Hye ryeong didn’t know on what to do, it has been a few days since all this has happened and her father being ruthless again, he even got news from gwi that the nation should not mourn for the king’s death, and that made things difficult for him, she knew it, he need not say and she couldn’t dare to ask him, she was afraid, of what, she didn’t know, she didn’t know anything now. It has been days and she was just helplessly observing, the power carving she had to be above her father mattered nothing now even if she became the queen, it feels like she could just die than rather see him lifeless. She thought of going for a walk, a walk in the mid noon since she felt suffocated from thoughts she had sitting in one room for long, that is when her eyes fell on one maid who was returning with food, food untouched coming from the king’s room, she stopped the maid and asked
“why are you bringing the food back ?”
“his majesty said he has no appetite to eat” the maid said what yoon said earlier to her, ordering the maid to leave and proceeded towards the king’s room and knocked the door.

Yoon sat there, staring at things that has memories from from everyone he lost, the books he shared with hak young, the paint brush set he shared with jin or yang sun and the letter written in blood by his grandfather, and a clip and a sketch of the cliff, the cliff with a tree and a boy sitting leaning to it, it was him and a girl who was watching to the top from the bottom of the cliff, their both figures were shadows, but he knew who they both were, him and his little friend whose name even isn’t known to him, he didn’t know how was she now, or even who she was, he regretted not even trying hard to find her, if he did, he would have had a friend at least by his side in such difficult times when he has to offer yang sun the girl he liked and also his childhood friend to gwi, that is when he heard a knock and the maid got him his food, rejecting that he asked her to go away, he was now placing the things back into his trunk, he placed the drawing, the brush cases, books and also his grandfathers letter’s back with only one thing left in his hand when he heard a knock on the door and a voice saying
“it’s hye ryeong sunbae-nim, I am coming in” saying that hye ryeong entered his room and took a seat in front of him, he just waited for her to adjust so that he can hear what she has to say
“sunbae nim, please take care of your health, you have become weak and you are even sending your food return” hye ryeong said to yoon, there was an emptiness in his eyes and it is killing her to see him like that
“there was a childhood friend, who was very dear to me, but I met her after a few years and now there is this fact that, the same friend is the key to kill gwi.”
“who is that ? did you find that friend ?” hye ryeong asked, because anything that can get her come out of slavery from gwi is gwi’s death itself and anything that concerns that is totally important for her.
“I have but I have also lost that friend. Now, I have nothing to lose than this throne” yoon said, he really lost everything he thought, he didn’t have a reason to live, he was not a good grandson since he didn’t reach the king’s expectations, not a good friend since hak young died and he was about to risk yang sun’s life for the country, not a good emperor since he failed to find yang sun the key to get rid of gwi yoon thought. yoon was totally feeling low.

“you have me, please don’t say that” those words instantly slipped out of  hye ryeong’s lips, she already decided that she would be there for him even if he doesn’t notice her presence.  Yoon looked at her wondering if she really mean that, he was just staring at her and she sat there without looking at him, if he doesn’t like what she said she can’t directly look in eye for him at the moment, that is when her eyes fell on something that was in yoon’s hand, it looked like a hair clip an old friend, but why does it seem like she has seen that somewhere? May be it was his friend’s. wait does this mean that she is yang sun, the childhood friend, but how can she be the key to kill gwi, what relation does she have ? there were so many question ringing in her mind. A few minutes passed but there was no reply from yoon, he didn’t know how to react and didn’t surely knew on how he felt on hearing that, one side he felt assured that there was someone who was trying to support him but on other side, he has his doubts if he could trust her being the prime minister’s daughter. hye ryeong that she heard his answer, she understood that he was not welcoming to him, the fact that hye ryeong’s place beside him didn’t please him.
she took her steps outside and called her security guard
“I need to get information about yang sun, everything from her birth till today” hye ryeong said to him, he nodded and left, as the evening approached he came in with yang sun’s details.
“she is one of the minister’s daughter, was once bitten by a vampire but survived, and then the king’s bookseller adopted her and continued raising her as a boy as the minister did, and then she is now living with the guardian vampire, and from information gwi gave her, he can only be killed with one of his off springs, does this mean she has some relation to him ? does this really mean he has to drink yang sun’s blood to kill gwi ? but how will she be a part of the plan if she dies ?” hye ryeong said out all the details to herself, but if gwi drink’s yang sun’s blood she will die and it is not good for yoon, there has to be some way out, but there is one more task, she has to report to gwi or else he would start suspecting her.
as she went to gwi’s palace, he ordered her to bring sung yeol’s black robe by acting like myeong hee, since it is full moon day and he didn’t have food yet, it will be difficult for him to think and will easily accept that she is myeong hee and also gave her a little scar on her neck for sung yeol to believe. Her heart started racing once again as she saw kim sung yeol in his vampire look, carving for blood, as he recognized her and came forward she knew she might get dead today if he couldn’t control himself or gwi thinking she wasn’t loyal to him.  but what she experienced there was totally unexpected, sung yeol really loved yang sun and apologized her saying that his heart now doesn’t belong to her. She saw what true love was and what power it has. As sung yeol fainted she ordered her guard to get his black robe and asked him to place kim sung yeol in a place where sun doesn’t reach. She can’t let him die like nothing.  As the guard returned he asked her what she plans on doing with that robe, she has her answer, she made a plan.

