Mura blissfully slurps on her warm rice soup before she takes a gulp of her rice wine and lets out a satisfied sound. 

"Nui, aaah." Sehun widens his mouth, and Mura feeds him a spoonful of her soup before feeding herself again.

Jongdae observes with distaste. "You ought to be watching how much you eat. You are looking quite stout these days."

"What's it to you, vermin?" Mura bites back. 

"Just expressing my concerns." Jongdae provides a fake smile.

"How about you express silence," Kyungsoo says with a solemn expression.

Jongdae sneers at him. "Excuse me, I was not speaking to you."

"Yet, you manage to get on my nerves."

"Your fixation towards me is disconcerting."

"You are mistaking repulsion with fixation."

"Aish, silence! You two get on my nerves," Junmyeon scolds.

"You ought to become used to all the nagging and bickering, as in a week you are to have your very own nagger at home." Minseok teases.

Jongdae and Sehun cackle, finding it rather hilarious. Chanyeol, as always, is silently drinking his liquor. They're all in a tavern, enjoying some food and alcohol. 

"I cannot believe you are to be married this coming week." Mura expresses sadly. 

"Ah, Mura-ya, do not despair. It is not as though I'm going to disappear completely." Junmyeon tries to comfort her.

The table becomes quiet and an air of melancholy takes over the atmosphere. "Ya, you all are acting as though I'm going into war. Let us be festive, fellas! I am to be wedded, after all." Junmyeon prompts everyone to cheer, but no one does.

"Nui had mentioned how things are going to change..." Sehun muses sadly.

Jumyeon sighs with frustration. "I had hoped for an evening filled with excitement and joy, but instead it feels as though I'm at my own funeral."

"Hyung is right, we must celebrate his wedding, not mourn it." Chanyeol speaks up.

"Still, you cannot deny how disheartening it is that we will see less of oraboni. Who will save us from Jongdae and Kyungsoo's incessant quarrels?" Mura argues.

"Ya!" Both Jongdae and Kyungsoo utter in unison, offended.

"Do not pretend you don't join in." Kyungsoo says.

"Precisely." Jongdae agrees.

"It is true I won't be available as frequently as I had been, but no need to fret, my precious cousins, I shall make time for you. Just less of it. As I've mentioned earlier, I won't be disappearing completely. So please, let us live in the present and enjoy our evening." Junmyeon appeases everyone. 

"Congratulations, hyung. Truly happy for you and may you have joyous matrimony with healthy children in the future." Chanyeol toasts.

"Congratulations." The others also express with half the enthusiasm.

In spite of it, Junmyeon grins happily. At least, they are trying. 

"Speaking of weddings." Minseok changes the subject. "Have you heard? The palace is looking for a suitress for the Crown Prince."

"Indeed." Junmyeon confirms.

"Do you think I should submit my name for the selection?" Minseok grins mischievously. 

"If you wish to offend the royal family and be imprisoned, by all means..." Kyungsoo states. 

"Such a shame. I would've made a fitting royal consort. A shaman had once told me that I was destined for something greater." Minseok boasts.

Jongdae snorts. "A royal consort who cannot bear a royal heir. Fitting indeed."

"A man can dream," Minseok argues.

"Minseok hyung, how much longer will you keep engaging in such vices? For your own sake, I urge you to stop," Junmyeon expresses.

Minseok makes a bored expression. "By vice, you imply my practice of sodomy?" 

Junmyeon's eyes turn wide. "Shh, hyung, you cannot utter such a thing in public!" 

"You are such a prude, Jummyeon." Minseok dismisses his cousin's words.

"Nui, you are of age, do you wish to submit your name for the selection?" Sehun asks Mura.

Jongdae guffaws. "Mura? For the crown princess selection?" He proceeds to laugh even harder. 

Everyone at the table, with the exception of Sehun, snickers at the sheer absurdity. Even Chanyeol breaks into a smirk.

"You are all so cruel towards my nui." Sehun grumbles.

"Ah, Sehun-ah, it is quite all right. I, myself, find the idea quite humorous." Mura admits. "Can you envision me in the palace as a royal?" She cackles, while a loud snort slips out.

"Is that a challenge? Because I have failed already. It is a difficult thing to envision." Kyungsoo says.

"Difficult? It is downright impossible." Jongdae chimes in. 

"Forget a prince, gomonim¹ can't even get a low-ranking son of a nobleman to marry our Mura," Minseok adds.

They all proceed to laugh. Except for Sehun.

"You all are wrong!" Sehun chides. "Nui will make a great wife. A man can only dream of having a life partner in the likes of her. And, she can become the crown princess of this nation if she so wishes. There is nothing nui can't do."

"Now, this is what you call fixation," Kyungsoo mutters to Jongdae, making the other nod in agreement.

Sehun had always looked up to Mura.

