The Crown Prince has never publicly displayed any act of affection, not even to his closest servant, Soo. So it was a shocking scene for Soo to see the Crown Prince holding hands with the Crown Princess as they walked hand in hand towards the Crown Prince’s library.

Servants gushed over that, stopping whatever they were doing to gawk at the couple as if something like that only happens once in a century.

Taeyeon willingly followed Baekhyun and glanced at their hands, it reminded her of the time they walked through the village together when Baekhyun saved her. Although his expression looked cold, his hands were so warm she felt heat slowly rising up to her cheeks.

He took her to his personal library, which was the one she wanted to enter last week.

Taeyeon let out a soft gasp at the amount of books that filled the library. She has never seen so many books in one place, not even at the local bookstore.

The Crown Prince finally let go of her hand and said, “You can read any of these books, and spend your time here as long as you want.”

She glanced at him, but he wasn’t looking at her, just staring ahead. She left his side and went to one of the bookshelves to check out one of the books. None of them looked brand new, the Crown Prince must have spent a lot of his time here as well.

“But if you want to read, read them in the library, don’t bring the books out,” he added.

Flipping through one of the books, her smile grew wider, feeling giddy and special that he actually let her into his library. She turned around to face him and said, “Apology accepted!”

“What? I didn’t apologize,” he scoffed and finally looked at her.

“Even though you didn’t say it out loud, I appreciate the gesture,” she said, smiling up at him. His ears turned red really quickly and before she could say anything else, he turned away and left.

***

The Crown Princess smiled when she was finally home. It has been years since she stepped into the house she grew up in. When she received a letter from her mother telling her to come home to pay her ill father a visit, she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to leave the palace.

Luckily when she asked Baekhyun, he let her go without asking a lot of questions.

She is very worried about her father though, the last time she saw him before her wedding, she remembered that he looked healthy. She hopes that it isn’t something serious.

“Noona!” She was greeted by her younger brother when she opened the front door to their house.

“Minwoo-a,” she greeted back with a smile as her brother went in for a hug. Taeyeon and her younger brother, Kim Minwoo are very close. They both stuck together like glue when Taeyeon was still living in the house. Minwoo was also the only one who knew and supported her when she told him that she plans to run away from home to escape the betrothal.

“Did you become fatter? Palace food must be delicious,” he joked which earned him a playful punch in the arm from his sister.

“How is father doing? Did he get any better?”

“He actually just woke up, the physician said that he is recovering.”

Taeyeon was relieved to hear that. She quickly went to the master’s bedroom to see her father. When she went in, she saw her mother sitting beside her father’s bed, helping him to drink from the bowl of herbal medicine.

“Father, mother, I have arrived,” she said as she took her seat beside her father’s bed. “How are you doing?”

“I am doing a lot better now,” he said, holding in a cough.

Taeyeon lifted up the bowl of leftover herbal medicine to her nose to smell it. “Wow, expensive concoction. You will get better fast. How did you get sick?”

“These days your father has been taking walks outside at night, so he probably caught a cold from one of the nights,” explained her mother. “I told him that he can just walk around the house, but he didn’t listen. Your father is a very stubborn – ”

“Enough about me,” interrupted her father. “How is life in the palace? Have you been eating well?”

“Yes, definitely. Three meals a day and all of them are fit for a King,” Taeyeon replied. “You don’t have to worry about me, father. I can take care of myself.”

Her father nodded before heaving a sigh. “I apologize for always forcing you into bethrotals with noble men. I regret my actions because it only pushed you further away from the family.”

“It is alright, father. You know me, you can never force me to do something I don’t want to do.”

“And now you ended up becoming the Crown Princess of Joseon, even after running away from so many suitors back then,” said her mother, half jokingly.

“Yup, I only have myself to blame for that,” Taeyeon laughed.

“Do you still dream of becoming a Herbalist?” asked her father.

Taeyeon heaved a sigh before saying, “Although I know I can no longer achieve that dream. Funny enough, I still do.”

***

Taeyeon was on the way back in the palanquin when they passed by the market. She decided to stop the palanquin and asked them to rest at the side for a while to let her walk through the market.

“I used to go through here almost every day, it is always so fun to do window shopping,” said Taeyeon.

“That sounds fun, Your Royal Highness,” replied Hui.

“Please simply refer to me as Agasshi when we are outside the palace, we should blend in,” whispered Taeyeon. Hui nodded curtly to obey. “This is very pretty, do you want one?” Taeyeon asked Hui as she took a hairpin from one of the stalls to take a look at it.

“No, agasshi,” Hui politely declined.

“Take it as a gift, for caring for me these few weeks,” said Taeyeon as she reached out into her sack to get out some coins.

“No, agasshi. I can’t accept it. I don’t even have the chance to wear it.”

