As soon as the two manage to avoid any suspicious and questioning eyes when they made their way through the maze of the palace hallways, they tumble into the princess' bedroom. Small laughter escapes past her lips as she loops her arms around his neck, while the young king has his firmly around her waist.

With the bedroom door closing behind them, he pushes her against the door before placing his lips on hers, breathing in the mixture of the princess' perfume and the lavender scent wafting in the bedroom. Only when he feels that he's out of breath does he unlatch his lips, leaving her biting her lower lip as he rests his forehead against hers. With a smile that reaches his eyes, she feels the butterflies dancing around in her stomach, suddenly abashed at how her previous thought had become a reality when she asked him to stay for the night.

Now that they've escaped the high and they notice how awkward for them is to be in the princess' bedroom alone together, the tension between them about to snap even as they have their arms around each other.

She doesn't move a muscle, but instead he helps to lift her up and lowers her down on her bed gently, before he mutters with a small chuckle, "You do know that your brother is going to kill me the moment he finds out I'm still here, in your room."

With Hongjoong sitting cautiously at the end of the bed, she crosses her legs and leans against the headboard, claiming, "I know, but it gives me the thrill to go against my brother's orders. This past month ever since I woke up felt so short but I can feel how he's so... protective of me. It has gotten to the point that I get annoyed, sometimes."

"Seonghwa didn't change his ways, and looks like you're returning to how you were. You hated how Seonghwa always tried to take control of your life so you have always done things to raise his blood pressure."

"I'm glad to know that I'm acting as what you've all known me as." She wrings her hands, pushing her legs up against her chest as she hugs her knees and rests her chin on them. "It's so frustrating to not even know how to act because people keep saying that I'm acting differently, and at the same time I hate who I was- no, I'm scared I'll go back to become that person. That is why I never understood why you would even say that you have feelings for me before... that's not someone who deserves to be loved."

"Love makes you stupid then," he breathes. "I really have no idea on what made me decide that I actually do like you."

"Yet you know how... 'wild' I was," she puts up quotation marks. "In short, I'm not even a decent human being."

"There are still a lot that you don't know about yourself," he says. "After you woke up, you think you became someone different, but it was the person I see you as."

She huffs. "So you're the kind of person who sees the good in people despite them being bad. How much luck have I used up to be able to have a future husband like you?"

He blushes, fiddling around with his fingers. "Hearing you say that word only reminded me that we're engaged." He stands up, pacing around the room before he utters words of caution, "But you shouldn't be trusting me way too much, and letting me inside your room when we're not yet a married couple. Ah," he knocks his own head, "I was too caught up with you that I acted indecently. My apologies, princess and if I may leave before I make you more uncomfortable-"

"Please stay," she squeaks, the tremor in her voice evident. "I'm scared of being alone."

"But you could've asked-"

"I don't trust the people in this palace the most," she utters. "Bits and pieces of my memories are here, but I have yet to see the bigger picture. I know that you meant no harm to me, Hongjoong."

He shifts his gaze to her, who has her head lowered, looking vulnerable and scared. "Do you..."

"The memories are coming back to me piece by piece, and I remember meeting you that night, what we talked about and what we did. It came back to me when we were in the library; that was why I told you that I could trust you. Only I don't remember what happened after, but I know it wasn't you. I feel like Serim was a part of my accident, but if it is indeed her, she doesn't seem scared of me getting back my memories if I got back the Arcus. Do you think that it was simply myself?"

He takes a seat again, this time closer to her but he doesn't touch her. "What do you mean?"

"What if it was me who wanted to take away my own life? Was that why I jumped off-"

"Hey," Hongjoong utters, reaching out his hand to rub her arm. "Don't say that. It could have really been an accident. For all we know there could be none with malicious intent towards you, just a simple accident. I told you," he smoothes down her hair, "you're only stressing yourself out if you keep forcing yourself."

"But really," she mutters, "can't you stay?"

He runs a hand through his hair, contemplating. "And what if Seonghwa decides to kill me because he found me in your room?"

She can't help but smile. "I'll make sure he doesn't."

"If you can promise me that I won't lose my life," he jokes, "then I can stay. I can sleep on the couch-"

"Don't be ridiculous, this bed is huge, roll to the other side and you won't even hit me in the face."

His face starts to get red from the thought before he clears his throat. "Uh, but really, it's fine."

"What are you thinking of doing to me?" she fake-gasps before putting her hands over her chest. "I never thought you're a man like this."

"I wasn't thinking of anything!" he blurts as his face gets coloured red.

She chuckles, clearly enjoying seeing him flustered and embarrassed. She softens, "I told you, sleep on the bed. If you sleep on the couch the next morning you're going to have back problems and someone else has to rule your realm while you get treatment."

