He just sat there on the ground beside her as she cried in her knees.

She wished he would go away, because she hated that she was in such a state in front of him, but he seemed unwilling to leave her alone, and so she just let herself cry, taking full advantage of the handkerchief he had given her.

“So, what kind of novels do you like?” the young man asked after she stopped crying many minutes later. It was an obvious attempt to lighten the mood now between them.

She didn’t answer him.

“I like history books,” he told her. “Philosophy too, but I like history more. I was just reading a fascinating book about the history of China. Did you know that women in China break their feet because they think it makes them beautiful?”

“No,” she replied, “I didn’t know.”

Wonwoo seemed happy that she replied, and so continued: “yes! They do. And there are many other things different women from around the world do to be beautiful. In some tribes in Africa, women put rings in their necks so that it becomes longer. In Arabia, they put this black power around their eyes. Here in Solen, we make women wear dresses that makes it difficult for them breathe.”

Yewon smiled at that. He was clearly referencing the fact that she was not wearing one of those cursed dresses. “What about in Galacia? Have you read about that?” she asked.

“Of course,” the man replied. “In Galacia, it’s about modesty. The more a woman covers of her body, the more beautiful she is. Am I right?”

She nodded, “you are.”

“I read a lot about Galacia. I want it to visit it one day; maybe when things calm down.”

“Take me with you if you ever go,” Yewon replied, feeling herself want to cry again.

“Of course princess,” he told her. “I know that you miss your home. Is that why you’re sad?”

“No,” she told him. “I’m sad because your prince is cruel.”

She didn’t really think about how she just insulted the Prince of Solen to a Solenese scholar. She didn’t care either. She wanted to insult Seungcheol; she wanted someone to hear her and to agree with her.

“He’s not a bad person, princess…”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” Yewon replied. “I hate him, and I don’t want to hear anyone defend him.”

The man nodded in understanding. “My name is Wonwoo, by the way,” he told her.

She bowed her head to him to greet him, realizing in that moment that it was no longer a habit for her to greet people by putting her hand on her heart. It was sad to think she was losing this part of her culture already, so soon into the marriage.

“Are you a scholar?” she asked him.

“I’m not old enough to be a scholar,” Wonwoo said with a shrug, “but I’m working towards it.”

“Are you a knight, or an executive, or a servant, or a royal or…”

“None of the above,” Wonwoo replied chuckling.

“Then what are you?”

“I don’t want to say.”

“Why not?”

“If you knew what I was, you’d understand why not…”

“So will I ever know?”

“You’ll find out eventually,” Wonwoo replied with a smile. “But for now, I would like to just speak to you anonymously, if that’s okay?”

Yewon nodded her head, but she was more curious than ever.

“So, what kind of novels do you like?” he asked her again.

And so, they had a long conversation about books, and Yewon found herself forgetting how Seungcheol had humiliated her. Wonwoo told her about the histories he has read, and she told him that she liked to read romance (leaving out the a part, of course). Wonwoo then took her to the novel section again, when she scanned the spines for titles that seemed like romance novels.

She ended up with a large pile she found herself eager to read. Some of them were clearly novels, but she shamelessly put them in the pile anyways, a pile that Wonwoo was watching with interest.

“Wow, you really do love to read, don’t you?” he asked, when he saw the pile she had made.

“I do,” she said.

“You can take a couple with you now. I’ll bring the rest to your room tomorrow,” he told her.

She nodded and thanked him.

“So you read sensual things?” he asked her curiously as he inspected her books.

She did not know how she found it so extremely easy to admit that to this stranger. But she admitted with a nod of her head, exposing one of her biggest secrets so easily to a man who refused to reveal his identity to her.

Perhaps she was stupid for doing it, but she just felt so comfortable around this person, and she just instinctively knew that he would not use it against her.

“I read it too sometimes,” he admitted as well. “But not in novels. I read it in memoirs, and I enjoy it. Perhaps memoir a would not be as enjoyable to women though…”

Yewon found it amazing how lightly he took it, and how readily he also admitted to reading this taboo literature. She loved how nonjudgmental he was about it, and how open he was to talking about it. She had never really met anyone like that before.

He told her about one memoir he particularly enjoyed, in which the man writing it met a woman from a tribe in Siberia. They did not share a language and so had no way to communicate, but there was an attraction that both of them felt, an attraction that manifested very well in the the author wrote out with much detail.

“It was very well-written,” Wonwoo told her. “I would recommend it, but it is written from a man’s perspective…”

“I don’t mind. I would like to read it.”

