When Haein finished dressing her, Yewon immediately went for the door. She opened to reveal Wonwoo standing there looking haggard from his trip.

He smiled when he saw her, gazing at her with this longing look in his eyes.

“Your highness,” he said simply as he looked at her. “May I come in?”

Yewon nodded eagerly, beckoning him inside her room. Haein left them alone and closed the door, smiling at Yewon with encouragement.

“I missed you,” Wonwoo told her. He stared at her, “I missed you so much.”

“I’m so glad you’re back,” Yewon told him. “So much has changed…”

“I know, I know,” Wonwoo told her. “I know he threatened to divorce you. I rode back as soon as I received the letter informing me of Seungcheol’s decision. I was so afraid that I would have been too late to stop it, but I’m happy that I didn’t have to. I’m so happy you’re still here.” He took one step closer to her and reached out for her hand.

“I’m happy I’m still here too,” Yewon told him. “And I’m happy you’re here. It’s different here without you.”

Wonwoo hesitantly brought his lips to her forehead, supporting the back of her head with his hand. He then wrapped his arms around her waist in a tight embrace.

He smelled of sweat, dirt and horse dung, but she didn’t care. Being in his arms made her feel secure, more secure than she had ever felt in that castle. She also put her arms around him and nestled into his shoulders, and they remained like that for a long moment.

“I’m sorry I stink,” he apologized, gently breaking away from the hug. “I just missed you so much and couldn’t wait to change and bathe to find you.”

“How was your trip?” she asked him.

“Stressful. I worried about you a lot. And I couldn’t get any work done. And I left as soon as I learned about Seungcheol’s divorce plan. I’m so sorry about all the stress you had to endure, and I’m sorry that I was not there to help you.”

“Are you going to go back?” Yewon asked him.

“I have to,” he revealed sadly. “I have a lot of work left to do. But I hope when I leave again, nothing bad will happen. I’ll rest here for a few days though.”

Yewon nodded in understanding. “I’ll just make the most of those few days then.”

“I’ll just go take a bath and sleep first,” Wonwoo said with a chuckle. “Then all of my time is yours.”

“Go then. You smell horrible,” she told him, and he laughed.

-

Seungcheol was there at breakfast for the first time since Jeonghan passed. Yewon was happy to see him there. With Wonwoo back, and Seungcheol eating meals with them again, it felt like things were going back to the way they were before Jeonghan was murdered.

“Is Wonwoo back?” Seungcheol asked her absent-mindedly after a quick glance in her direction.

“He is. Did you see him?” Yewon asked.

“No,” Seungcheol replied. “I just guessed.”

Yewon narrowed her eyes in his direction, but he began to eat before she could inquire further.

A few minutes into the meal, Yulhee suddenly chimed: “Princess Yewon, why is your dress so dirty?”

Yewon looked down at her white dress and realized that it was soiled with dust and dirt, probably from Wonwoo’s tight embrace. She had not even realized it until then, and she felt embarrassed all of the sudden. Considering the cultural importance of cleanliness in Solen, this was shameful.

She bowed to the King and Queen and apologized, standing up to go change immediately.

It was only on her way back that she began to realize, with slight horror, that it was probably her soiled dress that told Seungcheol that Wonwoo was back.

-

She went to work in the hospital after breakfast. Seungcheol had allocated a large amount of money to help the discharged patients, and so she needed to administer the money so that they could be used to help them with treatment and food costs.

It was hard work. So much had to be organized, so many people she had to oversee, and so much time was needed. But for the first time in her life, she felt like she was actually useful. She wasn’t this ornament of a princess that stayed locked in her room. She was making a positive contribution to the people, and it was rewarding.

She had almost forgotten that Wonwoo had come back, but she remembered that he was there when she was in the carriage back to the palace. She looked forward to seeing him again.

When she arrived at the palace, she was bathed and dress. She also learned from Haein that Seungcheol had wanted to see her and called her to his room.

Yewon had to pass by the library to get to Seungcheol’s room, and so she went there first to see if Wonwoo were there as he always had been. He wasn’t there.

She continued her way towards Seungcheol’s room. When she entered, he was drinking tea, looking dozed off and pensive.

