• Song : 'That's Us' by Anson Seabra

Full Playlist for the book is available on Spotify under username Minx Park. You can also find it with the book name 'Epoch | PJM'.

"Changes are a part of life."

【Ｌｏｎｅｌｉｎｅｓｓ】

1428, Goryeo Palace.

Sometimes actions do hurt more than words, just like those thousands of daggers plunging through Yang's heart. It isn't because Byeong Suk asked her to leave, but his coldness. It's because of the emptiness between her fingers that gone when he pulled his hand away from her.

It would be a lie if she says there is nothing she feels for him anymore. It hurts to see him not meet her eyes and talk to her with emotionless words.

Yang pulls her legs to her chest, hugging them close as if a person easing her invisible pain. Her empty room isn't helping her either, in contrast - is making everything more sensitive and lonesome. A few tears trickles down her eyes trying to subdue the pain, the pain of rejection.

Even though it's not the first time he rejected her.

The gentle sound of the waves crashing the shore surrounds the empty beach. Darkness crippling in the sky covering the dying light of the sun that long sank down into the depth of the sea.

Fourteen years old Byeong Suk sat in the middle of the long empty stretch of sand with his own thoughts killing his soul. Hurtful words of his father sinking deeper into his mind, questioning his worth, his sanity.

The words telling him how much of a burden he is to him, how much of a useless piece of flesh and bones he is who just lives off drinking his father's blood. The words reminding him how much of a failure he already is to be born and getting tagged to his father's neck like a weight which is too much for any human.

His eyes remained stuck to the ocean before him, thinking of how endless the world is but at the same time how much it takes to just breathe this air. This surrounding suffocates him but he can't leave his home, he doesn't have a place to go.

No matter how hurtful his father is, he can't leave him and live off on his own. His mother would never want her only son to leave her.

"Oi!" A very familiar voice calls out for him making him come back out of his thoughts. He looks behind him finding princess Yang running towards him.

"How long do you plan on being here?" she said with her breath heaving a little giving him a sense of how much she ran in search of him. She searched the whole village for the boy only to find him sitting alone on the beach, dreading himself over his father's meaningless words.

She knows his father hates him. He isn't from a wealthy family and to add upon the low wealth, his father is a massive drinker. She knows his father always taunts him for even breathing because of all the money that her mother earns with all of her hard work, she spends on his food and education.

And his father hates it. He needs that money to pamper his drinking habit not to grow his son.

"Why are you here?" Byeong Suk snapped bringing his knees to his chest.

"Am I not allowed to meet my friend?" She sat beside him facing the ocean.

"Why would you want to be my friend?" He asks out of nowhere making Yang turn her head towards him. Her eyes falling upon his sharp features slightly shining under the moonlight.

"Why would you want to be with someone so worthless like me, someone who is just a burden?"

"I'm not parenting you, am I? Why would you be a burden to me?" Yang shrugged her shoulders with a smirk on her face. Byeong Suk rolls his eyes at her words, sighing.

"But in all honesty, if you were my son... I would've been proud of you." He turns towards her thinking to see a stupid smirk on her face but rather a very genuine smile lingers on her lips.

"If you were my son, I would've been carefree about you because of how much of a good person you are. Your heart is kind and that is the best quality about you. You always give love to people around you, no matter their status."

"I would've been so proud of you that I would brag about my son all over the village." Byeong Suk's mouth dries, stopping the tears at bay. Her words were sincere, but he couldn't stop his father's remarks roaming around his mind.

"I was thinking, should I adopt you?" Yang chuckles, trying to light up his mood but he only turned away from her. Her mouth dropped at his silence, not expecting him to be sad again.

"I was joking! Don't take it seriously-"

"I know!" Byeong Suk said quietly, still not meeting her eyes.

"Don't think you're a bad son Byeong Suk... You're not bad!" Yang said trying to make him look at her. She put a hand on his shoulder, trying to make him do at least one thing but he didn't.

"Do you not want me to be here?" Still, silence lingered around them.

Thinking he wants some space to himself and deal with it alone, Yang stands up on her feet ready to leave when suddenly his fingers wrapped around her wrist making her look at him in confusion.

