"So how are you planning to kill me?"

Sara looks at the king of Nyla in disbelief, wondering how he could be talking about the topic so lightly when the time hasn't even come yet for her to decide. Sure, she agreed to the plan and it's supposed to be done by tomorrow, but it doesn't mean that she's actually thinking about it all the time. In fact, that's the only thing she's not thinking about.

"I haven't thought about it," she says, her eyes running to a distance.

Even before the sun had risen, both of them had set out of the palace, because apparently San wanted to spend his remaining last days out in the open, yet to be safe, bringing along Sara is the best option as she's probably the only one who can control him if he's ever overtaken by the curse again. Sara did ask permission from Akira, assuring the latter that she knows what to do in case San acts out again, but of course, she didn't reveal to the queen the actual reason San wanted to go out. She just maintained the fact that the king of Nyla only wanted some fresh air. Even then, Akira didn't suspect anything as the queen had her mind full of the palace attack that was bound to happen tomorrow.

"I do hope you have a plan," he says, brushing back his white hair. Luckily, since the weather is cold he won't stand out too much if he's hidden most of his body under his robe to cover all the black tendrils snaking over his skin. He smiles, "We only have one shot. Once the attack on the Lucida palace is over, I'll be too."

Sara looks down, scuffing her boots against the soil as she utters, a little bit too hard, "Can we not talk about that for just a day?" She looks up, slightly flustered now that their stares have collided. She gulps, "I thought you wanted to spend your last days out in the open. Then spend it however you want." Her mouth twists as she mulls, "I'm sorry you had to spend it with me though; Her Majesty probably wouldn't have let you go if I didn't follow."

"It's alright, you seem nice," he shrugs. "You seem like good company."

She merely stays quiet, unable to come up with her perception of San. Hearing of a white-blooded person always manages to make her blood boil, yet with this person, whom she barely knows, he seems... different? He's slowly changing her thoughts about anyone with white blood. She looks at him, who's sitting cross-legged as he stares into the distance, down the hill as he looks at the winter festival starting to come alive again for today.

"What do you usually do as a hobby?" she asks.

She tries copying his stance, looking at what he's seeing but she doesn't find it appealing. Instead, she finds herself drawn more to look at his face. Underneath all the black tendrils and changes to his skin, she knows that he's good-looking; even with her eyes which haven't seen that many people, she knows he's one of the best she's ever encountered upon.

He chuckles. "Not many people ask that question to me." His eyes turn downcast as he thinks about it, but then he merely shrugs. "I don't have a hobby."

She scoffs. "That's impossible. Everyone must have a hobby; something you like to do in your free time that makes you... calm and content. You're simply happy when you do it. Like for me," she gestures towards herself, "since I live alone on the island, you know what I like to do?"

"Baking," he answers immediately.

She remains speechless as she utters, "Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind?"

He shrugs. "Your hair reminds me of icing on cake. It's a wild guess."

She laughs, and even then he can see how her eyes twinkle, a flash of pink over her irises before they settle back to the deep brown colour. "For someone who's so intent on dying tomorrow, you're really looking to leave without any memories or regrets, do you?"

He leans backwards, propping himself up with his arms behind him. "Isn't that better? Less heartache, less attachment. My life wasn't that great from the start anyway."

She studies his face, but the words had tumbled out without much thought for him. Apparently to him, the topic about not having a 'wonderful childhood' is something that doesn't hurt him anymore - he had learnt to live with it. "Is it... that bad?" She immediately looks at him again, as if to catch any subtle changes in his expression.

Much to her surprise, he only smiles while shaking his head. "I grew up among those yellow-blooded, apparently even after I was born, I was immediately handed over to the maids. I was never treated like someone with white blood." He turns to her as he tilts his head. "You said you hated those with white blood, don't you? You must have been delighted to be given a chance to kill someone with white blood. Me."

She scoffs, feeling offended by his conclusion. He's right though; back then if she were to be given a chance to take out someone with white blood, she'll be more than happy to do so. But somehow with him, she's thinking otherwise. She doesn't answer yet, so he smiles as he continues.

"I guess I understand why you hate me-"

"I don't hate you exactly," she refutes, clearing her throat soon after as she just realizes how desperate she might've sounded to change what he thinks about her. "It's just that... those with white blood have a bad reputation with me; I lost everything because of them. Especially Nyla."

