A/N: There ya go! Sorry for being late after saying I wouldn't be late. Again. Real life got really hectic and took me by surprise. But I'm here now, and I'm not making any promises. I did, however, just polished and finished the timeline, so now I know where I'm going. Anyway, enjoy your reading and I hope you like this new chapter.


When Baek Ah left the palace, he never thought he'd come back so soon.

Of course, three months weren't that little of a period of time, but compared to the years he expected to be away, a few months were a brief travel.

However, no matter how much time spent by, he despised the way the gates made him feel trapped, how the walls made him feel enclosed, and how the people in there made him wary.

He was a prince, but all the memories in the hallways and the courtyards made him want to leave again. To run like a madman towards the gate and walk away and as further as he could possibly go until the place became only a bad memory. To make everything disappear and avoid thinking about all of the darkness that surrounded the place.

He would have never returned at all if it weren't for the last two friends he had in there.

"Announcing the 13th Prince," the voice of the eunuch resonates through the throne room, and soon Baek Ah soon finds himself standing before the king.

His brother is thinner than he remembered, his skin paler than before, contrasting more with his black robes. His eyes are tired, and his expression is beaten down. He has dark circles under his eyes, and looks completely devastated, and Baek Ah wishes he could go up and hug him.

Instead, he falls down on his knees.

"Forgive me, Pyeha." He remembers when he last knelt on the very same floor, and wonders how their lives got so warped.

"Stand up," the king says and he does so, and he sees that his smile is weak and bitter, "You don't have to ask for forgiveness. I just clung on a thin thread. It wasn't even a royal command."

He cannot keep his head up, even after hearing his kind words, "But it was a favor for a brother and a friend," he says, still not looking into his eyes, "I feel powerless."

"That makes two of us," he sighs in exhaustion, looking defeated for a while, but then he takes a deep breath and seems to recover himself a little bit, "Come with me. I'd like to have some fresh air for a while."

He follows his brother in silence, walking through empty hallways, their footsteps sounding louder in the quietness that settles around them. His entourage of court ladies and eunuchs is absent, and before he knows it, they are walking towards the garden, and away from the throne room.

"Is it okay to leave the responsibilities like that?" He can't but wonder out loud, not wanting people to think the king was lacking because of his powerless brother.

He sighs in frustration this time, rolling his eyes as he complains, "You and Soo keep nagging me about responsibilities… I'm king, I do whatever I want to do."

The whining is completely unexpected and Baek Ah starts to laugh without noticing.

"Sorry," he says when he manages to catch his breath, and So huffs, "You're right."

After his laughter dies the silence comes back again, and so do the miserable and intrusive thoughts. He wants to talk about Hae Soo, but he doesn't know for sure if it's the best moment - if there will ever be a better moment - and at the same time he doesn't know if he should wait for this brother to speak first.

If there's anyone suffering the most right now, that would be him.

Eventually, they stop walking and Baek Ah notices that they are under a gazebo. He looks up to the man beside him, but he continues to look forward, so he just waits.

"Forgive me for telling the news like I did," the king finally says, referring to a letter Baek Ah received a while ago with a short paragraph giving him dreadful news, and how his heart sank like a stone, even though he believed he'd be prepared for anything that ever came to him, "I'm sure asking you to come and tell you in person would be better, but…"

"But time was the essence, right?"

He nods in a silent agreement to Beak Ah's words, and manages to look even gloomier than before.

"Soo only found out I had told you two weeks ago," He looks down to his feet, sounding a little guilty and he breathes deeply again, "She wasn't very happy that I asked you to search all the corners of the nation and the neighboring countries for a cure."

He can picture a mad and fuming Hae Soo scolding and nagging endlessly at his older brother, speaking incessantly how she never wanted to be a bother to anyone, even though she should, and how he has to give a break to others and he can smile for a moment.

"She should know that I would have gone, with or without your request."

