𑣲.maya

“y/n! hurry!” leehan laced his fingers with your own, pulling you towards the driveway that was covered in an untouched blanket of white powder.

you smiled softly watching your boyfriend get so excited over something as simple as the weather. you always pretended to dislike the fact that he made it his lifes mission to get you to enjoy the snow, but only you knew that deep down, you kind of enjoyed it. the reason? it made him happy.

“do i have to do this?” you muttered, shivering slightly.

leehan tilted his head, giving you those annoyingly sweet puppy eyes that he knew you’d give into in a heartbeat.

“fine,” with that, you picked up a small lump of snow in your glove and morphed it into what looked like a snowman in the making.

what felt like hours passed by while the two of you did all kinds of things outside, from making snowmen, to having a snowball fight. as the night rolled around, you wanted to call it a night, but someone had other plans.

“y/n could you go inside and order food for dinner?” leehans voice snapped you out of your thoughts.

“aren’t you gonna come inside?”

“i’m gonna stay out here for a little longer,” he smiled, although it never reached his eyes, you didn’t notice.

“i don’t trust you out here all by yourself, i’ll be quick.”

“i’m not a little kid!” he jokingly pouted, “take your time, i’m fine.”

you simply nodded and dragged your half frozen feet into the house, the warm air immediately stinging your frosted skin. you found your phone quickly, ordering what you thought leehan would normally enjoy.

unbeknownst to you, he wouldn’t be eating that food tonight—he wouldn’t be able to eat any food from that day on.

a loud thud from outside startled you, you gripped the phone, slipping it into your pocket, making your way to the window that gave a view of the front of the house where you last saw leehan.

nothing.

“huh?” your eyes scanned the front yard and driveway at eye level, then your eyes drifted down. god how you wished you didn’t.

there lying on the ground was leehan—your leehan.

you instantly ran out the door, shoes forgotten. there was a trail of blood coming out of his nose, eyes barely opened.

“i’m sorry,” he brought his hand up to your jaw slowly, “i’m sorry i didn’t tell you, don’t be mad at me..” he forced a smile

the empty streets made his words echo the tiniest bit, street lamps flickering on and off in the background.

your lower lip quivered, tears began to flow down your cheeks.

“i’m not mad at you, i would never. what didn’t you tell me?” your shoulders shook, having a feeling it was going to be bad. “leehan.. come on, let’s get you to a hospital okay? we can talk there.”

you pulled your phone out from your pocket with shaking hands, dialing the ambulance quickly.

the rest of the night was a blur of red and white lights, sirens blaring, and most importantly, the cold touch of your boyfriends hand.

he had vascular brain disease, he knew he had a few months left to live, and he spent them with you, laughing at your stupid jokes, dealing with your nonsense, all in your company.

and now? he was gone.

kim leehan had passed away, in your hands.

since that day, you went back to hating the cold—the snow, snowmen, anything that had to do with stupid, stupid snow, you loathed.

he cherished your love, and you were sure would too, forever.

NOTE 🗒️: hi im on my period and decided to make it everyone’s problem bc im agitated 😊 but also i feel like its not sad enough what the heck

TL (perm): @beababeomie @idontknowhattoputformyname @ivehan @jujuwos @ihanzzn @cinnamorollhyuka @ijustchokeonacaii

Call it dramatic, but you were so sure you'd be happy today. Your mom had called you in the morning to wish you bright and early, promising that the pastries she'd sent over would arrive soon. (It hadn't. Lost in mail or something like that. Now you have to wait another day to enjoy it.) 

But that's okay, you can deal with no pastries until tomorrow. There are the other things you can't seem to overlook no matter how hard you try though. 

Like how you'd walked into the kitchen this morning, expecting balloons and confetti from your dear roommates, but instead had been met with Woonhak stuffing a whole chicken leg into his mouth and running off without sparing you a second glance. 

But it's Woonhak, and his absurdity can be excused away by his usual personality. 

Then it was Wonhee refusing to let you into her room and letting Sungho drag you out to a cafe—until he got a phone call in the middle of your nice little hangout and had to run off after suggesting you get lunch and buy some nice clothes with the notes he presses into your hand. While you appreciated the money, you did not appreciate being abandoned in the middle of a cafe to have a sad meal all alone while you swore people kept judging you from the corner of your eyes. 

You were so sure at least one of your other roommates would come back for you. If no one else, then Jaehyun. Always him. 

He's been looking out for you since the first day you got here, all bright-eyed and ambitious to start a new chapter of your life. He's your closest friend here; all you wanted was a wish, a hug at best. He's never been shy with affection—always reaching for your hand or ruffling your hair or throwing a hand around your shoulder, pulling you close. 

Not a single wish from him either. You know it hurts the most out of everyone, and you also know the bite is more pinched because a part of you knows there's a small crush blooming there for him. 

Fuck Myung Jaehyun—and fuck all your other so called friends too. You had slumped in your seat as you stared down at your empty tea cup.

The last straw was a three year old wobbling over to your sad state and offering you her cookie, saying, “You look sad.” You agree with her, and you appreciate her offering, but being called out by a toddler for being a joyless adult is not a fun experience. 

And then things just kept going wrong, one after another like the worst game of dominoes in the world.

Your car broke down, your heel snapped, then you got rained on the whole time on your forty-minute walk back home. You're pretty sure you looked like a wet cat dragging its tail across the carpet when you trudged back in, not even bothering to go into the living room before beelining for your bedroom and crawling into your sheets.

Gross. You're sopping from head to toe, and now you need to do your laundry tomorrow—if you don't get sick from mold poisoning first that is. 

It's a terrible, horrible day, and the clock is dangerously ticking close to midnight, and all you've done today is be miserable and be ignored by your friends. Your phone died halfway through the outing, you have no energy or will to plug into the socket, and your legs ache from the whole godforsaken journey. 

Through the layers of blankets, you hear the creak of your door, footsteps approaching in tentative rhythm. 

“Hi,” a soft voice arrives, hesitant, and you feel someone stand above you. 

A part of you wants to keep sulking, try and see if they'll get tired of it and leave. But then there's a gentle hand removing the blanket off of you—Jaehyun’s guilty eyes coming to view in your reddened ones, half your face swallowed into the bed.

“What?” you spit back, and it comes out more of a Bwah.

He seems to understand anyways. “So,” he begins, inviting himself over to sit next to you. “You’re going to get sick if you don't dry yourself up—”

“I don't care. I'll just die.”

Your response is bitter and annoyed. Who is he to care whether you get sick or not? He didn't even wish you a happy 20th, didn't even come in to check until the end of the day. He'd forgotten, and now he wants to make amends so he doesn't look like the bad guy.

Well, fat chance—he is the bad guy. And he's a terrible friend. 

“Y/N-ie—”

“Don't ‘Y/N-ie’ me, Myung Jaehyun, get out of my room if you're done pretending to be concerned.”

Jaehyun is stricken at that. His face morphs from remorse to a frown, sad around the edges.

Then, “I'm not pretending. I do care.” His fingers are tense where they graze yours, voice hurt. “We’re... Today just went all wrong.”

“Tell me about it. It was the crappiest ever.”

“No, not like that. Not whatever you’re thinking of,” he stays adamant, coaxing your chin to look at him. And then he's brushing your hair back, settling himself on the bed so you're laying facing each other. It sends a spike of electricity through you that you blame on water and heat. “Woonhak accidentally put sugar into the chicken.”

…

You blink. What?

“What?”

“Woonhak,” Jaehyun repeats, huffing like he finds the situation insane himself. “He was supposed to handle your birthday breakfast. But he messed up the salt and dumped sugar into the pan, and when you walked into the kitchen, poor kid panicked and ate the whole thing himself so you wouldn't accidentally get a taste of his shitty cooking.”

“Oh.”

“Wonhee feels bad she had to say no to you hanging out in her room, too. She was blowing balloons in there…ended up bursting half the pack and then Woonhak had to run to get her inhaler for her.”

Oh. There's a weird sense of guilt running through you now, for assuming your friends had any hurtful intentions at all, but Jaehyun, observant as ever, swoops in to soothe you. He doesn't mind that your face is dewy with rain, his thumb brushes at your cheek when he says, “She’s okay, just beating herself up for needing to buy a second set of balloons, and apparently Leehan doesn't know how to colour-match them or something.”

“And Sungho?”

“Yeah, he,” Jaehyun sighs at the bad luck. “He was going to keep you distracted until we had gotten everything ready, but then the cake went missing, the florist got hospitalised for food poisoning, we almost burnt down the kitchen trying to fix dinner, and then he had to run out to save us…”

And all of it sounds wacky enough to be a lie, but you've been able to read Jaehyun from a mile away. The guy wears his heart on his sleeve and his entire soul on his face. “You burnt down the kitchen?” you ask, forcing a glare. 

“Almost,” he corrects, booping your nose to distract you. 

“You suck,” you grumble, but you lean into the touch instinctively, needing warmth. “Get me a towel.”

Jaehyun's eyes brighten up at your demand, excited to help out in any way now. He knows where you keep your things, so it proves to be not a hassle at all to find. 

When he sits behind you to dry your hair without needing to be asked, it feels like the world is slowly returning to peace again. Not in a monumentary way that fixes things forever, more of a gentle bandaid over a wound. And then, he says, “I wanted today to be good, y’know. I was hoping you'd be the happiest you ever were. Sorry for fucking it up for you.”

