She stayed in her room for five days, not talking to anyone, and no one speaking to her. There was only the kitchen boy who came in and out with food for her, telling her what each thing on her tray was. But even when he entered with the food, she avoided looking at him or speaking to him.

There were only two things that gave her solace in those dark days: food and letters. She had to admit that Solenese food was not bad at all, and she always ate happily and finished everything on her tray. After the second day, the kitchen began serving her more and more, probably realizing she liked to eat.

She also wrote letters to her sisters, her brother, her parents and Tati. She found that letters brought her back to the castle in Galacia, made her recall memories and the happiness that she felt there, a happiness which was absent here.

In the five days, she came the realization that she was manifestly depressed. It was not “sadness,” it was deeper, darker and more prolonged state of mind that she could not get herself out of, no matter how many happy thoughts ran through her head.

And although food gave her some satisfaction, and letters distracted her from it for a bit, it was still this unescapable shadow being cast over her life indeterminately.

-

The sixth day came, and Sungyeon was back. Yewon was awoken by Sungyeon violently pulling her from her bed.

“Princess, you smell horrid,” Sungyeon scoffed, immediately stripping Yewon of the robe that Yewon had not changed once over the five days.

The bath that Sungyeon gave was painful. It felt like Sungyeon was taking revenge on her for keeping her away for five days. The water was even more scorching than usual, and bristles of the bath brush actually scratched her until she bled.

“Stop,” Yewon yelled to Sungyeon, “you’re hurting me on purpose!” The blood could not possibly be “cultural” to Solen.

“It was an accident, your highness,” Sungyeon claimed, but continued to hurt her nonetheless.

-

Yewon went to breakfast that morning. Her face was a bright shade of red from the scorching water she had bathed in, there were bags under her eyes and her face was bloated from all the crying she had done the previous days. She was not the most alluring princess, but she had to fulfill her so-called duty.

The King and Queen were there, and they both wished she “recovered” in the five days. She wanted to tell that that she did the opposite of “recover,” but she just smiled in their direction. Seungcheol, Soonyoung and Yulhee were there too. Seungcheol was still as cold as ever, not even looking at her when she walked in.

“Why aren’t you greeting your princess?” his father asked. “Aren’t you going to ask her how she’s feeling?”

“No. Why should I care about how she’s feeling?” Seungcheol responded before putting food in his mouth.

“Stop being so cold,” his mother scolded. “Remember what his Majesty of Galacia said? You hurt her, and he’ll raid us.”

“Will he raid us if I tell her I don’t care about her?” Seungcheol replied. “Well, I don’t care about her, and she should know this from now. If that is cause for raid, then let her damnable father raid us. Our marriage has always purely political, and so if she gets hurt, I would not care. If she dies, I would not care…”

“Seungcheol!” his mother yelled, clearly angry. “You don’t know when to stop talking, do you?!”

It would be a lie to say that Yewon was no affected by those words. It was like he was constantly sending blows her way, blows which were painful and reminded her just how alone she was.

She hated that she was so affected by his words. She hated that he had the power to make her feel like that. She wished she could be as indifferent to him as he seemed to be to her, but she wasn’t. It was not that she cared about him, but she had expectations from him as her husband… an expectation of at least some compassion that he was not offering at all.

Yewon wished that she could just get out of this breakfast and never see him again.

“Prince Seungcheol,” his father cleared his throat, “apologize to Princess Yewon…”

“I will not.” Seungcheol seemed offended by the mere suggestion.

“You are not to hurt her,” the King continued; “we worked far too hard to build this peace for your big mouth to ruin it!"

“You don’t have to worry about that: I won’t hurt her physically,” he replied, “but if my indifference to her will hurt her feelings or whatever, then it's her problem, not mine…”

He said it as if he somehow had a choice in the matter, like he could choose to hurt her physically if he wanted.

“Well it’s good to know that you won’t physically hurt me,” she snapped at him, glaring at him with a frown on her face. She was mad at him. She knew he hated her, but he didn’t have to make it a point and humiliate her in front of everyone and talk down to her like that. “Prince Seungcheol, I know you hate me, but I’m not your slave, and you have no right to talk about me as if you own me, as if you have any right over me…”

Yewon noted how Soonyoung smiled at what she said. But everyone else seemed startled by her outburst, including him.

“You’re wrong,” Seungcheol replied, glaring at her: “I’m your husband. I have every right over you. I could beat you if I wanted to….”

“Seungcheol!” the King roared, “that’s enough! Not another word from you!”

“You’re taking her side?” Seungcheol seemed so surprised at his father, who looked like he wanted to strangle Seungcheol.

“You fool,” the King continued yelling, “did you not heed her father’s words? Do you want war with Galacia again?”

Seungcheol fell silent.

