Minjae dashed outside.

"What are you doing here?" She looked past his shoulder to check whether anyone was around.

"Trying to figure out which bedroom was yours," Seung laughed.

"Are you mad?" Minjae could hardly believe her eyes.

"No, just so madly in love that I can't stay away from you," Seung said huskily.

"Shhh!" Panicked, she grabbed his hand and dragged him inside her dark chamber. She lit the other candle. "Wait here," she instructed. Holding the candle like a beacon, she exited the room. Frantically looking for a lamp, she lighted the largest one she could locate and carried it inside.

While she was gone, Seung's observant eyes covered the length of the chamber, his gaze interested and cursory at the same time. Seung was surprised to see it so sparsely furnished. The bed was narrow and covered with a coarse, old white sheet. The duvet was thick, faded with age, frayed at the corners. He did not spy any wall hanging or artefact. Even the divider screen was plain, a flat beige. He was struck by the absence of a mirror. For a woman of Minjae's beauty, he had expected her chamber to reflect vanity and self-admiration and a space commensurate with her disposition.

The room was devoid of personality.

Yet Minjae was always dressed in the most beautiful, colourful dresses he had ever seen on a commoner woman. Seung wondered where she stored the dresses. He spied the comb on the table and wondered if someone had gifted her the beautiful accessory that matched her taste but was incongruous with the room. Envy twinged his heart.

The only other anomaly was a large wooden stand with a cloth clipped to it for embroidering. Next to it sat a large round box, neatly filled with rows of thread spools. Its decoratively carved wooden lid lay by its side.

A two-inch-thick needle with a dark-coloured thread hanging from its eye was pinned to what looked like a red hibiscus flower. A symbol of passion and love.

It was a sight he would have expected at a Yangban woman's house, not in a barely furnished village physician's modest room.

Kim Minjae was like a multicoloured rose, every petal revealing an unexpected colour. She was a puzzle with mysteriously alluring pieces he wanted to piece together desperately. It often hurt his heart when he thought of someone as brilliant and capable as Kim Minjae being tortured and locked away for years by a cruel man.

Seung had done some low-key investigation. The man everyone called her husband had been brutal to Minjae because she had been unable to give him children, driving her to the verge of death. Luckily, Minaje's father had chanced upon a visit, brought his critically ill daughter home, and nursed her back to health. Enraged, the man followed Minjae to the island to fetch her back. The details were murky, but from what he gathered, the man had eventually agreed to a divorce.

After the divorce, he had not been seen in his village since he left it on his merchant ship. Seung hoped the cretin was dead. Else, Seung might end up acting on his violent urges towards the man for hurting Minjae.

Seung was lighting a lamp he had found beside the wooden stand with the candle she had left behind when Minjae entered.

"Do you want any more of them lit?" he asked.

Minjae shook her head.

"What if someone had seen you?" Minjae asked, placing the thick candle back on the table.

Seung shrugged. "If they had, I would have made some excuse."

Minjae let out an exasperated breath. The man had no sense of protocol. Sometimes, she wondered how he fared so well in the rigid confines of an army structure.

Seung dwarfed the room, and Minjae watched him as his eyes swept the room before resting on the bed. A giddy feeling of excitement washed over her as Seung's presence in her bed chamber sank in, immediately followed by a surge of mortification at the inappropriateness of her thoughts.

Warmth permeated her cheeks. "If you have finished taking the inventory, you must leave now," Minaje said, trying to inject irritability into her tone but sounding the opposite. Her voice came out deep, punctuated by her erratic breaths like she had been running for a long time.

She sounded nervous.

Seung raised two stately brows. "You dragged me in, my dear lady, and I am not in the mood to leave right now."

"What do you want?" She asked shakily.

Seung looked at the ravishing beauty before him. Even though her nightgown was as frayed as the other things in the room, she seemed impossibly alluring. The modest cotton of the faded hanbok followed her slender curves, flaring gently at the bottom. With her hair flowing like a waterfall past her shoulders and the satiny angles of her face illuminated by the lantern she held, she looked like a night fairy. His hands itched to touch the silken strands. He had come to her house impulsively and didn't mean to intrude. It was a bad, bad idea.