“You didn't fuck it up.” You shake your head. “It's not over yet. And you're here now, drying me off like some rabid cat you brought back from the street.”

Jaehyun giggles at your attempt to lift the mood. “You're satisfied by just this? So you don't want your present?”

Your head swivels around at breakneck speed. “Present!?”

He rolls his eyes playfully at your quick change in demeanour. “Later. When you're less drenched.”

You huff and pout, crossing your arms to turn away. The least he could do after putting you through that rollercoaster of emotions is get you something you like. Your mind is already twisting through all the possibilities of what it could be. A new album for your collection? That bracelet you've had your eye on since forever? Maybe tickets to the amusement park, like you've been hinting at for a while now, wanting to go with him. 

Jaehyun tries to get you to look at him, mumbling your name repeatedly to get your attention. You're too stubborn to give in now, even if your anger has melted away into warm excitement by now. It's just nice to be here with him at all. 

“Happy birthday, Y/N,” you hear Jaehyun whisper into your ear, the towel muffling the sound a little but doing nothing to stop the sparks shooting down your spine. His breath ghosts against skin, ticklish.

It's pure impulse that you turn your head to see him, and it's coincidental that he's a millimeter away from you, looking just as surprised, but making no move to widen the distance. 

He's right there. Looking all soft with his curly brown hair and rosy cheeks and fuck, you might just kiss away that pout on his lips if he doesn't stop you. 

And he doesn't. He's never stopped you now that you think of it, always a supporter of your whims—always your partner in crime. He's leaning in before you know it, and the sheets are bunched up within your fist, a hand at your jaw tilting it, his mouth on yours—

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Y/N!”

Woonhak’s loudspeaker-mouth ruins the moment, the door slamming on the side-wall, and suddenly there's a whole ocean of distance between you and your best friend. Your best friend who you would have really liked to kiss and turn into something more. 

But now Woonhak is barrelling into your personal space and throwing himself into a hug, pulling you against him even though your clothes are nowhere near dry. “We’re so sorry we messed up. We were trying to make it amazing for you and ended up doing the opposite, please don't be mad,” he whines, worrying that you were about to cut him off for eating your chicken. 

Wonhee, having deemed it safe to enter now that she can use Woonhak as a human shield if your wrath presented itself, also creeps up behind you to hug you. Then comes Leehan, who practically ragdolls himself and drags all four of you down into the bed, stacked up on top of one another, barely able to get your complaints out. 

“You're killing her on her birthday, let the poor girl make it to twenty-one,” Sungho’s chiding voice filters in through the gaps in the human-ball. Jaehyun cackles at the sight, then when he can't help but join in, bear hugs the entire group with arms as wide as he can make it. An exasperated Sungho follows suit when he reaches for him as well. 

It's suffocating, in a weirdly comfy way. The weight of people you love around you, on you, everywhere. So much love that you just want to squeeze them to oblivion, with uncontained affection. 

Through it all, you feel Jaehyun's fingertips grazing yours, looping around your pinky like a secret. Or like a promise to continue where you'd left off earlier. 

So you may have suffered through rain and dirt today, but it's okay. Because it's worth it when you have friends who pour their love into you—enough to swallow sugary chicken on your behalf, fight through their shitty lung capacity just to get you your balloons, and even almost burn down the house to make you happy. You have Myung Jaehyun to tell you that you're loved while he dries your hair for you, not minding any of the mess.

It's a good birthday, you realise. Everything feels right in the world again. 

Maybe turning twenty isn't all that bad after all. 

a/n: hehe i hope this was fun to read, and everyone who made it till the end pls do go slide into @luvbinnies milo's inbox and wish them a wonderful birthday and be really annoying about it too :D !! love youuuuu

REBLOGS APPRECIATED!

main masterlist

perm tl: @lovehakie @leehanaholic @ivehan @syunet @moesthinking @gentiliana @athenaisonlinee @wnouzi @amarecerasus @defnotsanni @cl4ir0l0v3r @knrejj @fayepz @nemoihan @ruuroom @woonbabie @i-am-not-dal @tenshi-sama @mwotgata @kazukazukiiii @qeeun-didi @izhypen @bee-the-loser @beomtomie @snoopymyung @dj-ami @itsmooniebaby @sycamoretree222 @yesongi @w3willris3 @nineooooo @nichozzystuffs @f-a-t-e-l-e-s-s @renvrr @mirouie @aer1z @velvetmae @geniejunn @elysianssoul @ihanzzn @cinnamorollhyuka @starriniqhts @fortaesan09

thank you for the support, ily ♡⸝⸝

Call it dramatic, but you were so sure you'd be happy today. Your mom had called you in the morning to wish you bright and early, promising that the pastries she'd sent over would arrive soon. (It hadn't. Lost in mail or something like that. Now you have to wait another day to enjoy it.) 

But that's okay, you can deal with no pastries until tomorrow. There are the other things you can't seem to overlook no matter how hard you try though. 

Like how you'd walked into the kitchen this morning, expecting balloons and confetti from your dear roommates, but instead had been met with Woonhak stuffing a whole chicken leg into his mouth and running off without sparing you a second glance. 

But it's Woonhak, and his absurdity can be excused away by his usual personality. 

Then it was Wonhee refusing to let you into her room and letting Sungho drag you out to a cafe—until he got a phone call in the middle of your nice little hangout and had to run off after suggesting you get lunch and buy some nice clothes with the notes he presses into your hand. While you appreciated the money, you did not appreciate being abandoned in the middle of a cafe to have a sad meal all alone while you swore people kept judging you from the corner of your eyes. 

You were so sure at least one of your other roommates would come back for you. If no one else, then Jaehyun. Always him. 

He's been looking out for you since the first day you got here, all bright-eyed and ambitious to start a new chapter of your life. He's your closest friend here; all you wanted was a wish, a hug at best. He's never been shy with affection—always reaching for your hand or ruffling your hair or throwing a hand around your shoulder, pulling you close. 

Not a single wish from him either. You know it hurts the most out of everyone, and you also know the bite is more pinched because a part of you knows there's a small crush blooming there for him. 

Fuck Myung Jaehyun—and fuck all your other so called friends too. You had slumped in your seat as you stared down at your empty tea cup.

The last straw was a three year old wobbling over to your sad state and offering you her cookie, saying, “You look sad.” You agree with her, and you appreciate her offering, but being called out by a toddler for being a joyless adult is not a fun experience. 

And then things just kept going wrong, one after another like the worst game of dominoes in the world.

Your car broke down, your heel snapped, then you got rained on the whole time on your forty-minute walk back home. You're pretty sure you looked like a wet cat dragging its tail across the carpet when you trudged back in, not even bothering to go into the living room before beelining for your bedroom and crawling into your sheets.

Gross. You're sopping from head to toe, and now you need to do your laundry tomorrow—if you don't get sick from mold poisoning first that is. 

It's a terrible, horrible day, and the clock is dangerously ticking close to midnight, and all you've done today is be miserable and be ignored by your friends. Your phone died halfway through the outing, you have no energy or will to plug into the socket, and your legs ache from the whole godforsaken journey. 

Through the layers of blankets, you hear the creak of your door, footsteps approaching in tentative rhythm. 

“Hi,” a soft voice arrives, hesitant, and you feel someone stand above you. 

A part of you wants to keep sulking, try and see if they'll get tired of it and leave. But then there's a gentle hand removing the blanket off of you—Jaehyun’s guilty eyes coming to view in your reddened ones, half your face swallowed into the bed.

“What?” you spit back, and it comes out more of a Bwah.

He seems to understand anyways. “So,” he begins, inviting himself over to sit next to you. “You’re going to get sick if you don't dry yourself up—”

“I don't care. I'll just die.”

Your response is bitter and annoyed. Who is he to care whether you get sick or not? He didn't even wish you a happy 20th, didn't even come in to check until the end of the day. He'd forgotten, and now he wants to make amends so he doesn't look like the bad guy.

Well, fat chance—he is the bad guy. And he's a terrible friend. 

“Y/N-ie—”

“Don't ‘Y/N-ie’ me, Myung Jaehyun, get out of my room if you're done pretending to be concerned.”

Jaehyun is stricken at that. His face morphs from remorse to a frown, sad around the edges.

Then, “I'm not pretending. I do care.” His fingers are tense where they graze yours, voice hurt. “We’re... Today just went all wrong.”

“Tell me about it. It was the crappiest ever.”

“No, not like that. Not whatever you’re thinking of,” he stays adamant, coaxing your chin to look at him. And then he's brushing your hair back, settling himself on the bed so you're laying facing each other. It sends a spike of electricity through you that you blame on water and heat. “Woonhak accidentally put sugar into the chicken.”

…

You blink. What?

“What?”

“Woonhak,” Jaehyun repeats, huffing like he finds the situation insane himself. “He was supposed to handle your birthday breakfast. But he messed up the salt and dumped sugar into the pan, and when you walked into the kitchen, poor kid panicked and ate the whole thing himself so you wouldn't accidentally get a taste of his shitty cooking.”

“Oh.”

“Wonhee feels bad she had to say no to you hanging out in her room, too. She was blowing balloons in there…ended up bursting half the pack and then Woonhak had to run to get her inhaler for her.”

Oh. There's a weird sense of guilt running through you now, for assuming your friends had any hurtful intentions at all, but Jaehyun, observant as ever, swoops in to soothe you. He doesn't mind that your face is dewy with rain, his thumb brushes at your cheek when he says, “She’s okay, just beating herself up for needing to buy a second set of balloons, and apparently Leehan doesn't know how to colour-match them or something.”

