Without even realizing it, Yewon had given her brother the power to manipulate her. His words rang loudly in her ears. I’ll order the guards to kill him. He said it with such ease, like it didn’t bother his conscience at all that he was mentally torturing her, let alone threatening to kill someone in cold blood.

She felt caught in the greatest dilemma she had ever faced in her life, and for a long time, she could not even begin to dwell on it or she’d feel herself in a mental breakdown.

It took her many hours of stress before she could finally try to think about the options that Jihoon was giving her: if she didn’t marry Jun, Wonwoo’s life was at stake, and if she did, a large-scale war was at stake. She was in the center of this power struggle, and so much depended on her decision.

Weighing things on a purely political level, Wonwoo’s life was a lot less important than the destructive war that this marriage would bring. However, Yewon could not remain political about this. She could not imagine knowingly doing something that would end Wonwoo’s life. This was Wonwoo, her sweet, mellow prince for whom she had fallen, with whom she had shared intimate moments and whom she trusted with all her heart

She couldn’t do it. Neither option seemed to work for her, and so she had to think of others.

The first she could think of was a fake pregnancy. However, there was so much that could possibly go wrong with that plan, including the fact that her father would wait to make sure her belly was indeed growing like it should. And it wouldn’t grow like it should, and she would be exposed as a liar.

There was one other thing that was there, lingering in the back of her head. She was the center of this dilemma. She was the reason that Wonwoo would die, and she was the reason an alliance with China would take place. All that had to happen was for her to disappear for both threats to dissolve. All she had to do was die. She had thought about dying before when she threatened Seungcheol with her own life before. However, she had made that threat with no intention of ever carrying it out.

But this time, that prospect was there, and it was something that she did have the intention of carrying out. It made her tremble, but it seemed like the only solution, the only way out of this dilemma. Even if the consequences aren’t crystal clear, at least her brother would have no reason to execute Wonwoo.

Maybe Jun would marry one of her sisters and the alliance would still take place, which seemed a worse option than Yewon marrying him herself. It made her shudder to imagine one of her sisters in the arms of that man. That sister would suffer in her marriage life and the alliance would still take place.

Suddenly, dying did not seem like the optimal solution either.

She thought about maybe just threatening her brother with her own life. Maybe that would guilt Jihoon out of coercing her into it. Jihoon was a determined person, but she knew that his sisters were his weakness, including her. She knew that Jihoon loved her very much, and so she knew that threatening to end her own life would trigger something in him.

-

She went to Jihoon’s room later that day, prepared to make her threat.

He was seated at his desk reading letters when Yewon entered, a determined look on her face.

“Well, I’m happy to see you aren’t crying and moping,” Jihoon said as she entered.

“I’m here to fight back,” Yewon told him.

“Fight back?”

“I’m going to respond to your ultimatum with another ultimatum.”

Jihoon sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, waiting for her to say what she wanted to say. He didn’t look like he expected much from her.

“If you insist on coercing me into marrying Jun, I will kill myself,” she said bluntly. She watched his reaction carefully. He stiffened and looked lost and confused.

He opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated. “You won’t do it…”

“I will, Jihoon,” she told him. “And so if you don’t want my death to be on your neck, back off and don’t force me into this marriage.”

“Do you think that just because you die, I will have no reason to kill that friend of yours in the dungeons?” Jihoon snapped back, clearly very angry with her. “I don’t know him, and I don’t care about him, and I can kill him without feeling guilty about it. Even if you die, it won’t prevent me from ordering the guards to kill your precious hostage. Don’t try me, Yewon. Killing yourself won’t help your friend. I will kill him even if you’re no longer there to witness it. The only thing that will save him is marrying Jun. So drop your antics and comply or it would end badly for him. You don’t want that, do you?”

Yewon clenched her fist and felt her chest tighten. She realized then that she was playing a game with him right now, a game of chicken. A game in which one of them had to yield or the outcome would be disastrous. And it didn’t seem like Jihoon was willing to yield. She could only imagine the worst-case scenario: she doesn’t yield and kills herself, Jihoon thus kills Wonwoo, Jun marries one of her sisters and makes her suffer, the alliance remains intact, the war continues, and Solen falls into ruin.

“You’re wrong if you believe that I won’t actually kill myself,” she managed, despite the hitch in her breath and the raging in her heart. “I will kill myself, and if I do, just know that you drove me to it, and that I died hating you. And if you kill Wonwoo even after my death, I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

She turned around to walk away.

“Yewon…” Jihoon called out to her.

“What?”

“Don’t kill yourself,” he requested sheepishly wish an earnest expression on his face.

“Release Wonwoo, and I won’t,” she held. She wasn’t going to yield to Jihoon in this game. Jihoon was stubborn, but she was confident that she could be even more stubborn.

She didn’t have the intention of killing herself right away. There was still time to look for other options. As she was trying to come up with a strategy to use against Jihoon, she came the to the realization that there was another player in this game who could potentially help her, someone whom she never thought to consult until now.

