“We’ve been here,” Joonmyun said as he pointed towards a specific spot on the map that we were sharing.

“The old carpenter’s shop,” I said with a nod, remembering vividly how much the shop smelt like wood and polish, the floor coated with shavings and the shelves dominated by wooden figurines.

“And we’ve also been here,” he pointed towards the blacksmith’s a few shops away from the carpenter’s, a squat and severe-looking shop with grisly windows, black frames and a matching black sign.

“What else did we miss?” Joonmyun asked, rubbing his smooth chin thoughtfully. After agreeing to accompany Joonmyun in his adventures through the village, I was able to rest in the comfort of knowing that I had finally acquired a partner who was fairly adept at using a map. Although it was severely crumpled and looked like it had been folded a hundred times over in order to fit inside his pocket, it was greatly reassuring when you knew that you had someone to rely on so you wouldn’t get lost.

“A dress shop,” I said, perking up as I pointed towards a spot on the map. I laughed when I saw Joonmyun’s face contort into a grimace. “Alright, alright. No shopping.”

Joonmyun recovered quickly and grabbed my wrist, towing me towards the small junction that, according to the map, led to the dress shop. “If that’s where you want to go then come on.”

“No!” I said in surprise, digging my heels into the cobblestone path. “I was just joking Joonmyun. Why would I need 18^th century dresses?”

Joonmyun paused, turning to look at me thoughtfully. “I don’t know. To wear it to the prom?”

I cracked up. “You can’t be serious.”

Joonmyun smiled, his eyes taking on a mischievous light. “Why not? I think you’d make a fine entrance.”

The look I gave him must have been really comical, because in the next minute, he, too, was laughing. “Alright fine. If we’re not going to go there, where should we go?”

I gazed around thoughtfully, hoping that I could find some inspiration from the buildings around us instead of their printed counterparts. Instead of landing one specific building however, my eyes landed on the figures of two people, who appeared, even from afar, to be bickering.

“How about we have some fun?” I said mischievously, smirking at their direction.

Joonmyun followed my gaze and grinned. “Lead the way then.”

---

 

“Honestly, we should wait,” I heard Hyunji insist as she tugged Yixing’s wrist back. She glanced behind worriedly; Joonmyun and I plastered ourselves to the wall before she could see us.

“It’s been long enough,” Yixing said impatiently, tugging her hand again.

“But Jonghyun –”

“Leave him,” he growled, before succeeding in uprooting Hyunji from her spot with one hard tug of her hand. Hyunji exclaimed in surprise, yelling at Yixing to stop, to quit being so forceful.

“What do you think he did to Jonghyun?” Joonmyun whispered to me. His breath on my ear sent chills down my spine.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s something not altogether nice,” I said, keeping my head turned towards my two best friends, afraid that if I looked at him, I wouldn’t be able to do so good a job at keeping myself together.

“They’re going. Let’s go.” I eased myself out of the little space between the two shops, relieved that I wasn’t confined in such a small space with Joonmyun any longer. It was bad enough that he kept on insisting to be by my side, but having to fight my feelings for him while he was only few inches from my reach was a different story altogether. I knew that my heart wasn’t beating out of anticipation back there.

I had timed everything perfectly; although Yixing and Hyunji had a head start, they weren’t so far that we lost track of them. Knowing that Joonmyun had already eased himself out of the space and was standing next to me, I began to follow them with slow, stealthy steps.

“I remember playing a game like this back when I was a kid,” he said wistfully as we were ducking behind a large tree. “When I could fit in my spy suit and still had in my possession a toy gun.”

I chortled, picturing a mini Joonmyun skulking around the house in all black and pointing a toy gun at every person he passed.

“Things are a bit complicated this time.” I poked my head out from behind the trunk and rubbed my fingers thoughtfully. “How are we going to get them together?”

Joonmyun poked his head out, just above mine. I could feel his lingering presence behind me, the warm heat of his body as the tip-toed over mine. I fought back a blush.

“Should we try the typical ‘knock-into-the-girl-and-let-the-guy-catch-her’ technique?” he offered thoughtfully.

I shook my head. “Nope. Too cliché. And besides, both of them would recognise us, and there isn’t anyone around here we can get help from.”

“What do you suggest then?”

My eyes travelled towards a poster hanging just above our heads, towards the words splashed across its front, slanted and curled at the end of the letters. A picture of a couple dancing the waltz served as its background.

I smirked.

---

 

“Hear ye, hear ye! I have a decree from the royal place: You have all been invited to the royal ball!”

The sound of a bow being pulled across the strings of a fiddle accompanied the decree, startling many within its vicinity. The short stocky man, the one holding a ridiculously long scroll, the herald who had made the announcement, grinned out of satisfaction at the surprise he managed to elicit from the passers-by. His companion, dressed in a garb of dark blue, stringing a cheery tune from his fiddle, happily grinned at the staring people.

The stocky man began glancing around. “Ah you there, the pretty couple on the left!”

He leapt off the steps towards his targets, ignoring the looks of surprise that crossed their faces when he popped up in front of them and executed a perfect bow while waving his feather hat. “How about a try at the fine art of ballroom dancing?”