“And Sungho?”

“Yeah, he,” Jaehyun sighs at the bad luck. “He was going to keep you distracted until we had gotten everything ready, but then the cake went missing, the florist got hospitalised for food poisoning, we almost burnt down the kitchen trying to fix dinner, and then he had to run out to save us…”

And all of it sounds wacky enough to be a lie, but you've been able to read Jaehyun from a mile away. The guy wears his heart on his sleeve and his entire soul on his face. “You burnt down the kitchen?” you ask, forcing a glare. 

“Almost,” he corrects, booping your nose to distract you. 

“You suck,” you grumble, but you lean into the touch instinctively, needing warmth. “Get me a towel.”

Jaehyun's eyes brighten up at your demand, excited to help out in any way now. He knows where you keep your things, so it proves to be not a hassle at all to find. 

When he sits behind you to dry your hair without needing to be asked, it feels like the world is slowly returning to peace again. Not in a monumentary way that fixes things forever, more of a gentle bandaid over a wound. And then, he says, “I wanted today to be good, y’know. I was hoping you'd be the happiest you ever were. Sorry for fucking it up for you.”

“You didn't fuck it up.” You shake your head. “It's not over yet. And you're here now, drying me off like some rabid cat you brought back from the street.”

Jaehyun giggles at your attempt to lift the mood. “You're satisfied by just this? So you don't want your present?”

Your head swivels around at breakneck speed. “Present!?”

He rolls his eyes playfully at your quick change in demeanour. “Later. When you're less drenched.”

You huff and pout, crossing your arms to turn away. The least he could do after putting you through that rollercoaster of emotions is get you something you like. Your mind is already twisting through all the possibilities of what it could be. A new album for your collection? That bracelet you've had your eye on since forever? Maybe tickets to the amusement park, like you've been hinting at for a while now, wanting to go with him. 

Jaehyun tries to get you to look at him, mumbling your name repeatedly to get your attention. You're too stubborn to give in now, even if your anger has melted away into warm excitement by now. It's just nice to be here with him at all. 

“Happy birthday, Y/N,” you hear Jaehyun whisper into your ear, the towel muffling the sound a little but doing nothing to stop the sparks shooting down your spine. His breath ghosts against skin, ticklish.

It's pure impulse that you turn your head to see him, and it's coincidental that he's a millimeter away from you, looking just as surprised, but making no move to widen the distance. 

He's right there. Looking all soft with his curly brown hair and rosy cheeks and fuck, you might just kiss away that pout on his lips if he doesn't stop you. 

And he doesn't. He's never stopped you now that you think of it, always a supporter of your whims—always your partner in crime. He's leaning in before you know it, and the sheets are bunched up within your fist, a hand at your jaw tilting it, his mouth on yours—

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Y/N!”

Woonhak’s loudspeaker-mouth ruins the moment, the door slamming on the side-wall, and suddenly there's a whole ocean of distance between you and your best friend. Your best friend who you would have really liked to kiss and turn into something more. 

But now Woonhak is barrelling into your personal space and throwing himself into a hug, pulling you against him even though your clothes are nowhere near dry. “We’re so sorry we messed up. We were trying to make it amazing for you and ended up doing the opposite, please don't be mad,” he whines, worrying that you were about to cut him off for eating your chicken. 

Wonhee, having deemed it safe to enter now that she can use Woonhak as a human shield if your wrath presented itself, also creeps up behind you to hug you. Then comes Leehan, who practically ragdolls himself and drags all four of you down into the bed, stacked up on top of one another, barely able to get your complaints out. 

“You're killing her on her birthday, let the poor girl make it to twenty-one,” Sungho’s chiding voice filters in through the gaps in the human-ball. Jaehyun cackles at the sight, then when he can't help but join in, bear hugs the entire group with arms as wide as he can make it. An exasperated Sungho follows suit when he reaches for him as well. 

It's suffocating, in a weirdly comfy way. The weight of people you love around you, on you, everywhere. So much love that you just want to squeeze them to oblivion, with uncontained affection. 

Through it all, you feel Jaehyun's fingertips grazing yours, looping around your pinky like a secret. Or like a promise to continue where you'd left off earlier. 

So you may have suffered through rain and dirt today, but it's okay. Because it's worth it when you have friends who pour their love into you—enough to swallow sugary chicken on your behalf, fight through their shitty lung capacity just to get you your balloons, and even almost burn down the house to make you happy. You have Myung Jaehyun to tell you that you're loved while he dries your hair for you, not minding any of the mess.

It's a good birthday, you realise. Everything feels right in the world again. 

Maybe turning twenty isn't all that bad after all. 

a/n: hehe i hope this was fun to read, and everyone who made it till the end pls do go slide into @luvbinnies milo's inbox and wish them a wonderful birthday and be really annoying about it too :D !! love youuuuu

REBLOGS APPRECIATED!

main masterlist

perm tl: @lovehakie @leehanaholic @ivehan @syunet @moesthinking @gentiliana @athenaisonlinee @wnouzi @amarecerasus @defnotsanni @cl4ir0l0v3r @knrejj @fayepz @nemoihan @ruuroom @woonbabie @i-am-not-dal @tenshi-sama @mwotgata @kazukazukiiii @qeeun-didi @izhypen @bee-the-loser @beomtomie @snoopymyung @dj-ami @itsmooniebaby @sycamoretree222 @yesongi @w3willris3 @nineooooo @nichozzystuffs @f-a-t-e-l-e-s-s @renvrr @mirouie @aer1z @velvetmae @geniejunn @elysianssoul @ihanzzn @cinnamorollhyuka @starriniqhts @fortaesan09

thank you for the support, ily ♡⸝⸝

The morning after the garden feels almost unreal, suspended in the fragile space between memory and dream, as if the night had folded itself into a tapestry too vivid to name. Sunlight presses insistently through the thin curtains, warm and liquid, pooling in golden puddles on the polished floor. Dust motes hang in the glow, tiny suspended oracles, catching the light and drifting lazily, as if the world itself had slowed to honor the quiet of this hour.

The palace is already awake, though it moves in hushed, meticulous rhythms. Footsteps echo beyond your door, each tap against marble sharp yet fleeting, carrying the low hum of servants shuffling trays of polished brass, letters sealed with wax, and murmured snippets of news from the courts and lands beyond. The air is tinged with the faint metallic tang of old stone, mingled with the subtle perfume of lilies that someone has left in a vase somewhere nearby.

You try to focus on the pages spread before you— notes, maps, half-finished translations— but the ink swims across the parchment, writhing like living water under your gaze. Each letter seems to twist and blur, as if the words themselves are reluctant to reveal their truths so soon after the night’s impossible dreams.

Then you hear it.

A pair of servants, voices low, brittle at the edges.

“Another skirmish, they said— near the southern border this time. Farms burned.”

“Do you think it’s true?”

“Who can say? They silence as many mouths as they open.”

Their footsteps retreat down the corridor, fading into the stone-lined distance. The echoes die slowly, leaving behind only silence and the faint, almost imperceptible scent of ash— or perhaps it is just your imagination, conjured from the shadows of worry you cannot shake.

Later that morning, you are summoned. The throne hall greets you differently than you remember— its usual brilliance muted. The curtains are drawn, thick velvet shielding the room from the harsh glare of noon. Light falls in dim, slanted streaks across the polished marble, highlighting the gilded arches and deep carvings of past rulers with muted grandeur. Nobles cluster in loose groups beneath the soaring ceilings, whispering among themselves, voices low and quick, buzzing like insects trapped beneath glass, carrying rumors, grievances, and carefully concealed fear.

At the far end of the hall, Riwoo sits upon the throne. His crown gleams, not with brilliance alone but with a quiet, predatory cruelty, a ring of light and shadow biting into the sharp planes of his temples. Around him, the Council of Wolves drifts like predators in silk, their bodies poised, their voices weaving the story of rebellion and unrest into a tapestry both urgent and distant. Their words are venom wrapped in silk, offering counsel like whispered knives.

You are announced softly, almost reluctantly, a scholar rather than a courtier, a curiosity rather than a participant in this dangerous dance. For a heartbeat, Riwoo’s gaze finds you— brief, almost a flicker— but it draws the air from your lungs, leaving a hollow weight in your chest. You step forward, bowing low, inhaling the scent of candle wax, cold stone, and something indefinably royal, pressing in from all sides.

An advisor rises, a man whose teeth seem sharper than his smile, whose eyes glint like the edge of a dagger.

“My king, the reports from the borderlands are exaggerated. Isolated unrest, nothing more.”

A woman interrupts, voice thin, the tremor of fear barely disguised beneath her measured tone.

“And yet the granaries were burned, the crops lost. We cannot afford—”

Riwoo lifts a hand. The hall exhales as if held by some invisible cord. Silence deepens, not merely absence of sound but a living, pressing weight, curling around your skin, pressing against your chest, demanding attention. When his voice finally comes, measured, carrying effortlessly to every shadowed corner, it lands like stone.

“We cannot afford to trust only what we wish to hear.”

The hush lingers, vibrating through the columns and arches, as if the palace itself is listening. Every eye is fixed on him, yet it is not command alone in his gaze— something else shimmers there, unseen by others.

His eyes return to you, steady and unreadable.

“You’ve read the reports from the archives, have you not?” His tone is quiet, careful, and yet it resonates with a weight that demands truth.

