The prince’s bed curtains are pulled up tight around him and it takes a moment for Minjung to work up the courage to move them away. When they’re finally peeled back, she’s greeted by a somehow familiar back. Hot wax starts dripping onto her finger and she yelps. When the prince turns around, her heart drops. In front of her is the man she most and least wanted to see. He reaches out towards her and grabs the candle as it falls out of her hand. She flings herself back, almost falling onto her bed and nearly losing her grip on her blanket.

“Taemin?”

He smiles, sitting up properly to face her. “Yes, Minjung?”

“I thought...they said...but you...it can’t be you.” she stutters.

He pulls the string on his side and an unfamiliar servant knocks before entering.

“Yes, your highness?”

“Relight the lantern, so I may see my bride.” Taemin says, blowing out the candle in his hand.

The servant obliges before bowing and leaving again. There’s a strained silence between them for a long time.

“Are you happy it’s me?” Taemin asks.

Minjung stands and walks closer to his bed. Though her eyes know it’s Taemin, her mind has trouble believing it. She lifts a hand to his cheek, tracing the cut on his cheek. He smiles and she slaps his other cheek.

“For a month you made me think you didn’t want me. A month you let me sit and wait for you. All those times I told you I was frightened. Even when I tried to run away because I felt that I was torn between the man I’m contracted to marry and the man that sat in my garden with me. And none of those times you saw me, none of the stories I told you, none of those whispered fears made you think ‘ahh I should reveal myself’? What kind of monster am I engaged to?”

Minjung can feel herself starting to cry but she’s too angry to care. She bats away Taemin’s hands when they try to wipe her cheek and moves back to sit on her bed. He lets her cry for a while on her own. When she quiets down, he moves to kneel down in front of her. He reaches for her hands and she allows him one.

“I know I’ve been...to put to shortly I’ve been cruel. That’s how my mother put it when I asked for this arrangement. But I...wanted to know you. Not as Princess Minjung, not as my treaty bride, but simply as Minjung. Tell me, if I had presented myself to you as 8th prince from the first day, would you have told me so many things? Would you have told me that you don’t like yellow or that Yunho is your brother or that you were afraid of me?”

Minjung shakes her head.

“I wanted to see what you would do. If you would wait that long or if you would simply demand to see me. I’m sorry I caused you so much pain, Minjung. When you tried to run, I knew it had gone on too long. I thought...I was going to tell you then, when we were standing at the road. I thought by then you’d know that it was me all along. But when you confessed first, I felt so sorry. I lost my nerve. And Gwiboon and Kai had to keep up the charade.” Taemin holds a hand up to Minjung’s bruised cheek. “I didn’t know she would hit you. I’m so sorry, my princess.”

Minjung lifts a hand to cover Taemin’s. After a moment, he pulls away and bows with his head to the floor.

“Can you forgive this foolish heart, Minjung?”

“On one condition.”

Taemin sits back up, eyes full of nervous curiosity.

“Never lie to me like this again.”

He laughs and takes her hands into his own. “I swear on my life that I won’t.”

There’s a weird silence after and Taemin stands. He walks over to the table and from the middle of the pile, he pulls a nightgown out which he hands to her.

“I...I’m not really ready to actually....to see you yet. But I wanted to see if you would go through with my wishes even in the face of me having potentially sent myself away.”

She slips the nightgown on when he turns away from her.

“May I....might I sit with you? On your bed?”

“Isn’t that your right as prince?”

“It is, but that doesn’t mean you want me to.”

She nods and moves the blanket out of the way. He sits next to her, angling to face her better. He rests her chin on his finger, tracing her lips with his thumb.

“You’re so lovely, Minjung. I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long, but I know I don’t deserve even your glances.”

Minjung looks at the floor, feeling her cheeks flush.

“Starting tomorrow, if it’s alright, I’m going to stop being a coward and start acting as your husband-to-be.  I know I have no right to ask, but it would bring me the greatest happiness if you would wear the gifts I gave you that I asked you to save for me.”

She nods then kisses him before she fully realizing what she’s doing. It’s an electric feeling but it’s immediately clouded by shyness and she pulls away quickly. There’s a dumb grin on Taemin’s face and he moves forward to kiss her once, twice, thrice more.

“I’m not...we’re not...let’s not, tonight. We’ll be married soon so let’s save this for then.”

“Shall we go to sleep then?”

“It’d probably be best.”

“Do...would you...would you like to sleep in my bed?”

Taemin stands, obviously not having anticipated the question. He walks over to his bed and grabs his blanket before heading towards the long table. Minjung gets herself comfortable as he blows out the light. She thinks he might go back to his own bed but her worry is cleared when she feels he bed dip with his weight. It odd, having someone next to her, but as they get comfortable back to back, she thinks she could -- eventually -- get used to it.