-

She had planned to skip dinner because Jun was going to be there, but she now no longer wanted to avoid him. She didn’t know what kind of deal she hoped to make with Jun, but she realized that she had no other option at this point.

Jun was sitting with the Chinese delegation at one side of the table. There was an empty seat right beside him, and Yewon just knew that this seat was reserved for her. That was confirmed when her mother signaled towards that chair.

Yewon reluctantly took that seat, avoiding Jun’s eyes at all costs. She could feel him leer at her with a grin on his face, as if he somehow had her defeated.

“I wish I could have time to talk to my bride in private,” Jun said out loud, loud enough for her father to hear. “Perhaps you can show me around the palace, princess?”

Yewon knew that her father would bow to any request the prince of China would make, and so it didn’t surprise her when he said: “of course. After dinner, Yewon would be pleased to take you around, right, Yewon?”

“As long there’s a guard with us,” Yewon replied. “Prince Jun wouldn’t mind that,” Yewon turned and made eye contact with Jun for the first time. Jun was indeed smirking mischievously.

“I would prefer being alone with you, but if you don’t feel secure, then okay. Anything for my bride.”

Yewon felt herself shudder at the thought of being his bride.

After the meal, a guard was tasked to follow them as Yewon showed Jun around the palace. Having the guard around gave her at least some reassurance that Jun wouldn’t try anything to hurt her.

“So… we meet again, Princess,” Jun told her as they walked through the halls. “I knew I would one day have my revenge against your old husband.”

“So that’s what it’s about, revenge?” Yewon asked.

“Mostly,” Jun answered. “Seungcheol humiliated me by sending me back to China. I don’t think you understand how it looks to be the Prince of China, kicked out of a puny country called Solen. Well, now I’ll be marrying his wife and destroying his country. Revenge is sweet, isn’t it? Imagine how he’ll feel when he finds out. Imagine the humiliation!” Jun laughed.

“What will you do if I don’t agree to marry you, though?” Yewon asked him.

“It seems like you already agreed though,” Jun told her with a smirk. “It’s not like you have much of a choice in the matter, princess. Do you want to ruin your country’s chances at victory?” He stopped walking and glanced at the guard, who was many meters behind them.

“Don’t try,” Yewon told him, sensing his intentions. “If you touch me, I’ll scream.”

Jun mockingly poked her with his finger. “I touched you.” She scowled at him, and he laughed. “Look, I’m not as evil as you think I am…”

“If you weren’t evil, you wouldn’t marry me and turn against another country just for revenge.”

“If I were evil, I would have chosen to marry your pretty sister instead of you. You know the one I’m talking about. The youngest one. She’s pretty, pure and unbed, unlike you...”

Yewon clenched her fist. She knew he was talking about Kyla, who Yewon could never imagine being in the hands of Jun. Yewon felt the urge to punch him in that moment. Just the fact he brought up the prospect of bedding her made Yewon so angry…

“Relax,” Jun said. “Like I said, I’m not evil. I could have chosen your sister, but I chose you instead. But hey, if you insist on not marrying me, then maybe I will indulge a little and ask your father for his youngest daughter instead. She’ll probably be a lot more satisfying as a bride than you anyways. You’re not a man, so you’ll never understand the pleasure of taking a young girl’s ity. Her soft screams and…”

Before Jun could say another word, Yewon suddenly saw a staff raised above Jun’s head and hauled over his head with full force. Jun fell to the ground from the impact, unconscious and bleeding in his head.

Yewon gasped and lifted her head to look at the aggressor. There stood the young guard who had been tasked with following them. He had the staff in his hand and the most enraged expression on his face. It took a while for him to realize what he had done. He suddenly looked nervous and dropped his staff, looking down at the aftermath with a gaping mouth.

“What did you do?” Yewon managed to ask, kneeling down besides Jun’s unconscious body to see if he was still alive.

“I…I’m sor…sorry your…your highness,” the guard stammered. “I was just… I couldn’t hold myself after what he said about h…her.”

In that moment, Yewon realized that this was probably the guard with whom her little sister was in love. His looks matched the description Yewon remembered reading in Kyla’s letters: pale with brown hair and soft facial features.

Yewon turned her attention to Jun and checked to see that he still had a pulse.

“Go,” Yewon urged the young guard. “Get away from here. I’ll say that a masked person did it…”

The guard nodded, earnestly thanking Yewon before rushing away from the scene of the crime.

A/N: ok im just going to explain the title of this chapter so prepare for a psychology lesson guys. “hawk” is another name given to the “game of chicken” which is a kind of game where there are two players, and winner of the game is the person who doesn’t yield (i.e. give up). But if neither give up, then all players end up with the worst possible outcome. An example of this game is two people in a car driving at full speed towards one another. The person who swerves the car to avoid colliding with the other loses the game. If neither swerve, they both crash and end up dead. So that’s the kind of game that Jihoon and Yewon are playing, in a different form lol.

Also who do you guys think the young guard is? ^^

I know (most of) you guys miss Seungcheol, but bear with it for a little longer please he will be back eventually :P