A week had passed since that night.
It was an evening like any other.
Aran sat on Seo Yunhan's lap in the usual way — sideways, her back supported by his arm, her silver hair loose around her shoulders. The garden bench was warm from the last of the sunlight. The lake reflected the darkening sky.
They had been kissing for a while.
Not urgently. Not hungrily. Just slowly, quietly, the way they had fallen into the habit of doing on this bench at this hour — as natural and inevitable as the evening itself.
When they finally separated, Seo Yunhan looked down at her.
He didn't speak immediately. He brought both hands up and cupped her face gently — his large palms warm against her cheeks — and simply looked at her. His dark brown eyes, usually so composed, so unreadable, were doing something she hadn't seen before.
He was looking at her like she was something he was afraid of losing.
When he spoke, his voice was low. Careful. Like he was carrying something fragile.
"Thank you," he said quietly. "For coming to my side."
Aran blinked.
"I love you."
The words fell into the evening air and stayed there.
"Stay by my side forever."
His voice had wavered on the last word. Just slightly. Just enough that she noticed.
What is this?* she thought, startled. *I'm just here for the energy. Just until I recover. Don't get attached. Don't—
She looked at his eyes.
They were wet.
Not crying — not yet — but the brightness in them was the kind that came just before. And his expression was so utterly, completely serious that she felt the words she had been about to say dissolve somewhere in her throat.
If I get angry, she thought, with the cold pragmatism of a general calculating odds, he might stop kissing me.
She said nothing.
Instead, she leaned forward slightly and pressed her lips to his.
A soft kiss. Brief. Almost gentle.
Seo Yunhan went very still for a moment.
Then he smiled — wide and warm and unguarded, the joy in it so transparent that it was almost painful to look at. He thought she was answering him. She could see it in his face — the way certainty settled over him, bright and complete.
That's not what that meant, she thought.
Her conscience gave a small, uncomfortable twinge.
...It's fine, she told herself firmly. I need to survive first. Whatever he thinks is his problem.
But his smile was still there, right in front of her. And something about it made her feel strange.
She kissed him again.
She wasn't entirely sure why.
Seo Yunhan made a sound — low and involuntary — and pulled her into his arms. Not carefully, not with his usual measured restraint, but all at once, both arms wrapping around her completely.
You're mine now, he thought, pressing his face into her silver hair. *I will never let you go. Not ever. You're mine forever.*
He held her like that for a long moment.
Then he stood up, lifting her with him, and carried her inside.
He laid her down on his bed and lay beside her.
Aran stared at the ceiling.
What is happening, she thought.
Seo Yunhan lay on his back next to her, close enough that she could feel the warmth of him, staring at the ceiling in the same way. The candle on the bedside table burned low.
After a while, she rolled her eyes sideways to look at him.
He was already asleep. Or almost — his breathing had slowed, his expression gone soft and unguarded in a way it never was during the day.
Why is he like this, she thought.
She closed her eyes.
She was asleep before she finished the thought.
Morning came in through the window in long pale stripes.
Seo Yunhan woke first.
He lay still for a moment, taking stock of his situation.
Aran's hand was on his stomach. Her fingers were moving — slow, sleepy, unconscious little movements, tracing the lines of his abdomen with the focused appreciation of someone who had found something they enjoyed. Her head was on his chest, and there was a small damp patch on his inner robe where her mouth had been resting. One of her legs had migrated during the night and was now draped entirely over both of his.
She made a small sound in her sleep. Something between a hum and a word. Her fingers kept moving.
Seo Yunhan looked down at her.
The morning light was soft on her silver hair. Her face, in sleep, had lost all its fierce guardedness — she looked younger, somehow. Softer. Her lips were slightly parted.
Good morning, he thought quietly. My wife.
He stayed very still, not wanting to wake her. Watching her sleep with an expression that, had any of his court officials seen it, would have baffled them completely.
Aran's eyes opened.
For a moment she lay still, blinking slowly at his chest. Then she seemed to remember where she was and what position she was in, and her gaze traveled upward to find him already looking at her.
He smiled.
"Let's go to Il-yang-gwan today," he said warmly. "You like it there."
Aran stared at him for a moment.
Then she pushed herself upright with as much dignity as possible for someone who had just been caught drooling on a person's chest, and looked away.
But she didn't say no.