Her head feels heavy, but the crown is no longer there. That was yesterday, and today she's lying facedown on the mattress, realizing that the clock is only showing that it's 3 in the morning. It looks like she accidentally woke up after going to sleep right after the ceremony ended, the day too tiring for the both of them.

She turns her head to the other side, seeing that Seonghwa is sprawled on the bed in his pajamas, the one with small pink cherry blossoms, gifted by San with a matching pair for her. His arms are spread apart, as if he's waiting for someone to come into his embrace as his mouth hangs slightly open, the first few buttons of his top unbuttoned.

The bedsheets rustle as she drags herself slowly to him, not wanting to wake him up but in need of his body warmth because the blanket is apparently not enough for her to ward off the cold. Her eyes are barely open as she inches slowly to him but before she can curl herself near him, his eyes blink open and he rubs them.

"Can't sleep?" he drawls, clearly half-awake.

"I just accidentally woke up but it's alright. Go to sleep," she utters. "It's only 3 in the morning."

"I won't go to sleep as long as you're not," he decides. Then he forces his eyes to open wider, giving a lazy smile to her. "Is Your Majesty having trouble sleeping?"

"I had a dream, but it's nothing," she finally admits. She doesn't specify whether it's good or bad, but even from her expression he can tell that she's troubled by it.

"Emira?" he guesses in a soft voice, to which she merely nods.

"Lately I've been dreaming... thinking about her a lot. Being in this palace and her place seem to bring back those memories with her that I didn't think I kept. She was..." her voice gets stuck in her throat, "in my dream, that is. She was blaming me for her death and that it was the reason I could step up onto the throne. She was just shouting at me, but then she-" she takes a deep breath, "-she fell, just like she fell from the balcony that day. I couldn't save her again."

Seonghwa props himself up against the headboard, extending his left arm as he beckons for her to come to him. She follows and they cuddle under the blanket, wearing matching pajamas as he makes small circles on her back, helping her to calm down.

"That's only your mind making up stories," he starts, "Emira doesn't think of you that way. She wants you to become queen after her."

She places a hand on his chest, playing around with his button. "I know; but it's like every nook and cranny of this palace reminds me of her."

"And it could be good memories, not the bad ones. I'll keep reminding you every day that you'll make a good queen, no matter if it's our first day or a hundred days after."

She nods. "Alright."

He scrunches up his nose. "I don't think I can sleep anymore. My eyes are open the widest they can."

She agrees with him and they bask in the silence, thinking about what they should do to wait until the morning comes and they'll have to start working.

"Do you want to..." Seonghwa trails off, giving her a look full of meaning. When she lifts up her eyebrows, he continues, "Take a walk in the garden?"

She blinks before she gives a low laugh, their minds completely going in different directions. "Sure, but you plan to walk around with these pajamas?"

"They're cute," he shrugs. "And we're matching." He tries to persuade her so that they can go out with the pajamas, assuring her that no one would notice them as they'll be back in the room before everyone else is awake.

"The guards are awake and they'll see us."

"They'll be sworn to secrecy."

She can't help but smile at this. "You're possibly the most lax king I've ever met."

"What can I do?" he says as he untangles himself from her, jumps off the bed before offering a hand to her. "Being a royal is never supposed to be my destiny but here I am, with the love of my life, having been given the responsibility to rule a kingdom. I'll accept it humbly."

She takes his hand, but they don't walk to the door until after they brush their teeth and splash water onto their faces to freshen themselves up. As they unlock it, they poke out their heads from the door, with Seonghwa below and Akira's head above his as they look from left to right. They try to see whether there is anyone else but the hallways are quiet, safe for the two guards on standby, tasked to look over their room. Seonghwa and Akira look at each other before nodding.

They slip out of the room, bodies close to the wall as they trace the steps to get past the guards. As soon as the guards look in another direction they bolt past them, a sudden flash of pink before they round another corner, almost laughing at how ridiculous they are behaving right now. Seonghwa puts a finger to his lips before winking, grabbing her hand as they make their way ever so slowly down the winding stairs, across the open foyer before they almost run into the heavy main doors.

He creaks the door open slowly, noticing that there are two guards on either side of the doors. The two guards are focused on their duties and it looks like they won't be fooled before Seonghwa turns to Akira, shaking his head.

