Seeing Soonyoung after deciding that she was going to seduce him into marrying her made her shudder, not from him, but from herself and what she was going to do. She took the seat beside him, and he gave her a kind smile and a respectful bow.

Soonyoung had always been very courteous with her. She knew about his ual escapades and his obsession with women, but he had never shown her any signs of disrespect that one would expect from someone like him. He treated her like who she was: his brother’s wife.

Honestly, she would have preferred it had he been just a little more ill-mannered towards her. She wished he had flirted, or looked at her body, or treated her like he treated every other woman he saw. That would have made it so much easier to transgress the boundaries of good conduct with him herself.

“So… you’ll be going back soon?” Soonyoung asked.

“You know?” Yewon asked him.

“He told me.”

“How do you feel about it?” she asked him.

“I don’t know about the politics side of it,” Soonyoung shrugged. “But I know I’ll be sad to see you go. It was nice having a new face around the palace.”

Now was the time.

The king, queen and Yulhee were sitting at the table, and Yulhee was talking with them about one of her friends, and so none of them were paying attention to notice. Yewon hesitantly placed her hand over his. It seemed innocent at first, and he seemed to take it as a gesture of amity.

“I don’t want to go back,” she turned her body so that she was facing him, and held eye contact with him. “I need to stay,” she told him, and she held his hand tighter.

Soonyoung raised an eyebrow towards her, noting that something was wrong with the way she was suddenly treating him.

“Marry me,” she lightly whispered to him.

His eyes widened, “are you crazy?” he replied, also in a whisper.

“I need to stay here, so I’m asking you to marry me instead of Seungcheol,” she repeated. He didn’t seem very accepting of the suggestion.

It was then that Yulhee turned her attention to Soonyoung, blabbering on about something he did to her. Soonyoung turned away from Yewon and diverted his attention to Yulhee.

Haein was right, Yewon thought. Soonyoung wouldn’t just agree to marriage without some kind of promise of physical indulgence.

From beneath the table she reached out and placed her hand on his thigh. He seemed startled, but he kept having the conversation with Yulhee. He didn’t move his thigh or give any indication that he wanted her to stop though.

It was almost physically painful for her to break of rule of conduct she had ever known, but she did it anyways. She rubbed his thigh with her left hand, and ate with her right.

Eventually he put his hand over hers to stop her, gently removing her hand from over his thighs.

“We’ll talk later,” he told her softly when Yulhee turned to talk to her parents again. “I got the message.”

-

Soonyoung did indeed go to her room an hour or so after the meal. When he did, he just crossed his arms and stared at her with curiosity.

“Marry me,” she requested again.

“I feel like you’ve been completely desensitized to what marriage actually is,” Soonyoung told her with a scoff.

“I need to marry you to get a political advantage for my country.”

“Well, for me, marriage isn't about that,” Soonyoung told her. “I don’t think I care enough about the politics to marry you for it.”

“Do you want war?”

“Of course not, but I’m also not really willing to hurt Seungcheol’s pride and marry the princess he divorces. Sorry.”

“You said marriage isn’t about politics for you. What is it about then?” She closed much of the distance between them, glaring at him the way any seductress would in the novels. “?”

“That’s a part of it, yes,” Soonyoung told her, not flinching when she reached for the back of her dress. “But I was also hoping to love the woman I marry,” he added.

He watched her with a spark in his eye as she untied her dress and loosened it.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked.

Yewon also wondered. How did it come to this? How did she end up undressing in front of her husband’s brother? It was almost laughable really. The rumors about her in Galacia– the rumors about ual misconduct and – all came true in Solen.

The dress fell from her shoulders, and Soonyoung’s breathing seemed to grow louder as he scanned her now scantily dressed body.

“Marry me,” she repeated.

His diverted his eyes from her body to her face. “You look so nervous, Princess. Why do I get the feeling that you’ve never done this before?”

At those words, Yewon dropped the façade and covered her body with her arms. It wasn’t working. She probably looked ridiculous, and he probably wanted to laugh at her but was too nice to do it. Or maybe he was so disgusted by her behavior he couldn’t even laugh.

“No, no,” he reached out and took her hands, unwrapping her arms from around her body. “Don’t do that. It was working until you did that.”

“Don’t tease me,” Yewon told him, feeling so extremely vulnerable in that moment. He had the power to break her in that moment. To humiliate her in the worst way possible. He could laugh at her and walk away. He could criticize her. He could even tell Seungcheol and the king and the queen.

“I’m not teasing you,” he told her. “It worked; I’m intrigued. And I take it that the price for indulging in your body is marriage?”

“Of course,” Yewon answered him.

“What I don’t understand is why you want me to marry you so badly that you would undress in front of me? What’s going on in your head, princess? Do you think marrying me will save your country? I’m the second son; I’m not in charge. I have no power. And even if I did: how do you think it looks that you married me and immediately after your divorce with Seungcheol? Not a good look for you, or me for that matter. And what makes you sure I won’t divorce you myself after I sleep with you for a few nights? You’re putting way too much on the line for the very little advantage you could potentially get as my wife.”

