Heart of Ice

Haunting

When it was over, it was like all the shame and diffidence came crashing onto both of them all at once. They laid there together without saying a single word, not daring to even turn their heads in the direction of the other. But the atmosphere between them was not awkward; there was no tension there at all. It was just a kind of shyness from acknowledging what had happened, because it was nothing like what they had experienced together before.

For the first time since she married him, there was suddenly a synthesis between their bodies, and the whole experience felt different. There was no pressure or strain in her flesh, no pain or discomfort for her at all. The exchange played out with lax and tender fluidity, and for the first time for her, it was pleasurable.

When their breaths calmed down, and there was nothing left to fill the silence, Yewon decided to break it by saying: "I really liked that story. You should tell me stories like this more often."

Seungcheol glanced at her with a thoughtful look in his eyes and nodded. "As you wish, princess."

"Did it hurt?" she asked him, suddenly remembering the issues that he had. She had almost forgotten that sex was always painful for him, for he had done a good job of masking that pain if he had felt it.

"A little bit," he answered honestly. "But the pain was worth it for how it turned out."

She inched closer to him on the bed, putting her head on his shoulder and nestling against his chest as couples often did in novels after a session like that. He was welcoming of that, as he put his arms around her waist and kissed her head. She felt her heartbeat steadily rise again as he did so; he was so much more inclined to show her intimacy all of the sudden, and a part of her knew why.

"Be honest," she mused as she ran her fingers over the scar on his chest, "you're seeing me as Jeonghan now, right?"

He was silent, and Yewon took that as affirmation.

But despite that sad reality, it still felt so perfect being in his arms at that moment; she liked the warmth of his bare skin against her own and the feeling of his cheek nuzzled into her hair. Even if Seungcheol's heart was somewhere far away, she still felt it physically beat as she rested her head over his chest.

If Seungcheol liked to pretend that it was Jeonghan in his arms right now, Yewon also liked to pretend that it was her in his heart.

-

Yewon had planned to go to the hospital that day to check up on the patients, but mid-day, Haein had come and told her that Seungcheol had forbidden her from going. But Yewon was not the kind of person that would allow anyone to "forbid" her from doing anything.

She guessed why Seungcheol had done that; now that there was a scandal on the loose with whispers about Yewon and Soonyoung's clandestine sexual relations, she guessed that he only wanted to protect her from it.

As much as she dreaded going outside the palace where so many judging eyes would haunt her, she didn't want to stop going to the hospital for it. She felt that the patients would need her now more than ever, especially since they found out that their other beautiful nurse, Jinye, was a traitor who was now dead, naked, and dismembered, her putrid, rotting corpse out on the platform in the sun for the world to see.

And so she wanted to set the record straight with Seungcheol, and tell him that she was going to the hospital, and she was not going to take no for an answer.

When she arrived at his door, however, she heard yelling from the inside. Seungcheol was arguing with someone, and when the other person spoke, Yewon recognized that it was Wonwoo.