Chapter 14: “There are mortal secrets kept from immortals”

It was an ordinary day. Every day was, to her and to him, the two most liable if anything happened to the kingdom while the real monarchs were away. For normal weekdays, the tutor would come in, give them an hour of boring lecture mostly of about politics, and then leave. They were dismissed for their lunch, as easy as that. But because she found it amusing to skip class, they did, with Changmin somewhat half-heartedly refusing with the idea. But he was forced to, so he had let the tutor go home with a very wondering look.

But today was all in all, not so ordinary. For Changmin seemed to change, Yoona noticed, maybe after she had busted his tricks, after seeing that Sooyoung was gone. Deep in thought, the princess held tightly the ropes of her horse Sunmi, while her prince, the one she married was by her side. They had been strolling around the palace without words exchanged, almost passing two hours--- grunts, sneezes and yawns.

Finally, as brave as his name implied, he spoke, “A penny for your thoughts?”

She looked up to him, dry, saliva ran out. “Excuse me?”

“Oh forget it, I was trying to strike a conversation and you go ruin it with your pride,” Changmin rolled his eyes, moving at a faster pace than she was.

She smiled. “I’m sorry I just...was thinking of why you’re being very nice to me today. It must be something you ate.”

“Or is the fact that I want to be nice,” he lied.

“No, far too unbelievable,” Yoona answered loudly. “Not even the queen will buy that excuse. You’re after something I just don’t know what.”

“If you’re thinking about... Sooyoung,” Changmin gulped, remembering Krystal’s voice. “ÿYou have to be sincere to her! No lies because it only complicates things, do you understand me?’ “I’m...sorry, Yoona. I really am.”

“I said it’s okay,” she retorted rather heavily, words cutting through him like a sword. “You’re forgiven.”

“No, I know I’m not,” the prince gritted his teeth. “You know so well I would feel all guilty inside and then you’ll act as though it’s all right, it’s already resolved. Nothing’s going to happen wrong again. But to be honest, Yoona that kind of attitude drives me mad. I don’t know what to do with you or how I can ever pay back the hurt I’ve put you through and that’s why I’m being nice. So you won’t hate me anymore and forgive me for real this time. See! And now I’m the one telling the truth while you go, ‘it’s okay’ again even when it’s not. Yoona, this is not okay, not normal for you not to be angry.”He sighed deeply, before looking away, red in the face, a little afraid that it might have been a pathetic need to release all his frustrations.

She was in fact stunned. Her eyes were large now, a hand over as a smile found itself in position. Her eyes brightly flickered when he looked back at her direction again. She started laughing as though it was a joke and so he felt like leading ahead of her.

“It’s not that funny.”

“It’s not that I have every right to be angry anyway,” Yoona remarked and Changmin turned back to her at once. She nodded, smiling. “Confused?”

“Surprised,” he said. “Go on.”

Yoona chuckled silently. “It’s that I have no right to be angry.”

“What do you mean? You actually do have that right! You should have thrown Sooyoung to the dungeon or burn her in front of my people for...what she did.”

They stopped, Yoona initiating, as she got off Sunmi and waited for Changmin to be with her on the ground again. He looked at her, those eyes that seem so endlessly patient and charming; could they be really speaking of the truth? They stood side by side, looking into each other’s eyes before Yoona beamed.

“Take my hand,” she started, and Changmin, a little afraid, actually followed. They held hands, out of Yoona’s orders this time and not anyone else’s. “Close your eyes.”

He pulled away at once from her. “What? What are you going to do?”

She giggled, putting a hand on his face and taking his hand with her other one. Her heart racing along, she closed her eyes and bit her lip, waiting that he pulled away his hand but this time, a minute or so he didn’t. He just stood there, frozen, dumbfounded. What was it that she wanted to do with him? Why was she touching him now?

“Your heartbeat’s a bit fast,” Yoona noticed as she opened her eyes, holding now her ring and while the other hand was still in Changmin’s. “My god, I’m not going to do anything brutal to you so don’t be afraid. I just said close your eyes.”

He followed at once and waited. The thunder rose up to his head that he could hear its thumping increasing, loudening at each second. Yoona gripped his fingers strongly, strength he had not even felt from Sooyoung. She always was careful with him, very careful of the prince. But now that this girl was someone of his level, she didn’t have to worry about him getting hurt, since timely, Changmin had hurt her first. Her hand fit his perfectly, as though like a puzzle piece, the sugar to his coffee and the paper to his ink, that thinking this Changmin smirked.

“So? How does it feel? Anything?” Yoona curiously asked, looking him in excitement as he gave a small shake of the head.

“I’m sorry, but there’s none,” Changmin answered, in a tone he seem to use all the time with Yoona. Strict and indifferent.

She nodded, letting go. Instantly, this action put the prince back to reality. Her hand was warm, although cold when she was frightened and nervous, but this time they were actually great to hold on to, trusting him of some sort. This sort of comprehension was never reliable, Changmin then concluded, shrugging it off.