"Right," he utters, taking a deep breath before exhaling, watching as a cloud of smoke comes out of his mouth. "Living for so long... you must've watched everything changing, and there must be a lot of things that you've kept inside. Seeing your kingdom being destroyed because of mine, it's a wonder that you still haven't killed me yet."

"Don't say that-" she rebutts, frowning.

"So how did you become immortal?" He changes the topic, giving her a smile that makes her feel like she wants to grab him and shake him, asking why he's so nonchalant in talking about this.

"I don't know," she replies. "In the long run I just found out that I don't age, and that nothing could kill me. At least," she shrugs, "Not one that I could find yet."

"How old are you?" he asks before shaking his head, chuckling. "I mean, at least the age that you realized that you stopped aging."

She hums as her mind runs through, trying to think of an answer. "I think it was my early 20s. 22... 23... around there."

"Ah, then you're around our ages. We're all in our 20s... if we ignore the fact that you've lived longer than any of us." He grins. "They'd be great friends."

She looks at him, a sudden feeling of disappointment coming to her as she utters, "Don't you think... about what they'd feel if you're gone?"

"Who?" he asks.

"Everyone. Your... friends, or whatever you call them. Wooyoung, Mingi, Hongjoong, Yeosang... and all the people that you've met and grew up with. Even Their Majesties."

"It doesn't matter-"

"Are you an idiot?!" she shouts, but shrinks back as San looks at her with slight amusement.

"I'm the one who's about to die, but why are you the one heated up?"

"You really," she looks at him in disbelief, "are stupid."

He clamps his lips, before he sighs and asks calmly, "Then do you have any other way to cure me?" When she only looks away, her mouth tight shut, he adds, "See? We don't have any other choice, and rather than endangering the others I'd rather go away on my own will. It's alright," he leans back again, "you can replace me. If you'd like some company that is."

"Why are you so nonchalant about this? Don't you feel angry, wronged, just downright pissed that you are the one who had to go through so much trouble just because your ancestors were greedy?" She grabs his shirt in her fist, daring him to look at her in the eyes. "You have all the rights to feel that way."

"Is that what you felt when you came here?"

She gets speechless at his counter that she only manages a "What?"

"When you came to Lucida, only looking to cure Seonghwa, is that what you felt? Anger, wronged, pissed because the very person in the bloodline that made you suffer was there?"

She releases her hold on his shirt, her chest rising up and down slowly, opposed to the storm raging inside her. "It was something new."

"What is?"

"I thought that when I came to Lucida, I'd find everyone else downright mad like me," she emphasizes, "just filled with rage and regret. But what I got was different than I expected. When I told your friends that I could only cure one, I thought the reaction I would have gotten was that they'd be mad at Akira. But everyone was just so... understanding. Their reactions were mild and I thought I must be the only mad one there."

He chuckles lightly. "So? Your thought of revenge towards the white-blooded, me, was extinguished?"

She blinks, feeling like the king had caught her red-handed. "I never thought of revenge. Well..." she holds his stare, "not in the way that all of you might think of. I didn't think of killing you or just hoping you'd be gone. My idea of revenge was to let you suffer, drowned in the curse with no way out."

He huffs. "So you did have the thoughts to take revenge."

She only looks down, ashamed. "I'm sorry."

He shakes his head. "Your feelings are completely valid. Honestly I'd do the same if I were you. So you changed your mind?" He says jokingly, "But I really hope you know that our plan tomorrow is still going through. I need you to kill me so that," he puts up his right forefinger, "I'm gone and everything can go back to normal. You don't even have to worry about the curse anymore too."

"It's not your fault," she reminds him. "It was the greediness of your ancestors-"

"And," he presses on, "we have no choice other than to kill me. That's a no-brainer now; we're just waiting for the right time."

She sighs, a heavy breath released as she closes her eyes.

Why must the world be so unfair?

"Reading," he speaks up suddenly. "And brewing tea. I think those two are my hobbies."

"Huh?" she manages, before she blinks, realizing what he's alluding at. "Ah... so you do have hobbies."