"You don't want to know," he answered her cryptically. Taking a shuddering breath, he turned and went to the window.

"Get away from there! Someone might see us!" she hissed. She plonked the lantern on the floor with a graceful, fluid motion and rushed to shut the wickets.

Seung's mouth twitched, a glint in his mischievous eyes.

She pressed her hand against her panicking heart. "This visit is most improper, Commander Lee," she chastised.

"Physician Kim, just a reminder that you have dragged me into your private chamber and proceeded to close the doors and windows."

She stared at him in disbelief. "How many times have you wandered into a woman's bedroom to be so at ease?"

"Many times," He returned without blinking.

The look of hurt on her lovely face tore at him. Seung gave up fighting his impulse and reached out to run his fingers through her hair, his hand burying in the depths of the silky strands, the tips of his fingers creating small rings of fire on her scalp above her nape. The movement brought them close, their faces inches from each other. "Minjae, I will never lie to you," he said huskily.

"You just did! Liar!" she replied automatically, coherence leaving her mind at his sensuous touch.

He shook his head. "I have done as I pleased but always kept my boundaries. I do not condone infidelity; honesty is important to me. So if you ask a question, expect an honest answer."

Her stomach clenched nervously, and every muscle in her body was painfully aware of his proximity in the intimate setting. His musky male scent teased her senses. She had to get away before she did something stupid.

Like, kiss him.

Minjae took a fortifying breath, trying to stem the shaking of her legs. "Why have you come here tonight?" Minjae asked, her throat suddenly parched. Minjae suddenly had a niggling suspicion. "Did you come to check if Captain Park was still here?"

Seung didn't blink, returning her questioning gaze steadily.

"You did! Why? What if he had been here?"

"You obviously don't have much of a high opinion of me, do you? Besides the fact that you are answering your own question and jumping to conclusions, would there be a reason for Captain Park to visit you this late?"

Minjae hesitated. "He has sometimes visited Aboji during the later hours," she said.

"But your father is not on the island," Seung said, his voice quiet.

"Still.....he could have stayed back to discuss about the girl, so it could have been possible. It would have been hard to explain your presence," Minjae admonished.

Candlelight danced over the chiselled angles of his cheekbones, a tense muscle beating in his jaw. "Would you rather still keep pretending we are strangers? Are you worried what Captain Park might think about us being together?" Seung asked tonelessly.

Minjae pushed at his chest, exasperated. They were running in circles. He was jealous, and she was edgy about being discovered...and worried she would soon sway into his arms and break all rules of morality. "I did not pretend you were a stranger before him, did I? What else do you expect me to do? It would be best if you went; it's late. We also have to prepare for tomorrow morning. The boat will leave in the first hour of the rabbit. Captain Park and Han So Ye will bring the girl. We must—" Minjae gasped, her sentence hanging midway as Seung hauled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. One hand possessively pressed on her waist while the other wrapped around the nape of her neck beneath her hair.

"Dari!" Her eyes rounded like a rabbit's, half in panic and half in excitement.

Seung tightened his grip, pulling her deeper into the ocean of his turbulent eyes. "You asked me to complete my thoughts before Captain Park came - no, intruded. At that time, I said it was not important. Let me answer you now. I don't want to fight for your favour anymore. I don't want anyone else to ever lay their eyes on you without knowing who you belong to," his voice was hoarse with the intensity of his feelings. "I don't care about any relationship you might have had with Captain Park or anyone else before, but I don't share and ever let go of what belongs to me."

Minjae quivered, the soggy feeling returning to her legs with resounding force. She bunched the fabric of his tunic to keep herself upright, thankful for his arms around her, without which she would have sunk to the floor like a sac of rice. Seung dipped his head.

And found her lips in a resounding gesture of ownership.

