I would die for you in secret on AO3 & Wattpad

Chapter 2: A Night of Passion

"May I join you, my lady."

Despite herself, Deok-im couldn't contain her laugh, "We live in the 21st century Deokro, don't you think you can drop this Victorian era act now?"

He sat next to her and took a sip of whatever he was drinking, "I can't expect someone like you to understand etiquettes of high society." 

"And I don't remember giving you the permission to sit next to me."

"I don't actually need permission, from the likes of you."

An insult about her class, "You can't go five seconds without insulting me, can you?"

"Well someone has to remind you of your place." He replied nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah, since you know so much, please elaborate how have I stepped out of my place today", she was beginning to get annoyed by him.

"Okay, simply put, you shouldn't be here," he gave her a look and then pointed towards a girl refilling someone's cup, "see that girl over there? That is who you're supposed to be. Like your mother who is in charge of the arrangements today, you are 'the help'  Deokim, but somehow you always forget that."

Anger was bubbling inside of her, "why yes Deok-Ro, that is indeed my mother's occupation, 10/10 for knowing that, but you are ignorant of the fact that my parent's careers do not define me, I have my own aspirations..."

"And they mean nothing to me", he cut her off rather rudely, " Just know that someone like you has no chance with San."

"Why do you care so much? huh?"

"San is my friend. I want the best for him."

"Is he your 'friend' or just your ticket to reclaim the lost glory of your ancestors?"

Is this the tree with the bird's nest on top?

Yes. I want to climb up that tree again.

Did you really climb all the way to the top?

I was Naksu then... The moon from up there looked beautiful. But I can no longer see it with this body.

I may not be able to do much, but I think I can climb that tree.

There are no branches to stand on at the top. You must use your energy to create a foothold. You must master Chisu in order to do that. You are nowhere near that level.

I wanted to do nothing, but I feel motivated to climb up this tree. You said you wanted to see the moon from up there. I'm the only one who can take you up there, so I would like to try. Do you wish to go up there?

You must master Chisu in order to be able to climb up there.

Do you wish to go up there?

Then do me a favour, Jang Uk. Take me up there.

Fine, I will take you to the top of that tree.

ALCHEMY OF SOULS (2022-2023)

sorry i cant come to the party. yeah im gonna be thinking about jang uk and mu-deok’s jade eggs. yeah its gonna be an all day thing. yeah im also gonna be thinking about the parallel between seo yul disguising his visits to naksu as visiting his pet bird and mu-deok referring to herself as an egg in a nest to jang uk. yeah its gonna make me lay face down on the ground and not move for twelve hours. yeah. yeah. thanks

[ID: gifs from the 12th episode of the series “Alchemy of Souls.” Mu Deok says to Jang Uk, “Park Dang Gu was willing to let you beat him. How could you refuse? I didn’t know you were this proud of yourself.” Jang Uk responds, “You gave me this signal [makes an intense pinched expression with drawn eyebrows] and told me not to fight him.” She says, “When did I? I only looked at you out of relief.” Jang Uk holds up a hand in the shape of a circle, saying, “Then you should have signaled me like this.” Mu Deok makes an intense forward-jerking expression of angry encouragement, similar but more intense than Jang Uk’s earlier impression, and responds, “I did!” /end ID]

Alchemy of souls is just top tier grumpyxsunshine trope for me, Jang Uk was the sunshine in season 1 and became grumpy season 2, only to find his sunshine again in Bu Yeon/Naksu.

Unknowingly falling in love with the same person/soul is also top tier soulmate trope.

What I'm saying is Alchemy of Souls is top tier kdrama.

I'm sorry but I just need to take a moment to scream about why Mu-deok / Naksu / Cho Yeong's character and the romance between her and Uk makes me go absolutely feral.

She's just so clever and calculating and determined. Like Uk has literally been trying for years and years to get his gate of energy open. When he finally meets Naksu, someone who's actually willing to open it for him, it's at a time where she's trapped in a weak body and doesn't have the power to do so. But she doesn't let that deter her. She's just like alright let's poison his ass instead, and it works. Just like that, she gets his gate open with minimal effort on her part (minus the torture lol).

