.three.

Jung left Minji at General Park's house, with Soon Duk who claimed to be her sister, despite Minji's arguments that she didn't know who they all were. He hugged her goodbye and promised he would visit her the next morning to make sure that she was okay. Soon Duk wrapped an arm around Minji's shoulders to provide her with support, and led her into the house and into the bedroom that belonged to her. It was yet another place she didn't recognize--then again, nothing there was familiar to her. It was like she was in another person's body, in another life. 

Her sister helped her out of her wet clothes and into a warm robe, and she called for the service to bring her some tea to warm her up as she was beginning to shiver. Soon Duk helped Minji get settled under the covers and stood by her side until a doctor could arrive to check on her. 

While they waited, Minji spoke up rather nervously. "Unnie," The word was forced and sounded unnatural to her own ears. As an only child, the only sisters she had grown up around were Hajin and Gayoung. They were the same age as she was and she didn't call them unnie. She continued after a pause that felt eternal. "Who was that boy that brought me here? He says we know each other, but I have no idea who he is. Is he really a prince like he claims?" She wondered the last part aloud, though she had intended for it not to leave her lips.

"You really don't remember..." Soon Duk marveled at her sisters limitation now. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she began to explain, "Prince Wang Jung is the fourteenth prince of Goryeo--"

Minji stopped her with a gasp. "Wait, Goryeo? Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo? That Goryeo?"

If she remembered anything from her lessons in middle school, it was that the first king had been Taejo, and that he had united the three lands into what was known as Goryeo. That had happened over a thousand years in the past. 

Her sister laughed at was she saw as silliness and not genuine curiosity. "Yes, that Goryeo. Founded by his majesty King Taejo. Are you really not pretending that you don't know this?"

Minji quickly shook her head, eyes widened in shock at the information she had gotten. If this if Goryeo and Taejo is king, she thought to herself, then we must be anywhere between the years 918 to 943. It was only now that she no longer resented her teachers for making her learn information that she had once thought of as pointless. She raised her shaking hands and took a good look at them. There was nothing different about her hands. She slowly brought them up to touch her face, wondering if there was something different about her features or her body. Maybe it was the reason people kept calling her Hak Soon.

"Unnie," Minji cried out, reaching to take her sister's hands desperately in hers. "I don't know who I am anymore."

"Your name is Park Hak Soon." Soon Duk explained to her after a moment in which she got her to calm down. The same sentence over and over--that her name was Park Hak Soon. "You're my sister, and we live with our parents near the palace. Our father is the king's most trusted general, and our mother is a noble. We grew up around the princes, but you were always especially close with Jung-ah and his half sister Princess Yeon Hwa. You and Jung-ah learned martial arts together."

"And what about Hajin?" She asked, but she quickly corrected herself when she saw the look of utter confusion on her sister's face. "I mean--Lady Hae Soo--what about her? Are we friends too? I remember her perfectly."

Her sister crinkled up her nose at the unfamiliar name. "The girl that lives in Prince Wook's house? No, I don't think you two are friends. She never visits the palace and mostly stays with her cousin Lady Hae. She takes care of her because she's terribly ill--at least that's what I've heard." She hadn't met Hae Soo yet, but she had heard about her through Baek ah and Jung, who had told her Lady Hae's cousin was living with her and the eighth prince from a while back.

Their conversation was cut short as the doctor arrived right when Minji was going to ask where Prince Wook lived. Soon Duk explained the situation to him, which Jung had already told her about--that she had been submerged under water for a long time and when she resurfaced, she no longer remembered anything about herself. The doctor checked Minji and determined that she was perfectly healthy other than her failing memory. When Soon Duk asked if there was any reason why she couldn't remember anything, she was told that it was probably something momentary and that she would eventually slowly remember everything again.

Soon Duk thanked the doctor and led him out of the house after he instructed for Minji to get plenty of rest, and prescribed some herbs for her to drink in tea.  

Minji laid back in her bed as she exhaled in a sigh.

She needed to find a way to get out of her problem.

-

Jung returned to the palace within the hour, and his brothers were all back to their daily duties. The only one he found, out in the garden by himself, was his older brother Wang Eun. But he was always thought to be the youngest by outsiders and even members of the court because all of his brothers were much taller than him, and he had a more childish face and behavior than his other brothers.

He casually walked over to find him trying to catch a quail using a trap made out of a basket, some rope, and a stick. Jung smiled to himself as he noticed that the trap had been very badly set up and that there was no way his brother would be able to catch anything with it. The tenth prince was heavily concentrated, waiting for the right time to pull on the rope which would trigger the trap.

Instead, he was startled by his younger brother who always found it amusing to mess with him because he was taller. "What are you doing?" He practically shouted in Eun's ear, making his brother accidentally pull on the rope before he was supposed to. The small bird became just as started with the sudden movement as the tenth prince had been by his brother and it flew away. 

Eun's lips jutted out into a pout. "Jung-ah, you just ruined my chance of catching that bird!" The little prince complained in a childish tone.

Jung chuckled and plopped himself down beside his hyung who was about two years older than him. "What do you need a bird for, hyung?" He asked Eun, his words laced with amusement.

"Its not about the bird." Eun continued to complain, his cheeks puffed up in a tantrum. "Its about the catch. Its like a game."

"I know you love playing games, hyung." Jung nodded his head.

