It was the middle of the week and Jinhee had not spoken to her mother since the day of her meeting with the King. Her mother was too stubborn to apologise and Jinhee was too foolish to see her mothers side of the point. She didn't think there was a problem with her hanging around her friend but since the fight she had grown depressed and locked herself in her bedroom. All day she rolled around in her bed thinking about the proposal that was possibly coming in a few days and how her life was about to come to an end and how she would be a prisoner all of her life. On the third day of laying in bed, it finally dawned on Jinhee that the proposal was only days away. This was her last chance to act as she wished before being whisked away by the royal family so she bathed and changed into her favourite clothes and walked outside where she was met with the refreshing summer sun.

 

She headed over to the pavilion with a bit of the left over rice from the dinner the night before and crouched by the edge of the water, throwing each grain into the water and watched the fish gather around her, battling for each piece of food. For so many years Jinhee had been jealous of these fish as they knew no other world than the large pond they were in. They were able to swim where ever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They were not judged by the way they swam or how they ate. What she was jealous of the most though was the fact that they could swim in the first place, literally and metaphorically. When she was a small child, before moving into the palace with her family, Jinhee had lived in a small fishing village and with her father off to war and her mother constantly busy working, Jinhee had to entertain herself most days. A lot of the time she would go to the docks and try to fish with the fishermen that had built her a small fishing rod from a strong piece of wood, string and a rusted hook that would most likely break if she had ever caught anything.

 

One day as she was setting up the bug on the end of her line, her foot caught on the net that was sitting beside her on the dock and she fell backwards into the water. The heavy net followed her into the water and dragged her deep into the water. Jinhee still had vivid nightmares about that deep water and watching the world around her get further and further away as she sunk into the deep. An elderly fisherman had thankfully been watching Jinhee that day and ran over and with the help of his friends were able to drag her and the net out of the water but since that day Jinhee had an intense fear of the water. The memories of that near death experience was being drowned out by the calming voices and laughter of passing servants on the grounds and it became her background music. Feeling the breeze on her skin felt so good after being locked up for so long and she knew that her mother was busy so there was no chance of running into her for most of the day. Two large hands grabbed her shoulders from behind and pressed her towards the water. Jinhee let out a little yelp and dropped the rest of the rice into the water which broke the fish out into a frenzy. The hands on her shoudlers held on tightly and pulled her back away from the water. Jinhee looked behind her and saw Chanyeol laughing loudly at his successful prank that had pulled off.

 

"Not funny Chanyeol." Jinhee grabbed some dirt in her hand and stood up, throwing the fist full of earth in her hand at his clothes. He groaned as he brushed off his clothes, regretting to prank Jinhee since she never did take it well but she looked so cute with that shocked expression that he would do it for the rest of his life if he could.

 

"My Jinhee~" Chanyeol sung out as he chased after his friend that was storming away in a truely unlady-like fashion. "It was a bad joke, I apologise." He easily caught up with her stride as his legs were much longer than hers and after a few moments she seemed to calm down and they matched pace. "I have something I want to show you." Chanyeol nodded off towards the far side of the grounds.

 

"What could you possibly show me? You know I have lived here for ten years right? I have literally seen every square inch of the palace grounds." Jinhee rolled her eyes and Chanyeol nudged her with his elbow and chuckled. The front of a noble young woman was slowly fading away and he was getting his friend back.

 

"The King is in the middle of building a new garden on the far side of the grounds, I found a way to see it." The news of a new garden shocked Jinhee as she hadn't noticed any new construction in the area but when he brought her over to where it was going to be she knew why. It was actually outside of the palace walls which meant he was going to be expanding the walls to include it so ther ewould have been no way for Jinhee to have had seen it until then. There was a section of the wall that he been knocked down from a falling rock because of the construction and when Chanyeol had discovered it the day before he hid it with a large gathering of grass. He moved it aside and squeezed through the tight opening and reached his hand out through the hole and Jinhee thought this was a bit childish of them, but her curiousity was so strong that she took his hand and squeezed through after him. They climbed up a hill and pushed aside some tree branches and once uptop the hill, they looked over a large beautiful garden with a half built wall around the pond and the beginning of a pavillion in the corner. a small gazebo jutted out from the wall and Jinhee so desperatly wanted to stand there and get a better view of the grounds. The flowers were in full bloom and the trees hung lazily over the water, offering shade to the fish that comfortably swum around, unaware that they were about to be part of the palace grounds and owned by the mightiest King to ever rule the land. Chanyeol plucked a small white flower from the ground and tuck it behind Jinhee's ear which startled her at first but she just smiled in appreciation and continued admiring the garden.

 

"It's beautiful." Jinhee muttered, in total awe of the beauty that was right outside the walls of her home that she had never been allowed to venture from. If possible, this gift from Chanyeol made her more determined to leave and discover the beauty the rest of the country had to offer.

 

"Very beautiful." Chanyeol chimmed in but instead of staring at the vast garden in front of him, he was staring straight at Jinhee with the flower in her hair. The flower was nothing in comparison of her beauty and he felt foolish for trying to thing that it would add to it, as if she needed the help. His heart was bursting just standing beside her, and the back of his hand was grazing the back of hers and he so despertly wanted to just reach out and take her hand in his. To hold her forever. To never leave this moment and just bask in their togetherness for the rest of eternity. The words he had been practicing all week kept playing over and over again in his mind and he wanted to just spill it all out to her now but he wanted to wait for her birthday, hoping to make the day more special than any other. I love you. Marry me. I will make every day as wonderful as this for the rest of out lives together. Chanyeol wanted to say it all right then but when Jinhee looked him in the eyes and smiled brightly, he lost all ability to speak. Instead he laughed like a fool and quickly looked away for fear of his heart stopping completely.