Your throat tightens. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Then perhaps you see what my council does not.”

It is not a request; it is a challenge, a test.

You step closer, aware of the scrutiny that follows your every move, conscious of the foreign cadence in your voice against the polished Aurelian tongues surrounding you. Carefully, deliberately, you trace a path across the marble with your words— detailing drought along the riverbanks, the failure of crops, the simmering resentment in the outskirts that no crown decree can soothe. You speak with precision, yet some truths spill beyond careful control.

When you fall silent, Riwoo’s expression shifts subtly, almost imperceptibly— a softening of the imperious mask, enough to make your chest loosen.

“Thank you,” he murmurs, and it carries more than mere gratitude, a weight that hints at acknowledgment, at understanding beyond the council’s blind counsel.

Later, as you are dismissed, you pass near the throne. His hand rests lightly on the armrest, fingers tapping once— a quiet, deliberate rhythm, a heartbeat in code meant only for you. It feels like a question. Or perhaps a promise.

Outside, the corridors hum again with the servants’ cautious whispers, thinner now, more wary:

“They say the borderlands are burning.”

“They say the king listens to strange counsel these days.”

You keep walking, aware of every echo, every shadow, every breath in the immense, waiting palace.

The palace at night is no longer just a place of stone and marble; it is a living, breathing entity, ancient and watchful. The corridors exhale slowly, as if the building itself carries the memory of every footstep that has ever echoed within its walls. Light bends strangely here, flickering and pooling in pockets that make shadows stretch like liquid silk across carved pillars, gilded arches, and statues of rulers long dead. Their eyes seem to glint with awareness, catching torchlight in a way that makes it feel as though they follow your passage, silent witnesses to every secret, every whispered fear.

You walk only to think, yet each step feels inevitable, drawn by an unseen force. The polished marble underfoot hums faintly, reflecting torchlight in fractured patterns that dance along the walls. The air carries a layered scent: faint wax, stone warmed from the day, dust, and the metallic tang that always seems to drift from distant gates. There is also something faintly sharp, almost sweet, like old incense lingering in the halls where ceremonial rites are long forgotten. Even in the stillness, the palace whispers: a sigh from behind a tapestry, a faint click of a shuttered window, the metallic scrape of some long-abandoned hinge.

Your fingers graze the raised embroidery of the tapestries lining the hall. Each thread seems alive, telling stories you cannot yet decipher. One depicts a battle, the colors faded to rust and ash, the figures frozen mid-stride. Another shows the crown resting upon the head of a ruler whose eyes are hollow, yet unnervingly intent. The textures are rough, the faint warmth of centuries pressed into the cloth palpable against your fingertips.

At the turn of the corridor, moonlight cuts through a high arched window in a long, sharp blade of silver. Dust floats suspended in it, tiny motes of starlight drifting lazily across the cold marble. You pause, hand on the sill, gazing down into the gardens below. Even at night, the fountains glimmer as though restless, liquid mirrors reflecting something just out of reach. The hedges sway slightly, though no wind stirs. Water ripples quietly, and somewhere a faint splash echoes, soft and distant. The night itself seems to breathe here, slow and deliberate, holding its exhalation for you alone.

And then you hear it: the measured, deliberate rhythm of boots on marble. Not hurried, not alarmed, but full of quiet authority. Your chest tightens as your pulse answers the sound, and your body stiffens with both anticipation and recognition.

From the far end of the corridor, he emerges: Riwoo. The night seems to have shaped itself around him, orchestrating his appearance as if the building itself were aware of him. Stripped of the ceremonial weight of crown and regalia, he is startlingly real, human in ways that the daylight court never allows him to be. The black robe he wears falls in fluid folds, embroidered in delicate gold that flickers in the torchlight, tracing the contours of his shoulders and chest. His hair, loose and untied, brushes the nape of his neck, and the flickering flames illuminate faint planes of his face—cheekbones sharp, jawline smooth, throat exposed and vulnerable. A glint of metal at his wrist catches the light intermittently, suggesting quiet wealth, restraint, or perhaps a weapon hidden beneath fabric.

He stops, and silence descends like a heavy curtain, thick enough to press against your chest. Every sound of the palace— so often background noise— suddenly seems magnified: the slow, almost imperceptible settling of stone beneath centuries of weight; the distant drip of water echoing faintly from some hidden cistern; the whisper of torch flames licking their iron holders, hissing softly as the wax melts. Even the faint rustle of the tapestries along the walls feels intrusive in the charged stillness. The air between you vibrates with unspoken words, each inhale and exhale carrying an almost tangible weight, like the corridor itself is holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.

“You shouldn’t be wandering the palace at this hour,” he murmurs, voice low and restrained, a careful balance of command and weariness threading through each syllable. There is a subtle roughness to it, the hint of long days, of the crown’s unrelenting demands, and yet beneath that, something softer, a trace of vulnerability that betrays the careful mask he wears for everyone else.

You bow slightly, chest instinctively resisting the pull to shrink as you usually do before a king. “And yet here you are, Your Majesty,” you reply, steadying your voice, though every nerve hums with the awareness of him so close.

A flicker of something unnameable crosses his gaze— a spark, brief and electric, like sunlight glinting off steel— but it disappears almost immediately, swallowed by the shadows that pool along his sharp jawline. The moonlight from the high window spills across the marble beneath your feet, pooling silver and cold, outlining the delicate curve of your cheek and the tension in your shoulders. His eyes flick past you toward the gardens, calm and calculating, yet alert, scanning the darkened pathways below. “The guards claimed they heard movement near the eastern halls,” he says, his tone measured. “I came to see for myself.”

Your gaze follows his, tracing the silvered fountains below, restless even in the stillness of night. You catch the way water glimmers in the faint moonlight, the droplets suspended midair like tiny prisms, and the memory of their trickling sound mingles in your mind with the quiet rhythm of your own heartbeat. “And did you find anything?” you ask, keeping your voice even, though it trembles ever so slightly.

“Only you.” The words are simple, yet they hit with precision, delicate and dangerous, a brush of wind against the flame of your chest. The corridor seems to tighten, the walls themselves inching closer, compressing the torchlight and shadows around you, drawing the distance between you impossibly near.

Heat blooms in your chest, pulse accelerating, yet you manage to speak calmly, forcing measured words from the tension in your throat: “Then I’ll be sure to tread more quietly next time.”

He steps closer, the subtle shift of his presence bending the air, the warmth radiating from him pressing faintly against your skin. “Don’t,” he murmurs, voice low, restrained, intimate. “If I hadn’t heard you, I wouldn’t have come.” The words hang between you, suspended, more intimate than the closest touch.

You try to avert your eyes, letting them drift along the corridor walls, following the torchlight as it dances across intricate carvings of intertwining vines, thorns, and delicate flowers. Shadows slink between the grooves like living things, curling and stretching in the flickering glow. The scent of polished metal and faint smoke drifts faintly in the air, mingling with the cold night breeze slipping through the high window, carrying the faint aroma of distant gardens.

And yet, despite every attempt to distract yourself, every flicker of light or shadow, every texture of stone and metal, your attention is drawn back to him with inexorable gravity. Each micro-movement— his shift of weight, the subtle narrowing of his eyes, the faint rise and fall of his chest— feels amplified, as though the corridor itself conspires to compress the distance between you, to make the space feel impossibly small and intimate, a world suspended in the hush of night, alive only with the quiet, taut connection stretching between the two of you.

Passing him, your sleeve brushes against his hand. The contact is fleeting, almost a whisper of a touch, yet it lingers far longer in the quiet of the corridor than it ought. A spark flares, tiny but incendiary, traveling up your arm, along the line of your spine, setting nerves alight with a warmth that has nothing to do with the torches. His fingers tighten ever so subtly, deliberate but almost imperceptible— a question without words, an acknowledgment without possession. The slightest shift, and your breath catches.

The silence deepens, pressing against you like velvet draped over skin. It lives, it breathes, it waits, wrapping around your shoulders and pooling in the hollow between your chest and the curve of his. Heat radiates from him in faint, undeniable waves; his presence vibrates, a tension you can almost see coiling in the air between you. The torches flare briefly, flames flickering, casting a living pattern of shadow across the marble floor and carved pillars, stretching the darkness, yet neither of you steps back. Every instinct that once demanded caution is suspended— replaced by a sharp, thrilling awareness that you are both teetering on the edge of something forbidden.

“Do you ever tire of it?” you whisper, voice trembling almost imperceptibly, a confession more than a question.

He tilts his head, measured, deliberate, and you feel the slow calculation behind the movement. “Of what?” His voice is a low thread of sound, careful, precise, yet threaded with something warmer beneath the command.

“The weight. The watching. The—” Your gesture is vague, almost helpless, your words faltering. “The crown that doesn’t come off even when it does.” The weight of history, duty, and expectation presses into the spaces around you; even here, in this empty corridor, it presses against your shoulders.

He swallows, a small, almost imperceptible movement, but it sends a tremor through the still air. His voice, when it comes, is quieter than before, almost breaking the hush of night: “Every day.” There’s something fragile and human in it, something raw and intimate, a fracture of truth that echoes through you like the delicate splintering of glass in a dark room.

He steps closer, closing the distance with deliberate slowness, a gravity you cannot resist. The warmth of his body brushes against yours, searing and intoxicating, filling the space between the heartbeats that seem too loud in the quiet. Smoke, myrrh, and a faint metallic tang mix in the air around him—familiar, grounding, yet utterly intoxicating. His gaze travels across your face with painstaking care, memorizing every line, shadow, and subtle curve as though the memory of you might slip if he doesn’t imprint it now.

