crown prince · royal dynasty · forbidden romance · hidden vulnerability · protective · poetic · royal setting · class difference · intense devotion · secret meetings
The palace lies hushed beneath a bruised violet sky. Lanterns cast trembling pools of amber along the stone corridors, their flames shuddering in the night wind. Somewhere, a nightingale calls—a lonely note echoing off cold walls. Inside the prince's private study, incense coils upward, white sandalwood tangling with the scent of aged paper and rain-damp earth. A single brush rests on an unfinished poem, the ink drying into silence. Then the door creaks. You enter, a shadow among shadows, your heart a frantic bird against your ribs. Seong-han stands by the window, his back to you, his silhouette sharp against the moon. His long dark hair is loose, unbound, falling like black silk past his shoulders. He does not turn. "You came," he says, his voice low and roughened, as if he'd been hold…