Shock immobilised her system, freezing her momentarily as her senses accommodated the current that flashed through her body at the contact. Seung's firm lips plucked at her lower lip and traced the upper, taking it in before lifting his head.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He looked at her, his eyes askance, his breath fanning into hot twirls on her sensitive skin. A deep red stained the gold blades of his cheeks. Minjae's eyes dropped to his lips.

Seung didn't need any more encouragement. He swept down and stoked her lips open with gentle pressure, moving over them so delicately as if her lips were fragile rose petals. He tasted of blackberry wine and salt, his musky scent overwhelming her senses. His hand held her head in place while the other ran up and down her back in soothing strokes. A fire spread in the pit of her stomach, spreading to places she didn't know could react in such a scandalous fashion, threatening to consume her. Instinctively, her head dipped back, cradled possessively by his hand. He shaped her lips, tracing them with his tongue, probing her gently, as if trying to find secret gifts and then absorbed her tremors by pulling her closer, securing her to him. Her mind became a cloud of sensations, exploding in tiny stars behind her closed eyes.

When his mouth finally left hers, Minjae felt adrift. Heat flooded her as she realised she didn't want it to end. Seung touched his lips to her forehead and pulled her head to his chest.

"I have wanted this for a long time," Seung whispered against her hair. Minjae shivered.

He propelled her to the bed with his arm around her back and gently pushed her to a sitting position. Her knees folded under her, unsure of what would happen next. Her heartbeats rang in her ears.

Seung sat on the floor, facing her. He tenderly took one of her hands into both of his, his thumbs gently circling into her palms. Sensations burst in the form of prickles that sped up her arms. She could not think any more, only feel.

"Did I scare you?" Seung asked gently.

Surprised by his question, Minjae raised her eyes, trying to regain some of her bearings. She could only shake her head in denial, not trusting herself to speak. Trying to distract her mind from the maddeningly seductive thumbs on her palm, she tugged at her hand. Seung released it.

"I will not apologise, but I didn't mean to rush you."

Experienced women are never shy. Kim Da Bom's words floated in. Seung must think of her as inexcusably inexperienced. "I am not a-a maiden unaware of intimate things," Minjae said haltingly. She wanted to tell him that she was not made of glass, to continue what he had been doing, but her strict upbringing had been too ingrained in her to voice any of those wanton thoughts.

Seung watched her flushed skin, his heart swelling like a fluffy cotton ball.

"Captain Park is interested in you," Seung said without preamble.

Minjae's eyebrows drew together in a furrow. She signed audibly. Here she was, floating in a cloud of passion, and this man was still stuck with someone else.

"He is not," her mouth turned downward.

"Maybe you don't see or feel it, but I can bet my life on it. It's difficult when half the island competes for you, but at least you don't respond to them," he complained.

Minjae shook her head. She had never noticed any interest in his demeanour in the two years she had worked with Captain's Park. Even if what Seung said was true, she had never felt any interest in him—or anyone else, for that matter. She didn't have the time or space in her heart.

"You are wrong. But even if you were right, Captain Park means nothing to me. I thought you knew that", Minjae said.

"My brain stops working when I see you with anyone else, especially if that person likes you. But you were wrong, too. I would never spy on you. When you said yes this morning, you made me the happiest man in the world. I am not myself and have never felt so out of depth with a woman. I wanted to see you again before the night ended, so I came. Now that I am here, I want to be near you, hear you say my name, learn about your past, and tell you about mine. And-" he paused, tucking a strand behind her ear, "ask you - will you become my partner for life?"

Her heart skipped several beats, feeling as if she was drowning in the darkest eyes she had ever seen, their depth so intense they seemed fathomless, framed by dense double lashes that resembled small fans against his radiant skin. A sane part of her still resisted the inevitable path she knew deep down her heart had already chosen. "Dari, you do not know anything about the life I led before I came here -"

A long forefinger pressed on her lips. "Shh. I love you, and you are all that matters. Even without knowing everything, I feel we know and understand each other." He ran a thumb across her jawline. "I am happy to wait, but I am also not a patient man. I do not want to let you out of my sight. I want you as my family."

