an: Thank you for all the encouraging comments and look what we have here, an update! Hihi.

It was on the cold night of the wedding day that Prince Sungmin of Northern Lights looked the happiest. His smile was so bright that the women of the high society caught their selves in burning utmost jealousy. How a young man, a teenager to be exact, can smile so enchantingly and dearly more than anyone of them with frills and sashes inside the ballroom.

The snow that covered the capital city of Northern Lights is a clear tell that winter was approaching. It was the very first winter that Sungmin will spend with Kyuhyun after being separated multiple times because of their studies and the set priorities.

Sungmin sighed faintly as he thought about his Knight, Kyuhyun. His eyes roamed outside the window and his eyes caught the sight of snow gently falling from the sky. Winter was coming, he noticed with a faint frown and without realizing it, he had already worried his lower lip with his teeth.

There is something unsettling he is feeling in his chest that he couldn’t put into words, which he couldn’t understand. Not wanting to ruin the supposedly happy aura, he fixed the white gloves his mother wanted him to wear as he erased the thoughts of worries.

For the rest of his life, Prince Sungmin of Northern Lights would remember that glorious day not only because on that day he uttered his marriage vow but also because on that day, he suffered the worst anxiety attack he ever experienced.

His mother had told him that it was perfectly reasonable to get nervous on his wedding day. And Sungmin knew that whatever his mother said was surely the truth. But there was a major difference between mere nervousness and a downright panic attack. Considering from the fact that he almost could not breathe when he was about to walk the aisle to the altar, Sungmin doubted what he experienced was simply pre-wedding anxiety. Though he also suspected the corset also played a part on that.

Yet despite his anxieties, the day progressed nicely, or as nice as it could possibly be without any major incident. Sure, he nearly broke down in panic the moment he realized the shade of his bouquet did not really match the wreath on his head but his mother managed to calm him down and solved the problem with the aid of some ribbons. His anxiety did not end there.

During the time he spoke up his vow, he almost, almost, added another “nie” to Kyuhyun’s name as it was his habit of calling him Kyuhyunnie most of the time. Thankfully, he avoided that. And though he was a good dancer, Sungmin was forced to admit he never danced in a flowing wedding dress and thus, he almost slipped during his wedding dance. He was forever grateful of Kyuhyun’s reflex as his husband somehow managed to catch him before he fell and pressed him closer to his chest.

That, of course, prompted yet another blush to his cheeks.

The blush was another point that made him so very aware of his anxiety throughout the day. He hated to look like an air-headed maiden on his wedding day, but the damn blush just would not disappear. He got many teasing remarks due to that, and Kyuhyun’s response to the teasing, by either kissing his cheek or hugging his waist, all along chuckling happily, was not helping at all. Though he was also forced to admit that he enjoyed the attention his Kyuhyun was giving him throughout the day, as if his newfound husband wanted to say 'mine, mine, forever ever mine' to all the world with his sweet and caring gestures.

Sungmin of Northern Lights smiled as he recalled those somewhat embarrassing yet endearing events of his wedding. Yes, the title “of Northern Lights” was still affixed after his name even after his wedding. Both his father and father-in-law had fought hard and tough about the whole last name issue. His father had refused to let him shed the title to embrace Kyuhyun’s one.

“Oh, Prince Sungmin of Aries sounds so ridiculously wrong at all levels!”, Leeteuk roared will all his rolls prancing over his shoulders.

And Cho Hyunjoong had flatly refused to let Kyuhyun be named as “Northern Lights” too since from the contract he signed in the past, Sungmin was supposed to be the bride in the whole marriage ordeal. The fight between those two great nation leaders almost felt comical but thankfully, Her majesty, Empress Heechul of Northern Lights still possessed the bit of intelligence and rationality in her. It was his mother that ended the fight with the resolution that both Kyuhyun and he should keep their respective last name intact even after their marriage, and that managed to shut both his father and father-in-law up.

