He Walks Alone in the Moonlight [COMPLETED]

TO BE A GOOD MAN

He was in shit. Deep, deep shit. Up to his neck, never to be clean again shit. To antagonize the crown prince was one thing, but to hit the princess was another. And to hit the princess with the largest spy network in Byulran was suicide. Songmin was half-surprised an arrow hadn't run him through the second his hand connected with her face.

    "I'm going fucking insane," Songmin groaned miserably, rubbing at his face.

"I'm glad you are aware of that, scholar. One could certainly not classify what you just did as sane behavior." The sultry voice sent a chill down Songmin's spine. She had followed him. Why had she followed him? For all his earlier bravado, Songmin knew that the princess could kill him this instant and nothing would be done about it. "Face me, Kim Songmin. Now." At the sound of his name falling from her lips, Songmin shuddered. It had been years since she called him by his name. Slowly, Songmin turned on his heel, his shoe digging into the dirt. He kept his eyes down, but they inevitably wandered to her ink-stained hand. He had noticed it earlier, as she'd clung to the crown prince. He wondered if the sight brought back the same memory for her as it did for him. Probably not. There is no reason for a creature such as her to reminisce. That moment was likely just another part of her scheme. Yet, like a fool, he'd kept her secret, even from the crown prince, even when she posed the biggest threat to their success.

    "Look at me."

"I am looking." Songmin responded. He was not lying, his eyes remained on her hand, which now curled into a fist.

    "I said look at me, Songmin." There was something strange in the princess' voice when she spoke the command, so he did. Songmin's eyes traveled up Eunbin's elaborate garb to land on her face. His mouth grew dry when he took in the red welt on her cheek, as if suddenly coming to the realization that he had done that to her. A tingling sensation prickled at his face.

    "I am going to tell you this because no one else will. They are all too afraid to hurt your feelings, but you are a grown man, and you are to be my husband. I will not run from you, and I will not spare your pride." Again, he was reminded of his doomed fate.

    "You are acting like your father." The blood drains from Songmin's face, and his mouth goes slack. She did not say the words with malice, she did not spit them with the venom that so often coated her tongue. She said them as if they were fact, as if they could not be anything other than true. He was acting like his father. It could not be true. His father was cruel. His father had caused Songmin's mother to die and then taken another woman before her body had even grown cold. His father had beaten Songmin half to death to achieve perfection, to mold him into the perfect tool. And when Songmin had refused to yield to such a mold, he had been forced into a marriage that would stunt him forever. He was not like his father, he could not be like his father. It went against everything he stood for, everything he had promised his mother.

    "You have inherited his anger. His ambition. His cunning."

"Stop. You do not know me, so stop-"

    "Let me finish, Kim Songmin." He could not refuse. Eunbin took a deep breath before continuing.

"You have inherited your father's wrath, but that does not mean you must inherit his cruelty. You do not have to be his distorted reflection, and you do not have to live in his shadow."

"I will never be free of him. So long as I am betrothed to you I will be under his control." Eunbin narrowed her eyes at the words, her mouth thinning.

    "The Royal Advisor does not control me. Once you are my husband he cannot touch you."

Songmin scoffed. "You expect me to believe that?"

"You do not have to believe it. It is true. I do not take kindly to people messing with what is mine. If he touches you, I will kill him."