“Your Majesty—” you start, your voice taut with the weight of words left unsaid.

“Riwoo,” he interrupts softly, eyes never leaving yours. The name lingers on your tongue like a confession drawn in fire. You whisper it, and the sound trembles through the space between you, a delicate violation of decorum, a secret surrender neither of you can retract.

He exhales, slow and deliberate, almost a shiver that passes across his shoulders, raising a hand with infinite care. His fingers hover just shy of your jaw, so close the air seems to hum, a thin ribbon of tension binding you. You cannot move. You cannot breathe. Your thoughts scatter, leaving only the sense of him, the proximity, the impossibility of distance.

A distant door creaks somewhere— soft, insignificant, yet it is enough. The spell fractures instantly. His hand drops with a quiet decisiveness, the tension folding back into restraint like a knife slipping from soft leather.

“I should go,” he murmurs, reluctant, a note of something unsaid threading through his words. Yet his eyes linger, drawn to you, the torchlight skimming over the sharp planes of his face, casting gold and shadow, all distance and ache. Even as he turns, the careful cadence of his footsteps carries down the corridor, fading into the marble echoes, leaving behind only the faint flicker of the torches and a residue of what has passed: a silence electric with desire, memory, and the promise of encounters yet to come.

You stand long after he leaves, pulse racing, the memory of his presence burning against your skin. Returning to your chamber, the air feels altered, charged, as though the palace itself exhales, releasing its held breath. Your palm presses to the marble door, the cold seeping into your bones. Deep within the shadowed halls, you think you hear him still— slow, deliberate, echoing— long after the torches have guttered and died.

And in that echo, you realize the palace has not released you entirely. Its walls remember him as you do, the night holding onto the moments between you, stretching them, savoring them, folding them into eternity.

A few days have passed since the hallway encounter, yet the memory refuses to soften, refuses to fade. Every corridor you walk, every flicker of torchlight across the polished marble, seems to replay that brief, electric touch— the ghost of his fingers brushing yours, the intensity of his gaze holding you suspended, the heat that lingered in the spaces his body left behind. Even in the quiet solitude of your chambers, his presence seems to hover, ghostlike, threading its way through your thoughts, winding around your mind with subtle insistence. You catch yourself imagining the soft echo of his footsteps along the palace halls, the rhythm of him moving silently, deliberately, the crown’s weight on his head replaced in your mind by something lighter, almost fragile, unmistakably human. The thought makes your chest tighten, a pull you cannot explain, a longing that claws beneath the ribs.

And now, the summons arrives. The servant delivers the message quietly, the words almost trembling as they leave her lips: His Majesty requests your presence. Privately. There is no flourish, no ceremony, yet the understated gravity of it reverberates through you like a stone dropped into still water. Your heart hammers, a deafening drumbeat in your chest, the blood rushing hotly in your ears. You cannot deny the magnetic pull, the insistence of curiosity and desire that drags you through the shadowed corridors, as if your feet already know the path your mind still hesitates to follow.

Marble stretches endlessly beneath your careful steps, corridors yawning long and narrow under flickering torchlight that dances like small, sentient flames, bending and bowing shadows into impossible shapes along the walls. Each echo of your footfall seems amplified, as if the very air is listening, pressing against your ears, making every distant creak, every faint rustle of silk from a passing servant, impossibly sharp. You move with measured care, aware of the oppressive quiet that holds the palace in a suspended breath, an almost sentient hush that magnifies the tension threading through you.

When the doors to Riwoo’s private chamber swing open, you are first struck by the scent— a heady mix of old polished wood, beeswax, and something metallic beneath it all, a subtle trace that seems woven into the very air of the room, infused with him. It is his presence before you even see him, an invisible imprint in the walls, the furnishings, the shadows that flicker and twist in the soft candlelight. The chamber is silent except for the low hiss of a solitary candle flame, and the slow, unnoticed drip of wax that lands on the gleaming surface of the polished marble floor.

He stands near the window when you enter, framed by the spill of pale, silvered moonlight that slants through the tall, arched panes, cutting the shadows of the chamber into long, deliberate lines. The curtains sway gently in a faint draft, carrying the delicate, almost intoxicating scent of roses from the gardens below, mingled with the subtle, earthy tang of polished wood and beeswax from the floor. Stripped of crown and ceremonial weight tonight, he seems impossibly human, every line of him honed yet vulnerable, a figure both regal and startlingly intimate. The room itself seems to recognize it, as if bending around him, acknowledging the quiet authority inherent in the curve of his shoulders, the slow, measured rise and fall of his chest, the subtle strength that radiates without need of display. Even the shadows seem to cling closer to him, drawn into the gravity of his presence.

“You came,” he murmurs softly, his voice low, intimate, threading through the silence of the chamber like a live wire. No title, no formalities, no ceremony— just words suspended between you, vibrating with danger and electric tension, a private summons that feels more like a confession than a greeting.

“I did,” you reply, your own voice sounding foreign to your ears, small against the cavernous hush of the room, yet unflinching. “You summoned me.” The words tremble slightly, betraying the thrum of your pulse, but you do not retreat.

He turns toward you slowly, deliberately, as if revealing himself inch by inch, savoring the delay, testing the weight of your attention. Moonlight drapes across the sharp planes of his face, tracing shadows beneath his jaw, highlighting the subtle tremor at the edge of his lips— a tremor that hints at thoughts and emotions he does not voice. The air seems to thicken around him, and all the weight of unspoken days, silent corridors, and unsent letters seems to pool in the depths of his gaze. He studies you, not with critique, not with calculation, but with an intensity that presses against your chest, coiling in your ribs before your mind even recognizes it. There is a hunger there, restrained yet undeniable, a careful measurement of closeness and distance that pulls at you without permission.

“You’ve been thinking of that night,” he murmurs, and you do not— cannot— deny it. How could anyone forget the brief, searing warmth of his hand brushing yours, the way the air itself had quivered in its wake, the pulse of the moment lingering like a live thing in your skin?

“And you?” you whisper back, your voice barely rising above the hush, swallowed almost entirely by the chamber, trembling with vulnerability and anticipation in equal measure.

His lips twitch, the faintest hint of a smile that flickers and vanishes before it can fully form, teasing you, uncatchable. And yet his eyes— those impossible, unreadable eyes— betray nothing of the small, fragile admissions he allows only for himself. “Every day,” he admits at last, the words low, raw, almost fragile, carrying the weight of honesty that feels scandalously intimate. “Every corridor, every torch, every echo of marble— I see it again. I see you.”

The confession hangs in the air between you, heavy and electric, folding time and distance into the narrow space of the chamber. You feel the pressure of it pressing against your chest, catching your breath, igniting your senses— the faint scent of him in the still night air, the way the moonlight glimmers across the curve of his shoulders, the subtle rise of his chest as he breathes, the barely audible rustle of his robes shifting with him. It is a presence that both unnerves and anchors you, a gravity you cannot resist.

For a heartbeat, you do not move. You do not speak. All that exists is the delicate tension between you— the lingering heat of memory, the promise in unspoken words, and the quiet, undeniable pull toward each other that has been building since that fleeting, impossible night.

Your chest tightens, a knot of nerves and longing twisting low in your stomach, and yet beneath the fluttering of your pulse there is a fragile calm, delicate as mist yet undeniable. The unspoken acknowledgment between you is confession enough: both of you have been thinking, aching, haunted by the same fleeting, stolen moment that neither dared name aloud. The memory of his hand brushing yours, the quiet intensity in his gaze, echoes in your bones, reverberating in ways you can neither resist nor fully comprehend.

He steps closer, each movement deliberate, measured, magnetic, collapsing the distance between you until the space is no more than a whisper, a breath apart. You notice the subtle pulse at his temple, the faint lift and fall of his chest under the soft weight of his robe, the gentle curve of his neck where the moonlight caresses him like liquid silver. The candle beside him trembles in the draft, casting long, wavering shadows that stretch and curl across the walls, folding you both into a private, suspended world where time itself seems to pause.

“With you,” he whispers, his voice low, almost trembling, carrying the weight of unguarded truth. “I forget to measure. To calculate. To guard.”

The words strike you with the force of something raw, unshielded, a confession you had never imagined hearing, yet had somehow longed for without knowing it. Your hand rises almost unconsciously, tracing a line across the sleeve of his robe. He inhales sharply, a sound so soft it could be mistaken for your own pulse, and his eyes follow your fingers with quiet fascination before returning to your face, memorizing the curve of your jaw, the tilt of your lips, the subtle catch of light in your eyes.

The closeness is dizzying. Heat radiates from him in waves that press into your skin, mingling with subtle scents of smoke, myrrh, and something metallic — a faint trace of the blade he wears, even when unseen. The air thickens between you, electric and heavy, charged with desire unspoken but fiercely tangible. Your own breath hitches, shallow, urgent, and your heartbeat drums against your ribs like a signal too loud to ignore.

“I—” your voice falters, breaking under the intensity of proximity, the word barely a whisper.

“Do not ask me to stop,” he murmurs, tilting his forehead toward yours, the warmth of his skin pressing against the tense air, magnetic, irresistible.

You close your eyes for a heartbeat, leaning just slightly into the narrowing space, letting the heat, the tension, the quiet electricity fill every nerve, every hollow in your chest. His hand drifts along your arm with deliberate gentleness, brushing lightly yet leaving a shiver in its wake. It is both a question and a promise, a careful testing of boundaries that awakens something raw and awake in you.