“Then you tell me, what is the right decision? What else can I do? Do I just give up and go back to Galacia?” she asked him.

“You should go convince Seungcheol to stay married to you,” Soonyoung told her. “That’s your solution.”

“Does he look like someone who would agree to that?”

“And what makes you think I would agree to marrying you?”

“You’re a better man than he is,” she told him. “You know what’s at stake...”

Soonyoung interrupted her with a laugh, “no, that’s not what made you so sure. You’re sure because you know I’m a weak man who can’t handle being teased like this.”  He signaled toward her undressed body as he said it. “And you were right about that. A woman’s body makes me so weak.” He hesitantly reached out and put his hands over her arms, caressing them softly before his slid his right hand over her chest and neck until he held her chin and made her face him. “Your body is beautiful,” he told her. “It’s foreign and forbidden, and that excites me. And if you weren’t now married to my brother, I would have devoured you instantly.”

If Soonyoung meant what he said as a compliment, she wasn’t very flattered by it. On the contrary, his words sent a chill down her spine, and not a good kind of chill. She just felt so disconnected from her body, so degraded to the indulgence her flesh could offer him, and she hated it. But what else did she expect from coming in to seduce him? Her corporeal body was the price to pay for his cooperation in this matter, and so she was bound to feel disconnected from it.

“So do you agree to marry me?” she asked him. He still held her chin in his right hand, and his other hand was still grazing over her arms.

Soonyoung nodded his head. “Okay, I’ll marry you.”

Yewon sighed in relief.

“But on a few conditions,” he added, finally letting go of her chin and arm. “The first is that you shouldn’t expect loyalty from me. I will not change my current habits because I’m married.”

She expected as much.

“The other condition is this: if I ever fall in love with a woman and want to marry her, I will divorce you.”

“But…”

“You’re in no position to disagree,” Soonyoung remarked when he saw she wanted to complain. “But you don’t need to worry about that for a long time. I don’t think I’ll fall in love any time soon.”

She nodded her head. He was right. She was in no position to disagree. But she would take what she could from him, and if the threat of another divorce from him comes, she would deal with it then. For now, the plan was succeeding and she was ever so relieved that it was.

“Thank you,” she told him.

He smiled at her and then suddenly bent his legs until he was crouching on the floor. He picked up the sleeves of the dress that were on the floor around her feet and slowly rose, pulling the dress up with him to clothe her again. “I’ll see this again when we’re married,” he said as he did it. “But right now, stay proper in front of me.”

He put her arms through the sleeves and adjusted the dress over her shoulders. She remained motionless, very aware of how much he was enjoying dressing her, as if he were packaging a doll that he would get to unpack and play with later. She felt a chill down her spine again; how did it come to this? How did she let herself stoop to this level?

He walked up from behind her, and began to tie the laces of her dress and leaned in forward so that his mouth was centimeters away from her ear.

“You know,” he whispered, almost sensually, “you didn’t have to do this. I would have agreed if you had just told me the problem and asked me nicely. The person who told you that you had to seduce me into marrying you is wrong about me. Please tell her that for me,” Soonyoung said as he finished trying the dress.

She turned to look at him with narrowed eyes. He seemed to be referring to a specific person, the person who told her she had to seduce him.

As if by divine intervention, there was a knock on the door and Haein entered. When she saw the two of them there, she apologized and turned to leave.

“Don’t go,” he called out to Haein before she could leave. “We’re done. I’m leaving.” He bowed his head slightly to Yewon, before heading towards the door. Haein’s eyes were on the floor as he walked past her, but he leered at her in a way that made Yewon certain that they were acquainted.

When he was gone, Haein asked Yewon what had happened.

“He agreed,” Yewon said to Haein, “but he wanted me to tell you that you are wrong about him.”

Haein stiffened at that. “What did he tell you?” she managed to ask.

“About you? Nothing,” Yewon answered.

Haein only nodded, but she looked unsettled all of the sudden. Apart from the way her eyes avoided Yewon’s, there was also the way her breathing seemed to grow louder.

Yewon didn’t inquire further, and she didn’t need to. A few minutes later, as Haein was doing Yewon’s hair, Haein confessed: “in case you’re curious: I spent one night with Prince Soonyoung.” That was all Haein said, and Yewon didn’t know what to make of it.

-

After obtaining Soonyoung’s agreement to marry her, she felt so much more secure and relieved. At least she wasn’t leaving Solen. Even though she knew being married to Soonyoung so suddenly like that would likely pose other threats and complications, at least she wouldn’t be sent back a failure.

She went to the hospital again later that day and did much of the administrative work that Jeonghan would have done.

“Princess?” Dino asked her as she was helping the nurse change his bandage.

“Yes?”

“I have a cousin who’s training to go fight Galacia,” he revealed. “I thought the war was over.”

“It’s not,” Yewon revealed sadly. “The prince wants to continue it.”

“But why?” another patient asked, an older man with a scar across his face. “Our sons are all dying. Why is he doing this?” The old man looked like he was about to cry.

Waves of people nodded in agreement, expressing their wish for the war to just end. If only Seungcheol could see this, Yewon thought. She felt an overwhelming sense of solidarity with the patients of the hospital right now. The people didn’t want war. There is no honor or pride in the fact that Solen was mobilizing for war, and she wished would Seungcheol would see that.