"We have to use another way to go outside," he says. "This one's pretty tight."

She looks around before an idea pops up and she says, "I have an idea. I wonder if it's still there..." she utters as she pulls his hand, guiding him towards the area behind the stairs, and they take a few more corners before they arrive in front of a plain wall.

He looks at her questioningly, and she grins before releasing his hand. She taps the wall with her hands, as if trying to find something that is out of the ordinary. At the same time she tries to remember the location of the unfixed stone before her hand runs into the piece jutting out. Without a word she pulls it out and reveals a small opening just enough for them to pass through to outside.

"Woah," Seonghwa says.

Akira kneels first, her palms flat on the ground as she tries as much as she could to avoid her pajamas from getting dirty. She squats and scoots through the opening, and she is gone from Seonghwa's view.

It seems that he's still amazed by the fact that there's a pathway through the wall that it takes for her hand to stick out from the opening as she beckons him to cross the wall. Popping out of his thought bubble he bends down, poking his head first through the opening before he drags himself to the outside world.

Before he can fully drag himself out, Akira is already helping him by putting her hands under his arms and pulling him out. As she puts him aside, she kneels near the opening before pulling the stone to cover back the opening and she stands up, dusting her hands.

They're now out in the open, standing at the far end of the garden.

Akira waves a hand over her husband's eyes, who seems to be out of focus as she says in an amused voice, "Why are you looking at the escape route as if you've never had to go on secret excursions?"

When Seonghwa stares blankly at her, she lightly gasps.

"Don't tell me you've never gone against any rules. I married a goody-two-shoes?"

He licks his lips. "Well for one, there's never a reason for me to escape anywhere. We never really had any curfew. We're free to go out at night," he says innocently.

She looks at him with a slightly jealous look. "Really? Gosh when I was a child I had to go to bed at nine, no excuses." Then she grins, "But that doesn't mean I followed it exactly."

"Plus," he clasps his hands, "I told you the palace was my safe place. I never really wanted to leave so it's only right that I chose to stay inside rather than outside."

She nods, sticking out her lower lip. She shrugs, "Well, if you live in an environment like mine, you'd want to go out as frequently as you could, no matter if you're going against the rules. Since we're not allowed to meet Emira as much as we wanted, we used this route to go to our secret place." Then she shakes her head, "But then it's not a secret anymore because the late queen found out anyway. We had to change places a few times, but this opening remains the same."

"Years later and you're escaping the palace with me. Trying to make up a romantic story?" He sidles up to her, trying to hug her but she slides away, rolling her eyes.

She walks forward, hands clasped behind her back as she enters the garden, leaving him sulking as he follows her. She notices how the garden seems different, and she knows it's because Seonghwa has been working on them as soon as he could. Her mind names the flowers silently, and she stops when she sees yellow acacias. A memory tickles her, but she chooses to keep quiet as a slight blush creeps up to her.

"Yellow acacias," Seonghwa says anyway, and she cringes. "Hah... what a good way to confess," he compliments himself before patting his own head. "You did a great job Seonghwa."

Akira makes a face before walking further from him, with him calling out her name in a singsong voice, skipping towards her direction.

"You're 26 and acting like a child."

"Only with you."

She pretends to vomit at this, before walking towards the centre of the garden, where she notices that the fountain is already surrounded by newly planted trees.

"They haven't germinated yet," he says. "The delentines." He looks at the distance forlornly before sighing. "I bet they can't even take care of my delentines properly back in Nyla."

"You're the only one who can grow them, so I bet they're barely surviving."

"It's true, but I'm over here now." He hugs her from behind out of a sudden, but she wriggles out of his embrace before making a face again. "Why are you so perverse to public affection? And it's not like anyone is seeing us," he opens his arms wide, "well, except for my little friends." He says, referring to the plants and animals with them. "But they don't judge."

"I'm not used to so much affection."

"But you crave them."

"Not in public."

"So in private?" He smirks as he wiggles his eyebrows. "It's only the two of us here."

She kicks his shin and he buckles forward, but she catches him in time before he lands on the ground. "Not here, you pervert," she says while giving him a threatening smile, hand gripping his arm until he can feel her nails digging slightly into his skin.

