The day of the royal wedding dawns grey and misty, with the promise of rain foretold in the swollen clouds that hover heavily over the capital city. Reporters that gather in and around the venue are armed with umbrellas and plastic tarpaulins to protect their equipment should it actually rain. A few hopeful civillians gather at the borders marked by thick velvet ropes designed to prevent public access, hoping to catch a glimpse of the princess of the prince.   Eunbi is awoken at a ludicrously early hour by one of the stylists hired to make her look like the Princess she supposedly is. Apparently the Princess look is a high maintenance one - from the moment she wakes they are scrubbing and plucking at her, shaping her eyebrows, removing dead skin, trying to bring some sort of healthy glow to skin that has long gone pale and translucent from neglect and misery. She supposed she can’t complain- a full makeover like this would have been wickedly out of her budget in the past, but here she is. She can picture her friend Sian back home dying of jealousy. She had always complained that Eunbi was neglecting her appearance once her father had gotten sick. Eunbi had been too embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t willful neglect - their budget just simply could not handle that.   “No frowning please.” Her stylist scolds, and Eunbi smoothes out her face as they continue to contour her face.   Jeonghan reads out everything she needs to know - her grandfather has vanished on some mysterious errand that he had remained obstinately tight-lipped on in the days leading up to her wedding.   It had been nearly a month since her last meeting with Sakura. She has not seen her since the meeting where they were supposed to patch things up. Eunbi remembers walking out of that restaurant feeling more bitter than before - the revelation that there was yet another woman with some sort of history with Sakura is an unpleasant one. It makes her wonder just how many women are being jaded by this marriage. Not that she has any right to be upset. Just as she is entering into this marriage to pay her father’s hospital bills with no love in the equation, Sakura too has reasons to marry her and Eunbi cannot blame her if she has a few women on the side. The only thing tying Sakura to her are some legal documents. Still, it just highlights to Eunbi just what this marriage is, and just when she had been thinking that maybe Sakura wasn’t so bad, it all came crashing down when that woman had showed up.   She feels vaguely nauseous as another stylist begins working with her hair. The last month of planning and studying and preparing to move out of her childhood home had gone by far too quick. Eunbi has tried to deny to herself for as long as possible that she was entering into a lifelong commitment with a whole Kingdom, and a more intimate commitment with a complete stranger. They would be living together. Yes, Sakura had been kind enough to ensure they had separate wings, and she had since seen the mansion and realised it would be very easy to avoid Sakura's presence should she desire it. But she couldn’t spend the rest of her life avoiding her soon-to-be wife. Unless Eunbi wanted to live the rest of her life living like a terrified stranger in a home that was supposed to be hers. Not only was it impractical, it was legally impossible- she had read the clause on the need to eventually provide an heir, after all.   Eunbi tries to tide the roiling nausea by remembering her family. Her parents are the reason why she is doing this. They had cried when she had left - she had not confided in them that she was agreeing to all this responsibility to allow her father to get treated. Dialysis was expensive. She had instead pretended that she was taking up a mantle that was hers by birthright, and her parents had been upsettingly supportive. Like they genuinely believed that adopting her had stripped her of some sort of birthright. They had been unsure when they learned that taking her place as ruler meant marrying someone she didn’t know, but perhaps guilt had kept them silent.   Eunbi misses them. Even though she is still reeling from learning they are not her birth parents, she cannot forget that they had showered her with endless love and affection for all her life. Closing her eyes as the person working on her hair begins to massage shampoo into her scalp, she feels her nerves settle the more she thinks of her parents. Despite all the stress as unease that had crept into her life as of late, from the day they received the blood test results that told them her father was going to be very sick for a very long time, her memories of her childhood glimmer like a shining beacon of hope. Those are what she is fighting for - her mother’s smile as Eunbi ran screaming through the house in an intense game of hide and seek with her father, the smell of vanilla and baking cakes thick in the air, the sticky sensation of sugar clinging to her fingers and palms as she sat on the counter of the bakery while she helped her parents dedicate wedding cakes and pastries and delicacies, the memories filter through her mind and fill her chest with a pleasant stretching sensation, like her heart is too full to contain the warmth and love. The memory of decorating wedding cakes and lamenting over her lack of popularity with 'possible partner' with her mother stands out to her in particular and makes her smile at the irony that today is her wedding day. The day she had worried would never come is right here.   “Done!” The stylist declares, allowing one last curl to fall through her fingers and bounce gently against Eunbi’s neck.   