Yewon had long wondered how it would feel to feel to have someone else’s lips against hers. Her novels had made it seem like magic, and for a moment with Seungcheol, that’s exactly what it felt like.

It was hard to think when her heart was beating so fast. She was not used to having someone so close to her, someone holding her face like he now held hers. He kissed her once, twice, three times, softly and without pause, before pulling her closer and deepening the kiss.

Had it not been for another knock on the door, perhaps things would have escalated, but Seungcheol had to let go of her lips in order tell the kitchen boy to come in.

Seungcheol was still so close to her, even when the boy entered. The boy couldn’t see them when he came through the door, for they were behind a wall, but he could hear when Seungcheol asked him to place the cup of tea on the table.

“Do you want anything else, your highness?” the boy asked.

“No, you are dismissed,” Seungcheol said. The kitchen boy left, and Yewon felt like she wanted to leave as well.

When she heard the door close, she stepped away from Seungcheol shyly, madly blushing and her heart beating out of control.

“Tomorrow night, then?” Seungcheol asked her, and Yewon immediately understood that he was referring to the appointment for their consummation.

“Yes,” she said meekly. “Tomorrow.”

She left without saying another word, eager to get her thoughts organized and to calm herself after he kissed her. She did not expect that from him at all.

As she walked back to her room, she passed by the kitchen boy, who called out to her and stopped her.

“Your highness,” he called to her, “I was just coming to deliver this to you…”

It was the box with the bread, the sealed letter on top of it. She took it from him and held against her chest, feeling the warm wax of the seal under her trembling fingertips. She rushed back into her room, still in a daze with what had happened.

It made no sense to her. A kiss was meant to represent love and affection, and Seungcheol had shown anything but love and affection towards her before. Maybe she would have understood had it been in the context of consummation, but it wasn’t. It was a kiss, and a sweet one at that. One that was preceded by gentle caresses and loving eye contact. And it made absolutely no sense to her.

Maybe it is Seungcheol who sends the boxes after all? Maybe their relationship had not been completely devoid of passion?

It drove her crazy that he was so hard to read, so hard to understand, so contradictory.

And what was even more confusing to her was how it made her feel; she was hopelessly excited by it. It gave her the thrill of her life to be kissed by him, to be in his arms like that so randomly. It was a romance novel scene coming to life.

“To my princess. From S,” she read the note on top of the box she held.

Who else could it possibly be? She thought, wishfully. There was no other S in the royal family…

Oh.

But there was another S, and Yewon could not believe she had not realized it earlier.

Soonyoung?

-

The following breakfast, she was eager to see Soonyoung, and nervous to see Seungcheol.

She was almost certain that it was Soonyoung who sent the bread. He seemed generally kind, and he also knew things about Galacian culture. She recalled how he had recognized the Galacian greeting when she accidentally hailed him when she first met him.

She also knew he was a romantic person in general, and so sending sweet things with a cryptic signature seemed like something he would do.

He was the first one at the table, and when she joined him, she immediately asked the question: “is it you who sends the bread?”

Her raised an eyebrow at her, “the bread?”

But she was so certain that it was him. He must be acting just so that he could continue his “mysterious” and misplaced “romantic” gesture.

“Just tell me if it’s you, please,” Yewon begged him.

He narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head: “I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Yewon felt defeated in that moment. She had been so sure it was him, but he denied it, and he seemed to be telling the truth.

Yulhee then walked in and began ranting about how hot it is in the castle and how much she hates smelling her guards’ odor when they sweat. Neither Soonyoung nor Yewon listened to her though.

“What were you talking about?” Soonyoung asked.

She shook her head, not wanting to tell him.

Seungcheol, the King and the Queen walked in, and took their seats on the table. Yewon focused on her plate to avoid Seungcheol’s eyes, but she just knew that he was looking at her every once in a while. They exchanged no words though.

The thought of sleeping with him that night did make her nervous, but it did not scare her like it did the first time. She did not dread it anymore.

-

She told Haein that Seungcheol would visit that night, which called for preparation that Haein provided with grace.

Wonwoo visited her that day, which was not really the best time for him to visit, but it didn’t matter. She was happy to see him despite how nervous and overwhelmed she felt.

He asked her about the hospital, and she told him what happened and how crushed she felt among the patients. 

“I don’t know if I’ll ever make them not hate Galacia," she told him. "From what I’ve seen and heard, I think they have every right to hate us, and I don’t know if anything I do will ever help the cause.”

“I think you’re doing wonderfully so far,” Wonwoo reassured. “Honestly, Yewon, you even impressed Seungcheol, and he’s not easily impressed.”

“How do you know he was impressed?”

“I may have spoken to him about you,” Wonwoo revealed, smiling. “He’s obviously impressed.”

If the kiss was not enough indication, here was another one to show that Seungcheol was not as indifferent to her as Yewon had initially believed. And it was strange, because she never wanted to “impress” him. She never wanted to change the apathy he felt towards her. But she did without even realizing it.