“What?” Yixing sputtered bewilderedly, while Hyunji was shaking her head vigorously.

“I don’t know how to dance, and besides, we’re not a couple.”

“Everybody can learn how to dance!” the man exclaimed, his eyes gleaming as he took both their hands.

“No, we –”

He ignored Yixing’s protests. His companion, the one with the fiddle, had sidled his way behind the two, barricading them from attempting any form of escape. Yixing looked both bewildered and irritated, but Hyunji had already grabbed his hand and was gazing around excitedly.

“Come on, Yixing! It might be fun!”

“I’m not going to make a fool out myself in front of everyone!”

She smacked his arm. “Don’t be such a spoil sport. I know you can dance, come on!” She s her arm around his and dragged him up the stone steps.

By the time they were gone, Joonmyun was laughing so hard that he was kneeling on the ground next to me. “Amazing!” he exclaimed in between laughs, his eyes bright as he looked up at me. “It actually worked.”

I smirked. “Didn’t I say it would?” I tossed my hair over my shoulders mock haughtily, basking in the moment of triumph.

“I think he’s going to kill you if he knows,” Joonmyun said with a lopsided grin.

“He wouldn’t as long as nobody tells him about it.” I gave him a stern look.

He held up his hands. “Alright, alright. My lips are sealed.” He made a motion of zipping his mouth. “In fact, I’ll even throw away the key.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed as I watched Joonmyun do the silly gesture. “Okay I get it. Now come on, time to get up.”

I offered a hand out to him, which he gladly took and pulled himself up. I was about to pull my hand away but Joonmyun’s fingers tightened around mine. Taken aback, I stared at him, but Joonmyun pretended like it was the most natural thing in the world to be holding my hand.

“We got them in, just as you asked.” The sound of the voice drew me out of my trance. I looked up and smiled at the stocky man in front of us. He had bright, gleaming eyes and a round face, very much like a tomato and even more so when he was flushed.

“Thanks a lot. I really appreciate your help.” Without the herald facade, he looked like a normal man, one who was working a little too hard to keep his job.

“It’s no problem at all, my dear,” he said with a jolly laugh. “I love toying with couples in denial.”

I laughed along with him and then slipped my hand out of Joonmyun’s to withdraw my wallet. I began riffling through a few bills, but Joonmyun had already stepped up in front of me, holding a twenty.

“It’s okay, I’ll pay for it,” he said with a smile, gently holding my wrist before I could pull the cash out.

“I can manage it, Joonmyun.”

“I insist.”

“How about this?” We turned when the man interrupted us. He was eyeing us with a smile; the laugh lines embedded in his face made him look pleasant, like a baker who had eaten one too many buns. “Neither of you have to pay me, but you have to do me a favour.”

“Of course,” Joonmyun said eagerly, withdrawing the money. “What is it?”

The man jerked his wobbly chin towards the stone steps leading up to the ballroom. “Go in there and have fun.”

 I stared at him, surprised. “But –”

“It’s just about the same as paying me anyway,” he said with twinkling eyes. “The more people I get in there, the more commission I get. So go on and do this poor guy wearing tights a favour.”

Joonmyun laughed, but I hesitated, glancing at him. Would this be a good idea?

“Go ahead, my dear. I promise you’ll have fun,” he addressed me with a smile.

 Joonmyun leaned in closer to whisper to me. “Besides, we can keep an eye on them too.”

I glanced at him and nodded hesitantly. Looking pleased, he grabbed my hand and began to lead me up the stone steps. I glanced back towards the man, who was grinning as he watched us. “Enjoy the ball, my lady,” he said with a wink, bowing his perfect little bow as Joonmyun pushed open the door and tugged me in.

---

 

When the door closed behind us, I was stunned as to how much the ballroom resembled an actual one at the royal palace in the 18^th century. The interior was mostly high walls with roman pillars rising to support the high ceiling. Adorning its whole length were gilded chandeliers, crystals twirling and gleaming as if the light it glowed with came from within. The ceiling and walls were mostly a mixture of cream and white, accentuated with gold that interlinked to form patters of flowers with elegant petals and twining leaves. The floors were marble, recently polished, and reflected the light from the chandeliers back onto the walls, setting everything in soft glow.

“Woah,” I muttered, scanning the room.

“Indeed,” Joonmyun agreed.

We took in the couples occupying the dance floor in various stages of the waltz. Some were performing excellently to the point that they received praises from the instructors, while others were breaking off and giggling when one of them accidentally missed a step. I spotted a lot of students from our school here, mostly girls, lingering around the corners to watch the show. The few that were on the dance floor were bright and glowing, while the boys they managed to rope into performing as their partners looked flushed and embarrassed.

“Where are they?” I said with a frown, scanning the sea of faces to look for our subjects.

“Over there,” Joonmyun said excitedly, pointing towards a far corner of the ballroom where a very excited girl and a very reluctant gentleman were rehearsing steps with the aid of an instructor.

“Yixing looks like he’d rather die,” I said with a laugh.

“He might as well. I don’t think the basketball team will ever let him live this down if they found out.”

My eyes glittered mischievously. “Should I record this?”

