The sun had disappeared. Minjae stood quietly, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

"You will not leave this house until I instruct you to," and with that, he had left her alone.

Minutes later, Woo Sari and another maid ushered her into a spacious chamber. Minjae, familiar with the chamber roof's gentle curves, had often watched the morning sun catch the edges of its dark grey tiles, making them gleam.

They held a small case with all of Minjae's clothes that Seung had bought her in Hanyang. However, Minjae's eyes widened when Woo Sari opened the wide, ornate wooden chest to keep the clothes, only to discover they were filled with even more.

For how long has Seung known about me? Minjae thought with distress.

Restless, she stood by the small enclave attached to the chamber overlooking the pond. As evening fell, the tiles gave off a faint glow, and the small animal figurines cast soft shadows, quietly watching over the room as dusk settled.

There had been no word from him since he had confronted them all, shattering everyone's world as they knew it.

"Dari is angry with you," Woo Sari had stated from behind her.

Minjae nodded, feeling the pressure behind her eyes.

"You should have told him, My lady," Woo Sari said without judgement.

Minjae had no idea what Seung planned for her. As the village physician, he couldn't confine her without raising suspicion. For now, the villagers believed she had left for the temple early that morning.

"You are correct, Woo Sari," Seung's heavy voice cut in from behind them.

Minjae whirled around while Woo Sari bowed.

Minjae momentarily gripped the railing behind her, her nails digging into them, before bringing her hands to her front and bowing to him.

"You understood what I said, Dari?" Woo Sari said happily, her voice garbled, and Seung's brows furrowed as he strained to decipher before nodding his head. "Some of it, but I guessed the rest," he said as his eyes softened, showing no sign of the resentment his eyes held when they looked at Minjae.

Woo Sari bowed once more, a flicker of concern in her eyes as she bowed to Minjae before retreating silently from the room.

Seung waited until the noise of wood scraping against wood reached their ears as the door closed behind Woo Sari before he let the mask of civility slip and his unresolved rage take over.

He stepped closer. Minjae stepped back, tilting her head to look up at him. The sharp angle of the railing top dug into her back.

The bitterness in his charcoal eyes changed into an emotion so liquid that Minjae felt she would drown in it.

Seung hauled her into his arms. His lips claimed hers with a violence that left no room for tenderness, each movement a reminder of her betrayal. His fingers dug into the soft skin at the nape of her neck, his fingers splayed on her lower back as he pressed her to him. His teeth scraped her, and his tongue pushed her lips apart, probing, demanding, owning.

The next thing she knew, Seung had swept her up in his arms, striding inside the chamber. Her feet sank into the soft mattress when he put her down.

His posture was rigid, and his hands hung by his side.

"Undress," he ordered.

The man who had always looked at her with devotion, worshipped her when he made love to her, was nowhere in sight. His mouth was set in a thin line, harsh shadows carved the sides of his nose and lips, and his breathing was noticeably loud and short as if dragging in the air was a chore.

For the first time, Minjae was afraid of him.

"Dari, can we talk?" She pleaded.

His eyes glinted, terrifying in their intensity. "I said, undress."

With trembling fingers, Minjae dragged at the strings of her jeogori. She shrugged it off, the chilly chamber air brushing her bare shoulders.

Seung had seen every inch of her body, and yet she felt more naked than she had ever felt before, even though she was still respectably dressed with her chima tied above her breasts.

She bit her lip, her skin heating scarlet as she dropped each piece of clothing at her feet.

"Open your hair," he said, his tone harsh, in contrast with his eyes that smouldered as they roved over her, pausing at her rounded breasts, the slender curves of her waist, and the voluptuous swell of her hips, coming to rest at the soft curls at the apex of her legs.

His eyes darkened as she raised her arms to release the knot at the nape of her neck, her braided hair tumbling down her back. She dropped to her knee and placed the exquisite emerald-tipped binyeo on the soban beside her bed.

Minjae stayed down and wrapped an arm around her nakedness. He could not have made it more clear how much he hated her. She felt the salt of a tear at the corner of her mouth.

"Undress me," he rasped.

Without another word, Minjae rose and stepped closer. He made no effort to touch her as she disrobed him, shrugging the gold-hewn blue hanbok off his shoulders.

Her breath caught in her throat. She had forgotten how beautiful he was. His chest was carved of granite, and the ridges were defined like rolls on a dune, tapering off to an impossibly narrow waist. His abdomen was like chiselled rock, and it looked like he, too, was holding his breath.