“You called me?” Yewon said, taking a seat in the chair in front of him.

“Yes,” he said, “I did. I just wanted to tell you that I forbid you from seeing Wonwoo again.”

Her eyes widened and she gave him an inquisitive look. “What?” she managed to say weakly, too surprised to think of anything else to say.

“Don’t complain,” he said apathetically. “My decision is final.”

“I don’t understand.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to explain,” he told her.

“Well, I’m not going to listen to you,” she snapped at him. “You don’t own me.”

“You care a lot about Wonwoo, don’t you?” he replied to her with a frown.

“He’s my friend.”

“He’s a lot more than that to you though, isn’t he?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering how in the world he could have come to that conclusion. She remembered the soiled dress of that morning, and realized that he had probably realized that they were more physically comfortable with one another than he originally thought.

“Regardless of what you saw, there is nothing going on between me and Wonwoo…”

“He told me he confessed to you.”

Yewon didn’t realize Seungcheol knew about that. But still, she couldn’t let that make Seungcheol block her from seeing Wonwoo completely. “But… we didn’t…”

“I know,” Seungcheol interrupted her.

“I would never do anything with him that you wouldn’t approve. Neither would he.”

“That’s not why I’m preventing you from seeing him again,” Seungcheol told her, a softer expression on his face.

“Then why are you…”

“It’s for your own good, princess.”

“My own good? You’re blocking me from seeing one of the only friends I have in this country! How is that for my own good? Do you mean my honor? I don’t care about my honor!”

“It’s not that,” he replied brusquely.

“Then what is it about? Are you so troubled by my friendship with another man? Can you not stand the fact that you don’t own me? Is this about your own pride?”

Seungcheol just shook his head, “you are so naïve; did you know that?” He looked annoyed by her outrage at him. “Just go to bed, princess.”

“I’m not going to listen to you,” she professed. “I going to still see Wonwoo.”

“I forbid him from seeing you too. If he knows what’s good for him, then he’s going to oblige, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“What is wrong with you!?” Yewon felt like she wanted to cry. He was being so stubborn and frustrating. How can he so heedlessly deny her one of the only things that made her happy in this palace? Just because he felt entitled to her? And it just felt so awfully hypocritical of him to fault her for her relationship with Wonwoo given his past relationship with Jeonghan…

“Should I call the guards to you to your room, or can you go by yourself?” he asked.

“Don’t make me threaten to kill myself again,” Yewon replied gravely. “And if you forbid me from seeing Wonwoo, I will kill myself…”

Seungcheol glared at her with a somber look in his eyes. He had heeded her threat.

He shifted in his seat and took a deep breath. “I’m telling you that this was all for your own good. You don’t seem to believe me, so I’ll explain it to you. And I’m sorry you had to hear it from me: Wonwoo doesn’t love you. He never did. I’m not even sure he cares about you at all. Wonwoo is a politician, you see. He only wants to maximize Solen’s welfare. You are a political pawn that he felt he needed to keep happy. He was pretending to care about you so that you don’t hate your life here and go whine about it to your father, who in turn will hate Solen.”

“You’re lying,” was what Yewon instantly thought.

“And he has a lover. Her name is Jinye. He was with her just a few days ago, and is going back to her soon. Do you honestly think that he loved you, but just honorably avoided having an affair with you? No. He wanted to be loyal to Jinye while still keeping you happy with the illusion of romance and love, which he knows you fantasize about.”

Yewon fell silent. Her thoughts were screaming so loud that she couldn’t hear them anymore.

“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this, but you left me no choice,” Seungcheol said as he watched her start to doubt everything she knew about Wonwoo.

“How did you know this?” she managed to ask, her voice hitching up in .

“He told me,” Seungcheol answered. “He expected me to be on board with this act, but I’m not. That’s why I wanted to prevent you from seeing him. It was so annoying to see you naïvely fall for him.”

“Excuse me,” she said, standing up from her seat and turning towards the door. She rushed out of the room, wanting so badly to cry, but she didn’t want Seungcheol to see her cry.

A/N: im not gonna say anything about this lol.