Min-gyu is the king of a country. And Ji-hoon is the king's wife, or empress. My first impression of Min-gyu and I wasn't good. To be honest, it was the worst. It was a marriage that neither Min-gyu nor I wanted. It was almost a forced marriage, just for the sake of the family. However, as I lived with Min-gyu, I realized that Min-gyu was more considerate than Ji-hoon thought. It probably wasn't a marriage he wanted, but he never said anything bad to me, and I could feel that he was always considerate of me. So I unconsciously developed feelings for him, and I realized that Min-gyu felt the same way. After that, we depended on each other to survive this harsh and difficult palace life.
"Ji-hoon"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"It's just the two of us, are you going to keep calling me Your Majesty?"
"Okay, Mingyu, but why did you call?"
"I think I'll finish work early today. Let's go for a walk together after work for the first time in a while."
"I'm glad my always busy husband makes time for me like this."
"Then I'll go find my wife after I'm done."
"I'll wait"
Jihoon waved as he watched Minkyu's back as he headed off to work. Jihoon found himself humming as he imagined the evenings he'd spend with Minkyu. Finally, the dinner hour he'd been waiting for arrived, and Minkyu came to pick him up.
"Madam, I'm here."
"You came sooner than I thought."
"I came as quickly as possible because I thought Jihoon would be waiting."
"But is it okay for us to go without our bodyguards?"
"It's okay. It's the palace. And right now, there are guards hiding out of sight around us, so don't worry."
The two of them chatted away as they walked. It was the first time in a while that we had some quality time together, so Min-gyu and I were both really excited.
Perhaps because of this, the two were so focused on each other that they couldn't see or hear their surroundings.
"Stand there!"
"what?"
Before they knew it, the two were surrounded by assassins with swords.
"Who sent you?"
"I'm going to die anyway, so why do I really need to know? Just die."
Assassins wielding swords all rushed at Mingyu and Jihoon, and the guards who had been hiding also came out and started to fight the assassins. The beautiful scenery soon turned into a scene of chaos as the assassins and guards fought each other. In the midst of the chaos, one of the assassins swung his sword at Mingyu. Mingyu closed his eyes thinking he would be stabbed, but when he felt no pain, he slowly opened his eyes. However, when he saw Jihoon lying down in front of him, having been stabbed instead of him, Mingyu hugged the fallen Jihoon and cried. Jihoon, seeing that, wiped Mingyu's tears with his hand even though his eyes were closed.
"It's...okay, Mingyu...my love is...my next life too...so don't worry..."
Ji-hoon closes his eyes after saying those words. And Min-gyu cries, still holding Ji-hoon's warm body.