*

Taemin’s already left when Minjung wakes up. By the light of coming in, she can tell that it’s close to noon and she’s surprised that no one has come to wake her. She knocks on the door and Soojung opens it.

“Is everything alright?” Minjung asks.

“Yes, princess. 8th prince gave instruction that you were to be allowed to sleep as long as you like, since you had to sleep outside the other night.”

A bell is rung and Gwiboon comes down the hallway.

“Somehow I knew you were going to discover him before he revealed himself.” She says, getting down on her knees and bows. “Please forgive me for the things I did in the name of his charade.”

“I forgive you, Gwiboon. I know it wasn’t your choice.”

Gwiboon stands, a fond and sorry smile on her face. They make their way to her dressing room, where the blue gown and other gifts are waiting. It doesn’t take long for Gwiboon to arrange everything. For the first time since she came to the palace, she feels properly pretty.

“Prince Taemin’s waiting for you in his chambers. Kai will come for you shortly. You’ll have your meal there, princess.”

As if on cue, there’s a knock on the door and Kai peeks in.

“Taemin is ready when you are, princess.”

Minjung nods and takes Kai’s arm as he leads her out and around. When he opens the door to Taemin’s wing, she’s nervous. Though she knows it’s just Taemin waiting for her, the knowledge of his actual position weighs heavy on her mind. They walk down two hallways until they reach a large room. Taemin’s waiting inside, surrounded by food. He’s dressed differently today: his hair hangs freely around his face unlike the top knot he wore before, his sash is much more elaborately decorated, and he wears a variety of thin gold jewelry including a thin circlet on his head. When Kai knocks, Taemin stands, bright smile on his face.

“The princess has come, sir.”

“Kai, I’ve told you before you can use plain names here.” Taemin gently scolds.

They both laugh.

“Yes, Taemin, but what happens when we go to the main palace? Your father loves me but he would have my head for announcing that Taemin has arrived to the royal wedding.”

“Fair enough. Even though you’re supposed to stand menacingly in the doorway to protect me, I’d like to spend some time alone with my bride. Sohee is in your chamber, along with some breakfast for you. She wants to discuss the trip with you. Or something like that.”

Kai nods to Taemin, bows to Minjung, then ducks of out of the room. They stand there for a moment, examining each other. Though all the changes in his look are minor, there’s no doubt that he seems properly prince-like now. A grin slowly spreads across Taemin’s face as he looks at her. He steps forward and takes both of her hands into his own, leaning forward to kiss her cheek.

“You look more beautiful than I had imagined.” he says before kissing the other cheek.

She feels herself blush as Taemin leads her to where all the food has been set out. They sit across from each other and begin eating in silence, each stealing glances at the other and doing their best to bump hands as they reach for more.

“Minjung,” Taemin starts, seemingly unsure of himself. “If...if I wanted to call you something, like a nickname, would that be alright with you? It would only be for when it’s just you and I.”

“Depending on the name, I would be fine with that.”

“What...what about ‘my lily’? Would that be agreeable?” Taemin asks, taking her free hand into his own.

“Yes...that would be agreeable.”

Minjung feels herself blushing again. The rest of the meal passes in comfortable silence.

“I...I want to show you something.” Taemin says suddenly, standing.

He holds out a hand to help Minjung up, then leads her through a hallway into another room. The only furniture inside is a large writing desk, but two of the walls are covered in paintings. Taemin gestures for her to look at them and upon closer inspection she realizes that they’re her own. She glances back at him to find him beaming once again.

“You kept them!”

“Of course I kept them! Why wouldn’t I keep gifts from my wife?”

Minjung turns away shyly and looks through her paintings.

“They cheer me up when I have to attend to business or continue lessons. The only problem is, I only have enough to cover these two walls. I know you’ve painted everything in your garden but I’m greedy for you work. Do you think you could paint some of mine?”

“You have a garden?”

“Of course I do, my lily. Come on, I’ll show you and we can talk there.”

He takes her hand once more and they make their way outside through a side door. His garden is very much like her own, though it’s filled with more trees than proper flowers. She recognizes dogwood and magnolia and peach trees at the front; the further back into the garden, the more unfamiliar the trees.

“My father planted these many years ago. There’s a tree for every son and a flowering bush for every daughter. It’s surprising there’s still room to walk around, considering how many of us there are.”

“It’s surprising there are enough nobility for you all to be married.”

Taemin laughs. “That’s fair. Luckily for me, I got the best pick of them all.”

“I’m a treaty bride, how could you pick me? It’s not like you went to a market and picked me from a bunch.”

Taemin sits down on a bench.