Despite herself, she felt liquid pool in her mouth as her body shivered in need. But her breeding was too ingrained in her to reach for the strings of his pants.

It had been too long since she had seen him without clothes, and she felt too shy.

Seung grasped her chin and raised it to meet his eyes.

"Undo the strings," he said, his voice raspy.

She hesitated, her heart thundering. She wanted him so badly, but not in hate.

"You don't want me, do you?"

Minjae gasped and staggered back at his words. "No!" Her denial was instant. How could he think she did not want him?

"No, as in - this is shameful, and against my precious upbringing or no, as in - I never wanted you, but my guilt brought me to you?" Seung mocked.

Seung made virtue sound like a dirty word. She drew an arm against her chest.

"I do want you, but this... I can't deny my upbringing," she said bitterly. "I cannot stop being who I am."

"Yet you were the one who initiated it in Hanyang," he said. "Tell me, my dear wife," Seung said, his lips twisting wrathfully, "Did you come to me in Hanyang to fulfil your misguided duties as a wife?"

Minjae paled. She loved this man, yet now he suspected everything they ever had between them. But did she not know this would be how he would react?

Seung's eyes narrowed, a vein standing out in his temple. Minjae found her feet walking on their own volition when he touched her upper arms. His fingers lightly brushed the length of her spine. The barely there touch curled her toes, her head tilted back, and her eyes drooped. A half-mocking smile lifted the corners of his mouth, his gaze settling on her parted lips. His other hand travelled down, and he inserted a finger inside her. Unexpected pleasure rocked her, and she closed her eyes.

"My dutiful wife, don't I make you burn?" he whispered in her ears.

She moaned.

"That very first day we met at the inn, you looked so displeased with me because I suspect you learned I had slept with Han So-ye. At least people like So-ye are honest about what they like and do. When they take pleasure, they don't cloak it under the guise of respectability. But you can't do that, can you? You would have never come to me if you didn't know I was your husband."

Minjae's eyes snapped open as jealousy cut her chest into two halves. She was standing naked, encircled in his arms, his fingers stroking the most sensitive part of her body, and he was talking about another woman he had slept with.

She pushed him. Not caring, she grabbed her hanbok from her bed, her anger making it difficult for her to clasp the material.

"No, you don't," Seung said roughly as he tossed the garment aside and hauled her against his chest, her breasts crushed by his abdomen. His fingers dug into her scalp as he forced her head back. "Look at me when I speak with you!"

She struggled, but he only tightened his grip around her, his arousal painfully digging into her abdomen, exciting and terrifying her at the same time.

"Would you have come to me if I wasn't your husband?" He asked again. His voice dropped, caressing her cheeks. "Would you?"

Would she? How did he expect her to answer something like that?

"How does it matter?" She asked, her breath coming in short gasps as she felt a fire burn her insides.

"It matters to me! I want to know if all we had was your twisted way of fulfilling your duties. I want to know if the woman I loved even saw me as a man or just as someone she was bound to and had to -" he closed his eyes, swallowing, unable to contain the tears that filled them. "And when it got too much, you tried to push Soo Hyun into my arms. Even in disguise, the bloody ideal wife!"

Minjae's anger dissipated. How would she ever atone for what she had done?

Her continued silence only stoked his anger more.

"Since it seems I'm left with nothing but your duty, I may as well take full advantage of it," he sneered, eyes burning with bitterness.

He dragged his lips through the damp skin of her cheeks before claiming her lips. Passion and resentment battled. Minjae's heart raced, torn between her body's response to him and the deep guilt gnawing at her soul. Passion won as soon as Minjae's arms went around his neck.

Seung was a man parched as he suckled the honey out of her being. He searched every crevice of her mouth before tasting her ears and her throat. When his mouth found her nipples, she caved with pleasure, taking him down with her. He didn't stop as he dipped down and down, dragging his tongue and teeth across the sensitive flat of her stomach, making her buck and writhe.

"Are you thinking of duty now?" He asked harshly against her stomach. "Or now?" He parted the curls and branded her with his mouth.

Minjae lifted her hips in response, opening her legs for him, even though the act caused her entire body to be covered with hues of pink so bright her skin resembled a rose petal.

Seung's eyes blazed in response at her surrender, the charcoal turning into molten obsidian. He hooked her thighs over his shoulders, dipping his mouth, and Minjae lost the ability to think. He feasted on her, his hold on her bruising, but his mouth was so gentle and coaxing that she couldn't bear it. She bit her lip hard to stop from crying out.

