Kahei felt a bit like a child wearing her mother’s things, but she supposed that it was because this was the first event she went not as a Grand Duchess, but as the official crown heiress. Before the crowning, it all felt so easy - just appear on a ballroom for a few hours, socialize with the other nobles she knew since they were just a bunch of brats prattling around, and then go off to her room, back to reading and learning. But now...

haseul is sleeping in the backseat, covered by kahei’s green wool sweater. kahei herself is driving, drinking her increasingly cold coffee to keep herself awake, the lights of the ever occasional passing car in the night hurting her eyes accustomed to the darkness. the radio is muttering a soft song, almost a lullaby in its melody, going in and out of the station every time she did a curve, the buzzing of radio static snapping her awake, if just barely. it almost felt like they were alone in