Despite spring blessing the people of Hanyang with its warm rays of the sun and bringing glee to the people leaving their houses more because of the rising temperatures, San felt as if the world was becoming darker. He heard the joy of animals and humans alike as the more pleasant time of the year filled them with adoration for each other and they were drawn into groups to share laughter and fun. San listened to them with his chin propped on the windowsill to his room.

Seonghwa had forbidden him from going out once more. Trapped inside his room with the speech he had to write and other writing practise forgotten in heaps on his floor, San looked outside with yearning. He wished for the proximity of someone he could consider a friend. He saw Hongjoong rarely because of his tasks, and the other people San met also interested themselves most in his role at the court and his might as a dragon. Whenever he greeted an advisor in the corridors, San got asked about the ritual, about his speech, about his progress in integrating himself into their community.

San was lonely. He had Seonghwa to talk to, and Hongjoong on the occasional instances they passed paths with each other, but while San enjoyed both of their personalities, he found himself not satisfied. He had nobody who tended to his needs outside of being their magnificent dragon ruler. All questions were polite and out of obligation, but San felt none of them offered him to open his heart.

Yeosang asked him every morning how he had slept. Yunho informed him it was a beautiful day out when San considered taking a stroll through the gardens.

Yet, despite all the people swarming the palace, San felt trapped and restricted by those walls. They harboured only those who had a purpose here. Genuine friendships naturally formed didn't seem to exist here.

Sulking at the window, San listened to the happy chase of two rabbits outside of the city walls and to the shrieks of jubilant children in the city.

Dragons were used to solitude, but as with most fledglings, loneliness depressed San's spirits. He had dreamt the night prior of being back home and with his people, where everyone shared their deepest and most private thoughts.

When he couldn't take his boredom anymore, San picked up his chin. He inclined his head, listening to the space outside his door. A moment later, he snuck over on subtle soles to peer outside.

No one was in sight. Yeosang must be busy with dinner preparations, and Yunho probably patrolled outside since guarding San's door wasn't needed. If San found the perfect moment, he might slip away.

San peered out of the windows in his dressing room to check the other side of the building. Like an assassin on his mission, he crept over the wooden floors without making a sound.

From this window, he saw Seonghwa and Hongjoong. The two crossed over from the building for rituals to the main palace grounds. Hongjoong fanned himself again and San was surprised to see how different his smile behind the fan was. Even from the distance, it looked sly. He was much more expressive today, and Seonghwa had lowered his head to chuckle towards the ground.

Intrigued at seeing them outside of their usual roles as they followed their duties, San shifted the window back shut. Neither of them would come to search for him soon.

San slithered out of the building once he was sure Yunho was on the other side. He dipped behind the adjoining house to gain some distance and leaned against the wall with his heart racing. He did nothing illegal, but he feared Seonghwa's wrath if he were caught. After having been so close to him, San was timid around the man more than Hongjoong.

Would Hongjoong be mad if he found out San broke the rules? Perhaps it wouldn't bother him. He had enough trivialities to be concerned about already.

With his mind wiped blank of ritual speeches, traditions and policies, San enjoyed his spy game. Some guards and people milling around regarded him strangely as he lingered in the shadows, but none of them questioned his motives. Within the palace walls, he was harmless.

As he rounded the area bit by bit and slunk around the buildings, he picked up on unfamiliar voices. These swooned of a cosy surrounding, good food, and peace all day. Curious about what type of animal lived such a good life, San followed the voices. He smelled the horses before he saw them and peered inside the stables.

The servants inside bowed for him, but didn't mind his presence further as he beckoned them to continue working. As he walked along the horse bays to marvel at the majestic creatures, they greeted him with interest.

Horses were naturally chattering, so they asked a million questions at once. A dragon? Has he come to eat us? No, he is the new king. He married Hongjoong? His hair is so long. What brings him here? And many more. San snickered to himself as he stepped up to a bay holding a sweet brown mare whose fur reminded him of Hongjoong's eyes.

"Hello. My name is San," San greeted her. She nudged her snout into his hand, curious about what he offered. As a dragon, he must have smelled of danger to the cowardly animals, but they must have picked out on his scent, meaning no evil.

"I married your king. I am happy to meet you. Your home sounded so cosy, so I came by. Perhaps we can be friends?"

The horses would always be here; they weren't flighty like the heron.

Wary, the intelligent animals regarded him. Their eyes flicked as they tried to pick up on his attention.

"I know, dragons seldom befriend horses since you belong to the humans and I am close with the wild animals of the mountains, but... We share some traits to bond over."

San smiled at them, trying to convince them with his dimples.

The mare in front of him conceded. She accepted his caresses on her head and also the carrot he handed her. He carefully kept his claws at bay.

