slow me down,” he answers, and this lifts the woman's spirits ten fold.

“I won’t, I promise! Thank you so much!” She beams at him, but pauses before they pass the wagon. She runs up to it, notices a sack that was sitting in the passenger seat, and grabs it. The owner tried to kidnap her, so she feels no remorse after looting his pockets and his wagon. Before returning, she looks back at the criminal and considers kicking him in the face, but decides not to. She doesn't want to keep her friend waiting.

She sprints as quickly as she can to catch up to him and announces,”I found more stuff.” “You robbed him again?” “Yeah, I thought about kicking him, too,” after she drops that bit of information he shrugs and keeps walking. The woman starts shuffling through the raggedy bag in hopes that she'll find something useful. It looks like all of that running was worth it, because after digging around she finds some clothes. She digs deeper, and in the bottom there's a few coins and a pair of glasses. Things are really starting to look up, she thinks before she pulls them out.

She puts them on and is filled with disappointment when she realizes the lenses are broken. Her vision is mostly corrected, but the cracks get in the way. “Shit, it's better than nothing, I guess,” she mutters and looks beside her so she can finally get a glimpse of her hero.

She assumed he'd be her age after he managed to take down a guy twice his size, but he looks younger than her. His overall appearance is disheveled, his black hair needs to be washed and brushed, and his eyes are a lovely shade of pink. It's her favorite color.

“You're staring,” he points out, and she panics. Her eyes dart down towards the dirt and her cheeks burn in embarrassment as she apologizes,”Sorry, I couldn't really see you until, like, five seconds ago.” “That explains the lack of eye contact we've had until just now,” he comments, and she forces herself to regain eye contact with him despite her nerves. “What's your name, anyway?” He asks, and such a simple question catches her off guard. My name… Wait what is my name? She asks herself before a sharp, stabbing pain echoes throughout her head as she desperately tries to remember.

She rubs her temples and cringes while she tries to remember despite the extreme discomfort. The harder she tries, the more it excruciating it gets. “You good?” His question helps bring her back to reality. She tries to relax her face and keep a calm front despite her current circumstances. “I'm gonna be honest, I don't know,” she admits while trying to stay calm.

“You don't know your own name!?” He exclaims and she sighs to relieve the stress-induced tightness in her chest. “Well, it's more like I don't remember my own name, and everytime I try I get a headache,” she tries to explain. “Well, that's a serious issue. Did he knock you on the head or something?” “I guess. That's the only logical explanation for all of the amnesia and headaches,” she adds.

“I need to call you something…” His sentence trails off and a finger raises to his chin as he brainstorms. Heh, just call me ‘something’... I shouldn't say that out loud. Now isn’t a good time for joking, she thinks and has to stop herself from smirking before asking,“What's your name?” “Chung Myung,” he answers, and goes back to thinking about what to name this random woman he stumbled across.

To her, his name feels familiar like Mount Hua and Shaanxi, but can't put her finger on why. She decides to ignore it and doesn't push herself to remember, because she doesn't want to suffer anymore. As they're making their way down the dirt path, she looks up at the branches that shade their path. Despite the cracks in her glasses, she tries to admire the scenery. Their bright green branches decorate a clear sky, and the weather isn't too warm or too cold. It must be spring.

She looks back at Chung Myung, and sees that he's still in deep thought. “Anything is fine, y'know. I don't mind as long as it's appropriate and not insulting like ‘loser’ or ‘bitch’…” “Yeah, I've got nothing,” he comments and looks down at the noticeably shorter woman. He's not exactly tall, either, but the top of her head only reaches his mouth. “Heh, shorty,” he cackles and she looks offended. “Do not call me that!” “What? You said anything is fine as long as it's not inappropriate or insulting like ‘loser ’ or ‘bitch’,” he retorts. She huffs and before she can snap back, she's interrupted by her stomach growling.

She feels like it was embarrassingly loud and wants to ignore it, but he points out,”Are you hungry? Because you sound like it.” “Yeah, I don't remember the last time I ate…” “Shocker.” “I know,” she sighs and tries to ignore the emptiness and hunger cramps. “If my memory serves me right, there's a small town up ahead. We can get food there,” he mentions and picks up his pace. “Hurry, I’m hungry, too,” he adds and she tries her best to keep up with him.