Akatsuki No Yona

Hak stepped into the chamber.

“Well, well, Hime-san. Your room is wonderful. If the late King had known you’d be satisfied with a room this big, there probably would’ve been a big fight over it back then.”

“Shut up, don’t start with me!”

“So as of today you’re the real queen of this country, and So-Woon’s wife.”

“No — I’m not his wife.”

Hak’s eyes turned icy. “Maybe you want to forget what happened and forgive him. Somehow this compromise made that outcome likely. If that’s how you feel, maybe things between you two could get better. From the way you look, I can tell you don’t hate So-Woon as much as you used to.”

Yona cut in.

“There’s something I can’t say, Hak. So please — don’t press me.”

“Doesn’t being his wife bother you? Are you sure he won’t sleep here, Hime-san?”

Yona snapped, annoyed: “No, you idiot. I brought you here.”

The dull look in Hak’s eyes was turning to anger. “Don’t do this, Hime-san. Even though I received a confession from you, you married your old love before we could talk about it.”

Yona went bright red. She tried to speak but couldn’t form a single meaningful word. “Hak. Don’t say that. Don’t call it a confession.”

“Then during the time you were away from So-Woon, did you only let someone who confessed their feelings stay as a guest in your heart? To fill the empty place in your chest...?”

Yona nearly ran to hug Hak, then stopped when she saw the darkness of his anger.

“Hak. I had to do it. There’s something about So-Woon I swore I’d never tell. It’s very likely he’s listening even now.”

Hak leaned in and cupped the princess’s face. “Do you think I’ll accept that easily? I watched you two love him for years. Will I be able to watch that again?”

“I’m not in love with him, Hak. He killed my father! Stop repeating it. You’re hurting me.”

“Is it really okay for me to stay in this room? Did you talk about what you were accepting when you took this path?”

“We didn’t talk about my love life,” Yona said, angry. “And it’s obvious he wasn’t in any shape to think about love. There are no restrictions on me seeing you and the dragons anymore, no one will attack anyone — that’s agreed. We’ll sit at the same table to make joint decisions about the country’s future.”

“Heir?”

Yona turned red with shame and anger. “Shut up, Hak.”

“I’m sorry, Yona-hime. In the end, with the idea that he might give you children, I couldn’t form the relationship you wanted...”

“Shut up, don’t say dumb things. There’s no heir. Stop.”

“If it becomes known I’m in this room, the palace will gossip. Even though I used to be your guard, I don’t think we can relax here if we think people are listening.”

Yona didn’t care. She wrapped an arm around him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“Hime-san, you’re putting yourself in danger.”

“It doesn’t matter to me right now. I don’t care about gossip. Besides... you... me... when we were close... everyone saw.”

“A lot of time has passed, Hime-san, you know. And you’re married to the king now.”

“I want you.”

Years ago, when she decided to leave him with the Earth Tribe and travel alone, she’d stood before him and shouted something like this. Ah, the princess said she wanted him so passionately — there was no part of him that could refuse. He leaned close to her ear. “This time I can’t hold myself back, Yona-hime. Are you sure?”

Yona buried her face in his chest and shook her head.

Hak lifted her chin by the jaw: “I feel like you’ll have your fill with me because I won’t be able to resist you.” He looked around and sighed. “Who would’ve thought I’d become the queen’s lover?” He pressed his hand over his eyes in mock distress. “I hope you won’t humiliate my pride so much that I turn into the king’s jester.”

Yona said, half-playful, half-annoyed, “You’re not much of a jester. You’ll have to manage with being a lover.” Her voice sounded a little teasing — and a little not.

Hak grabbed Yona by the shoulders and held her at arm’s length. He gripped her tightly. “You keep saying you want me, Hime-san, and you say it so carelessly without thinking about me.”

Yona turned her face to a corner to avoid looking at Hak.

“Hey, Hime-san. Look at me.” When she lifted her head, her face was flushed. Her small face, blushing between her red hair, looked almost too cute. He couldn’t help laughing; every time the princess laughed she blushed even more.

When they left this castle three years ago, Yona was sixteen. Until then Hak had been her guard, serving the King. Outside the castle, in their first battle, they’d fallen off a cliff. When she came to and saw him with his short hair and tears, drunk on the shock of surviving, he remembered trying to kiss her. Then, even though he tried to push it away from his mind, the Hanging Eye teased him and he did some ridiculous things a few times.

Finally, before the big battle, the kiss he took from Hime-san changed everything. Soon after he told her he loved her, and later learned she loved him too — but almost a year had passed since then. That year was full of misunderstandings, him joining an inexperienced unit in the Sky Tribe army to become a guard again, and of course So-Woon. He realized So-Woon was in love with Yona after a strange encounter during that rookie unit. Since then he’d been thinking without stop — maybe he’d had feelings for Yona even before all this; why did he kill King Il instead of marrying Yona and becoming king?