Wonwoo found the memoir for her, and added it to the pile she wanted to take to her room.

“Wow, I can’t believe I just recommended and memoir to the future Queen of Solen,” Wonwoo said, laughing. “Please don’t banish me when you become Queen.”

“I won’t," she laughed, "as long as you don’t tell people that I read things like this…”

“Of course I won’t,” Wonwoo reassured. “It will be our little secret.”

-

She took two books with her: one of the novels and the memoir that Wonwoo had recommended. She had never read a memoir before, but she was eager to read his recommendation; she was eager to have something to talk about with him.

She had even made sure to take the handkerchief­ he had offered her so she would have an excuse to visit him again.

He was fascinating to her, a mysterious young man who seemed to live in the library, who somehow made her feel warm inside. She wondered who he was, and why he was so afraid to reveal it to her (but was not afraid to reveal that he read memoirs). She also wondered why he was so familiar to her.

She wondered why the anger, despair and humiliation from earlier that day because of Seungcheol and Sungyeon had just been made so much more bearable by her conversation with him.

She started reading the memoir he recommended as soon as she was back in her room. She laid her back against the chair, careful not to exert so much pressure on the bruises that Sungyeon had etched onto her back. After finding a relatively more comfortable position, she began to read.

It was a thick book, and it was the memoir of a man who goes through the chilled forests of Siberia and takes account of the various different tribes that he comes across there.

Although she had been eager to just get to the a, she found that she became more interested in other things in the memoir. It was so well-written, and it so accurately portrayed how it feels to be to isolated in a foreign place. She was moved but how poignantly he portrayed the loneliness he felt among these people, who viewed him as complete outsider, and in many cases, an enemy.

She could relate to it on a personal level, and it was so reassuring to know that she was not the only one in the world who had experienced this kind of isolation.

And the a was much different than she was used to, but she loved it nonetheless. It was so perfectly written in the context of his isolation, like the was not really about , rather about union with the foreign place that was so other than him, embodied by the Siberian woman with whom he did it.

It was like poetry, not a. poetry.

After she finished reading it, she wished that by coincidence Seungcheol would walk in for the consummation; she was now more ready that she would ever be.

But of course instead, the kitchen boy walked in with the box and the little letter instead. Yewon immediately knew that is was the Galacian bread.

He bowed to her and handed her the box. She took it from him, and glanced at the note. It was the exact same note: “To my princess, from S.”

“Who sends these?” Yewon asked the kitchen boy.

“It has the royal seal, so someone who has access to that seal,” he replied.

“And who has access to it?”

“The royal family. The King, the Queen, their children. It could be the Kings’ brothers. But it’s probably your husband, your highness. It’s signed with an S.”

But it couldn’t be Seungcheol, thought Yewon. Seungcheol despised her and anything to do with Galacia. He made that so apparent today. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that it was Seungcheol who sent them to her; he was not that sympathetic.

“Who gives it to you to deliver?”

“The head butler.”

“Who bakes it?” she asked curiously.

“The bread? I don’t know, your highness,” the boy replied to her.

“Can you find out?”

“I’m just a servant your highness; I can’t ask details about what I’m told to deliver,” the boy replied.

Yewon nodded her head and dismissed him. He bowed to her, and just as he was about to leave, he stopped at the door and said: “you look very beautiful in that dress, princess.” He left before she had a chance to reply.

She looked at her dress and noted that she was still wearing the Galacian dress, which led her to remember Seungcheol and his unjust reproach.

Sungyeon would walk in any minute that day for the afternoon change, and Yewon could not bear to let that person touch her anymore. She could not imagine wearing a Solenese tight dress given the condition of her back either. She didn’t know what she would do…

-

Thankfully, Sungyeon did not show up at all that day, and Yewon started to wonder whether or not Seungcheol dismissed her after all.

No one called her to go the royal meals or anything else, and so she remained in her room, reading the memoir that Wonwoo had recommended.

When she tired of the memoir, she started the novel.

She had always used to imagine Jisoo as the male protagonist when she read novels of this nature. But things have changed, and Jisoo no longer occupied her thoughts as before. It was not his face that she saw in the male protagonist; it was the face of the handsome young man in the library who leant her his handkerchief.

A/N: I think there will be regular upload schedule for this story: roughly every Thursday and Sunday. I might be late or early and I might post on other days too, but I will stick to trying to update twice a week :) Thanks for all your support~