BGM Baek Ah Yeon - A Lot Like Love / Moon Lovers OST / PART 7 / INSTRUMENTAL

Withered Moon
―iReii

"The moon is crying sadly. The moon is smiling sadly.
The moon withers away, leaving traces of flowers behind."

二

"Your highness, are you awake?"

One of the servants asked with care from the other side of the door.

"Yes, you may enter,"

The prince's eyelids were already open― wide open, to be precise. He had no idea why, he didn't even sleep early in order to be fully awake the next morning, he actually had trouble sleeping as he recalled. However, there was a hint of sweet reminiscent that he faced right before his mind drifted off, but he could not figure out why.

The servant entered the room with gentle footsteps. The prince raised his arms to ninety degrees as the servant placed his heukryungpo on, and tied it off, and finished it by buckling the belt. The servant tied the prince's elegant, long hair and placed the ikseongwan on top. The maids knocked on the door and the prince nodded as the smell of warm food lingered in the air. Two maids walked in while holding onto tiny tables filled with various kinds of rich food, all for the prince. They placed it down carefully in front of the prince, and left without another word. As he sat there alone, eating by himself in the large corridor of his own, he reflected back to the day before.

She was indeed, an interesting maid. He had never seen such person before, and he had never seen such person act like her before. Her physical being is just an ordinary maid, yet her internal being was not. However, the prince did not have any feelings for her, he did not find her attractive at all; she wasn't the prettiest, she wasn't the purest, and she wasn't the palest. He was merely interested in her previous actions that he saw in her. He wondered, what kind of thoughts does she have, what kind of ideas pop in her head, what made her act in a such delinquent way toward the prince of an empire?

"El―sword!"

A female's voice was courageously echoed into the hallway and in that moment, the prince's door busted open, following with a rather beautiful female that contrasted her behavior. Her crimson colored ponytail swayed in the air as she puffed out shallow breaths as if she dashed all the way to his palace.

"Yo― your highness, Princess Elesis! You cannot enter in middle of-"

"Elsword! Was it you?!"

Ignoring the maid's and the servant's desperate plea, the princess entered the room with violent actions and smashed the palm of her hands on top of the table, the sound of metal utensils clashed with one another. Yet Elsword did not flinch, instead, he smiled with a hint of arrogance.

"Me what? Didn't you learn, you can't just bust into someone's palace in such manner, sister…"

He said as he slowly drank a cup of tea, his eyelids slowly blinking as he continued to smile.

"One of my maids said a soldier with red hair kidnapped her during her duty of washing my clothes! Obviously, our father, you, and I are the only one with red hair,"

"Kidnap?"

Elsword placed his cup of tea down as he questioned his sister with his eyebrows lifted up.

"Now I'm not able to wear my favorite hanbok!"

The princess whined as she nodded her head with such movement that seemed to mock Elsword, yet he didn't catch her attitude. Instead, he was staring down at the wooden floor as he thought to himself.

"Did you punish her?"

He asked as he whipped his vision toward his sister again. Their crimson eyes were ignited with irritation as they stared at one another.

"Of course! Although it was partially your fault,"

"Where is she,"

"In my abandoned closet… why?"

The princess asked with slight hint of curiosity although she tried not to illustrate her feelings. She grabbed one of the prince's food that was neatly placed on top of a plate with his used chopsticks. Elsword stared at her with a disgusted look on his face then in all of a sudden he stood up and demanded,

"Get out, I'm changing,"

"What? You're changed,"

"Let the princess out,"

"Yes, your highness!"

Elsword demanded his servants and the maids to forcefully remove the princess from his room.

"What the―?! You! I'm gonna get you later, Elsword!"

The princess's last words echoed throughout the room as it slowly faded away along with voices of servants and maids being bickered by Elesis, and soon enough there was silent.

"Get the gugunbok,"

He demanded his servant that remained inside the room, who stood up swiftly and prepared one of the prince's gugunboks.

"Pr― prince Elsword, for what reason do you need the gugunbok for?"

The prince mischievously smiled as the servant asked, whom tilted his head in confusion. Following up with his smile, he whispered,

"To start a war,"

The prince, in his soldier uniform, walked along the corridors of the palace as various maids and servants bowed their head respectfully as he passed by. Almost everyone had the knowledge of his physical appearance as well as his cold personality, except that is Aisha― the maid he is currently searching for. Perhaps that was the reason why the prince took an interest in an ordinary yet somewhat different maid like her.

"Your highness, if you don't mind me asking… are you searching for the maid that's been locked up?"

The servant asked Elsword in a careful manner as they passed through the gate of the princess's palace. Elsword had the knowledge that Elesis prefers to go sword fighting with fellow soldiers after her breakfast, and that is the reason why Elsword decided to come here at this time. The prince jolted his back toward the servant who asked him a question, who flinched his shoulders due to sudden startles. The prince nodded,

"Yes,"

He said with a smile. Then he whipped his head back toward the front and walked toward the palace, searching for the abandoned closet.

Did he feel pity or was he satisfied regarding the maid's punishment? Did he come to rescue her or mock at her punishment? Even the prince himself does not know, he couldn't even predict his own actions and her reaction.

"Yo― your highness!"

Ignoring his servant's desperate plea, Elsword slammed multiple doors open, startling and surprising various other people inside the room. After realizing that the maid he was looking for wasn't inside those rooms, he closed the door with a rather violent manner and continued on.