Truthfully, Sungmin himself was more than ready to change his title into “of Aries”, he was Kyuhyun spouse now after all. And Kyuhyun too had said to him that he did not mind if he should change his name into “of Northern Lights”, considering that Sungmin's family was of higher status than him, so it was reasonable should he take after his last name instead. It was just their fathers being too prideful to give up a fight. It was lucky for him that his mother was still very well capable of ending any stupid fight.

And speaking about his mother, Sungmin mused as he glanced clandestinely to the closed door of his sleeping quarter as she was supposed to come soon. And, like what seemed to happen incessantly that day, Sungmin felt really anxious over the prospect of his mother visiting him that night, because that night was after all……well……his wedding night.

Feeling the blush threatened to take over his whole face again, Sungmin coughed discreetly. Night had fallen for quite some time and once the sun set, Sungmin had been ushered from the wedding festivities to, like what his giggling attendants said to him, prepare himself for his husband's visit.

Sungmin of Northern Lights might have never been touched, since of course he had to preserve his chastity for his marriage bed, but he had enough knowledge on what happened behind the closed bedroom doors at night. His knowledge did not lessen his anxieties, though. Rather, it only made it grow. And as his attendants prepared him and his room to receive Kyuhyun’s visit, Sungmin could not keep his heart calm. It beat wildly until he almost thought everyone present surely heard it.

He clenched his robe on his lap, eyes never leaving the closed doors. At the moment he was alone, his attendants had left him to his privacy after they prepared his bath (scented with roses), made his bed (with scattered rose petals on the bed sheets), and helped him dress (into a lavender colored silk robe that suspiciously smelled like roses). As the custom dictated, his mother would come first for 'the talk' before he could receive Kyuhyun. And so, when Sungmin heard the knock on the door, he took a breath to calm himself down and said.

"Please do enter."

The doors opened and admitted the graceful form of Her Majesty Royal Highness Empress Heechul walking into the room. Her dress made a soft rustling sound as she seated herself beside her son on the bed. And the smile on her face was so bright that Sungmin felt his heart somewhat calmed down by that.

"My son," his mother said to him as she kissed his cheek tenderly. "How are you feeling?"

Sungmin thought there is a undertone of excitement and ridicule at that question.

"I'm fine, mother," he said as his automatic response. His mother's eyebrow rose at that, a sure sign that she was not buying that, and Sungmin gulped as he corrected his words. "Maybe I'm a bit tired… and nervous…"

His mother chuckled at that. "It's normal to feel nervous on your wedding night. I remember how I felt during that fateful day I took your father's, His Majesty's, hands. I seem to recall I almost misspelled his name during the vow."

Sungmin head snapped up. "Eh?"

"Leeteuk Jungsoo of Northern Lights," Heechul sighed forlornly. "And I almost said his name as Teukie Jungsoo of Northern Lights as I always greet your father in a nick name that I want,” a light chuckle came from his mother. “Just to make him blush and stutter in mere annoyance.”

Now it is time for him to be surprised, he never thought that his father, ruler of Northern Lights, is a slave of cutesy nicknames.

Sungmin smiled as he recalled his own episode on the altar, "I almost added another “nie” to Kyuhyun’s name."

"My poor Sungmin," Heechul said as she ruffled Sungmin's head tenderly. "It seems you somehow inherit my bad luck in this aspect."

The feeling of his mother's hand smoothing his hair somehow made Sungmin felt nostalgic. It forced him onto recalling his childhood days when his mother would ran her graceful fingers amidst his hair as she put him to sleep. He recalled the days long past when his mother's hands were the last thing he felt before he went to sleep and the first he felt when he woke up. He recalled the days long past when his mother's hands were always the ones calming him when he was afraid, the ones soothing his pain when he was hurt, the ones comforting him when he needed it.

He almost could not believe it when he thought that years had indeed passed and now, he could no longer afford to be pampered by his mother like a little child anymore. He had grown up, from a boy to a man, fro