“You have to make this work, Seungcheol,” his mother urged before his father exploded again: “I know you cannot love her, but you have to treat her with respect, or she’ll find you unbearable.”

Seungcheol seemed incensed by what his parents were saying, by how his father had yelled at him in front of everyone, and how the King and the Queen were taking her side.

Instead of responding, Seungcheol stood up abruptly and left the table, leaving a tense and awkward atmosphere, broken by none other than Yulhee.

“He’s really angry and mean nowadays,” the little princess said, “it reminds me of the time when Solbin died. He always snapped at everyone and was so rude. Poor oppa, his love life is very difficult isn’t it? I wish my love life is a bit easier. Mom? Will I have to marry a prince that lives far away from here like Yewon did?”

“Yulhee, please stop talking,” her mother said, making her pout.

“Okay,” Yulhee noted sadly as she returned to eating her food.

Solbin. So that was her name: the name of the girl that Galacian militants had murdered.

-

After breakfast, Yewon went back to her room, wishing dearly that Sungyeon wouldn’t be there. The last thing she needed was to change into another dress by that maid’s ferocious hands.

She found that her room was empty, for which she was very thankful.

She could not shake off a very negative feeling that was welling up inside her since breakfast. She had made her husband angry, and she felt bad about that. She didn’t really know she felt bad; he deserved to be criticized for the way he spoke to her, as if she were some expendable slave.

But it wasn’t just that he was criticized; she felt like she humiliated him without even meaning to. She spoke over him, and his parents turned against him in front of everyone. It must have hurt his pride to be scolded by his parents in front of her.

And then when Yulhee brought up Solbin, Yewon felt even worse for some reason.

She almost felt kind of sorry for him. He was this heartbroken, grieving man, forced to marry someone representing the thing that took away his sweetheart, only to be later humiliated by this wife.

He must hate her so much.

She understood his hatred, but in weird way, she did not feel that hatred towards him. She felt pity, but not hatred.

-

Yewon was busy reading letters she received from Tati when Yulhee knocked on her door and offered to show her around the palace. Yewon agreed to go, wanting to familiarize herself with this palace that was now her home for as long as she lived.

The tour was not really a tour though. It was just Yulhee talking to Yewon about her dream guy, about a lady she saw in Yewon’s wedding, about something she learned in her philosophy class, about the time she stubbed her toe on the table and how much it hurt and other things Yewon was too distracted to process.

Every once in a while, Yewon would interrupt her to ask what each room they walked by was. They went past the King’s harem, the throne room, the court, the bathhouses. Yulhee then took her to the royal chambers.

“This is dad’s room. Mom’s room is over there. Soonyoung’s room is in the corner. I’m not allowed to go into Soonyoung’s room because he does bad things in there and mom said that she wants to keep my eyes pure. But it’s okay, I’ve seen what he does. You do it with Seungcheol too right? I heard it’s how you make babies, but it’s weird because Soonyoung doesn’t make any babies so why does he do it? Whenever I ask him he just tells me I’ll understand when I’m older. He laughs at me a lot, that Soonyoung-oppa…”

She was interrupted when Seungcheol and Jeonghan both came out of another room a few meters away.

“Oh, that is Seungcheol-oppa’s room,” Yulhee told Yewon, pointing to that door as the two of them walked their way. “I’m also not allowed to go in there, but I don’t know why, because Seungcheol doesn’t bring girls to his room and do bad things like Soonyoung. Maybe it’s because oppa just hates to be interrupted in his work. But his room is really nice, by the way. It’s enormous! I have the smallest room out of all of them, and I don’t think it’s fair. Everyone is unfair to girls– we always get the smallest rooms and the worst treatment…”

“Princess Yulhee,” Jeonghan called out to the talkative girl with a bright smile on his face, “you’re tiring Princess Yewon out!” Jeonghan patted Yulhee’s back affectionately when he approached them.

“Let’s go, Jeonghan,” Seungcheol said coldly. He seemed to be avoiding Yewon’s eyes.

“Wait, your highness,” Jeonghan responded, “I have something to say to Princess Yewon.”

He turned to her, that fake smile plastered across his face as he bowed to her and said: “Prince Seungcheol told me that you asked about me during the wedding ceremony. Forgive me for not attending, but I was feeling unwell.”

“How could you miss Seungcheol-oppa’s wedding! What kind of best friend are you!?” Yulhee said with frown on her face.

“Jeonghan, let’s go…” Seungcheol called out.

“I will not leave until I get Princess Yewon’s forgiveness,” Jeonghan said, locking eyes with her and waiting for a response.

He seemed so kind, but Yewon could just feel that he was masking so much mischief behind that angelic smile.

“There’s nothing to forgive,” Yewon said. “I really don’t care that you weren’t there.” It came off as colder than she wanted, but someone like Jeonghan deserved it.