She didn’t know what to tell them. She was just as powerless as they were, just as helpless.

The patients then began to talk about their relatives who were going to fight, and Yewon listened to them talk about their sorrow. It was disheartening to hear how much loss was at stake right now because of Seungcheol and his stupid decisions.

She found she hated him a lot at the moment. Every time she thought about how he was causing so many people to suffer because of his desire to “punish” Jeonghan’s murder, she found herself clenching her fists.

He deserved the dishonor she would invoke upon him when she married Soonyoung. He deserved to feel humiliated for his decisions.

She hated him.

But alas, it is easier to hate someone when they are not in front of you. Just as she was thinking about how much she hated him, he appeared before her while she was serving bread to some of the patients.

“Seungcheol…” she stopped when she saw him at the doorway. The patients and nurses stopped to bow to him respectfully. She noted how they showed considerably less admiration for Seungcheol as compared to Jeonghan.

“Carry on,” Seungcheol told the nurses and patients who were bowing to him. “I’m only here to pick up princess Yewon.” He peered at her.

“But I’m not done,” Yewon said to him.

“You are needed somewhere else,” he told her with a firm glare, as if threatening her not to complain. She handed over what she was doing to another one of the volunteers and left with Seungcheol.

When they were in a carriage together, he frowned at her: “what do you think you’re doing?”

“What am I doing?”

“Stop giving them the illusion that you’re going to replace Jeonghan and be here forever. You’ll just make them distrust the loyal family even more than they already do…”

“Is that why you made me leave?”

“Stop going to the hospital,” he ordered.

“I don’t want to…”

“It’s an order.”

“If you’re worried about the fact I’m not going to remain in Solen, the you don’t need to worry. I plan to stay here.”

“It’s not your choice,” he sputtered.

“I know that very well,” she retorted. “But I still plan to stay here.”

He grunted. “I hate that you’re so stubborn,” he told her. “Why don’t you just accept things? Why do you have to fight against everything?” It was the first time that Yewon had seen him so frustrated with her, and Yewon couldn’t understand why he was so riled so suddenly.

“I… I’m going to keep going to the hospital,” she told him. “And if you forbid me from it, then I’ll…”

“What could you do?” he challenged. “You have no power princess. None at all.”

“I’ll kill myself,” she said simply, watching his reaction carefully.

He glared at her with that icy stare of his. He knew what she was trying to do. He was now liable for her, and if she died, her father would stop at nothing to assassinate him too.

“No need to threaten me like that,” Seungcheol scoffed. “If you want to keep going to the hospital, then go. But it’s them that you’re hurting and not me.”

“I’m not hurting them. I’m helping them. You’re the one who wants to throw me out of the country; you’re the one who’s hurting them,” she said.

He only stared at her.

“And you know what they told me?” Yewon continued now that she had his attention. “They were so sad that you’re mobilizing men again. Some of the grandfathers were crying at the thought of losing their children to this bloody war you’re waging. Why aren’t you thinking about them? You only think about yourself, that’s why. You’re so caught up in revenge that you don’t see how much your people are suffering. And of course, you won’t process anything I’m saying right now. It’ll go right through your head and…”

“Stop doing that,” Seungcheol interrupted her curtly, still glaring at her.

“Doing what?” she asked him.

“Stop reminding me of him!” he blurted, looking frustrated. A second after he said it, he looked like he regretted saying it.

Yewon blinked, uncertain about what he meant by that, what was going through his head, and what she did to remind Seungcheol of “him.” Of Jeonghan?

“Just… stop talking,” he told her more calmly. Turning his body as much as he could away from her.

Yewon was quite surprised at how disconcerted he was by her words. That she was able to evoke such a strong reaction from him alarmed her; she had not known that she had this kind of power over him...

“Did I remind you of Jeonghan?” she asked him.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he retorted.

 “Who's ‘him’ then?”

“No one.”

“I can tell it’s Jeonghan. Don’t deny it,” Yewon crossed her arms at him. He didn’t say anything. “And I don’t take it as a compliment that I remind you of him,” she added.

“It’s a compliment,” Seungcheol scoffed at her, obviously annoyed by the shade she was throwing at his deceased lover. It was only a few seconds later that Seungcheol realized that, in defending Jeonghan, he admitted to complimenting Yewon.

Yewon couldn’t help but smiled in triumph. She felt like she had him in the palm of her hands for the first time ever.

Seungcheol eyed her curiously and said: “you’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Never mind,” he said and turned away from her. “Just stop talking.”

Yewon did stop talking, mostly because she wanted to end the conversation on that note. There was something different about Seungcheol, Yewon noted. He wasn’t as domineering as he had been before when he declared he wanted divorce. Something about him was almost docile now, and Yewon wondered what had softened him so much since that day.

A/N: Ok I’m kind of late but better late than never! also sorry for the typos and bad writing >.<

I'm sorry for the cringe i made you feel with soonyoung's part lol.

i had to watched this video for inspiration. Yall do know that's Yewon on the chair right? :P