He carries me through the forest and I wait for the next question. His voice is deep and warm and no longer scares me.

"Why is your hair made of gold?"

I tighten my lips and try not to giggle. Even if it's clearly not meant as a compliment, the question is so adorably cute, it takes me a few seconds to compose my face, before I can answer. "Where I come from, it's a normal hair color."

He must hear the smile in my voice, because his jaw tenses. "And the eyes?"

"Same", I almost squeak.

I go up and down as he takes a deep breath. "I've never heard of a place like that."

My smile fades. "It's very far away", I whisper, blinking against new tears.

"Do you have to walk back?"

This time, the laugh escapes my lips before I can stop it. "No, thank heavens, that would be impossible."

When I look up at him, I see the difficult expression as he tries to process my answers. I can never make him understand, it's best if I don't say too much.

Evening falls way too fast, the sun is almost down when Gi-Kyong finally sets me down. I hardly recognize the place. Is this where I landed? Where I was attacked? Speaking softly and eyeing around for sudden soldiers who emerge from behind trees, I ask: "Are we near the palace?"

He looks at me as if I've gone mad.

"No? But, those guards, I thought ..." It was supposed to be where my mission should have taken place. Could it be that more than the fail-safe malfunctioned?

There's no time to worry about that now. I need to find my dot, go back, forget this ever happened and figure out a way to get my unit fixed. Let's face it, what good is a Fixer without a functioning work-unit? The initial offer is sort of a loan, a Fixer in training has to pass a few exams and receives a unit with which he or she works for three years, after that the loan becomes an investment. Any repairs, however, have to be paid for by the Fixer and all of my money flies out the window due to rent, food and loans I'm still paying off from my parents burials.

That's what's gotten me in this mess in the first place. I should have fixed my unit long ago, but the only way to fix it is by taking on more missions, which in turn, damages the unit even further.

I pull myself out of my misery, drop down on my knees and begin to search.

"What are you doing?"

"I need to find my dot. It's small and silvery and I cannot go home without it." My hands shuffle through fallen leaves, disturbing ants and beetles and uprooting little seedlings. Soon my fingernails are dark brown. My shoulder and foot hurt and there is so much ground to cover and the sun is almost down. Stupid tears try to cloud my vision and I don't realize I'm actually crying until Gi-Kyong pulls me up from the floor and holds my shaking body against him.

"I'm never gonna find it, I'm never going home again", I sob.

I feel consciousness slipping and frankly, I don't care anymore. He can leave me here for the wolfs, they can have me.

---

For the second time in two days I'm floating when I wake up. This time I'm not upside down and this time I know who's carrying me. The sun has left the sky and when I look up I see Gi-Kyong's stern expression. His jaw is set tight and his gaze is fixed on a point somewhere in the distance. Without him knowing it, I study his face. Is he taking me back to the house of his parents? His house? He doesn't have a beard yet, he's young and his loose hair reminds me of something I've read once: he's not married yet.

I blush. Stop it, Jane, you're lucky to be taken as a servant in somebody's household until you die, you can never dream about things like marriage in this world. Fixer rules: No messing up the timeline by fraternizing with historical figures.

I heave a sigh and thus make my conscious state known. Gi-Kyong halts and looks down. Concern flashes briefly in his eyes and I give a weak smile. "I'm very sorry for causing all this trouble", I sigh and sniff.

His only response is some sort of grunt, then he picks up the pace.

When it's completely dark I finally recognize the wall that surrounds the house of the Ho family. An overwhelming sense of equilibrium engulfs me and I have to fight to keep the tears inside. I fail miserably when Gi-Kyong's mother appears in the door opening when we step through the gate and calls out: "Ji-Eun-ah!"

Gi-Kyong sets me down and clearly doesn't know what to do with me as I hold on to his arm for dear life, while ugly sobs make my whole body shake. His mother takes the lead and motions him to bring me inside. I'm totally unable to take even one step, so, woops, there I go again. This time I hide my face in his chest. I can feel his heart hammering. Poor man, he probably can't wait to get rid of me.

When I sense something soft beneath me, I remove my arm from around his neck and curl up into a ball. I cry and cry, about my pitiful little house and my pitiful lonely life; about the stupid work-unit and the lost dot. I even cry because I'm sorry Gi-Kyong had to carry me all the way back to his house, and what a long walk it had been.

Everything hurts: my foot, that Mrs. Ho is now cleaning with a wonderful warm towel, my shoulder, my heart and most of all my stomach.

Like a little child I lament: "I'm hungry." A midnight dinner has to wait however, because exhaustion once again takes over.

