It was just the two of them, Hyora and Dongwoo, sitting on a rooftop watching the moon rise above them. He had shown her this place saying it was his special spot for escaping and relaxing for a bit. She felt happy that he trusted her enough to share this with her.

Today, Dongwoo seemed a bit more resigned than the last time she had seen him, almost a week ago. “Is something bothering you?” Hyora asked. “You don’t seem like your normal self.”

He glanced over at her and sighed. “It’s my cousin Jaesun. She has been doing less-than-ideally in terms of her mental state.”

Hoya had told her a bit about this. According to him, the two of them were officially lovers now, but Jaesun was still upset over the betrayal, and Hyora couldn’t blame her. Of course, she had to pretend she didn’t know any of this, so she just said, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I think she will pull through though. She has Hoya. It’s true that he caused part of her pain in the first place, but now he’s helping stabilize her.”

“It’s good to have someone to depend on, isn’t it?” Hyora said, more to the air than to Dongwoo. She stared upward at the full moon, which bathed the entire city in a soft glow. “A companion to keep you from losing yourself…”

As she was uttering these words, Dongwoo shifted closer to her. “It really is,” he agreed. There was a hint of something in his voice that caused Hyora to turn to look at him. He was gazing very seriously at her, and her breath caught for a moment.

Without speaking another word, he leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers, very gently. Despite the minimal contact, she felt heat flood her body.

“I’m sorry,” Dongwoo said. “I couldn’t resist…”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Hyora replied, her heart pounding.

“Oh. In that case…” Slipping his arms around her, he kissed her again, this time with more passion, and Hyora felt as if her heart was going to explode.

It wasn’t until his lips moved down her jaw to her neck that she realized she shouldn’t be doing this. “Please stop,” she gasped, just before Dongwoo’s mouth could touch her right collarbone.

He pulled back immediately. “Was that too much?” he asked, concerned. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

Oh, why did she have to fall in love with someone like this? It would have been much easier if she hadn’t.

He misread her silence. “Do you not like me? I mean, I haven’t been completely sure, but I thought you did, and…”

“I do,” Hyora murmured. She could feel a sinking feeling in her stomach now. “But I can’t…I shouldn’t.”

He was looking at her with his head tilted slightly to the side, confused. “What do you mean?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes when she replied. “I’m getting married in about a week.”

For a long time now she had simply shut the fact away, avoiding it and pretending it didn’t exist, even while she was dragged into the last-minute preparations for it. Denial was really quite easy, unfortunately.

The silence that followed her confession was a terrible one. Even though she wasn’t looking straight at Dongwoo, she could see the stunned look of disbelief, the hurt of her betrayal. His emotions were all on the surface, gnawing away at her heart and her conscience.

She would have rather he yelled at her or something. This emptiness was far worse than any verbal beating he could have unleashed upon her.

“I see,” he said at last. He didn’t say anything else but simply slid off the roof onto the balcony below, not even bothering to take any stairs, simply climbing off the side of the three-story structure floor by floor until he reached the bottom and began to run away.

Hyora was left alone to cry, the severe gaze of the moon scorning her from the night sky above.

***

The wedding day arrived soon enough, much too soon for Hyora’s liking. The pain was still raw, throbbing inside of her.

She had finally fessed up to Hoya what had happened. He hadn’t been as surprised as she would have expected. He said he had suspected something of the sort but hadn’t bothered to pry into the matter. He could hardly judge her for it, after all, not with his involvement with Jaesun.

Of course, in his case, he didn’t have a marriage looming over him, even if he had had the conspiracy to consider. But now that was irrelevant to Jaesun. There was someone else they could turn to that Sungyeol had suggested, albeit reluctantly, that had surprised her.

“Milady, please pay attention,” Gayoo said as she was fixing Hyora’s hair. “I almost stabbed you with this clip. We wouldn’t want to injure your face on your wedding day.”

As if she really cared that much, though. All she knew was that she would no longer be free.

In a few minutes, she was all dressed and ready for the ceremony. Once again, gold and silver thread had been used in the making of her outfit. However, this time, instead of blue, the dress was dominated by white and silver with touches of blue.

When she met Myungsoo at the front of the hall, she saw that he was handsome, as usual, his hair perfectly combed so not a hair was out of place. His mouth lacked the smile she had so often seen on it, and in his dark eyes, she could sense a hint of apology.

I don’t want this to happen, she thought to herself. Please just let this end here. Any distraction, anything to keep this from proceeding. I don’t care if it’s a lightning strike or what.

She could see her twin looking at her, trying to smile for her, and she hoped he would never have to go through the same thing she had.

The rites began as the holy man spoke in an expressive and resonant voice. He asked Myungsoo to speak his part, and the boy did, not missing a single word. Doubtless his mother had made sure they were carved into the back of his mind. Her own mother certainly had, despite the persistent cough that plagued her in recent days.

Just before Hyora could say her part, a cry went up from the side. Swiveling her head, she saw her mother collapse in her father’s arms, and that’s when she stopped caring. She ran to her parents’ side, quickly joined by Hoya.

There was an uproar among the crowd. People were craning their necks to see what was the matter, muttering among themselves about bad luck and such. Finally, her father stood, leaving Hoya to hold the Duchess, and said, “This wedding ceremony will be postponed for now, at the very least.” He bowed to Myungsoo’s parents in apology and then returned his attention to his ailing wife, whose face was unhealthily pale.

It was in this moment that Hyora felt the saying “be careful what you wish for” was altogether too true. She had escaped marriage to Myungsoo temporarily, perhaps even entirely, but even then, she knew Dongwoo wouldn’t take her back, not after she had betrayed him, and now her mother was ill, and she had no idea whether anything would be right again.

It was with these reflections weighing on her that the girl with the lost memories felt herself being drawn away from Hyora, and she felt for sure that this time, she would find herself once again on that train to an unknown destination.