TRUE LOVE

"What do you mean??We can't go to him?Why not!She is just a child!"
The guard looks on at us like we are maniacs that have to be spoken to in such a manner,I cry in frustration and my husband just pulls out his sword and slays the guard,I run behind him honestly not caring whether the guard lives or not.
"Her fever won't stop and her color....Jun....."
"I know,if we die here so be it but Soo-A should have a chance,King Gojong may be a king but a doctor is a doctor....."
Jun takes Soo-A from my arms and covers her head with a small scarf of his and I watch his gentle manner with her,watch him navigate this lively city like a lost and afraid animal.
Just like me.

Our whole lives have been spent in the woods,I as a child born under the wrong tree in the hottest day of the driest year was said to my parents to be an omen but my parents would think not so of me and they were killed for it.
Jun was also born under an eclipse during a rainstorm that lasted thirty days,he has a birth mark of a half rising sun and a falling moon over his heart that led him to be seen as an omen too.

People died strange deaths since his birth in his village and they would not blame anyone or anything save him leaving him to be beaten to near death,left to the dogs.

That is how we met.

I recall that moment briefly before I am grasped and pulled hard by the waist,I let out a muffled scream and Jun turns to me while little Soo-A cries against his chest,I try to wave him away to run and he tries though I think a part of him dies doing so yet in that moment the man who grabbed me releases and grabs him as well.

"Where are we?Li-Jo?!"
Jun calls for me and tries to crawl towards me,I weakly manage to near him a little,my eyes search frantically for Soo-A but he only shakes his head.
"She can live you know.But at a price."

We shake our heads and try to reach her,she is in this mans arms she isn't even crying now but she is bound up so tight in pain like a little ball.
No,no,no,no
"What do you want!?"Jun cries,staring after our daughter that the man holds like it were his.
I barely notice that we are in a small almost lightless room save one candle,that seems very fine,almost royal.
He looks like a royal guard to the king.

The guard kneels to us,we try to get closer to Soo-A but fail and slide down,Jun tries to fight with his legs but the man laughs and evades his kicks.

"DO YOU WANT ME TO DROP AND CRUSH THIS DEPARTING SOUL?!!!"
The force of his shout is almost unreal,I try to soothe the anger from Jun with a silent plea that barely retrains him.

"If you both agree to this,she will live on happily in every lifetime you get to live,this is no reincarnation,no deal with a supernatural anything.This is a deal to live and deal with a hundred cruel fates of a hundred souls that were either just or unjust in having them.That doesn't matter.If you want her to have a life to live you both must live,suffer,die and repeat until this sash I hold becomes multi colored and long.So.....Yes or no."

I watch my parents,young and barely alive from malnurishment stare at the guard hard,I see me in that guards arms,the same one from before.
I see us in a time frame ancient to me,the Goryeo period judging by the appearance of the guard and the kings name.

I see them say yes.
I see them both after a thought not even spoken,after looking up to pray to GOD as they always had and they say yes.

"What did you suffer for me??"