After days of traveling, they eventually reached the border of Gaya. Thankfully, the princess’s mare has been calm for the entire duration of the trip, and Princess Jihyo skillfully maneuvered her way, taking in its reins. Every so often, Jongkook would give her instructions on how to manage the horse. At first, she took all these comments in stride, but as he continued to nag, she slowly lost patience and just laughed at him.

“Is this something to laugh about?” he asked, maneuvering his own stallion to match the speed of the princess’s horse.

“You keep nagging, commander. You’re worse than the head priestess before the Queen was due to give birth,” the princess simply explained, a cheeky grin forming on her lips. “Ah, it feels refreshing to be able to laugh like that.”

Jongkook warmly smiled at her, “Well, I’m glad to be of service, your highness.” The princess looked back at him, but he saw her gaze darken a bit before she turned her face away, focusing on the road in silence. “Is anything the matter?”

The question seemed to throw off the princess for a second, so the commander pressed on, “Are you still thinking about what happened the other night?”

She shook her head, and looked at the commander thoughtfully. There was a bit of silence after, as she carefully considered her words before proceeding to say, “I know we’ve become friends of some sort, so I want you to answer this question without considering my stature. I want you to promise to answer me truthfully.” She looked incredibly serious, chewing on her bottom lip before saying anything further. 

The commander swallowed, matching the intensity of the princess’s gaze. After the events of the past months, specially of the past few days, there were a multitude of things running through his mind, but considering how complicated everything was, he had not been able to sort through his thoughts and determine what was really happening. With quite a trembling voice that he would attribute to the movement of his black stallion, he said, “I promise, your highness.”

The princess skillfully pulled the reins of his horse to the left, to draw closer to Jongkook. He felt startled, but she didn’t seem to have noticed. Instead, she just frantically said, “No. Don’t say your highness.” She leaned in a bit conspiratorially, and whispered, “Say, I promise, Jihyo. That way, I know you’re promising it to me as a friend, and not because you’re bound by duty to the princess.”

He looked at her, wide-eyed. He protested, “You know well enough I can’t do that, your highness.”

“It’s just between us two. I’m so tired of people giving me false opinions because of my position. I know you’d tell me the cold-hard truth usually, but I just want to make sure you will be true to how you really feel,” she rambled. “So, say it. Say, I promise Jihyo.”

Jongkook took a deep breath, still not knowing where she was going with this but relenting anyway. “Alright, alright. I promise… Jihyo,” he tentatively said, finding that saying her given name felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

The princess’s face didn’t flinch though, despite how different it felt to hear someone call her by her name that was not from her family. Then, she proceeded to ask her question, “Do you think we’ll succeed in this diplomatic mission?”

The commander breathed out a sigh of relief upon finally hearing the princess’s question; he had truly worried she would be asking him something else. His features eased into a smile, and, despite his initial discomfort, he decided to go ahead and follow her instructions, “Jihyo, you will lead us to success. I’m not sure what awaits us when we finally get there, and meet the leaders of Gaya, but you will do well. I’ve seen you in court. You know your politics well. Admittedly, the tricky part will be how to create rapport with them, but you’ll surely figure that out.” She was still taking in his words, obviously apprehensive, so he decided to lighten the mood, “We’re getting along well now, and I know myself well enough to know that I’m not the easiest man to deal with. How much m