He moves closer still, the faint brush of his shoulder against yours, the subtle, almost imperceptible scent that clings to him— smoke, myrrh, iron— enveloping you. The unspoken gravity of his presence presses into the small space of the chamber, grounding and igniting you at once, making every nerve, every sense, hyper-aware.

“I shouldn’t…” he breathes, his voice low, breaking slightly, the tremor betraying the restraint he fights to maintain.

“I know,” you reply, reverent, almost awed, yet you do not step back. There is an unspoken agreement that the small, shared world you inhabit in that moment is fragile, sacred, and entirely yours.

His lips tilt closer to your cheek, a breath away, carrying the faint warmth of him— a whisper of touch that is almost, impossibly, more intimate than any word. It is a confession without sound, deliberate yet delicate, unspoken yet electric, and it sends a shiver that snakes down your spine, pooling low in your chest and tightening your breath in your throat. The soft brush of his presence there — so close, so near, so tangible— leaves your skin tingling, each nerve awake and alert, each sense straining toward him as if the world beyond this room has ceased to exist.

Instinctively, almost unconsciously, your hand rises. Fingers trembling just slightly, you let them hover for a heartbeat before tracing the line of his arm, sliding lightly over the rich fabric of his robe. Your touch is tentative, exploring the warmth beneath, the quiet tension coiled like a spring beneath his skin, the subtle strength and restraint that he carries even here, away from the throne and crown. Each inch your fingers move, the air seems to thrum — heavy with desire, anticipation, and the magnetic pull that has drawn you both here— and you feel him shift ever so slightly under your hand, a quiet acknowledgment, almost imperceptible, that he notices, that he welcomes.

Your heart hammers in your chest, loud enough to feel in your ears, and yet the room is still. The only sound is the faint flicker of the candle beside you, throwing shadows that dance across the contours of his form and over your own. You can smell him— a heady mix of smoke, myrrh, and something faintly metallic that clings to him like a secret— and it presses into your senses, intimate and insistent, leaving you dizzy with awareness.

Every movement, every brush of skin against fabric, is slow, deliberate, a conversation of touch without words. You feel the subtle heat of him, the quiet strength of his arm beneath your fingers, the barely-there tension that hums in the space between you, as if the air itself is taut with desire and restraint. Time seems to fold, stretching out in that single, suspended heartbeat where nothing exists beyond the warmth and nearness, the shiver of anticipation that coils in your chest and whispers that something has shifted irreversibly between you.

And all at once, it is overwhelming— the nearness, the scent, the tension, the thrill of the unspoken promise— a delicate, intoxicating ache that leaves you both craving and terrified of what comes next.

Time stretches, languid and thick, as if the room itself has taken a deep, held breath. The candle flickers, shadows waltz across the walls, and your breaths mingle in the electric hush. Every inch of the chamber hums with what is forbidden, what is fragile, what could shatter with the faintest whisper.

Finally, he draws back, the space widening but still charged, humming with the memory of closeness, desire, and trust. “I should let you go,” he murmurs reluctantly, a quiet acknowledgment of crown, palace, and duty pressing in, of the walls that define him even when he wishes they did not. And yet, even in retreat, the tension lingers— a thread connecting you, taut and impossible to ignore.

Your fingers brush his once more as you step back, deliberate and lingering, a faint echo of everything unspoken, everything held in that small, electric space between you. The touch is feather-light, almost ceremonial in its restraint, yet it carries all the weight of the closeness you’ve shared: the heat of his skin, the quiet pull of desire, the strange intimacy that defies protocol, rank, and reason. You feel it resonate in your fingertips, spreading up your arm and settling low in your chest, a tremor of sensation that is at once thrilling and terrifying.

The candle beside you flares briefly, sending the shadows crawling across the carved walls, long and fluid, folding in and out like whispered secrets. The flame catches the delicate angles of his face one last time, illuminating the line of his jaw, the faint pulse at his temple, the subtle curve of his lips— details that imprint themselves on your mind with stubborn clarity. When the door closes behind you, the sound is soft but final, a click that marks the separation yet does nothing to erase the resonance of him in the air around you.

Heart hammering and pulse wild, you stand for a moment in the quiet, letting the silence press against your ears. Every corner of the chamber seems to remember him, every lingering scent of wax and rose and faint metallic undertone pulling you back, tugging at the edges of your awareness. The intimacy, the closeness, the unspoken confessions— they all linger, heavy, tangible, threading through your body in waves. You can still feel the brush of his hand, the warmth that radiated, the subtle tension coiled in him like a spring, waiting to be released.

As you move down the corridor, each step soft against the marble, the palace seems to exhale around you, a slow, measured breathing that carries echoes of the night. Yet the heat, the ache, the memory remains alive in your chest, coiled and restless, whispering that something has shifted, that the quiet corridors, the torchlit halls, the polished marble of Aurelia, will never feel the same again.

And in that hush, in that lingering pulse of sensation, you realize: this is only the beginning. The memory of tonight — of his voice low and intimate, of his nearness, of the brush of his touch— will follow you. It will thread through every marble hall, every whispered corridor, every shadowed alcove, imprinting itself onto the palace and onto you, marking both of you in ways neither crown nor duty could ever erase. The memory clings like a shadow, silent but insistent, promising that this quiet, forbidden intimacy will echo, unbidden, through every waking hour and every careful step you take, binding you to him in ways your heart already knows.

Morning light spills through the high stained-glass windows of the royal library, fractured into ribbons of color that stretch across the polished oak floors like liquid rainbows. Dust motes drift lazily in the shafts of sunlight, suspended midair as though frozen by the quiet magic of the place. The scent of old parchment, polished wood, and a faint hint of beeswax fills your senses — comforting, sacred, almost intoxicating. Surrounded by towering shelves of ancient tomes, some stacked so high they vanish into shadow, you feel simultaneously infinitesimal and infinite: infinitesimal in the weight of history pressing around you, infinite in the possibility of discovery and knowledge each page promises.

Your hands linger on the embossed covers of books, tracing delicate patterns of inked vines, gilded letters, and filigree borders. Each touch carries a reverence, a small ritual, a private intimacy with centuries of thought. Even in the hush, the library feels alive: a soft creak beneath someone else’s step, the whisper of pages turning in a far-off alcove, the distant hum of voices filtered through stone walls thick enough to hold centuries of secrets. Here, even silence has texture — thick, almost tangible, pressing softly against your ears, reminding you that every movement, every whispered sound, is amplified.

You move carefully, finding your alcove tucked behind a row of shelves. The shadows are generous here, swallowing your small figure from prying eyes. You slide a folded note into the narrow space inside a leather-bound volume, leaving only a corner peeking out — an invitation only he would notice. Your fingers linger over it, imagining his long, elegant hands brushing against the paper, the slight hesitation before recognition sparks a faint twitch of a smile. You can almost hear the faint intake of breath, the quiet shift of his weight as he reads between the lines.

The lavender-scented ink carries more than fragrance; it carries intention. Each word is layered with hidden meanings, subtle challenges, teasing jabs that only someone clever — someone like him — could untangle. You fold the note with meticulous care, pressing it flat, and your chest tightens with the thrill of this quiet intimacy. There is a delicious ache in knowing he will see it, read it, respond, all while remaining unaware to anyone else.

You imagine him now: sliding the note free with that long, precise grace, fingers tracing the edges, eyes flicking across your words, lips twitching in amusement or approval, perhaps pausing to hold the note close to his chest for a heartbeat before moving on. The thought sends a shiver along your spine. You place another note in a subtler spot, almost playful, threading a gentle challenge into the phrasing. Each line is deliberate, a small test of his intellect and attention, a private dance across words and ink.

And then — as if in answer — you find a token left in the margin of a familiar book. A pressed flower, delicate and slightly faded, its petals soft beneath your fingertips; a scrap of silk, smooth and fragrant, carrying the faintest trace of him, a scent that is smoke and myrrh and something indefinably metallic; a tiny piece of parchment, folded with painstaking precision, marked with a symbol only you both could understand. It is small, understated, almost fragile, but it hums with intent, threading a connection through space, through time, through thought itself. You turn it over in your hand slowly, feeling the invisible brush of him in your imagination: the ghost of his touch lingering along the curve of the silk, the faint warmth of his fingers over the pressed petals, the care with which he had folded the note so that it would reveal itself only to you.

The alcove seems to shrink around you as you settle into its shadowed embrace, the weight of the token in your palm anchoring you to this secret, sacred communion. Your heart hammers in your chest, but your fingers tremble with a delicious, almost unbearable anticipation as you unfold the accompanying note. His words — elegant, precise, deliberate — tease and provoke, drawing your mind into a dance you cannot resist. Yet beneath the intellect, beneath the playful challenge, there lies a current of intimacy so palpable it sends shivers crawling up your spine.

“Did you truly think the northern scholars would notice your arguments?” it reads, ink looping in his familiar, controlled hand. You pause, absorbing the footnote tucked beneath it — a coded aside, a private jest that speaks to your shared understanding and your mutual, unspoken complicity. You smile, slow and involuntary, and feel your pulse quicken as you imagine the resonance of his voice speaking these words aloud: low, deliberate, husky, carrying amusement and approval, and, beneath it all, a tension that hints at a desire carefully restrained.