"She does," So smiles as well, and the melancholy dissipates for a short second, "Actually, she forgave me quite quickly."

A second thought invades his mind and he can't help but wonder silently. His apprehension and concern, however, is enough for him voice his thoughts.

"So you two are good now?" he looks wary, because this is always a sensitive topic, but his brother unaffected and unfazed look reassures him.

"We're doing fine, despite everything. A few bumps here and there." His brother seems to want to leave the matter at that, but then he looks sideways to him and decides to elaborate, "I guess you know what happened to Wook."

Baek Ah nods solemnly, still lamenting that the 8th prince escaped from his punishment, even though he was his brother.

Fairer people did not have a fairer sentence.

"I knew she had to do something with his penalty." Because Hae Soo can't stand people dying and being put to death, be it a good or a bad man, "But was it true? The hawk?"

"He was guilty of treason. If the hawk was his doing or not is of little consequence."

"I was sure you'd kill him. How did Hae Soo convince you otherwise?"

Baek Ah had many theories, some too unrealistic to be true, others not really likeable. The king's temper and anger were a force to be reckoned with, and not even Hae Soo's lectures could stop him when his mind was set up to do something.

But then the man's eyes get darker and he looks at him with suspicion.

"I'm sure you know about them," he says in a tone that does not leave a doubt of what he's implying and Baek Ah gasps.

"She told you?"

"Was I really the only one who didn't about it?"

"One of the few who didn't, yeah."

"But why?"

Why indeed? That's one question Baek Ah can never completely understand. Why would she deliberately hide such a big issue, that could blow up in a much larger proportion? Why would she conceal something that, if used by the wrong person, could destroy everything she had been fighting for?

He can't understand her reasoning, but he knows what she would say right now, and that's better than having a debate about love.

"Hae Soo said something about not wanting to make things between you worse. And also something about you killing him," Baek Ah still is not sure if that part was actually true or not, "Other than that, I'm sure she's over him now."

"You think?" He doesn't like how his brother sounds so insecure and vulnerable, so he sighs anticipating a long conversation.

"You two have been together for years now. And even before that she already had feelings for you," He cogitates the idea of charging every time he has to intervene in his brother's love life or give love advices, "You're not thinking she still longs for him, are you?"

Baek Ah knows his fourth brother sees the reason behind his words, and that he's able to follow his line of thought, even though it doesn't make him happy. It frustrates So how complicated, and simultaneously simple, things are in the romantic department, and he smiles at his pout. He can't help but to think that the king looks kind of silly when he's about to throw a tantrum. Or at least until said king bursts out his thoughts.

"Now I just wish she had fallen for you instead."

It's not the first time he hears this ridiculous idea, but just like before he chokes with his own breath, and fails to pull himself together.

"Wh-what? Hyungnim!"

"What? At least I wouldn't be this irritated, then."

"Why?"

"I don't despise you," he answers as if that explains everything, and changes the subject before Baek Ah can ask for further clarification, "Why did she even love him?"

There are two answers to this, a short and a long one, but there's no way his brother would be satisfied with either, so he tries to evade the question by being vague, "Well, she didn't love love him, you know."

Probably Hae Soo had tried to do this previously, because he sighs and looks up as if praying for patience.

"Not you too with the different kinds of love," he exclaims and Baek Ah decides for the long answer.

"But they are different." Forgetting the decision to evade love discussions he tries to be as clear as possible so his brother cannot rebuke him, "Just like I loved Myung Hee-nui differently from how I loved Woo Hee. Think how you never thought you could love Hae Soo before you got to know who she really was. And the way you felt for her before is similar but not completely the same as you do now. The problem with her and our 8th brother was that she fell in love before actually knowing him. Sure, you can call it love, some weak and pathetic version of it, but the roots weren't deep enough and, eventually, it withered and died. You two are more like an Oak, unshakeable by the storm. And that's what is love. What true, actual and real love is."

