Ever since their conversation in the carriage, Yewon felt hopeful that maybe she did have some kind of power over him. Maybe she could knock some sense into him. Maybe she didn’t have to marry Soonyoung.

The thought of marrying Soonyoung made her shudder a few times. She did not believe he was a bad person, but she knew he would drag her headfirst into a world she was not familiar with in practice, the world of sensual pleasure.

She remembered when she first knew she would marry Seungcheol. She had told her father that she wouldn’t consummate, because she hadn’t wanted to offer her body to someone like that. Now, she laughed at herself. The past her had been so naïve and stupid. It was almost laughable how she went from wanting to guard her chastity from her husband to using her uality to marry a man who was not her husband. So much had changed since then; she had changed a lot.

Ever since he agreed to marrying her, Soonyoung had tried not to act any differently from usual. But things had changed between them. Apart from how ashamed she was in front of him because of how ridiculous she had appeared that day, he was also bolder in front of her. He would stare at her with more audacity, with this sort of eager light in his eyes. He also spoke to her more than usual, not about the impending marriage, but just regular conversation.

Meanwhile, Seungcheol would not agree to see her at all, no matter how much she tried to speak with him.

She did go to the hospital every day, and fortunately, it was running as usual by her fourth visit. The supplies were in place, and some of the patients were recovering quickly. Unfortunately, however, the hospital had to be supplied for the coming battle, which was sure to bring in more injured men. That meant that the beds had to be cleared

One of the patients who were deemed recovered enough to leave the hospital was Dino.

When Yewon came to speak to him, he looked so distressed about being kicked out.

“I don’t want to leave,” Dino told her, crying. “I need to stay here. My mom can’t afford to take care of me by herself.”

Yewon didn’t know what to do for him. She sat on his bedside and held his hand, saying that she’ll find a solution for him. Dino didn’t seem very comforted by that.

Yewon knew that Dino’s father died in the war, and that he only had his two sisters and his mother, who was barely making ends meet for her daughters working in a bakery for 12 hours a day. She had no time to take care of Dino, and not enough money to feed all her children, and so to lose the support of the hospital would be devastating for him and his family.

Other patients who were going to be discharged expressed similar sentiments.

Yewon felt she had to do something. Maybe provide the discharged patients with a large sum of money to start them off. Or maybe food security. Or at least something.

But she was just a princess. She had no control over money. She couldn’t just start things like this the way Jeonghan did.

She was in the carriage back to the palace with nobleman Arti when she told him about the problem with the patients who would be discharged. She wondered if he would be able to help.

“We can allocate some funds to support them,” Arti told her, “but with the approval of the prince. Get approval from your husband, and I will work on it immediately.”

“If only he would speak to me,” Yewon replied with a sigh. “Can you ask him?”

“He’s not speaking to you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

She didn’t think it was wise to tell him about the divorce, so instead she came up with another answer: “I think he’s angry with me because he asked me not to come to the hospital anymore and I insisted on coming anyways.”

Arti suddenly smiled sadly and looked down at his lap with a forlorn expression on his face.

“What?” Yewon asked, wondering what she said to incite such a reaction from him.

“Ah, forgive me princess,” Arti said shaking his head. “I just remembered our Sir Jeonghan. Seungcheol had also asked him to stop going to the hospital so much, but he insisted and kept going nonetheless.”

So that’s why I reminded Seungcheol of Jeonghan, Yewon realized.

-

She received a letter from Wonwoo, through Haein, on the fourth day.

Dearest Yewon,

I feel useless. I am absent in the time when you need me most of all. I am so sorry for what you have to endure right now, and I wish I could do more than write you a letter.

I am in so much shock to hear that you were held suspect to Jeonghan’s murder. I pray it was not stressful for you, and I hope you are now faring well. Please take care of yourself.

I am also afraid for Seungcheol. How is he reacting to this? I can only imagine the pain he must be going through, losing both Jeonghan and Solbin in a political tirade. You will take care of him for me, right? Give him the love and the comfort Jeonghan would have given him and replace Jeonghan in Seungcheol’s heart. To you, Seungcheol may seem ice cold and unkind, but deep inside Seungcheol is a man who needs love, and I believe you can give it to him.

It’s hard to ask this from you. I still think about you every day, with this burning passion inside of me. Having not seen you for so long has made me realize how much I adore you. But right now, despite how much I feel for you, I wish you would provide our Seungcheol, my brother, with the warmth of your love.

Sincerely and forever yours,

Wonwoo.

He was so late. Yewon figured he wrote this letter before he knew about the divorce, before he knew that Seungcheol wasn’t dealing with his grief by locking himself up in a room and crying, rather he was dealing with it by mobilizing for war and divorcing her.

