***Basically another double update, so make sure you've read chapter 22 first!***

Realising that she might, just possibly, be a teeny-tiny bit attracted to the prince was nothing, Yeonhee discovered, compared to the trauma that meeting him again on Friday morning for more art lessons in that knowledge did to her poor heart.  It left her constantly on edge, so aware of every little movement he made and every little breath he took or smile he flashed in her direction that Yeonhee was convinced she was going to collapse from heart failure or because it would be too much for her body to handle when the adrenaline rush keeping her alert the entire time faded.

She also discovered within seconds of him greeting her that it had been a massive mistake to get him to stop calling her Miss Im, because it did not do her any good at all to hear her name in his cheerful voice.  A mere five minutes in and she was seriously regretting her life choices.

When she discovered that he’d spent most of the previous day practising his technique, she just about melted in a puddled of depressed goo at how hardworking and modest about everything he was.

“There wasn’t very much to do on the ward,” he said bashfully as he showed her the sketches he’d done, “and Mum spent most of the day talking to the doctors, so I thought I’d just. . . give some of the still life a go.”

There was still a fair amount he could do to improve, and Yeonhee definitely needed to teach him some more shading techniques and how to use a putty rubber and different pencil leads, but it was already a distinct improvement on the first day and she told him so with some surprise.  The smile she got in return made her want to jump off a cliff.

They’d met in a museum café this time, because the prince had said he didn’t want to draw any more salt cellars and Yeonhee wasn’t yet ready to move him on from still life.  Flowers were something he could do with working on, but he had plenty of those to practise on in the ward and so Yeonhee decided to leave that be to get him to draw some of the sculptures in the museum.  He’d thought it a fantastic idea when she suggested it, and Yeonhee had barely managed to finish the cake she was eating before he was dragging her off to see the museum’s chief curator to ask if they could be let into one of the private galleries so that they wouldn’t be disturbed.

From the way the man started when he first saw the prince approaching, though, Yeonhee also got the impression that it was because she’d been a bit thoughtless in terms of location and there was a fairly strong likelihood of him being recognised by the staff, if by nobody else.  She realised why when the curator took them through the halls to one of the permanent exhibitions which had been closed off for renovations and they went straight through a room with portraits of the royal family all over it.  There was a portrait of the prince from when he was ten that she tried not to stare at too openly (he had been adorable back then) and two or three more recent ones.  It was little things like this, though – quick, thoughtful changes, adapting a not-so-great idea but without a reprimand, or reaching for the door first to hold it open for her, or unconsciously walking on the traffic-side of the pavement – that made it so hard not to like him.  And that was before the big things, like going to a hospital manager and asking for a specific person to be evaluated for a health care fund he’d donated a huge sum to but requesting to remain anonymous.

The curator gave them both VIP passes so that they wouldn’t be questioned by any of the museum staff who happened to walk through and left them to it, apparently rather flattered that the prince wanted art lessons in his museum.

Yeonhee let him choose from the range of objects on display – all the cases had been shifted to one end of the room while part of the floor was repaired – and quickly chose herself the most complicated statue in the room to draw to keep herself occupied, because she was in serious danger of drawing another portrait of the prince.

Half an hour later, he interrupted her with a tap on the shoulder, and Yeonhee nearly fell off the chair she’d been sitting on.

“How’s this?” he asked, showing her a sketch of a bangle that looked to be about a thousand years old.  He appeared to have given up a bit with some of the filigree detail that surrounded the setting of the stone at its centre, but Yeonhee followed him back to the showcase to see what it was he’d been copying.

Except for the filigree detail, he’d chosen the easiest piece of jewellery in the case to sketch.  Yeonhee held the sketch up, moving it round to try to figure the exact angle he’d drawn it from, and then squinted closely at the way the light glinted off the ruby and took her putty rubber to the corner of it in the sketch to mimic the gleam.

“You’re going to have to teach me how to do that,” he said.  “I tried with the filigree but it sort of messed it up.”

“Have you tried using different pencil leads?” she asked him.  “It looks like you’ve done all of this in B.”

The prince looked a little sheepish.  “I wasn’t totally sure about it.”

Yeonhee chewed her tongue.  “Which pencils to use when will come with practice,” she said after a moment or two.  “You’d get the difference in materials a bit better if you’d done the ruby with a high H, maybe 6H or 7H, because it’s quite light and clear, and you could perhaps have got more contrast in the shadows on the silver with a trace or