The next day, when Sungmin has just woken up from another restless sleep, a group of eunuchs and royal guards are already waiting for him in the yard of his residence. 

- Good morning, Mama - The head eunuch from the King's palace speaks up when he sees Sungmin step out of his room, into the front yard - The King has invited you to The Kkum Uisup Hunting Grounds today. Please get ready, mama, so we can get going right away.

'The Hunting Grounds?', Sungmin thinks to himself, 'I get to go out of the Palace today?'. Although his mind has never stopped worrying about Kyuhyun for one second, it is a one-in-a-million chance to get out of this cold and boring place, so he feels a slight excitement while smiling back at the eunuch.

- Thank you. I will be out shortly.

The trip to the hunting grounds takes more than three hours. In front of Sungmin's eyes, the scenery changes from the busy streets in the capital city of Joseon, to the more scattered small houses on the outskirts of Hanyang, to the green and tall trees that line up the roads leading to the forests. He suddenly feels a sense of familiarity and nostalgia creeping inside him. His mind goes back to Seowangmyeong, which is located in a forest very much like this one. Seowangmyeong, where he had spent most of his adolescent years learning and playing. Seowangmyeong, where he had found the people who treated him like a family. And Seowangmyeong, where he found the one person that he loved with all his life, but in the end, still decides to let him go.

- Mama, we're almost there.

Jongwoon's voice pulls Sungmin out of his chain of thoughts. In front of his eyes is a tall gate, which can probably fit about five palanquins at the same time. Inside the gate, there is an empty space, and at the centre of the space, there is a pavilion for arriving guests to rest their legs.

Sungmin gets off the small palanquin as soon as they pass the gate to the hunting grounds. Even though he is already exhausted from the trip to the grounds, he turns to his eunuchs and guards to check how they are doing first. It could not have been easy to carry him and follow him on foot from the Palace to the hunting grounds. 

- All of you, take a break first. I don't need anything for now.

The head eunuch from the King's palace looks slightly surprised, then quickly gets back to his usually composed self with his usual smile.

- Serving you is our honour, mama. Jeonha is waiting for you in the pavilion, mama.

Sungmin slowly walks to the pavilion. He did not know that the King had been waiting here for him all morning. When he gets close enough to the pavilion, he sees a tall man wearing dragon-patterned hunting clothes sitting at a small table sipping tea. He can see that the man is calmly smiling at him with every step he takes. Then, finally, when Sungmin gets to the pavilion, the King stands up and slowly walks towards him.

- Let's go. 

The King takes his hand and slowly leads him to the nearby stable.

In the stable, there are two horses. One with fur as white as clouds, and one with fur as dark as Joseon at midnight. Sungmin does not know why, but he is instantly drawn to the dark-furred horse. He takes a step closer to pet the horse, and the horse seems just as obedient as he has been its owner for years.

- Horses are a very good judge of character.

A soft voice speaks up behind him.

- I'm usually very good with them. - Sungmin smiles at the King. He puts his face closer to the horse to pet him. Now that he is thinking about it, he has always been better with animals than with people. Animals are so much simpler. On the other hand, no one can truly know what one human can be capable of.

- Let's go. - The King helps Sungmin get on the horse, then he gets on the white horse.

It has been months since Sungmin felt this free. He has almost forgotten the feeling of riding on a horse through a meadow with the wind blowing through his hair. At this moment, he is not Lee Sugui of the Royal Palace. He is not part of the Operation run by his father and his colleagues. He is just a man on the back of a horse, running freely through a meadow filled with sunshine and the scent of flowers. 

When Sungmin's horse gets to the edge of the meadows leading to the forest, a scene suddenly stops him. A field of bright pink flowers opens up before his eyes. He has always loved this kind of flower. It may not be as colourful and lively as other flowers, but it has a sweet scent that can always make him feel relaxed even on the worst of days. Its tiny petals may look fragile, but it is the most resilient flower he has ever seen. The flower comes in bunches, so he knows that it is not all alone fighting the wind on its own.

Besides, the bright pink flower makes him feel at home.

He remembers all the times he and Kyuhyun sat on the field of bright pink flowers near Seowangmyeong, looking down at the town below it. He remembers the bright pink flowers in his bedroom on the nights that he could not sleep as if someone had intentionally put them there to make sleep easier for him. And it always worked.

And Sungmin remembers on the field of bright pink flowers that day, he told Kyuhyun that he would be leaving him. Forever. And the flowers all seemed withered in that one moment, as if someone had taken all of his pain and sorrows to feed the once bright and pink flowers.

- Sungmin.

A voice is calling him from right behind. For one moment, he truly thinks that the voice could be from the person that he is expecting the most.

But Sungmin turns around to see the person who is calling him, and he is painfully pulled back into reality.

