How does a King punish someone who was already dead? The King had to think on the spot. After killing her, he seemed to have regretted it, because now that she was dead, he could no longer punish her for defamation of the royal family. The King ascended onto the platform where Jinye’s headless body lie dormant, and he began the damage control.

“This woman here has desecrated the image of our royal family by spreading filthy lies about our honorable princess,” the King said. He was trying to shut down the rumor before it spread, but from the way that people were looking at her, Yewon knew that it wasn’t working.

But the King kept condemning the dead girl, saying that he would further punish her by not giving her peace in her grave. She would not be buried, but instead, her body would be displayed for the kingdom to see. She would be further mutilated, and then the dogs would be released to gnaw at her dismembered corpse.

As he announced the violent ways in which he would punish her, Yewon sank in her chair, knowing very well that no matter how violently the King punished her, the seed has already been planted in the minds of the public, and nothing will stop the gossip from growing.

It’s remarkable how a person can feel other people’s gazes without seeing their eyes, because even as Yewon stared at her hands which were on her lap, the could feel the penetrating judgement from the eyes of everyone around her. It was so severe that she felt herself tremble.

A new hand suddenly entered into her line of sight. Seungcheol, who was seated beside her and witnessing the entire farce, reached out and took her hand. He squeezed it reassuringly, as if it reassured her at all.

She was guilty before him, and she guessed that this display of affection was coming from the fact that he didn’t believe Jinye’s accusation.

She lifted her head towards him, an expression of pure shame painted across her face. She wished to admit her guilt with that expression, to tell him that the accusation was true, but he did not catch on to that at all. Instead, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.

Others were staring at them, and Seungcheol was well-aware of that. He had never shown her this affection in public before, and so Yewon knew it was a display that made a statement to people who were staring at her with judgement in their eyes. It was a display to show them that he, her husband and the Prince, believed in her.

And had she not been guilty, this would have meant the world to her…

But ironically, the affection which was meant to console made her feel guiltier than ever before.

-

Soonyoung denied it. When the royal family met in the courts after the execution, Soonyoung stood up and with deceptive determination, pledged that nothing had ever happened between him and Seungcheol’s princess. The royals seemed to believe it, and they cursed at the dead girl for disgracing the royal family like that.

Yewon wondered how Soonyoung can lie so convincingly and with such ease. She knew she could never be able to do it, and thankfully, none seemed to expect her to. They accepted Soonyoung’s testimony and didn’t need to hear her own.

When she was back in her room, she let out of some of the suffocating air that was in her heart to Haein. Haein was the only person Yewon could talk to about her affair with Soonyoung, and it helped a lot to be able to talk about it with her. She expressed her fear and her guilt and the uncertainty she felt for the future. She expressed how unnerving it was that Seungcheol believed in her, because she couldn’t bear the thought of seeing his face when she came clean to him.

And she planned to. Now that the secret was out, she didn’t want to deny it. He had the right to know.

As she was talking to Haein, Soonyoung entered the room. He froze at the doorway when he saw them. He then said with a serious tone of voice, directed at Haein, “may I speak with the Princess alone, please?”

“Just say what you want in front of her,” Yewon replied. “She knows everything anyways.”

“Well, she shouldn’t,” Soonyoung muttered under his breath. “And I don’t want her to be here.”

“Your Highness,” Haein spoke up towards Soonyoung, “with all due respect, but leaving you alone with the princess in a time when there’s such a rumor in the air is not a good idea.”

Soonyoung appeared ready to snap back at her, but Yewon redirected his attention when she said: “I’m going to tell Seungcheol the truth.”

“No!” Soonyoung immediately replied. “No, you can’t do that!”

“He has the right to know.”

“What does it matter if he knows, Yewon?” Soonyoung asked with indignant expression. “Please… just keep denying it. Please. At least do it for me.”

“But what’s at stake for you? Why are you so keen on hiding it from him?”

“What’s at stake? My relationship with him is at stake,” he told her, silencing her for a moment. “I’d rather lie and keep him blissfully ignorant than tell him the truth and make him resent me. He might resent me enough to kick me out of the palace for good.” His voice trailed off for a few seconds. “And I don’t want to go out there ever again…”

At this point, Yewon began to feel conflicted.

“Please, Yewon. Please,” he begged.

“He’ll understand...” Yewon tried.

“Even if he does, it will still change things,” Soonyoung insisted. “And he’s already upset enough as it is about Solbin’s murder being brought to light again; he doesn’t need this too.”

That silenced her for good. She lowered her head at the floor uncertainly, feeling heavy-hearted and sad. She nodded in Soonyoung’s direction, feeling convinced that perhaps it would be best to bury it forever, and pretend that it never happened; she didn’t want to upset Seungcheol.

“Thank you,” he told her putting his hands together and bowing his head slightly. He turned around to leave, but not without glaring at Haein for a second.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Haein asked him.

“I need to talk to you. Follow me,” he said.

“Why?” she asked him.

“I don’t want to sleep with you; don’t worry,” he mumbled. “Just come.”

Haein narrowed her eyes at him, but he didn’t wait to get a confirmation from her. He just left without another word.

“I think he wants me to make sure you don’t say anything,” Haein told Yewon.

“That’s not necessary,” Yewon said. “I promised I won’t.”

“I know,” Haein said, “and I’ll let him know that; if you would excuse me…”

Yewon nodded, and Haein bowed and left to follow him.

-

Minutes later, the door knocked again. Yewon expected it to be Haein, but was surprised when she saw Seungcheol enter instead. It’s been very long since he last visited her bed, and today was not a day that she expected he would come either.

“Good afternoon, princess,” he said, bowing his head slightly, looking uncertain. “Are you feeling well enough tonight for…?” his voice trailed off, but she understood.

