Three Rooms Apart

Tsubaki counted three exits before she crossed the room, then two lies she could safely tell and one she could not. Her mind split itself that way because it had to. In the palace, she copied records with steady hands while her real work stayed folded inside her sleeves. One wrong seal could ruin her house, and one soft look could ruin her heart. Aoi saw the crack in her before anyone else did. That mattered, because Aoi had her own crack to hide. When duty starts asking for a marriage, a long separation, and a life built on silence, Tsubaki has to choose what she will risk keeping. The one person who can match her step for step is the one person she was never meant to trust.