You lift your hand to the note again, letting your fingertip trace the letters, lingering over curves and lines, as though mapping the path of his mind across the page. You can almost hear the faint exhale he might make upon seeing your clever reply, the slight tilt of his head, the subtle narrowing of his eyes in concentration. Every imagined gesture makes the room around you feel simultaneously immense and impossibly intimate, the library itself shrinking to the space between your heartbeats and the whispered connection threaded through ink and paper.

Your response takes form slowly, with equal care: a note layered with teasing, subtle flirtation, intellectual sparring, and hints of memory — of the hallway where his nearness burned quietly, of the private chamber where proximity had been an unspoken temptation. Each word is chosen like a step in a delicate dance; each sentence a brush of fingers across nerves, each footnote a whisper meant only for him. Your thoughts pour into ink, fingers moving with reverence, imagining how he will read, decipher, savor every turn of phrase, every hidden meaning. The note becomes an extension of yourself, a hand reaching across the distance to him, a pulse that seeks response.

Hours slip by unnoticed, marked only by the shifting light that dances through the high windows and the slow flicker of the candles you’ve left unattended in distant alcoves. You are absorbed entirely in this rhythm, hiding a note here, sliding a token there, imagining his concentration, the subtle tension in his posture as he deciphers each hidden meaning. You picture his lips twitching in amusement or the barest flicker of recognition that acknowledges your shared secret. Every imagined heartbeat of his — every twitch of a finger, every pause — resonates in your chest, echoing in a symphony of desire restrained, desire acknowledged, desire held just beyond reach.

The threat of discovery sharpens every sensation. A servant’s footstep in the hallway, a distant creak, the flutter of a page as if it moved on its own — each sound cuts through the alcove’s stillness, sending a thrill of danger through your veins. Every glance over your shoulder becomes electric, every shadow a potential witness to your secret. And yet, the risk only intensifies the exhilaration, makes every imagined touch, every silent communication, feel urgent, necessary, vital.

In the quiet hum of the library, with sunlight and shadow painting the walls in intricate mosaics, the notes and tokens form an invisible dialogue, a private, unbroken thread binding you both. Each discovery — each small, deliberate gesture — becomes a pulse, a tether through which your hearts communicate across distance and duty, intellect and restraint, desire and careful moderation. You cannot see him now, cannot touch him, yet he is everywhere in the alcove with you: in the weight of the silk, the softness of the petals, the curl of the parchment, the delicate teasing of words and footnotes, the quiet heat of an unspoken confession lingering between every carefully chosen sentence.

Sometimes you pause mid-note, your fingers hovering just above the page, breath caught in your chest as your mind traces the imagined path of his hand. You see it brushing lightly across the ink, so careful, so deliberate, and feel the warmth that seems to cling to the paper as though it could leap through the parchment and ignite your skin. The faint scent of him — smoke, myrrh, something metallic beneath it all — drifts across your memory, and you imagine it filling the space around you, warm and insistent, a quiet proof of his presence even in absence. The tension coils in your chest, mirrored in the careful restraint you know he must be practicing, the same careful control that binds him even as it binds you. And in that fragile, suspended moment, your lips curve into the smallest, almost secret smile: because you know — you can feel it in the marrow of your bones — that he too experiences the same magnetic pull, the same ache of proximity and unspoken desire, and that thought is as exquisite as it is dangerous.

The sunlight drifts slowly across the library, streaming through the high stained-glass windows in molten streaks of gold, crimson, and sapphire. The beams slant over towering shelves, casting kaleidoscopic patterns across polished oak floors, across spines worn smooth by centuries of hands. You return again and again to your alcove, drawn as much by the shelter it provides as by the memory of him. Fingers trace familiar books with reverence, lingering over embossed covers and gilded edges, as though the weight of those tomes could carry him to you, or, at least, bring his presence closer. Each book you touch seems to vibrate slightly under your fingers, alive with the whispers of shared secrets and imagined gestures.

Notes multiply in subtle proliferation, tucked carefully into the spaces of books he is likely to choose. Each line, each footnote, carries layers of meaning: teasing challenges wrapped in civility, questions framed to provoke thought and curiosity, references that only the two of you can decode. Tokens accumulate, tiny and deliberate: a pressed flower that hints at memory and care, a strip of silk perfumed faintly with your chosen scent, a folded scrap of parchment inscribed with a symbol no one else could recognize. The austere library — with its soaring ceilings and solemn order — transforms under your attention into a private theater: a delicate stage where your minds converse in whispers of ink, and every gesture, however small, carries a charge, a pulse, a promise.

Even the smallest artifact takes on disproportionate weight. A scrap of silk pressed into a book’s spine hums with intention, its fibers seeming to vibrate with your imagined touch. A pressed flower blooms not just with color, but with meaning — the quiet resonance of thought and longing threaded into each delicate petal. Each word penned, each fold made, each imagined brush of fingers conveys more than ink and paper; it carries secret confessions, restrained yearning, shared curiosity, and the subtle thrill of intimacy that crown and duty forbid. The library hums around you, indifferent to the intricate web you weave in shadow and sunlight, yet in that very indifference it becomes sacred — a sanctum for the hidden language you and he have created, a space where every gesture, every exchanged token, every imagined glance is magnified into a universe of connection.

A note slipped between the pages of a book, a tiny token left as if by chance, becomes an entire language. It is a conversation without sound, a confession without voice, a closeness that cannot be sanctioned yet cannot be denied. Your heart hammers as you tuck the latest note into place, imagining the curve of his long, elegant fingers over the page, the faint twitch of his lips in amusement or recognition, the subtle tilt of his head as he deciphers your intent. And in that imagined moment, the tether between you hums — fragile, shimmering, impossibly electric — stretching across the distance of stone corridors, across the weight of rules, across the careful, endless restraint imposed by palace life. It vibrates with desire and intellect, curiosity and affection, and a quiet understanding that despite separation, despite all barriers, you are connected, deeply and irrevocably, through thought, through imagination, and through the delicate, dangerous intimacy of your shared secrets.

The days following your private exchanges with Riwoo are no longer just quiet, sunlit hours in the library; they are careful dances of risk and observation. Every note you slip into a book, every token you leave behind, must be executed with painstaking precision. A servant passes the shelves, hips swaying, eyes flicking toward you; the faintest glance and your pulse leaps, a spike of fear sharpening every movement. You hold your breath, waiting for a sign that the secret has been betrayed, that one careless step could undo everything.

The palace itself seems to lean in, conspiratorial and watchful. You move among rows of tomes, heart hammering, aware that every footfall echoes, every rustle of parchment could be noticed. Sometimes, shadows seem to stretch unnaturally, and you imagine him — Riwoo — watching from some hidden corner, reading your mind as surely as you read his notes.

And yet the stakes are greater than mere personal longing. Some of the notes carry intelligence, subtle threads of strategy hidden in layers of academic discussion. A comment about irrigation disputes masks observations about borderlands; a marginalia notation on a translated treaty hints at rebel movements. You write as carefully as a general, plotting both defenses and subterfuge, while simultaneously sending small pulses of intimacy only he could detect.

The thrill and the danger mingle into a heady tension. You imagine the brush of his fingers over one of your notes, the near imperceptible smile at a line meant only for him, and it sets your chest alight. And yet, every glance over your shoulder, every faint cough from a passing servant, reminds you how delicate the balance is. Discovery would be ruinous — for you, for him, for the fragile world you are constructing in these whispered, hidden spaces.

Riwoo, for his part, is equally careful. He leaves tokens in return, sometimes a flower pressed between pages, sometimes a folded slip of parchment with coded remarks on strategy, always layered with meaning that only you would fully understand. Every exchange is a game of intellect and nerve: a chessboard in the quiet alcoves, where the stakes are both rebellion and desire.

You feel it acutely — the paradoxical closeness in distance, the intimacy threaded through calculation, the soft brush of his mind against yours across ink and paper. The palace may be watchful, the courtiers ever vigilant, but in these moments of secret exchange, the two of you occupy a universe of your own making.

And yet paranoia lingers like smoke. A servant’s footstep can make your hands tremble; a sudden shadow can freeze you in place. Every note, every token carries the potential to betray not just your secret affection, but the very safety of Aurelia’s borders. You slip your latest message into a book with care, your fingers brushing the pages as if the touch itself might carry meaning, imagining his hands following yours, following the line of ink, understanding the dual language of intellect and longing.

This is no longer just affection or intrigue. It is survival, strategy, and desire entwined, each note a pulse of the heart and of the mind, each token a whispered promise and a calculated move against enemies seen and unseen. And in this delicate dance, you feel more alive than ever — terrified, exhilarated, and completely entangled with him.

The throne hall is a cathedral of gold and light, where crystal chandeliers hang like frozen constellations, scattering fractured rainbows across the polished marble floors that gleam with almost unbearable perfection. The walls are gilded and carved with intricate reliefs of past kings and queens, their stone eyes unyielding and judgmental, seeming to follow every movement with silent scrutiny. Mirrors double the brilliance, echoing the glint of gold and crystal until the hall feels infinite, a space both beautiful and suffocating.

The air is thick with layered scents: roasted meats warming on polished platters, spiced wine in delicate crystal goblets, and the faint, lingering fragrance of roses from the royal gardens outside. Every inhalation carries both comfort and tension, the aroma a reminder of the palace’s opulence and its careful, unyielding control. The hum of conversation drifts through the hall, polite and measured, punctuated by laughter that never quite reaches the eyes. Whispers curl along gilded walls like smoke, a constant undercurrent of judgment, gossip, and unspoken plotting.