"Let everyone hear how agreeably you do your duty, Physician Kim, and how well I have taught you," he said, his bitter words only fuelling the fire in her belly until she couldn't hold back moans anymore. She bit on her fist to stop herself, but she lost. Hot lava spurted out of her while she fell apart, her mind bunched into a sizzling whiteness that bolted through her body, leaving it limp.

He flipped her over on her stomach. There was nothing tender about Seung when he entered her. She gasped at the invasion, her body protesting to him. Seung's arm hooked around her waist. He splayed his hand on her stomach and lifted her up, adjusting her until she took him all in, the gentleness of the moment contrasting with the rage in his eyes. "What would I not give to stop feeling this ache for you..." Seung's hoarse voice drifted down her ears to her heart, causing it to flutter at his desperate confession.

There was hope. She would win his trust back. She didn't yet know how, but she vowed she would.

She arched in reply. That was all the sign Seung needed. He then moved within her with the force of a swirling vortex, and she never wanted him to stop. She held the stubby wooden legs of the heavy soban for purchase, wood scraping against the wood with each thrust. The mirror atop it slid off to the warm wooden floor, her binyeo clattering noisily. He grabbed her hair and pulled her back, his mouth latching onto her shoulder, where her mole was, as he sucked on it.

And then branded her with his teeth.

Pure, unadulterated pleasure rocked her, wringing a cry from somewhere deep within her chest. She bucked before her forehead burrowed in the bed, mindless from his ferocious pounding, her face deep into the mattress, muffling her shameless moans, hands bunching the sheets beneath her as she tried to hold on to some semblance of control. Pleasure crashed like lightning, rolling off her in tremors. Satisfaction emitted from Seung at her response, tipping him over the edge as he groaned his release.

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Yes he wasn't done. It was as if his rage would not subside, and he could not punish her enough. "You are my personal hell, Minjae, and the demons refuse to leave. And God help me, I don't want them to leave," he said.

Filling her again to the brim, he reached around and played with her sensitive nub to a point where she clawed at him for respite. He laughed and held her throat exacting every drop of pleasure out of her, the sensations so acute that she felt she would pass out from sheer ecstasy.

Suddenly, Seung let go of her throat and caressed her back, his fingers tracing her scars. He gentled, his guttural groans of pleasure mingled with quiet sobs. Warm droplets fell on her shoulder, attuning her to his churning emotions. Her heart ached for him.

She turned under him. His stormy gaze penetrated her like a blade, the droplets clinging to his lashes finding their way to her cheeks.

Minjae brought his head down to kiss him. She moved her hips and wrapped her legs around him, coaxing him to come to her. She moved her lips and tongue just as he had taught her, reaching out, baring her heart. He entered her again, gently moving within her as if she was his refuge. Minjae danced to his rhythm until they both shuddered their needs into each other.

The chill hit her with the force of a gail as Seung immediately rolled off her, his arm flung over his eyes. A sob tore through him, his breathing ragged and uneven.

"It was supposed to make me feel better," he said bitterly.

Minjae's throat clogged as a tear slipped.

She raised herself on her elbows and tentatively placed a hand on his chest, half fearing he would shove it off.

Instead, he went still. Empowered by this small win, she inched closer and lay her head on his shoulder. He didn't embrace her but didn't push her away either.

Her fingers curled on his chest. "You have every right to be angry and doubt me, Dari. I know there's nothing I can say to undo my wrongdoings. But please allow me to prove my genuine feelings for you."

"Genuine feelings?" He scoffed. "What use do I have of feelings when you never believed in me?"

"It's not true. There's no one I trust more. I was wrong to keep you in the dark. But if there's anything—anything you want me to do, tell me, and I will do it. If... if it means punishment, then let it be so. Even if you wish to whip me, I'll not protest," she said.

It was the wrong thing to say, and Minjae knew the moment it left her mouth.

He recoiled. "You think I'd hurt you?" He pushed her in disgust and rose to his feet, wiping his face with his forearm. "Is that how little you think of me, Kim Minjae?" His voice was cold.

"That's not what I meant - Dari, please -" Minjae begged.

"So little faith, Minjae....why am I even surprised...." his lips twisted as he picked up his tunic. "You know what, Lady Choi, spare me your martyrdom!" He gritted.

The chamber reverberated with anger at his exit.

