A/N:

I know, i'm horrible for taking so long to update. I'm really sorry about that, i've just been facing immense writer's block on top of still being sad about izone's situation. After this update i still don't know if i can update regularly, but i'll definitely try not to make you guys wait too long if i can help it.

Chaeyeon has the same dream as usual.

The same darkness that clouded her vision. The sound of the heavy rain. The gasping and huffing as she runs through the mud. As usual, Chaeyeon was still trying to get somewhere, trying to meet someone.

Only she remembers something more. One detail that was different this time around––

Royal guards were after her, yelling for her to Halt!! 

Chaeyeon looks back again at the soldiers as she turns a sharp corner as she passes a tree. It only shocked her to finally realize that they were wearing the Oneiric crest. But Chaeyeon didn’t have time to dwell on the fact as she kept running.

Despite this new scene popping up in her dream, it still ends the same way; riding the horse through the woods in the rain until she fell abruptly into a sea of darkness.

And she wakes up, sweating and panting.

Memories of the night before flooded back into her mind and Chaeyeon slowly glanced to her left, to the other side of the bed where it was vacant, and apparently for a long while too if the coldness of the sheets was any indication. It wasn’t the most surprising to not wake to her wife, considering what happened the night before, but a tiny part of Chaeyeon was still disappointed. She knows the faster she internalizes the fact that this marriage is only political, the easier her life in Izland will be. In the back of her mind, Chaeyeon wonders whether marrying the Queen meant she was any less helpless than she was before.

With a sigh, Chaeyeon gets up from the bed, dressing herself without the help of any handmaids the same way she would have if she was still back in Oneiric, then proceeds to go to the sitting room that was connected to her apartment. It was a large space. There was a large fireplace against the wall, in front of it was a table and a cushioned couch. There was a roundtable and a few chairs by the window.

On the opposite side of the room was a door, one that Chaeyeon was sure would lead to the Queen’s bedchamber. For whatever reason, but mostly curiosity, Chaeyeon walks towards said door and stands there silently, contemplating. She wonders whether the Queen would even be on the other side, and if she was, would she have been angered or be surprised by what Chaeyeon was to do. Seconds passed before her hand finally touched the door handle, and with a deep breath, Chaeyeon tried to push it open.

It was locked.

Immediately, Chaeyeon understood exactly just how their marriage was about to unfold––essentially, no different from her old life; lonely.

Chaeyeon went to sit by the window, looking out to the morning sky. Time passes by quickly as the Princess loses herself in her thoughts, so much so that she almost didn’t hear the knocks coming from the door of her side of the royal quarters. Startled, thinking it was the Queen coming to find her, Chaeyeon quickly stood up and her head shot to the door.

Instead of the regal woman she married, Chaeyeon was met with a beautiful, short haired woman with bright doe eyes and a kind smile on her lips. Chaeyeon’s face unwittingly fell, “I–I thought you were someone else...”

The woman almost looked surprised by the words Chaeyeon uttered, but then shakes herself back to attention and curtsies respectfully. “Your Highness. Forgive me if I’m late, I was supposed to wake and help dress you.”

“No, that's alright. I often wake up early and dress myself.”

“If you would allow me to introduce myself, my name is Sakura––I am to be your lady’s maid––the Queen has personally appointed me to you, now that you are the Princess Consort.”

“Oh.” Chaeyeon did not know what it was that bothered her about this arrangement. Whether it was the fact that Chaeyeon had to leave her own lady’s maids back in Oneiric Kingdom, like Hitomi who was assigned to the Princess since they were young, attended to her as they grew up together and became Chaeyeon’s only friend. And now an attendant was personally assigned to her, someone who was likely loyal to the Queen more than to Chaeyeon. “How... generous of the Queen to choose for me.”

“Yes, quite so.” Sakura nods, the smile not leaving her face, though it was noticeably strained. “Would you like to have breakfast here or in the dining room, Your Highness?”

Chaeyeon her head to the side. “I imagine my wife would be waiting for me in the dining room,” she says.

Once again there was that subtle c