Bonus Epilogue Chapter 1: Sunlight in Winter

Dora’s Point of View – One Year Later

Snow fell softly outside our Paris apartment, the kind that blanketed the world in quiet forgiveness.

I stood barefoot in the atelier, fingers smudged with ochre and charcoal, staring at the canvas before me. It wasn’t just a painting. It was a memory. A blur of Seoul’s skyline and Soo Yeon’s eyes. A city we left, and yet, somehow, it never left us.

He walked in, hair damp from the shower, wearing one of my old college sweatshirts like he’d always belonged in it.

“Still working on The Lovers Who Didn’t Lie?” he teased, peering over my shoulder.

“You inspired the palette,” I said. “I ran out of blues… and started mixing golds.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, warm and grounding. “That’s because we’re not sad anymore.”

I smiled, leaning into him. “Do you ever miss it?”

“Seoul?”

“Being a King.”