“It’s alright, you can wear it when you are with me,” said Taeyeon, paying for the hairpin and handing one of it into Hui’s hands and another into her sack. “That way, we can match.”

People from behind them suddenly started to scream and Taeyeon could vaguely hear people telling everyone to move away. She looked back just in time to see a man covered in all black pushing his way into the crowd as he ran away from two other men who were chasing him at the back.

All of them were in black, making them stand out in the crowd.

“What is going on?” Taeyeon mumbled as she stared, and accidentally made eye contact with the man in the front that was being chased. He swiftly reached out to grab her arm and drew out his blade before placing it in front of .

It all happened within seconds and the two men that were chasing him finally slowed down when they realized that he had a hostage.

Just my luck. Why did I have to stand out?

“Let me go and I will spare her,” said the kidnapper. Taeyeon glanced around her, trying to figure out a way to get out of this hostage situation. At the side, Hui was already crying and begging the kidnapper to let her go.

The two men took a step backwards, trying not to do anything to provoke him. Taeyeon could tell that the guy on the right is the leader, because as soon as the guy on the right gestured to the other person to drop their swords, the guy on the left followed him to drop it as well.

She held her breath, trying to think of how to escape the kidnapper’s grasp. But when she met the leader’s eyes, she noticed his eyes gesturing towards his left. Taeyeon blinked purposely to signal him that she understood.

While the kidnapper is left off guard, she elbowed him in the ribs and dived to the left side as the guy on the left swiftly kicked his sword up back into his hands to fight him. The leader then went over to lend Taeyeon a hand to get off the ground as his partner handled the kidnapper.

Taeyeon winced when she tried to get up and looked back down at her hand to see that she accidentally twisted her wrist a little when she fell down earlier. The leader noticed it and decided to just help her up by grabbing her arms and pulling her up.

Once she was standing by herself, he finally let her go, but not before muttering, “Go home now.”

Hui quickly went over to Taeyeon’s side to take care of her as the leader joined his partner in taking down the kidnapper. “Agasshi, are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Taeyeon mumbled, staring at the backside of the leader that saved her just now.

She recognised him. She knew it was him the moment their eyes met, but she wasn’t sure until she heard his voice.

What is he doing here?

“Oh my, you are bleeding,” Hui said, referring to her hand.

Taeyeon looked down and smiled, “Don’t worry, it is just a surface scratch.”

Back in the palanquin, Taeyeon can’t help but wonder why the Crown Prince was after that man. Why does the Crown Prince himself have to go undercover to the field and risk his life when he can hire his own men to do it for him?

She thought back to the time she first met him and all the scars that were on his torso. Those scars might not come from training only, it also came from real battles that could potentially end his life. His actions seem a bit suspicious to her because of how private he is about his affairs inside and outside of the palace.

“Your Highness, we have arrived,” said Hui as she looked out the window. Taeyeon looked out the window as well to see her older brother standing there, waiting for her.

“Orabeoni, what brings you here?”

“I am surprised that His Royal Highness lets you leave the palace,” said Kim Min Jun. “I heard His Royal Highness even lets you use his personal library.”

“What are you trying to say? Stop beating around the bush,” Taeyeon sighed, she can’t wait to go back to her room after a tiring day outside the palace. “And you don’t even bother to ask me how our father is doing? I heard you didn’t even go back to visit him.”

Her brother simply ignored her and said, “I have a plan that will let you leave this palace forever and pursue your dream to become a herbalist.”

Taeyeon raised a curious brow, wondering what her brother was getting at.

“What plan?”

“Now that the Crown Prince has opened himself up to you a bit, it must mean that he trusts you. There’s a lot of potential in how to use that trust he has in you,” said Kim Min Jun.

“Hui, can you go back to my room to wait for me? I want to talk to my brother privately,” Taeyeon turned to Hui to dismiss her. Hui nodded and quickly left the siblings alone to talk. “What do you mean?”

“As the Tax Minister of Joseon, it has come to my attention that the Crown Prince isn’t as innocent as what everyone thinks he is. He has been secretly pocketing the people’s taxes to fund his luxurious lifestyle. Joseon is never going to prosper under his ruling, but if we help Prince Jung rise to the throne, Joseon would have a brighter future.”

Taeyeon simply scoffed at that. Although the Crown Prince seems suspicious to her, he is definitely not pocketing the people’s money to fund his “luxurious” lifestyle where he doesn’t even have time to enjoy. She knows him, if he is somewhere to be seen, he is always out in the field training or in the library reading. The “luxurious” lifestyle her brother spoke of must be about himself.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I would be Joseon’s biggest idiot if I believe you,” said Taeyeon, rolling her eyes. “I know that the one with bad intentions here is you.”