These are not the bright pink flowers that he has seen a thousand times before. This is not Seowangmyeong. This is not his home.

And Kyuhyun will never be here.

- Sungmin.

The voice calls out to him again. Before Sungmin could see who is calling him, a bow is thrown in front of him. He catches it just when it comes within his reach.

- Come on. I know you hate poetry. Then show me your hunting skills.

The King smiles at him, then races his horse forward.

Sungmin takes one last look at the bright pink flowers, then follows the white horse.

Inside the forest, there is undoubtedly a wide range of wild animals. Sitting still on the horse for a moment, Sungmin can hear the different sounds that wild animals make. From the sparrow on a branch of a tree twenty feet away, to the rabbit down a hole somewhere in the opposite direction, to the boar hiding in a bush a few yards away. 

Sungmin takes off the headband that he always wears on his forehead, and uses it to blindfold himself. When he was still a student in Seowangmyeong, Kim Heechul used to make his whole class put blindfolds on themselves before practising archery. 'It is a way to practise your sensitivity and reflex', he said. Now Sungmin can finally put these skills to use.

Sungmin sits perfectly still on the back of his horse and listens carefully to the movements of the boar a few yards in front of him. Then, when he is sure of its exact location, he takes one arrow and raises his bow.

At the same time, the King stops his horse just a few feet in front of Sungmin and turns around.

He and the surrounding guards are stunned to see the scene before their eyes. One of his concubines raising a bow towards their King.

But before the guards could put on their defence, Sungmin shoots out an arrow, which misses the King by an inch and hits the boar hiding in the bush a few yards away. Hearing the noise from the hunted animal, which indicates that he had hit it, Sungmin takes off his blindfold, only to see the King and the troop of guards all stunned and speechless. As if they had seen a ghost.

But the King quickly smiles at him with a hint of impression.

- Impressive. - He says - Lee daegam taught his son well.

******

That night, when Sungmin and the King get back from the forest, the servants had set up a large tent on an empty land in the hunting grounds. There is a big fire in front of the tent to warm up the place. It is an early spring night, so it gets quite chilly at night.

After a dinner with the foods they had just hunted, the King leads Sungmin to sit down next to the fire. In front of them, the sound of the fire crackling and the sparks reflecting in their eyes make the night more lively than ever.

The sky deep in the forest is truly different from the sky in the Palace. Sungmin lies still watching the sky shining with moonlight and starlight. If he looks carefully enough, he can clearly see the clouds and stars shifting above him, making the sky look like a magical trail of a goddess.

When Sungmin turns his head to look at the King, he is surprised to see that the King has been looking at him all this time. Turning away shyly, he asks the King.

- Jeonha, why are you looking at me like that?

The King smiles gently at him for a moment.

- Nothing. What are you looking at?

- The sky here is magical, jeonha.

The King is silent for a while after that. 

Then after a while, the King speaks up again.

- The day my mother died, I stayed up all night just looking up at the sky like this.

Sungmin looks at the King again. Never had he ever imagined that the King would share something that intimate with him. Never had he ever imagined that he would be able to see the King so vulnerable.

- My mother used to say that when people die, they join the stars in heaven. So when she died, I stayed up all night to look up at the sky, wondering if she is up there. Can she see me from there? Is she still protecting me like she said she would always? A million questions keep popping up in the head of a seven-year-old kid. And maybe, I stayed there all night, and many nights after, just to stay closer to her, to feel a little of her around me. Isn't that silly?

- When my mother died - Sungmin speaks up - it was the first snow of the season. So I used to lie on the thick snow, doing nothing. It wasn't so that I can feel her or see. When she died, that pain and sorrow were too much for a five-year-old to take. So I just wanted to feel anything else rather than that pain and sorrow. Even if it is freezing in the first snow of the season.

- ...

- Everyone deals with grief differently. What is important is you deal with it. And even though that grief never ever stops being part of you, eventually, it will stop hurting.

- You are... not like anyone I've ever met, Lee Sungmin.

- What do you mean, jeonha? - Sungmin asks innocently.

But the King quickly changes the subject.

- The first snow on the mountains is really cold, but the first snow in the Palace is beautiful. When the first snow of this season comes, I will show you the most beautiful spot of the Palace.

Sungmin smiles softly at him. He suddenly feels like a warm breeze has touched his heart and made him feel things that he had not felt for a long time.

The King does not voice out the rest of his thought to Sungmin. The two continue to look up at the sky and watch the stars with different chains of thoughts.

'As long as you are with me, Lee Sungmin, I feel like the grief in me can be dealt with, step by step. And I hope I can spend the first snow of the season with you, from now until eternity. Even if it is the first snow on the mountains, it would not be so bad.'

******