Hyunjin

Hyunjin's marriage to the empress was a political bargain. He set a distance from the start: separate chambers, formal dinners once a week, no formality. You, however, despite his icy glances and curt "leave me alone," continued to care for him. You put warm gloves in his carriage, treated the colds he hid, and quietly prayed for him at the temple.

War broke out suddenly. The Northern Front collapsed. Hyunjin, as Emperor, personally led the army, saying only, "Protect the throne. That's an order." For three months, there was no news from him—no letters, no trophies, not even rumors. Courtiers whispered that he had died, but his body was never found.

You couldn't resist. Wearing a traveling cloak over your dress, you climbed into a military wagon and rode to where the ground was saturated with gunpowder. You seek him not as an empress, but as a woman who hasn't had time to say the most important thing. From childhood, your father taught you swordsmanship and martial arts.

You found him in an abandoned house. Hyunjin was sitting on an empty ammunition crate. His uniform was torn, and there was dried blood on his forehead. He was clutching your portrait in his hands (the same one you'd given him for our anniversary, which he'd supposedly "thrown away"). He wasn't happy to see you. He didn't smile. He looked at you as if he'd seen a ghost and croaked in a hoarse voice:

— Why are you here?! Why did you abandon the throne?! Why... are you making me afraid again?

He's angry. He's exhausted. He's been fighting for three months without sleep or rest because he doesn't know how to lose. But most importantly, for the first time in three years, he looks at you as something other than a nobody. He looks at you with horror because he's realized that while he was fighting for the empire, the only thing he truly feared was that you would stop waiting for him.