“I lived with my brother and your sister for a while. All of the princes go through a double education; there’s a political and philosophical education, by private tutors, and then there’s training at the royal guard academy. I know it’s hard to hear about her, but our sister...your sister...she always spoke so sweetly of you. No matter what was happening, she always had some little story of you that she could relate it to. I saw how happy their marriage was and thought that if I met you, maybe we could have that too. I had finished my training a week before she passed. I was being sent home and happened to travel with Yunho. I asked him about you, and he had new stories for me. Anytime he came to visit, he would tell me something new. And over time, I fell in love with the idea of you. Yunho and other people from your kingdom, they always talked about how you’re lovelier than Minji. She was the most beautiful woman I’d seen up to that point and couldn’t fathom how someone could be more than her. Technically, you should’ve been betrothed to 7th prince. He’s still unmarried but he has a sour, sour temperament and I...we knew you’d be unhappy with him. With Yunho’s help, I petitioned my father to let me marry you instead.”

“Am I lovelier than my sister?”

“If I hadn’t already been in love with the idea of you, I was sold from the moment you looked at me and expressed your disdain for me.”

Minjung blushes, feeling both elated and embarrassed.

“Anything else, my lily?”

“When you were gone away, with Kai, on that mission, who...who slept in your bed? I might’ve figured out it was you had there been an empty bed.”

“Ahh, I did that to throw you off. It was Sohee. She’s the only person my size. I really had you fooled, didn’t I?”

Minjung nods and he kisses her cheek.

“Did you expect it to be me? Had you figured it out that it was me, by the end?”

“I...I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have tried to run if I had known. But I hoped it was you. From the day Yunho visited, I had hoped it was you.”

Taemin looks pleased with himself and Minjung can’t help but laugh at him. They go quiet after a few moments, simply enjoying each others’ company.

“When we’re married, after the ceremony and everything finishes, we’ll be able to pick which palace we live in. This one is the smallest, but there’s four others we could choose from. I think mother and father intend for us to spend some time at each to get a feeling for them and for the different parts of the kingdom, since they’re in different provinces.”

“Which palace do you like best?”

Taemin looks down shyly. “I like this palace the most, it’s why I had you brought here. Plus, then we’d be close to your kingdom, you could go see your family on occasion. And-”

His sentiment is cut off by knocking behind them. Kai is standing in the doorway.

“I hate to interrupt your romantic moment, but your dinner is ready if you’ll come in for it.”

Dinner passes quickly, most of it spent laughing at Kai and Taemin’s banter. Afterwards they separate briefly before reuniting in their bedchamber. They sleep facing towards each other, Minjung drifting off listening to Taemin’s description of the main palace.

***

“It’s hard to believe that you two have lived here for five years now.” Yunho says with a sigh. “It feels like only yesterday I brought you here in tears and now look at you. A happy wife, mother of a healthy little prince; you’ve even managed to move up in line to be queen.”

Minjung sets her bowl down, looking out into the garden where Taemin is running around with their toddler son Jungwoo.

“I just got lucky.” she says softly.

“A sweet husband, an easy pregnancy, all three of you surviving the plague, and on top of all that Taemin being bumped up to 2nd in line to the throne? I don’t know if lucky is strong enough of a word!”

Minjung laughs gently. She glances outside when she hears a yelp but is relieved to see it’s just Taemin pretending to be hurt by Jungwoo’s tiny fake sword. Now that he’s big enough to properly hold his sword up, Taemin and Kai had been intent on teaching the 4th in line how to defend himself.

“You know, I was really worried that I was going to have to bring you home at the end of your engagement. But look at you now.” Yunho says, grabbing another piece of fruit of out of his bowl.

“It’s amazing how a few small vows can change life so much,” Minjung says with a smile. They finish eating and decide to join Taemin and Jungwoo out in the garden. It takes Minjung a while to stand, having to ask Yunho for help in the end.

“When’s the new baby due?” Yunho asks, putting his hand on Minjung’s swollen belly.

“One month from now. During the winter.”

It takes Jungwoo a few moments to realize that Minjung and Yunho have arrived outside, but once he has he runs as fast as his little legs will go.

“Mama! Mama!” he calls, clinging to Minjung’s dress.

“Yes, my little prince?”

“Up!”

He reaches his hands up, expecting her to bend down to pick him up. However, she’s too far in the pregnancy to oblige him. Noticing the impending fit, Taemin walks over and puts Jungwoo up on his shoulders. He bends at the knees so that Minjung can give Jungwoo the kiss he wants. He keeps reaching towards Minjung so she holds his little hand in her own.

“Well, I think it’s time for me to continue my journey.” Yunho says after a while.

The three follow him out to the courtyard where his carriage is waiting. As they wave goodbye, Minjung reflects on the way that one month of fear led her to a life of happiness. Taemin sets Jungwoo down on his feet and they watch him run in the direction of the gate where Kai is coming in. Taemin takes her hand as they follow behind, still as much in love as they were on their wedding day.