Hak shares a close friendship with Yona, often playfully bicker with each other. He feels overprotective of her and often teases her to try to get her to do what he says if he thinks it’s for her best. He has been in love with her ever since he was young, but he has grown to suppress his desires of doing anything outside their friendship. After they become fugitives, he is asked by Yona to still call her “Princess” to retain who she was once and he accepts her request with no hesitation.[10]
Because of his oath to Emperor Il to protect her, he considers himself as a tool for her to use[11] and will practically do anything for her sake. For this reason, he gets scared whenever Yona is reckless[12] and even at one point states that he wants to ‘tie her down’ so that he could stop her.[13] However, at the same time he gets excited to see her finish the risky things she gets herself into because he want to see her suffer like a human being, which is something she was unable to do previously, due to of her lifestyle. [14] Although some may believe he wants to hide Yona, in reality he wants to show her off to everyone, especially the people who chased her out of the castle, and tell them how fine of a princess she is.[15]