Minjae dragged her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around it as she sobbed. She sobbed for everything they had lost, everything they could never get back. Kim I-On was right. She had thrown it all away.

"My Lady!" Woo Sari's soft voice penetrated her miserable haze. Warm hands went around her. Frantic hands went over Minjae's body, anxiously noting the light bruises on her shoulders where Seung had left his mark.

Minjae could hear the concern and anger in Woo Sari's voice. "My Lady, are you hurt?"

Through the veil of her tears, Minjae could barely make out the form of the companion she had loved as a sister.

"Yes, I am hurting Woo Sari because I hurt him so much, and I don't know how to set it right," she hiccuped. Woo Sari drew her into her warm embrace, running a soothing hand down her back as Minjae sobbed in her arms.

Woo Sari brought a tray of food that Minja didn't touch. Exhausted, she fell into a dreamless sleep, only to wake up in the dead of the night - or was it morning? as Seung lay beside her.

He had come back.

Hope fluttered in her heart even though no words were exchanged. Seung’s passion blocked all thoughts, his lovemaking relentless, as if he wanted to purge himself of feelings he couldn’t control. His thumb caressed the soft bruise he had created on her shoulder possessively before he spooned into her and fell asleep.

Minjae stayed awake, staring at the pile of books Seung had bought for her stacked against the ornate chest by the wall until her eyelids grew heavy.

She awoke to the comforting scent of sandalwood, faint plum blossoms, and an empty bed. Woo Sari forced her to eat and then sat with her as Minjae focussed on restoring her old doll with scraps of cloth Woo Sari found.

And waited.

∞

Seung rode his horse hard, his cheeks numb from the cold. Wanting to exhaust himself, to rid himself of the weight that seemed to have settled permanently on his shoulders, he flicked the reins to urge the beast under him to gallop faster.

After walking out on Minjae, Seung had drowned himself in work. He went home to change and have some sustenance before returning to work.

The plan to trap Ka Min Kyu was in place. The whispers of a barbarian attack floated around. There was a swirling unrest in the political court's innermost chambers.

Seung felt untouched by it all. His thoughts were consumed by Minjae, though he forced himself to stay away from her. The unbearable truth was that she had never needed him. That—being irrelevant to her—was the deepest kind of torment, a quiet, unending hell that hollowed him from the inside out.

Yet there was nowhere to run.

He went to Jo Hee Bong instead.

"Hyung, when you first saw my wife, what did you think of her?" Seung asked.

"What an inappropriate question to ask, Lee Seung! Have you taken leave of your senses?" Jo Hee Bong chided.

"Please answer me," Seung said.

"I don't remember," Hee Bong said, but he dropped his eyes as he sipped his tea.

Winter was making its presence felt. The bite in the morning chill inside Hee-bong's spacious chamber was much more pronounced today. It compared nothing to the chill inside of Seung though.

"Let me remind you. You told me she was plain, unremarkable, and I was better off without her," Seung said.

"That's what I thought," Hee Bong said defensively.

"What did you think of Physician Kim?" Seung asked.

"She is talented and saved Kim I-On's life. I am grateful to her," Hee Bong said.

"Why did you call her Lady Choi that night?" Seung asked.

A red tainted Hee-Bong's cheeks. "Look, Lee Seung, I don't know what this is about. We have state affairs to worry about. I refuse to discuss the women in your life -"

"I would like to seek your approval to speak with Lady Kim I-On," Seung said abruptly.

Jo Hee Bong didn't argue.

Of medium height, with warm, intelligent brown eyes, Lady Kim I-On didn't pretend.

She bowed. "I recognised her the first day she visited me, My Lord."

"And none of you thought it important to let me know?" Seung bristled.

"Watch your tone, Lee," Hee Bong warned.

Seung closed his eyes. "Please forgive me, Lady Kim."

"It wasn't my place to tell, Lord Seung. But it's not easy to be in her place. I never hide anything from my husband, but even he didn't know about it until he saw her the night young Master Jo was born," Kim I-On said.

The cup clattered as Seung slapped it back on the table.

"I am sorry, Lee Seung," Lord Jo said. "Perhaps, the right thing would have been to mention it to you, but you must admit it's awkward. I still cannot believe His Excellency is capable of such deceit and cruelty. It's like I have never known him before. Had I not met Lady Choi back then, I would never have believed it."