"Okay," he croaks, but mostly pouting.

She chuckles before she says, "I think I can use some exercise."

"At 3 in the morning?!" he exclaims. "The only exercise I can think of right now is sleep. So let's go back-" he quickly says, but not before she pulls his top, dragging him back to where he was.

"Not when we're outside." It's her turn to wink as she links her fingers with his, bringing him to a place where he did not expect.

What he expected was a cute date underneath the stars with the moonlight illuminating them as they cuddle since both of them can't sleep, but her idea of a 'date' is at the practicing range where she's already inspecting the swords lined up in the storage.

"This is your idea of a date? Sparring with the possibility of getting hurt?" he deadpans.

"You won't get hurt if you don't aim for the face and you wear this," she says, fishing out protective gear before throwing it over to him.

Although unwilling, he catches it smoothly. He mumbles under his breath, "Once a soldier, always a soldier." He utters loudly, "Well, who can say that they've fought the love of their life while wearing matching pink cherry blossom pajamas? Only me."

"At least we look adorable while fighting," she speaks up, putting on her own gear. She unsheathes her sword, the one Hongjoong had gifted to her before they embarked to Lucida. "Come on lover boy," she teases, "show me what you got."

"Challenging me?" he smirks. He takes up a random sword, inspecting how sharp the blade is. "If I win, grant me a wish."

"State what it is first," she replies, "then I'll consider."

"Learn archery with me." He lifts up his eyebrows.

She laughs. "Are you mocking me, Park Seonghwa? Just because I'm not that good with arrows?"

He shrugs. "I just think it'd be pretty cool to have a king and queen who knows how to fire an arrow."

She sees no logic behind his wish, only thinking that he's just playing around so she nods. "Very well, Your Majesty."

He winks before they walk to their starting positions, with both of them familiarizing themselves with their respective weapons. "How many rounds?"

"Just one," she decides. "And we'll see who wins."

"Seemingly a little too confident," he utters.

She doesn't answer before she charges, already aiming for his torso but he sidesteps, calculating how far he can turn before their blades collide. When both don't want to lose out Seonghwa pushes his blade forward, causing Akira to stagger backwards but she doesn't let up. Instead her momentum continues steadily as she aims to his side, but still, it seems that he can read her movements well when he nearly misses the blade before trying to knock the sword out of her hand.

She smirks when she realizes she managed to trick him before she rears back, swinging her sword in the direction of his chest before kicking the sword out of his hand. It falls with a dull thud on the dirt, and she throws herself at him, pushing him to the ground. They fall as both of them breathe heavily, Akira lying on top of Seonghwa.

She chuckles. "You lose, lover boy. I win."

"I let you win on purpose," he huffs.

"Sure," she chuckles. "Thank you for letting me win." She rubs the tip of her nose against his before pushing herself back up, offering her hand to an embarrassed Seonghwa.

He takes it, avoiding her eyes. "I guess that's not a wish granted."

"I won," she utters, "but you can still teach me archery."

He turns to look at her, his eyes looking unusually bright. Under the moonlight she sees how his eyes are turning yellow. "Really?"

"Gosh, you really do love archery as much as you love your flowers, don't you?"

"And you," he adds.

She groans. "Just get on with it."

They put away their protective gears and swords, with Seonghwa looking like he's prancing everywhere as he can't wait to get to the archery range.

One of the first places he had visited just as they arrived here was of course, the garden, and the next was the archery range. In fact even after a few days, he had already established his reputation among the archers from the Lucida army when he had challenged one of them. He ended up winning the match with a large gap as he managed to fire every single arrow hitting bullseye, leaving the rest in awe. None of his firing missed.

The archery range is located a few metres behind the practicing range, but the layout is different from the one in Nyla's palace compound. Instead of the targets being arranged in a circle, the targets here are arranged in a line. There are five boards in total, signs of wear and tear evident on them.

He goes over to the storage, the doors opening with a creak as he takes out the personalized bow Hongjoong had given him and picks out arrows before he walks over to Akira. He hands the bow to her, and she takes it reluctantly, already feeling the unusual weight of the weapon.

"I can, you know," she swings the bow around, "hit someone's head with this instead."