When the king doesn't say anything Baek Ah thinks he finally understood. That now his best friends will stop being stubborn and just be happy together while they still can. That now stupid discussions about love and romance will be over and they will focus on more important and pressing matters.

The man looks at him silently, and then he nods quietly to himself, as if repeating Baek Ah's word in his mind.

"That was a nice speech," So says in a contemplative voice, "Still doesn't make me feel better. Did you know they almost got married?"

"Really? She didn't tell me that." His shock makes him immediately forget how the man disregarded his argument. He suspected something like that happened, but knowing it for a fact was something else.

"Apparently I messed up their plans by asking her to the late king Taejo and then by being poisoned."

"And then by making her fall for you." Baek Ah thinks on the way things work and how much had changed between them and he sighs in an amusing contemplation, before making sure things are okay, "You're not angry at her, are you? Did you fight again because of that?"

"No, I'm not," the king groans, "I just told you we were fine."

There is a hidden request in his voice to just let the matter be, but there are still a few questions unanswered.

"Does he know about her condition?" Baek Ah asks carefully once again and his brother scoffs in distaste.

"I don't care about anything that may come to him. If does or if he doesn't, it's not important. He can't leave his house and she won't go there. They'll never meet again."

He lets the silence sink for a while before asking another dangerous question, "Does our 14th brother know?"

"Let's not talk about them," his brother half pleads, half commands and Baek Ah decides to drop it before he starts to feel more miserable or completely angry.

"Alright, then."

He turns his eyes back to the lake, but before he can ask something else, So touches his shoulder lightly, nodding to a different direction, calling Baek Ah's attention to the woman walking through fields of flowers, looking way smaller in the distance.

"She came to see you," So comments and she starts to wave at them from a distance as if that was her cue, "You should go to her, she shouldn't be walking around like this."

The chilly wind of the end of an afternoon fall is not cold enough to make them shiver, but he knows her hanbok in quite thin to be any good protection, and Hae Soo does not have a coat with her, so he starts to worry as well. He rushes to go to her quickly and then stops and turns around when he notices his brother does not move.

"You're not coming?"

"I'll talk to both of you later. I have a lot of responsibilities."

"Yeah, I think that's what Hae Soo will say."

"Just go."

He begins to rush away again, but a doubt crosses his mind and he turns around to ask for advice.

"Wait, how do I talk to her?" He knows is a stupid question the moment he finishes it and his brother scoffs.

"Like always, or she'll hit you."

.

.

.

.

"Wangjanim! You're back!" Any other woman wouldn't have hugged him, but Hae Soo isn't any other woman, so jumps at him and laughs heartily as her arms wrap around him. "It's great to see you!"

"I'm sorry for taking so long."

She backs away from the hug, still smiling, but with eyes full of reproach.

"I thought you would stay away for at least a year," she sighs and shakes her head, "You are going against your plan, Pyeha shouldn't have asked you to come back."

"Yes, he should. And you should as well," his smile fades as he speaks in reproval, "I can't believe you had a terminal heart condition and didn't tell me."

Her eyes glint with sadness and he feels miserable again.

"You'd feel worse by leaving if I did," she explains calmly, and he knew she would say that, so he can't be mad at that.

"I felt worse when I came back."

That may show in his eyes because she smiles softly at him, and her voice gets that so comforting maternal tone.

"Why feel bad when you are not to blame and you can't stop it?" She's able to speak as if she's not going to die in a few years and there's nothing they can do to help.

He sighs, unable to continue the argument and just follows her lead. Starting to walk towards the hallways of the palace, where the wind does not hit them.

"And how is my brother?"

"I'm sure you just spoke with him."

"And I'm sure he's keeping a good appearance. How is he?"

Soo hesitates before answering. She looks down at her feet and sighs miserably, as if trying to find kinder words.

"He was devastated at first," she answers in a sad voice, "Then he was in denial. He's coming to terms slowly, but he's better now. He's strong, he'll be fine."

