Yun Ki had felt as though he was cursed.

As though he bore the power of turning things he touched into stone.

Kings and Royals were believed to possess good natured spirits and exude an aura that could turn a stone into gold, upon a mere caress over it.

Gah, it was opposite for him.

He had withstood the ravages of time and the past had been a testament of the fact that he carried with him poor luck.

He'd loose the ones he cherished the most.

Those were the words he'd get etched on his coffin.

Because, those were the words that were governing his life.

Those were the words that reminded him time and again that irrespective of the mental and spiritual journey he goes on, his soul would always bear the load of the ones he'd wronged.

They'd clasp onto his feet and move with him to his afterlife.

What others saw were the hands of a King, Yun Ki saw them stained in rouge.

In the blood of the one he loved the most, whom he had been forced to sacrifice for someone else's selfish motives.

Royal Politics was a dark topic.

One that had started unraveling before Yun Ki's eyes.

He wonders if it were that easy to gain access into the Palace.

He had seen Soojin meeting her lover in his own home and now it was his mother, who'd breathed her last breath before she'd been executed by a man who was fit to be called an animal.

It was as though he had forgotten just how low his twin could stoop, just to attack him, in any manner.

Be it emotionally or physically.

His life was in Yong Sun's clutches and there was nothing that hadn't been touched by his manipulative twin whose hawk eyes saw, just about everything that needed to be seen.

Yun Ki had cried beside his mother's carcass for quite a while before Chief Hong lifted him off the floor.

The blood had polluted the Kingdom as the flesh had been rotting for quite a while, the Palace Women cried.

White marble stained in red tints.

Yun Ki was placed in water, pales of incense water poured over his body, to cleanse his spirit for he had touched the corpse of a deceased.

His hair had been washed off of all the charcoal that had been painted all over it to give him the looks of Bohoja.

Yun Ki stayed in the lukewarm water, still and unmoved.

He didn't know how to respond for, a part of him wished he could strangulate his brother and hang him by the flagpole placed atop his Palace and the other part was in mourning over the loss of his only family member.

No one knew Yun Ki like his Eomma.

No one could replace the gentle caress that a mother offers.

No one he could sip Camomile tea with, watching the Sun set in Baekmin.

So Yun Ki sits in his bath, soaked in translucent black water, floating round him and he rests his head back, closing his eyes.

He wonders if he should just sink and drown, surrendering before the man and all that he wanted, so that he could finally be free from the shackles of manipulation and self-loathing.

He duck his head under the dark water, counting the seconds he could stay in, without coming up.

His lungs were aching and his face was turning blue and yet, the creases coating his forehead were relieved.

Easy Death, he thought.

He'd loose consciousness in a little while and just pass away from water filling his air sacs, making the exchange of oxygen, impossible.

His body wouldn't feel any pain and it'd be a classic case of Hypoxia.

The water felt calm and still, unlike the tornado that was shaking his insides.

He could get used to this, this feeling of your heart sinking, knowing it'll hit the rock bottom yet never knowing how deep you are in fact, succumbing.

Just as he's letting out bubbles out his mouth, releasing the air he'd trapped in, his eyes grow heavy and he feels sleepy.

As though all his pain and suffering has come to an end.

Until.

Until, he feels hands around his bare arms, pulling him up and he resurfaces, throat choked in water, that he coughs out as though his stomach is undergoing a spasm.

His diaphragm has gone out of control and he's wheezing out charcoal filed water from his nostrils, running down his face as two dark streams.

Water unclogs from his ears and loud sounds fill his senses as though his ear drums are finally catching external stimuli.

He flutters open his eyes, readjusting to a high pitched sound before he feels himself being shaken.

His vision clears up and he looks ahead to meet eyes with his confidant, Areum.

"Y-Yun KI!!" She's screaming, shaking him by his shoulders as he tries and opens his mouth, just to respond by a gulp, adams apple bouncing in his throat.

"Yun Ki, what were you thinking?!" She screams, unable to carry his weight and lets go, causing Yun Ki's legs that were already numb, to give up and drown back in.

Areum steps into the Royal Bath in her robe and lifts it up her leg stepping in just to duck back down, underwater.

She hooks her arms around Yun Ki, lifting him up the surface.

"Yun Ki!" She screams patting his soaked cheeks, as he tries and makes a sense of what is happening before him.

"W-What's happening?" He mumbles, looking lethargic.

Areum wipes his face with her sleeves, that herself have been soaked in the water.

"Yun Ki, you were about to drown to death! How could you think of doing something so drastic?" She asks, eyes watering and investing all of her energy in holding him up.

"I-I.." Yun Ki thinks, hands falling by his sides as paralysed weights.

His lip quivers as though he's scared.

As though he's lost everyone in his life.

Areum watches him break in her grasp and nudges his body against hers, hugging him tightly, with all the compassion she has to give.

"You're okay, Yun Ki..You're okay.." She whispers, rubbing his back as the muscles in his back lie sore under her touch and rigid.

"I-I…Areum-ah, am I really cursed?" He cries, shoulders shaking as Areum rubs his arms, pulling him closer, his head hid in her neck.

"Never Yun Ki, never." She consoles, hand trailing to his head, running through them just like his own Mother's, making him cry harder.

"I'm loosing everyone I ev-ever loved.." He hiccups, voice cracking in the midst.

Areum walks him to the edge, holding him as tight as ever.

"What was E-Eomma's fault, Areum? Why couldn't he have just come for me? W-Why my Mother? My only family.." He weeps into her clothed shoulder.

Areum listens to him keenly, seating him on a stool placed in the bath.

He rips himself apart from her and meets her own glossy eyes, his bloodshot red.

"Yun Ki-ah, this wasn't your fault.." She consoles, thumb running over his cheek, staring at the scar that peers open with velvety flesh as she tuts.

It's as though healing parts of him, heals a part of her own, in the process.

He clutches her wrists, holding them to his chest.

"W-Why does Hyung hate me so much when all I've ever be-been was his Shadow.."

Areum shakes her head.

"You're no ones shadow, Yun Ki. You have an identity of your own. You fix people, you entice them to be near you, you make them fall in love with who you are on the inside. You-You just need some healing.." Areum explains, rubbing his pale shoulders.

"How can I heal when every step of the way holds a snake waiting to fill me with their venom?" He gulps, wiping away the corners of his eyes.

Areum's heart breaks watching him like this, black snotty nose, eyes irritated from the charcoal he'd been in and mind wandering as to what this man has even done to deserve this hardship and most of it all, the loss of his mother.

"Oh Yun Ki.." Areum coos, cupping his face and nudging her nose against his.

She loved how cushiony his nose was, just how big it felt against her smaller one.

She breaths against his lips, noses touching, looking down.

She synchronises his breath with hers and stands still, not moving forward as he's now drawn a line before her.

She knows that although he may be her first priority, he places someone else in his heart and she respects him.

She respects her.

His wife, who's standing at the doorway of the King's bathroom Chamber, hid behind the wooden doors, watching her husband being healed by someone who knew him best.

Someone who'd been there to hold him through his all.

Someone who'd comforted him in the direst of times when he questioned life in itself.

Soojin had been a lot of things in her life.

She'd been a dutiful daughter, a loving sister.

She'd been a passionate lover, pouring her all into someone she loved and accepted with her all.

She was all that and yet, she was not the girl who stood beside her husband in the bath, comforting him.

She couldn't be her, either.