"Well I think they're my hobbies." He chuckles, "Never really thought about it, but I think I do enjoy those two quite a lot. The boys say I brew tea pretty well," he excitedly adds, "I could make you some- you know-" He scratches his cheek, "before tomorrow. What about you though? You still haven't answered what's your hobby."

"Donuts," she says sheepishly. "You were partly correct though; I do like baking, but mostly donuts. Sometimes cakes... cookies... cupcakes... I mean, as long as I can find the ingredients." When he looks at her rather suspiciously, she relents. "Okay, you might think that I don't go out at all from my island. But I do go out from time to time to... you know, search for ingredients that I couldn't find on my own. I still need to survive anyway. You think I'd stand cutting off all contacts? I still do go out from time to time... maybe once a month, but only to Estar. That's the closest kingdom."

"How did you get money to buy them?" When she only presses her lips together without answering, he sucks in a sharp breath before he gasps. "You stole them didn't you?"

"Well technically," she refutes, "I'm borrowing them. I'll pay them back... some day."

He shakes his head as he clicks his tongue. "Just how much have you stolen?"

"I borrowed a good portion. Plus it's not like I have any means of income," she side eyes him, "I'm literally the only person in Ileara. We don't even have a standing economy."

He shrugs. "Fair enough."

"I can bake you some," she chuckles, "donuts. They're really good."

"Really?" He lifts up his eyebrows. "And who can confirm that?"

"Me," she says simply. "Micko says they're good too. And Twinkle, but he's not here."

"Humans?"

She glares at him. "Animals."

He laughs. "So besides you, there are no other humans who have tasted your donuts to say that they're good?"

She only bites her lower lip, slightly embarrassed as they must think of her as someone who's weird; she literally has zero contact with humans - even when she was 'borrowing' the ingredients from the Estar kingdom, she'd make sure to not run into any humans. Obviously, making contact with other humans while she's on a supposed 'shopping' spree isn't a good idea, so she steers clear of people. She tilts her head to the side, swaying her body as she has no answer to it.

He notices how quiet she's gotten as he adds, "I can be the other person to try them." He shrugs, "Well, granted if you want to bake them for me. I can tell you whether they're good or not."

"They are," she refutes.

He puts up a finger as he wiggles them. "Says you, who baked them."

"I'll bake you some," she utters immediately, but blinks as she realizes how little to no time they have together. She corrects herself, "Maybe I can try baking you some tonight, and you can try them before..." she trails off.

"I'll look forward to it," he says as he lies down on the ground, looking up at the clear sky, something that he hopes would continue even when he's gone. "Say, which era is your favourite? Considering that you've lived a long life."

"I have none," she says, lying down beside him. "Every era is the same; humans are still stupid and life has always been boring. But living among nature, alone, is probably the best if I have to choose."

He laughs harder this time, clearly amused by her answer. She risks a glance to the side, somehow feeling like it's harsh how someone who's come to terms to the fact that he'd have to die, is laughing like this, while she's the one who's with a heavy heart.

"What was your life like? You know... before everything went obsolete."

"It was nothing special; it's been too long that I barely even remember anything in the past. All I remember is living alone after everything went down." She shrugs, "Well, when you live on your own for too long, you just naturally forget everything. I'm just finding different ways to bring myself forward every single day."

"I'm sorry," he utters, "that you have to go through this because of my kingdom."

"I told you it's not your fault."

He sighs. "But still, it was because of my bloodline. If only people weren't so greedy-"

"You're suffering too," she says, sitting up as she looks over to him, who's still lying down on the ground. "We're all suffering because of people in the past. There's nothing we can do to change it."

"You're right," he says, closing his eyes as he grits his teeth. "Even though we've only spoken for a bit, I think that you're a nice person." As she blinks, speechless, he adds, "I just thought that I'd let you know. You're not that bad for someone who barely socializes with anyone and I like your company. It'd be a shame though we couldn't spend more time together."

She gulps before looking the other way, an unfamiliar feeling creeping up on her. "Why... do you say that?" She risks a glance at him, but only finds the feeling intensifying as he looks at her with softness in his eyes.

"I don't know," he chuckles. "I'm just saying that you're not as antisocial as you think you are. I'm sure the others would think the same too."

She cringes. "Yeah, I think I managed to make Wooyoung hate me before I can even speak."