She decided not to reply to that letter.

-

It was the fifth day, and Yewon was told that there was a meeting in the court that she was to attend that afternoon. She knew it would be when Seungcheol announced the divorce.

Soonyoung visited Yewon that morning, as Haein was fixing her hair. When Soonyoung entered, Yewon felt Haein stiffen.

“Can I speak to you princess? About this afternoon?” Soonyoung asked.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Haein said, bowing and quickly scurrying away. Soonyoung watched Haein leave first before rolling his eyes.

“What kind of relationship do you have with Haein?” Yewon asked him.

“Ask her,” Soonyoung said. “I don’t want to disclose anything without her consent.”

“I know you slept with her.”

“Did she tell you that or did you figure it out by yourself?”

“She told me.”

“What else did she tell you?”

“That’s it.”

“Well, that’s the only important part,” Soonyoung said. “Anyways, I’m not here to talk about that strange woman. About today… I thought about how to announce our marriage: let me know what you think. So Seungcheol will stand up and tell the nobles that he decided to divorce you. After that, I’ll ask you to marry me in front of everyone. And if they press for an explanation, I’ll lie and say I fell in love with you or something. And you just go with it, okay?”

Yewon nodded.

“I honestly can’t predict what will happen after that though,” Soonyoung said with a shrug. “But we’ll see.”

“I hope it works,” Yewon said, suddenly nervous that there would be some unpredictable occurrence that would ruin everything.

“I promise I’ll give it my all,” Soonyoung told her with a sincere look in his eyes. “Honestly, I promise I’ll try my best for this to work.”

“Thank you.”

“I look forward to embarking on this crazy adventure with you,” Soonyoung added with a kind smile. “I have a feeling it’ll be fun.”

“That’s not how I’d describe it,” Yewon replied.

“Are you afraid?”

“Of course I’m afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Of everything.”

“Are you afraid of me?”

“Yes, I am,” Yewon replied honestly.

“Ouch,” Soonyoung said, comically putting his hand on his heart. “Come on princess, don’t be afraid of me! I’ll be a good husband to you, I promise. And I’ll be good to you in bed too. Ask Haein, she’ll tell you!”

Yewon winced a little, and Soonyoung just burst out laughing at her expression.

“Don’t ask her if you’re that shy about it,” Soonyoung said. “But I know for a fact that I’ll do better than Seungcheol did.” Soonyoung winked at her.

“There’s something you should probably know about that,” Yewon figured it was best she told him now before he figured it out himself when she would bleed: “Seungcheol and I never consummated.”

Soonyoung’s eyes widened, “seriously?”

Yewon nodded.

“That’s strange,” Soonyoung said with narrowed eyes. “Was he that obsessed with Jeonghan?”

“There were many reasons,” Yewon shrugged.

Soonyoung nodded and smiled at her, “well, I hope I’ll be a worthy first time then.”

-

Seokmin also came to her room for the first time since she had driven him away. It was only a few hours before the announcement, and Yewon was dealing with her nervousness by reading a novel.

When Seokmin entered, she put her novel to the side and smiled at him.

“Are you okay, your highness?” he asked her.

“I am.”

“You look nervous,” he noted.

She nodded.

“I hope whatever you’re planning works out how you want it.”

“Thank you.”

He began nodding his head, eyes on the floor. He then looked up at her, “you know how I have trouble breathing when I’m very anxious? Well, when I’m a little anxious, my heart starts beating fast. And whenever I’m around you, that happens. I’m so anxious when it comes to you, your highness. I want to earn your trust so badly, but I don’t know what I can do.”

If he was trying to guilt her, then it was working. Yewon felt bad for turning him away that day, and for hurting his feelings.

“Anyways,” Seokmin said with a smile, not letting the silence linger, “Prince Soonyoung is a good man in my opinion…” he said suddenly, eying her with a look that made her certain he knew the plan all along. Yewon narrowed her eyes at him. What did he know and how did he know it? It hit her then that he was a spy. What else did he know about her?

He smiled when he saw the expression on her face change. He quickly explained: “I always watch you, your highness. A few days ago, I served you during breakfasts, and I saw you put your hand on his thigh, and I watched your lips and I know you asked him to marry you. You didn’t notice me, but I was there watching your every move. Every meal after that, he would look at you with a desire he never showed you before. I pieced it all together from there.”

Yewon felt ashamed that she had not been more careful in concealing it. How silly of her to make it so obvious to him. She started to think what it meant that he knew: what did he do with the knowledge?

