Twisted Games(Ryeji ver)

RYUJIN[CHAPTER 45][M]

SHE WASN'T COMING.
I stood on the rooftop of the palace's northernmost tower, my jaw tight as I watched the minutes tick by on my watch.

Six minutes past nine. Seven. Eight. Yeji was always punctual unless she had a meeting that ran over, and she didn't have any meetings that late at night.
Tick. Tick. Tick.

Uncertainty coiled in my stomach. It'd been a gamble, reaching out to Sunghoon and sneaking into the palace, but I'd been desperate to see her.

I'd known there was a chance Yeji, stubborn as she was, wouldn't show up. But I also knew her. No matter what she said, she'd wanted to let me go as much as I wanted to leave her, and I was banking on the fact the past two weeks had been hell for her as much as it had been for me.

Part of me hoped it hadn't, because the thought of her hurting in any way made me want to want to burn the palace to the fucking ground.

But another, selfish part hoped I'd haunted her as she had me. That every breath was a struggle to draw enough oxygen into her lungs, and every mention of my name caused a sharp needle of pain to pierce her chest. Because hurt meant she still cared.

"Come on, princess." I stared at the red metal door and willed her to walk through it. "Don't let me down."

Twelve minutes past nine. Thirteen.
The rhythm in my jaw pulsed in time with my heartbeats.

Fuck it. If tonight didn't work, I'd try again until I succeeded. I'd fought and won impossible battles all my life, and the one for Yeji was the most important one of all.
If she couldn't or wouldn't fight for us—because of her guilt, her duty, her family, or any other reason—I'd fight enough for us both.

Fourteen minutes past nine. Fifteen.
Dammit princess, where are you?
Either Yeji hadn't received the note, or she'd chosen not to come.

Sunghoon had texted saying he'd given her the note, and I trusted him. I wouldn't have reached out to him otherwise. If what he said was true, then...

Pain lanced through me, but I forced myself to push it aside. I'd wait all night if I had to, in case she changed her mind, and if—

The door banged open and, suddenly, she was there. Out of breath, cheeks flushed, hair fluttering across her face from the wind.

My pulse ratcheted up several notches in the space of a millisecond. I straightened, air filling my lungs as I finally came alive again.

Yeji remained in the doorway, one hand on the doorknob, her lips parted and her chest heaving. The moonlight splashed across the roof, turning her golden hair silver and illuminating the slender curves of her body. The wind carried a faint hint of her lush jasmine scent toward me, and her green dress fluttered around her thighs, baring her shoulders and the long, smooth expanse of her legs.

I loved that dress. She knew I loved that dress. And something inside me unclenched for the first time in weeks.

"Hi," she breathed. Her grip tightened on the doorknob like she was trying to steady herself. My mouth curved.

"Hi, princess." The space between us hummed, so taut with anticipation and unspoken words it was a living, breathing thing that pulled us closer together. No more of the distance I'd felt in the hospital. She was in my skin, my soul, the very air I breathed. Everything I'd gone through the past two weeks to get here had been worth it.

"Apologies for being late. I ran into Beomgyu and got roped into a conversation about the coronation." Yeji brushed her hair out of her face, and I detected a small tremble in her hand. "It turns out the archbishop—"