~ a lily among thorns~

"forget it"

Nari sat on the side of her bed, tossing her knife – up and down – in her hand. Her thoughts were consumed with last night's drama. The fact that she'd come so close to obtaining the king's identity, only to fail, was making her blood boil.

"I've failed my family once again," Nari scolded, angrier at herself more than anyone else.

It always seemed to end up like this. Nari persisted...Nari failed...Nari fell back into the constant cycle of hating herself. The girl straightened her shoulders, continuing to toss the weapon in her palm.

"Well, I won't make any progress if I just sit here and wallow in my own self-pity," she thought, hardening her expression. "Now, what do I know so far?"

Nari paused in reflection, before kneeling down and reaching for the hairpins and coin she kept hidden under her bed. Sitting them in her palm, she eyed them closely.

"I know that the king is in Silla...and he wears a red and gold bracelet on his wrist," Nari began, thinking back to last night when she'd seen the outstanding ornament. "Now I have to figure out a way to lure him out of the shadows."

Nari clasped her hand over the objects in her palm.

"And I also have to figure out who this message is from...or at least the last puzzle piece so I can find out what it says," she noted inwardly. "The person trying to send me this is obviously connected to me somehow. It seems like they already know where I am...it's just a matter of myself finding where they are."

Nari stopped, a sudden thought popping into her mind.

"Could it be that the person trying to meet with me knows that I want to find them...and has known this long before they reached out?"

Nari's heart rate quickened as a sudden realization came to her.

"What if...what if this message has some sort of connection to the king? What if he knows about my mission to find him?"

Nari hesitated before shaking her head with a laugh, attempting to brush the idea off as a silly thought. However, no matter how much she tried to convince herself that it wasn't the case, the concept was left stuck in the back of her mind, it's uncomfortable aura unable to be shaken.

"What if...it truly is from the king...?" Nari gulped. "That would mean..."

Nari's thought was interrupted as the bedroom door slid open. Quickly, she tucked the objects back under her bed and then sat nonchalantly on top of her sheets, awaiting to see who had arrived. Yeo-Wool's face came into view, causing Nari to exhale with relief.

"Good morning," he called to her from the door, busily waving a fan across his face.

Nari smiled in return, happy to be in his cordial company.

"You must excuse me for my forwardness," Yeo-Wool suddenly said, taking a seat beside Nari on the bed. "But I heard what happened between you and Suho last night."

Nari gulped, unaware the story had spread.

"How did you find out?" she asked quietly.

Yeo-Wool sighed, placing down his fan.

"You returned here fuming last night. It didn't seem as if you wanted to talk about it, so I asked around instead. Fair enough, Suho had a tale to tell me."

Nari hung her head, starting to feel ashamed at the way she'd acted. However, it still didn't vanquish the fact Suho had jeopardized her one unplanned opportunity to unveil the king's identity.