"Really?" He laughs. "He's the most sociable out of all of us, and everyone likes him."

"So he said." She shrugs, "Only, I don't think that applies to me."

"You can take your time," he says as he bites his lower lip, mulling. "I mean, if you ever feel like you're in need of some company; I'm sure Lucida and Nyla would welcome you with open arms. You seem to have made friends with Akira anyway."

She scratches her neck. "But it'd be a shame to leave Ileara; I'd live my whole life there and all my friends are there."

"Ah..." he does a hissing sound. "I forgot that you're essentially like Seonghwa. You can speak to plants and animals." As a thought comes to his mind, he sits up. "Does that mean..."

She knows what he's pointing at as she slowly nods. "I had my suspicion that the king of Lucida might have come from Ileara." She shakes her head, "But even then the king didn't seem to exactly remember it. Plus his blood is crimson; that's one thing I can't explain if he did come from my kingdom."

He releases a heavy breath. "There are just so many things that we don't know about ourselves. I didn't even know my parents were trying to protect me from the curse, and I just thought that it was because they hated me."

As he mentions his parents, her eyelids flutter, the topic holding an equally heavy weight on her. Still, it's the only thing she's been trying to keep from thinking of; feelings of regret would ignite whenever she thinks of her parents. She blurts out, "Do you hate them? Or... did you? Your parents, I mean."

He smiles. "I did, but when they passed away I just felt empty, because I didn't even know what had happened to them. They never felt like my parents anyway; they never treated me as their son so I never received any love from them. It was just... resentment all over. But after I found out why, I just felt more hurt. They were trying to protect me-"

"-but in the end the children are the ones who had to suffer," she finishes his sentence for him.

He looks up, his eyes softening further as he reads her body language; how she seems to be really fidgety at the mention of parents. "They were the same for you too, weren't they?"

"I just don't understand, and I don't think I will," she says. "I know that parents probably thought that one thing was the best way to protect us, but they never thought that it'd hurt us the same after."

"Hey," he says, subconsciously holding her hand as he notices how she's shaking, tears brimming in her eyes. "I don't know how your parents were like, but-" He stops talking as she bursts into tears, burying her face in her knees. He panics as he doesn't know how to comfort her. "Look- I didn't mean to make you cry."

She shakes her head even as her face is still buried between her knees. "It's not you- it's just- it hurts," she manages. She presses her lips together in an effort to stop any sound from coming out, before she exhales, her nose now blocked, made worse by the cold weather. She sniffs, suddenly aware of how she had just cried in front of someone who's essentially a stranger. She lifts up her head, attempting to hide the fact that she just cried shamelessly, ignoring her blocked nose and dull headache. She utters, "Please forget the fact that I cried in front of you. It never happened."

Fully glad that she seems fine after, he lets go of his panic as he chuckles, nodding his head. "I'll forget the fact that you cried in front of me. It never happened," he repeats.

"Thank you," she says simply, throwing her hair over her shoulders as she stands up, looking down the hill to see that the festival has started again. She turns to look at him as she says, "I hope that you're not really thinking of spending your last days wallowing in sadness as you lie down here the whole day." She points a thumb over her shoulder towards the direction of the festival. "At least have some fun."

He shrugs as he looks at where she's pointing at. "Sounds good."

"Ah!" she exclaims. "Since we're going to town, I can find the ingredients I'd need to bake the donuts."

He narrows his eyes at her, a slight tone of suspicion underneath his voice. "I really hope that you're not planning to steal them."

She says quiet for a moment, before she blinks. "Then how else are we going to get them besides stealing?"

He shoves his hands in his pockets, coming up with several bills as she looks at them, highly impressed. "I have a few bills, so maybe we can eat and buy your ingredients. Legally. I am not getting caught by the Lucida soldiers for stealing."

She sticks out her lower lip, shrugging as she crosses her arms. "Well it gives you an adrenaline rush," she defends herself. "But your heart feels like it's going to burst when you get caught."

"Have you ever?"

She grins. "Never."

He rolls his eyes, but laughs anyway as he unties his horse, pulling himself up onto the saddle and tilts his head back. Both of them went out on one horse anyway, and this time around she feels less awkward about becoming a pillion as she heaves herself up as a passenger. He grabs the reins as she places her hands on either side of his waist, holding them carefully before he changes the direction of his horse, galloping down the hill they came up.