Aware they both were looking at him with pity in their eyes but too well bred to show it, Seung swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry you had to discover this on your own, My Lord," Lady Kim said, her tone laced with confusion. "She was meant to tell you herself. I don't know why she changed her mind. I'm just as bewildered—she's even refused to see me." She hesitated for a moment before continuing, her voice softening. "But please, I beg of you, be gentle with her. She's endured more than you know."

Didn't he know it? And she still would suffer alone if he let her. Seung clenched his jaw painfully.

"What do you mean, My Lady, that she has refused to see you?"

"She stopped coming to me after Master Jo was born, and I don't know why. She ignored all my messages and sent my messenger back. It's unlike her. Once I feel a little better, I will seek her out and speak with her."

Seung processed that information, his eyes unseeingly boring a hole in the floor between him and Jo Hee Bong.

As they walked out, Jo Hee Bong admired the black horse Minjae loved so much.

"Don't blame Lady Choi too much for not telling you," Hee Bong suggested.

"It's easy for you to say. To be not trusted by the woman you love is a different kind of hell," Seung said, unable to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Lee Seung, do you really think it's that simple? I do not believe I've ever met someone as remarkable as her. To the world, she's alive in someone else's body, and yet she has turned that life into something extraordinary. She has saved countless lives, even at the cost of her own safety. Now she has to fight for the rights to her own husband and her own identity -"

"She didn't have to fight at all!" Seung snapped, the words almost trembling. "All she had to do was tell me!"

"And risk her life in the process?" Hee Bong countered gently. "Why would she, if doing so would get her killed?"

Seung's expression hardened, fury barely contained. "I would die before letting anyone lay a hand on her."

"I don't doubt that Lee Seung," Hee Bong said quietly. "I'd do the same for Kim I-On."

Staring fixedly at the horse, Seung gritted his teeth, "Then you also understand why I can't forgive her for this. I don't even know if she truly ever wanted me in her life."

Hee Bong's voice softened with understanding. "And that, my friend, is exactly why she didn't tell you. Do you even realise how you're reacting?"

Seung knew he was reacting badly. He had tried to keep himself from her and hated himself for failing. Every night for the past three days, he had crawled to her bed like a man dying of thirst and had left before she woke, wanting to avoid her answers to his questions that only caused more heartbreak.

Seung was behaving precisely according to the social norms his peers followed, he thought humourlessly. Yet why did he feel he was doing something sordid?

"I can't help it. I am tired of feeling like I am holding onto something that might never have been real. How do I make this pain go away, Hyung?" Seung's voice cracked on the last word as though he had betrayed himself by speaking it aloud.

Hee Bong ran his hands on the shiny coat of the horse's neck. "I can't answer that question. She is a rich, independent, sought-after woman valued more than many men I know. It has made me wonder - despite the increased risk of her being discovered, Lady Choi Jina stayed close to you. Why did you think she did that?"

Seung stared at his friend, whom he had always considered his older brother.

Minjae had stayed close to him.

He had been so consumed by rage at the thought of being shut out by her that he hadn't let any light of reasoning enter his miserable existence.

By that reasoning, when Mnjae gave the elixir to Soo Hyun, was it because she had finally decided just not to leave him, but to leave the island for good?

His heart stopped. If so, what would stop her from leaving him now?

What was he doing?

∞

Putting final stitches on the restored palm of her doll, Minjae held it at an arm's distance to check her handiwork. Woo Sari had washed it, so its colour had improved considerably. Being enclosed in the dark for years had helped preserve most of the colours, but age had also deepened the stains that refused to come off. Minjae used a small patchwork of fabrics to cover them. She fine-stitched the seams but left the large, childlike stitches alone.

Minjae wondered why this doll was so important to Seung and why he had remembered it as belonging to her. She didn't remember giving it to Gil-ae. She didn't even know they had met as children.

How had he figured she was Choi Jina? It was evident neither Soo Hyun nor Lady Ryu told him. She knew I-On would not tell him. He had to have known for some time if he had arranged a chamber for her without letting any of the women know and getting so many hanboks stitched.

Even though he came to her every night, and his passion had only increased in its intensity, he had not spoken to her.

She was effectively a prisoner and wondered where the road led to.

Would he keep her until he became tired of her? Her thoughts travelled to Soo Hyun's mattress in Seung's room...did they?

Questions swirled while envy and insecurity withered her insides.

She shook her head free of morose thoughts, put the needles and the tread in their box and packed away the leftover fabric. Maybe she would stitch a new doll for Pyo Yeri.