Joonmyun eyed me in the sternest manner he could, but considering that it was Joonmyun and he was enjoying this as much as I was, it wasn’t really saying much. “You wouldn’t be a very good friend if you did that.”

“I could show it to their children when we grow up.” I contemplated the idea with glee. Yixing married to Hyunji; it wasn’t really an image that hard to picture.

“This matchmaking thing is really getting to you, isn’t it?” Joonmyun said with a laugh.

“Only because I know they’re practically made for each other.”

“Look at you two!” a voice exclaimed before Joonmyun could reply. A woman in her late thirties was walking up to us, beaming. She was an elegant lady, wearing a red dress with her hair swept up in chignon. “Such a pretty couple.”

My heart skipped a beat. I realised that Joonmyun and I had been holding hands. Hastily, I pulled mine away. “We’re not –”

“She’s shy, isn’t she?” the lady asked Joonmyun, cutting me off.

Joonmyun looked amused. “Sometimes.”

She smiled at me. “Why would you be? There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“She was like this when we first met, but then, I learned that she could be just as fierce.”

I backed away a step. Honestly, I didn’t know what to make of this.

The lady smiled at me, catching my hand before I could retreat any further. She took Joonmyun’s too and began to lead us to the dance floor.

“Where are you –” Before I could finish, she had already flung me into Joonmyun’s arms, clapping her hands happily while I stumbled on my feet. Joonmyun caught me and held me up easily.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get it started, shall we?” She moved towards the both of us and began positioning our arms.

“Hands are to be held shoulder height,” she said, clasping both my and Joonmyun’s hands together and bringing it up to the intended height. She pushed us both from behind. “And stand closer!”

“I –”

She tsked and smacked me lightly on the arm. “Loosen your shoulders! Don’t be so tense.”

I turned and gazed bewilderedly at Joonmyun, expecting him to be in the same state of distress, but stunned to find him to be a picture of calmness.

“You’re okay with this?” I asked hesitantly as she fluttered around us like a harried bird.

He raised his brows. “Should I not be?”

“I –” I broke off in the middle of my sentence as she began explaining the steps.

“Just do what she says,” Joonmyun whispered quietly to me. “At least it’ll get her off our backs.”

“Understood?” she beamed happily when she was done, to which I hesitantly nodded. “Alright, now let’s see you do it.”

“But –”

“Relax, Aeri,” Joonmyun said, chuckling softly. “I heard what she said. Just follow my lead.”

He began to move; I followed. Nervous, I gazed down at my feet, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I ended up debilitating Joonmyun’s ability to walk on the next morning.

“Hey.” I heard Joonmyun’s voice call me, but still, I refused to look up.

“Look at your partner, not the floor!”

Wincing, I looked up and met his eyes. The minute I looked into them, I was once again reminded as to why I fell for him. They were the same as they had been months ago, when I first looked into them and found compassion, curiosity, and warmth all swirling beneath his irises. Now, he still looked at me the same way, but I found that something new, something that wasn’t there all those months ago, twinkling beneath the swirling cesspool of emotions.

“I tried to warn you,” he said with a slight smile. “You have nothing to worry about. You’re doing fine.”

I decided that gazing over his shoulder would be a good enough distraction for me to regain my speech. “I didn’t know you could dance this well.”

“A hidden talent uncovered, I guess,” he said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Now you sound like Jongin.”

Joonmyun smiled. “It was to get you to laugh, actually.”

I hoped I didn’t blush too hard.

“Yixing and Hyunji seem to be getting the hand on things,” I commented as I gazed across the ballroom, once again trying to distract myself.

“Yes they are,” he said, although he wasn’t actually looking at them while he was judging.

“How do you know that they are, so to speak, ‘made for each other’?” he asked me suddenly. I tore my gaze away from Yixing and Hyunji, both of whom I had been observing while we danced, and gave Joonmyun a quizzical look.

“Pardon?”

“How do you know Yixing and Hyunji are meant to be?”

I smiled fondly. “How? I’ve been friends with them for a long time. I’d be blind not to notice how he looks at her.”

“‘He’ meaning Yixing. If the feelings he harboured for her were one-sided and unreciprocated, how will it make a happy ending?” Joonmyun’s tone was both logical and curious.

“Sometimes,” I began hesitantly, “two people are meant to be with each other, but it takes some time for them to realise it. One of them might be hopelessly in love with the other, but it might take years for the other person to actually realise how important she is to him.”

“But what if, when the guy finally falls for that person, he realises that it’s a little too late?”

I shrugged. “It’s never too late to try.”

“Do you think he can make her fall for him again?” Joonmyun was gazing intently at me.

I hesitated. “I don’t know –maybe. But if they are really meant to be, one day, they’d end up with each other.”

Joonmyun was silent for as he swept me in a series of steps. Having finally recognised the beat and moulded myself into the rhythm, I followed unconsciously, trusting Joonmyun to lead and myself to follow. I didn’t realise that everything had ended until Joonmyun released me and took a step back, performing a perfect bow that made him look every inch like a prince.

“I’m counting on that,” he said to me as he looked up, his eyes holding mine as steadily as how he held my heart.