Kiya’s been out of contact for days, so there’s probably chaos on that side too. Thinking things were getting complicated, Seoryeong flung the blanket back and sat up.

I should’ve driven Lee Wooshin out of Russia, but instead... What the hell have I done.... Shame surged in and she shut her bleary eyes tight, then opened them again.

When she glanced at the mirror on the wall without thinking, the state of her bared, pale body was worse than she’d imagined. Her lips were peeled raw, and red bite marks and vivid hickeys were stamped over her like dogged scars. She ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ groaned, trying not to see Natalia’s face.

Even so, her skin was dry and powdery without a bead of sweat, and the place between her legs—sticky to the point of clinging before—had somehow been washed clean. She didn’t even want to imagine who had wiped her down like that. Rubbing the burning rims of her ears, she crossed the room naked.

At least some clothes....

The bedroom was so big that just righting a flipped indoor slipper and limping a few steps brought sweat down her spine. She rifled through drawers and the wardrobe like a thief, trying to find anything to wear, but there wasn’t a scrap of fabric to be found.

“Ha...!”

A breathless laugh of disbelief slipped out. Had he always lived with it this empty, or had he cleared it out on purpose to keep her trapped? The sight of those bare storage spaces sank her mood in a strange way.

As if always ready to leave again....

But this time, without a stab to the heart, she only traced her reddened collarbone and turned her gaze.

Because she knew exactly the one thing Lee Wooshin wanted. If she was going to drive him out of Russia, she had to go with him. Her face, darkening all at once, wavered when she caught something unexpected.

“......!”

Bandages had been unwound without restraint and lay shed on the floor like a cast-off skin. Only then did the pounding water from the shower hit her ears in full.

How did I not notice this? Nerves that had been mashed flat suddenly stood on edge. That was how fierce the sound of the water was.

The moment she tensed her shoulders, the shower cut off, and splish, splish—wet footsteps thudded. Seoryeong reflexively backed away.

They’d been stuck to each other like animals for days, but the thought of facing him while he was in his right mind sent her avoidance instinct surging. She didn’t know if it was simple embarrassment or a knot that hadn’t yet worked loose. She only knew she couldn’t answer anything right now, and that feeling shoved at her back.

With no choice, she snatched up the dress shirt Wooshin had shed like a skin, threw it on, and hurriedly did up the buttons. The pressure to get out of here before he came out thudded in her chest.

Her hands were trembling, the buttons slipping and missing the holes. As she edged backward, the shower cabinet opened and closed, and bathroom items clattered down.

“Haah, fuck....”

He muttered a testy curse, cloth sliding. The snip of scissors here and there suggested he was winding the bandage back on.

She suddenly pictured how his naked body would look reflected in the mirror and felt heat rise in her cheeks. But it was time to wake from the hot dream.

Snow must have fallen all night, because the view out the window as she went down the stairs was pure white. The quiet scene made her clutch her pounding head.

No, I can’t waste time like this. As expected, the door slammed open with a bang, and someone strode after her.

“Han Seoryeong―!”

Her legs trembled and her stomach lurched. She flinched, gripped the banister hard, and put strength into knees that kept wanting to buckle. She meant to go back to the maids’ quarters to grab her belongings, but her mind went blank. Seoryeong hurried her pace down the stairs and cut across the silent mansion.

The lacerated place below still burned, yet her breath came giddy. Her nipples, chafed by the stiff dress shirt, hurt enough to make her bite her lip, and when the sincerity he had poured into her flashed back, her face crumpled.

“......”

Her whole body felt shackled to one person. What he had ravaged wasn’t her flesh but her once-hard heart.

Each time Lee Wooshin drove in hard, he shaved at her frozen heart, broke it, struck it, leaving marks like tattoos. He left a confession that would never fade.

Crash—! At the loud noise she glanced back and saw him, who had tumbled down the steps, sprawled and then springing up. “Please...” he begged, head dipped for a moment as he shook out his wrist.

For an instant her legs faltered, but when she saw him set his jaw and reach for the knot of his bandage, shock jolted her and she ran.

“Huff... hah...”

Outside, the strange scent that had clung to her nose finally cleared, and a cold wind surged over her. Her eyes were caught by the frozen lake spread before her.

Was it always... this beautiful....

What had been a blue lake was now frozen solid and gleaming, soft snow heaped on top.

As she stood there dazed, the man who had untied his knot closed in tight, wrapping the bandage around the other way as he chased her. At his shout against her back, Seoryeong didn’t hesitate and set a foot onto the ice.

As she sprinted across the frozen lake, a boy whipped past her.

“――!”

The wind he raised sent her hair flying in a mess. Startled to the core, she slid only her eyes to the side.

He was so close she could have counted each lash in the moonlight. Noble-looking pitch-black hair. Perfectly white skin, except for a faint flush from the cold. Smooth red lips and a nose like it had been carved. And...

Eyes as clear as a glass lake....

