"I..saw her..." Areum whispers, making sure Yun Ki reads the words that spill out of her thundering lips.

"I saw..Daebi Mama leave.." She re-iterates, a little bolder.

She watches Yun Ki's eyes glint in frustration as he exhales out of his nose, chest heaving erratically.

Areum straightens her slumped posture, gaining confidence in her scheming tactics.

The Iron was hot and it was this very moment that she needed to strike it.

What she was going to utter would be deciding her stature in Baekmin.

She breathes in a heavy breath.

"I saw her sit in a carriage with.. your twin.."

Twin.

Yun Ki winced at the mention of the word.

What irks him more is the visual of that scoundrel of a man seating Soojin next to him.

Areum notices his digits clench around the gun and she strikes her shot.

Ting!

"I saw them embracing each other and sharing a passionate kiss..." She manages to squeak out, eyes producing a natural layer of gloss.

Oh, how terribly concerned she was for Yun Ki- is what she thought her Jeonha would be thinking.

Yun Ki on the other hand wishes to go on a hunting spree.

He wants to shoot Yong Sun in the balls and have him tied to a tree and maybe even dragged by a rope around his neck behind Casper, who'd ruthlessly tug him around in the mud.

"Whore." He mutters, as he thinks of Soojin's arms wrapping around Yong Sun's neck as she meshed her lips with his.

He can almost feel her tongue on his as he imagines her moaning into Yong Sun's mouth with every swipe of his tongue over her swollen bottom lip.

"Vixen!" He bites his tongue, eyes protruding out of their sockets.

His imagination runs wild as he imagines the love of his life being taken by his twin, both figuratively and suggestively.

Yun Ki drowns out Areum's pleads and requests and his eyebrows scrunch closer, eyes shut, lower lip caught between his front teeth as he presses down on the trigger, bullet striking the marble flooring of the Palace, right next to Areum's shoulders.

"Jeonha!!" She cries, snapping Yun Ki out of his thoughts and bringing his attention to the smoke leaving the muzzle of the gun.

He watches the hole he'd made on the shattered marble and hurls his gun on the floor, walking away, hastily.

Chief Hong watches the scene unfold and just as he's about to follow Yun Ki out of the palace, he's stopped by Areum, who tugs on his sleeve.

"Let me go see him.." She says, head bowed.

"I-I don't think that would be quite okay..Areum-ssi.." The Chief explains, staring at Yun Ki's disappearing silhouette.

"I'm his Royal Consort..what else might be my duty, Chief?" She retaliates, bowing before the man and following after Yun Ki's heavy footsteps.

She follows after him, to The Garden of Jasmine.

She watches his shoulders slump in defeat as he stands under the wilted Cherry Blossom Tree, running his palm over the bark.

"Consider whatever was shared between us as a dream, a sour one. "

Soojin's voice haunts him as words from her letter manage to creep into his brain.

"Every time you touched me, I felt as though I was being suffocated by a Python."

A Python?

Was his moving embrace comparable to the strangulating clutches of a Python?

Yun Ki hits his head over the trunk of the tree.

"Lies." He whispers to himself as he strikes his head once more.

"You're a liar!"

Twice.

"A whore!"

Thrice.

"You used me."

He retreats as he watches a drop of blood roll down the patchy bark.

He feels the warmth of his blood trickling down his forehead.

Red.

It runs past the sides of his nose and over his lips.

Yun Ki uses his thumb to swipe away the blood cascading down his head.

He looks at his blood.

"I-I'm doing this for you while you're in the arms of another man..." He laughs to himself, watching his blood stained thumb, bringing it to his lips, tongue swiping over it.

"What's the point of having a Royal blood when it's all down to nothing?"

He reconnects his forehead with the tree.

"Why did you do this to me, Soojin? We-We were so happy..I made you happy."

His fist hits the hard bark, with a loud thump.

"Why, after all this, do I still love you?"

Areum can't watch him any longer.

She runs to him, embracing his figure from the back, arms encircling his waist and head resting between his shoulder blades.

"Yun Ki.." She mutters and Yun Ki stops for a moment.

The warmth of a woman.

Yun Ki remains motionless, rigid.

"You don't deserve to be out here, crying for a woman who's left you.." She mumbles.

Yun Ki removes her arms as he turns.

He grabs her cheeks.

"Why?" He asks, looking into her eyes.

"Why don't I deserve to cry?"

Areum runs away from his prying eyes, grasping his wrists.

"Y-You deserve better." She chokes out.

Yun Ki scoffs.

"Better?"

"Yes, better...better than that bitch Soojin, who--"

"Areum-ah!" Yun Ki thunders.

"Why? Why don't you see how foolish you're looking right now, crying for a girl who has hopped on over someone else's lap after using you and feeding you lies...Why can't you see how stupid you look?" Areum screams.

Yun Ki lets go of her cheeks, slumping his back against the tree.

"I-I..It doesn't change the fact that I-I still love her!" He grumbles.

"Love? How could you love someone who has only stabbed you in the back, so publicly? Everyone is laughing at you, Yun Ki... Laughing at you for being so smitten for a virginal girl.."

"I-It's more than that now, Areum..She's more than that!"

There's silence in the air.

Yun Ki looks away while Areum stands close to him, chest-to-chest.

"I could be more." Areum mumbles.

Yun Ki's head snaps towards her.

"Mwo?" He asks, in a hushed tone, eyebrows scrunched.

Areum falters.

"Y-You heard me.."

She gains courage as she her hands over his neck, receding towards the back of his scalp, nails scratching him, tenderly.

"I-I've been there with you, by your side through the worst, Yun Ki...Through Ryunjin and now, through Soojin.."

Yun Ki's eyes are clouded.

"Why are you bringing up the past?" He asks, head falling back as she targets a soft spot in the crook of his head.

Areum leans in, breath fanning over his red ears as she breathes out heavily.

"Because you need to realise who has only truly loved you.." She mumbles, receding from the close approximity.

Yun Ki grabs the back of her neck, bringing her closer.

His pupils are shaking as he eyes Areum's lips.

He closes his eyes and sucks in a breath as he pulls her in, trapping her lips in between his open mouthed ones.

He's angling his mouth, trying to taste the sweetness of her lips.

He's trying to feel something, anything.

His hands are roaming her back as they're pushing her body into his own.

He's rocking his hips into hers, a motion he's used to doing with Areum's body.

His tongue is licking against hers, the tips of their tongues licking into each other as Areum is whining into his mouth, feeling a lot more than he is.

Yun Ki lets go of the kiss with a loud smack, chest heaving from the lack of oxygen.

Areum runs a finger over her lips, feeling just how swollen they are.

She's leaning in for another heated kiss.

It'd been so long, she thinks.

Yun Ki, however, places a firm palm over her shoulder, blocking her advances.

Areum's confused gaze meets his.

"Why?" She asks.

"Why won't you let me kiss you more?" She asks, like a broken doll, hands balled up to fists, that hang on either side of her, heavy and dejected.

Yun ki cranes his head back, such that he's now staring at the flower and fruit-barren branches of the tree.

"I don't feel a thing." He mutters.

"What?"

Yun Ki swallows a lump.

"I don't feel a thing for you, Areum. Whatever there was between us, I-I don't think it could ever get rekindled anymore.."

Areum stands before him, perplexed and offended.

"Yun Ki!" She complains.

She opens her mouth to say something, just anything but she'd staring into his lifeless eyes.

She grabs his hand and places it over her left breast, giving it a squeeze.

Yun Ki swats his hand away, anger taking over his expressions.

"What are you doing?!" He asks, staring down at Areum in an emotion she'd never seen from him before.

It was that of Disgust.