Then there's the incident where she throws filthy water on the crown prince and pisses him off to the point that he's ready to fight them all. She gets everyone out of trouble by putting on a remorseful servant act and offering to drink the water. She also immediately clocks the prince as someone who is arrogant and therefore weak to flattery, and proceeds to follow him out and sweet talk him to death. And that works too. The prince ends up leaving that encounter being pleased and amused by her when just minutes ago he wanted to slice and dice her for daring to dirty him. She knew exactly how to act and what to say to get what she wanted.

When the crown prince threatens to destroy her birg egg charm, Naksu tricks him into thinking she doesn't care about it and causes him to throw it away, which ensures that she can get it back even if Uk loses his last duel. She is also the true mastermind behind the duel between Uk and the crown prince, which she arranged because Uk was demotivated due to Park Jin's usual bullshit. She also set up the ten duels between Uk and the other mages, which helped Uk improve by leaps and bounds since he was able to memorize and utilize his opponents tactics, which again is exactly what she wanted.

It's wild how so many pivotal events in the show were orchestrated by her. She's literally just so damn manipulative and I love it. Time and time again, she flawlessly manipulates both people and situations to achieve her desired outcome.

She's also extremely hardworking. It's clear how ruthlessly efficient she is by the way she absolutely dominates the Songrim servant test despite the fact that she's in a physically weak body. Her body is probably the weakest of all the other competitors, but she still completes every task faster and better than all of them. This is probably because she grew up on her own in a desolate place, and therefore had to develop the skills necessary to survive. Compared to Uk who's never had to cook, clean, do his own laundry, and even has people running his baths for him, Naksu is practically a survivalist.

And like you would think that someone with these traits would also have a healthy sense of self-preservation, right? WRONG.

Maybe I'm just watching the wrong shows and reading the wrong books, but usually when I see characters who are smart and cunning and know how to fend for themselves, their priorities tend to be their own safety. But Naksu literally does not give a flying fuck about her well-being. When she discovers that she can't draw her sword and thinks she'll be powerless forever, her first instinct is to just kill herself. She heads straight for the lake and jumps in. She also shrugs off being brutally tortured by Park Jin, saying she expected worse. When Jang Uk loses control during training and is about to impale her, she doesn't even try to move out of the way even though she could.

She's highly self-serving but also paradoxically has zero self-preservation, and that's why I find her character so fascinating. And it's demonstrated that the reason she's like this is that she's so goal-oriented. What Naksu cares about isn't her life, but her goals—which are getting her power back and avenging her family. If she has to lay down her life to do that, then so be it, because her safety isn't nearly as important to her as achieving her goals.

This is why the romance between her and Uk is so fucking immaculate, because he's like that too. Even though people see him as a helpless troublemaker, Uk is also very crafty and perceptive. All it took was Mudeok looking him in the eyes and swinging a crab leg at him for him to instantly figure out that she's a soul-shifter and that she's actually Naksu. He then immediately uses that knowledge to try and blackmail her into being his master. He got Heo Yeom drunk so that he could carry him and copy his breathing technique, and he even had the foresight to bribe Ju-wol in advance so that Mu-deok's identity would be protected if anyone came looking for her. He also knows how to use people's perception of him as weak to get himself out of trouble. Just like his master / maid, he's cunning, but he's also reckless and isn't all that concerned with his own safety. He literally wasn't the slightest bit upset when Naksu poisoned him. He could have easily died, and he didn't even care, he was just happy his gate of energy was finally open.

Both Naksu and Uk are people who are driven by their goals and will pursue them relentlessly without really caring if it costs them their lives. And those same people people who were once willing to do anything for the sake of their own ambitions, gave up on their goals for each other. For almost the entire show, Naksu and Uk risked so much and schemed their hearts out to get what they wanted, only for both of them to choose to be powerless in the end. The most powerful, notorious assassin in Daeho and the literal King's Star who's supposed to have a great destiny gave up their power to run away and live a simple life with each other. How can I not lose my mind over them!!!