"What about you?" At his question she smiles brightly, even though her eyes are still teary.

"As long as I can be with him, I'm fine. Be it a long or a short time."

"But I know you wish to be with him longer."

Her smile fades and she shrugs in defeat.

"What can I do? There's a lot of things I wish I could do, but I have to accept the way things are. It's the only way."

Baek Ah doesn't have any words that comfort or counsel her, so he controls the tears that fight to come down and remains in silence.

He refuses her offer to send someone to prepare a bath for him, but sits down in the Damiwon to have tea, hoping it will help him to relax.

Hae Soo can't stand silence so she starts conversations from the most mundane topics, and lightened all of the others so they could talk. She asked about his travels, what he'd seen and done, who he had met and where he had gone to. Then she would start to talk about things in the palace, who had married whom, the court ladies that left and the newcomers who always had a little trouble to understand the soap making process - which eventually led her to describe the whole soap making process -, she also mentions visiting Eun's grave and hoping to one day visit her Unnie.

Baek Ah doesn't mind a bit. For a few moments he can listen to Hae Soo blabbing and pretend there's nothing wrong at all.

After the court ladies leave with the empty cups and they are alone once again, she puts an envelope nonchalantly in the top of the table. The movement would have passed unnoticed if he wasn't looking down to the furniture.

He looks up at her, the question already forming on his lips, but she speaks before he can.

"I still think Pyeha shouldn't have asked you to come back, but I'm glad you are here," her tone changes a little and she speaks gravely, even though her smile is bright and sweet, "You have a great timing."

He recalls her promise to ask for him whenever she needed him to, and the little side comment that she might do it soon. He didn't understand at the time, but now that he thinks about it, he concludes that Hae Soo has been planning something to do amidst all of this drama.

He wonders what any of it is related to the sealed letter that she slides to him, but he doesn't touch it just yet.

"Was that what you meant? Were you going to ask me to find a cure?"

"Not quite, even though it had something to do with my illness," he waits for an explanation, but she evades his eyes and evades his question, "It doesn't matter anymore. Things changed. I'll explain later, but you arrived at a perfect moment."

He takes the letter slowly, but does not open it. He looks back at her and tries to come up with a solution for all of their problems. Something that will ease the helplessness of his friends, put an end to this twisted nightmare and make things the way they should have been.

He wants a miracle so he doesn't have to see what's in her letter.

"I can look some more."

"Don't," he stills at her voice and the way her command slips from her lips. She takes a deep breath, looking out to the pale green fields, seeming to get lost in the vision as she muses out loud, "I can feel it already. Death. When my deadline was given to me, I felt dread and fear; sadness for those I'd have to leave behind. But now it's more than that. Now it's this coldness spreading from my fingertips. It's this void growing inside of me. A shadow getting closer, as my light flickers helplessly," she smiles again, but this time is with sadness and melancholy, "I'm waning, Baek Ah-nim. I'm getting weaker as the hours pass by, and I fear the day all of me is gone."

"Soo-yah…" He tries to find something to say that could make her feel better, feel lighter and hopeful, but she shakes her head softly, defeat clear in her face.

"There's no cure, Wangjanim…" her eyes are glassy when she looks at him, but she doesn't cry, "This is not a crisis, nor a temporary illness. This is the end, and it's getting closer."

.

.

.

.

"You're still stiff," his brother comments pointedly. And even though he does not look at him, it's obvious who he's talking about.

Baek Ah swallows quietly, remembering how meals with him after his coronation always had this kind of atmosphere and how he always felt intimidated when his brother was sitting with all of his regal aura beside him.

He should have escaped from Hae Soo's casual conversations before the king joined them for dinner, but it's too late now.

"You're still king," he replies in the most respectful voice he has. The older man clearly doesn't get satisfied with this, as he sighs and looks at him with an exasperated look.

Before Baek Ah can apologize for committing a deadly crime for the fourth time, though, Hae Soo intervenes brightly, chastising his brother.

