Eun Seol fell asleep exhausted from crying.

When she painfully opened her eyes, Woon who had been beside her was not visible.

She looked around the room that was gradually darkening, but he was nowhere to be found.

She got up from her spot and stepped down below the bed. Her lower abdomen still felt like it was being torn apart.

After taking a few steps, her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the floor.

Gritting her teeth through the extreme pain, she calmed her rapid breathing.

Unable to move, she leaned against a chair and looked around Yeonhwadang, which she had never properly seen before.

This place, spotlessly clean and tidy, was said to have been rarely used before she came.

As she caught her breath and tried to get up, her foot caught on a box under the table.

As she lowered her head to close the lid of the box, she saw a handkerchief beautifully embroidered with red plum blossoms.

“This is…”

The handkerchief embroidered with red plum blossoms seemed somehow familiar.

Since childhood, she had carried two handkerchiefs left by her birth mother like talismans in her bosom.

How many days and nights she had cried when she lost them as a child.

But why did he have that handkerchief?

Her hand that had been staring intently at the handkerchief slowly fell.

Dream.

The man in her dreams that appeared whenever she was about to forget had a vaguely familiar face.

Some days he came as a young boy, and other times he appeared before her as an adult.

Eun Seol asked his name in her dreams, but now she finally seemed to know the name of the man who had never told her.

It wasn’t a dream.

Thinking of her childhood, she felt like she had been living forgetting something very important.

Not knowing what it was had been stifling, weighing on her heart, but now after 13 years she remembered.

At seven years old, she met Woon, who had fallen from a horse, under the wishing tree.

That day too, she had been beaten and cursed at by her mother.

She couldn’t remember the reason well, but it was probably about her father.

Soon Young had suddenly entered the room and beat her indiscriminately with the iron she was holding.

Fortunately it wasn’t a heated iron so she didn’t get burned, but the wound from being hit still remains on her waist.

If Cheongjudaek hadn’t stopped her that day, she would have died or broken some part of her body.

While Cheongjudaek took Soon Young away, Eun Seol had run to where the wishing tree was without even putting on shoes.

When she arrived breathing heavily, a stranger was sitting occupying the wishing tree.

Looking closely, he didn’t seem that old and didn’t look like a bad person either.

So she approached slowly without any hesitation.

Thinking about it now, it was really strange.

How did she, who was extremely wary of strangers, approach him without any fear when she first saw him?

“The wishing tree is mine…”

Muttering to herself as she approached, she examined the face of the boy leaning against the tree with his eyes closed.

Even to her young eyes, he seemed to be in pain from being badly hurt.

The first thing that caught her eye was the wound on his hand and the blood flowing from it.

The boy she had cried while treating then.

That boy was Lee Woon, the Crown Prince Jin Heon who had come to take her.

Holding back tears that threatened to spill, Eun Seol climbed back onto the bed holding the handkerchief.

Tears fell onto the back of her hand resting on her knee.

−He left without telling me who he was. Regrettably.

−He’s my first love.

−Actually, I know that child.

−You didn’t remember.

Her chest felt heavy remembering the words he had said.

On that day she didn’t even want to remember, she had met the Crown Prince like fate under the wishing tree.

She recalled the day the Crown Prince remembered her and first came to her house.

Now she seemed to understand why he had made that expression looking at her that day.

It was a gaze mixed with numerous emotions.

His eyes seemed to be getting wet, and he somehow looked like an angry person too.

He had come remembering everything, but she had foolishly lost all her memories.

His words that she had been everything from the beginning were sincere.

He had kept his promise to come get her, and made rumors to keep that promise.

And, he had waited for her heart to open.

Eun Seol met him in her dreams whenever that day was about to be erased by painful memories.

Yet she hadn’t been able to remember.

As Eun Seol was feeling dejected, there was a presence behind her.

The man who had promised in her dreams to protect her and come get her was opening the door and walking towards her.

He smiled as he looked at her.

“When did you wake up? I brought some rice porridge. I was a bit late because I barely managed to stop Eom Sang Gung from coming.”

He placed the small table on the table and sat in front of her.

His face had become very gaunt in just a few days.

“Even if you don’t have an appetite, try to eat a little. I’ll bring it over, so stay up on the bed.”

Eun Seol grabbed him as he was about to get up.

Afraid he would disappear like a dream if she let go, she hugged his neck and cried out loud.

No matter how much she tried to stop, she couldn’t.

“I’m sorry for making you remember alone. Thank you for not forgetting and remembering.”

“…My wife.”