Courtiers move with the precision of a well-rehearsed dance, sequins and silk rustling with each calculated step. Heads tilt at the right angles, hands fold just so, and the smallest gesture — the brush of a hand against a sleeve, the way a servant carries a platter — can be scrutinized and misinterpreted. You notice it all. Every tilt of a shoulder, every sideways glance, the subtle way a noble’s eyes linger a moment too long. And you feel it too: the weight of every gaze, the pulse of scrutiny that follows your movements like a shadow.

Then, across the vast expanse of the hall, you see him. Riwoo. Sitting with perfect composure, a statue of grace and power, the crown balanced effortlessly on his head as if it were born there. His shoulders are squared, back straight, yet there is a subtle tension — the slight hitch of breath, the faint crease of thought across his brow — that betrays the storm of his mind, the private battles hidden beneath the public mask. His eyes meet yours, and even the briefest flicker of recognition feels like fire licking your nerves. The world narrows, the gilded hall, the murmuring nobles, the glinting chandeliers — all of it fades. For a heartbeat, the only thing that exists is the space between the two of you.

Every movement becomes loaded with meaning. You reach for your goblet, and your hand brushes his under the table. The contact is light, almost accidental, yet deliberate enough to send a thrill skittering along your spine. Heat blooms in your chest, your pulse spikes, and you imagine his fingers brushing yours, the quiet pressure of his palm against yours. The touch is forbidden, dangerous, and intoxicating — every nerve alight with awareness.

Subtle gestures become your conversation. He tilts his head slightly, raises an eyebrow just so, and you understand — a question, an acknowledgment, a silent challenge. You respond with the faintest shift, leaning just enough for your shoulder to graze his, a whisper of touch that could be mistaken for carelessness but carries volumes. Your mind reels with possibilities: what he thinks, what he feels, what he imagines you thinking. Every small, silent exchange is a declaration of defiance, intimacy, and desire.

The music coils around the hall like smoke, a waltz of strings and delicate percussion, soft but tense, matching the rhythm of your quickening pulse. Every brush of your hands, every slight touch of thigh against thigh beneath the table, becomes a private rebellion. You imagine the scandal if someone noticed, the way whispers would curl through the Council of Wolves, sharp as knives, slicing at reputations. And yet the danger only sharpens the thrill, making every forbidden touch, every stolen glance, more electrifying.

You notice him in the details no one else would see: the candlelight catching the sharp angles of his cheekbones, the faint rise and fall of his throat with each controlled breath, the subtle tightening of his jaw when he senses your attention. These are private signals, intimate markers only you are allowed to perceive. Each microgesture — the twitch of a lip, the brief pause in movement, the imperceptible flex of his hand — is charged with unspoken confession.

He leans imperceptibly closer, and your hand brushes his again, fingertips lingering, the warmth spreading through your arm and settling in your chest. You dare a fraction of a second of eye contact, long enough to feel the fire of recognition, short enough to remain unseen. Every nerve is taut; your body hums with awareness of him, of the space you occupy together in public but secretly belong to each other.

A servant glides past, and you freeze, pulse hammering. Every small movement is measured; every breath seems louder than it should. The risk only deepens the intimacy, each contact beneath the table a stolen thrill, each glance across the banquet hall a quiet, daring rebellion. You imagine his breath, his hand, the subtle weight of his presence pressing against your senses without ever touching directly, and it is almost unbearable — the delicious ache of restraint and longing mingled together.

The meal stretches, endless courses arriving and departing, clinking plates, murmured conversations, the faint rustle of silk and velvet as courtiers shift. And yet you are consumed by him: by the way his fingers hover near yours, by the tilt of his head, the flicker of a smile, the quiet magnetic pull that draws you closer even as decorum demands distance. Each touch, each glance, each microgesture under the table carries a weight that words could never convey.

Your thigh brushes against his again, almost imperceptibly. You imagine his pulse quickening, the subtle shiver of awareness, the quiet acknowledgment of shared desire. You tilt your head, meeting his eyes for a fraction of a heartbeat, and the world contracts: the banquet, the court, the gilded walls, the chandeliers — all witnesses to your careful defiance, all irrelevant to the private universe you share.

As the final course is cleared, the musicians playing a lingering, soft cadenza, you feel the tension lingering in your bones, a quiet ache of want and risk intertwined. Every stolen contact, every secret glance, every subtle acknowledgment of desire has woven a tapestry of intimacy and rebellion between you, delicate and dangerous. You rise from your seat, heart pounding, fingers tingling, mind racing, acutely aware that the forbidden proximity you have cultivated in the gilded hall has set the stage for everything yet to come.

The thorns and roses of the court press close around you both, beautiful, perilous, intoxicating. And in this slow, exquisite tension, you know — this forbidden intimacy, these stolen touches, these brief, potent moments of connection — are only the beginning. The court may watch. The Council may whisper. The world may intrude. But here, in these gilded halls, beneath the chandeliers, your secret defiance blooms, vibrant and alive, a promise of what is yet to come.

creds: gold frame by @rmstitanics ♡

tags: @tsanho ⸝⸝ @pupillary ⸝⸝ @taestulipss ⸝⸝ @leehanaholic ⸝⸝ @beomtomie ⸝⸝ @mwotgata ⸝⸝ @kaixlix ⸝⸝ @haede-shi ⸝⸝ @ivehan ⸝⸝ @angelwings-fly ⸝⸝ @kjunebuggie ⸝⸝ @niiqv [wanna be tagged in my next fic? comment on the reader registry!!]

the final round was an intense battle between the many many (3) taesans and our favourite introvert riwoo, but one man has come out on top!

AND THE CROWN BELONGS TO... [DRUMROLL].....

[scroll down!]

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RIVAL! TAESAN X F! READER DARK ACADEMIA MURDER MYSTERY!!!

CONGRATS TO THE KING!!!

the fic will be very likely a long one, given the mystery part of the plot and my inability to condense my thoughts. current placeholder title for the fic is helter skelter (which is a beatles song!) or a numbers game (relevant to plot maybe we shall see).

thank you again everyone for playing! im sorry to say that the rest of the requests will be now deleted and very likely won't be written. i have leehan's hogwarts fic (quill you be mine?) and this fic left before i can cross out my list for the year.

thank you!!!!

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jk hehe

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SO! i know what i said, that one final winner will be decided from votes, however.... i lied 😁😁😁

for fairness, and due to the nature of the genre, taesan's murder mystery fic -requested by kathy @dat-town - will be a longfic and more detailed,, BUT the rest of the ideas will also be written! they are now officially added to my coming soon post (you can guess which request is which from the title), and the synopsis and details will also be added in due time. i really love how everyone was so passionate for these stories so it would be a shame to throw them away forever...

these will be written as drabble fics/scenes (approx 2-5k) but knowing me, there is no guarantee that they may not grow into longer stories lolll. so yes! we are getting introvert riwoo, soccer capn jaehyun, gfz love triangle, howlsan, arielhan and everything else too! this will be my official (but unspecified) schedule for the year. you can also come by to tell me your favourite scenes so i can choose one that suits my style as well, if you so wish to! :))))

please do have patience though bcs im still chipping away at very ambitious and long works on my ao3 alongside this haha.

if you'd like a recap of all wacky journey we've been on through this event, including the amazing howlsan vs arielsan art that aylin @starriniqhts has done, you can go to this link and scroll down!

THANK YOU AGAIN! I love you alllll (pls don't hate me too much for toying with your feelings hehe......hopefully this was a rollercoaster ride you enjoyed as much as i did 🥰🥰🥰

div by: @/thecutestgrotto

♡ tl: @lovehakie @leehanaholic @ivehan @syunet @moesthinking @gentiliana @athenaisonlinee @wnouzi @amarecerasus @defnotsanni @cl4ir0l0v3r @knrejj @fayepz @nemoihan @ruuroom @woonbabie @i-am-not-dal @tenshi-sama @mwotgata @kazukazukiiii @qeeun-didi @izhypen @bee-the-loser @beomtomie @snoopymyung @dj-ami @itsmooniebaby @sycamoretree222 @yesongi @w3willris3 @nineooooo @nichozzystuffs @f-a-t-e-l-e-s-s @renvrr @mirouie @aer1z @velvetmae @geniejunn @elysianssoul @ihanzzn @cinnamorollhyuka @starriniqhts

previous . masterlist . next

a/n: dont have anything to say and lowk a boring chapter sorry BUT THE IVE CONCERT IS TONIGHT IM SO EXCITED

TAGLIST (CLOSED)

@gentiliana @beomtomie @moesthinking @evezwrlds @enhypenlvrsstuff @niiqv @lovehakie @started-with-f-ends-with-uck @wiihan @chocosan44 @coerbnz @wnouzi @sa1nt-kitty @coriihanniee @riuscheri @ziziforsan @taestulipss @flowerstaesan @ihanzzn @coergene @whosleehan @acaifeen @riumori @ihankaji @himewonu @gigisnextdoor @lusayyawnn @gn4zri @xionvlog @cinnamorollhyuka @lovelylimonz @starriniqhts @beababeomie @kazukazukiiii @idontknowhattoputformyname @chryysoo @itsactuallylina @skibidiev @niceguyfreshguyofthenight @leehanaholic @sogiski @seungkwanglazer @hollxe1 @prodkwh @bamgeutori @emislove @atdeerhunter @hraethy @pinkiwinkiminki