18. Meeting him for the first time

A knock on the gate door could be heard and she slowly opened and saw a good looking young man in front of her gates. With complete disinterest, she stared at him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Her voice was neither friendly or unfriendly. Just calm and emotionless.

He bowed politely. "I'm sorry to disturb. My name is Minho Kang. I'm Elder Kang's son. I just came last night and heard what happened. Please forgive us for not being able to give you the safety you deserve. I'm going to stay now here and you can be completely sure that we will help you."

He looked around and saw no people and sighed in relief. "I heard you ordered a lot of rice. I'll buy off the rice from you..." He saw her scowling. "Wait, let me explain, please. You will have enough rice. The point is not to have too much. Save as much money as you can."

Then he stepped closer and whispered. "The neighbourhood is becoming heated. We might have to run. I'll let you know on time. Rice... I'll buy it off so you can have enough money with you. Prepare simple clothes. Try gathering enough into paper bills that you can sew into inner clothes or sash. I will ask the mother to give you one of her wooden praying beads necklaces. Inside each bead, you can hide bits of silver. What else..."

He contemplated what kind of thing he can give her while standing close to her, very close.

Actually, since the moment she saw him her heart felt stirred, but seeing his face so near herself made her extremely flustered. She didn't know should she step back and close the door or should she continue staring at him with widely open eyes.

Suddenly he realized that he was too close so he stepped back, flustered as well. Kang Minho coughed a few times and tried not to look straight at her again. While regaining composure his neck and ears were visibly quite red. She noticed it but didn't mention it as she felt shy as well.

"Anyway, please don't buy too many things. And have always ready a bag in case we need to escape. The tribes are not bad people. We can always go to them. But Empire..." His face was visibly worried making even Mina go uneasy. ''Those are barbarians in wartime.''

"I will do as you say, but I will still buy that rice. Even if we try to escape it won't matter in what house the rice is, if they try to ransack it. And I bet they won't look trough mine as much. Except that, I have an idea. Your mother told me that your family will help me move my outer walls. We can make unsuspicious cellar." Her idea was simple.

He thought about it. They could do that for themselves as well. Hiding stuff in place no one would think off...

With a deep bow, he nodded. "Thank you for your idea. We already have a cellar, but to make one that no one would think off..."

Mina saw from afar group of people coming towards her house. "We will talk about it some other time. I will come to Elder Kang in a few days. Can you find me, someone, to help out with restructure?"

She was not shy to ask for help. Even tho Elder Kang said they will do that, she didn't take those words too seriously.Looking at her expression getting more serious as she stared at a group of approaching people his face darkened. "These people..."

"I gave them a chance to repay their debts. You probably think I'm naive and foolish, but I don't care. Making them do things that I found too hard is that really foolish?" She smirked as she saw all three of them getting flustered as they saw Minho.

He was a good looking young man. His wide shoulders, full hair, a masculine facial expression made him look quite attractive, even for such small girls like them.

Then she remembered that they get married early in these regions so her face just became completely cold. "Did you bring it?"

With shy faces, they showed their full bags with Salkmo that was throughout washed.

Mina opened her gate bit more and pointed at the cut cloth that she waved in as mat. "Put it on it and for today is enough. Go home now."

She then just went to the door and waited for them to leave. But seeing their reluctance as they looked at Minho, she just shrugged and bowed to him. He understood why and just bowed back, turned around and walked back towards the village.

The girls heard the gate close behind them while their mother looked at them and then at his back. Young master Kang...

Mina didn't care about their ideas. What she cared was that next day it will be more meat for herself. And soon chicken and piglets she wanted to raise will arrive as well.

Taking out the few paper notes she sighed in relief. At least this he didn't find, but the strange thing was the confidence that boy had. Like nothing would happen to him. Is there something or someone who made him do that, and actually why?

With a shake of her head, she threw those ideas out her head and just started cutting Salkmo into thin slices. She wanted to dry it as the weather was perfect for it.

The day was actually beautiful. The sunshine passed through the leaves of the nearby tree and fell onto her bare feet. Not many knew that her feet were actually quite small with pink nails and a beautiful small mole that looked like a flower was near her ankle.

As she waved her feet and hummed one of the songs her mother taught her, a pair of eyes locked onto her and stared greedily at those two feet...