EXT. GARDEN – NIGHT
Gwi and HR walking in the garden. They stop at the gazebo over the water. Gwi holds HR from behind.
GWI
Sing for me.
HYE-RYUNG
I can't. Not on my own.
GWI
Please. Just a little bit.
HR starts to sing something light and quiet about the spring. Gwi pushes her braid to the side to nuzzle her neck. HR stops singing, tilts her head, and grips his arm.
GWI
Why did you stop?
HYE-RYUNG
(laughs)
How can I sing when you're doing that?
GWI
It's nice to know that I have some power over you anyway, even though it hurts my pride somewhat to know that it's the only power you allow me.
(smiles)
HYE-RYUNG
If it's any consolation, you had that power over me long before I ever gave in to you.
(slightly embarrassed now that she's admitted it)
GWI
How long then?
HYE-RYUNG
I don't remember when I was first attracted to you. But by the time you started getting involved in my schedule and daily life, I think I was already well out of my depths.
GWI
Yes, I recall thinking I could easily repulse you or distract you with someone else around that time.
HYE-RYUNG
It was so obvious?
GWI
I'm glad it was.
Gwi kisses HR's neck again, making her momentarily forget herself. Gwi stops and holds HR more tightly.
HYE-RYUNG
Gwi, why did you say we can't be more to each other than we are now?
Gwi lets go of her and turns to lean against the railing of the gazebo, so he can see her face.
GWI
The only options for being more would mean making you a wife or a mistress. I assume you're not interested in the second option – and I'm not either –, but the difficulty is the same in both cases. Firstly, there would be the danger of you becoming pregnant with a baby vampire. Terrifying thought, I know. Anytime you did become pregnant we'd have to find a way to kill the baby. One vampire is difficult enough to maintain. And how would you manage that? Would you be able to do it? Would you be happy to see your baby die if needed? I somehow think not. I imagine your protective instincts would rise up and I wouldn't be willing to have you killed. We'd have a world of trouble then.
Secondly, marrying me would go against the thing you've been clinging to so tightly, namely the hope that things will change for me. Marrying me would send a signal to the gods that you'd accepted things as they are. I'm meant to be punished here. I'm not meant to attempt to be happy, as if everything were fine.
Naturally, there's also always the possibility that I'd lose control and kill you, or worse, make you a vampire, which is what we'd probably opt for if it came to that.
(pause as they both consider how awful this would be)
We seem to be managing all right on that front, but the closer we get physically the more difficult it will be.
Even if you were willing to go through all of that, to take all of those risks, I'm not.
HYE-RYUNG
(looks out on the water, quiet for a moment)
No, I'm not either. It is hard though, isn't it? To be denied.
GWI
What is it that you want so badly?
HYE-RYUNG
Everything.
(pauses, smiles up at him)
But I'm so happy now. I've never felt so happy in my entire life. It doesn't even make sense to feel that things are difficult or that I want more when you are eclipsing everything else around me.
Are you happy?
GWI
Happy? I don't think someone like me has the right to be happy.
HR saddened. Gwi feels he has to reassure her.
GWI (CONT'D)
Hye-ryung-a. There are moments when I'm with you that I am able to forget about everything, that your light blinds me to the darkness that surrounds and clings to me. In those moments, I have pure bliss. It's been so long since I've had anything purely good in my life that I can't even recall if I've ever had anything similar.
I wouldn't call that happiness. It's more like a glimpse of what it would feel like to be whole again, to be restored, to be myself. And maybe to be more than I ever was.
HYE-RYUNG
I wish I could make you feel like that all the time.
GWI
(smiles)
I believe that is yet another thing that has to be left to the gods, my dear. And, I suppose, myself.
I don't know how I managed to find you. And I don't know exactly when I started to care for you. But you have become the one good thing in my life.
I know that you'll eventually be crushed by the weight of my punishment, that you won't be able to manage this in-between state forever. The fact that you're already frustrated, even if it's mild yet, only proves this. But you seem so certain that you can continue to be happy and you have so much belief that things will take a turn for the better. I find myself not caring what I know and listening to you instead.
Even though it's selfish, even though I know that being as we are will only make it impossibly painful for both of us in the end, I can't cut you off. I don't want to cut you off. I am living on my time with you.
HR reaches out to take his hand, looks down.
HYE-RYUNG
How is it that you're always so much more than I imagine?
GWI
How is it that you always hit the mark? Perhaps this is what we call Providence. And if that's the case, there's no use fighting. It will win us over one way or the other.
HYE-RYUNG
Who's fighting? I abandoned myself ages ago.
(reaches up to kiss Gwi)
