“YAH!”

Kyungsoo and I jolted simultaneously in surprise as Yuna suddenly halted in her tracks to yell at Kyungsoo.

“What?” Kyungsoo blinked at Yuna.

“Argh,” Yuna rolled her eyes in frustration, “Stop following me!”

“I told you, I’ll let you go after you explain why you’re outside the palace.”

Yuna blew her bangs out of her face and sighed loudly before grabbing Kyungsoo’s hand and pulling him into a nearby restaurant.

I smiled softly as I recognized the restaurant as the one Sehun and I visited back when I first met him.

“Hello. What do you want-“

“-Sorry, I’m busy right now ahjumma.”

Yuna interrupted the ahjumma’s sentence as she dragged Kyungsoo to the least noticed spot in the restaurant.

The ahjumma frowned and marched over to the two as she stood in front of them with her arms crossed.

“What do you want?” The ahjumma repeated herself, this time with much more force than the first.

Yuna frowned, and was about to reply when Kyungsoo quickly spoke up for her.

“Uh, two bowls of noodles, please.” Kyungsoo said hurriedly, pressing a few coins into the ahjumma’s palm.

The ahjumma gave a gruff ‘hn’ before finally leaving the two in peace.

I found myself seeing Yuna in a different light as I returned my attention back to Yuna, whose sitting posture looked out of place with the pale purple hanbok she was wearing.

“So?” Kyungsoo also returned his attention back to Yuna.

“So?” Yuna repeated Kyungsoo’s question, “As you can see, I have escaped from the palace.”

“Yes, as you just said, I can indeed see that you have escaped the palace.”

Yuna rolled her eyes at Kyungsoo’s sarcastic comment, and she smoothed her hanbok as she folded her hands in her lap.

“You know concubine Soyoung, right?”

I jolted slightly at the mention of my name.

“Concubine Soyoung…? Ah! The rumoured concubine that was so beautiful that she stole away the emperor’s heart the minute he laid eyes on her?”

I burst out laughing at Kyungsoo’s comment. Ironically, it was quite the opposite of what actually happened.

“Yup. She was my mistress.” Yuna’s eyes sparkled with pride for a second before it died away as quickly as it came, “But…”

“But?”

“But she’s dead right now.”

There came silence as Kyungsoo sat there staring at Yuna with a stunned expression on his face, and I stood here behind the two as tears welled up in my eyes.

“She died because of that great emperor everyone speaks of,” Hatred could be clearly detected in Yuna’s stolid voice, “He killed her, Kyungsoo. And in the cruellest way possible.”

“W-wow…I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo seemed confused as he stammered through his words. “But…I’m sure our emperor had a reason to do so-“

“-No. He had no reason to do so.” Yuna snapped angrily, causing Kyungsoo to reel back a little, “He killed her for no reason.”

I couldn’t help but feel overflowing love for Yuna as I had the sudden urge to hug her.

I was too wrapped up in my own world before to see how lucky I was to have such a loyal and loving servant serving me, but now that I was gradually getting more ‘alive’, I could clearly see her respect for me through her words.

Sniffing my nose loudly, I wiped my moist eyes dry as I glanced around the restaurant…

…and stopped at a very familiar person sitting just a few tables away from us.

“Oh Sehun?”

My mouth formed into an ‘O’ shape as I stared at Sehun who gave me a bright wave.

“What are you doing here, Sehun?” I shouted over the noisy chatter.

“Eating.” Sehun mouthed back to me.

“Oh.” I blinked sheepishly, “Then where’s Luhan and Lay?”

Sehun frowned and he gave me a pout.

“Of course they’re not with me! Yah…didn’t you notice that I wasn’t with you guys the whole time earlier?” Sehun pulled out his puppy dog eyes at me and puffed up his cheeks.

“I...uh…” My face turned red, “You see, I was…erm, thinking about some stuff…”

“Hmph.” Sehun turned his face away from me huffily, “Well, I wasn’t with you guys because apparently I’ll stand out too much if I hang out with supernatural beings. Not that anyone could even see you guys anyways.”

I chuckled slightly at Sehun’s childish behaviour.

*How cute.* I thought affectionately, *I wouldn’t mind staying dead if that means being able to interact with Sehun like this for the rest of his life-*

I halted myself in my thoughts as confusion flickered across my face.

Shaking my head to get rid of the creepy thought I just had, I quickly returned my attention back to Yuna and Kyungsoo, who was both silent as they quietly ate the noodles that the ahjumma had brought them.

“Yuna…” Kyungsoo finally spoke, “You still haven’t told me why you’re out of the palace.”

“I murdered someone.”

Soup splatte