With Sara holding onto him, he pulls the reins as soon as they arrive at the edge of the festival. He alights first and then helps her to hop off before he ties the horse somewhere safe. He looks around the area as he unknowingly smiles, brought in by the vibrant atmosphere of the festival. He glances at Sara, who seems like she has turned into a child as her eyes light up seeing the festivity.

She beckons him over, inviting him to join her as she looks in awe over everything, from the stalls to the performances.

He gets sucked in the crowd the same, because as far as he's concerned, Nyla doesn't have any tradition of holding winter festivals; the people of Nyla only feel the need to stay inside where everything's warm. But in Lucida it seems that they prefer to spend it out in the open, livening up the atmosphere that would otherwise be rather dull and sluggish. He hears chiming bells, melodious tunes and happy chatters all mixed into one, the colourful lights and banners morph into something exciting to the eyes. His attention gets stolen by Sara who's eagerly standing in front of a stall selling cotton candy, her mouth turning round as she looks in awe of the way the candy is spun around.

She extends her hands, eager to take the cotton candy but the seller shakes his head, saying that she must pay up first. Slowly, she turns around towards San, eyes begging so she can have it.

Chuckling, he goes over to her, ordering one more for himself before paying up and now they're walking among the crowd, deep into the atmosphere while holding two cotton candies similar to the colour of Sara's hair. He's barely focusing on the candy, but it seems that she's oozing with amusement every time she pops a fluff of the candy into her mouth, her mouth producing small sounds as the candy dissolves in her mouth.

"Did you know," she starts as she feels another chunk of the candy dissolving on her tongue, "that Wooyoung lied to me and said that you get cotton candy from the sky? Then he said that it's made from cotton, before finally saying it's made up of sugar."

San smiles as he hears this, glancing over to see that she's almost finished her candy but his is barely touched as he suddenly doesn't feel like eating something too sweet. He finds it somewhat ironic anyway, that he's spending his time at a winter festival and eating cotton candy when he's going to die tomorrow - it's not like doing this would change anything. But he likes it; spending time out in the open, trying to forget the fact that the curse is still brewing inside of him with someone whom he's comfortable with.

"Why didn't you-" Sara says again, voluntarily babbling away and not even realizing that San has barely spoken anything, "-spend more time with the others? You know, your... friends? You only wanted to go out with me." When she realizes how it could've sounded, she quickly reiterates, "I mean, I know that I had to come, but you could have brought the others along."

"It'd hurt more," San says simply. "Spending time with someone I'm close with, fully knowing that I'm not going to be there anymore tomorrow with them."

"Ah," she says, pretending as if she's hurt. "Of course, I'm practically a stranger to you. So spending time before you-" she drags a finger across her neck, "-with me wouldn't leave such painful memories, would it? It's better since we're not attached in any way." She snaps her fingers. "Got it; I understand your rationale."

He chuckles. "I told you that you're a nice person to be around with." A glint of sadness comes to his eyes as he shrugs, "It's only too bad that we don't have much more time to spend together."

She stays quiet, knowing that San didn't mean it in the way that she is thinking, but it did kind of make her heart feel a little bit weird as she has never experienced something like this before. She munches on the cotton candy quietly, battling with the whispers of the curse inside her body and her own feelings, before she gets startled when San hands over his own.

"You can eat it," he grins, "I suddenly don't feel like I can stomach something so sweet."

"Ah, right." She takes it from him, slightly glancing at him as he busies himself by looking at the stalls. "Thank you."

"There's a grocery store," he utters, pointing at the direction of a bigger building. "I think they'd sell the ingredients you'd need for your donuts."

She pauses, momentarily forgetting about it before she quickly advances, almost jumping into the store as San behind her tells her to be careful. In a gulp she finishes every bit of the cotton candy before he throws away the sticks. They browse through the items in the small grocery store, with San looking on curiously while Sara takes everything she needs, the list already embedded at the back of her head.

"Do you, you know... use your magic while baking those donuts?" he asks, curious. "Maybe that's why it's delicious?"

She looks at him as if offended before she shakes her head. "I bake them with my own hands," she lowers her voice down, "without magic."