"What about your mother, Dari? She might not like you bringing home a commoner-" she persisted, but her objections were dissolving faster than salt in water.

"My mother will give her blessings to any woman I agree to marry," Seung smiled. "She had left all hopes of me ever bringing a woman home, so you will make her a very happy woman."

"You already have a wife," she reminded him softly. "If you ever have children with me, they will be illegitimate."

"For me, you are the only one who matters," Seung said with an assured finality that left no room for doubt that further arguments would be as futile as squeezing water out of a stone. "Let the world think whatever it wants. If our union gives us children, we will love them and make them strong enough to make a good life of their own. So tell me, will you marry me and share my life?"

Her heart thudded at his words. The silence around them spread like a warm blanket. She lowered her eyes, pressure building behind them as tears threatened. She took a deep breath, determined to hold them back and gave a slight nod.

"I want to hear you say it," Seung said, holding her chin and forcing her to meet his eyes.

Minjae knew she had lost the battle—truth be told, it had never been a battle to begin with. She had lost the very first day she had laid her eyes on him. Seung demanded the absolute, and Minjae gave it to him.

"Yes, I will marry you, Dari. I have not wanted something this badly in my life." A tear spilt.

Seung stared at her, his eyes smouldering. He held her face between his palms and drew it closer. He kissed the lone pearl that had dropped on her cheek and softly skimmed her lips before releasing her.

Bemused, Minjae touched her lips in wonder. Seung watched her with intense eyes, curbing the clamour of his body to take her back in his arms. Minjae was so mysterious in some ways and vulnerably transparent in others. He at once wanted to read her like a book and hide her away like a precious jewel.

"Once your father returns, I will formally ask for your hand and take you home. I have decided to live on this island, so your work won't be disrupted. The only difference is that you will come to me when your work is over," he said with a languid smile, and she blushed.

"What if you are transferred from here?"

Seung shrugged. "I will resign."

"Resign? What will you do if you don't work?"

"Who said I won't work? Minjae, you forget, I am also a silver ore merchant. I have made enough money that we will be alright even if I never worked. Besides, I suspect I am possibly going to marry one of the richest women on this island, if not in Joseon, so I am sure we will do just fine," he added cheekily.

Minjae gave a twinkling laugh, the swanlike curve of her neck moving gracefully, tempting him to caress it.

Seung moved away and pulled the strings of his hat. Carefully setting it aside on the small table beside the box and comb, he outstretched himself to lie horizontally on the edge of the bed, with his head nestled in her lap. Minjae gasped at the intimacy of the gesture.

Seung folded his hands on his chest and looked up at her. "If you want, I can get up," he teased, his eyes dancing in mischief.

Minjae giggled and tentatively put a hand on his forehead. She touched the grainy mesh of his headband and ran the tips of her fingers along its edge. The weight of his head on her lap felt foreign yet so right. Minjae gleaned his features greedily, her eyes memorising the contours of his high cheekbones, full bowed lips, and razor-sharp jaw. His beauty alone could start a war, she thought with a pang.

He lay quietly for quite some time.

"Do you like what you see?" He asked.

Red-faced at being caught, she almost dislodged him from her lap. She looked aside and tried to regain her composure.

Seung touched her cheek with a gentle knuckle. "You blush so exquisitely," he observed.

Unsure what to say to that, she kept still. Seung went back to his prone position.

"I can see myself spending my life like this, with you by my side," he sighed. "I will buy land here, and we can farm. This island feels like home."

"Have you farmed before?" Minjae asked.

"My family owned a great deal of farming land. After my father died, it was difficult for my mother to manage it all. Two dry spells and a few floods caused damage my mother could not recover from. So she sold much of the land not entailed to our family. Labour became difficult to sustain and feed, so she sold her slaves and set many of them free. Some settled around our village and continued to work in our lands. I focused on getting a government post to relieve her pressure, but I have always wanted to farm."