Eunbi does not look at herself in the mirror until the stylists have helped her climb into the piles of lace that comprise her dress and have zipped her into it. She is secured into her dress much like she is now secured in her fate.   A full length mirror stands before her, and Eunbi regards herself. She knows the media have been raving about her sweetness and kindness, and that is the angle her stylists have chosen to emphasize. Someone clever had managed to make her eyes seem large and innocent, like two priceless sapphires set in a ring of dark, thick lashes, and softened the colour of her cheeks to a pleasing, rosy pink. Her lips too, are painted in a soft, sweet pink. Everything, from the cloudy, fluttery white dress that falls in lacy waves around her, to the delicate curls that frame her face, to the makeup they had caked her face in is sweet. Sickeningly sweet and innocent.   Eunbi inhales shakily as yet another stylist bustles in, arms laden with the lace of her veil, prepared to set it in place on the intricate hairstyle curled and pinned carefully in place amongst the expensive jewels that are weaved into place. Peering through her fringe, she is struck by how she looks. There had been a time where Eunbi had put similar effort into her appearance to always look pristine, but just like contact with friends like Sian had vanished after her father got sick, so did any attempts to take care of herself. Underneath the makeup piled on to make her look like the angelic Princess that everyone had been raving about, she is skinny and pale. Her collarbones are sharper than she has ever seen, and her cheeks have lost the soft roundness that she once held.   Eunbi suddenly feels heavy with exhaustion, like a weight has suddenly crashed down on her. Her reflection deflates, and it is that exact moment that her grandfather chooses to enter the room.   He smiles warmly when she sees her, and her eyes go watery in that expression he always wears when he is thinking about her birth parents. Equally joyful and wistful, like he is looking at the granddaughter he had held fondly as a small, helpless baby, but also like she is a reminder of everything he has lost in recent months.   “You look gorgeous.” He comments, with a smile that makes Eunbi’s chest ache, because it is a happy smile but it is also tainted with a grief that she cannot begin to imagine.   “Thank you.” Eunbi says with an awkward smile. She does feel compassion towards her grandfather, even if she feels like a stranger to her. He had loved her as deeply as her adopted parents do, once, and perhaps still loves her just as deeply.   Her grandfather blinks, and seems to remember himself, because he clears his throat and reaches his pocket.   “I am sorry for my absence over the past few days.” He begins, producing a small silk pouch. Eunbi listens patiently, curious about the contents. “I know that you would have perhaps wanted a familiar face prior to your wedding, but I have a very important duty to run.”   He grabs one of her hands and tugs it towards him, carefully placing the pouch in her hands.   “I knew you were upset that your adopted parents could not attend. I did try my best, but unfortunately I am not of royal blood - I am a mere advisor and my influence and sway is not that much. So instead I thought I would visit them and see if they had anything to say to you that I could pass on.” He explains. “They gave me this.”   Carefully, Eunbi allows whatever is contained in the pouch to slip free and land in the palm of her hand. It is a ring, one that Eunbi knows with an achingly familiarity that slices through her with something sharp and painful. It is slightly scratched, and slightly weathered, way too big for her fingers. She knows the ring as well as she knows the wrinkles that gather around the corner of her mother’s eyes - when she was small and had held her father’s hand, it had been cool against the palm of her hand as he wore it. It had been constantly present on her father's finger as he rolled and kneaded dough, until he had accidently baked it into a cake and then he had been forced to remove it and keep it safe for fear of losing it. Eunbi swallows thickly and blinks rapidly, aware that the tears that sting her eyes will ruin her makeup. She inhales deeply, looking up and willing the tears to dissipate.   Perhaps Master Han must be aware of its significance, because he wordlessly pulls out a shimmering and expensive gold chain, and she accepts it and slips it through the ring. Eunbi clips it behind her neck before turning to face the mirror. Her dress sits just beneath her shoulders and leaves her neck and collar bones exposed, and the ring sits against her sternum. It feels like it heavy weight digging into her chest.   “They told me to tell you this: That they are overjoyed to see their precious daughter get married, and that they want you to carry that reminder of their love for each other and they will always be there for you, with you, as you enter the next chapter of your life.” He clears his throat, and his eyes are foggy with unshed tears. “If I had known earlier, I would have helped them get the ring sized so that you can wear it as your own wedding ring, but unfortunately I only found out about this yesterday.” He admits.   Eunbi traces her fingers around the shape of her father’s wedding ring and she feels like the chain is choking her. She pictures her father, holding back tears as he passes the ring to her grandfather, and her mother, dry-eyed since she has already cried so much over the past few months, trying to hide the ache of farewell-ing her daughter with a friendly smile that mixes heartwrenchingly with the pain that is no d