“you still have a chance to fight against gwi” hye ryeong said as she entered yoon’s room without any knock while he was talking with a minister
“how ?” yoon asked
“this black robe, without this kim sung yeol can’t go around in sun like gwi and you can capture yang sun” she said
“but where is she ?”
“she is at sung yeol’s place”
“how do you know all this information ?”yoon asked her suspecting on how she knew so much, everytime she is hands on with so much information. Hye ryeong knew her time is up, and also end her mystery
“please go and bring yang sun as a hostage, I will explain everything to you then” she said and then pleaded the last words “please trust me in this one sunbae-nim” yoon felt she was sincere, he wanted to trust her and see if she was true. Agreeing to what she said, yoon went and captured yang sun, there was no sung yeol around as hye ryeong said, he decided to hide yang sun in the queen’s quarters since if she was in jail, the information may get loose to gwi. After tying her up in one room in queen’s quarters and locking that room, he went searching for hye ryeong.

there she was sitting outside his not dressed royal clothes but rather normal ones and room thinking deeply
“you have an explanation to do” yoon said to her as he sat at a little distance from her, hye ryeong took a deep breath and started
“10 years ago, there was a poor girl who used to suffer with some illness so became a very dear child to her mother, even though they were poor her mother did everything in her strength for her, and then some crisis happened in country and the time crown prince was killed by something that was difficult to understand for her age, a few days later, her father took her to that something that killed the crown prince, not just taking her, but sold her, sold her for power since he thought having an ill child is of no use anyway so better offer her up to some creature and gain power” tears flowed her eyes, the crown prince, does that mean his father, yoon thought. she wiped them and taking one more deep breath hye ryeong continued,  “that creature, the vampire decided to keep her for future use and made her his slave , she has to serve him blood every day, from someone’s body fearing every day if he is going to kill her the next minute. Though she has a normal life outside too, things were never bright and colorful to her even in day, it was the same, the darkness in gwi’s palace followed her into day too, and her mother, her hope in real world has lost her mind, thanks to that girls father’s action” she closed her eyes and remembered how her mother became, unable to recognize herself too “ it has been a few years and her illness grew so much that it has become difficult for her to live, death she thought it would be better than living this life. But she has no choice in that too, she was sent to the Buddhist temple for treatment, and four years there, she could say were the good times she had though she suffered with illness because the kindness she received from someone who helped her like a mother” and there were more tears again it was her story, yoon recognized now, that girl is her and who helped her was his mother “but she had to return to her dark life again, and serve him as slave, serve him blood again and do things he told, but this time she has a request to make, she wanted to be in higher position than her father, get her revenge as what he did to her and her mother, and as she did whatever he said to her, she now became the crown princess” hye ryeong stopped, she need to see how yoon is reacting, he didn’t mind those last lines, all he can grasp in is the suffering she went through, she has gone through so much yet she was supporting  him , seeing him not respond hye ryeong felt the urge to say “but I didn’t know it was you sunbae-nim, till the day I came visited the king I didn’t knew, I swear” yoon just nodded to her, an assuring nod for her not to worry about that, he didn’t need to know all these, but she said to him, and it is what that is important he thought. “it was actually gwi’s order that I have to get that black robe to him, so that he can kill kim sung yeol, gwi doesn’t know yet on yang sun role in his death so there is no worry yet from that side, so if you are willing to accept that, I have a plan to execute” hye ryeong waited as she wiped all tears on her face for his approval to continue, yoon nodded to her
“we can take some blood out of yang sun with a doctor’s help just some quantity that she can recover in a day or two and I can offer that to gwi, if he can really die by drinking her blood, he will or else we will know that is not the option and yang sun will still be safe” she is intelligent, yoon thought as that plan actually made sense, and we can try.
“we will make all the arrangements tomorrow morning then”
“you don’t have anything to say about me sunbae ?”hye ryeong asked him since he didn’t react much on her story
“go and rest tonight, I will talk to you tomorrow” he said calmly, she just nodded and left,  from all the crying her eyes got tired and sleep clouded her eyes, that night hye ryeong slept peacefully as she let all of it out, for yoon, it was a sleepless night. If he thought he suffered so much after his father’s death, she suffered more, her father betrayed her, she lost her mother, she lived in fear and has no one to call hers just like him, but she is standing there brave, she was even now ready to fight against gwi. All the questions he had in his mind, she answered him without him asking even. Respect for her grew in him.

