❝ 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘦, 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴. ❞
Park Ye-jun was a quiet kid. Smart, but reclusive. And one in his life was his eter...
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26一 a strom this way comes
༻𖥸༺
I could set this world on fire and call it rain.
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THE PALACE WAS BUZZING WITH ACTIVITY for the first time in months, years even. Servants were flitting about from place to place, miscellaneous items in their hands and cleaning supplies in tow. Attendants and civil workers moved paperwork from office to office, making sure everything was up to par without any room of error in their work. Athanasia would have thought that the Emperor was in the middle of organizing an important political event had she not known any better.
All of the paperwork was moved into the Sapphire Palace after it was reviewed. The places that the maids were cleaning were the ones only one person frequented. Everyone was doing these things without being given orders from the Emperor. (Idly, she wondered if the servants would have gone to such lengths for her.)
It was barely four days ago that Felix, during his guard duty over her, informed her of the reason behind the current fervor of life bursting out of the palace workers一 "A border outpost sent word that His Highness has passed through. It'll be just a few days before he returns." The Captain of the Royal Guard had told her those things with such a bright and sincere happiness, as if he couldn't wait to see the young heir of his nation in the flesh once more.
She hadn't known how to respond to that in that given moment. And so she smiled and said "I can't wait!" Lily had looked at her strangely then, but her maid had closed her eyes and looked away, avoiding her gaze.
Today, she didn't know how to feel. Because late last night, with the stars as his watchers, her brother had arrived to the palace's gates. She'd heard the guards talking, teasing the ones who were on the night watch for the way they had expressed their excitement before His Highness. They poke fun at the way they had cheered when faced with the star crest of the heir and at the embarrassment of their colleagues when the Prince had merrily laughed at their display.
After handing over his horse to the stables, she'd heard her brother had given stern instructions to the head of guard he'd taken with him and then, followed closely behind by his two personal guards, had holed up in his Sapphire Palace since then. Not that she could blame him. The journey home had most likely been a difficult one and some rest was definitely in order.
That aside, she wasn't prepared for the banquet dinner of tonight. Her father had decided that, in honor of his heir being back home once more, a celebratory dinner was in order. She had an inkling that her brother had heard of this news sometime around mid-day, given that she was announced during breakfast and she hadn't seen her father for afternoon tea, gone as he was to see her brother. (She wasn't pouting, really. And the hurt in her chest was because she'd slept wrong last night, honest.)
