𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐋𝐄 ♕ 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐎𝐊

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻

"What are you doing?"

Gaeun had placed her forehead against the centre of Wook's shoulder blades as they slept. Nuzzling closer with her eyes closed, she said to him, "You sleep like this all the time and I wondered whether it was really as comfortable as you made it seem."

Intertwining their fingers over his chest, Wook prompted, his voice heavy with sleep, "And?"

"And...it's okay."

It was intimate, that's what it was. Gaeun could feel the rise and fall of his steady breaths, the warmth of his now recovered body, the muscle on his back, and—in the silence of the dawn—she could even feel his heartbeat.

Wook was never into such trivial details so it only made sense that he slept like this because it was warmer. But Gaeun...

Though she had slowly grown used to it over the years, human touch still drove Gaeun nearly insane with delight. Ever since the Royal Citadel and her family had discovered that she was the Vessel, Gaeun had been confined to the Winter Palace by the orders of the Dowager. She had been raised by nannies and governesses who refused to come four feet near her out of fear that she might burn them. They used levitation magic to bring her food or help her dress until she could do it by herself.

The first one to hold Gaeun's hand had been her elder brother when she was four and she had ended up giving him a burn scar near his elbow. Her mother and grandmother had been furious but Jeonghoon hadn't cared. When he and Jaehoon had been barred from being around her without any guards present, fourteen-year-old Jeonghoon had thrown an outraged fit in the court until the Dowager's soldiers had to take him away.

The desperate need to embrace her brothers and her father and the desire to win her mother's favour had driven Gaeun to practise controlling her powers.

That had not been enough, however, for her mother who had never tried to hide her disdain that Gaeun had been born a girl. "The Three-Legged Raven is the most divine creature in all of mankind," she had sneered at a trembling Gaeun one summer morning, "There must always be three sons in this House, like your father and his brothers and their ancestors before them. But you, Bane of my Blood, the powers of the newly ascended God are wasted on you."

Gaeun had longed to be held and spent her time in her prison daydreaming about what it must feel like to feel the warmth of another under one's fingertips as they swung their interlocked hands while walking.

Her dream had been fulfilled when her maternal grandparents in Daeho, despite the difficult expression on their faces, had patted her head and tucked her into a new bed. Gaeun had been dizzy from the interaction. The thrill had been so overwhelming that she had cried herself to sleep that night.

Then Wook had been the first one outside her family to boldly push her into a puddle, ruining her shoes, proclaiming that he'd be a better mage than she could ever be. It was mean of him but far less cruel than what Gaeun had been exposed to in Yeol. And she had laughed to herself at his boldness.

Wook's initial juvenile pranks had included pulling her braid or picking her hairpin out and hiding it or simply nudging her aside when he walked past her. Gaeun didn't know what she had done to annoy him and his unkind actions hurt sometimes but she learned to equate them to the likeness of a fly buzzing by the ear.

It hadn't just been Wook back then. Gaeun had felt the giddiness from touch when Choyeon looped her arm with hers or when Danggu had fixed her hold while showing her how to spin a top and when Seo Yul's knuckles had brushed against hers when they were looking for a four-leafed clover to indulge Choyeon.