He looks funny for a dragon. Is he part human, part dragon? He must be an imoogi. Aren't imoogis even hungrier than dragons? Wouldn't the king mind his appearance?

San's smile turned wistful. He had no answer to that. He liked the king, liked how his heart fluttered and bloomed in his chest at the mention, but he was unsure of what Hongjoong thought of him. Both Seonghwa and Hongjoong had assured him of his importance, but San felt alienated by them still.

"Are you warhorses?" San asked to distract their intrigue. Instantly, a couple of them proudly flicked their manes. Their approving declarations were huffy and filled with arrogance, but they made San giggle.

The horses told him about the battles they had fought, about their mighty ancestors and their battles, and about their happiness over the recent peace in Hanyang. Now, they were used for journeys between cities, and for leisure riding trips. The horses relished in their freedom, and San enjoyed listening to them.

When the sun hid behind the horizon, the servants called it a day. They fled after their uneasy day of being around the dragon king and disappeared into the evening. San's stomach grumbled, but he appeased it with a carrot before he attended the horses again. They swore on the comfort of hay beds and told him that the attic of the stables had an entire fun area of it. The mystic place where all the hay for the horses originated from sounded like paradise in their minds.

Charmed, San peered at the ladder leading up to the attic. The wooden beams of the stables were solid, but he feared the height with his fragile human body. Upon the horses' beckons, however, he scaled it to snoop around.

Indeed, San found a pleasing room filled with hay up there. The air was dry and dusty, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling like heavy curtains. Yet, as he stretched out on the soft hay bed, the comfort of wilderness returned to him. It was much more natural than his own bed in his heated room, and through the slits between the wooden boards of the walls, he could see the night sky.

He talked with the horses a while longer. About the skies, the earth, and the taste of water fed by the mountains. No other water was as fresh and as clear as it, and San was proud that his care for the mountain lakes got appreciated.

The longer he rested in the hay curled around himself with his tails and claws on easy display since he was alone with the horses, the more often his lids clung to their closed status heavily. Sleepiness caught up with him sooner than it would have in his room at the queen's quarters, and he relished in the chatter of the animals underneath him.

San dozed off somewhere in their exchange. He slept soundly and comfortably in the hay, even without a blanket, as his robe spread out around him and covered him with its wide fabrics.

He didn't know how much time had passed when movement jostled him awake. Someone was touching him and pulling on his body. Unsure if they tried to wake him, San blinked his eyes open. The horses had fallen silent as they rested, but the nature outside still hustled in the night. San hung over somebody's shoulder and a flash of jade silk met his sight. Tired, he blinked against it. His hips pushed into a shoulder that moved under him as the person carrying him descended the ladder with some precarious wobbling. Once they arrived at the ground, San's sluggish body got transferred into the man's arms.

The cold air met them when the person abducting San from his happiness stepped outside into the night. Torches shone in the night and hid the stars from San's view when they neared. The flames danced on the pink hair of the man above him. Huddled against his chest, San regarded the dangling earring in Seonghwa's ear.

"I got him," Seonghwa muttered to someone nearby. San believed it to be Yeosang, who hurried alongside them and lit the path back to that constricting house. Weak, San wormed in Seonghwa's arms to announce his displeasure, but the shaman only held him tighter.

"Rest. You can explain later." Seonghwa's eyes skimmed San's sleepy features. Being carried in his arms like a princess took San heavenly close to Seonghwa's body that smelled of spices and his days spent in the archive. While he yearned to revisit the closeness shared between them, San wisely kept to himself.

He was married and he only just learned how to love the king. Seonghwa wasn't the one he should wish to feel close to, even if he didn't have to dread pain in that relationship.

San leaned his head against Seonghwa's chest, still drowsy. Soft like water, the silk of the man's hanbok kissed his skin. He noticed only on the sidelines how Seonghwa brought him back to his chamber and tucked him into bed. While San rested underneath his covers back in the empty room, Seonghwa talked to Yeosang outside and reminded him to pay better attention to San's whereabouts.

San knew he would get nagged tomorrow, but he didn't care. With the prior peace of sleep clinging to him, he allowed himself to drift off again and dreamed of battles, horses, dragons, and the night sky.

As expected, Seonghwa punished him with grounding the next day. Yeosang and Yunho and all five maids were in the foyer all day and regarded San's every step as he did his calligraphy. Pouty, the dragon spent his term in his room with the window open to let in the spring. Seonghwa told him at lunch that San should visit Hongjoong's quarters again in the evening for his dinner with the king mother. While nervous about whose bed the evening might end in for San, he did his homework diligently.

This time, he would take care of himself and he would get the king mother to accept him by her son's side.