Dream in the Sky [Arthdal Chronicles]

Chapter 12: After Silence

She sat up, confused but alert, heart pounding.

A sound had woken her. An intruder?

Then she heard a soft knock at the door. If someone was knocking, it couldn't be an intruder. Or so she figured, her mind still muddled with sleep.

"Yangcha, is that you?" she asked in a raspy voice. At this time of night, it could only be him. But even that was unusual. Even Yangcha needed to sleep.

"Tanya?" asked a voice muffled by the door.

It was barely audible, but Tanya would recognize Eunseom's voice even through a rainstorm.

She leapt out of bed and threw open the door.

Eunseom.

Eunseom stood there as if her daydreams had conjured him up. After all the days she'd chased after him and he'd eluded her, it felt unreal for him to be here, just a hand's breadth away.

Tanya blinked once, twice, but he was really there, standing in her doorway in the middle of the night.

"Hi Tanya..." he said, almost shyly.

'Hi Tanya.' Tanya couldn't believe it. This was what he had to say after avoiding her like she carried a disease. Didn't he have a guilty conscience at all?!

"What," she said, still breathless, "are you doing here?"

"That masked guy let me in..." he said, pointing to where Yangcha was just disappearing down the corridor.

Tanya pursed her lips. "That's not what I meant."

Eunseom looked down at his feet.

"You—what were you thinking, you idiot—you—"

She broke off. Something seemed wrong... Eunseom's clothes were dirty, covered in mud, and he was as pale as a corpse, as if he had come in from a rainy storm, even though today had been a dry, sunny day in Arthdal.

He looked terrible.

"Tanya, I..." Eunseom said, and Tanya realized that he couldn't find words not because he was ashamed of his (still unforgivable) behavior these days; his hands trembled. The realization came to Tanya unbidden. His hands were shaking, and he was in distress.

Tanya glanced around the corridor. When it was still as empty as was appropriate for the late hour, she grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

She closed the door behind her and dragged him to the bed. She stumbled once or twice on the way. It was pitch-black in her chambers.

"Sit down," she said as she went to light a candle. "I'll make tea, you talk. What happened? Did you just get back from the mission?"

Eunseom looked up at her, stunned. Tanya huffed and pulled her blanket over him, then went over to the stove to make a fire and some tea.

Eunseom did not say a word.

Tanya used the silence to cool down while she busied herself with boiling the water. She felt the anger bubbling up in her stomach.

She took a deep breath, poured the tea, then walked back to the bed and handed the cup to Eunseom.

Eunseom accepted it but made no move to drink.

He gave her a guilty look, his eyes red and puffy.

He always did that. What was she supposed to do when he came knocking on her door with such a miserable, sad face?

"I'm sorry, Tanya," he said, subdued.

Tanya narrowed her eyes. A simple sorry wouldn't be enough. But she saw the signs and she could never be so cruel to Eunseom and ignore them. She took the cup from his hands and set it on the floor, then stretched out her arms for a hug. "Come here," she said.