Their eyes meet with each other, his glistening with tears making her heart breaks looking at him.

"Don't leave me, princess."

Dang Hee quietly enters Yang's dark room with a tray that he took from the maid just outside her room. He hasn't gotten any time to spend with her since the morning and it's killing him.

Now that Yang is here and all the things that happen in the ceremony, he wants to spend as much time as he can with her. He has to make things better between them.

The minimal light coming out from the curtains, lead him inside. He gently placed the tray onto the table beside her bed.

He then walks towards the curtains and opened them to lit her room before she comes back inside. But what he didn't know was that Yang was already inside, sitting in the other corner of the room and crying over someone who isn't him.

When the sunlight hit her, she looks up at the commotion. Her eyes immediately lands on her husband standing beside the window, tying the curtains. A small smile adorning his face as he rolls the curtains away.

Yang quietly wipes away her tears, trying to hide them from him.

"Your Majesty?" Her voice weaver but she tried to cover it with a cough as she stands up on her feet. Dang Hee turns towards her upon hearing her wife's sweet voice.

"I thought you were outside." His smile didn't stop as his eyes takes in her presence. He walks towards her taking in her whole ethereal self, not being able to keep his eyes away from her.

"And-" He stands in front of her. His hands going over her shoulder holding her gently.

"Don't call me majesty. I'm Dang Hee for you, love." He leans forward softly planting his lips on her cheeks, blooming a weird feeling inside Yang. Heat starts pooling her face, her eye widening realizing that her husband just kissed her cheek.

Dang Hee pulls away from her, looking in her swollen eye.

"Why were you crying?" His warm palms cups her cheeks, trying to soothe down her pain which made her cry so much that her eyes are swelled, so much that he can still feel the wetness on her cheeks.

The second his eyes landed upon his wife, he noticed her. Her face, which clearly said she isn't okay.

"I- I wasn't-"

"Is it because of me?" He asked her softly. All the things that he hid from her are hurtful for her and he knows that. He hasn't confronted her completely yet, but he doesn't know any other way to tell her so that it hurt her lesser that it should.

But one day he has to tell her...

"No, it's just..." Yang sighs, trying to collect her childish self. She is married to the king, but every damn time she forgets it. Or maybe when she gets face to face with Byeong Suk, she couldn't remember anything aside him.

"It's just that everything going around is... Is weird. I don't know how to cope up with all of this."

"I'm sorry my queen that I hid things from you. I'm sorry that I led you on without thinking about how much it would hurt you." He said as his thumb gently caressing her cheeks, trying to soothe her pain down.

"I can die but, I can't see you cry."

Only if he knew the real reason behind her tears.

"Please don't cry."

Guilt consuming her heart at his words and the sincerity behind them. No matter how much he had lied to her and how many things he hid, he is still visibly true to one thing, his love. She could see it in his eyes, the adoration for her, the respect he has for her.

Maybe he is actually the future that is going to heal her.

Maybe.

"I knew you haven't eaten anything since the morning." He said holding her hand and dragging her towards her bed. He gently set her down on the mattress before picking up the tray of food and placing it before her. Yang watches him as he sat down in front of her, his smile not wavering from his face. He picks up the spoon filling it up with the hot stew he bought for her.

She silently watches him as his lips pucker out blowing onto the spoon, cooling it down for her.

There is a saying, just trust your fate and it will lead you to much better thing in life than what you left behind. Is it true?

Dang Hee excitedly brings up the spoon closer to her lips which she accepted making him feel at ease. Maybe if he keeps making her feel good without words and just actions, she might one day accept his love and forgive all his lies.

Maybe one day, life will get better for both of them.

Suddenly the gates opened with a loud bang making both of them turn their heads towards it, leaving everything aside.

But does fate wants it?

A very angry Queen Ji-Eun walked inside and marches towards both of them. She purses her lips tightly before her hand extends forwards, throwing a dead puppy onto the tray of food making everything spill down onto Yang's bed.

"Do you seriously think you can kill me so easily?" She said, staring at Yang with red, puffy eyes.  

• • •