Yeonhee spent the weekend at the hospital staying in the spare room on the ward.  Baekhyun dropped by for a couple of hours on the Saturday and brought over Yeonhee’s phone charger and her paints and half-finished spring flowers painting.  He sat with Yeonhee as she painted by her sleeping grandmother’s bedside, asking for tips on radio, TV and newspaper interviews because distribution dates for the album had been finalised and The Rolls were going to be entering a promotional period.  Minhee was able to spent the mornings with her and her parents the afternoons, but their grandmother was still sleeping off the effects of the surgery and was disoriented from the medication for the few hours that she was awake.

Jongin popped by on Sunday afternoon and dragged her out of the ward to visit his newborn cousin.  Yeonhee wasn’t sure if he’d heard from Baekhyun or Minseok exactly where in the hospital she was, but she was grateful for the break.  The baby was lively and already loud, grabbing onto things and gurgling or screaming.  Both parents were already wrapped around its little finger, which Yeonhee found hilarious to watch.  Minseok’s wife had the same sense of humour as Minseok and seemed to regard Jongin as a surrogate little brother.  She was already fed up at the length of time she’d been in hospital and eager to escape back out into the world, but there had been a couple of minor complications with the birth and so the doctors had insisted she stay for a week or so in order to be able to monitor her.

Yixing largely kept away, in part because he felt she needed space and in part because he needed to work, but also because he was nervous about bumping into her family again.

“Your father was judging me,” he told her when he rang on the Saturday evening.  “I could see it in his eyes the entire time he was there and I’m not ready for more of that yet.”

He did stop by on Sunday evening just a couple of hours after Yeonhee’s parents had finalised arrangements to move her grandmother back to St Gavin’s the next morning.  Yeonhee’s grandmother had already fallen asleep after an early dinner, and so Yixing coaxed Yeonhee out into the living room, where he put on some music quietly on his phone and started teaching her the steps to the foxtrot.  She got the hang of it much quicker than either of them had anticipated, and so he upgraded to quickstep.

“Are you going back to university tonight or tomorrow?” he asked as they swept around the room.  Yeonhee had to concentrate very hard not to mess up and tread on his feet as she replied.

“Tomorrow.  I’m helping Grandma transfer back to St Gavin’s first.”

He pouted a little, turning them both sharply so she didn’t collide with the door.

“I could have given you a lift back if you’d gone tonight.”

He tried to get her to do the mazurka again once he was satisfied she had the quickstep under her belt, but Yeonhee put her feet wrong somewhere and tripped them both up.

“Maybe,” he said, chest heaving as he lay on the floor under her, “you should just sit the mazurkas out.”

Yeonhee sat up on his legs.  “Will there be lots of them?”

“Five or six, usually, plus a couple of polka-mazurkas.  You might want to sit them out too.”  He attempted to wriggle his legs free.

“How long is this ball?”

“Starts at six, ends at midnight.  We get fed endless canapés, but you’ll probably be hungry by the time it’s over so we’ll grab something back at mine after.”  He tried and failed to get his legs free again.  “Can you let me up?”

To Yeonhee’s disappointment, he had to go not long after that.

The rest of the week went a bit too quickly for Yeonhee’s liking.  She arrived back at the university on Monday afternoon to find a bouquet of flowers outside her room, with a note that read Dear Yeonhee, I hope things get better soon.  After a couple of moments’ contemplation, she rang Chen.  He promised to come over and give the place a quick sweep while she revised in the library with Baekhyun and Jongin for a test that they had on Wednesday, but said he thought it was probably the harmless of the two anonymous donors and that she likely had nothing to worry about.  Sure enough, she was given the all-clear that evening.

Classes and revision on Tuesday were punctuated by Jongin cooing over new photos of Minseok’s daughter, and once the test was out of the way on Wednesday, Yeonhee crashed early for the night.  It wasn’t until Thursday evening that she had the time to go to the palace that week.  The queen was out at a charity function and the prince was actually supposed to be finalising a schedule for two weekends away when senior army officials were invited to the palace for awards and a sumptuous dinner, but he was happy to put it aside to spend time with Yeonhee.

They went back through all the dances that she could actually do before he put her through a polka-schnelle.  Yeonhee was absolutely thrilled that she got it more or less right the first time she tried it, and he rewarded her with a little kiss to her forehead that sent warmth tingling through her.  The redowa was thankfully simple enough for her to get the hang of pretty quickly, and he then walked her through as much of the polonaise as he could without there being more people.

“Just pay attention on the night to what’s going on around you,” he said.  “Follow the lead of the person in front of you and maybe look it up on youtube.  Oh, that reminds me, we always start off with a promenade.  That’s super easy, though, I can talk you through it as we actually go round on the night.”

Yeonhee thought that she was still capable of messing up both the polonaise and the promenade regardless, but she didn’t say so.  He handed her a bottle of water as they took a quick breather, and then started searching for more music on his phone.

“Right,” he said, hitting play.  “Time to teach you how to jive.”