They were silent for a moment, until Eun changed the subject, his words full of curiosity. "Did you get that crazy girl out of the palace?" He asked the younger boy who was sitting next to him in the grass of the garden, surrounded by fragrant and multi colored roses. His tone was one of annoyance as he thought of Hak Soon. Jung opened his mouth to protest, but Eun continued with his complaints about the girl in the bath. "She attacked me twice. If she wasn't a friend of yours, I'd have asked the king to have her punished for not only spying on the princes, but for kicking me and pushing me into the pool."

Rather than siding with his brother, he felt another chuckle coming forward, only this time he stifled it by bringing a hand over his mouth. 

"You got beat up by a girl, hyung." Jung teased, earning him a glare and an elbow to the gut by his brother. The blow managed to push the air out of him and he said through his wheezing breaths, still amused. "This is why its very important to learn martial arts."

"I don't beat up girls." Eun pointed out.

"Please forgive Hak Soon, hyung." Jung said, his expression turning into a serious one, now that jokes had been put aside. "She was probably scared since she lost her memory and didn't remember who we were. But once she recovers, she'll be her old self again."

"I don't even remember that girl." Eun said with an uncaring sigh, accompanied by a shrug of his shoulders. "She was your friend, I barely had any contact with her. I was just surprised that she was acting so crazy and violent. And she kept going on about how her name wasn't Hak Soon. She said her name was Minji. What was all that about, nam dongsaeng?"

Jung thought back to earlier in the day when he saw her in the princes' private bath. He also remembered her mentioning that her name was Minji. But he figured that it was all in the confusion of her near death experience. "She must have heard the name somewhere and it was the only thing that stuck when she lost her memory." He reasoned was the only possible explanation. 

"Well just keep her far away from me." Eun said, shuddering to think he might have to see Park Hak Soon again.

"She doesn't care about you." Jung assured him as a way to make him feel better, but the words came out as sounding teasing and a bit harsh. "If I remember correctly, the one who has a crush on you in that family is her sister Soon Duk. She's always lurking around the palace, trying to get your attention. But you're so oblivious, hyung."

"I'm not interested in that right now." Eun replied, and added with a bright smile. "I just want to play and have fun."

Jung rolled his eyes playfully at him. "So childish."

But he admired his older brother for embracing what he liked, without caring what anyone thought. He was so playful and carefree, hardly concerning himself with matters of the palace. The only reason why Eun ever attended any of the special ceremonies was because they were forced by their father. But he would soon have to learn to grow up, since he was very close to turning eighteen, and princes were normally married off at eighteen. Especially the ones who were so far in the line of succession that they wouldn't even get a chance at the throne--as was the case for Eun, Jung, and Baek-ah. 

As the youngest of the brothers, their best hope was to marry a good wife from a good family, have kids, and live quietly, hoping that they would never be considered a threat to the crown. But Eun wasn't interested in the throne, nor was he interested in getting married. He was more concerned with having fun.

-

Minji was forced into bed rest for the entire rest of the day and her sister periodically came and went to check on how she was doing. Minji felt trapped in that bedroom, to say the least, and she missed the twenty first century luxuries that she had taken for granted. All she could do in her room was stare at a wall, or read a book, which was in Chinese. She only knew the basics of the language. There was no technology--no television, no cellphones, no social media for her to occupy her time on. 

She was left with so much time to think that eventually, she began to question her own sanity. Had she really traveled back in time? Or was this all her imagination? Perhaps she was asleep and she would soon wake up from it. Or maybe her life in the future had been the dream, and this was her real life. 

Maybe she really was Park Hak Soon. Maybe Minji was a part of her imagination.

When her sister arrived for a fourth time, this time bringing her some hot soup and herbal tea to calm her nerves, Minji desperately begged her to stay, as the silence between those four walls was too much for her to bear. She asked her sister to tell her about her life, and what she was like before her near death experience. She didn't know how long it would be before she could return to the present, and she thought that the sooner she could learn about her past life in Goryeo, the better. There was a chance she would need to adapt, and she wanted to do it quickly.

Her sister once more repeated the members of their family, and their names, which Minji was thankful for. This time she made sure to pay close attention. Soon Duk wracked her mind for other details. 

"You're fourteen years old." She informed her.

Minji's eyes widened in surprise. "Omo! Only fourteen?"

In her present life she was twenty one years old, but in Goryeo she was seven years younger.

"How old are you?" She asked her sister, still in shock over learning her own age.

"Sixteen." Soon Duk replied.

"And Jung-ah?" She asked another question. Even if she was in the past, she needed to know his age in order to give him the proper title when speaking to him.

"Fifteen." Her sister informed her. "He's older than you, but only by a couple of months."

"And prince Eun?" Minji continued with her set of questions in order to determine people's age.

Her sister's eyes lit up with a certain unmistakable sparkle. When she spoke, her tone was that of an enamored teenager, and that was exactly what she was. "Prince Eun oppa..." She started with a sigh, as a smile she couldn't contain formed on her lips. "He's seventeen years old, and he's the most handsome prince in all of Goryeo."

"If you say so." Minji muttered to herself. "He looked quite shrimpy and arrogant to me."

"What?" Her sister asked, not having caught what she said.

"Nothing." Minji assured her with a smile.

The two girls spent the rest of the night in Minji's room, with Soon Duk telling her sister all about Goryeo and her life as the general's daughter. By the end of the night, she and her past life sister had really connected, and she felt that she already cared for her.

-

yas a new update for my moon lovers fic, since i'm an impatient little shit. 

i want to take the time to thank you all for getting this story to 300+ reads! that is very exciting because there have only been three updates posted so it makes me happy to see the positive comments and votes everyone has been leaving. i hope you're all liking the story.

thank you again, and have a wonderful week!

-clary xx