One Year

Red String

They spent the day together, just touching, kissing and teasing. Every meal was brought inside his room and they sat down to have their meal together. He would always give her food, while she would give him tofu and vegetables. Every time she placed the tofu or vegetable in his bowl she would challenge him.

"You dare not eat?"

Ryu would just smile and eat it. Since it was his Wife who gave it to him. Of course he would eat. Otherwise he would never have touched it.

They spent the evening reading books, side by side and talking about what they read. The held hands as they read and would occasionally read over each other's shoulders.

When night time came, Siri had the new guzheng that Ryu bought for her delivered. While Ryu drank wine by the balcony Siri played song after song for him.

Each song was more intricate then the next. Her finger flew over each note, picking each chord with ease and elegance. Ryu stared at his lovely and talented wife as she played for him. His heart growing ever lighter with each note she played. Her performance captivated him as she kept playing. After ten songs she stopped playing. Ryu had stop drinking his wine and she noticed he was still. So still that if she wasn't so close to him, she would have thought he was a statue.

"Husband." Siri said softly, bringing him back from wherever he went. "Is everything okay?"

Ryu slowly turned his head to look into her eyes.

"Em." Ryu said as he set his wine cup down.

"Happy?" Siri said, saying the same words he used on her, back to him.

"Em." Ryu said as he smiled at her. Those few words would forever be something only they would know about. Only something they would smile and laugh about.

"Having Fun?"

"Em. Aren't you?" Ryu said as he smiled even bigger.

"As long as Husband is having fun, Wife is having fun as well." Siri said as she pushed her guzheng aside. "But Wife thinks there are other ways husband and wife can have fun."

Siri's mischievous smile caught his attention as the mischievous light in her eyes challenged him. Siri slowly undid her robe she borrowed from Ryu and watched him watch her undress.

"Do you dare?" Siri said as she let the robe drop.

"This Husband dares very much!" Ryu said as he stood up to chase after her. Siri saw the lust in his eyes and she fled inside. Shrieking as she ran towards the bed. She could hear Ryu disrobing behind her as he caught up to her.

He threw her on the bed and she bounce a couple of time before his hard, heavy body laid over hers. There were no more words that needed to be said between them as they spent the night relearning about each other.

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After their two days together, seeing Siri became a need for Ryu. Even though Siri went back to her courtyard the next day and he had to go do his own things, he would find himself crawling into her bed at night. No matter how late he got in, he had to seek out Siri and be with her. The first time scared her because she wasn't expecting him, but once she heard his tired voice and smell his manly scent, she relaxed and promptly fell asleep in his arms. No matter how busy he was, there was a tug and a pull that lead him straight back to her. As if the red string of fate was tied onto him that lead him to her.

Within those two days, rumors about Yelona and Luna spread like wildfire. No matter how hard Prime Minister Chen tried to kill the rumors, it would rise up again and spread. It was as if there were someone behind the rumors. Prime Minister Chen counterattacked by creating a bigger drama so the public would then talk about that instead of his favorite daughters.

"How could you two girls be so stupid!" Prime Minister Chen said as he yelled at his daughters. "To offend Princess Siri and Prince Ryu in public. You two forget that the moment she married into the royal family, she became their people. Of course she would not give you any face. When have you two ever given her any face? Or treated her well? Because I favored the two of you, I shielded you. But now she has won Prince Ryu's favor, she has him as her shield. It is not a shield I can compete with at the moment, so we shall eat this bitterness that she gave us."

"It's all her fault---" Luna began to say before Prime Minister Chen hit the table to shut her up.

"Even now you will not accept your mistakes and learn from them. You're still going to be stubborn until the very end!" Siena said as she tried to reprimand her daughter, by lecturing her so she could shield Luna from her father's anger.

"Your sister is going to be married tomorrow and the rumors about you two are still running rampant! We must do something so it will not destroy your sister's chance at becoming a phoenix. Only then we can deal with Ryu and Princess Siri." Prime Minister Chen said. "Until your sister is married to Crown Prince Morgan, the both of you will not step out of your courtyard. You will prepare for Yelona's wedding and I don't want to hear any complaints."

Prime Minister Chen looked at his wife, Siena. " I will take care of the rumors, you take care of our daughters."

Siena went back to her courtyard as Luna and Yelona followed her. The two girls were quiet when they left their Father's courtyard. They had to look as if they were remorseful at their actions in front of their father so he wouldn't lecture at them more.

Once they were in Siena's living quarters, it was then that the tea set that was placed in the middle of the table were swiped off by Siena. The porcelain tea set broke when they were flung to the floor.

"That bitch!" Siena said as she looked for other items around her room to throw. When her eyes landed on an innocent serving maid picking up the tea set, Siena went to her and slapped her hard. The serving maid fell when she was slapped. But instead of crying out in pain, the serving maid knelt down on her knees and kowtowed to their mistress. This was not the first time their mistress vented her anger on to them.

"Who does she think she is? Just because she has the backing of Prince Ryu, she thinks she can bully us now? She thinks she can ruin us now? She thinks she is better than us now?" Siena said as she kicked the maid until the maid fell over and hit the broken tea set. When she landed, the broken tea set cutted into her body and a small droplets of blood started staining Siena's floor red.

"Nurse Simi, drag this useless maid out of here and beat her 20 times! Maybe the she'll know how to properly work." Siena yelled.

Nurse Simi was an old woman who have been serving Siena since the day she was born. She nursed Siena when she was just a baby and has been beside Siena since then. Soon several servants came to get the bleeding maid and clean up the mess before their Mistress could cause more servants any grief.

"We shall deal with that little bitch after Yelona gets married." Siena said to her daughters who sat on the couches as they watched their mother have a fit.

"We must guarantee that nothing goes wrong with Yelona's wedding tomorrow." Siena said.

"Mother, I know of a way we can deal with Siri." Luna said as she smiled evilly to her mother. "We can suggest to Queen Yuna to tell King Cai that Prince Ryu needs a concubine to ensure his legacy. Seeing how Siri hasn't gotten pregnant yet. You should imply that Crown Prince Morgan needs Prince Ryu's support to help win the throne. You should then suggest to give me as his concubine. By aligning Prince Ryu's side with both his wife and his concubine with the Prime Minister's house, will be a guarantee that he'll have no choice, but to lay his support to Crown Prince Morgan. Once I get married to Prince Ryu, I'll win his favor easily. Just like you won father's favor from that dead bitch. I'll kill Siri off like you did to her mother."