It was very different to the other dancing he’d taught her, and it was extremely fun.  Yeonhee was also horrible at it.  They both ended up on the floor in a fit of giggles about twenty minutes later after she tripped over nothing and sent them flying, but persistence won out with the jive where it hadn’t with the mazurka, and by the time they wound up for the evening, she was able to sustain a good five or six minutes of simple to moderately complex moves at the right tempo without getting too much wrong.  After a luxurious soak in the bath, Yeonhee tumbled into bed and slept a solid eight hours.

It wasn’t until she was back at university on Friday morning that she realised Yixing had said nothing more about the dress, not even asking her size, and that she had no idea whether or not he even remembered he was supposed to be providing it.  In a bit of a panic, she took the bus into town that afternoon and spent a few hours hovering in shops that sold ball gowns, but she wasn’t totally sure what the best kind of dress for dancing in would be, or what colours she ought to go for, and all of them were hideously expensive.  She did try on one or two, but that only depressed her further because nothing seemed to fit her correctly.  That was the trouble about buying that kind of dress: you wanted something that would show you off, but unless you were exceptionally lucky, you were unlikely to find it in a shop without spending even more money getting it tailored to you, and that meant that hiring a dress rather than buying one was out.  Finally, in a state of absolute anxiety, she sent a text off to the prince asking what she was supposed to be wearing the next day.

The reply did assuage her fears a little.

From: Private number, 18.18

You’ll see when you get here tomorrow afternoon.  Make sure you arrive before three!

Another thought hit her.

To: Private number, 18.19

What about shoes?

And hair.

And jewellery.

From: Private number, 18.20

Just wear your comfortable everyday shoes.  The rest of it is all sorted.

Yeonhee looked down at her everyday shoes, with their scuffed toes.  It was true they were comfortable, and that she’d been learning to dance in them, but they were not elegant.  She decided to bring a nicer pair with her just in case.

By Saturday lunchtime, she felt like throwing up.  Jongin and Baekhyun both knew about the ball and had been pestering her about what she was going to wear and how she was going to keep herself secret, and she honestly wanted to smack their heads together and throw them out of the window.  They did at least shut up when Chanyeol and Kyungsoo invited themselves into her room, excitedly looking through a prototype copy of their album booklets, which they’d wanted to show off to her because of the artwork she’d done.  It took her mind off things a little as she inspected the work of the printer, which was extremely high quality, and she allowed herself to be distracted by the four boys telling her all about their promotional programme.

Junmyeon rang her at ten to two to remind her that he was picking her up from in front of the dorms on the hour and that she needed to pack clothes for the night, since it was likely the media would follow her and Yixing back from the ball in an attempt to discover who she was.  Staying over at the palace again was vastly preferable.

Kicking the boys out, she hastily threw a backpack together, grabbed her smartest coat and three pairs of smart shoes because she had no idea what would look best with what she was going to wear, and then threw in a strapless bra for good measure.  She was almost out of the door before she remembered hairbrush and makeup, and Baekhyun let himself back in as she doubled back for them.

He picked up her backpack as she hastily threw her cosmetics into a sponge bag.

“I’ll walk you down to the car,” he said.  “Have fun tonight, yeah?  I have no idea how to dance, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself.  Just be careful and don’t let anyone catch you.”

Handle of her hairbrush gripped between her teeth, Yeonhee ped the backpack he was holding up to shove the sponge bag into it.  He rescued the hairbrush and chucked that in as well.

“Calm down,” he told her, amused, as he shoved her out of the door.  They paused long enough for her to lock it.

“Baek,” she said as they started down the stairs, “it’s going to be an absolute disaster.  I really can’t dance.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he said airily.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve managed to trip him up by treading on my own feet.”

“You’ll be fine,” he repeated.  “I have the utmost confidence in you.”

Junmyeon was waiting outside the building in a nondescript car, for which Yeonhee was grateful as her nerves were bad enough without the reminder that her date to the biggest ball in the country was the prince.

“I want photos,” Baekhyun told her as he bundled her into the car and popped the backpack onto her lap.  “They are a required part of our friendship.”

“Nervous?” Junmyeon asked, glancing at her in the mirror as he pulled away from the building.  Yeonhee nodded.

“You’ll have a lot of attention on you tonight,” he told her.  “Does your family know?”

Yeonhee shook her head.

“You might want to tell them,” he told her.  “It’s a red carpet event because of his highness and a number of celebrities that attend, so some of it will be covered on the TV stations tonight, and they might want to tune in because I think it’s going to be rather special.”

That just made Yeonhee feel even more nervous.

“I’m sure his highness will give you a full briefing before you actually go,” he added.  “The full team of us except Minseok will be there tonight as well in case there’s any trouble, so don’t think twice about approaching one of us if you need anything.”

Yeonhee fidgeted with one of the backpack zips.  “Where’s Minseok?”

“Paternity leave for the rest of the month.  He could have taken longer, but apparently he wants the rest of it next year to help his wife when maternity leave  ends for her.”

The baby, Joohyun, was a much easier topic for Yeonhee’s frazzled mind, and so she stuck to that for the remainder of the journey to the palace.

Yixing was waiting to greet her on the front steps, and the second Yeonhee saw him, the butterflies returned.

“We have just over two and a half hours,” he informed her, taking her backpack an