“I didn’t tell anyone,” he claimed. “I guessed you wouldn’t have wanted me to tell the other spies. And I only want to earn your trust, your highness. I’m not out to spy on you like you think. I just want to help you.”

“You should have told me you knew.”

“I didn’t want to startle you. You were stressed and busy with the hospital, I didn’t think it was right for me to add more stress.”

She nodded.

“Please don’t distrust me, your highness. I’m not going to interfere with your plans. I just want to help you when I can and support your decisions. And right now, I want to help you by reassuring you about Prince Soonyoung. He’s a good man, honestly. He doesn’t act superior to his servants. He doesn’t call me ‘boy’ like all the other royals do; he calls me by my name and treats me like a friend rather than a servant. He’s one of the few people in this palace who I actually like. The King and Queen don’t know I exist. Seungcheol is all around cold to me. Even that bastard boy, Wonwoo, didn’t know I exist until recently, but he still treats me like a servant. Yulhee knows my name, but I can tell she doesn’t really care about me. It’s only Soonyoung who talks to me. Once I got an anxiety attack in front of him, and he held my hand and calmed me down until I breathed again. Not even other servants in the kitchen help me out when I have an anxiety attack, but he does. I like him a lot. So if there’s one person in this palace who I would trust to help you, it would be him.”

It was a little reassuring to know that about the person on which she was relying so much. She definitely had been skeptical about Soonyoung’s commitment, but Seokmin’s words relaxed her slightly. “Thank you,” she told Seokmin. “Really, thank you for telling me this.”

He smiled, and clenched his fist in an expression encouragement. “Good luck. I’ll be cheering you on.”

She nodded.

“I’ll leave you now,” he said, and then he bowed and turned around to go.

“Wait,” she called out to him. “I’m sorry for not trusting you.”

He shook his head, “it’s okay. I understand trust is something to be earned, and I haven’t earned it yet. But I will.” He bowed again and left.

-

The time had come. She walked down to the courtroom where all the royals were sitting around a long table conversing among themselves about politics and war. The King and Queen sat on the stage on their throne, Seungcheol on a smaller throne beside them. Soonyoung and Yulhee had seats at the side.

When Yewon entered, she first made eye contact with Soonyoung who smiled and nodded towards her reassuringly. Then she turned to Seungcheol, who was glaring at her with that icy stare of his. She took a seat beside him, and he still stared at her.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Yewon told him with a frown.

“Are you ready to go back to Galacia?” he asked her.

She ignored the question and instead told him: “just make the announcement and get it over with.”

The court session began, and the King made a speech about the country’s decision to abide by Jeonghan’s plans and attack a Galacian province that had soldiers which seemed to be mobilizing, as a “preemptive measure,” the King called it. But Yewon knew it was nothing but petty revenge. The King then went on to talk about Jeonghan, and made it seem like it was all Galacia’s fault that Jeonghan was dead. Yewon felt her blood boil at this point, and she even stiffened slightly and was prepared to raise her hand and speak up against these unjust accusations that were only inciting more hatred and fear against Galacia.

At one point, she could no longer handle it. Just as she was about to raise her hand to speak, Seungcheol immediately grabbed it stopped her.

She tried to pull her hand away from his, but he gave her a grave look and mouthed: “wait.”

And so she waited through the King’s gratuitous fearmongering, Seungcheol’s hand placed firmly over hers. She listened to all the nobles start to agree with the King about how necessary it was to incite war with Galacia, how good it was for the “honor” and “security” of Solen.

When the King was done with his speech, he said, “and with that being said, Prince Seungcheol would like to say something.”

Yewon took a deep breath and prepared for it, glancing at Soonyoung one last time, who smiled and nodded towards her with encouragement.

Seungcheol did not let go of her hand. He stood up and pulled her with him to make the announcement.

“Princess Yewon was a peace offering to Solen from the King of Galacia, but sadly, the peace that has been kept for over a month because of our marriage will now be broken. A divorce should now be in order, as the promise of peace was not maintained. However, I have decided, with much consideration, that I will not divorce Princess Yewon.”

Yewon abruptly turned her neck towards him, shocked by the words coming out of his mouth. I will not divorce Princess Yewon. What???

“I come to this decision based on her personal request, and also based on what I believe our late Jeonghan would have wanted. Her contributions to his hospital have been admirable, and she has earned the love of many in her time here. I commend her contributions to the welfare of our people, and her hard fight for peace, one she continues to fight until now.” Seungcheol made eye contact with her for the first time since his announcement. There was no coldness in the way he looked at her, just respect.

A/N: YAY I updated on time again. I deserve a cookie. Or at least a comment lol.