Heart of Ice

Held

Yewon had long wondered how it would feel to feel to have someone else's lips against hers. Her novels had made it seem like magic, and for a moment with Seungcheol, that's exactly what it felt like.

It was hard to think when her heart was beating so fast. She was not used to having someone so close to her, someone holding her face like he now held hers. He kissed her once, twice, three times, softly and without pause, before pulling her closer and deepening the kiss.

Had it not been for another knock on the door, perhaps things would have escalated, but Seungcheol had to let go of her lips in order tell the kitchen boy to come in.

Seungcheol was still so close to her, even when the boy entered. The boy couldn't see them when he came through the door, for they were behind a wall, but he could hear when Seungcheol asked him to place the cup of tea on the table.

"Do you want anything else, your highness?" the boy asked.

"No, you are dismissed," Seungcheol said. The kitchen boy left, and Yewon felt like she wanted to leave as well.

When she heard the door close, she stepped away from Seungcheol shyly, madly blushing and her heart beating out of control.

"Tomorrow night, then?" Seungcheol asked her, and Yewon immediately understood that he was referring to the appointment for their consummation.

"Yes," she said meekly. "Tomorrow."

She left without saying another word, eager to get her thoughts organized and to calm herself after he kissedher. She did not expect that from him at all.

As she walked back to her room, she passed by the kitchen boy, who called out to her and stopped her.

"Your highness," he called to her, "I was just coming to deliver this to you..."

It was the box with the bread, the sealed letter on top of it. She took it from him and held against her chest, feeling the warm wax of the seal under her trembling fingertips. She rushed back into her room, still in a daze with what had happened.

It made no sense to her. A kiss was meant to represent love and affection, and Seungcheol had shown anything but love and affection towards her before. Maybe she would have understood had it been in the context of consummation, but it wasn't. It was a kiss, and a sweet one at that. One that was preceded by gentle caresses and loving eye contact. And it made absolutely no sense to her.

Maybe it is Seungcheol who sends the boxes after all? Maybe their relationship had not been completely devoid of passion?

It drove her crazy that he was so hard to read, so hard to understand, so contradictory.

And what was even more confusing to her was how it made her feel; she was hopelessly excited by it. It gave her the thrill of her life to be kissed by him, to be in his arms like that so randomly. It was a romance novel scene coming to life.

"To my princess. From S," she read the note on top of the box she held.

Who else could it possibly be? She thought, wishfully. There was no other S in the royal family...

Oh.

But there was another S, and Yewon could not believe she had not realized it earlier.

Soonyoung?

-

The following breakfast, she was eager to see Soonyoung, and nervous to see Seungcheol.