***This is more or less a double update, so make sure you've read chapter 29 first or this won't make any sense!***

It wasn’t all that far to the palace, and Yeonhee was too rattled still to start up conversation, so they spent the rest of it in silence.  Shortly before they stopped, the car rolled to a halt outside some large black cast iron gates, and the chauffeur put down the window to greet the guard, who popped his head into the car to check that everything was in order and to get a look at the guest for security purposes.  He looked startled to see Yeonhee, but did no more than purse his lips and nod like he was still trying to register just who was sitting in the car before waving them on through.

After that, it was only one more minute of driving before the car stopped for good, and the chauffeur got out to open the doors for them.

Yeonhee had only ever seen the palace (without the gates in front of it) in photos and postcards before, all of which depicted it in daylight.  Close up, the building was taller and much more imposing than she’d expected, though that might have been in part because parts of it were thrown sharply into shadow by the carving on the stone and the way that the lamp light from the driveway fell on it.  The main part of the building was as old as the country, but it had been built on vast scale for its time and looked like it didn’t date back more than about eighty years.  The large windows were all shielded by closed curtains, though she didn’t get time to take in much more than that before the prince’s hand was in hers again and he was leading her towards a small doorway a little way around from the main doors.

The hallway they walked into was so normal and cosy that Yeonhee stopped in shock, wondering if they’d gone through a portal into a regular house rather than the palace.  The prince lobbed his coat at a coat stand and then helped her take hers off, smoothing out her hair once the hat was off too, and went to hang them up too.  There were a few chairs scattered about and a couple of tables with lamps on them that were still on, as well as a low coffee table that had magazines and newspapers on it.  A telephone sat beside one of the lamps and one of the walls was taken up by an array of framed photos, all of which, Yeonhee saw when she took a closer look, were family ones of the prince and his parents.

“Can I get you something to drink?” the prince asked.  The chauffeur and bodyguards seemed to have just melted away.  “Or maybe a snack?”

Yeonhee was still too busy staring around her.  Even the doorways were normal.

“This is so. . .”

“Ordinary?”  He laughed.  “Well, we’re in the home wing and a lot of this area is shared by the palace staff as well.  The fancy stuff is all in the centre wing and upstairs.  Come on, the kitchen’s through here.”

Yeonhee followed him through one of the doors to a very ordinary looking kitchen (if the brands of all the gadgets in it were ignored), and watched in fascination as he puttered about, throwing together some cheese toasties (there was actually a toastie machine – that was an instant plus) and then got them some cranberry juice from the fridge.  He leant against the counter by the toastie machine facing her as they waited for the cheese to melt, and Yeonhee settled herself uncertainly on one of the chairs at the kitchen table, trying to stop her hands shaking so that she could drink her juice.

“Um. . .”  There were so many questions she wanted to ask him, but she didn’t even know how to address him now.  Yixing just felt too personal and weird.  She didn’t even refer to him in her head as that.  It was always the prince.  Not even Prince Yixing.  It actually felt weird that he had a name.

He fidgeted a little as he waited for her to continue her train of thought, but Yeonhee chickened out and spent her attention on her juice instead.  It wasn’t until the toastie machine beeped to tell them that the food was ready that he spoke up.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

Yeonhee’s head snapped up.  It wasn’t like he needed permission to talk to her.  (Surely, if anything, it was the other way round?)

He seemed nervous, though, as though he was deliberately avoiding her eye as he eased the toasties out and onto a plate, and then put another pair of cheese sandwiches into the machine and closed the lid.

“Did you realise what date it was?” he asked.

Yeonhee shook her head.  He didn’t see, though, because he wasn’t looking at her, but while she was screwing up her courage to reply out loud, he continued.

“If I’d had my head screwed on straight, I would have planned something.  I feel like such an insensitive jerk.”

Yeonhee blinked at him.  He straightened up and looked over at her, and she hastily went back to her glass of juice for something to occupy herself instead of her blush and the screeching thought of planned something, not cancelled?  It was only when she raised the glass to her lips that she realised it was empty.

Yixing set the toasties down in front of her and refilled her glass.

“We’ll have to talk about this properly in the morning,” he said, “and we’ll also get an earful about it from my mum, Luhan and a few dozen other people, but. . .”

He tailed off, offering her one of the toasties and biting into the other himself.

“Thi