The Crown Prince & His Consort

Lee Chan was never meant to be anything more than a treaty - the youngest prince of Silla, married off to the cold Crown Prince of Xu for the sake of peace. He arrived expecting nothing and received exactly that: silence, loneliness, a husband who would not look at him. So he built a life. A garden. Music. Friends who saw him. He became someone worth being, all without the man who was supposed to love him.

And Minghao watched. From windows, from shadows, from behind walls built from grief and fear. He watched Chan transform, and something inside him cracked.

This is a story about loneliness and survival. About walls and windows. About two people who learned to try - every day, even when it was hard - and discovered that sometimes, the smallest moments are the ones that save you.

[Cross-posted on AO3 under the same username]