notes: for Hakyona Week: prompt gift.


red strings of fate
He can never find the perfect gift for her.


When he sees the jade-carved flower hair ornament—adorned with curls of silver and strings of pearls—sparkling on the merchant's counter, the first thing he think is how good it would look in her hair and how it seemed to belong within her wavy red tresses.

He smiles—if anything, to himself—and immediately reaches for the item but his hand stops midway to the hairclip because he suddenly thinks:

Is this what he thought when he gave her that hair clip?

And it pisses him off, enough for his nails to dig hard into his palms, enough for his teeth to clench tight at his jaw, enough for his eyes to turn hot and blind with rage because he knows Soo Won is always planning something.

He knows Soo Won knows that she would clutch his hair piece tight to her heart and cradle this symbol of what her nostalgic perfect youth was—she would never get rid of it.

He knows Soo Won knows that every now and then his hair piece would slip out of her bag and Hak would see it and remind himself that he had been the love interest and not Hak—and Hak still can't figure out why exactly she still has that wretched thing.

And he knows Soo Won is sitting back against a throne wiped dry of the King's spilled blood smirking to himself knowing that Hak is looking at a selection of accessories to give to the Princess for her birthday soon to come and that Hak is thinking of her but most of all of him and—

He can feel nothing but anger, but rage, but sheer fury.

And so he fists his hand back into his sleeve, grip tightened around his quandao, eyes averted from the pretty jade thing, and he remembers why.

Why he feels his chest tight when her eyes glaze over, thinking about the past. Why he feels his heart ache when he thinks of what he could have done better to prevent this all from the start. Why he keeps his hands to himself even though he cannot bear to be further than a footstep away from her. Why he hesitates whenever he is about to confesses why he cares, and cares so much for her. Why every. single. time. he wakes up in the middle of the night breathing heavy from a nightmare of the very first time he saw Yona truly cry. Why—

—he can't give Yona pretty things.

It is all because of that sullied royal king.

And it is all the more reason to destroy him.


kinda hakyona-y. lol i'm sorry. i did two upsetting drabbles in a row. i'll try again next time.

thir13enth