---

My legs are bare. That's the first thing I notice when I wake up again. It's still dark, but not as dark as last night, so it must be close to morning. Mrs. Ho probably took of my suit, I wonder what she did with it. Perhaps Gi-Kyong sold it, together with my hair. It doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

When I move I find I'm not completely naked underneath both skirts, I'm wearing some sort of pants. Suddenly a very urgent need presents itself and I hastily get up. When my foot tells me it's no where fit to use, I whimper and immediately I cover my mouth with both hands. A shadow moves and I squint. "Who's there?" I whisper.

My heart rate speeds up as the shadow grows, until I realize it's Gi-Kyong. When my eyes adjust to the darkness, I see he has been sleeping on a mat by the door. Why? Was he afraid I would get up and leave? I can't leave, I can barely stand.

I don't have time to worry about the implications, he might as well sleep there every night. Right now I only needed him to help me find a bathroom of sorts.

Still whispering I say: "I need to go."

He doesn't move, do I have to elaborate? "Please", I urge, "I have to ..." My unfinished sentence gets accompanied by a gesture he could not possibly misunderstand. I can't see his face, but I do see how his head jerks up and when he motions outside I stretch my arm.

I'm grateful he gets my meaning and with his help I find myself a little later standing in front of no more than a hole in the ground. It's partially covered by a large flat stone with a recess and surrounded by thin panels of woven straw between wooden poles. Was this some sort of outhouse?

Gi-Kyong is gone when I turn my head and I really have to go, so I swallow, lift up my skirts as high as possible, lower with my good hand the linen pants and squat. I force down the discomfort and try to act like I do this every day. From now on I probably will and I sincerely hope my injuries will go away soon.

After I leave the outhouse there is a washing bowl waiting for me and a towel, so I rinse my hands and use the water to flush the ancient toilet. Limping, while touching the wall of the house for stability, I find my way back to the courtyard.

Everything is quiet, not a sound is heard and when I look up, I suck in my breath. Millions of stars shine above me. I can even see the edge of the Milky Way. There is no light pollution here, no bright neon colors, no ever shining street lanterns. Nobody even knows the word electricity. When was the last time I couldn't even begin to count the number of brilliant lights in the night sky?

I stand at the edge of the courtyard and have no idea how much time passes, until I eventually notice someone next to me. I didn't hear him. He's staring at the stars, just like I do and for a moment I am unable to look away from his fairy-tale features. His skin is so perfect. Unwittingly I touch my own cheek. The movement catches his attention and time freezes when he slowly turns my way.

I'm immensely aware of the state my hair is in, because I lost the head scarf when I was sleeping. I will ask Mrs. Ho to even it out when she wakes up. I don't mind the length, it's actually kind of nice to feel the cool morning breeze around my neck. I touch a lost curl by my ear and see Gi-Kyong's dark eyes follow my fingers. I would offer him the rest if only I could stay here.

A rooster calling in the distance breaks the spell we were under. His Adam's apple bobs up and down as he swallows and then he extends his arm for me to hold on to. Slowly we shuffle back to the house.

Inside there's sounds of people waking up coming from the adjacent room. I wonder if that's in fact Gi-Kyong's room and if he gave that to his parents, because I took up the space they usually occupied. It makes me feel guilty.

I have to repay them somehow. I can't do much, but I'll do what I can. On my knees, avoiding pressure on my twisted ankle as much as possible, I roll op the sleeping mat. Getting up, using the wall and a barrel for support, I skip to the broom on my bare feet and do my best to sweep the floor.

When the curtain to the other room is moved aside, I smile.

"Ji-Eun-ah, what are you doing?" Mrs. Ho says alarmed. She rushes over to me the same time Gi-Kyong's figure appears in the doorway. For a second his eyebrows shoot up when he sees me leaning on the broomstick, then he recedes back outside. Was he standing guard? Because of me? I frown.

Mrs. Ho takes the broom from my hands and helps me to sit down again. "You need to rest, or it won't get better." She points at my feet and next at my shoulder, clucking as she sees the dried op blood. "Take it off, I will wash it."

"I can do that."

"No", she is stern and won't budge, but I need to be useful. If I'm not useful, they will send me away, or worse, sell me.

While she peels the stained jeogori of my shoulders and helps me in a clean one, I beg: "Please, let me help. You are so kind to me, I can't just do nothing."

She stands up from her kneeling position, walks to the collection of pots and barrels beside the iron cooking pot and opens one. With a wooden bowl, she scoops a large portion of grains and throws it in the pot. Beneath it, inside a stone oven, embers are still smoldering and with some added firewood and a little waving with a fan, a new fire is soon burning.

"Here", Mrs. Ho motions and I crawl towards her. She hands me the fan and a large wooden spoon. "You take care of the meal." With that, she leaves the house, carrying a basket that's probably filled with laundry. My blouse is on top.