"Th― the princess will be very upset about your behaviors, your highness…!"

"I'm upset about hers,"

He replied with a stubborn reply as he walked passed various rooms and other maids and servants. At that moment, he glimpsed a tiny building not too far away from the palace, but has been separated from rest of the building. He motioned his servant to stop his movements, and the curious servant had to come to a sudden halt to the point that he had to regain his balance.

"I'll go myself,"

Elsword quietly said as the servant nodded his head. Reluctantly, the prince stepped forward toward the mysterious building that seemed to give an aura that the maid was inside. As soon as he reached the edifice, he busted the door open, scaring the person who was in there. The person whom he was searching for.

"Mr… Soldier?!"

The maid exclaimed as she stared at him with surprise. Indeed, it was an abandoned closet filled with hanboks the princess did not grow fond of as well as hanboks she wore during her younger years that does not fit her anymore. The maid was sitting in the corner with a piece of paper on top of her lap while her slender fingers were holding onto a wooden pencil. After seeing the soldier enter the room, she swiftly hid the utensils behind her back as she nervously laughed.

"What― what brings you here…?"

She asked as she cleared her throat, her voice came out rather shaky although she tried to sound courageous. She grinded her teeth with embarrassment as the prince silently chuckled at her actions, but the two quickly brushed their side thoughts away.

"And what was a punished maid doing?"

Elsword simply skipped over her curiosity and questioned his own. Contrasting the value of hers and his rank, Aisha did not simply give in.

"I thought this was the princess's palace, not the prince's, and you― Mr. Soldier, is the prince's soldier. I believe you are in the wrong area,"

She lifted her chin up with slight hint of pride, yet the prince wasn't amused. He glanced over to the side with irritated emotion reflecting in his scarlet eyes and decided that he would be the one to give in.

"She told me that a soldier with red hair kidnapped you,"

"Well.. well you were going to…"

Aisha scratched the side of her head with slight hint of confusion as she tried to reminiscent back to the day before, where the two gained an experience that developed into the current situation they are in. The prince merely sighed with anger as he glanced down the maid who was laughing nervously. He walked over to her, which startled her. Then he decided to sit down right next to her, which made her startle once again as she flinched her shoulders.

"Let me see,"

He said as he reluctantly grabbed the paper Aisha was holding onto as her fingers flayed in the air as she tried to take it back from the soldier.

"Gi― give it ba―"

"Did you draw this?"

Before Aisha could argue back, the prince suddenly jolted his head back toward her and suddenly asked. His scarlet eyes were sparkling with amazement and his smile was one of the most innocent smiles she have ever seen before. It was an expression from the soldier that she've never seen before. Aisha glanced back down at the paper, she was drawing the cherry blossom trees that was placed outside of the window that was placed next to her. Paths of lights shined through as the warmth of sunshine gave off a cozy feeling inside the abandoned closet. The sunshine peeked its ways through her violet hair and through his crimson hair, as well as the paper that he was holding onto. The drawing seemed to radiate the light and give off a realistic yet somewhat a melancholy feeling.

"Yeah…"

She replied, her voice coming out like a gentle whisper. The soldier stared back at the drawing with a warm smile painted across his face.

"This is really…"

"..."

"Amazing,"

Aisha's eyes widened with bewilderment as her petite lips slowly gaped. She had never seen the cold-hearted, the full-of-himself soldier make such expression; it was almost as if he was another person.

"Thank you…"

She replied back as a soft smile played on her lips, her eyes continued to stare down at the drawing before them. As she slowly lifted her head back up, she realized the soldier was staring at her, their face were merely only few inches away; it seemed as if the time had stopped. The sunshine made its way through his eyes, illuminating the true colors of the scarlet colored eyes of his. She wondered if her violet colored eyes reflected off similarly like his, then she realized the situation. She felt the heat of her body rising up to her cheeks. She wondered if her face flushed a bright red, yet she couldn't bear to move herself away, she had no idea why.

Perhaps because she was, for some reason, mesmerized and somewhat captivated by his scarlet colored eyes that radiated off its true beauty.

二

end.

note:

Already there is a romantic scene!
I feel like this chapter was somewhat rushed, but I just didn't know what else to add in order for the story to flow.
Although this is written in Aisha's perspective, it is Elsword who fell in love with Aisha in this chapter.
Aisha doesn't realize her feelings yet; love is an emotion she has never experienced before.

ALSO EXTREMELY SAD THAT LOVE IN THE MOONLIGHT ENDED :c

As always, please don't forget to follow/favorite/review as it will be highly beneficial to me!

replies:

Preneli: I apologize if all the information is difficult to memorize/learn! Sometimes I have to go back to chapter one as well XD I'm glad chapter one was enough to catch your mind! Please look forward to more updates c:

SpiritedLun: LMAO, at first I wrote Elsword just smiling at her back, but I realized it needs a slight hint of comedy. XD

Ailee: That's really hard, every dynasties has pros and cons. I'd choose either Goryeo or Joseon! My friend watched Scarlet Heart and I haven't, but I heard it's a great story that just ended! I've watched short videos on social medias and like you said, I really love the hanbok designs as well! The accessories are a lot more fancy compared to Love in the Moonlight, but nevertheless, I love both dramas!