You knelt in front of Grandma Soyi’s grave staring blankly with no reaction as dawn broke the darkness. Your face, which was stained from dried salted tears, had none left to shed. You had been kneeling for 2 days and 2 nights without a single movement. Villagers and palace maids brought you food and water to calm your broken heart but nothing could fill the emptiness in your chest.

Like a long film full of sadness and despair, you replayed all the miserable memories in your mind. You stared at your clean hands and wondered when you had become a killer, someone with no emotions and no soul; someone who was so brave as to kill Anwon for betraying his family. When did you change? How did you let hatred and anger make your life come to this?

Suddenly, the memory of Mobon crossed your mind. He, who was the late King’s blood brother was the one with no emotions and no soul. He was the one who had let hatred and anger control his life. You. You were just a girl who happened to end up somewhere in between a royal blood battle for a flourishing Kingdom.

Now that Mobon was a dead corpse, the villagers were beyond thrilled as if the world had become a better place. However along with Mobon and King Taemusin, the phoenix…the powers, Grandmother Soyi; they were gone. Everything you ever had or loved…was now gone. Jungkook, who was the only thing left that you loved, would soon be taken away from you too. In no time, he would be announced King for the world and you couldn’t bear to witness any part of it.

When the sun began to rise further into the sky, you stood up, bowed once more to the fresh grave of your grandmother, and headed in an unknown direction. No, you didn’t know where you were going; only that it would be far away from the palace. Jungkook will be a King after all, and you a commoner with a scar.

It wasn’t until Grandmother’s Soyi’s death that you realized her reason for not being able to marry the King. It was not because she was a commoner or that she was prewed to your Grandfather, but because she had bore scars making their love ill-fated. Now, you had scars too and Jungkook will forever be a dream, an illusion to remember.

You pulled out the ripped black silk fabric that you tucked away in your shirt and looked at it while smoothing it over with your hands. If there was anything left for a memory, it was all you had left. You had awoken to find it tucked in your belt and wherever or however way it got there was not worth asking about. You knew it would be better off that way.

“Where is she?!” Jungkook yelled from his quarters as the guards held him back. He struggled to break from their tight grip like a child trying to run away from a stranger. Since that night when you were injured he hadn’t seen you and he didn’t know where you were. The fact that you may have been killed angered him inside.

His Grandfather, King Taemusin was dead. His own brother, Crown Prince Taehyung was dead. Chief Medicine Jung, who he realized had helped him too much, was dead.

All those who cared for him were dead, except Princess Hyeseo, who was kneeling outside his quarters along with his Grandfather’s wounded soldiers. If they had saved him why did they not save you? The palace rules were wrong and he wasn’t going to be the King to represent them. No. Never! No one will make him obey them.

~~~~ 1 month later ~~~~

A month went by slowly and you were now living quietly in a small hut seven cities away from the palace. Although your body inhabited a different area, your mind and soul were left in the King’s