"But would you not continue with mining ore? And how did you even manage to mine silver ore when you were fighting so far away?"

"I didn't. My sister and two of my Uncles did."

"Your sister is allowed to get involved in something like that?"

"Yes, why not? She is very talented and has the elders of my family dancing around her little finger. Farming never suited either of my Uncles. They always lost crops and ended up depending on my father. But when the opportunity came for this, they turned out to be exceptionally talented. They are not good with accounting, but my sister is. Our family's combined effort has made us rich beyond our dreams, and we don't even need as much. I was born into a family of mavericks. I am not the only odd one here," he laughed.

Every word he spoke was saturated with his deep affection for his family. Minjae listened to him describe his village, childhood home, and life growing up amidst plenty of love but not much wealth. He regaled her with his escapades and passion for learning martial arts and weaponry. "I have never been defeated in an archery competition," he cracked open an eye to see if she was suitably impressed. Minjae laughed at his self-admiration and realised her approval mattered to him. His vanity was not misplaced. His accomplishments in warfare were legendary, which was startling, given how young he was.

He sounded happy. The wick of a candle faintly crackled, gently melting the wax around it, forming clusters of molten wax that gathered into gooey blobs, clinging to the candle's surface before slowly dripping downward into sculpted rivulets, creating miniature elongated rock-like formations and channels along the candle's smooth column. Molten wax gathered in small, circular pools at the base of the candle, reflecting the flickering flame above.

"Did you know, ever since I first saw you, I haven't had a single nightmare?" Seung said, staring at the modest thatched ceiling with a crisscross of wooden beams, a content smile gracing his lips.

"Nightmare? About the war you were in?" Minjae asked with concern.

Seung shook his head. He took her hand in his, interlinking their fingers, and looked at their joined hands as if they were a work of art.

"It's a nightmare I have had since I was nine."

"Oh!" Was all she could muster.

He paused, his hands tightening around her fingers before he laid her hand on his chest and covered it with his hands. "My father was murdered by masked men. I stumbled upon them by accident..." Seung went quiet as the images flashed, his mind inevitably wandering into the dark caverns of memories of that fateful day. He immediately regretted bringing it up. Minjae had become as still as a statue.

Using the leverage of his powerful abdominal muscles, Seung rose to a seating position in one quick movement.

"Were the culprits caught?" Minjae asked, her voice sounding strained, distant. Horrified.

Seung looked at his hands, which had clenched themselves into fists without him noticing. He unclenched them and rubbed his temple with his fingers and thumb. "No, they were not. Anyway, I didn't mean to bring that up. I just wanted to tell you how different it has been since you came into my life."

Minjae touched his upper arm, "It must have been terrible for you. How did you deal with it for all these years? If you saw them, why were they not caught?"

Seung expelled a breath. "I do not know. I do not even know why Father had to die that way. More than that, I have always been curious why they let me live. Especially the man whom I had managed to unmask. He could have killed me. Instead, he gagged and tied me and threw me in a closet before running away. How many times I wished I did something different, maybe if I had happened upon them earlier, if I had not taken the book out, if -"

"Then you would have been killed, too," Minjae pointed out.

Seung nodded. "You are probably right. I have hunted every inch of the country. I looked through slave registers and put men on the case - anything that would give a clue. But nothing has turned up so far."

"Do you still remember that man?"

"I have lost count of how often I have seen that face in my nightmares. He was very tall and had a long scar on his face," Seung gestured to illustrate, a finger drawing a line from his jaw through the cheek to the corner of his eye. Seung's voice dropped to a tortured whisper, "His image has never left my conscious mind and has tormented my unconscious one."

"Did - did the man also have a limp?" Minjae asked, her voice strangely quiet.

Seung glanced incredulously at her. "How did you know?" He was before her in an instant. "Have you seen him? Is he here?"

"I-I am not sure. I think he might have come to the island - it was a few years ago."