“I see,” she cleared and went back to her horse. Changmin mounted on his. “Shall we start strolling again? A few more and we’ve circled the palace!”

“Wait, wait, wait!”the prince snapped. “What about the rights thing? Why are you not getting angry anymore?”

“I’m not in the position to be, silly,” Yoona giggled, looking down. “Besides, if you didn’t feel anything from my hand, then I believe the more I am not worth the reason of feeling hurt.”

Changmin finally understood what she wanted to say. “But you are my wife. So you should be even for a little reason.”

She shook her head. “It is just a name. I am nothing but a tool. We are nothing but tools for power. And I have made that clear when I engaged myself to substitute your girlfriend.”

“Yoona, substitue...is never the word,” Changmin coughed. “And what does holding my hand have to do with it? Tell me, for some reason, are you in love with me, Yoona? Is that the reason for why you cried?”

Yoona flinched, moving away and shaking her head. “Really, like I said, I do fancy you but not really like you in that manner.”

“A hint of admiration?” Changmin pressed on and she laughed.

“Not even close,” she stated as indifferently as she could, controlling herself not to falter in front of the man. “Why? Do you want me to fall in love with you?”

He shrugged. “I believe we had a deal of whoever fell in love first will risk their meals. So it would be great to hear you have.”

She chortled even harder at this, trying to reach Changmin and punch him off but she knew the man would never allow that. Somehow the atmosphere had fallen to serious yet again, Yoona sighing inwardly. “When are Seohyun and Kibum coming back?”

“For the tenth time Yoona, they’re visiting Kyuhyun and will be back at sundown,” Changmin managed, rather safe now that Yoona stopped inquiring about his emotions because he really had no idea how to answer her anymore, and sometimes resorting to lying had been difficult for him now that he was guilty of hurting her.

“So, shall we go visit him as well?”

Changmin woke up with a startle at her words. “Visit him?”He choked. “But they’re kind of on an adventure together, them both and Kibum. I really don’t know where.”There it went, half-lying yet again.

She pouted. “Oh, I wanted to go with her. Anywhere’s an adventure as along asyou’re not there. I realized how boring you are to be with.”

“Okay, that’s not very nice,” Changmin scolded Yoona, with now bringing up a scowl.

“I’ve never been nice,” Yoona spat. “Like you said, Seohyun’s nice. I’m evil and vain.”

“You’re the more boring one,” he replied immaturely, swinging his horse farther to the left that the gap between him and her grew wider. “You don’t tell me anything about yourself. You always avoid my questions, reply ‘it’s okay’ when it obviously isn’t. And you’re the worst liar, you know that? We’re trying to know each other today as though this is the first time because we’ve never really given each other a chance to talk! It’s always ‘I’m okay’. You should be dubbed as the princess of that. Do you get me? Now if you’re not being cooperative, we both won’t pass for the evaluation and guess what, no coronation. You won’t be queen while I can’t be king. If we don’t--- hey, don’t you turn your back on me!”

Sunmi hastened her gallops that Yoona was actually riding a horse ought to race, ought to be jumping ropes with some idiosyncrasy, and that couldn’t be happening. She had minimal experience with controlling a runaway horse, that apart from the fact that she was grinning, she was frightened---oh so afraid that she might actually fall off Sunmi without knowing it. The air touched her face so swiftly. And to Changmin’s concern about Yoona’s disrespectful ways, he followed her, hurrying in a manner of which he had learned through the years.

He wasn’t fast enough, to even think of the consequence to this that as she turned around the curve, in Sunmi’s strong momentum, Yoona slipped off her horse and ended up on the ground, he stopping a few meters away and getting off from his horse just as quickly. He ran to her like how any prince would, a little shocked that she was still laughing at this situation.

“You’re crazy!”Changmin shrieked, seeing her bruised right leg and scratched arms. “Really, you’re just ing nuts now look where you are.”

“You’re talkative!”Yoona reasoned, laughing harder and flipping her hair. “You’re all talk.”

Clicking his tongue, Changmin shook his head, bewildered at the wounds she had. Nobody was around them, no nurses or any of the maids. He looked at her again and fixed her hair because some of it fell on her face. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m Yoona.”

“Of course, she isn’t Changmin. She’s ing insane.”

She giggled, slowly forcing her knees to pick her up, but as she stood, she fell, Changmin holding onto her arms in time and she blanched. “That hurts, careful.”

He let go and Yoona was again on the ground, Changmin panicky. He bent down and took her unexpectedly to his back, carrying her now that the princess even looked surprised. “You’re a trouble magnet. I can’t stand living with you this way. If you attract trouble, I might as well jump off a cliff.”

“Careful! My leg hurts,” she complained loudly.

And Changmin held her even tighter than a while ago, her arms dangling by his shoulders. “You’ll have to bear with that stupidity for the rest of the day. Now I have to clean you up a