The following morning, she went to visit Wonwoo before breakfast. He was not in his room, which was a good sign for Yewon because it meant he felt well enough to get up.

She guessed that he was in the library, as usual, and that guess was confirmed later during breakfast, when Yulhee was going on her daily rant. She was complaining about how tired she was, because she apparently didn’t sleep for very long. Last night, Wonwoo had been making her re-shelve books as he couldn’t raise his arm from the wound on his shoulder.

Yulhee said he was restlessly doing what he called “important research” that could not wait another day, and he spent the entire night scanning spines and flipping through books.

“What kind of research is he doing that can’t wait until after he recovers?” the King asked with a frown on his face.

“I don’t know,” Yulhee answered. “He wouldn’t tell me; he said it was a secret.”

That did not surprise Yewon; Wonwoo had always been a very secretive person.

-

Yewon met with Wonwoo that night. He was back in his room finishing his recovery. She saw that the wound in his shoulder looked worse than before with fresh blood on the bandages, and he looked more tired than usual. She figured it was because of the “research that could not wait.”

 When she entered the room, his face brightened slightly. “How can looking at you make me feel better than any medicine they give me,” Wonwoo mouthed tiredly when she came in.

“What did you do to yourself?” Yewon asked with a pout when she came closer and saw that he seemed so much worse than before.

He didn’t answer the question, but instead he asked her to take off her shawl. She had started to wear it every time she went out of her room, ever since she felt self-conscious of her hair. She was convinced that she was ugly, and that a shawl made her look a million times more presentable. No one said anything about that decision but Wonwoo.

She took it off like he asked, and he gave her a look that made her feel warm. It was a look of endearment, which she realized she only ever got from him these days.

“My beautiful Goddess,” Wonwoo said reaching out and holding her hand. But when he did he let out a soft cry of pain, probably from the wound on his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“I’m fine,” Wonwoo voiced tiredly. “But it’s hard to move without my body aching. So can I ask you to reach under my pillow and take the book that’s there?”

Yewon did as he asked. She read the title: ‘Siberian Myths and Religion.’

“This is the book I read about Hita,” Wonwoo told her. “I marked the pages that talk about the Goddess. And there’s a drawing somewhere too.”

As Yewon looked at the book, she remembered what Yulhee had said that morning about Wonwoo doing research all night long. Was this the “research” for which he compromised his health and over which he tired his body?

“How long did it take you to find this book?” Yewon asked him with a frown.

“Just a few minutes.”

“Are you lying to me again?”

Wonwoo opened his mouth to reply but then closed it. He hesitated before replying: “Did Yulhee tell you?”

“She told me you were out doing research all night. You were just looking for this book though, weren’t you?”

“I…” Wonwoo hesitated, but Yewon could tell that was it. If he had actually been doing “research,” he would have had piles of books around him by now. But no, he only had that one book about Siberian religions under his pillow. He was not doing research; he was looking for that book about Hita.

“Why did you spend so much time to find this?” she asked him.

“Because I wanted to do something for you,” Wonwoo replied. “I know that cutting your hair depressed you, and I felt like this was the only thing I could do to make it just a little better for you...”

Yewon felt touched but still angry that he put his body through that. She frowned at him and said: “What you could do for me is recover. Please don’t jeapordize your recovery anymore, okay?”

“I just wanted to do something for you, so I don’t lose you,” Wonwoo told her. “Because I’m very afraid of that, my dear. I’m so afraid of that right now.”

“I’m the one who should be afraid of losing you. You’re the one with a fatal wound on your shoulder.”

“Point taken,” Wonwoo replied. “I promise I’ll put my energy into recovering from now on. But please read about Hita.”

She held the book close to her chest and thanked him, promising that she won’t waste his efforts and that she would read it as soon as she could.

-

That night, Seungcheol did come again. Yewon had hoped that maybe the more they slept together, the easier and less awkward it would be, but it seemed quite the contrary. The third time was the worst, the most impersonal as well as the most painful. It felt like things were not getting better at all. Seungcheol was growing colder and more distant from her than before, and it was maddening.

It felt like there was so much in her heart that was making her drown in this inescapable sorrow: it started with her hair; Wonwoo was not getting better; her husband was growing distant; and, to add to all of that, Seokmin had disappeared.

Every time she asked a guard to fetch him, the guard would come back and say that Seokmin was not in the servant’s quarters. The head butler told her that Seokmin was taking a break from work to recover from his condition and was currently with his family.

But Seokmin did not have a family in Solen. His so-called “family” were probably the same spies who beat him.

Yewon thought of Seokmin every day. She prayed he was okay, and that she would see him again. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t though. A part of her even believed he was dead at this point.

Eventually, she remembered that he had given her letters to deliver if he died. When she recalled them, she found them hidden where she had last left them– one of them was addressed to Soonyoung, the other to Seokmin's family. She decided to wait a month. If Seokmin did not show up within a month, she would deliver the letters like he asked.

-

Her father the King of Galacia had finally responded to the decree.

In his vague response, Yewon learned that her father he did not accept the land as a peace offering, and instead requested for a lot more than was offered.

