The Red Palace

by June Hur

“The first time I met you, I don’t think I quite knew,” he said softly, looking back at me, “what a surprise you would become to me.”

it occurred to me that love wasn’t all that I’d feared it to be. I had imagined that it was a wildfire that incinerated everything in its path. Instead, it felt as ordinary and extraordinary as waking up to a new day.

ducked his head and pressed a soft kiss against my cheek. “There is only you.” His words caressed me, winding themselves around my soul. “There will only ever be you. I promise, Hyeon-ah.”

“I’ve worried, even since you were a student nurse, that you perhaps try too hard to excel at everything. It is good to see you late and rather flustered for once. You seem almost changed.”

I will always choose you, Hyeon. Even if you do not choose me in return.”