Chapter 5 – Blue Butterfly

As spring came to an end, so did their study sessions.

Minjeong wakes up early that morning, surprising her servants as they watch their master heading off to the nearby marketplace. After making sure her mask is securely fastened on her face, she hurriedly walks up to one of the nearest merchants, whose stall was surrounded with many women, all at awe at the shining and colorful precious gemstones that are on display.

She really shouldn’t be outside, walking amongst the sea of people at the marketplace as if she was some normal person but deep down, she knew that she really wanted to get a gift for her tutor.

What’s more, she wanted to personally choose it herself. It just felt more personal and meaningful this way.

After all, she will probably never ever see her again. The thought makes her determined.

This gift better be something.

With that in mind, she quickly skims through the vast collection and it is not long before she finds her eyes landing on one particular gemstone, its color and shape catching her attention amongst the rest.

“How much is this?”

She asks in a deep voice, with a finger pointing to the gemstone, instantly earning the looks from some of the women around her. The merchant looks at her with an eyebrow raised and breaks into a wide grin.

“What an excellent choice, my Lord. This precious gemstone is coveted by many because of it pureness and value. On top of that, it is a new arrival. However, it is very expensive, my Lord.”

“The price doesn’t matter. I’ll take one.”

This time, all of the women at the stall turned to look at her, mostly with curious eyes and some with questionable looks.

“My Lord, by any chance, are you married?”

She hears one of the women asks loudly before the merchant gestures her to follow him into his shop. He commands his assistants to take over the stall and proceeds to gesture her to a locked room. He skillfully unlocks it and hurriedly walks over to the cupboard, pulling out a locked box. Minjeong watches as he opens the box with a key he fished out of his pocket and shows her the gemstone.

“This is it, My Lord. A heart shaped pure sapphire gemstone.”

“Is this real? You are not scamming me, are you?”

She says sternly, her right hand reaching behind to pull out an inch of her sword out to intimidate him. The merchant widens his eyes in fear before shaking his head furiously, his lips forming a nervous smile as he speaks.

“Of course not, My Lord. I wouldn’t dare.”

Satisfied, she retracts the sword and takes the gemstone into her hand. She briefly inspects it.

Beautiful, just like her.

“I’ll take it, but I want it customized.”

∞∞∞

The time was one o’clock in the afternoon. Jimin swallows her red bean bun robotically. She sees the cherry blossom tree next to her wilting away and she sighs at the fact that spring is coming to an end.

As much as she looks forward to seeing her favorite student later, she finds herself upset knowing that this will be their last session. This will ultimately be the last chance she will ever get close to the Princess.

“Yu Ji Min!”

Jimin looks up and sees Jiwoo shaking her head with a deep frown. She tears another piece of her bun and sighs again.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been so out of it since last week and now you’re sighing as if the world is coming to an end when you are supposed to be celebrating that we have finally finished our tutoring sessions!”

Jiwoo exclaimed with a big smile and Jimin feels her body being shaken repeatedly by her best friend.

“Come on, lighten up, it’s time to celebrate.”

Jimin just sighs again and takes another bite out of her bun, completely unfazed by the loud girl. However, Jiwoo’s next sentence caught her off guard.

“You know, something good did come out of this tutoring thing. I realized that I might just be flexible.”

Jiwoo says nonchalantly before plopping down on the seat next to her.

“What do you mean?”

“I think I’m okay if it’s a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Jimin gives her a questioning look to which Jiwoo sighs before using her hand gestures to further explain herself properly.

“I mean to say, if one day, my ideal type happens to come waltzing into my life, it doesn’t have to be a man per say. I wouldn’t mind if it was a woman.”

Jimin blinks her eyes several times. Jiwoo, her longtime best friend who has been gushing about handsome male seniors in their school ever since the dawn of time is actually telling her this. She takes a while to process the words but then quickly finds herself responding with a question.

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