After three relatively uneventful weeks, Jessica’s health begins to fail again.  She becomes too weak to leave her bed, oscillating between stages of delirious wakefulness and fitful sleep.  The palace is once again blanketed in a general mood of worry, and not even Taeyeon’s music is enough to break Jessica’s persistent fevers.

Taeyeon is tempted to blame herself many times for Jessica’s returning illness, connecting it, perhaps, to the upset that she’d caused her with her words and actions.  Their situation is getting to be increasingly complicated.  But Taeyeon knows that logically, their personal relations have nothing to do with Jessica’s worsening health as the timeline wouldn’t suggest it.  It would be wisest for her to continue having faith in her music so that Jessica will eventually see recovery once again.

It’s late afternoon in the Damcyan palace; storm clouds are spreading across the wide open sky, but rain has yet to come.  Taeyeon, carrying her golden harp, is making her daily trip to Jessica’s chambers to check on her condition and perhaps play something for her if she’s awake.

When Taeyeon arrives, Jessica’s door is already ajar.  She’s about to ask for permission to enter before a man’s voice, coming from inside the room, stops her dead in her tracks.

“Come on, surely you must be rested enough by now!  I’ve been in Damcyan for almost two months and you’ve barely given me any of your time.”

Taeyeon can’t help but sneak a glance into Jessica’s chambers.  There, she sees a man standing by Jessica’s bed, talking to her.  He’s dressed in regal clothing from another city, and Taeyeon can only see the blond hair at the back of his head.

It’s Prince Hans.

Taeyeon didn’t know that he was still in the city.

“Stop shouting, Hans,” is Jessica’s only reply to him.  Neithe