“Don’t you find the Crown Prince suspicious? I know you do. He’s hiding something.”

Her encounter with the Crown Prince outside the palace just now flashed across her mind.

“No, even if he is, it is definitely not because of what you said. I will never be involved in your plan.”

“Oh my,” he faked a gasp, causing Taeyeon to stare at him, wondering what bull he is going to say. “Don’t tell me you have actually fallen in love with him. Have you really?”

“No,” she replied curtly. “I just don’t want to be involved. Since I have heard your plan to overthrow the Crown Prince, I can simply run off to the Crown Prince and tell him about your plan.”

“My dear sister, I hate to break it to you. As long as you are related to me, you will be executed if I get caught. We are already in this together. It is either the Crown Prince dies, or our whole family will be executed,” said Kim Min Jun. “Do you really want to be the reason our dear father and mother get executed?”

“How dare you turn the blame on me? You are the one who orchestrates it.”

“Will the Crown Prince really see it that way?” said Kim Min Jun with a smirk, turning around to walk away leaving Taeyeon there dumbfounded.

With Kim Min Jun’s brain, he wouldn’t be able to come up with a successful plan to overthrow the Crown Prince. Hyun will never let that happen. He’s always prepared.

With that thought, Taeyeon decided to go to the library instead to get her mind off things.

She was so into her book that she didn’t notice that someone had come into the library until that person took a seat in front of her. She looked up from her book and nearly jumped out of her seat when she saw the Crown Prince.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him, almost accusatory.

“Why can’t I be here? It is my library,” he replied.

Her eyes swiftly darted across his face and his upper torso for any evidence of his appearance outside earlier, but there were none. He surely cleaned up well before coming here. There were no traces at all.

“Did you just come back from visiting your father?” he asked her.

Taeyeon slowly closed her book before replying, “Yes.”

“Did you go anywhere else other than back home?”

She looked up at him, wondering if he’s trying to test her if she recognised him just now. 

A good lie lies in the details.

“Yes. I could finally leave the palace, so I went to visit the market for a short while. It was super crowded and I bought a pair of hairpins for Hui and I. Oh, and barely escaped death when a random guy held me hostage. But you don’t have to worry about me, luckily he was kind enough to let me go.”

Taeyeon let out a small breath after saying all of that in one go.

“He was kind enough to let you go?” he asked. Taeyeon spotted a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. Does he find this amusing?

“With some negotiations that were of course favorable to him.”

Taeyeon chewed on her lips, realizing that she was putting too much focus on that incident. She then decided to distract him by adding, “Well, it wasn’t easy. I got hurt when I fell down onto the ground.”

She hoped that Baekhyun would show some concern for her wound and forget about the lie she told earlier, but he simply disregarded that and started to flip open his own book to read.

Taeyeon awkwardly pulled back her hand and opened her book back up, hiding her face behind it to hide her embarrassment.

What the heck? I am his wife! How can he just ignore me like that?

She slowly moved the book lower so that only her eyes could be seen over the book and glared at him.

“And where did you go? Your Royal Highness,” she asked him back.

“Out,” he replied nonchalantly.

“Out, where?”

He finally looked up from his book to meet her eyes. “Outside the palace.”

“I see.”

“How was your father?” he asked her back, obviously trying to divert the attention away from himself.

Taeyeon decided to let it go and beamed a smile at him. “He’s recovering from it. So all is well.”

“Good to hear,” he replied, diverting his attention back to his book.

Taeyeon let out a small sigh. How can their conversations between husband and wife be so dry?

She decided to simply ignore it and read her book. But after a few minutes of reading, she realized that she had been stuck on the two pages she was on for too long. She found it hard to focus on the book because she kept looking up to check on him.

This book was a good book, but I can no longer move past two pages without getting distracted. It is time to change to a new one.

Taeyeon stood up and went to the shelves to find another book to read.

She went from shelf to shelf, and her eyes finally landed on a book that was placed on the top of the shelf. She reached up on her tippy toes to grab the book, the tip of her fingers briefly brushing across the spine of the book.

Taeyeon decided that she could simply jump up to grab it, so she bent her knees slightly and grabbed onto one of the shelves to give her a boost.

When she jumped up, she failed to grab the book and lost her balance by falling backwards.

But something blocked her from behind, saving her from the fall.

“Huh?” She spun around to see what was behind her and almost fell back again because her face was inches away from the Crown Prince’s face.

Thump* Thump* Thump*

Her heart started to thump so loudly she was afraid that he could hear her, but she could not look away from his eyes.

They were in such close proximity that she could feel his breath fanning down on her cheeks.

Thump* Thump* Thump*

Her heart thumped even louder when he came closer to her face, so she squeezed her eyes shut to avoid facing the inevitable.