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Gulf's life in the women's quarters began.
He usually never left the room he had been assigned to and never saw anyone but Aisha, who served him.
He never had the chance to hear what the other women thought of the story that a mysterious woman had appeared one night and been shut up in one of the rooms. He suspected that they didn't think of him fondly.
Mew came to see him often. He would always drop by the room after visiting his father's wives. There was no doubt that the prince was treating Gulf as equal to, or even more important than, his fiancee, Yaya. If she resented him for it, that was only to be expected. He could tell that even Aisha found his presence unpleasant, though of course, she never said so.
But he couldn't do anything about that either. The old nurse no doubt saw Gulf as nothing but trouble for Mew, she loved the prince more dearly than anyone. Gulf was therefore amazed when Aisha shared with him the information that Yaya was in the women's quarters.
Yaya was a distant relative of the current queen, wife of Mew's father, King Bonsahk. She had decided to come to the women's quarters herself to cheer up the queen, who tended to hide her great concern for the long-suffering king.
Gulf wasn't enjoying his stay any more than anyone else. Locked away, alone in his bizarre life, he choked on all the free time that he could only spend patiently waiting for Mew to come. He wanted to expose himself as a man and flee the women's quarters at once.
"It's a shame. Lady Yaya is such a lovely girl," Aisha muttered with a sigh as she helped Gulf get dressed. She couldn't help but make at least some small complaint about having to hide a foreigner here---and a man, at that---against her better judgement. And because she adored her prince, she didn't mistreat Gulf.
The abaya he wore to meet Mew was stunning, made of white silk and decorated with a spray of spangles. The collar and sleeve were lined with pearls. It was wasted on a man like Gulf. It was obvious that Aisha, too, would preferred helping Yaya into this beautiful clothing instead of him.
The old woman had originally worked as a lady's attendant. Gulf felt guilty for the things she was made to do now to help him avoid the notice of others.
The hour of Mew's visit was near. Sometimes, the man would come to Gulf's room, and sometimes, he would summon him to the king's chamber. He did this because the king's chamber was not only separate from the women's quarters, but no one could even approach it without permission from the king.
When he was called there, Gulf was forced to dress in a woman's hijab and cover his face with a niqab.
He knew that Aisha's complaint was not directed at him, that she was just talking to herself, but he had to say something.
"The wedding ceremony is soon, isn't it? I'm sure everything go splendidly."
He'd heard the date was nearing---it would be in just two weeks. The old woman probably felt all the more put-out because it was so close.
"What do you intend to do afterwards?" she asked.
He struggled to find an answer to her retort.
"Will you go back to Thailand?" she asked.
The more she asked, the more he struggled to speak. What would he do after Mew and Yaya were married? Mew would be the one to decide that. If Gulf could go home just by asking to, he wouldn't be here now.
"If I'm allowed to go back, yes." he said finally. But he was thinking of something else entirely.
'Give me time.'
What had Mew meant by that? Much as he tried not to think about it, the words echoed in his ears. 'Because I still love you'. He had played these words over and over again so many times in his mind that he realized he was thinking of nothing but Mew. His entire body was filled with Mew. The man's obsession with him troubled his heart. He thought of Mew's passionate gaze, unchanged from that of the past.
But no matter what Mew said, Gulf had no future here. The man couldn't keep him in the women's quarters forever, and being with Gulf would damage his reputation, so what was the point?
In the end, there was only one reason that Gulf couldn't accept Mew---he wanted Mew all to himself. If they couldn't live together and someone else about to come between them, it was best to just leave each other.
He would be able to bear being alone as long as Mew was far away. But he could almost convince himself that going somewhere easy to reach and allowing himself to be found might work too.
That was how much he wanted Mew.
He loved Mew deeply. The man himself probably couldn't even imagine how passionately Gulf felt for him. That was why he couldn't afford to stay in Madina.
"Prince Mew has always been a single-minded person. Once he's fixed his sights on something, nothing else exists." The corners of Aisha's eyes crinkled. "When his mother died, he was only eight years old, but even so, he didn't cry. The other wives told him, 'She's watching over you in heaven, you shouldn't cry.' They had already caused his mother a great deal of suffering because she was foreign-born, so the prince must have taken their advice to heart."
That sounded like Mew. He had been raised in an environment where he couldn't even cry over his mother's death. Gulf couldn't imagine how harsh Mew's childhood must have been. But that's what it meant to be born into the royal family. Moreover, Mew was an outcast with a foreign mother. He must have felt incredibly isolated, and learned to guard his emotions fiercely, in order to not show any weaknesses.
Tears threatening to fall from his eyes made his throat tighten, and he put a hand to his chest. He felt pain like this whenever he thought about Mew.
The bold Mew he knew had been forced to be that way to meet his family's expectations, without anyone's help, all on his own.
There was a knock on the door.
"His majesty is waiting," a serving woman said.
Aisha looked at her guest. "Shall we go?"
Gulf set out for the king's chamber, where Mew awaited him. The king's chamber was his father's private residence, and under circumstances, even the prince wouldn't have been allowed to access it.
But the king had granted Mew permission. The king no doubt wished that all his possessions be passed to his son. It probably also helped to silence the relatives who hounded him, questioning Mew's legitimacy.
Walking down the main corridor of the women's quarters. Gulf heard someone call out to him from behind and he paused.
When he turned around, he saw a slender young woman standing in the hall. She had abundant black hair and beautiful, smooth skin. Her bright eyes highlighted an expression rich with confidence.
"Lady Yaya."
TBC