“How do you feel about him?” Wonwoo asked.

“Seungcheol is confusing. I don’t know how I feel.”

“How do you feel about Jeonghan?” Wonwoo continued asking.

Yewon felt her spine chill at the mention of Jeonghan’s name. She remembered how he had told one of the patients that he was going to prolong the war, and she felt nothing but resentment for him.

“I heard him say that he was planning to attack Galacia yesterday,” Yewon revealed.

Wonwoo look triggered by what Yewon said. “Oh my God, I hate that man,” Wonwoo muttered under his breath. “And don’t worry about him. Seungcheol will not let him do that. And if he does, I’ll personally stop that villain myself if I have to. Jeonghan does not seem to understand that ending the war is in our interest. All he cares about is petty revenge..."

-

After a long conversation about a novel they had both read, one which, of course, incorporated a, another topic was brought to light.

“Seungcheol will be here tonight,” Yewon revealed to him awkwardly.

“Oh.” Wonwooo smiled at her supportively, “good luck. Read the book I recommended before. It’ll make you feel things that would help your cause tonight.”

She nodded, but was not really in the mood to laugh.

“Are you scared?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“Of him?”

“Partly of him. Partly of in general. Partly of the pain. Partly of failing. Partly of not bearing a son despite it. I’m scared of a lot of things”

“He won’t hurt you. Don’t worry about him and don’t worry about pain. And won’t be bad. The first time is nerve-wrecking, but it’ll get easier. And if you fail, you try again.”

“How much experience do you have exactly?” Yewon asked him curiously.

“Quite a bit,” he answered honestly.

“Are you attached?” asked Yewon. Although they both knew each other for a quite some time, Yewon realized that she did not know much about him in particular. She knew about the books and poems he liked to read; she knew what he thought of particular books; she knew about the kind of language he likes and his favorite words: but about him personally beyond his bookishness, nothing much at all.

“Am I attached?” Wonwoo seemed to be asking himself. “No, but I want to be.”

“Is there a particular person you have in mind?”

“Yes, there is.”

“Would it be too forward to ask who it is?”

“Would it be too inappropriate to say that it’s you?” Wonwoo stated.

Yewon narrowed her eyes at him; of course it was too inappropriate to say you want to be romantically attached to your brother’s wife. “It’s not me,” she stated, hoping that it was a joke

Wonwoo chuckled. “No, it’s not you.”

Wonwoo left a few minutes afterwards. In reality, the awkward conversation made it tense between them for the first time since they met. He left on the pretense of giving her time to prepare for Seungcheol’s coming, but she knew that he just wanted to escape the newfound tension.

-

Yewon tried to read a novel that night around the time when Seungcheol would be coming in. She tried to get into it, to embrace the sensuality of what she was reading, but she was unavoidably too nervous to get into the a.

She tried to calm herself down. She did not want to tremble again. She did not want to make him run from her and refuse to go further because she was too frightened. She was ready, and she was going to do it for her country.

She jumped when the door opened, and he came in. She told herself to calm down, but her heart was beating too hard to tame. But at least she wasn’t trembling.

Seungcheol took of his crown and his jacket and put them to the side as he walked towards her, eyes not leaving hers.

“Ready?” he asked softly as he reached for her hand.

She nodded.

He took a deep breath himself, and inched closer to her slowly. He took a strand of her hair and put it behind her ear and kissed her lips softly. He then stepped behind her and began pulling out the pins in her hair.

“It’s difficult with the pins in your hair. They'll poke you,” he explained as he started to undo the bun that Haein had fixed for her.

Yewon found herself wondering how he knew that hair pins poke during (because of Solbin perhaps?). He picked off each pin one by one before his hands fell to the laces of her dress. He undid them and loosened the dress until it fell off her body.

He turned her around and kissed her again, moving his lips gracefully against hers as his hands rubbed against her hips and waist.

She was not trembling, which was a good sign. She was slightly scared, but there was an exhilaration she felt with his touches that told her that she would get through this.

As the friction between their bodies increased, Yewon eased into the sensations electrifying her body more. She became more comfortable with the contact, more comfortable with feeling his lips, more comfortable with feeling his entire body over hers when he finally pulled her into the bed.

It seemed to be going the way that it should be. It was happening, and she was yielding completely to him, not resisting anything that was coming to her.

All he had to do was undress, and it would have happened, but he didn’t. Instead, he pulled away from her and paced around her room.

She had been too caught up in his touches that she had not noticed just how perplexed he seemed. As he paced around the room, his put his hand over his forehead and rubbed it.

He seemed disturbed, haunted, restless.

“I’m sorry,” he told her, shaking his head frantically. Before she knew it, he was putting on his jacket.

“Where are you going?” she managed to ask.

“I can’t do this,” he told her, and he dashed out of the room with his crown in his hand.

A/N: yall really liked the last chapter and im glad! i hope yall liked this one too lol ^^