He smiles. "You can do that too, or you can use it properly first when you have arrows. Here, hold it like this." He goes over to her, positioning himself behind her, helping her to fix the angle of her arms. "This bow is suited for my height and weight since Hongjoong made it for me, but you can try using it. Just be extra careful not to hurt yourself."

Then he helps her to get the correct stance, all the while standing behind her as he carries all the arrows on his back. His eyebrows furrow before nodding, satisfied with how she's standing.

"It seems like you're a natural."

She doesn't hear his compliment as she feels his steady breath against her neck, and even then she feels like she might drop the bow on the ground. Instead she tries to calm herself down, getting startled when he asks her to control her breathing, as if teasing her on how she's getting red in the face. He pulls out an arrow before placing it on the shelf of the arrow rest, bringing her right hand to it and placing the nock of the arrow onto the string.

He looks down at her before smirking, knowing that right now she's super flustered. Continuing with his lesson, he leans forward before he stretches his left arm to help her left hand near the tip of the arrow, as his right hand curls around her right to help her steady the string. He can feel how she's not focusing on the lesson as she's looking elsewhere, thinking about something else.

"You know, you can relax a bit," he chuckles. Then he distances himself from her, saying, "Find an aim, and fire."

Taking a deep breath and cursing her husband under her breath, she pulls back the string, using her dominant eye to find a target. She releases the string, letting the arrow soar and both their eyes follow the trajectory. It doesn't land perfectly in the middle, but still it's a high score for someone who has barely learned how to do archery.

He shows an impressed face. "You might even beat me in this if you keep on practicing."

She remains quiet as she turns around to face him with an unreadable expression. "What was the reason that you wanted to teach me archery so bad?"

His eyes turn to her, and she gets caught off guard when she sees how it's slowly turning to blue. "My mom was an archer; I took it all from her. When I was a little kid, she would bring me to practice archery even though my dad said it was dangerous for a kid to hold a bow and arrow." He chuckles painfully, "But my mom was a very determined woman; she said it'd be a useful skill one day."

He takes a deep breath.

"When I found out that you couldn't see colours, I wanted to teach you the names of the colours even though you can't see them. But I couldn't because I was stupid to let you walk away from the palace. So I just-" he exhales, "-I don't know. When my mom taught me archery, I could feel all the love she had for the skill, and I thought that was one of the ways she expressed her love to me. By teaching me something that she loved so dearly."

He looks away, tears already appearing.

He chokes up on his own words. "It's just- a way- that I thought-" he can't finish his sentence as tears fall down and he sobs again.

Akira says nothing as she carefully places the bow on the ground, approaching him as she uses her thumbs to wipe away his tears.

"Crybaby, is it your aim to make me wipe away your tears every time we're at the archery range?" she says as she helps to dry his tears. "Your mother was right; it did become a useful skill one day. You saved me from getting killed with your arrow, didn't you?"

"It was just a-" he sniffs, "-thought that came to me."

She smiles when he buries his face in her neck. "So you teach about something that you love dearly to someone... that's a sign to show that you love them?"

"Maybe," he mumbles.

She pushes him off her, looking at his eyes which are red not because he's angry, but because he's been crying. She remembers of the question that she wanted to ask him when they arrived at Lucida, debating on whether it's even appropriate to bring it up right now.

"Because of someone from Lucida... you lost your parents, but now you're here. Don't you still have that feeling when you came here?"

She immediately studies his expression when hearing his answer. She sees that he's smiling with his puffy eyes, shaking his head.

"No. I married someone from Lucida, I can't be hating the whole kingdom now can I?" He takes her hand. "I'm the king of Lucida now. Why rule a kingdom that I hate?"

She purses her lips. "Well, just checking. I think that's enough of exercising for this morning." She picks up the bow from the ground, takes the arrows from him before storing them back. "Let's go." She offers her hand and he takes it, before she walks forward.

Although there's a smile on her face, it immediately fades the moment she turns her face away. Her heart wrenched as she saw the expression on Seonghwa's face when he answered her question. Although it's subtle, she's pretty sure that he isn't telling her the complete truth.

The king is now ruling a kingdom that he once hated, but there is a remnant of that feeling deep inside.

If the feeling is ignited again, it might become even worse than before.