Heart of Ice

Hunch

A knock on the door caused Wonwoo to abruptly pull his lips away from hers, flushed and scared.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Your highness," said the voice of a man from the outside. "Is that Lady Haein who came in here with you?"

"No, it's not," Wonwoo said anxiously. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to ask what to do with Mingyu's books. Shall I return them to the library?"

"Leave them to the side for now," Wonwoo instructed. "I'll look through them before I leave."

"Yes sir. Sorry to bother you," said the man, followed by the sound of fading footsteps.

Wonwoo turned to Yewon, he still looked dazed and confused by their kiss, but he by no means looked regretful.

"Thank you for believing me," he told her with a sincere look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry for distrusting you," she replied to him, looking at the floor in shame. She was sorry for doubting him, sorry for making him feel like he needed to prove himself to her.

"Don't be sorry for that," Wonwoo said. "It was my fault I lied to Seungcheol... I feel like I'm betraying Seungcheol in so many different ways right now."

It was only then when she herself began to feel remorse. She was also betraying Seungcheol, but more importantly, she was betraying her family by putting her honor at stake with Wonwoo. She tried to imagine the look on her father's face if he ever found out about her involvement with Seungcheol's illegitimate half-brother. How furious would he be? She could almost imagine what he would say to her– about how she was defaming the honor of Galacia, how she was misrepresenting her country in the most licentious way.

"We should let you head back to your room now," Wonwoo told her. "You shouldn't be absent for long. If Seungcheol finds out about this meeting, he'll exile me from the country forever and not just a month..."

"Will this be the last time I see you for a month?"

Wonwoo nodded sadly.

"But you just came back."

"I know. It's regrettable, and I can't stand the thought of not seeing you for that long. My only consolation would be your letters. You'll keep sending them through Haein for as long as I'm there, right?" he asked.

Yewon assured him that she would.

"I'm going to try and stop Seungcheol from carrying out his battle plans, by the way," Wonwoo told her. "When he rides out to fight the Eastern province, I'll go to where he is and I'll try to stop him. I don't think it will work though, but please know that I'm trying."

She nodded. She didn't have much faith in his ability to sway Seungcheol, for he was stubborn and unreasonable, but at least there was someone out there with the intention of knocking some sense into him.

"There's one more thing I want you to know before I leave," Wonwoo said, his face suddenly going grim. "Usually, princes don't actually fight in wars and stay behind during the battles, but I have a hunch that this time, Seungcheol is planning to fight. He wants to fight because.... well, he wants to die."

Her heart felt like it stopped beating for a moment when she heard the last word. "What?"

"Seungcheol is an emotional person," Wonwoo told her. "And I think Jeonghan's death set his mind off into dangerous places. I'm hoping it's just a false impression on my part, but I genuinely do feel like he wants to commit suicide by fighting until death in the battle that Jeonghan had planned."