Empty shells.

In a meeting room.

"It seems like we have some rats hiding in our country..." The king voiced loudly to everyone with closed eyes. "Hmmm... That is quite troublesome."

His tone was carefree and lazy, but it was quite scary.

The king was an unpredictable man. His parent's died early and he was crowned at a very young age. He had hidden his name and people only knew of him as the king since then. Many try to take advantage of him due to this.

He had kind yet seductive features, almost playboy like, and often joked around. But when he gets serious, it was as if another person took his body and possessed him.

This evokes fear within the people in the meeting room.

"Your highness, we have made preparations already," Chen said sternly by his side. "If they attack anytime, we are ready."

"Then let's end today's discussion here." He nodded to himself happily.

"B-but"

"Meeting dismissed!" He sternly interrupted Chen. "Come, let's go have tea!" They've been at it since morning, it was too tiring. How can Chen stand like this next to him for hours without complaining?

They discussed the current situations, future activities, how to handle the spies, and even made all the reformations plans for another couple years or so ahead. This was all done in a scanty amount of weeks with long hours in each meeting! The king hadn't had any rest since the day Lily left the country.

"Sir, you have a mountain of documents to sign after this."

Ugh.

He fell back onto his chair and whined "You do it for me. Why is it so hard living!"

Tell me about it.

Chen sighed. "I already did half of it for you. I need to go train the soldiers soon."

"Oh. how diligent of you." The king responded sarcastically.

"Well because of who I'm handling the work and an army?" Chen raised his brow. "I've talked to the goddess and the other god. It seems like she would be winning soon."

"Forget those useless little shits. All they ever do is pay attention to useless stuff."

"Please mind your language, your highness. You can talk however you like with me, but there are eyes watching."

"Tch." King sulked and looked at Chen. "Are you sure you're okay, Chen?"

"About what" He replied dully as he organized the papers on the desk. His hands were rough and full of calluses.

When the king looked at them, he felt sort of guilty since it was his fault.

Recently, Chen had been taken charge of training the soldiers. To boost up their morale and for them to feel a connection, he trained with them. When he finished, he had to go do this work and attend to him.

"I also heard from Anne." The king paused before saying. "About Lily..."

Chen let out a sigh.

Obviously, Anne would know. She had assumed Lily was still in the area and kept pestering him to bring her to the palace. Eventually, Chen didn't have a choice but to tell her she returned.

"You've been working outrageously hard again, which is understandable but..." The king continued. But I'm suffering with it. Did they get into a fight already? Why did she return?! His expression doesn't look too good these days.

"I'm fine. We parted on good terms. And we're still together." Chen replied as if he understood what the king was thinking. "Now then, I'll take my leave." he bowed.

After training the soldiers, he left earlier for home. The servants were still at his house when he returned, so they prepared the bath as well as dinner.

As he laid on his side of the bed again that night, he stared off into the ceiling thinking.

What is she doing right now? Is she doing fine? I miss her so much.

He realized there was no way to contact her. This brought anxiety to him. When she left, she looked so sad and terrified of returning.

Every morning, when Chen woke up, he would reminisce about her. Before he slept at night, he would think about what and how she was doing.

Not knowing when she will come back made it worse.

One? Two? Maybe Five Years? He wanted to know where she was and just hold her.

This was a daily routine.

Every day felt slow and only work helped alleviate that. He knew needed to rest, but that would only create more opportunities to think about meaningless things.

_______

"Chen!" Anne called out to him in the hallway.

He turned around. "What is it, your highness?"

Anne was used to him calling her that and didn't pester him about it any longer. "You look awful. Have you gotten proper rest?"

"I'm just fine." He told her plainly. Now that he thinks about it, he felt sluggish but then sleep should just cure it.

"Anything else?"

"N-no." Anne receded. "My wedding anniversary is coming up in a few months. I thought I should let you know."

"Ah. Yes, I've discussed it with his majesty earlier today. We left a week or so for you guys to vacation as well as a small party." He responded in a depleted tone.

Time sure flies by fast. It's almost three years since they got married.

"Well then. I'll be going now." He bowed.

"Ah-" Anne raises her hand to reach for him, but she stopped. Seeing his backing facing her as he walked away without hesitation pricked her heart. Anne stood in the hallway staring at Chen leave.

He looked empty. It was as if there were dark shadows hanging on both of his shoulders. His back was slightly bent from exhaustion.

She could tell he worked too hard, an extreme workaholic. But for what? Why does he do it?

When he got home, he quickly took a shower and plopped flat on his bed.

He felt extremely tired.

Outside, drops of water slowly fell one by one, until eventually thousands of them simultaneously plummeted.

It was raining hard.

Around midnight, the sound of the rain was strangely soothing that Chen slowly drifted to sleep.

In a point of deep drowsiness, he suddenly heard a couple of loud knocks. It was so loud, he could hear from the second floor.

Who would be out so late in the evening? It better not be one of them. That damn couple, always come to him when their marriage gets rocky.

Chen dragged himself out of his bed and painstakingly made his way towards the door to open it.

Once he did, his eyes jolted wide open, no longer sleepy.

In front of him was a woman.

Black hair with a tint of blue messily dangling to her waist due to the rain.

She covered most of herself in a thick coat, but he could tell something was wrong.

Her face was covered in cuts. There were serious amounts of blood oozing out from her hand that peaked through the coat. It trickled down slowly and seemingly along with the rain.

The water drops accompanied her face like tears as if she was crying.

Her face was depleted of life.

It was empty.

Her eyes; however, looked at him with a glimpse of security. There was transparency in them. He felt like he could see through her eyes.

He couldn't believe it.

After a long pause, he had realized what was happening. Chen quickly pulled her into his arms. She stepped through the door frame and into his embrace.

He squeezes his eyes shut and rested his chin on the area in between her neck and shoulder, holding her tightly.

Chen absorbed her scent thoroughly. Though it was disturbingly mixed with the smell of blood, he could tell. It was that citrus fragrance that he missed so much.

She was freezing.

"You...you..." He said in an unstable tone. "You.."

He didn't know what to say.

.