“Ah-shin! Ah-shin!”

Ugong cried in fear and ran after him.

Ugong hurried to follow Ah-shin but froze when Ah-shin turned to stare at him, his piercing gaze too terrifying to bear. He stopped in his tracks, unable to take another step.

‘What kind of nightmare is this…’

Ugong thought as he collapsed to the ground, his hand instinctively reaching for his neck. It was still attached for now, but who knew how long that would last?

Meanwhile, Ah-shin stepped into the courtyard, his eyes narrowing as he spotted footprints in the snow. The snow had fallen heavily, but the tracks were fresh, their clear outlines still visible. She hadn’t gone far.

Following the tracks in silence, Ah-shin stopped abruptly.

There she was. The bold woman who had dared to run was now in sight, moving back and forth as if unaware of his presence.

Only a few steps ahead of him, he saw her. She was crouched in the snow, blowing at her frozen hands as she worked to build a snowman.

“Ah-shin?”

Did she hear his footsteps? Or maybe it was the sound of his heavy, angry breathing. She looked up, her eyes meeting his.

“Why are you back so soon? Did you turn back because of the blizzard?”

A snowman and Yul-hye. Somehow they suited each other. The finely crafted snowman, the falling snow covering her in white – it all made her look as if she belonged in the snow, as if she could disappear into it at any moment.

Ah-shin walked towards her without a word, stopping only a step away. He stood still, his imposing figure looming over her, and for a moment he just stared at her in silence.

“That’s a good idea. You can leave after the blizzard has passed.”

Yul-hye said with a soft smile.

Why is she smiling so beautifully?

She doesn’t love me. She doesn’t want to stay by my side. All she thinks about is leaving me, but she smiles as if she cares. She smiles as if she were mine, even though she isn’t.

Why?

Ah-shin fell to his knees in the snow with a thud.

“Ah-shin?”

Yul-hye’s voice trembled, startled by his unexpected action. But Ah-shin didn’t react. He knelt before her, lowering his forehead to the tips of her snow-covered feet.

The contrast was stark: his strong, towering presence now bowed and vulnerable before her.

“It’s okay if you’re never mine.”

Ah-shin murmured, his voice muffled as he remained bowed in front of her.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re never mine, as long as you make me yours. If you don’t want to be mine, then I will be yours. I’ll give myself to you. Just take me – keep me – and don’t go away.”

He couldn’t go any further. Fear rooted him to the spot, unwilling to let him take another step. He had turned his horse around and made his way back to her, the thought of leaving her unbearable.

If she wouldn’t be his, then he would be hers.

Yes, that would be enough.

‘Change your perspective and everything changes.’

She did not need to belong to him. If he became hers, wouldn’t that be enough? He could remain at her side as her possession, her property. Instead of making her submit and surrender to him, he could be the one to submit, to surrender. If the one who obeyed changed, then there would be no need to fear.

“Take me. Don’t leave me.”

Ah-shin whispered, his voice trembling with vulnerability as he gripped her ankle and pressed his lips to the top of her foot like a servant pledging loyalty.

He had been the highest of men, but before her he could become the lowest. He could live as her servant, with her as his master, if it meant staying by her side.

“What if I leave you? What if I lose interest and go away?”

“Then I’ll chase after you. I’ll follow you and beg you not to leave me.”

“Why would someone as great as you behave like this? Please stand up.”

Ah-shin finally raised his head.

Yul-hye smiled. Behind her, the heavy snow framed her figure, blindingly bright against the storm.

“Will you take me as yours?”

“I’m not interested in things that belong to others… but you never really belonged to anyone else, did you?”

Yul-hye held out her hands, clasped his and helped him to his feet.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I took you for myself for the first time.”

Her hands, soft and warm, reached up to gently touch his frozen cheeks, thawing the cold on his skin and in his heart.

He was truly a big man – one who seemed impossible to hold on to, someone who could never be grasped.

Yet here he was, now in her hands, looking up at her with eyes filled with desperate longing.

The heart is deep and difficult to fathom, but at that moment she felt she could understand his. If she claimed not to see the emotion in his eyes, she might as well gouge her own eyes out.

“From now on, Ah-shin is mine. If anyone abandons you, it will be me.”

Yul-hye said with a gentle smile.

“Will you abandon me?”

Had he always been so kind? Had he always been a man who could reach her heart like that?

“I will take my time to think about it – slowly and for a very, very long time.”

“Take a hundred years to think about it. And give me your answer in a hundred years. Decide if you want to leave me only after I’m dead.”

“Very well. I’ll think about it for a hundred years. Slowly.”

“Show me mercy too. Please.”

Ah-shin whispered as he pulled Yul-hye into his arms.

He could feel her laughter in his embrace, the vibrations of it reaching his chest. It resonated deep inside him, all the way to his heart.

It was like the moment he saw a falling leaf, caught her gaze as it fell, and suddenly found himself enchanted by autumn. Like the moment his eyes had met those of the woman who had once bowed her head in a crowd, and in an instant his heart had been stolen.

That was what they called inevitability.

Inevitability.

Though it was she who had been offered to him, it was he who had been captured in the end.

He had taken her by force, but it was she who had made him surrender.

He who had never bowed to anyone would bow to her. And though no one had ever defied him, he understood now that she would always be the exception.

This was a night of submission. A night of vows. A night of giving himself completely to her.

And so it was also the night she became his.

It was a night when they became each other’s – completely, undeniably.