"Don't be hard on him," she puts her hand over his forearm, squeezing a little bit in what Baek Ah can't know for sure if it's a reassurance hold or a reprimanding one. Probably both, "Not everyone can be as irreverent as I am."

Not even Soo's warmth seems to lighten up So's mood, and Baek Ah feels guilty for bringing more worries to them. "After all we've been through, I hoped at least this wouldn't change," he says in a dejected voice, making Baek Ah's heart sink a little bit.

He opens his mouth to try to fix things, at least a little. He fights the intimidation that emanates from the mighty man beside him, resists the submissive impulse that came from years of practice and etiquette, remembers how easy it was to talk to him just a few hours before and focus on his brother's needs right now.

He opens his mouth to make things better for them, so they can have a nice evening meal, but he's cut before he even starting to speak.

"Try teasing him a little bit more," Hae Soo says with a big smile, "He will lose up eventually."

"He might end up leaving again," So says with a sigh, but Baek Ah does not miss the fake whine in his voice.

"But he'll always come back."

So and Soo laugh out loud heartily when they see his expression of confusion, and he knows he's being made fun of.

His relief is greater than his indignation, but his confusion is greater than his relief. He had been trying to deal with a huge weight over his chest, but they seem to be in a much better condition than him. They seem to act as if nothing is happening and Baek Ah wonders if there's something wrong with him.

"How can you two be normal?"

How can you two act as if death isn't approaching?

The silence follows his question. So's eyes drop as they did when they talked sooner, and he feels another pinch of guilt. So, however, shrugs with a sigh, and speaks with a reprimanding voice.

"It's not like I'm dying tomorrow," her eyes turn to the man beside her, and she places a hand over his in a silent plea, "Pyeha..."

"Why be sad now, if we're still together?" The king's smile is small and faint, but it's a smile nevertheless, "Let's leave the sadness for when it's time."

Then he looks at her and his smile grows and brightens at her playful one, and Baek Ah decides that being happy and enjoying the present is much better than living with fear and sorrow, so he decides not to muse over all of the sad things right now and just focus on having dinner with his friends.

Or at least try to, and just be caught in their bickering and quarrels over the food.

"Hey, why are you taking that?" Hae Soo's voice breaks the peace eventually in outrage, "I was going to take that!" she says referring to the piece of chicken So's holding with his chopsticks.

"Calm down! It's for you," he says in a appeasing tone, a little bit shocked by her outburst.

However, before he can place the meat in her rice bowl, she uses her chopsticks to block him and push him away, "I don't want it. I was going to take it for you."

Baek Ah blinks, once again confused, but So sighs as if it's not the first time something like that happens, and continues to push the piece of chicken to her, coaxing her to accept it, "But it's your favorite."

"I know it's my favorite. Now take it."

"You didn't touch anything else. Take it."

"I'll touch something else. You take it."

"Soo-yah, you have to eat."

"I'm eating. You two are seeing me eat," She looks at Baek Ah and he nods, she was eating a lot indeed, "I have to take care of you because you spent two nights without sleeping. It's your favorite too. Take it."

"You're sick, you take it."

"Why don't you just split?" Baek Ah intervenes before the sparring gets even more ridiculous or even longer than it should be over a piece of the cooked chicken and sighs in a mix of relief and frustration when they do as he say.

So and Soo smile at each other when they eat the shared piece of meat, and Baek Ah can't help but smile as well as he watches them. The peaceful silence of shared company helping him to ease down his melancholy.

"Hey, I like that!" He looks up at Soo's exclamation to see his brother stealing a piece of seaweed from her bowl, a look of pretended indifference on his face.

"So you're giving it to me, right?"

"No, I was going to eat it," she prevents him from taking the seaweed to his own bowl with her chopsticks, and he continues to pull, "Give it back."

"No, it's mine now. You refused when I last gave you something."

"But this is something I actually want. It doesn't count."