“crown princess, his majesty is calling for you” a maid told hye ryeong and she left, and those words worried hye ryeong, what is yoon going to do about her ? will he punish her for betrayal ? will he reveal her secret throughout the palace and cause her to be humiliated, or anything else. Yesterday when she told him her story, he didn’t react much, no he said he will make arrangements on what to do with yang sun and gwi, but what about her? He didn’t say her anything about that. Is he hating me now ? does he want me to leave the palace ? fearing hye ryeong took steps to his room and knocked on his door as she entered that he was sitting there with food before him
“come and sit hye ryeong ah” her heart skipped a beat when he called her dropping the crown princess, but why ? confused she didn’t take a step ahead and stood there looking at him, he smiled and said once again
“come here and take a seat” hye ryeong slowly sat there
“eat the food, we both didn’t have dinner yesterday, that is why I called you in for eating this early lunch” he said, the table was filled with so many items, boiled eggs, rice cakes, cooked fish, bean paste soup, tofu and also kimichi, saying that, yoon started digging into his food, he was really hungry, he didn’t have had much in previous days so he started eating. Hye ryeong didn’t touch her plate yet
“why aren’t you eating ?” he asked in between his eating
“oh, I am eating” hye ryeong said in response to yoon’s question and started having some soup, but it didn’t go down , she has questions running in her mind and she needs answers, she thought she will wait for a while till yoon finishes his meal since he hasn’t eaten anything proper recently, waiting she slowly had soup as she glanced at him every minute, as she saw yoon finish his food, she thought it is time.
“sunbae- nim, you didn’t say anything about me yet.” Hye ryeong asked him herself, she thought whatever his reaction maybe, better face it sooner than later. He looked at her plate, she ate nothing but some soup, he knew she has questions, but he really wanted her to eat a proper meal,
“I asked you to eat first, only after you finish your food I shall answer you” he said acting stubborn, helpless, hye ryeong started eating her food in a hurry, she ate it so fast that of she didn’t he might not answer her, she needs answers as quick as possible, this confusion she cannot hold it in any longer. He sat there smirking at how she is eating, she really want to know my opinion he thought and looking at her now, she didn’t seem that cold and mysterious, she looked pretty normal like any other girl, is this the real her hidden behind her mask ? yoon thought.
“sunbae-nim, I have finished, please tell me now”  hye ryeong said as she finished her food, yoon smiled before speaking
“past is past hye ryeong ah, even I have committed some sins. If I hadn’t shown up as lustful student then it might have been different and so many people might have lived, my foolishness in not being careful killed many. I have nothing to say about your past and I am not going to do anything about it, past is what makes one person be what he is now” yoon believed that now, earlier he used to think future is only that matters, but now as he has seen many people including himself he understood that past is what that is important in making a person. “I just wish one thing from you now, serve the country with loyalty”  these words he said as a king on the throne, since she also decided to help him against gwi, he wanted her to continue with that
“I will sunbae-nim, I will do anything and everything to get rid of that creature” hye ryeong said honestly, she meant that and it is also something that she has been wanting for long, her words were sincere he saw that in her eyes and it is all the confirmation he needed, the next thing he has to say, it is the reason of his grown respect for her and also the intelligence she had, also a request his heart is making as he saw her last night, she needs a friend just like him, someone they both can share things with and talk
“and as a friend and guide to me”
“I will sunbae-nim” hye ryeong said gladly, she was happy that he acknowledged her that much and also didn’t care of her past, he made more space in her heart as she heard his words.