"Such a brave girl," he scoffs. "How are you so confident in letting a man in your room and asking him to sleep on the same bed as you?"

"I'm about to be your lawfully-wedded wife so might as well have the practice beforehand," she replies with a straight face. "So sleep on the bed. Unless... you already have indecent thoughts-"

"I am not!" he exclaims before stomping to the other side and flops onto the bed, crossing his arms. "How dare you accuse the king of Natur of such atrocities, I am offended."

"Yeah, as if you weren't running your hands along my back and sucking on my face-"

"Such vulgar words from a highly-regarded princess," he cuts her off, before slamming his back against the mattress and rolling to the other side so she'll only able to look at his back, and not at his face which looks like it's about to burst from the pressure. "We're having none of this conversation anymore, it's getting late and good night." But he doesn't close his eyes.

"Are you not going to wash your face and brush your teeth before you sleep?" she asks in a singsong voice. "I'm not going to let you sleep in my bed if you don't wash yourself, I'm a picky princess you know."

He sighs as he stares at the wall, before rolling his body so that he'll face the side of the bed where the princess is sitting at. But his breath gets stuck in his throat when he sees that the princess' face is merely inches from his, a smirk on her face as she rests her head on the pillow with her palm placed below.

Frozen from her soft stare, they lie facing each other before she claims, "I'm not joking, you better wash yourself and brush your teeth."

He gets up as she follows suit, the latter jumping off the bed much faster to search for extra toiletries around her room so that he'll get to use them. She returns with a towel and an extra toothbrush. She hands them over to him who looks at it with wonder on his face.

"If you want extra clothes I'd probably have to ask my brother and that's not the best thing to do right now. Asking others would only reveal the fact that I'm holding you hostage here."

"Right. So fact check, the princess of Inis is holding the king of Natur hostage, and I'm not the one forcing you to cover for me, am I correct?"

She laughs. "Absolutely."

He throws the towel over his shoulder before making a beeline to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. After splashing water onto his face to cool his face down, he grabs the edge of the sink and looks at himself in the mirror.

So much that the princess doesn't know, but once we find the Arcus everything is going to be over. Including us.

After brushing his teeth, freshening himself up and tidying up his clothes, he steps out of the bathroom. He sees Narae sitting cross-legged in front of the opened door to the balcony, but remains only there. She's a silhouette against the deep blue background of the night, a small figure against the vast sky. She's staring up at the sky, her neck sore from her refusal to look down below.

As she hears him approaching from behind, she mutters, "I wanted to look at the sky again but I didn't want to go out to the balcony."

"May I?" he asks, referring to the spot beside her on the floor.

"Of course you may," she replies, patting the smooth floor and allowing him to sit. "But too bad, I'm going to freshen myself up and change. Don't imagine anything. I'll join you again after."

"I'm not-" he quickly interjects, but his voice gets lost when she disappears into the bathroom with her essentials.

He chuckles before looking out into the open, sighing heavily. He looks down to his lap, then buries his face in his hands. He doesn't want to see the princess get hurt, but it has been too long for her to be kept in the dark. It has been one month since the princess woke up and lost her memories...

Too deep into his thoughts he didn't hear the bathroom door opening, Narae stepping out wearing a freshly-laundered purple nightgown, her slippers making soft thuds on the floor as she approaches him. She sits next to him, brushing her hair back with her fingers. With the towel hung at her neck she hugs her knees to her chest, and tries to look at whatever he's looking at, but when she fails to find it she looks at him instead.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, frankly. Just thinking about how it's going to be for us once you get back your memories," he says simply.

"I don't like the sound of that," she frowns. "Are you saying that I'm probably going to go back to hating you once I get back my memories?"

"No," he sighs. "I'm scared that you won't remember me anymore."

"That-" she scrunches up her nose, "doesn't make any sense. I'm getting back the Arcus in hopes that I'll retrieve my memories, not lose them."

He doesn't say anything, merely giving her a sad smile as glitter settles on his hair, changing its colour to a glowing soft pink.

"Did- did you just change the colour of your hair?" She blinks. "They what, change according to your emotions?"

"No, they don't. You told me that you despised pink, even though purple - your favourite - is closely associated with it. But then you told me that I looked good in pink," he sniffs. "I do, don't I?"

She shrugs, "I guess." When he stares at her to get a more desirable answer, she adds, "Well, you do. There's no denying that you look good in pink." Then in a quieter voice, "Though I think you look good no matter what."

She rests her head on his shoulder, and he leans his head against hers. His hand snakes to find her hand and he grabs it tightly, soaking himself in the familiar scent of the princess.

