Three months had passed and Jinhee was starting to notice a change in her body since she had begun practicing with Jongin everyday. She looked at herself in the mirror and traced her fingers over her upper arms, tracing the lines of the muscles that were developing all along her arms. She lifted her sleeping gown and looked at the solid lines forming into abs. All of her life she had been tiny with a round face but now she was more fit than most woman she had ever known. It wasn't traditionally beautiful for a woman to be muscular but since she had been training, Jongin hadn't been able to keep his hands off of her and Jinhee wasn't about to complain.

 

She got dressed for the day and went out for breakfast where most of the royal family was already eating. Jinhee took her seat between Baekhyun and Jongin and looked at the chair at the head of the table that used to be Suho's spot. It had been a long time since she had seen him, but everyday they still set a place for him and the food would go to waste when he would never show up. The passing of his wife had completely broken his spirit and Jinhee couldn't blame him. She looked over to Jongin who was engrossed with his food and shoveling it into his mouth with a great speed. He looked over at her plate and saw that Jinhee had put some savory pancakes onto it and without hesitation he reached over with his chopsticks and pulled them off of her plate. Jinhee shot him a glance but he couldn't defend himself because his mouth was so full of food so when she reached to put more on the plate he grabbed her hand and stopped her. He forced himself to swallow which looked fairly painful since all of the food hadn't been chewed.

 

"Seafood pancakes." He choked out and Jinhee thanked him and picked at the other food. She loved that he remembered things like that and helped her along little by little.

 

"You don't like seafood? Why not, you sound picky." Baekhyun joked and grabbed the whole platter of pancakes and loaded them onto his plate since his sister-in-law wasn't going to be eating it.

 

"She's allergic." Jongin gruffly said before excusing himself and standing up from the table. He placed his hand on Jinhee's shoulder before walking out of the room to leave her with Baekhyun and Kyungsoo.

 

"Prince Kyungsoo?" Jinhee called out and the prince looked up from the book he was reading. "I was wondering if you could recommend any medical books to me, Prince Jongin is constantly injured from all of his training that I was hoping I could find a way to ease his pain." Jinhee watched as the prince's expression changed from excitement to mild disinterest.

 

"Sure I know a couple, I can show you after breakfast." Kyungsoo went back to reading his book and Baekhyun laughed and nudged Jinhee.

 

"Oh~ How do you know my brother is covered in injuries? Naughty woman." Baekhyun wriggled his eyebrows and Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.

 

"You do know that we're husband and wife...right? It would be odd if I didn't." Jinhee commented and that just made Bakehyun blush and laugh even harder. She was glad they could talk more comfortably than before and that they seemed to accept her into the family. If Jinhee thought really hard, she could remember little glimpses of her life before marrying Jongin but it all seemed like blur to her now. So much had happened that it was weird to think of herself as anything other than his wife. Once Kyungsoo was finished eating, the two of them headed to the library in silence. The library was large and covered from floor to ceiling with books and scrolls that went back to before the palace was even created. Jinhee remembered when she was first coming into the family and how she would spend hours sitting in here, learning every member of the royal family and all of the branches of their family tree going back to the creation of time it seemed. Kyungsoo easily pulled out three or four books and placed them down at the table and he pulled out a seat for Jinhee which she graciously took. He sat down beside her and started flipping through the pages.

 

"Is there anything you're specifically looking for? Bruises, scrapes, cuts, bumps?" Kyungsoo was so comfortable in his own element that Jinhee felt bad that he was being forced to be someone he never was meant to be.

 

"Bruises mostly, he has a lot on his ribs lately. He's been practicing one handed sword fighting." Jinhee commented and Kyungsoo laid a book out in front of her and pointed to a specific paragraph that she instantly started reading. Kyungsoo watched her as she soaked up as much knowledge as she could and his heart fluttered. Why couldn't she be his wife, he was the second born son but he was skipped in favour of his brutish brother who he knew must have been treating Jinhee poorly. A strand of her hair fell from place and he raised his hand and without realizing that anything could be wrong with it, he brushed the hair behind her ear and Jinhee snapped her head from the book and looked Kyungsoo square in the eyes.

 

"W-What are you doing?" Jinhee was not okay with other people touching her, with her husband being the exception.

 

"I'm sorry it's just..." Kyungsoo stared at his hand, wondering why he wasn't able to control himself around this woman. No one else had ever been able to tempt him the way she could. There was something about the way she carried herself and how her smile could light up a whole room. Her floral scent haunted his dreams and kept him up at night wondering if she could ever truly be his. Just a week before his mother told him that the plans were in motion for him to be king and that he would have to leave that day but the thought of leaving innocent Jinhee behind broke his heart. He grabbed her hands and held them in his and Jinhee was too shocked to say or do anything.

 

"Run away with me." He blurted out and Jinhee stared at him as if he had two heads. She had no idea where all of this was suddenly coming from, especially from her brother-in-law who always seemed so calm and composed. "We can leave tonight. We could run away so far that no one would be able to find us. Just you and me, together." Kyungsoo had a crazed look in his eyes and it scared Jinhee. She ripped her hands away from him and stood from her chair so quickly that it got knocked over.

 

"I don't know what's wrong with you Prince Kyungsoo but I love my husband very much and I do not hold those feelings for you in the slightest. Now I am going to ask you to never ask that of me again." Jinhee grabbed the book with a shaking hand and stormed out of the library. For a moment she thought that he might attack her the same way Chanyeol did but when she stole a quick glance back at him as she closed the door, he was sitting there with his head down in defeat. She went back to her room to drop off the book but she was so shaken by Kyungsoo's sudden confession that she decided to walk the grounds to work off some energy. When he heard the library door close, Kyungsoo pulled a letter from his pocket and in large, black letters he read 'Tomorrow is the night.' He crumpled up the letter and shoved it back into his pocket before heading out of the library to do as his mother told him and to get as far away as possible.

 

As Jinhee made her way to a courtyard she picked up a stick and lazily spun it around as if it were a sword. She had become so comfortable with the one she had been practicing with that even just playing around with the stick she could hide her growing skills. She heard the crunch of gravel from behind her and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The feeling of danger grew in the pit of her stomach and Jinhee took a large side step and moved just in time to miss a sword swinging down on where she was standing. She turned around and saw a man in a mask and a chill ran down her spin. This man quickly composed himself and swung the sword again and Jinhee used the sword to deflect it but it easily snapped through it but it gave her enough time to move out of the way again. She knew that she had to get close up because his arms were so long that staying this far away so she took a large step towards him until her chest was against his. She wrapped her arm around his neck and then dropped all of her body weight forward which made the man fall to his knees. She reached onto his waist and found a small blade in his waist band. She pulled it out and held it to his neck.

 

"Wow, wow, wow, chill out. It's just me!" A familiar voice said and Jinhee pulled the blade from his neck.

 

"Don't scare me like that Chen!" Jinhee threw the small blade onto the ground in frustration and a laughing Chen pulled the mask off.

 

"Jongin said he was training you but I wanted to see it with my own eyes." Chen got to his feet and ruffled his hair that was sticking to his forehead in sweat. "You're pretty good and hand to hand, have you done any training at long distance, like a bow and arrow?" Chen waited until Jinhee calmed down and asked her the question again.

 

"No, not yet."

 

"Perfect, I'll teach you right now." Chen started walking away and Jinhee followed after him, very confused about the interaction that had just happened.