She ran towards the man and from behind bumped into him "Aish…you stupid bitch" the man said, he turned around and walked away.
Jin-Ri just grinned as she weighed the money bag in her hand "This is heavier than the previous ones combined" She happened to glance at the full moon and thought she had enough fun for a night and needed to go back and rest. Like before, she skipped and hummed while she made her way out of the complex. On her way to the gates, she chanced at the last man she stole money from, he was frantically searching his pockets and the area around him for his money bag. She just grinned, when a man in shabby clothes bumped into her. "Watch it jerk!" she said with a raised voice.
As she prepared to depart, she suddenly heard the man shouting, "I found it, I found my money!" Jin-Ri's eyes widened, and she felt her pockets, only to find them empty. As she glanced around, she spotted the man in tattered clothes vaulting over the wall of the complex. She pursued the man, but when she came face to face with the wall, she realized she couldn't jump over it the same way the man did. She looked around her and found some empty crates, she stacked two crates one on top of another beside the wall, and used it to climb over.
After she jumped the wall, she was at the back of the complex and the streets were empty. Scanning the vacant space, she caught a fleeting glimpse of a shadow vanishing into the corner. She hurriedly ran towards the shadow's direction, but the moment she turned the corner, she was greeted by a crossroad. She looked to the left and right then straight ahead, she cussed as there were no signs of where her target went.
She suddenly heard a woman scream coming from the left of the crossroad. "Aish…my money!" she said with a disgruntled voice before running towards where the screaming was coming from.
After following the direction of the scream, she ended up in the run-down part of the capital, known for the numerous beggars and where the poorest of the poor lived. She heard the woman scream again and saw at the far side of the area a woman running after the same man she was chasing "You despicable goblin…stealing from a woman. I'll teach you a lesson" she murmured while running after her quarry.
Jin-Ri quickened her pace upon noticing the man starting to pull away. She quickly overtook the distraught woman who was also chasing after the man.
After running for a while, Jin-Ri started to feel tired she stopped to catch her breath "Stupid goblin! Are you a runner?" she shouted in the direction where the man went. She looked around and realized she was near their rented hut and knew the place. "The village well…he's going to pass by the well!" She then turned to a street on her right and ran to a shortcut towards the well.
Upon arriving at the village water source, her guess paid off when she saw the man. To her, it looked like the man was roughing up a crying girl. It was the same girl who sold her the talisman just hours before.
Jin-Ri wanting to save the little girl wasted no time, she dashed toward the man, grabbed a clay pot by the water well, and smashed it on the man's head. The unknown man loosened his grip on the girl, dropped to his knees, and fell face first on the ground.
The little girl screamed after witnessing what happened "It's okay it's okay little girl, you're safe now, I've taken care of the bad man" She said to the little girl as she held her gently by the shoulders.
"No, you don't understand," the girl said as she struggled to break free from Jin-Ri
Confused she asked the girl "What don't I understand?"
"He wasn't trying to harm me…he saved me from being kidnapped" the little girl finally explained
"Wait, what? He did what?" Jin-Ri exclaimed in a high-pitched voice,
Jin-Ri and the little girl turned their heads toward the back when they heard a woman suddenly yell "What have you done?" It was the woman who was running after the man.
"Mama" The little girl cried, running towards the woman who was her mother.
"You're her mother? So you were not running after this guy? You were running with him to save your daughter?" Jin-Ri inquired, her squeaky voice persisting
"Yes! What would make you think that I was running after him?" the woman asked with an irritated tone and disposition.
"Well uhm…you see he stole the money that…I uhm found. When I heard you scream…uhm I thought he robbed you too" Jin-Ri explained stuttering
"You mean this? He gave it to us just before some guy grabbed my daughter and ran!" The woman exclaimed showing her the five money bags in her pocket. "Help me turn him over, you better pray he is not dead!"
Jin-Ri immediately kneeled beside the man turned him over and cradled the unconscious man, she removed the scarf covering the man's face so that he could breathe easily. Once the scarf was removed, she saw the man's handsome features making her let out a tiny gasp. After seeing the man's face a sense of familiarity crept over her "He looks familiar"
"Oh my lord" the woman gasped her hands flying to her mouth "That's the prince! That's Prince Kim Young-Sik!"
