Byul threw off the covers and pushed herself off the bed as soon as she woke, finding herself and covered only by a sheer silk blanket. She glanced out the window, heaving a sigh of relief as she noticed the sun just barely setting above the horizon. She collected her clothes slowly, her feet patting the soft concrete of the floors in a low lullaby as a sigh dropped from her plump lips. Her cheeks were heavy with tire and her legs quivering with fatigue and over-exhaustion. She felt the blood rush languidly through her veins, slowly pumping colour back to her features as she fxed herself up in the mirror.

"Don't tell me you're going."

Byul's eyelids fluttered shut as an instantaneous twinge of pain ran through her heart, striking her; it stunned her substantially, halting her from grasping the doorknob calling for her name. Her hair hung over her eyes as she bowed her head low; jaws clenched alongside her fist as her sharp teeth took hold of her bottom lip. "I'm sorry --"
"If you really mean that then you wouldn't go," Lu Han argued painfully. Byul didn't have to lift her head to know that he was approaching her; his feet glided smoothly, yet loudly across the floors and over to her within seconds, pinning her against the door after facing her toward him. "You can't go," he whispered needily, leaning to meet her brazen eyes. "You can't leave me."

Lu Han noticed the furious flickering of her hesitant orbs, the shifting of her irises as nervousness and anxiety shimmered behind her pupils. "I've just found you and reclaimed you as mine," Lu Han declared in a hushed whisper as his hand moved to readjust the blanket hugging at his waist. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"Lu Han, you know that if I don't go, we'll be found out --"
"Don't you want that?" Lu Han interjected vehemently, voice hoarse with incredulity. "Aren't you tired of sneaking around, shuffling through the dark corridors of the night, just to steal a kiss? Aren't you tired of the paranoia you have to endure all the time? Aren't you?"
"You know I am, I know I am.. but the law of nature, Lu Han," Byul whispered desperately, clutching his shoulders. "It's not something we can go against and take so lightly. It's in our doctrine; I am forbidden from loving you," she whispered, fingers tracing the outlines of his heart-felt visage.

He shifted his gaze downwards, drawing in a warm breath before trapping Byul in between his chest and the door. The hard wood of the surface scratched at her back, but she ignored it carelessly, paying attention only to Lu Han's tongue which had travelled from her chiseled chin to the groove in between her collarbones. The defined hues of pink cascaded across her cheeks as she felt her breath hitch from the sensual touches of his fingers burrowing into her hip bones. "Lu Han, stop --"
"I can't stand sharing you with another man. Even if you will reject him, you're giving him false hope and that alone is enough to trigger hurt and anger within me, love," Lu Han told her gingerly. His calloused fingers scraped past her waist, clutching her tight against his body, the warmth of his toned muscles seeping through the skin of her fragile frame. "I don't want anybody professing their love to you except me," he growled selfishly, taking Byul's earlobe sensually in between his teeth.

Byul's knees buckled, casting her further up against Lu Han's chest as he tugged her impossibly closer. "If those men think they can satisfy you," Lu Han seethed, "then they're terribly wrong. Only one person can satiate your lust. Only one person can make you writhe an buckle with pleasure, make your back arch for more." Lu Han's voice grew profusely harsh, low and deep; there was a dark sinister to his tone that made Byul throw her head back with mysterious pleasure. "Only one person can make you scream, make you moan, make you needy; there's only one person that can unleash that lustrous demon inside of you, and that person is me."

Lu Han clutched her waist hungrily, throwing her back onto the bed, any article of clothing being disposed once more. Catching a better glimpse at him, the flustered queen noticed the pained tears stinging at the corner of his eyes, threatening to leak. His jaw was clenched as he beared his teeth, glossy eyes wandering over the view of her lusciously exposed figure. "I don't want to wait for you anymore," he whispered. His normally affectionate voice had grown dark, heavy with burden as his irises clouded with a mysterious hunger for something near insatiable. "I can't stand being hidden away."

"I don't want to share you anymore, Byul."

Droplets of tears cascaded down his cheeks, dribbling off from his chin, and plopping onto the perimeters of Byul's blushing cheeks. He looked turmoiled, at best, miserable and pained; betrayed and awe-strucken with distraught. He hovered over her, his large body towering over her substantially smaller figure. His hands gripped the sheets at either side of her head as he bowed his head, maneuvering his tears to fall on her torso instead. "All I ever needed... all I ever need is you," he whimpered.

Byul's heart wrenched. She lifted herself, craning her arms over his back before placing a chaste kiss upon his quivering lips, drawing in a hot breath at the scent of his sweat and masculinity. He sat up, propping her body up on his lap, legs wrapping around his waist as he delved further into the sensual lip-locking. Passion overjoyed the air, masking the dark hostility with something greater. Something only Byul and Lu Han could share. But as she pulled away, the young queen shook her head almost regretfully, a wistful yearning lingering behind her apologetic eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lu Han," she whispered, finalizing all future conversations. 

She slipped off of him, hearing him slump back into the covers, his shagged breathing barely audible under the masses of blankets and pillows. She cleaned herself up, plastering on her most convincing look of sheek ruthlessness. "I love you," she whispered inaudibly, placing her golden tiara back upon the crown of her blonde head.

It was only when she opened the door that the choked sounds of Lu Han's stifled sobs emerged from beneath the messy bed. She looked ahead, doing what she could to refrain herself from closing the door and going back to him all together. She convinced herself that she must do this, that as Byul, it was her duty to fufill her people's needs.

But that wasn't the only thing to keep her nonchalant facade going.

Kai's questioning gaze bore into hers as he looked past her, into the room. Watching a somehow-half clothed Lu Han writhe in between the sheets made Kai's eyebrows lift even higher. "My Lady, what did you --"

"I did what I had to," she returned monotonously with a curt nod. She glanced at him coldly, almost feeling the burning of Lu Han's betrayed glare bore into the back of her head. I'll come back for you, Lu Han.. but please, forgive me for the time being..

I love you.

"Are you not coming?" Byul called, as she descended the corridors, to the dumfounded Kai lingering by the confinement doors. "We have a feast to attend, vassal, and you are my ."
"A-ah.. ye, m-my Lady."