It incited quite a lot of fear within the palace officials. They held private meetings that entire night. Yewon waited in her room anxiously. She felt that her fate would be tied to whatever they decided.

That was why, when the King of Solen knocked on her door, she felt her heart stop beating. The King would never come to her room unless there was something serious. She gulped and waited for her father-in-law to give his verdict.

“My dear, don’t be nervous,” the King told her. “I just came to give you this letter from your father.”

He gave her the letter, and she accepted it with a bow.

“Before I leave,” the King said, “I want to ask you something: are you perhaps infertile?”

Yewon had not ever considered that before; it was a conclusion she could not come to given that she had not often tried for a child. The King probably raised the question of her infertility because he was not aware that before the battle, Yewon and Seungcheol had never consummated and so she could not be pregnant. She reluctantly admitted this to him, and told him that now they are consistently trying and asked him to wait a little bit more.

He nodded in acceptance and reminded her how important it is for her to be pregnant right now.

When he left, Yewon eagerly opened the letter from her father:

To my dear daughter Yewon,

I am relieved that you are safe, but I am still extremely hurt by what you did to your country. You betrayed your people by running off like that. These are not actions of a true princess.

For this reason, as the King, I have decided to strip you of your title as Princess of Galacia. This country does not claim you anymore, and so you are no longer an asset to Solen. Whatever they decide to do with you, we will not bat an eye. Please let the King of Solen know that. Also, as you are no longer our princess, your marriage with Prince Seungcheol no longer has any hold on us.

You will not be allowed to return here, and you will likely never see your family again. I’m sorry if this is painful for you, Yewon, but it’s a decision that I have to make given your betrayal.

As the King, I’ve disowned you, but as your father, I still care for you. I wish you well, and it pains me to the core to cast you out like this. But I cannot make any excuses for you. I have my country to think about.

However, as a final gift to you, I have decided to free the hostages. They will be sent back on the next ship.

Goodbye, Yewon.

-

That letter was like a knife to her heart. It was the most painful thing she had ever read. She was shaking by the time she was done reading it, and she dropped it and began to cry. She couldn’t stop after that. Every time she tried to think of something else to stop her tears from falling, she felt her nose itch and she cried all over again.

She was being cut off from everything she held dear: her family, her country, her identity. She felt like she lost everything, and that nothing could ever be the same again.

Minutes later, Seungcheol entered her room. She was on the floor when that happened, sitting against the wall and crying in her knees.

She couldn’t even look up at him as she was too busy crying. She wished he would leave; she was too upset to even think about having another one of those uncomfortable ual encounters with him right now. She hoped he would understand that on his own, but she heard his footsteps coming closer.

She was on the floor, and so she imagined that he would tell her to get off and cry in a chair or something, but instead, he picked up the letter that made her cry and read it.

To her surprise, after he was done, he took a seat on the floor beside her. She didn’t think she had ever seen him willingly sit on the floor before.

He only sat there. He didn’t say or do anything, but just silently waited for her to finish.

When her tears stopped falling for a minute, she lifted her head to see what he was doing. He was just gazing at her with a sympathetic look in his eye. Somehow, that made her want to cry again, and she buried her face in her knees once more.

Many minutes later, she decided to ask him the question that was lingering in her head after she considered the implications of what was written in the letter: “are you going to divorce me?” she asked in a muffled voice, her face still in her knees.

She was no longer the princess of Galacia. She had no value for him anymore. Her marriage with Seungcheol no longer had any woth, no longer had the potential to unite the two countries, no longer had the potential to bring the much-coveted peace. She was nothing now, stripped of her title and unfit to marry royalty.

“Of course not, your highness,” he answered her.

“Why not? I’m not royalty anymore. I might as well be a peasant on the streets. It’s not good for the politics of Solen to stay married to me. You should go marry some Chinese princess. At least that marriage will have value for you…”

“You’re still the King of Galacia’s daughter,” he answered her. After a small pause, he added: “and even if you were just a peasant, I’d still marry you, Princess Yewon.”

“What?”

“You have shown remarkable potential as Queen of Solen. That’s something I would never want to lose, even if I saw it in the lowliest of peasants. It would be the greatest loss to Solen if you did not end up as its queen. Right now, I’m convinced about my marriage to you because of your character, not your title.”

His answer was surprisingly the most uplifting thing she had ever heard him say to her. It was that compliment again, that one compliment that made her feel like she was doing everything right. You would make a good queen. She lifted her head and gave him a nod of gratitude.

“Also,” he added as he caught her eye, “no matter what happens, I want you to be reassured that you will always have support from Solen. If they banish you from Galacia, then Solen is your home. If your family disowns you, then we are your family.”

She smiled and averted her eyes to the ground. His words greatly alleviated that straining feeling in her chest, and she was so grateful to him for saying them.

She inched closer to him and laid her head across his chest. She felt him stiffen at first but eventually his body relaxed and he placed his arm around her.

That was perhaps the most intimate position they had ever actually been in.

A/N: I wrote most of this chapter when I was very emotionally unstable to help me become more stable. It kinda worked ^^”

Sorry I’m late. Again ;;