Even though the princess now said she loved him, if So-Woon learned Hak was in this room with her, he might make a move. He didn’t want to give Yona to that disgusting man, and he didn’t think Yona would choose him. In any case, after that, no one would be allowed to take Yona.

“Hime-san.”

“Yes?” Her expression changed as she turned to him. “Hak, why are you looking at me like that?”

“I get it — you want me, and you can’t resist the desires inside you.” Yona was about to slap him but he stopped her. “What I really want to know is this: you said it once — so briefly that I almost thought it was a dream. So I have to ask again. Are you in love with me?”

“You didn’t believe me when I said it once?” she frowned. “Do I have to say it a hundred times?”

Hak knelt.

“If the princess I served for nearly ten years tells me she’s in love with me and then never speaks of it again, wouldn’t it be natural for me to wonder if it was a dream?”

“I’ll say it as many times as I must. I love you, Hak. I love you.” Each time she said it her heart raced like crazy. “I love you.” Suddenly Yona grabbed Hak’s collar and leaned in close. “I miss you. You’re on my mind all day. I can’t stop thinking about what you’re doing. Sometimes I see you from afar in the castle garden — you help those servant girls who ask for it and I get so jealous. They beg you with watery eyes, whispering how cool and handsome you are behind your back — it makes me angry. I got mad at that white-haired girl too, always cornering you...” Did the princess really love him enough to watch him all the time and get that jealous? He expected excitement but not such a flood of confession at once. “…Yes, the Ayame thing was settled — you said she has a lover — but I don’t get why every Sky Tribe girl seems to be in love with you. You don’t even care.”

He couldn’t hold back anymore. His hands ran through her hair, he wrapped her arms around her thin neck and pulled her toward himself. There was no fire, no captivity, no war, no separation — finally. He could kiss her for as long as he wanted. Her scent always drew him in; there was no need to hold back now. Luckily he’d warned the princess about everything. Maybe he’d given himself up too much, because the princess gasped and pulled away, breathless.

“Hak, what are you doing? I was telling....”

“Sorry, Hime-san. I thought you didn’t need to tell me more.”

“You can’t kiss me without asking.”

Hak grinned. “That’s almost impossible for me to accept. You already gave me that right. Besides, even without that right your jealous side was so attractive I couldn’t hold back.”

“You keep saying I’m not sexy. Who tells the woman they love that? How disrespectful.”

“But you’re not, Hime-san. Nothing I can do.” Hak laughed; he loved teasing her like that. “I love you even like this.”

Yona suddenly unfastened the hook of her cloak. As it slipped from her shoulders she started undoing the buttons of her dress one by one. Her eyes fixed on Hak’s. But Hak couldn’t fully focus on Yona’s teasing look. With the second button undone her necklace showed; by the third, seeing her breasts made him swallow; she opened the fourth and shifted her dress. A white, lacy bra came into view, and she was definitely bigger than he’d expected — he catched from her arm and stopped her.

“Yona-hime, what are you doing?”

“I’m doing something sexy. Still not good enough?” She shrugged angrily and stood. “What, is this not impressive? Do you think I look like a child? Fine — when we lived in tents and slept in the forest with the same outfits and dirty hair, maybe I wasn’t sexy. But is my charm less than those girls lingering in the garden? Fine, talk to them and laugh with them then — they’re sexy. But let me tell you something: before any of them come to you, they stand in front of a mirror for an hour worrying how their chest will look. They fix their collars, spray perfume, plan how they’ll touch you. If I’d had a clearer head maybe I’d do the same…”

Hak stood up, picked up Yona into his arms, and threw her on the bed. “Enough, Yona-hime.”

“Enough what?”

“You described how much you want me with such fierce jealousy that— I can’t stop wanting your beautiful body I tried avoid to watched grow and mature over the years.”

“But—”

Hak began undoing the remaining buttons. The space between them was wide — did she wear it on purpose? When he reached her underwear he trembled and stopped unfastening buttons. He planted a small kiss on her stomach; he was crazed to taste her. Slowly his tongue traced the skin. Yona gripped his hair, telling him to stop, but he didn’t care. He kissed from her stomach up to her chest. He slipped past her bra, nuzzled her throat. He stopped running his handsup her skirt and finally started caressing her waist. Her scent was incredible; it always had been, but now it was so much attractive so that he didn't want to stop even for a second.

“Hak, please stop!”

“Hime-san, is something wrong?”

“Well…” Yona hurriedly tried to button her clothes back on. Hak turned his head and they both saw So-Woon standing there, staring at them with wide eyes.