Chapter 21: Visits & Curiosity

(Play this while reading. It fits the mood better. ^^)

Dongil was ordered to keep Jooyang company while flying his brother’s kite. Myungseok and Eunpil returned back to the wheat farm to finish the last half of the work as Hwayang told them to. They were all confused as to why they were all requested to leave, but they weren’t going to question it. At least not yet.

Hwayang and Yeonhwa walked together on the pathway until they were by a huge tree, where there was a swing attached to one of the old branches above. They didn’t say anything to each other, but their hearts were pounding like drums. As they came to a stop by the tree, Hwayang leaned against it and turned to look at Yeonhwa, but her eyes were elsewhere.

He lowered his head a bit to search for orbs, but she kept turning away. Her cute actions only made him suppress a chuckle that wanted to escape.

“Yeonhwa,” he called out her name.

Immediately, her face already flushed pinkly, and her heart raced inhumanly.

“Are you trying to avoid me?”

“Uhm…,” Yeonhwa slurred. “N-No.”

Hwayang smirked warmly, knowing that she was lying. “Then, why won’t you look at me?”

Sighing deeply, Yeonhwa bravely turned to find his eyes. But she didn’t say anything else.

“What? You’re not going to say anything now?”

“Well, what is there to say? Or speak about?” Yeonhwa quietly said.

Hwayang bit back the smile that threatened to pull his lips off his face. With Yeonhwa acting so stammered and nervous right now, she couldn’t be more adorable in his eyes. Rising up from the big tree, he slowly approached her. “How about you tell me why you’re here?” He didn’t mean that in a harmful way, but he was curious. Although he had an idea why, he still wanted to hear it from her.

Until he was literally in front of her with not much spaces left between their feet, Yeonhwa kept her eyes on him. She could perfectly see his handsome features up close. Trailing down from his eyes to his nose, then to his lips, she gasped so quietly that even an ant could hear. As she gazed into his brown orbs again, she paused for just a few seconds before she turned her back to him.

“Honestly,” she said, walking to the swing. “I came to see you…”

As she sat in the small ride tied to the tree, Hwayang smiled heavenly. “Is that so?” he replied, slowly walking up behind her.

Wrapping her small, delicate hands around the two ropes, Yeonhwa weakly kicked the ground to make the swing rock slowly. “Yeah. But I stumbled upon a little boy.” A smile formed on her lips, thinking about Jooyang and his cuteness. “I never thought that he would be your younger brother, though.”

Feeling a pair of warm, big hands covering hers on the ropes, a small gasp breathed out of her.

“Well,” Hwayang said, lightly pushing her more on the swing while gently holding her hands. “I kind of wished to introduce you guys more properly, but now I don’t really have to because that’s all taken care of. Thank you, though. For finding him.”

As much Yeonhwa wanted to hear him keep talking, she couldn’t with him holding her hands. Especially since he was close behind her. She couldn’t control her heart from exploding any second now. But she wanted to keep the conversation going, too. “So why was Jooyang out all by himself?” she asked.

Hwayang sighed inwardly. “Firstly, he wasn’t even supposed to be out this far away from the farm,” he said. “Secondly, he must had left to make me that kite after helping out with the work we we had.”

A sudden chuckle escaped Yeonhwa. “He must have been bored.”

“Maybe. But either way, I don’t think I would have been mad at him.”

“Why not? Because he’s your little brother?”

Yeonhwa heard him smile. “Yeah, you can say that. Also because I love him too much to be angry at him for something he doesn’t usually do.”

Yeonhwa grinned happily. “He’s very lucky to have an older brother like you, then.”

Hwayang smiled even wider as he decided to a bit. “How is he lucky?”

Yeonhwa pouted and raised her head a little as if she was thinking. “Well, to begin with, you’re very kind.”

“What else?”

“You’re always there for him. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m sure you are.”

“And?”

Yeonhwa was starting to blush again. “You’re very hardworking.”

Hwayang slowed down the swing. “And?”

Yeonhwa gulped nervously. “I assume you always make him happy.”

Hwayang’s voice dropped more lowly, but warmly. “And?”

Yeonhwa gasped shortly as she could feel him lowering his head down to the side of hers. As she could hear his deep, manly voice in her ears. “And…” She slowly turned her head to him. She held her breath again as she came face to face with him. Their noses touched so lightly, and their eyes were trailing to all of their lovely features. “Because you love him.”

Hwayang breathed in slowly, taking in her beautiful view of her flawless face. He wanted to scream so badly right now because he still found it hard to believe that the Crown Princess was right here in his arms.  But he felt that it was a fortunate thing, too.

“I guess Jooyang is very lucky to have me as an older brother,” he gently whispered.

Yeonhwa blinked softly, listening to his words.

“But you know what?” He leaned his forehead close to hers. “I’m also lucky.”

A smiling sound projected from Yeonhwa. “For what?” she asked.

Taking one hand off of her own from holding the rope, he brought it down to hold her face. Yeonhwa flinched a bit at the sudden touch, but she quickly adjusted to it once she realized she missed his warmth. Leaning into it, she brought one of her hands and held onto his on her cheek.

Hwayang leaned in much closer than before until their lips were just teasingly brushing each other. “For being the owner of Princess Yeonhwa’s heart.” Then, he sealed his words with a longing kiss as they both closed their eyes.

Yeonhwa breathed in heavily as she responded to the kiss. She missed it so much. She missed him so much. Though it was just about two days since their confession, she still longed for him. For a moment, she felt as if they were back at the Flower Palace and in her library room again. Alone. In the dark. With no one to see or witness two people of different classes being together. She felt as if she was sharing her first kiss again.

Hwayang moved his lips more as he caressed the soft face of hers. He could taste the familiar cherry flavor on her thin lips. He missed it just as much as he missed her.

When the two needed to breathe again, they pulled away. Slowly catching their breaths, they gazed into each other’s eyes again. A smile formed on Hwayang’s face, and that only made Yeonhwa return the same gesture.

“What a visit, huh?” Hwayang said softly.

Eunpil sighed for the tenth time now. And it was always so heavy and deep. Myungseok knew exactly why she was sulking, but he couldn’t stand listening to her breathe so madly anymore. Dropping the final stack of hay onto the wooden wheelbarrow, he looked at her.

“Will you stop that?” he asked impatiently. “You’ve been sighing for the past fifteen minutes now ever since we got back.”

Eunpil turned and glared at him while placing her hands on her lips. “Myungseok-ah,” she said. “Who were those two people we met before, huh? More importantly, who was that girl? Why did Hwayang want us to leave so quickly?”

“Aish.” Myungseok clicked his tongue. “Maybe he just wants to thank them properly for finding Jooyang.” Honestly, that wasn’t at all what he thought. What he knew? That was what mattered.

When he and Eunpil arrived at the scene, immediately, he recognized the beautiful girl in the gorgeous, rich hanbok and knew it was Yeonhwa. It was completely obvious to him that Hwayang wanted them to leave, so he could have some alone time to talk to her. But Myungseok couldn’t tell Eunpil anything yet. Not without Hwayang’s permission and certainly not at the time.

“If he just