"The prince? Oh my gosh, he's dreamy! I'm so glad I gave him a little whack on the back of the head," Jin-Ri blurted out, oblivious to the gravity of the situation.
"Wait, you're happy about that?" the girl's mother gasped, clearly taken aback. "Aren't you worried you might have just sent the prince to an early grave?"
"Oh my goodness! Why didn't you tell me?" Jin-Ri asked the girl. Her heart was pounding like a drum. She instinctively placed her hands by the prince's nostrils, desperate to sense any sign of life. Then, she moved to his chest, her fingers trembling as they searched for movement. She exhaled in immense relief as she felt the gentle rise and fall of his chest – he was alive!
Jin-Ri let out a piercing scream when Young-Sik unexpectedly grabbed her arm. As she looked at him in shock, he weakly asked, "What's going on? Who are you?" When Young-Sik saw Jin-Ri's uhm…average face he too screamed from shock "WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Startled and panicked, Jin-Ri began to hit Young-Sik in a frenzy. "Let me go! Let me go!" she cried out.
"Stop hitting the prince!" the woman scolded Jin-Ri.
"I want to, but he won't let go of me!" Jin-Ri's voice trembled in the night. She grabbed a nearby pot and raised it threateningly.
"Oh no!" Young-Sik gasped as the pot inched closer to his face.
Perplexed, the woman questioned Jin-Ri, "Why did you hit him again?"
"I don't know! He screamed, I got scared me, he won't let go!" Jin-Ri explained.
The three of them heard whistling from a distance "Soldiers!" The woman exclaimed, she carried her daughter and quickly ran away from the scene.
Bewildered at the woman who ran and left her, Jin-Ri looked at the prince and said "Sorry!" she then shoved the prince off her lap and ran away.Because of the adrenaline rush, she was able to scale walls that she would normally have trouble climbing.
She raced on, leaping over walls and fences with determination, until she at last arrived at their simple, cozy hut.. She didn't even bother to remove her sandals when she entered the room. Slamming the door she woke up Yeng.
"What the heck are you doing?" She then observed her friend wheezing and visibly nervous "Hey what's going on? Are you in trouble?"
"Yeng…I did something terrible, I'm afraid to tell you because you might kill me!" she said in between breaths and gasps
"What did you do?" Yeng asked in a stern voice
"I don't wanna tell you, you might kill me" Jin-Ri replied while shaking her head
"Okay calm down, if you tell me what it is, I promise I won't kill you," Yeng said sincerely albeit with an exasperated tone
"Promise?" Jin-Ri nervously asked, to which Yeng raised her right hand, nodded, and drew a cross over her chest. "I smashed a big pot over the prince's head" She then cringed in her little corner, like she was waiting for Yeng to hit her
"You did what?" Yeng asked in a dead-pan voice
"But he's alive don't worry, He came to eventually" Jin-Ri responded with a smile, still cringing in her little corner of the room.
Yeng placed her hands dramatically on his chest, her eyes wide with relief. "Oh my gosh! I thought you had actually killed the prince! What a relief!"
Jin-Ri chimed in, her voice high-pitched with excitement. "Then he screamed, grabbed my arm, and I smashed another pot right on his face!"
Caught in a moment of pure panic, Yeng began desperately pulling at her hair. "Oh no…we're totally doomed! The stress is causing my skin to wrinkle" She flopped back onto the bed, pulling the blanket over her head. "Nope, this is just a nightmare. I'm back in Yangge village, snoozing away, and when I wake up, all of this will vanish!"
Jin-Ri started to poke at the blanket-covered Yeng. "Yeng? This is not a nightmare it happened" she said, her voice still squeaky.
Without warning, Yeng suddenly sat up the blanket slid down from her face, showing her ruffled hair and red eyes from being robbed of her sleep. She stood up and took Jin-Ri by the hand "Common, you're taking me there" she ordered Jin-Ri.
"Take you where?" she asked Yeng, feigning not knowing what Yeng was asking her to do
"To where you most likely killed the prince! If he is still there, we better dispose of him before anyone else discovers him!" Yeng declared with a voice determined to save their jobs from failure.