Author's notes

Yes, I thought I'd dedicate a chapter to Siwon, too.At least we will understand how it is really made and that it is, in fact a... Well, it's up to you to find out by reading. And I also take this opportunity to thank all of you who are reading the fanfiction. ❤

_____________________

Siwon PoV

I had no idea to give up. If that creature had killed me, welcome.

I had done a great injustice to the one person dear to me, making his the slave of such a treacherous and heartless person.

After being thrown out without moving a single muscle, my head began to devise a way to free he from the hands of that merchant.

I had discovered the ransom from the family, but I had not dared to tell them that, behind all this, really was also my help.

«I made the mistake and I have to fix it.» I began to walk along the streets of the village, regardless of the looks of the people watching me because of the wounds I had on my face.

I had to fix it, and I knew who could help me right now.

________________________________

I found myself in front of the big gate of the mansion. I only set foot once, only to leave the shoes that Changmin had repaired to the owner and I had not returned.

The slave trader revealed to me where Changmin was and, thanks also to his family, I understood that Min was not a slave of that man. He was treated with kindness and protected and he had also been given reading and writing instruction, which Min had always wanted, but could not finish, remaining illiterate to provide for his family.

I laid my hands on that cold iron, making myself visible to some guards of the house who were watching at that hour.

«Who are you? What do you want?» I remembered their faces well. They were the same ones who opened the gates for me when I came to deliver their master's shoes.

«I am the shoemaker of the village. Please open the gates. I have an urgent message for your lord.»

The two men looked at each other and approached each other without opening.

«And what would you urgently need to ask, shoemaker? Didn't they pay you enough?» They noticed that I had nothing to deliver and that I was also badly put on.

«It's not what you think, but please open these gates.»

«I don't think we can settle for that. Go away and do not disturb our lord.»

«But I just told you I have an urgent message to report to him!»

Out of anger, I shaken the irons, advancing the two guards with their sticks. I was a fairly calm person, but when there was something important or serious in between, all my self-control disappeared.

«If you do not leave the gates and do not disappear, we will arrest you for insistence and damage to the good-» the guard who was talking interrupted, hearing the voice of someone who approached the gates, someone who had a higher position than them.

«What are you doing? This man is here by order of the Master. Let him in.»

Those words were uttered by a well-kept and well-fed boy in a rather shabby robe, but who had something extra to stop the two men.

«Do you think? We hadn't heard that anyone was coming.»

«Not everything runs in the house, I remind you. Now let him in.»

The two men said no more, just opened the gates and let me in.

I didn't know that guy, but he was probably sent by someone really tall for letting me in with that lie. His face was a little chubby and his eyes big, and from the way he was dressed, I could imagine that maybe he was a slave or one of the servants of that big house.

«Follow me. The Master awaits you.»

He didn't even give me a chance to say thank you to him that he turned around and invited me to follow him, walking in front of me to show me the way.

I followed him, looking at the two men who had even stopped looking at me with their superior gaze.

The boy in front of me continued to walk without stopping, climbing the few steps that separated the door from the garden that we had walked. Only once he had arrived at the door and his hand resting on the knob, did he turn in my direction, while I was climbing just the last two steps to reach him.

«You should get that lip medicated first. You risk inflating it afterwards, and Changmin wouldn't forgive himself.»

«Do you know about Changmin? Do you know him?» I asked, continuing to look at that boy in front of me, that he was evidently the same age as Changmin by his build and his jovial skin.

«He's my friend. And I can tell you're Siwon, right?» He mentioned a small smile as he nodded and it was then that he opened the door, entering the entrance that I already knew.

I started with him up to a staircase leading to the cellars, but they were not the cellars, but the lodgings of the slaves of that house and the servants. It was a long corridor, with some doors on the right and left. At least, in that place, there was a nice warm and some rooms had beds and not straw where I slept.

«Get in here. I'm gonna get some water and ointment. The Master will be home in a few moments, since he went to talk to the Mistress.» he said, opening a door that revealed behind a room with a bed, a closet and a desk where there were some sheets stored in an orderly manner.

«Thank you, but... Would I be rude if I asked you for your name, since you already know mine?» I asked, once in and turning towards him, still near the door and outside the room.

«Go ahead and you can call me by my name, hyung. My name is Khyuhyun.»

«Khyuhyun...»

I repeated, noting that the name had a sweet melody just by pronouncing it.

«Nae. And now I'm gonna go get things. You can sit down on the bed. I'll be right back.» Khyhyhyun closed the door behind him, after smiling at me and I found myself alone in that small but tidy room. I began to observe myself around, thinking that the slaves of this house did not live so badly, except to have freedom denied and to have to work and serve their master in every way, but on the fact of board and lodging, they had that little extra comfort denied us.

I walked around that room and noticed a small window at the top of the corner showing the garden. It was rectangular and small, just to get some light and air in. My steps took me to my desk and he couldn't help but look at the sheets that were placed on its surface.

Intrigued, I moved some of these and noticed some drawings that left me speechless no matter how realistic they were. Some of them depicted nature and servants at work in the house, while two represented Changmin alone and then in the company of a man, the gentleman to whom I had delivered the shoes.

So he was Yunho.

In that drawing I perceived in the eyes of Changmin and in those of man a light that Khyhyun had managed to capture and bring back on that white sheet of paper.

A light that smelled of love and pure desire.

«But... What... What are you doing?»

