Heart of Ice

Husband

Jun was gone the next day, and Yewon was only slighty relieved.

There was, however, one other person that Yewon wished would be banished from the castle as well: her maid Sungyeon. Yewon hated Sungyeon with everything she had. Anytime that woman walked into her room, Yewon wanted to jump out a window.

Sungyeon was colder to her than Seungcheol was. She never had a smile on her face and never did anything to Yewon without hurting her. Yewon's dresses were always too tight; her baths were always scorching hot; Sungyeon's hands on her body felt like someone was pummeling her. It made Yewon hate her life in Solen more than anything else did.

She did not tell her parents about Sungyeon though. She did not want to worry them, because they already seemed so much different. Maybe it was because they were not King and Queen anymore, and so this demotion was emotionally taxing for them; they were more quiet, more reserved, and less happy altogether.

Her wedding was in a few days, and her parents were leave the morning after that. They were the only connection she had to Galacia left in this country, and so she dreaded when the time would come when they would leave her alone in this dreadful palace.

She did not cry when she was in front of them, but she did cry a lot in those days. Whenever she thought about them leaving, she felt so irreversibly depressed, like nothing could possibly make it better.

And so she spent as much time as she could with them. She never left their side in the few days before her wedding. She felt closer to them than ever before, and realized just how much she loved them, even her stoic, hard-hearted father.

But even her stoic, hard-hearted father seemed looser than usual.

"It hurts him to let you go," her mother had told her. "He's so guilty for putting you through this. It's really eating him up inside."

Yewon felt like that was an overstatement on her mother's part. Maybe he feels a little remorseful, but not to the point that it would be eating him up inside.

Still, her father talked to her about honor and dignity. About how she should act in front of her husband, what she should do for him. About how proud she should be to be in this position. And of course, he emphasized a thousand times how important it was for her to bear a son.

He also had told her to stay away from Jeonghan. He didn't have to ask her to do that; Yewon had already planned to avoid that intolerant chauvinist at all costs.

Apart from spending time with her family, she also got to know the royal family of Solen better. She saw Soonyoung with his hands all over another woman in the middle of the hallways in the palace, and everyone else walked by as if it were a common sight to behold. Yulhee was loud, obnoxious and extremely talkative. Yewon sometimes wanted to cover her ears during meals when she would be sitting nearby and blabbering on and on about random things.

She did not see Seungcheol though. Apparently, it was custom in Solen for a groom not to see his bride for five days before the wedding, so he did not come to any royal meals or attend any of the royal meetings.

Apart from all of this, Solenese women had also started grooming her for her wedding night.

It was fast approaching, her wedding. But she was less worried about her wedding than she was about her wedding night.

She had always dreamed of her wedding night, always imagined it in the most excessive of details. Her novels had made the wedding night seem like the most exhilarating experience in the world, and so she had looked forward to it and wished that it would come sooner. Now, she dreaded it so much.