The princess Sandara sat on a cushion, legs folded at the knees, back straight like an arrow. A scroll unfurled and told her of cherry blossoms and true love. It was a nice story, one that was calm with a few stirrings of the wind that whispers true love wins all. Sandara read, and read, and wondered, for a hollow moment why that woman in the story seemed a touch decorative. Beautiful, graceful, gentle... What were those features? They were all so... Flimsy. Forgettable.  

Maybe, just like her.

How sad the story when the only means the woman had to be happy is to have a man love her. Ah, Sandara thought, why is she sad when what she read was a happy story?

The thought swirl in her head like cherry blossom petals stirring in the wind. What are these thoughts, she wondered as she stared out an ornate window, daylight streaming from the coloured glass, casting emerald light on her table.

It's like I am trapped in an emerald.

That was when Seung hyun bolted in. Ah, Sandara thought, she really needed to teach him some manners. She rose from her seat slowly, with the grace of a flower blooming, like she was taught by her ladies in waiting. She folded her hands in front of her waist, noticed the boy Seung hyun had in tow. Her eyes grew wide before she settled to an instinctive bow.

"I brought Jiyong." Seung hyun told her. "Princess, this here is that boy in the cell. The one I was telling you about."

Sandara raised her head to see a flash of brief annoyance crossed the visitor's face then he settled with a sigh. 

"You make me sound like a prisoner." The boy exhales.

"Are you not?" Seung hyun wore a confused look. "Were you not locked up?"

The other boy shook his head like he was saying Seung hyun was hopeless. Sandara found it amusing. The other child, that boy, he was like her in many ways.

"I am a ward of the King. A ward. A guest of honour. I am Prince Jiyong of Dae Hun." He turned to Sandara. "I am honoured to be in your presence, Princess. I am your humble guest." He bows shortly, gracefully, like how a prince should.

Sandara nods in acknowledgement, "No, my Prince, the honour is all mine."

Seung hyun on the other hand felt left out. Honour? They said. What is that? Ah, but how both of them shine in the way only royalty does. His Sun, perhaps meeting her Sky. For the briefest moment Seung hyun felt lonely. He shakes off his head. Before his princess he had fleas, he stared at his wrist with a shiny healed up scar. Ah, he was bit there. He was just the mangy mutt. 

"You two should get married!" He exclaimed. Yes, the sun belongs with the sky. It was simple. "When we grow up, I mean. You and Jiyong and me... We can be together. I'll protect you both. You should marry him. He's a good kid. He's only good at Janggi but whatever. He's nice and a prince. You said you'd marry a prince. He's a prince."

"What?" Sandara blurted out, then covered in embarrassment. Well, that was not how princesses speak.

Jiyong clucked his tongue, "Tsk. Stop it. I am as fit to marry the princess as you are."

"What do you mean?" Seung hyun asked.

"I mean, not at all." Jiyong supplied.

Sandara smiled at Seung hyun, almost encouragingly, like only she does, "I am sorry Seung hyun. I do not get to choose whom I marry."

"What? Why?"

"Who I marry will be the King of Koryu."

Seung hyun's face doesn't let up the confusion, "so what?"

"The king chooses the next king." Jiyong supplies.

Seung hyun turns his confused face to the other boy, "what? Why? It's the princess who marries, why the heck does the king choose who she marries."

Sandara blinks, and for a moment, she thought, ah, even that flimsy happiness women can get from true love... Well, she may never have that either.

But Jiyong shakes his head, "it's the way it is, Seung hyun. She is royalty, and with all that luxury, a choice of who she weds, that's just not one of it."

Sandara stared at a confused Seung hyun, wondering the same thing he was... Then, what good is it to be a princess?

###

After the brief meeting where mostly Seung hyun spent steeping tea leaves and serving the two sweets, Sandara and Seung hyun were summoned to the King's court. The king paced back and forth, enraged at something Seung hyun did not understand. Sandara had warned him not to speak. They will be scolded. Jiyong was to never meet her. They both knew. So she had told Seung hyun to just kneel and stay quiet. She even held his hand to remind him to restrain himself.

She worried. She worried a thousand worries. She should have taught Seung hyun some manners.

When the King erupted it was like the torrent never stopped. There were a lot of things Seung hyun didn't understand but what he did get was Sandara was getting much of the blunt, irresponsible, careless, insubordinate. They were big words but Sandara's face was flushed and Seung hyun knew that wasn't good. 

The king threw in Jiyong and called the boy dangerous, a snake, the son of an enemy.

Now, for all that Seung hyun was angry. How dare this, this King, say bad things about his princess and his friend? When he could be kind to him, a dog with legitimate fleas? His father, he had heard, was one of the kennel masters who a slave. A . Surely, Jiyong's father was more than that. Anyone's father was more than that, to be sure! Jiyong is a good kid who laughs at stupid things, and know stupid stuff like when the moon will come out or why it rains... Surely, surely his friend was not a danger, not a snake. He was just... Just Jiyong.

Sandara on the other hand felt ashamed, how can she had displeased her father so? He has never been this mad. Never. Not even when she broke an antique vase that was gilded in real gold.

Her tears slipped from her lashes and Seung hyun found himself on his feet, teeth bared like a dog protective of his master.

"You stop speaking to her like that."

Sandara was also on her feet wide eyed and pulling at Seung hyun.

"You don't make my princess cry."

The hall echoed a loud gasp from the Knights that flanked the king. No one spoke to the king like that.

The king held his hand up to stop the soldiers. "A dog will bark when his owner is threatened. It's of no real threat." He turned to Seung hyun, "Seung hyun, how important is my daughter to you?"

Well, Seung hyun for a moment thought that was a strange question, but then how does one answer that? "She... The princess is my sun. The princess... She is my life."

The king's face relaxed visibly, "and if Jiyong hurts her?"

"I will kill him." Seung hyun growls.

"Then you two are dismissed. Ah, Sandara, you must do something about his manners. Please. Sooner is better than later."

The king left, leaving the children quite dumbfounded.

Seung hyun relaxes, "Your father is a bit of nut, isn't he?" He comments to Sandara.

Sandara still a bit teary, sighs. "We should really work on your manners, shouldn't we?"

He grins at her, "anything you want, princess." And he gives her hand a small squeeze.

###

"You could have gotten your head cut off." Jiyong comments as he moves a piece in the Janggi board after being told of the princess and his audience with the king.

"Heh." Seung hyun dismisses. "The king is a bit of a nut, but he isn't bad."

At this comnent, Jiyong feels a surge of inexplicable anger. Not bad? He mollifies himself. This was Seung hyun speaking. He doesn't know better.

"Still you shouldn't speak to a king like that." One of Jiyong's General takes on one of Seung hyun's.

"I know, I know! I am working on it!" Seung hyun moves his general out of the way.

Two moves more Jiyong remarks idly, "check mate."

Seung hyun scratches his head violently, "how? Are you a cheater Jiyong? Do you cheat? How do you always win? I move the general here, you have one of those freaking chariots, there another trap? Just tell me if you cheated, will you?"

"There is no cheating in war, Seung hyun. That is called strategy."

"So are you telling me you're a cheater?"

"No. But Seung hyun, you are unbelievably naive and easy to read."

"What does that mean?"

"Hm... I wonder... If you are too honest for war."

###

A/N: re-written with the aims of a more Dara-centric POV.