Hwayoung hung her head limply forward and let her weight fall painfully against her chafed wrists that were roughly bound to the coarse wooden stake. Outside of the gates, Hwayoung found the silence to be louder than any of the screams she had heard before. She had spent each painful hour staring in prayer at every cloud that passed over her head, hoping that by some miracle the moon would not shine upon her face that evening. That somehow, she would not hear the howls of her fate. And yet-the sun sunk low over the horizon, casting a bloody shadow beside Hwayoung’s broken form. Whether time slowed down or sped up, she could not tell. She closed her eyes. Dried blood caked the side of her swollen face, and her arm hung at an unnatural angle at her side. With a horrible hiss that fluttered its way past her chapped lips, Hwayoung surrendered herself to the nighttime.

              This is how I die. For the girl in the clearing, everything became still.

              When the sun’s final rays faded from her cheeks and Hwayoung felt the evening chill seeping into her bones did she finally lift her head. While the light faded, the quiet did not. Every pained breath rattled from her chest and cut like a whip through the night. Her eyes, wide with fear, flit desperately about the clearing. Although the snow glowed white about her, the looming forest remained cast in impenetrable shadow.

              The sound of snow underfoot made Hwayoung jump from her silent prison. They were rapid and uneven-Hwayoung did not open her eyes. Suddenly, a warm body was at her side, and warm, trembling hands desperately plucked at the heavy chain that held her wrists in place over her head. Hwayoung instinctively flinched back, but at the voice she relaxed into a sweet relief so intense she felt tears well in her eyes.

              “Hwayoung,” Jongin hissed. “I am going to get you out of here, I promise.”

              More frantically, his hands pulled at her wrists, but Hwayoung knew it was of no use. The chain simply would not give. Quickly, any relief in her stomach began to again churn into a hot panic. It burned in the back of , and Hwayoung bit back the sob that was threatening to fall from her lips. He rattled the chains desperately, and a cry of frustration left his lips.

              “Jongin, stop,” her voice was strained from screaming. “You need to leave before sentries see you.”

              She could see him shake his head fervently. “I’m not leaving you here to die.”

              Slowly, Hwayoung bit her lip. The tears gathered in her eyes now fell freely down her cheeks, burning her scraped cheeks. “Jongin. There’s no way out for me. I’m going to die.”

              Jongin grabbed her cheeks and turned her face forcefully to look at his eyes as they burned with desperation. He was shaking. “You are not going to die.”

              Hwayoung shook her head softly as she looked at his face, trying to memorize every curve. “Jongin, I-“

              “Don’t,” he said, looking at her with the same roaming gaze that told her he knew it, too. Once again, he was pulling at her chains. Hwayoung closed her eyes as tightly as she could, knowing that their final goodbye was upon them.

              “Jongin, stop it,” Hwayoung cried, and she surprised herself at her volume. Taking a deep breath, she continued, but softer. “It’s over.”

              His head leaned close to hers, and she could smell him as his warmth surrounded her. It was as though everything she had gone through in the town square, every bruise and every scream, had never happened. The only thing she knew was him standing close to her and the perfect way he seemed to fit to her. She opened her eyes and looked up into his as they stared back at her. He was crying, too.

              “I am so happy I met you,” Hwayoung whispered.

              “Whatever this is, whatever we are,” Jongin shook his head and pressing his forehead to hers. “It isn’t over. I can’t give this up.”

              “You don’t have to,” Hwayoung whispered against his lips. “Hold on to this, hold on to me. I’ll be with you forever.”

              “Don’t say it like it’s a goodbye,” Jongin’s voice was pleading.

              Hwayoung said nothing for a moment before she found herself pressing herself forward, and suddenly she was kissing him. It was not like their other kisses. This one was frantic, feral, as though they both knew that it would be their last moments together. His hands wound into her hair and he pushed her back against the post. Hwayoung’s body screamed once more in pain, but she