“. . . Has been photographed with what appears to be an engagement ring on the ring finger of her left hand.  The photos show that it is a cornflower sapphire set in silver surrounded by diamonds and it seems that Miss Im has been wearing it for several days already.  There have been no reports from either the palace or Miss Im that she and the prince have parted ways, though of course until the palace comments on the issue we cannot definitively say. . .”

“They’ve put you on prime time news?”  Yixing’s voice interrupted the news anchor and Yeonhee tilted her head back on the sofa to look at him.  He was pulling on his coat, Junmyeon hovering in the living room doorway.

“You’re going already?” Yeonhee asked in disappointment.  He’d come over for dinner with Yeonhee’s family and Yeonhee had hoped he’d at least have the time for a lazy evening if he wasn’t able to stay the night, but he seemed to be busier than ever now.  The election was just days away, and since the king was still in no condition to carry out almost all official functions, Yixing consequently had to handle the inauguration and opening of parliament, and inviting whoever the new prime minister would be to form a government and then to the palace.  Even though the documents were almost all prepared, he had to be present at the handover briefing meeting too to ensure that everything would go smoothly.

“Afraid so.”  He leant down to kiss her quickly.  “You’re coming over this weekend, aren’t you?”

“Mm.  Assuming I can get out of the house now everybody knows about this.”  She held up her left hand, and the engagement ring glinted in the light.

He smiled broadly.  “I’m surprised it took them so long to notice.”

The press and the country seemed not quite to know what to make of it all, and whether to pay more attention to the election in five days or to speculating about an upcoming royal wedding.  Once Luhan had confirmed on behalf of the palace on Friday morning that the prince had indeed proposed to Yeonhee, a very large number of questions on the televised debate between the three potentials for prime minister were about their opinions on the monarchy, on Yeonhee, on the monarchy and Yeonhee, and on what Yeonhee meant for the monarchy.  It gave Chenle’s donor, a man named Lee Shin, an unexpected last-minute boost in the polls, largely because of his enthusiasm.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he said, and he genuinely looked thrilled.  “This is what my entire platform is about: cooperation.  If our prince can convince a republican to marry him and she can happily say yes, we can all sure as hell find a way to get along – and to those of us who can’t: shame on you, I say.  Shame on you.  I mean, what a fantastic example they are to all of us.  We should all be having the conversations they had.”

Even a car bomb going off in a shopping mall car park didn’t stop his progress.  If anything, it seemed to spur people to vote for him, likely because everybody was so sick and tired of all the tensions and violence that had been plaguing the country recently.  Lee Shin sailed to a substantial victory in the constituency he was running in and his message obviously resonated enough with the country for almost all the people running with him to cross the line into representation, and the country woke up on Tuesday morning feeling a palpably different place.  As Sehun had predicted, Lee Shin’s party didn’t have enough people to form a majority, but they had racked up a significantly stronger minority than anybody had expected, and by the time the king (via Yixing) had extended an invitation to Lee Shin to form a government, the country didn’t seem to care, just so long as Lee Shin was the one sitting in the prime minister’s seat.

Thoroughly satisfied with his hard work, Sehun invited their friendship group out for dinner, plus Chenle, who he felt he couldn’t really leave out because he’d worked so hard to help the campaign.  Jongdae joined, which naturally meant that Minhee tipped up too as soon as she was able to, and the little gathering was soon ten.  Chenle was obviously very awkward about being there, unfamiliar with all their in-jokes even if he knew them a bit and was completely fluent in Hanmi, but he did make an effort to join in.

While they waited for the stragglers of the group to finish off their main course, he finally leapt on the chance to have a conversation that he wanted to have instead of trying to into their topics.

“Nice ring,” he told Yeonhee.  “What’s the story behind it?”

Flushing, Yeonhee looked down at the ring.  She’d got used to how it felt on her hand, but she still couldn’t get over how beautiful it was.  Yixing had means, and she got the feeling that he might have had some hand in designing it, but even if he hadn’t, it had to have been expensive.

“Yixing proposed during dinner a week or so back,” she said.

Sehun snorted, and Chenle sent a frown his way.

“Sorry.”  Looking thoroughly unapologetic, Sehun tried to hide his smirk in his glass of wine.  “You have no idea how much planning went into that.”

Yeonhee also frowned at him, but Minhee was nodding seriously and it looked like Jongdae was in on it too, because he relaxed back in his chair with his hands behind his head, his smirk full blown.

Noodles hanging out of his mouth, Baekhyun looked inquisitively between them.  “What’s the story, then?” he asked.

“The prince started planning it when he was in hospital,” Sehun divulged, looking thoroughly satisfied.  Chanyeol stopped talking to Mihae so that they could both listen, and Jongin and Kyungsoo also looked up from where they had been tapping out drum rhythms to a new song Jongin was composing.

“That long ago?” Baekhyun asked with surprise.  “I mean, it was obvious he wanted to, but d*mn, he waited quite a while after he decided, didn’t he?”

“Nearly dying tends to kick a rather brutal sense of perspective into you,” Jongdae said.

“He didn’t actually mention it until he was discharged,” Sehun went on, “but he said he didn’t want to lose one of the best things life had ever given him—” he tipped his glass in Yeonhee’s direction, “—and asked me how he thought you’d react if he proposed.  He agreed before graduation was a terrible idea, but that gave him plenty of time to plan things out.  A lot of work went into that besides the painting, Yeonhee.  A lot.”

“Well, he showed up on my doorstep shortly before graduation,” Minhee took over, “explained that Perfect Date picture and showed me a sketch of what he was planning to do, and then asked me if I could find out what size ring to get you.  He went over to our house to ask Dad’s permission while I took you out shopping.”

Yeonhee sat there, stunned.  “I thought he was over at yours to practice his graduation speech?”

“He only brought that up because he wanted to make sure it wouldn’t embarrass you too much if he mentioned you in it.”

“So many people would kill to be in your position,” said Chenle.

“They’d kill to get out of it once they were there,” Jongdae joked.  “The paparazzi now the election’s over have been like mosquitoes.  They just won’t go away.”

The paparazzi even managed to find Yeonhee’s grandmother, though to Yeonhee’s smug satisfaction they got nothing out of it because of the dementia.  She responded with her usual no-nonsense approach, and when Yeonhee visited a coupl