Of all the characters in the original novel, Seonwoo Ryu was the one who had broken readers' hearts the most.
Dohyun's closest friend and trusted advisor. A man with a gentle voice and a soft smile, always pretending to understand Dohyun better than anyone. Jia had liked him when she first read the story. Dohyun ran so cold that she'd assumed Seonwoo was there to soften the emotional edges, to bridge the distance between the prince and the world.
But in the final act, everything flipped.
The testimony that destroyed Dohyun.
*"His Highness, the third prince, has long coveted the throne."*
One sentence. That was all it took to bring Dohyun down completely.
Jia kept her guard up as she faced Seonwoo now—but he was so effortlessly warm that it was almost disarming. He had righted the fallen water bucket without being asked, and when he noticed the cut on her hand, he'd reached into his robe and produced a clean strip of cloth, holding it out to her.
"You're bleeding."
"I'm fine."
"A wound that seems fine can fester inside the palace walls and kill you."
Something about that sent a chill down her spine.
Jia didn't take the cloth.
"Why do you care about me?"
Seonwoo studied her for a moment, then smiled.
"Because His Highness does."
"His Highness doesn't care about me."
"Then that makes you even more dangerous to be around."
"What do you mean?"
"People His Highness doesn't care about die easily. People he does care about—they die harder."
Jia had no answer for that. His words were smooth as silk, but there was venom at the end of them.
Just then, Baek Gyeom came walking over from the direction of Wolyeong Palace. Seonwoo stepped back with a pleasant expression, as if nothing had happened.
"Officer Baek. Is His Highness looking for someone?"
Baek Gyeom gave a short, proper bow, but his eyes were hard.
"His Highness is looking for Sowol."
"Of course he is. He relies on her quite a bit, doesn't he."
"That's not Lord Ryu's concern."
There was a tension between the two of them that the novel had never shown her. Jia turned it over in her mind. The original story hadn't been told from Dohyun's point of view. There must have been so much more—emotions, suspicions—that readers had never been allowed to see.
When she returned to the archive room, Dohyun was holding the note. She'd tried to keep it hidden, but Baek Gyeom had apparently already retrieved it.
"Who gave this to you."
"I don't know."
"The last person you spoke with?"
Jia hesitated.
"Lord Ryu. Seonwoo Ryu."
Something shifted in Dohyun's eyes, going deeper and darker.
"What did he say."
"That staying close to Your Highness would get me hurt."
Baek Gyeom's jaw tightened. But Dohyun's expression didn't change at all.
"He's not wrong."
"Your Highness."
"Being near me causes harm. That is simply true."
Jia hated hearing that. Dohyun pushed people away from himself so easily—like a man who had already decided that every death near him was his fault, and was just trying to get ahead of the next one.
"So you'll spend your whole life alone?"
Baek Gyeom drew a sharp breath. This court lady was risking her neck once a day, minimum.
Dohyun looked at her.
"Why do you keep speaking to me like that."
"Because if you die, I'm in serious trouble."
"Trouble?"
Jia pressed her lips together. *Because I have to keep you alive to get home* wasn't something she could say out loud.
"Just—trust me on this."
Dohyun was quiet for a moment. Then he burned the note. The flame swallowed the paper whole.
"There is a banquet tonight."
Jia blinked.
A banquet.
Another scene from the novel surfaced in her memory. The celebration held in honor of Dohyun's return from the north. The king would praise him publicly—and use the occasion to quietly strip him of his military command. And someone would slip something into Dohyun's cup. Not poison. Something worse, in its own way: mind-clouding incense dissolved in wine, designed to loosen his tongue and bait him into saying the wrong thing.
Dohyun would lose his temper in front of the king that night. And by morning, the rumor would be everywhere—that the third prince hungered for the throne.
"Don't go."
The words were out of Jia's mouth before she'd finished thinking them.
Dohyun asked, as if he'd expected this:
"Did you see it in a dream."
"Yes. You need to be careful with the wine. Especially the gold cup—the one the king offers you himself."
Dohyun fell into thought.
"Refusing a cup the king offers in person is an act of disloyalty in itself."
"Then just pretend to drink it."
"There are too many eyes in this palace."
"I'll figure something out."
The moment she said it, she regretted it. *Figure what out, exactly?* She was a lower-ranking court lady. She had nothing.
But Dohyun looked at her strangely.
"You're frightened. And yet you don't step back."
"I am scared."
"Then why do you keep stepping forward."
Jia hesitated, then answered.
"Because I've seen how you die."
Something moved in Dohyun's eyes.
"Was it that terrible."
Jia nodded.
"Yes. You looked so alone."
Silence settled over the room.
It was a long moment before Dohyun looked away.
"Come with me to the banquet."
"Me?"
"I need someone watching my cup."
That night, Jia was hastily assigned to the banquet as a serving court lady. Silk lanterns hung from the eaves. Incense curled through the air. Laughter filled the palace. The king, the Queen Dowager, the princes, the ministers—and Seonwoo Ryu—were all assembled.
Dohyun knelt before the king.
The king smiled and raised the gold cup.
"Dohyun. You have served the northern frontier with great distinction. Accept this cup."
Jia's heart dropped.
The gold cup.
Exactly as it had been written.
Dohyun received it. He had no choice. Every eye in the room was on him.
The moment he raised it toward his lips, Jia deliberately tripped, tray and all.
A sharp crash rang out as wine bottles and cups shattered across the floor. The banquet hall erupted in noise. Jia dropped to her knees, her voice shaking as she cried out:
"I beg forgiveness—I deserve death for this!"
The king's face went rigid.
The gold cup in Dohyun's hand tilted slightly. In that small window of chaos, Baek Gyeom stumbled as if he'd lost his footing and brushed past the base of the cup. Jia caught the motion—a tiny scrap of cloth, prepared in advance, soaking up the wine.
The plan had worked.
Or so she thought.
Then the Queen Dowager laughed softly.
"Is that the court lady who has been hovering around the third prince lately?"
The hall went quiet.
The Queen Dowager's gaze found Jia.
"Spilling wine is no small offense. But as today is a day of celebration, I will show mercy—if the girl drinks in his place."
The blood drained from Jia's face.
The Queen Dowager had a fresh cup poured.
A silver cup, this time.
But Jia already knew.
That wine wasn't safe either.
Dohyun moved to rise from his seat. The king's voice came low and immediate.
"Sit down, Dohyun."
A royal command.
Dohyun couldn't move.
Jia took the silver cup. Her hands were trembling. The smell of the wine hit her sharp and sweet.
Across the room, Seonwoo Ryu was watching her quietly.
The faintest smile touched the corner of his mouth.
As if he had known, from the very beginning, that it would come to this.
And Jia understood.
This trap had never been meant for Dohyun.
It had been meant for her.