Baek Ah sighs again, deciding to give up on peace and silence and settling for being their intermediator for tonight. How they had dinner without breaking down the whole palace when he was away, he had no idea.

"Why don't you just split?" He murmurs in a tired voice.

.

.

.

.

Soo doesn't blow out all of her candles later that night. A little too late for her to still be up, but she sits quietly on the floor of her little room, watching the single flame flicker before her. She's tired, but she has too much on her mind to rest, so she doesn't even try it.

That's why she doesn't startle when the doors slide open quietly and Baek Ah walks in quickly.

She waits for him to close the door and come next to her before speaking.

"You read it." It's not a question, if he's here now is because he knows what's inside her head right now, and the only way to know was to open the sealed envelope she had given to him, that had clearly confused him.

He's not confused now.

He nods silently and kneels down before her, "I also burnt it."

"That was a good idea." Hae Soo wonders if she should burn all of her secret letters in the locked chest, before someone finds them and frustrates her plans.

At least, now that the 13th Prince knew she wouldn't be completely alone. He was the only one who would willing to help her with that, and if he didn't look very happy with the letter's content, then for sure nobody else would.

"Who else knows?" He asks after what it seems like an eternity.

"Only the two of us."

He puffs in shock and incredulity, shaking his head in disapproval, "Are you insane, Soo-yah?"

"You told me before you'd help me."

"Not behind my brother's back! You have to tell him..."

"I will," she cuts his speech before he even starts to say it. She knows what he's going to say because she said all of that to herself. She spent countless nights debating with herself how to tell him, when to tell him, not ready to break him apart once again, "I promise I'll tell him. But you can't leave me alone on this."

"I won't. I'll see what I can do, but you have to talk to him."

She nods deeply, and sighs at the perspective of having another tough conversation with the king, "That's fair."

The 13th Prince pinches the bridge of noise and grunts in helplessness, probably still trying to make sense of all the events, going through the same inner conflicts as she.

"This is all messed up," he murmurs and takes a deep breath, "Why is this even happening?"

"I've stopped asking myself that," she says bitterly and let her shoulders fall, "We can't change how things are now. We can only hope that things get better."

"Are you sure this is the way to make things better?"

Her nod is solemn and conflicted, and her voice cracks a little when she speaks, "He won't understand it. Wangjanim, you're my only hope."

There's a moment of silence as Baek Ah muses silently for a moment, his breathing heavy and erratic. She watches him in silence, apprehensive. Her fingers twisting around each other, her hand trembling and her own dim musings coming to her.

The prince finally takes a deep breath and gives his answer.

"I'll be leaving soon. I'll tell him that I'll look for a cure somewhere else. I'll be back when I arrange everything." He stands up to leave before he changes his mind, looking at her to give one last advice, "Until then, find a way to tell him. He's strong, he'll be fine."

"This time I don't think he will."

"He has to," he speaks in a firmer tone to give her courage, "I also wish there was another way, but if that's what you decided, then you have to go to the end."

The 13th Prince walks away from her room, leaving her behind with her lonely candle and her gloom and consuming thoughts.

That night the king does not go to see her, so she takes the opportunity to write a new letter.

She takes a new envelope, simple and plain, but does not write any names on it. She raises the tallest pile of letters and hides the new one under them, along with a few similar unadorned envelopes, hoping for them to stay there secretly and never come up. At least until the time comes.

When the time comes she can burn them all.


A/N: I have no idea of what people used to eat in Goryeo, so I just went for chicken because of SoSoo first meal together. And seaweed, because I'm pretty sure seaweeds already existed back then. I also have no idea if they had Oaks around, but I used it because one of my surnames means oak in Portuguese.If anyone with a more extended knowledge is willing to make a correction, I'll be thankful for your help. I also take tips on any grammar mistake that I may commit.

...

Clavel

Not that much SoSoo this time, but I hope those interactions were enough to you. Not all is lost? Maybe? Who knows?