And it's like not only did they give up their powers for each other, they also did it for the sake of the people around them. Uk wanted to save everyone that was trapped in the ice stone, and despite the fact that Naksu kept on telling herself she could let them all die, she wanted to save them too. Episode 19 Uk and Naksu are nowhere near as self-seeking as they were in episode 1, and it's partly because of each other. The way they were both instrumental to the other's growth is just 😫😫😫

And also the way that they understand and support each other. Like when Uk first tells Naksu his plan to take the barrier down, she's immediately like wtf no you could literally die, lets think of something else. Of course she wouldn't want to watch the love of her life possibly kill himself right in front of her, but that's exactly what she does. Even though she's scared that what he's about to do could cost him his life and the thought of that is so unbearable to her that she even gave up her power, she still ends up encouraging him to do it. Because she understands his "its better to die than do nothing" mentality because that's also her mentality. And Uk also understands her and the impact her upbringing has had on her. He's so considerate of her and showers her with affection without crossing any lines because he knows she's not used to it.

And let's not even talk about that moment after the barrier is destroyed and both of them have well and truly lost their chance at power, and Naksu literally fucking smiles and says it's fine because they're together. The ruthless, cold-hearted assassin who was willing to kill them both to get her power back is content being totally powerless and trapped in a weak body because Uk is with her. She once said that she'd rather die than live that way, but now she actively chooses to live that way because she loves Uk and desires him more than power 😭😭😭😭😭

December needs to come quick because I'm losing my mind over here

(Also I'm so sorry this ended up being so long I didn't mean to write this much lmaooooo)

I LOVE THIS SCENE SM😭

The only time I like Seo Yul is when he's with the boys in a group. He has personality, showing more than one facial expression even though it's just a smile, and just more fun for me. When he's alone with his thoughts I'm like baby boy you gotta show me more flavor than flour on a wet blanket. The other male characters got spice in them, and I'm just-I dunno it might just be me.

King Jeongjo Yi San watching his last snow before passing way that very night

CAN YOU BELIEVE JANG UK AND MU DEOK IS EACH OTHER'S FIRST LOVE??? HOW PURE IS THAT??

hi!! it’s the my dearest anon again did u see the new part 2 preview omg it’s so sad they’re abt to break my heart into pieces

for the uninitiated, i am linking the preview in question here but wouldn't it be funny if they wanted us to suffer. that's not their plan right. right it can't be we went through too much in part one to go for a second round surely they'll have some mercy on us this time

(narrator voice: they did not, in fact, have mercy on us)

Naksu's name.

"My name is Naksu. For wherever I go heads fall to the ground. A beautiful name is it not?"

Beautiful indeed. But it's not her real name, is it?

Her name was Cho Yeong. It's the name her parents had given her. And that name had died the day her whole house burned down.

And then she became Naksu. The cold, strong, cruel, revenge driven killer. The Shadow assassin.

But then she had to take on the name Mudeok for her own safety. Till a certain someone recognised her. Jang Uk called her Mudeok the first day they met in Chiseonru. She was his master, she was his maid. She was also his betrothed. And then Mudeok was her name, because he called "Mudeok-aaah" probably 100 times in one day. Because the person she loved called her that. When Jang Uk quits, his 'Master Mudeok' allowed him to quit. When she came out of hypnosis, it was because Jang Uk kept calling for 'Mudeok-ah'. Which goes to show how much she identified with the name.

And now she's Jin Bu-Yeon. She's not. But she knows herself to be. But it's weird that Jang Uk doesn't call her that much. Maybe never. Which goes to show that she's actually not Jin Bu-Yeon.

Cho Yeong/ Naksu/ Mudeok/ Jin Bu-Yeon. All one and the same person.

I don't remember the last time in any media content, where a character had so many names, and identified with each of them.

So my wish is only this.

Just for once. At least once for Jang Uk to call her "Yeong-aah".

im jealous of mu-deok

no not bc of yul

BUT SHE GOT TO PET HIS ADORABLE FLUFFY PET BIRD AEKDJAHFHAHSKDKAJSJRA IM SCREAMING

THE BIRD IS SO CUTE

I MISS URI MU DEOKIEEEE

Y'ALL Y'ALL I JUST FINISHED ALCHEMY OF SOULS, IM SCREAMING!!!!

𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑹𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍/𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉:

𝑾𝒆𝒆𝒌 3: 𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝑹𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔 (𝑲𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑶𝒏𝒍𝒚; 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍)

𝑫𝒂𝒚 15: 𝑺𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑫𝒆𝒐𝒌-𝑰𝒎, 𝑹𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍 𝑵𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝑺𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑼𝒊-𝒃𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑱𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒏𝒌