20. CROWN

Whispers and murmurs echoed from the marbled walls, yet when a series of footsteps clicks on the floor, they all fade into a halt.

Taemin had caught a few words from the servants before he turned around the corner. Back in the days, it would be random gossip, whoever guard and whoever maid, sometimes, it would be gossip about him and his family, well, there was also once where he heard a ridiculous rumour about him and Krystal. After being King, Taemin didn’t expect much change from the sectors. His servants were still people, and of course, with people, there will be words and murmurs circling around. Usually, he wouldn’t really care much about it, but this time, hearing a certain name from their mouths, he slowed his footsteps to a halt.

Because this time, it wasn’t only from the servants.

He overheard a few counts and barons muttering the same name from their mouths after the conference ended.

Granted, everyone’s excited about the new Queen as much as Taemin is, but he was getting half worried and half curious of what happened to his lover, for everyone to be talking about her. So, when he stopped by again, he decided to perk up his ears behind the corners.

“I’m so glad that Lady Son is our next Queen.”

“At first, I thought she was just a lady who was quiet and timid, but now I’ve really changed my mind.”

“The way she stood up for that poor woman… wow…”

“Yes! She is truly a diamond kept under the wrap!”

“She really resembles the aura of her royal highness the Queen Mother!”

“I’m sure Lady Son and his majesty will make the best royal couple.”

Sneaking behind the pillars, he couldn’t help but to raise a smile that reached the sides of his cheeks. But he did wonder, what happened to make everyone talk about her? Surely his palace statement wouldn’t have made such a big impact.

That night, when Taeyong finished his reports, the King cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Taeyong, well… did you hear any rumours that have been circulating around?”

Taeyong frowned. When did his majesty become interested in gossip? “U-Uh… I beg your pardon, your majesty?”

Taemin coughed. “I-I mean, um… do you know why people had been talking about Naeun lately?”

Taeyong stifled a laugh. “Ah, yes, your majesty.” Shortly after, he handed the King an article from the evening papers.

……

2 days ago.

Outside the gates of the palace, the white, blanketed, hills glimmered under the faint sunlight. Barks were empty, with lumps of snow on its edges. Unlike the quiet nature, the winter market bustled in deep frost.

With Hayoung by her side, Naeun wandered through the stalls with a small curl on her lips. With most of her nightmares, and shivering fear gone, she was cherishing the time spent outside the palace. She glanced through the noisy streets and distant laughters, wondering what should she choose as a nice winter souvenir for her beloved, who stayed loyal to his resident in the palace.

Just when she was picking out something new, raised voices travelled into her ears.

Amidst the circling crowd stood a woman, dressed in plain coloured fabric. With her hair let loose, and a pleading look in her eyes, she handed the golden pin to the stall owner.

“I will only buy it for ten coins. No more!” The owner dismissed the woman with a wave.

Naeun sneaked closer into the crowd and caught an eye of the golden pin.

“That pin is worth way more than ten coins!” Hayoung murmurs to herself as Naeun agreed silently with narrowed eyes.

The woman continued to plead. “Please, would you consider a higher price? I need a bit more than 10 coins…”

“Take it, or leave!” The owner exclaimed.

“Excuse me.” A voice interrupted. “The hairpin seems to worth more than just 10 coins.”

“Please give her the amount she deserves for the hairpin.” Naeun stood tall on her feet, as she spoke firmly.

The owner scanned Naeun from head to toe, then let out a scoff. “Miss, I have given her more than she deserves!”

The woman squirms under the owner’s condescending gaze.

“This woman was deserted because she couldn’t bear a child. She is a divorcee!” The crowd gasps, and the woman shrinks in embarrassment.

Naeun furrowed her brows. “How is that related to the price of a hairpin?”

“Of course, it matters! A divorcee’s objects will only bring misfortune! Only a merciful man like me would pay ten coins for that!”

Amongst the circling crowd, Naeun turned to the woman with a smile. “Excuse me, can I borrow this?”

The woman barely nods.

Naeun clenched the pin in her palms and held up her arm against the crowd. “If I offer this golden hairpin for free, does anyone want to take it?”

“I want it!”

“Me!”

“I’ll take it!”

The frantic crowd returned with enthusiasm.

Without a word, she dropped the pin onto the ground, and stomped it so the pin was covered in soil. The woman yelped, while the crowd sunk in confusion.

Naeun raised the hairpin again. “Does anyone still want it?”

“Me! Me!”

“Yes, I want it!”

“I’ll take it!”

The crowd responded with equal excitement as before.

Naeun turned back to the owner. “Did you see?”

She raised her voice amongst the murmuring crowd. “Even patched with soil, the hairpin is still gold. No matter what you do to this golden hairpin, its value does not decline.”

She turned to the woman with a smile. “The same goes for her.”

“So,” she sent a fierce gaze back to the owner, “you must pay her the same amount as anybody else.”

“Goodness. I’ll be generous.” The owner scoffed. “Here is fifteen coins. Take it, or leave it.”

Naeun huffed a sigh. She sent a glance to Hayoung, who still stands in awe within the crowd. “Hayoung, how many coins did we bring out today?”

Snapping out of her lingerie, Hayoung replied swiftly. “Thirty, my lady.”

“If I offer you thirty coins,” Naeun turned to the woman with a smile, “would you sell it to me?”

“Thirty?” The woman was overjoyed, while the owner gritted his teeth.

Before her pin was handed Naeun, the owner stuffed a pouch of coins into the woman’s hands. “Here is thirty-five coins. This is good enough, right?”

He snatched the hairpin from the woman’s palms and retrieved back into his stall.

“Goodness.” The crowd murmured. “He is as good as a thief.”

As the crowd dispersed, the woman bowed to Naeun. “Miss, thank you so much for your help.”

“Thanks to you, I will be able to afford food for a while.” Her eyes gleamed in gratitude.

Naeun let out a smile of relief. “I am glad you got its worth.”

Before the woman walked away, someone gasped in the crowd. “Isn’t that… Lady Son?”

“The Lady Son! The future Queen!”

Waves of shock echoed through the crowd as they all gathered around the Count’s daughter again. The woman, both terrified and surprised at such revelations, lowered her knees to a kneel, but Naeun quickly held her up.

“Please, the cold is harsh especially on the joints.”

“B-But… y-your royal highness…” The woman fumbled with her words and Naeun widened her eyes.

“N-No! I—” She laughed awkwardly. “Please, don’t call me that just yet.”

The woman was still frozen as multiple civilians cocooned Naeun.

“Lady Son!”

“Oh my, so you’re telling me that brave young lady is our future Queen? Our country will be saved.”

“My lady… no… your royal highness… I…”

Hayoung rushed in front of her lady, just so she wouldn’t get pushed by the growing crowd. Naeun wasn’t planning such a welcome from the civilians. The palace has barely made a statement a few days ago, but people were already able to recognised her on the streets. Questions clustered in her brain, but the crowd was clenching around her, and she knew, she had to admit to this new role.

She told Taemin that she wanted to stand by his side. She wanted to serve her people as much he did. She wanted to be his equivalent half.

Within the exuberant voices, Naeun took a deep breath.

“Yes, I am Lady Son.”

A hushed silence falls.

“Like all of you, I am only here to shop for groceries and prepare for the New Year.”

“I am honoured to receive all your beloved attention, but I’d hope that you may all take care and be careful of bumping into one another.”

Naeun finds herself under the gazes of numerous twinkling eyes. Suddenly, she realised that the people had been tormented by screams and blood for the past few years, and to them, the restored peace was a sacred blessing that they have longed for.

“It has been a year of grief and loss, but after every harsh winter, there is always a blossoming warm spring, and I assure you, that upon his majesty’s reign, our Spring will come.”

“Please, if you may, allows us to create this era of rejuvenation together.”

Naeun bowed deeply to her people, and all the men, women, young and old, had their eyes glossed and their rims filled with warmth.

At the edges of the cluster, a journalist watched with the same moist in his orbs, as he scribbled all of the future Queen’s words onto a thin piece of paper.

……

“Our Spring will come.” The new Queen vows a sacred promise to the nation.

Taemin scans through every word of the article, from the headline to the footnotes, and the curl on his lips only grows larger and larger.

Taeyong let out of a chuckle. “It seems like the courts are fascinated by our future Queen, your majesty.”

The King folded the papers neatly, then placed it carefully into his drawer. He tries to suppress the flying cheekbones on his face.

“Look at this, Taeyong. She’s already doing a better job than you, even before taking up the role!”

Taeyong chuckled. “Yes, your majesty. I’ll continue to work hard and try my best.”

The King waved him off with a smile as Taeyong exited with a bow.

…..

As the country started its preparations for the royal wedding in Spring, military controls and training were becoming tighter and more frequent. As the first-ever-appointed female Lieutenant, Krystal was surely busied with work. Well, she’d prefer it that way.

Because she doesn’t really want to see Kim Jongin around anyways.

Sometimes she wondered if he really did like her. Yes, she felt like time stopped when he blurted out his feelings, but ever since she told him that she felt the same, he had never went up to her. Not even once.

Rather, whenever he saw her, he would dart away his pupils and bit his lip as if treating her like a complete stranger that he didn’t know how to talk to.

Months has past ever since the ending of the war, and Lieutenant Jung was almost 100% certain, that Kim Jongin didn’t really like her. Perhaps, there might have been a slight attraction between them, but if Kai doesn’t even have the courage to talk this out between them, then she was sure, that he just didn’t really like her that much.

At least, not as much as she liked him.

She tried to suppress this pang of agony in her chest as she swung another blade at her component, knocking the young man on his knees.

She regained her senses and cleared . “This is how you can attack your opponent without using bare strength.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

With a dismiss from the first female Lieutenant, the soldiers packed their belongings and nodded their heads in farewell. Just when Krystal could finally loosen up her shoulders and pack her bags, the arena door swung open. She paid no attention to it, until the incoming footsteps stopped in front of her.

She lifted her head.

Speaking of the devil. She thought.

His orbs always looked like a galaxy of twinkling stars, one that draws her in with a magnetic pull, and that she could never look away from. But she clenched her fists until her palms hurt, and darted her gaze away before she could do something stupid like burst into tears in front of him.

“The arena is no longer occupied. You can use it if you want,” She paused.

“Lord Kim.”

She says, and turns her back towards him as she stuffed her belongings quickly into the bag.

This name sounds so foreign from her lips. He failed to hide a wince as he released a breath slowly. Just before she brushed past him, he caught her wrist.

“Let’s do a bet.”

Krystal tried to keep her eyes steady and calm.

“If you win this fight, I’ll grant you a favour. If I do, then you do me the same.” Kai says, weirdly with a determined glint in his eyes.

Krystal furrowed her brows as he drew his sword.

“Fine.” She said, accepting the challenge with a lift of her chin. She was never a woman to back off from challenges. Of course, Kai was more experienced, but that doesn’t mean Krystal had never won against him before.

There was also another reason behind her will to win.

If she won, then she’ll force him to tell the truth.

Whether he really liked her or not.

If he didn’t, then Krystal was ready to have her heart broken into pieces, and then get over him all over again.

But first, she had to win.

Krystal sliced first, and Kai parried sharply, mutating the cut into a . She dodged reflexively and cut from the other side, and Kai again parried. They moved, back and forth, exchanging relentless blows at each other, as their sword clangs transform into a harmonious duet. With every clash, Krystal’s anger only blazed fiercer. She hated that this fight reminded her of all the days and nights that they’ve shared. All the sore arms, dried up tears, knocked over swords through the blazing summer and chilling winter. All truthful advices, unwavering faith, and gentle care he had for her throughout the years. He said she was the ‘love of his life’, and yet he couldn’t even talk to her for the past three months.

She was sick of it.

She was sick of liking Kim Jongin, and god damn it, she hoped she could stop liking him for god’s sake. She blinked off the warmth in the rims of her eyes as she sliced harder, and harder, quicker and quicker, but Kai managed to block every single one of it, matching her pace, even.

Their couple dance lasted for almost half an hour, as they circled and ed their blades without hesitation.

Finally, Krystal found a crack in Kai’s smooth movements, a mistake in his routine. She caught that split second, and swung her sword towards him.

And just before the tips of her blade could reach his throat…

“Soojung.”

Her sword froze in midair.

Quickly, he caught her in a daze, and knocked off the sword in her hands, but Krystal was quick to realise that she almost fell into his trap. She tried to dodge his blow but part of the force still hits her, and she tumbled backwards with a loss of balance.

She felt a grasp on her waist, and when her back meets the ground, Kai fell on top of her. She was still panting to restore her breath, and he was also breathing just as heavily, both exhausted from the fight. But between their locked gaze, none of them darted their eyes away.

Sparks flew through the air, and all they could hear were the thunderous thump on their chests. Chemicals were dancing with glee in their circulating blood and Krystal felt like everything faded into silence.

Because he kissed her.

His mouth moved gently against hers, and she responded after only a second, moving carefully and slowly against his lips. He pulled her against him more tightly, as fire coursed through their bodies.

When she pulled away just to in a breath, he stared at her with a honey-dripping gaze, and a wide curl on his lips. Her cheeks flushed, but the firing rage in her was not yet extinguished.

“Did you have to win this fight?” She asked, earning him a nod as he held her up. She widened her eyes in disbelief, but he continued with a smile on his face.

“Aren’t you curious about my favour?”

“Won’t you want to know why I really wanted you to listen to my favour?”

She stood still, clueless to what he meant.

And then, he gave her the answer.

By lowering his knees to a kneel.

And flipping open a box from his pocket.

“Jung Soojung.” He said.

“You told me once, that you hated the fact that they called you the ‘ice princess’. Ever since when we were toddlers, I know you were not what the people say. Because long, long time ago, I have already seen the twinkling g