If Sakura had thought things would go smoothly once she was married, then she was sorely mistaken. It isn’t unpleasant, or anything - Eunbi is sweet-natured, from what little she knows of her, does not hold grudges, and makes a monumental effort to stay out of her way. Almost too much of an effort - Sakura hardly sees her at home, between her duties as a royal. Sakura returns home to their estate in the evening, hoping to catch a glance of Eunbi at dinner to find she has already retired for the night, and she is usually asleep when Sakura leaves in the mornings. Apparently, Eunbi isn’t a morning person.   Sakura isn’t disappointed, per se - She wouldn’t have felt so agonized over marrying a total stranger if she hadn’t realised how lonely and falsified it would feel. It’s just that Eunbi's words at their wedding, the improvised vows, keep echoing in her mind every time she manages to catch a glimpse of her supposed wife. Eunbi's promises to be her wife and her support now ring empty and bitter with each passing day that she returns home to an empty dining room and retires to a cold, empty bed in her separate wing of the mansion.   Still, Sakura tries to respect that this is probably what Eunbi wants. Though she still does not know why Eunbi agreed to marry her, particularly now that Eunbi seems to be living as a shadow in her own home, she has to respect Eunbi level of comfort with living with a foreign, a stranger. It isn’t like Sakura wants Eunbi to throw herself into her arms and declare herself madly in love with her wife. Such a notion would be ridiculous. Sakura just wants a friend. Hyewon is still full to the brim with criticism and complaints about her arranged marriage, and her only other close friend, Yena, has been engaged in foreign aid efforts overseas for a considerable amount of time now. She has nothing but duty after duty, meeting after meeting, interview after interview. She just wants Eunbi to be her friend. She knows they have the potential to get along - if that lunch while they were still engaged is any indicator (before Yiren’s untimely intrusion, of course), but she is too unsure to take steps to reach that point.   Sakura allows their awkward, barely there interactions to continue for a week. She forces smiles when diplomats cheekily inquire into the status of her new marriage, and she deflects any prying questions from her father. Then their first joint schedule begins to approach, and with an interview coming up where they are expected to expose their (fake) whirlwind romance to all, Sakura thinks its about time she sat down and had dinner with her wife.   Eunbi must be thinking the same thing as well because she is waiting for her in the dining room when Sakura returns home from another long meeting that once more devolved into an argument about the legitimacy of the Crown. Her exhaustion gone with the sight of her wife. Eunbi looks exceptionally beautiful. The sight of Eunbi in a simple dress; hair pulled back off her neck in a simple bun, completely floors her. Sakura stares dumbly for a few moments until Eunbi's cheeks begin to tint pink under the weight of her gaze. Sakura clears awkwardly, and she straightens as her manners return to her in a rush.   “Hello.” Sakura greets awkwardly, with a gentle bow of her head. Eunbi mirrors the movement, and offers her a tiny, tentative smile that is difficult not to return.   “Hi.” Is her response, as Eunbi gets to her feet, and awkwardly gestures to Sakura place at the table, already set by the waitstaff.   “T-to what do I have the pleasure?” Sakura asks, as she settles in the seat opposite her. She curses herself for stuttering, but Eunbi does not seem to notice as she busies herself with heaping food onto her plate for Sakura. Sakura gratefully accepts it and she seats herself once more.   “I thought maybe we should get our stories straight.” Eunbi says. “For tomorrow, I mean. So that we sound authentic.”   Sakura is not sure why she feels as disappointed as she does at Eunbi's words, but it probably has to do with the hope that maybe Eunbi just wanted to spend time with her. It stings, a little, to be reminded that their connection is so fabricated. Even as Eunbi sits across from her, pretty and sweet and kind, with a ring on her finger that ties Eunbi permanently to her, it is all fake. For publicity, for politics, for every reason but the right one.   “Yeah.” Sakura says slowly, through a mouthful a food. “Sashihara sent through some prewritten answers, did you go through those?”   Eunbi nods, reaching to her side and producing a stack of A4 sheets. She flips through them, looking distasteful.   “I did… but they’re just so stiff! We might as well just declare in the interview that the King arranged this marriage for us.” Eunbi exclaims, gesturing wildly to her notes. Sakura had glanced briefly at them when Sashihara sent them through and hadn’t put much thought into them. She takes them from Eunbi’s hands and begins to skim through them. She sees what Eunbi means - all the details of their fabricated relationship are there, fake plane tickets, restaurant receipts to show their dates, but the stories are missing any emotion. It lists every place they went on dates, but nothing about what made them keep going on the dates, or what they talked about, or how two complete strangers would have fallen deeply enough to marry within a few short months of meeting one another.   “I see what you mean.” She responds. Eunbi nods enthusiastically.   “So I thought we could improve it a little. We already know a bit about each other, from that last lunch date we had, but we’ve got to figure out what made this fictional relationship tick!” Eunbi says passionately, complete with wild hand gestures. Sakura suppresses a fond chuckle at her enthusiasm, and chooses to humour her.   “What do you suggest?” Sakura asks her, feeling the beginnings of a smile curve her lips. Eunbi pauses, contemplating.   “I’m not sure… fabricating a relationship is not something you do every day…” Eunbi says slowly. “If you could have married for love… what sort of person would you have married?”   Sakura is surprised by the question. She spent so much time lamenting over what she didn’t want in a marriage that she hasn’t actually considered what she wants before.   “A companion, I suppose.” Sakura says, taken aback. “Someone who would be there.”   “A companion?” Eunbi echoes, confused and surprised. Sakura smiles and she cannot keep away the note of bitterness that sharpens her expression.   “Someone I could rule alongside… someone who would be there in the hard times… someone who feels like home.” Sakura admits. The words make feel tight - she feels uncomfortably vulnerable and bare, exposing her deepest desires to Eunbi. Eunbi looks at Sakura with unreadable eyes, her feelings inaccessible to Sakura simply because she knows nothing about Eunbi.   “That’s… surprising.” Eunbi admits. “I thought you’d say something about looks or personality… but that’s such a genuine and heartfelt wish.”   Sakura laughs, but not in an unfriendly way.   “I suppose so - so how does this help us make our story more authentic?” Sakura asks her. Eunbi pauses to consider.   “Well, if we’re pretending to be in love, then what you supposedly fell for me for would have to be traits that you look for in a partner. I can’t say I have features appropriate for ruling… but my friends used to tell me I was very supportive.” Eunbi bites her lip and glances away. “Or at least they did, before.”   “Before what?” Sakura asks, curious. This is the first hint of Eunbi's life before her launch to fame that she’s given up to Sakura willingly; that isn’t something superficial like her favourite jellybean colour, and Sakura is quick to latch onto that. Eunbi, however, realises her slip and stiffens.   “Nothing. That’s not important.” Eunbi says, quickly and dismissively. “Anyway… I think I’ll tell them that I fell for your sense of humour and your good looks.” Eunbi declares decisively, leaning forward to rest her chin in her hand and looks at Sakura across the table. Sakura accidentally inhales a bit of broccoli and it takes a bit of ungraceful coughing and flailing to dislodge it.   “I see.” Sakura says. Eunbi looks at her with an expression that may be hope.   “And me?” Eunbi asks. “What will you tell them about me?”   Sakura takes the opportunity to take a long sip from her water before setting her glass down carefully. she is not sure why, but she feels her face heat. It feels far to raw and vulnerable to just… decide something about Eunbi that made Sakura fall in love with her. Partially because she’s not in love with Eunbi and she’s fabricating a lie; partially because Eunbi is not… unappealing as a wife. Sakura feels like Eunbi’s asking her to tell something that far more than she’s comfortable sharing or acknowledging, even to herself. Not when Eunbi is still essentially a stranger to her, and a shadow in their own home.   “I’ll decide by tomorrow.” Sakura says quickly, covering her discomfort with a cough. “I’m good at improvisation.”   Eunbi glances down, nodding, and scooping a forkful of food into . A silence follows, since Eunbi has clearly exhausted her list of things to say, and so they just eat in silence.   Both retire to their separate rooms that night after slightly more finetuning of their story, and Sakura falls asleep with a deep, sad ache in her chest, embraced by a cold loneliness she cannot seem to dispel.     ***************     Lee Gaeun practically specializes in the royal family, based on the sheer amount of coverage she does of their lives. Despite her borderline-obsessive coverage of everything Sakura and other royalty did; from what sunglasses Sakura wore when she went out in public the other week to what ice cream flavour Eunbi was spotted getting for dessert the other night at a restaurant; she still respects their boundaries in a way that most reporters do not. So Sakura is only a little nervous when they finish the photoshoot and sit down to chat.   “So,” Gaeun begins, beaming. “First of all I want to thank you for the opportunity! It’s not everyday I get a chance to share a love story like yours with the world.”   Sakura smiles warmly and beside her Eunbi inclines her head uncomfortably. She is clinging to Sakura's arm nervously, and the gesture might have almost been sweet if Sakura wasn’t so sure Eunbi was doing it out of pure terror rather than any affection for her. Sakura lightly places a hand over Eunbi's white-knuckled grip on her arm, and Eunbi stiffens slightly, before releasing her bone-crushing grip. Eunbi shoots her an apologetic smile that is almost endearing, and Sakura smiles back, hoping to soothe her nerves.   “It’s not a problem at all, Gaeun.” Sakura responds. “I couldn’t think of a better person to tell our story to the world.”   Beside her, Sakura’s wife seems to have been replaced with a bobble-head figurine because all she can seem to do it nod mutely. Sakura tugs Eunbi's hand from its grip on her arm and Eunbi reluctantly lets her go. Sakura replaces her arm with her hand instead, lacing her fingers with Eunbi's. When Eunbi glances at her, confused, Sakura shoots her a glance. Sakura hopes that the reassurance she tries to convey soothes her enough, and she thinks she may be successful, because Eunbi overcomes the muteness that has plagued her all morning.   “Where should we start?” Eunbi asks. Gaeun pauses, considering and scanning through the file she had been given by Sashihara.   “It says here that you two met at the first social event that Eunbi attended after discovering her Princess roots. According to eyewitnesses, no one actually saw you two speaking at the event, so how could you tell us the story of how you met?” Gaeun asks, her gaze keen. Were Sakura a lesser woman, and less accustomed to Gaeun’s intense and sharp line of questioning, she may have been intimidated. But she knows Sashihara chose Gaeun particularly because of her integrity as a journalist, and she is nothing if not talented at putting it on for the cameras. She feels Eunbi’s hand tighten around her out of nerves, and she gives Eunbi a little squeeze to reassure her.   “We actually met on the way out.” Sakura says. It should probably disturb her, how easily the lie comes, but she is so used to it at this stage that she is perhaps desensitized. Eunbi is slightly less accustomed to blatantly lying to the public and opts instead to remain silent as Sakura continues to elaborate this entirely false account. “We were both in a rush - I had a flight to catch the next morning, and Eunbi was understandably tired after a big night. Eunbi was actually running, and...” Sakura is unable to keep the smile from her voice, and Eunbi stiffens beside her in surprise. “She ran straight into this priceless vase and it shattered all over the ground.” Sakura says with slight laughter. “She looked so embarrassed, and I felt so bad for her that I secretly called some of the staff over to help her clean up, and when she tried to make a get away afterwards, I went up and said hello.”   Eunbi, to her credit, manages to conceal her surprise well behind some embarrassed laugh