“Thank you for not forgetting seven-year-old me and coming to find me.”

He who had been still for a moment as if at a loss for words, quietly whispered in her ear.

“Yoon Eun Seol, it seems you finally remembered. I was quite hurt that you didn’t remember me all this time.”

He was smiling leisurely, but his voice trembled.

The moment his lips touched her forehead, tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I believed you would remember someday, but it didn’t matter even if you didn’t remember. What’s important is that I remember you and you are by my side. I wish I had remembered you earlier and come to get you, I’ve always felt sorry about that.”

That night, Eun Seol saw his tears for the first time.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at her as if she was his entire world.

She had hurt and pained the person who only knew her and lived for her.

Now she didn’t want to hurt him anymore.

She resolved to become strong herself so that he wouldn’t have difficulties because of her.

His arms holding her tightened.

“Don’t think about anything and be at ease. Everything will get better. I’m a person who can do anything as long as I have you, my wife.”

He stayed by her side all night, telling stories of their memories together from the past.

The soft conversation continued endlessly.

Eventually, she fell asleep in his arms.

* * *

Not only the people of the inner courtyard, but all the people of the palace began to find stability little by little.

They were living as if nothing had happened, reading the atmosphere.

Eun Seol had been scrubbing the stains on the floor for days.

The stains that wouldn’t disappear no matter how much she scrubbed appeared again as soon as she wiped them away.

Yeori tried to stop her with a tearful face, but it was no use.

Unable to watch anymore, Eom Sang Gung came in and took the rag she was holding.

“I think that’s enough. I’ll have the children do the rest, so please rest, my lady. You’ll get sick at this rate.”

Eun Seol reluctantly went to sit down.

There were stains all over her clothes too, though she didn’t know when they had gotten there.

“Eom Sang Gung, please bring me a change of clothes.”

“If you drink the medicinal decoction first, I’ll bring you new clothes.”

“I want to change clothes first.”

“…My lady.”

“Eom Sang Gung. I’ll do it, so go out and look around.”

Woon was standing at the door, though it was unclear when he had arrived.

He was quietly looking at Eun Seol, who was anxiously fiddling with the hem of her skirt.

Eom Sang Gung’s eyes reddened.

“She’s been scrubbing the empty floor all day long. Something terrible will really happen at this rate.”

“How was she today?”

“She refused the medicinal decoction and didn’t eat properly. I’ll leave the decoction here, so please make sure she drinks it, Your Highness.”

After Eom Sang Gung left, Woon sat down in front of her holding the decoction.

Eun Seol bit her lip, alternately looking at the decoction and Woon’s face.

He touched her bitten lip and smiled at the corner of her mouth.

“No matter how you look at me, it won’t work today.”

“Your Excellency, I don’t want to drink the decoction.”

She hadn’t drunk the decoction for several days.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to drink it, but that she couldn’t.

She knew Eom Sang Gung was worried because of this, but she couldn’t swallow the medicine.

Not just medicine, but she couldn’t swallow anything that entered her mouth.

Above all, the blood-stained floor kept coming to mind, and she hated herself for eating forcibly just to live.

“Tell me honestly. Is it because you can’t drink the bitter medicine?”

“No. I’m not sick at all. So, I don’t need to take medicine.”

“You saw earlier, didn’t you? If you don’t drink this, I’ll get scolded a lot by Eom Sang Gung. Do you want me to get scolded?”

“That’s not it, but…”

Eun Seol reluctantly picked up the medicine bowl and swallowed it in one gulp.

Just as she was about to taste the bitterness in her mouth, something entered her mouth.

“It’s taffy. The taffy eaten with bitter medicine always tastes the best.”

After clearing away the medicine bowl, she sat by the window and leaned her back against his chest.

Her eyes stung from the wind coming through the open window. His strong arms gently embraced her shoulders.

“The wind is quite cold as winter approaches. Shall I close the window if you’re cold?”

“Just… just stay like this for a little while.”

She buried her face in the Crown Prince’s arm like a child and looked up at the sky visible outside the window.

The cloudless sky was beautiful enough to dazzle the eyes.

She who had been silently staring into space slowly closed her eyes as her vision blurred.

Hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

She had decided not to cry. She had resolved never to show weakness again.

But she didn’t know why she was like this again.

Not wanting to show her tears, she remained in his arms with her eyes closed.

After a moment, his hand cupped her cold cheeks and wiped away her tears.

It was warm. The touch wiping her tears was warm, and the heart waiting for her was affectionate.

She wished winter would pass quickly and spring would come again.