“Tonight?” she asked.

“I’m being rushed,” Seungcheol told her. “The royals are saying that an heir would solve so many problems right now. And they’re right...”

She understood that why he was being rushed right now. It wasn’t just for the heir, but for the image of the royal family; the sooner she is pregnant with a child that Seungcheol claimed, the sooner the common people will dismiss Jinye’s accusation against her and Soonyoung and forget about it.

Yewon nodded, standing up and preparing to carry out that familiar routine.

There was tension in the air between them, a tension that sourced from so many different things all at once. Besides the fact she was publicly accused of sleeping with his brother, there was also the fact that he had barely spoken to her since the spies were outed and Seokmin’s letter was revealed.

He hesitantly drew closer to help her undress.

“How are you?” he asked her awkwardly as he helped pull the sleeping gown over her head.

She only shrugged.

“I know I’ve been aloof lately; I’m sorry for that,” he apologized as he took a seat on the bed and began taking off his shoes.

“Why is that?” she asked, turning to him. She knew the answer, but she wanted to hear from his own mouth.

“It just felt like she died again,” he answered her.

Yewon nodded in understanding, “but isn’t it good that you know more about why she was killed?” she asked, attempting to show him the bright side of things and cheer him up.

When his shoes were off, he sat up with a pensive expression on his face. He lifted his head and held eye contact with her while saying, “before that letter, I was starting to come to terms with her death, and the void she left was starting to be filled. Now, the void is back and draining me of all energy. Even though I now know the truth about her death, I wish I didn’t, because I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I want closure, but I can’t get it...”

He was being so much more honest than Yewon seemed to expect, especially after such a long period of silence. If things were the same as they had been before, she would have loved that he was opening up to her and sharing personal thoughts that he would have otherwise confined in his heart. However, now, the fact he was entrusting her with these intimate thoughts made her feel guiltier.

“I’m sorry,” she lowered her head. Her lower lip suddenly began to quaver and her eyes began to water. She didn’t know what had come over her, but suddenly a wave of emotions overcame her, and she felt like she bore the fault of his pain. There were so many other things that made her guilty before him right now, and she hated that he did not seem to recognize this.

“Princess, please,” he said, looking startled to see her cry all of the sudden. “You have nothing to apologize for. Nothing at all…”

It was like he was evading all of the elephants in the room: the accusation levelled against her during the execution, her country, her brother…

“What do you mean nothing?” she asked through her tears. “You’re married to the sister of the person who caused all of­–”

“–and she is nothing like him,” he cut her off with unfaltering insistence.

She covered her face and took a seat on the bed to try and get herself together. It wasn’t the right time to get emotional, but the harder she tried to stop herself, the more she cried.

“How can you bear to even look at me?” she asked as she wiped her eyes.

“Why are you acting as if you endorsed your brother’s crime?” he asked with a frown on his face.

“It’s not just about that… aren’t you going to ask me about what Jinye said?” Yewon asked. “You haven’t said a word about that since it broke out…”

“Again, you’re acting like you’re actually guilty of something,” he replied, his frown becoming more pronounced.

“Why do you seem so sure that I’m not guilty?” she blurted in frustration.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to register what she was implying with that. He then answered her: “I’m sure because I know, if you were to have committed adultery, Soonyoung wouldn’t be the one you’d have done it with. You don’t care about Soonyoung or have any feelings for him like you do with Wonwoo. And I’m also sure because Jinye was crazy and jealous and would say anything to bring you down. And I’m also sure because Soonyoung swore that he didn’t touch you. There’s too many reasons to disbelieve Jinye, but even if I did happen to believe her, you’re still not guilty of anything.”

“What?”

“Even if I miscalculated, and you did happen to have some ual relationship with Soonyoung to which I am completely oblivious, I have no right to fault you for it. On the contrary, I might even be glad,” he told her, surprising her greatly. “Don’t you remember? I said that you don’t owe your loyalty to me. And I told you that I will claim any child that you carry, even if it’s not mine. I don’t care who you sleep with, and honestly, I don’t want to know who either. So I repeat, you aren’t guilty.”

Yewon did not expect that, although she remembered that he had asked her to find someone else, and promised to claim any potential baby as his own. But somehow that memory had been buried and forgotten, and Yewon had never considered that it would apply in this case.

She didn’t know what to feel in that moment. Relief? She understood that he said all of this to make her feel better, but she did not feel better at all. On the contrary, she was frustrated and confused. How can he not care at all?

She wanted him to care. She hated that he was just dismissing the fact she shared her body with someone else as if it didn’t matter to him at all. What was she to him, then?

“And, if you don’t remember,” he added, “you didn’t bleed during our first time. I know that there’s someone else besides me, and I don’t know who it is, and I don’t want to know. I also don’t want you to feel bad about it, princess. I understand that you need to find fulfillment outside of our marriage.”

“I really don’t like what you’re saying,” Yewon managed to say through her sniffles.

“What do you want me to say then? Do you want me to be angry? You want me to shame you for not being a when we consummated?”

“No,” she said meekly. I want you to covet me, she thought to herself. I want you to be jealous for me like I am for you. I want you to want me for yourself like I want you for myself. I want to be yours, and I need you to want me to be yours.

As those thoughts ran through her head, she experienced a small but significant moment when she came to a very momentous realization; over the last months, she had grown closer to him and therefore grown to deeply care about him. Simply put, she loved him.

In the deepest sense of the term, she loved him.

A/N: Ok this convo was so hard to write honestly, it’s a conversation that plays on these subtle things that you cant really explain with words and I tried SO hard to get the right words and the right progression so you guys understand these subtleties I’m sorry if it seemed unnatural adsjtsdjnfsagsadg