“Ah, well…” Jeonghan replied, “I figure that isn’t really a good thing.”

Yewon didn’t want to speak with him, so she didn’t say anything in response.

Yulhee was the one that spoke: “you really messed up by not coming, oppa. Yewon looked really pretty! And the two of them look really good together, like a perfect couple! She kinda reminded me of Solbin-unnie because of…”

“Yulhee!” Seungcheol screamed angrily before Yulhee could finish. “Stop talking!”

For the first time ever, Yewon saw that Jeonghan was unsettled. That smile and even the mischief faded from his face, and what remained was an expression of pain and trauma.

“Oh… sorry,” Yulhee said, covering .

Seungcheol took Jeonghan’s arm and pulled him back into the bedroom, seeming quite unsettled himself.

When they were out of sight, Yulhee looked to Yewon and explained: “I shouldn’t have talked about Solbin. Jeonghan-oppa feels really bad when I talk about her.”

“She was his sister, right?” Yewon asked.

“Mom told me not to talk about Solbin to you…”

“I won’t tell her you told me…”

“Okay, promise?”

“Promise.”

“Yes, Solbin was his sister, and Seungcheol loved her a lot. He wanted to marry her, but then bad people killed her. It was very sad.”

“What was she like?”

“She was very pretty, and she actually looked a little like Jeonghan. She had the smile of an angel. Everyone thought she would be the future Queen of Solen. My brother was very in love with her too. He was very different before she died, by the way. He used to be so fun and happy, but then he got angry and miserable. I wish he goes back to the way he was before. I thought maybe you would change him back, but he’s actually turning worse. I don’t think he likes you very much…”

“He hates me, Yulhee,” Yewon revealed.

“Sorry about that,” Yulhee said sadly. “Do you hate him?”

“I don’t,” Yewon said honestly. She didn’t even understand why she couldn’t bring herself to hate him despite how patronizing and cold he was to her. Perhaps it was his sad history that made her feel that way.

“I’m glad you don’t. He’s not a bad man. Also, please don’t tell him I told you about Solbin. He’ll kill me if he knew.”

“I won’t,” Yewon reassured.

-

The next stop in the tour was a place that Yewon knew she would visit again.

It was an enormous library. There must have been hundreds of thousands of books in this library, and Yewon thought there must be some romance novels in the shelves somewhere.

Yulhee was blabbering on about a book she read the other day as Yewon took look around her, star-struck by the sheer quantity of books around her.

This was something about Solen that she wanted for her own country. Solen’s scholarship far surpasses that of Galacia. There was more of a learning environment in Solen than there was in Galacia, probably due to Solen’s better economic and social conditions.

Scanning spines to see if she could spot a novel, Yewon was too distracted to look where she was going.

There was a young man, sitting on the floor against the wall, reading a book, also too distracted to see her. She tripped over his legs and almost fell, but held onto the shelf before she could fall.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” said the young man, standing up quickly and bowing to her.

When she turned to face him for the first time, something came over her: a warmth of some sort. The same kind that went over her when she saw Jisoo for the very first time.

And he also smiled slightly when he saw her, as if he were happy to see her.

She bowed back to him, also apologizing for not looking where she was going.

There was something almost cozy about him. Familiar, but not really familiar. He had soft eyes which filled her up with warmth and made her feel relaxed for the very first time since she had been in Solen.

“Are you looking for a particular book? I can help you find it, if you want,” he told her.

“Uh… I’m looking for novels,” Yewon replied.

“We don’t have very many novels,” he revealed, “but I’ll take you to the novel section. If you would follow me, your highness.”

He walked among the shelves to the back end of the library, and she followed, studying him. He was a well-dressed young man, so he didn’t seem like a servant or anything. The book he was reading was titled The History of Kingdoms and Nationhood. That didn’t seem like the kind of book servant would read. Maybe he was scholar or an executive at the library or something.

He stopped in front one shelf and scanned the spines attentively until he got to one row.

“Those are novels,” he said, point at the row.

“Can I take some?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said. “Just bring them back when you’re done.”

“Do you work here?” she asked him curiously.

He looked amused by the question. “Yeah… I guess you could say that.”

“Do you or don’t you?”

“I do,” he said with a smile, but she sensed that there was more to the story.

“Princess Yewon!” came the voice of Yulhee calling her from across the library.

“Oh dear,” he said when he heard the voice. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to hide from the loquacious little princess before she captures me and never lets me go,” he laughed. “Good luck to you though!”

She nodded in understanding, and he swiftly slipped away through the shelves.

A/N: grrr sorry if the chapter was boring but there are important hints in this chapter for future things lol.

And yall know who the mysterious guy is, right? :P

Anyways Yulhee and Solbin are in Laboum, in case you didn't know :)