“Ah...―”

Her gaze locked with the boy’s burning eyes. The instant embedded itself like a slow shuttered photograph, and she lost her breath as if shot. It felt like someone was prying her pupils open by force. Seoryeong bit her lip to press down the surge of feeling.

A boy she’d never seen before, and yet not the first time. He was a boy, but she already knew that face grown to adulthood.

You... you....

Her throat cinched tight. The Russian boy, a small something on his back, passed by Seoryeong like that.

Even with the whole world stopped, that boy brushing past moved vividly, alive.

The small creature on his back threw up both arms and burst into giggles, unaware of its fate.

“Ah... ah—”

Her jaw crumpled and her vision swam in an instant. Each blink of her wet lids came with a brittle crackling sound from somewhere. The thick curtain lifted like fog. Gooseflesh prickled to her scalp, and her breath ran short.

“Don’t go... kids, don’t go....”

She had never once called this person aloud. She didn’t even know what to call him.

He didn’t feel like the same kind as her, so she had always kept her claws out, tense.

Let your guard down and the cane will fall. As she had realized the truth of the glamorous Winter Castle too young, so too, this angelic person would no doubt be merciless.

But it was different.

The boy was, for Sonya, the first pain since birth that did not hurt.

“Please don’t go that way...!”

She screamed until her hoarse voice cracked. Please come back...! Otherwise you’ll be parted. This lake will be the end and you’ll never meet again!

She wanted to call to the boy, but still didn’t know what to call him. Her tongue might as well have been glued to her palate—it wouldn’t budge. Soundlessly, only tears pattered from Seoryeong’s eyes.

Please, let us, let us meet again....

Any way at all is fine.

Just once—let us meet again....

Sonya, waking on a freezing floor, begged like that, but that wish never came true.

The Winter Castle was blown up, and her jumbled, ruined memories were locked deep in the unconscious. But she finally smashed the lock on her lips and cried out:

“Hh— Instructor―!”

Seoryeong, who had stopped in the middle of the lake, swept her hair from her eyes and broke into a run toward the far side.

Now she was the one sprinting past the boy with all her might. She swallowed against her raw, swollen throat and, glancing back, saw little Sonya shaking a music box toward her.

Seoryeong’s reddened eyes curved round as she spoke. It’s okay, you’ll be okay too. Even if we part here, we’ll meet again today.

“Lee Wooshin!”

She wanted to rip off the false mask as well. She didn’t want to wear any mask in front of the boy anymore. Back then too, if only she could have, she would have torn off the cold steel and pressed her shabby cheek to the boy’s.

She drove her foot hard into the ice. Crack, crack—spiderweb fissures spread underfoot, and the half-frozen lake shattered to pieces, swallowing Seoryeong whole.

“――!”

Ice-cold water slammed to her bones and swallowed her crown in an instant. She flailed on reflex, but her drained body wouldn’t take a shred of strength.

The awful cold surged deep into her lungs. While she failed to respond, a thin film of ice began sealing over her head again.

No...

Eyes wide, Seoryeong stared in dismay at the ice where the boy had passed. I want to meet... I want to meet again.... I... I forgot. I’m sorry. I forgot for so long....

With her last strength she pounded the ice. Just once, let me see him just once more. Explosive bubbles boiled up from Seoryeong’s mouth.

However brief the bond had been, she couldn’t measure how much comfort the boy’s existence had given her. Because of the boy made from sunlight, she had wanted so much to live....

She kicked frantically, but her slack body sank, little by little, downward.

Thud―!

A deep crack split the ice.

Thud―! Thud―!

Heavy, rough blows rained one after another without pause.

Crash―!

As a huge fist, seen dimly beyond the film, finally smashed the lake, Seoryeong thrust both arms up by instinct. A man with one eye showing hauled her from the freezing water and crushed her against him. Though her teeth were the ones chattering fit to shatter in the killing cold, it was Lee Wooshin whose whole body trembled like he’d lost words.

All her life it had always been one person. The boy who first held her, always kind and gentle—Kim Hyun. The wretched, hateful, and longed-for Lee Wooshin.

Always one person.

Goddammit, always.

“Hhiik―!”

Seoryeong buried her face in his pale neck and sobbed. Her shaking arms wrapped around him and clung like she’d never let go.

The coldest cold is like a burn. The heart that felt hot and hurting now surged up uncontrollably.

Like a newborn, she opened her mouth wide and poured out the sorrow she’d forgotten for so long. A deep, dark wail she had never shown anyone.

It’s okay. I won’t ever let go. I’ve got you. It’s okay. Holding back the boil of his own emotions, Lee Wooshin kissed her ear while she cried herself to pieces.

The boy who had once found Sonya on the cold tile floor and lifted her up had become a man bigger and harder than the Winter Castle.

Beneath the ice, Seoryeong saw the vision of a music box turning. The light was so bright it dazzled her eyes.