"Wow, Sehun-ah, those are such bold claims you make. You have more faith in me than I have in myself." Mura tells her cousin. "Here, have some more soup." She proceeds to feed the other some more. "Never marry, huh Sehun-ah? Even if all the others do, do not follow in their steps. You and I shall stick together, while the others turn their backs on us."

The youngest happily nods, as he chews his mouth full of rice, more than happy to comply with his most favored cousin's wishes. They may be five years apart, but they share the same hopeful optimism that teeters on childlike innocence. 

While Jongdae and Kyungsoo roll their eyes. The rest simply chortle.

╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝

Lady Kim enters her and her husband's shared chamber to find the other writing on a piece of paper. "I've brought you some morsels to nibble on."

Lord Park smiles at his wife. "Thank you."

Lady Kim takes a peek at the piece of paper. "What is this?"

Lord Park hesitates before answering. "Application for the royal consort selection, on behalf of our Mura."

Lady Kim is stunned. "What?"

Lord Park blinks nervously.

Lady Kim tries to snatch the paper from her husband but fails.

"What are you doing?" Lord Park questions.

"Have you lost all your senses? Why would you send in our daughter's name? I have no desire to marry her into the royal family. You must stop this, at once!"

Lord Park had expected this from his wife. Neither of them was fond of the inner workings of the royal palace. Even more so Lady Park. However, she is not privy to the conversation that Lord Park had with the King, and for the time being, that is how Lord Park wanted to keep the matter. Furthermore, he is still hopeful that after the queen's court meets his daughter, the King will withdraw his decision. There is no point in inciting mayhem in his household at this time.

"My dear, this is merely out of obligation. The palace requires all high-ranking noblemen, who have daughters of age, to submit their names. I cannot go against the royal command." Lord Park explains.

Lady Kim sighs defeatedly and sits down

"Besides, submission of details is not confirmation of participation. She may not even be picked for the first stage of the selection. And, even if they do call her for it, do you believe she will make it past it?"

"I suppose you are right." Lady Kim pauses momentarily. "Tonight is maybe the first time I am grateful for our daughter's... eccentricities."

"Our wonderful gift." Lord Park adds.

Lady Kim smiles fondly. Mura is their only child, and even her conception came after years of struggling to conceive a child for the couple. Lady Kim may be strict with her daughter, but she considers her child her greatest achievement---a true gift from the heavens, and she could never stand to watch her daughter grapple with the stifling affairs of the palace. She would rather have her remain a spinster for the rest of her life.

"Omoni!" Comes the resounding voice of Mura from outside.

"We must tell her." Lady Kim looks at her husband, who nods. "Come to our chamber." Lady Kim shouts.

The sliding door opens and an energetic Mura enters the room. She sits next to her father and with much enthusiasm picks up a piece of morsel from the plate perched in front of them and inserts it in . "I've brought everything you have asked of me." She tells her mother.

"Aish, swallow your food before you speak." Lady Kim admonishes. 

Mura simply shrugs off her mother's words, as she always does. 

"My dear, there is something we must tell you." Lord Park says to his daughter. 

Mura simply hums, as she inserts another piece of morsel into .

"I am sending in a letter of application on your behalf for the royal consort selection."

Mura's mouth opens so widely at the shock of the news that the piece of partially chewed-up morsel falls out of it. Her mother proceeds to slap her for being, in her words, so revolting. And, Mura is utterly perplexed by everything. 

"But, why?" She asks. 

Her father supplies the same explanation as he did to her mother earlier.

"I see. Very well." Mura simply says. She is not too worried. It is as her father said---submission did not equate to confirmation.

Lord Park, on the other hand, feels sick to his stomach for lying to his sweet daughter.

╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝

The day of Junmyeon's wedding arrives, and with it comes the inevitable yet dreaded message from the royal palace. 

After the Park family returns to their residence from the wedding celebrations, they are greeted by a royal messenger, who bows and unrolls the scroll in his hand. "The queen's court wishes to inform the second state councilor, Park Sacheol, that his letter of application for the royal selection of the crown princess, on behalf of his daughter, Park Mura, has been approved, and young lady Park has been duly chosen to partake in the first of the three-stage process." The messenger continues to read the rest of the message before he ends with the date on which the first stage will take place and well wishes from the royal family, after which he departs. 

The earlier celebratory mood turns dour as the family of three silently takes everything in.

Lady Kim eventually breaks the discomforting silence with a sigh. "Very well, it seems we have preparations to make. Tomorrow is a new day." She says with indifference before trudging inside.

"Mura." Lord Park calls.

The said woman smiles at her father. "It is merely the first stage. There is no way I may advance to the second stage. Isn't that correct, aboji?"

Lord Park can only bring himself to nod.

With reassurance from her father, Mura walks inside her chamber; unbothered and completely unaware of the fate that awaits her.

╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝

Translation:

Gomonim: Aunt.