“That one. The one in sky blue robes.”

Gayeon’s eyes followed the pointing finger of the noble lady and started searching among the jostling and running troop of young noblemen.

“There! The one next to the emerald green robes...the one who just tackled the ball!”

The ball game (Gayeon didn’t know what it was called, since her brother was never into sports other than the mandatory martial arts training he received since childhood.) was quite fierce, making it harder to keep one’s eyes fixated on one guy since the ball was being exchanged too often. But the one who had the ball, she finally spotted him, not the one in dark blue robes, nor the peacock blue robes, but the bright and dainty sky blue one.

With a smile brighter than the chrysanthemums in her mother’s garden.

“Jungwoo-yah! Don’t let him score- YAH KIM JUNGWOO!!!”

A guy who seemed to be from his opposite team had kicked the ball into the net, and the sky blue robes stopped abruptly on the lawn after screaming his lungs out.

Sighed in defeat, and huffed in disappointment when the said ‘Kim Jungwoo’ clung onto him apologetically.

“He acts like his life depends on the game.” the noble lady turned to face the girl and smiled rather embarrassedly. “Hasn’t been handed over with any burdens or responsibilities by his father so far, but he will soon become a reliable man. He’s taking the royal military examination next month.” She added in reassurance.

Gayeon nodded understandingly.

But childish smiles look good on him.

“I heard he’s a top student in the Royal Military Academy.”

Gayeon was snapped back to her senses by her brother’s voice, and suddenly felt embarrassed for staring at a man standing there in broad daylight.

The well-mannered Lady Kim Gayeon had standards to maintain.

The older noble lady nodded with the proudest smile. “Our Baekhyunnie simply shines in his armor with his sword, just like you shone as the top student of the Sungkyungkwan University, Lord Kim Junmyeon.”

The sudden praise brought a smile to Gayeon’s brother’s face.

Typical Lord Jun. Can be easily caught with the smallest compliment.

With a silent chuckle, the girl turned back to the game.

It didn’t take him to score two times in a row without being troubled by his opponents at all, and the tables were turning for the game, giving their team the lead.

She simply couldn’t take her eyes off when he screamed in joy every time and laughed with his team mates, dashing across the grounds and even dropping onto his knees, celebrating, not taking the slightest notice about how the dust was ruining his expensive silk robes.

Byun Baekhyun was definitely a sight to watch.

“Baekhyun-ah!”

One of the opponents caught the sight of the three people watching their game. “Your bride to be is here!!!”

He stopped, and turned around to the small pavilion.

And froze, right on his tracks while the rest ran past him to get the ball.

Seeing the girl brought a smile onto his face, which he suppressed while rubbing his neck.

And the ball flew out of nowhere to bang right on his head.

“YAH MOON TAEIL!” He whirled around and saw the said guy rolling on the ground with laughter.

“He won’t return until the sun is long gone.” Lady Cha Inseo, who brought the Kim siblings here to show her son, turned around with a sigh. “Do you want me to call him?”

Gayeon was furiously shaking her head before she knew it.

Just now he had made her blush like anything, and there was no way Byun Baekhyun was gonna see her blushing on their very first encounter.

“It’s alright My Lady. It’s their leisure time so we shouldn’t be troubling them.” Junmyeon refused her offer politely. “Besides, we’ll be meeting tonight for dinner, so what’s the hurry?”

It was barely two weeks ago, when Junmyeon summoned his one and only sister to his study and talked to her about her marriage, or rather he ‘announced’ her that she will be soon married to the Defense Minister Byun Joonho’s son, Byun Baekhyun. Although the young lady knew she would soon be married off to some nobleman since she was of perfect age to ‘bear an heir for a noble household’ as the fortune teller had told their mother, it didn’t mean that she wasn’t nervous at the mention of marriage.

To spend the rest of her life with someone entirely unknown.

“Don’t worry. He’s handsome.” Junmyeon smirked.

It’s seriously embarrassing sometimes how oppa reads my mind so easily!

“And good humoured.” he added softly. “Plus given what a great personality his father has, there’s no way the son would be a bad person.” and he reached out to hold his sister’s hand. “You know me. Just because abhuji left a word about this marriage in his last will, I wouldn’t be giving you off to some stranger. I did a thorough search about this lad, and he’s not someone to be worried about. A ‘heart of gold’. That’s what everyone he knows says about him.”

So that’s how Kim Gayeon ended up nodding in agreement to meeting Byun Baekhyun, and that’s how they ended up watching him on the Royal Military Training Grounds and sitting face to face at dinner on the same night, at the Kim’s mansion.

“Violet looks definitely good on you.” her mother whispered in her ear. “Hyunjoo is the best at picking dresses for you. You look gorgeous, my girl.”

Gayeon smiled shyly and glanced over the table at her handmaiden standing at a distance in the dining hall, merrily bouncing on her feet and sending all kinds of gestures to show