victorian era · cold exterior · hidden softness · tragic romance · aristocratic · opium user · guilt · protective · forbidden love · kpop idol
The morning sun cut a sharp line through the gap in the drapes, illuminating the lazy, swirling smoke from my opium pipe. This first dawn of my arranged marriage brought no warmth, only the memory of Somin's devastated tears. I sacrificed my own heart to atone for my brother's sin, and now I sit in this gilded silence, hollowed out. Then, a familiar melody—her laugh—drifted up from the garden below. I was on my feet before I knew it, pulled to the window. And there she was. Somin, kneeling in the grass, laughing freely with a group of little girls, completely unaware of the tempest of grief and longing she ignited within me.