He buries his nose in her hair, breathing in and muttering, "I don't want to lose you, princess."

"I'm not going anywhere," she replies, but she doesn't exactly know what the king meant. Where would she go? She only wanted to get back her memories, know what happened that night. "Kim Hongjoong, we're getting married. Why are you talking as if our time is about to finish?"

He doesn't answer her, but instead he kisses her head and mumbles, "I love you, Park Narae."

She pulls back before slightly frowning. "You know you're scaring me when you suddenly become like this. If going to find the Arcus is so dangerous that it's going to change how things are, then I'd rather not." She crosses her arms, pouting. "I don't care if I don't get back my memories, because I like how I am right now anyway. Not the past princess."

"But you deserve to know the truth," he says. "The Arcus can help you gain back what you lost."

"What even is the Arcus?" she utters. "Everyone is going on about the Arcus, the Arcus, but I don't even know what it looks like. A weapon, something domestic, an everyday object you wouldn't look twice at?"

"Narae," he grips her arms, trying to calm her down. "Look, what I'm saying is that you will see the truth once we get back the relic, but no one knows how it looks like. It has been kept safely in a box, from what I've known. But since it's a relic that's been passed down through different generations, it hasn't actually been opened. So the stories get lost on how it actually looks like, so the Arcus is an unknown object your family has kept in a box. The powers the relic holds are beyond our imagination, so we can only find out when we get it."

She remains quiet before curling herself into a ball on the floor.

She feels Hongjoong poking her arm, muttering, "Come on, don't sleep on the floor. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, so you need all the rest you can get." She looks at him partially from in between her arms. "No, I won't leave even when you have slept. I'll stay until tomorrow, where the whole palace will probably be taken off its grounds when Seonghwa finds me in your room."

This makes her slightly relaxed before she uncurls herself. Before she can protest he lifts her up again, putting his arms below her legs and torso, carrying her all the way to her side of the bed. After helping her take off her slippers, he puts her down, tucks her under the blanket and kisses her forehead.

"Sleep tight, and you'll be safe. No one's going to hurt you, I promise."

She nods before shutting her eyes tight, looking like she's forcefully trying to drift off to sleep instead of letting it come naturally. Seeing that she has closed her eyes, he walks over to the other side, lying down on the mattress. Thinking that it would be rude of him to be facing the princess, he decides to face the wall, even though his body is almost falling off the bed as he tries to put as much distance as he can between him and the princess.

Before he can close his eyes he feels an arm wrapping itself around his stomach, and he looks over his shoulder to the back to see the princess, with her eyes closed, snoring softly.

His lips curl into a smile before loudly saying, "You aren't trying to make me believe that you moved and hugged me while you were sleeping, are you? Trying to make excuses of you not being conscious when you tried to touch me."

He looks over his shoulder again, this time to the princess who has one eye opened, looking sheepish as she's caught red-handed. She quickly pulls back her hand, but she doesn't move away, remaining at the spot where she's just right beside Hongjoong's back. She adjusts her position so that her back is fully on the mattress, cheeks flushed and eyes trained on the ceiling.

From the corner of her eyes she catches a movement and then her vision gets blocked with Hongjoong's face, a smile playing on his lips. "If you wanted to touch me, you could've just told it straight to my face, princess. No need for such timid moves." His face hover over hers, too close for comfort.

"I- just- wanted- to hug- something as I sleep," she stutters.

"Really?" He sticks out his lower lip, then he lowers himself down, kissing the princess on the lips before plopping himself back down beside the princess. "No need to be shy, then since I'm about to be your husband anyway. If you want someone to cuddle with, I'm right here."

"I might crush you if I hug you all night," she says truthfully. "I can be pretty aggressive when I sleep, apparently."

He shrugs, "Fine with me." He shifts his position so he's lying on his side before extending out his arms to let her come into his embrace. "I'm waiting."

She scoots over to him, draping her arm over his torso and melting into his arms as he wraps them around her body. They remain tangled but it seems that the king finds sleep faster as he starts to snore softly, his warm breath hitting her skin. With his arms around her, her face gets buried against his chest, but there's one thing that's making her unable to sleep.

His strong perfume, something that evoke certain memories. However, she doesn't know whether the memory is a good or bad one. With a headache coming from both the strong scent and the jumbling of memories, she tries to keep her eyes closed to cut off her ties with reality.

She does get to sleep, but a dream comes along with it. In the dream there's nothing that she can see, but she can hear a song playing in the background. Someone is playing the piano, pressing the keys to make up a melody; a beautiful but tragic song.

Like a song playing at a funeral.