The morning had dawned bright and cold, and Hak shivered under his covers, reluctant to get up and face the day. He had come to the palace with Mundok again to stay for a week, and this visit had just happened to correspond with the coldest time of the year. Hak wasn't at all convinced that palace life was all it was cracked up to be, since the cold seemed to permeate every brick here, no matter how many fires were lighted. He supposed that had to do with the size of the rooms. It was simply hard to produce enough heat to fill them, unlike the tidy little houses of the Wind Tribe back home. They didn't have any problems staying warm during the winter there. Well, at least not as much trouble as at the palace.

Just when he was deciding that it wasn't warm enough for him to be awake, and that he should go back to sleep, the door to his room banged open, and a red blur flung itself onto him.

"Hak! Hak, get up!" the blur squealed, and he sighed as he recognized Yona's tiny form sitting on top of his chest.

"Ugh, Princess, get off me! I was still sleeping!"

She huffed at him. "No, you weren't, I saw your eyes open! Now come, on, Hak, it snowed last night! You have to come see, hurry!" She jumped off of his bed, and grabbed onto his sleeve, trying unsuccessfully to pull him out of bed. Even though they were both children, Hak had always been larger than the tiny princess who was tugging on his arm.

Hak sighed. Well, it's not like he was going to get any more sleep with her bouncing around his room like this. Might as well get up and humor her. A voice in the back of his head whispered, Besides, it will be worth it to see her smile. Hak quickly dismissed this thought. Lately, he'd been having more and more like it, and it was becoming hard to ignore his confusing, growing feelings for the pint-sized princess.

"All right, Princess, let go. I'm getting up." He swung his feet around to touch the floor, and pushed himself up so he was standing next to Yona. She clapped her hands and squealed, "Come on, let's go wake up Soo-Won!"

Hak yawned and stretched his hands up above his head. "You go ahead, I still have to get dressed."

Yona pouted, but replied, "Ok, just don't take too long. Meet us out in the courtyard." And with that, she dashed out of his room as quickly and as suddenly as she had entered.

As she left, Hak belatedly realized that she hadn't been wearing any type of coat or other snow protection. He rushed to the door of his room to yell at her to put on a hat, but by the time he poked his head out the door, she was gone. Mumbling to himself, Hak quickly dressed, then hurried out the door to find some garments for his scatterbrained princess.

His first stop was Yona's room. He'd only been in it a few times, and entering alone made him feel a bit nervous, like he was intruding on something private. He shook the feeling off quickly, though, and started rummaging through her clothes for suitable snow articles. Without too much effort, he managed to find a heavy overcoat, thick, fluffy boots, and a matching hat and mittens set that looked serviceable. With his treasures in hand, he hurried outside to find Yona. He was certain that it wouldn't occur to her to be cold until after they had played in the snow for several hours, and hoped to find her before she got too covered.

Fortunately, the sound of her tinkling laughter led him directly to his two friends as they frolicked in the snow, tossing it in the air and laughing at the shower of flakes that covered them. Hak sighed. Of course Soo-Won wouldn't notice that Yona wasn't wearing appropriate clothing for playing in the snow. He was just as absent-minded as Yona, albeit in a different way.

Hak walked up behind Yona, and was about to speak when the little princess threw another handful of snow up into the air, coating all three of them in a fresh layer of white. Hak sighed heavily, and Yona turned around with a small start, as Soo-Won giggled at the sight of his newly-christened friend.

"Oh, Hak, there you are! I was starting to think you wouldn't come! What have you got there?" she asked curiously, studying the bundle he held under one arm.

Wordlessly, Hak started peeling items off of the ball and handing them to his princess one by one. As he was helping her with the sleeve of her coat, he commented, "I noticed that you didn't have any snow clothes, so I went to go get you some."

Yona plopped her hat onto her head, and grinned at him. "Thanks, Hak! I hadn't even noticed, but my hands were starting to hurt from the cold!"

Hak sighed again. "I didn't think you would," he replied, although he couldn't conjure up too much annoyance at her when she'd just thanked him so prettily. As she pulled on her mittens, Hak studied her. Something was missing. A scarf, he realized, mentally kicking himself for failing to bring one. Only one thing to do, then.

He tugged his blue scarf off of his neck, and as Yona was adjusting her boots, he wound it twice around her neck. She looked at him, wide-eyed, as he adjusted the ends, feeling the sudden need to prolong his proximity to her.

Yona looked down at the scarf. "But Hak, don't you need this?" she asked.

Hak shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. I was getting a bit hot anyway."

She studied him for a second, and then gave him a smile that warmed his heart in a way that his scarf never could. "Ok then, thanks a lot, Hak!" He froze in place, stunned by the smile that had been just for him.

While he was staring at her, Yona turned to Soo-Won and declared, "Ok, since Hak is here, now we can have a snowball fight! Hak, whose team do you want to be on?" she asked, tilting her head around to look at him again.

Before he could reply, Soo-Won scoffed, "That's easy, we'll do boys versus girls, right, Hak?"

Yona cried out, protesting, "But that's not fair, you're both so much bigger than me! I need Hak just to even things up!" She turned to Hak with a pleading look in her eyes.

Well, how was he supposed to say no to that? Silently, Hak nodded at her, then directed an apologetic look at his best friend. Soo-Won spun around on his heel and marched off, but not before shooting Hak a look of utter betrayal.

Yona, on the other hand, squealed and wrapped her hand around Hak's arm, bouncing up and down a bit as she led him off to start on their fort. Looking at her excited face, Hak was certain that all the cold in the palace couldn't touch him with this fiery spark keeping him warm.