I was so immersed in the drawing that I didn't realize that the owner of that room had returned with a small bowl of water in one hand and in the other a small salve for the wounds. He looked at me with his eyes surprised at my rude gesture and I had to put the sheet back in place and move his hand quickly.

«Forgive me, I noticed something and...»

«You were curious enough to look at all my drawings, huh?» He concluded, closing the door and approaching the bed, where he sat down and told me to take his place at his side.

I sighed with a little embarrassment and approached me to sit next to him and look at him, letting him start to clean and medicate my face and lip.

«You went to the slave trader, didn't you?» he asked, breaking the silence and gently patting a damp fairy tale in the corner of my lips. His touches were very delicate, similar to those of my mother when, as a child, he would doctor me every time I fell and come home with some peeled knee or split lip for fights with other children.

«Nae... I heard Changmin was there and...»

«And you were thinking of releasing him like that? Jaejoong never lets anyone get away that easily. It's already a miracle that he let you go and didn't keep you with him and sell you as a slave. It was also so petty as to... Use Changmin's family to get him out of here, just when the owner was on a business trip.»

I looked at him and saw his glossy look of who was about to cry.

«I don't even know how Jaejoong found out where his family lived... That filthy...»

I felt a grip on his stomach at my words, but I remained silent, preparing myself for the ointment he had taken in hand.

«The guilt... It's just me...»

The bad sense told me to keep quiet, but the good sense advised me to say so. Anyway, Khyhyun would have found out when I told Yunho.

The boy stopped, holding his hand in mid-air with that little ointment on his index finger, but then he moved and began to pass gently that cream on my wound washed and cleaned.

«So you betrayed him? And what did the slave trader give you in return?»

«I have not betrayed him.»

I held his hand by the wrist and looked into his eyes furiously. I don't seem afraid, but he supported my gaze with his deep brown eyes.

«The scoundrel lied and said he'd free him and bring him home. That he was sick and had to talk to his family. He tricked me, Khyhyun.»

And it was true.

He had deceived all of us to get to him at that moment without the protection of his master.

Khyuhyun continued to scrutinize me with her eyes, finally shifting her gaze to my hand and I left my grip, shifting her gaze elsewhere. His fingers came back to medicate my lips again and he began to speak softly.

«From the way you said it, I just have to believe you. Is that what you're here to tell the master? You know he won't be lenient...»

«I'm ready for that too, to pay for my mistake for my stupidity. I just want someone to release it... And I have no one but this master of yours.» I had to admit, clenching my hands in fists.

He finished his medicine and moved the bowl and the ointment to the ground, freeing his legs from that weight.

«I hope you don't find me punishing you, even if... I doubt that. You came on your own and didn't do it on purpose. The master is not like his mother, although I begin to think that there is also the hand of my Mistress in the middle.» he took on a thoughtful air and looked at the water with the blood-stained handkerchief floating on its surface, as I returned to observe it.

«How can you say that?»

«She never loved Changmin's presence here. I think she was afraid that the master would fall in love with him... But it happened and she can't do anything about it anymore. At least... That's what I think.»

He moved his eyes to the table, standing up to retrieve the drawing of Changmin and Yunho.

«She is very different from her son...»

«You are by chance... Her...»

«Nae, I am her personal slave. Before I came here, I had also been to the slave trader, to Jaejoong... He humiliated me and made me what he wanted until I was bought by this family. But I can't complain... I'm not coming here...»

He stopped, bit his lip and figured out what he was referring to. I stood up, reaching him and wrapping my arms around his body, in a silent embrace so that he could let off steam.

«Don't think about it...» the event of the past, mixed with that of the present, must have given him a bad blow and, as it was, must have been a very sensitive person.

He took refuge in my arms, holding the drawing with one hand and sobbing with his face resting on my chest.

«If he was doing the same to Changmin... I... I...»

«Hey... It's not going to happen. I came here first to ask for help, and we're gonna get him out of there. We have to.»

I tried to calm him down with those words, but I wasn't so sure either. During that time, that bastard could do anything he wanted with Min, but I didn't want to think about it and I had to be strong.

Strong also to be able to face and talk with Yunho and find with him a way to get Changmin out of that lair.

Khyuhyun moved, pulling it up with her nose and drying it with the sleeve of his robe.

«You're right... Excuse me...» he whispered, turning around to lay that sheet on others and trying to calm down. He probably hadn't been able to vent out on someone and that was when he let himself go.

«You know... That you're good at drawing? You should try to portray something of our village. I think it's gonna stay in history forever.» I began to say, to distract that young boy from his thoughts.

«Do you think...? I couldn't get out of here... But I wish I could put on paper those moments when I can go to the market.»

«Why don't you try it? Not necessarily... Maybe one day I can take you to a place where you can draw peacefully...»

I said without thinking about it, finding her look on my face and that slight redness appearing on her cheeks.

«I would like to believe it...»

«And it will be so... If I ask your master.»

I knew that he corresponded to the mistress, but I wanted to give him that hope and I also really wanted to take him out of there and let him draw that corner of my village never visited.

«Do you promise me...?» he whispered, his eyes still on my face and that sound produced by the nose that he pulled up.

«I promise you, Khyuhyun. After all this, I promise to take you to draw that corner of the village.»

And from that promise that my mind began to imagine, a frame of me, him and Changmin along with Yunho in one of those sheets.