He helps to heave everything up onto the counter to pay, but when the total comes up, he counts the bills in his hands before awkwardly smiling at the cashier, realizing that he doesn't have enough. Slowly, he pulls Sara towards him before whispering into her ear, saying that they don't have enough money.

She eyes the ingredients before pointing at the flour, saying that they can take it out. She smiles as she sees the total coming up as just enough and their items are bagged, but as soon as they walk out of the store, she feels San lightly grabbing her arm as he looks at her from the side.

"You took it anyway didn't you?"

She scoffs. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"The flour; you took it anyway."

"No I didn't-" she gets cut off as San slips his hand under her robe, snatching the packet of flour she was hiding.

"Then explain," he says.

"The cashier wasn't looking."

He opens his mouth to say something but closes it back before he laughs, shaking his head. "I'm returning it; I totally am not looking forward to being executed by the soldiers for stealing." Before she can protest, he runs back into the store, coming out not long after as he jogs towards her.

She gets confused as she sees how he's still holding the packet of flour, but he explains. "I just realized I had another bill in my pocket. It's enough to cover the price of the flour."

"Gosh, you're really someone who follows all the rules aren't you?" she utters as they make their way back to his horse. "It's good to break them sometimes." She gestures towards herself. "Live freely."

"Too bad I don't have much time to do that," he says it lightly as he gets onto the horse, holding out a hand so that he can help her up. As he feels her putting her arms around his waist he continues, "You're going to kill me tomorrow, remember?"

"You're the only person who would sound so relaxed about that," she comments. "Don't you even have any fear?"

He looks over his shoulder as he guides the horse out of town, the day inching towards noon although they can barely feel it. Time feels frozen, and although they wished it could stay that way, tomorrow's bound to happen.

"My fear is that I'll hurt people without even realizing," he shrugs. "So in a way, I'm getting rid of my fear."

She hates how paradoxical it sounds, but she knows that it's no denying it as they're on a dead end on how to deal with the curse. She grips his waist, subconsciously putting her chin on his back as she mumbles, "Have you ever fallen in love?"

He laughs at the sudden, out-of-place question, but he takes a moment to think anyway before he answers, "I don't think so. Maybe I did, I didn't realize it. Why are you curious?"

"I was just wondering..." She sighs. "Akira would sacrifice everything just so she could see her husband get cured; that's true love, isn't it?" When San hums as an agreement, she continues, "That's what I felt when she came looking for me at Ileara anyway; I sensed the raw sincerity she had to look for a cure. She would do anything just to save her husband. But you... Who are you sacrificing yourself for?"

She feels his body tensing, before he pulls the reins to his horse to stop it.

"For everyone else."

"But why?" she presses on. "Why is there a need to sacrifice yourself? Why can't you be selfish about it?"

"Because there's simply no other way."

She lets out an exasperated sigh, before the heavy words tumble out of her mouth, the thoughts that she had been keeping ever since San had requested for her to kill him. "I can't do it."

"You promised-"

"I can't kill you!" she shouts, hopping off the horse before turning to look at him.

He slowly alights the horse as they stand face to face.

"I can't bear to kill you," she utters desperately as she holds onto his arms. "You have so many people waiting for you to be cured, and you want to let them go just like that?"

"Then what can we do?" he asks calmly. "Tell me, if there's any other way. Are you telling me that I'll have to kill Akira because she's the living member of the Ileara royal bloodline? Who else do I have to kill? Sara, if I had a choice that wouldn't involve hurting anyone else, I would. But we're left with no other choice."

She closes her eyes, letting out a long and heavy breath. She finally relents, "I'll find some other way, but you have to promise me that you will stay alive."

"You're saying there's another way to cure me."

"I said I'll find it," she utters. She looks away as she walks towards the horse again, heaving herself up the horse as she begrudgingly holds out her hand. "Get on."

Wondering what else could be done for him to be cured, he takes her hand before getting onto the horse, and they set off on their journey back to the palace. The journey back is quiet; they find it awkward now that Sara seemed to have gotten angry at San, while the latter had just wanted to make sure things would go back to normal without hurting anyone except himself.

It's not that she will find a way... she has already found another way to cure the curse.

The only matter is whose happiness she will prioritize first.