Seo Yul was still seated on the floor, his brush paused mid-stroke, when the door to the calligraphy hall slid open with a soft clack.
"Yul-ah!"
The familiar voice broke the quiet air like a ripple across still water.
Seo Yul turned his head quickly a faint, almost instinctive smile touching his lips as Hwan Jae stepped inside, grinning as always, a bright contrast to the tranquil room.
"I heard you snuck out of your wing," Hwan Jae said, walking over with easy strides. "You didn't come to see me first? I'm wounded."
Seo Yul lowered his brush and looked down, bashful.
"I was looking for you," he said softly. "They said you weren't in the palace."
"I went riding. You should've waited. I would've taken you with me."
Before Seo Yul could reply, Hwan Jae was already crouching beside him, peering at the ink-covered sheet.
"What's this? You're practicing again?" He smiled, then teasingly nudged Seo Yul's shoulder. "Not bad. A little crooked but I guess you're out of practice."
Seo Yul let out a quiet laugh, and for a moment, the air between them filled with a lightness rarely found in the palace.
But behind them, silence had taken on a different shape.
King Hwan Seong stood where he had knelt just moments ago now watching, still as stone.
His gaze drifted to Seo Yul's soft smile, the relaxed tilt of his shoulders, the way his eyes brightened in Hwan Jae's presence.
It was a look the king had never seen directed at him.
His jaw tensed slightly. Not with anger. But something heavier.
Something he wouldn't name.
Jealousy.
Unspoken and unwelcome, yet there.
"My brother," Hwan Seong said, his voice calm but edged, "shouldn't you be training with the guards this hour?"
Hwan Jae blinked, then smiled, unfazed. "Oh, they're fine without me for a while. I thought I'd visit my favorite person in the palace."
Seo Yul looked between the two brothers, sensing something shift.
Hwan Seong's gaze lingered on him a moment too long before he turned away, picking up his own brush once more.
"You should return soon," the king said to his brother, his tone colder than before. "Seo Yul still hasn't fully recovered. He doesn't need distractions."
Hwan Jae raised a brow but didn't argue.
Instead, he leaned closer to Seo Yul and whispered with a playful smirk, "Looks like someone's in a mood."
Seo Yul's ears turned red.
"I'll walk you back to your wing later," Hwan Jae added. "Unless our dear king objects."
"No," Hwan Seong said, without looking up, his brushstroke deliberate. "Do as you wish."
But even as he said it, his hand pressed harder into the paper, leaving a darker streak than intended.
Seo Yul noticed.
He glanced once more at the king who still wouldn't meet his eyes and something soft flickered in his chest.
He didn't understand it yet.
But something between them had shifted.
And it was far from over.