The door opened behind her back, and a shadow fell on her. A messenger was supposed to take a list of medicinal herbs that Cha Moon Sik's mother, the local shaman, needed for her ailment of fatigue to Kim Seo Jun. Minjae picked up the list, and thinking it was Woo Sari, she turned.

Seung stood at the doorway, silhouetted by the soft morning light behind him.

Her heart took flight as he stepped closer, only to spiral down at the memory of his coldness, whimpering like a bird with a broken wing yearning for the one hand that could mend it. Even though she had felt every inch of him on her at night, she had not seen Seung for three days. It's almost as if he came to her in the dark because he couldn't bear to look at her.

She bit her lip and brought her hands together under her long sleeves, giving her a deep bow.

"You came," she said softly in greeting.

Minjae had fallen back to her old habits of courtesy that had been drilled into her since she could walk. She put away the list, fluffed the cushions on the bed, picked up a knee cushion and walked to the other side of the table, waiting for him to sit on the bed.

Seung seemed conflicted and then walked over and sank into the bed, his posture stiff as he lowered himself. He didn't lean back, didn't settle in. Instead, his hands remained loosely clenched on his lap, his back held straight as if bracing for an invisible weight.

"Sit," he commanded without looking at her. When he finally did glance at her, there was a flicker of something softer, but just as quickly, it was buried beneath the controlled lines of his face once more.

Minjae dropped the cushion onto the floor, gracefully folding her knees to sit sideways in a demure position. She reached for the wooden clappers, tapping them twice. A maid appeared almost instantly, bowing deeply before Minjae requested refreshments with a quiet but clear command.

They were like any other husband and wife in thousands of other households across the country.

The sheer domesticity of the act brought a lump to her throat. Looking up at Seung, she saw his eyes soften, the same emotion reflected in his mahogany gaze. Their eyes held, and she was the first to look away, but not before she memorised the soft shadows under his eyes, the gat hanging on his back, and a tired stubble covering his jaw, accentuating the pallid whiteness of his face.

"This looks new," he emitted a low chuckle. The doll looked incongruous in his large hands. His brows were drawn tightly over his eyes, but the corners of his mouth were soft. "For how long did you have it?"

It was a trivial question, but the first line Seung had spoken to her without anger. Minjae's hands trembled as a ribbon of relief unfurled in her heart.

"I remember having it forever. I didn't have many playmates other than Woo Sari, so my Grandmother must have stitched it as my companion," she said. Her eyes softened at the memory of the woman who had raised her.

Seung inhaled softly, his gaze focused on her face. "Do you remember giving it away?" He asked.

She nodded, shifting her weight, weighing if she should engage further on her own. Deciding to take the plunge, she asked, "I don't remember anything about the meeting, though. How did you remember it belonged to me?" Why is it so important to you? She wanted to ask, but she stayed silent, thankful for their small progress.

"Eomoni had taken us to visit your Grandmother. Now that I know she was a healer, it could have something to do with it. I wasn't happy to be dragged along. I was learning swordplay with Father and didn't want to be there. When Gil-ae followed me around, I took out my anger on her. She tried to jump-scare me, and I pushed her. Gil-ae was an annoying sister, as only a sister can be," Seung chuckled. "She fell on her back, and a handkerchief she carried floated to the pond. Out of nowhere, a little girl came out, dragging a doll behind almost as big as her." Seung turned the doll in his hand, his knuckles white, belying his soft tone. "Gil-ae bawled as if I was killing her, and you tried to calm her. She stopped once she saw your doll. I walked away, too much of a man to waste time on two little girls."

Minjae swallowed. "Your memory is very detailed, Dari."

"It took me a while to realise you had followed me. I looked behind you to see Gil-ae had your doll. It irritated me even more, so I yelled at you," Seung inhaled at the memory. "I remember your eyes filled with tears, but you stretched your hand. It had some sweets - white and fluffy."

Minjae held her breath, realising that whatever he would say next was very important. "I remember how awful I felt at being mean to you. I accepted your sweet offering, but then you ran away. I vowed to make it up to you. I saved the doll to return it to you the next time we met. Two months later..." Seung's face was chalk white, "I learned we were going to your house again, so I returned alone to fetch the doll."

Seung clutched the doll so tight that had it been made of wood, it would have snapped.

"Instead, I stumbled upon Choi Si-wan murdering my father," he finished, tremors shaking his hands holding the doll.