The rest of the day went as planned: dinner at five and dessert at seven out on the back patio to watch the sun seat over the Eastern waters. During dinner, the cooks had made sure to prepare their best dishes and the duchess could not keep shut as Taekwoon sat next to her, talking up a storm about all the silly kingdom politics before embarrassing the Cross name by telling him nerve wrecking stories about Alexander and Alice in their youth. Alexander’s wife, Jennifer, also felt as though it was utterly vital to add to these over exaggerated stories the Grand Duchess of Aria was telling Taekwoon by adding some of the more recent ones. Her mother was having a blast telling Taekwoon all these things about the family and although her father tried his best to quiet his wife, it was nearly impossible to refrain her. Taekwoon, on the other hand, listened carefully to these stories, about how Alice used to play hide and seek with her imaginary friends while her brother was in his studies, how she said that she wanted to be a centaur when she got older, even how she begged her father to let non-H species into the estate. Taekwoon listened to everything and Alice’s mother told him everything.

            “There was even this time a couple years back when Alice would always go out to the shore and talk to the ocean as if it understood her.” Her mother laughed, not bothering to take a look at her food or her daughter. “Whenever I asked her why she would always go out there, she would always tell me that they listened to her. How in the world is an ocean capable of listening? It’s not even a living thing. Out of all of the things my daughter had said in her life, that was probably the most ridiculous thing yet!”

            Her mother liked to laugh at everything Alice cared about. She laughed about the time Alice said she wanted to be a centaur, the time Alice said that she wanted to see a gargoyle, the time when Alice said that she wanted to become best friends with a lamia; her mother never failed to laugh at her wishes. And throughout the years, it never bothered her. Throughout the years of laughter and mock, Alice believed that it was her mother’s way of coping with a child such as herself. Because of this theory, Alice normally accepted her mother’s laughter because there was worse things her mother could have said but didn’t. Although Alice never really cared that her mother was basically embarrassing her in front of her possible future husband and that her mother has been basically laughing in her face all those years, that story was the one story that Alice did care about, the only one that was important to her, the one that Alice didn’t want her mother laughing at.

            And as Taekwoon looked over at her from the other side of the table, to confirm what her mother had said, he saw the hurt in her eyes as the older woman continued to laugh to her hearts content. Taekwoon could see in Alice’s eyes the frustration and the anger but also the betrayal, the opening of an old wound that never really healed and how her mothers laugh was only scrubbing salt into the flesh. But Alice’s hurt was only short lived as she excused herself from the dinning table. She left without a sound, without even a hint of hesitation to what she was leaving behind and as Taekwoon watched, she headed straight for the door in a calm rush. The Grand Duke hushed his wife and asked for Taekwoon’s forgiveness to his wife’s chatter. They were all allowed to eat again and it seemed as though he was the only one that saw her change in mood. It was as though he was the only on that saw her and even though he tried to continue eating his dinner in piece, he couldn’t help his thoughts from wandering back to the look in her eye, the sense of betrayal that lingered in them. He ate the food and he couldn’t disagree that it was well prepared but that crushed look in Alice’s eyes made everything seem distasteful. The image had bore its way into his head, carved itself in the back of his mind and taunted him every time he thought about it. Her eyes hollow and empty, alone, as if she was the only person who was forced to stand against the entire world. It was as though she had no one by her side, not her father, nor her mother, not even her own brother. The look in her eye, it was a similar look he had seen before, many times before. The look of abandonment, of dishonor, that look as though she was unimportant, trivial to the entire being of the house. He had seen those eyes before and it reminded him.

            It had taken her a while to return and by the time she did, dinner was coming to an end. Alice returned in a new change of clothes, now wearing a simple peach colored dress that flowed down to the floor and sleeves matching in style and length. Her excuse was that the previous had become too uncomfortable for her too bear and that she had to change. Although he didn’t buy it, everyone else did as they got up to move to the back patio. Taekwoon insisted that he stayed with Alice so that she could finish her food but she refused the offer and was the first person out the dinning hall and to the patio chairs. He sat next to her as they were served dessert and as the chatter picked up again between Alice’s mother and Jennifer, Alice continued to remain silent and Taekwoon couldn’t help from turning her way. Even though he hardly knew her, even though this was the first time they met, he wasn’t dumb to believe that she was alright and it bothered him that her own family couldn’t pick up on the hints either.

            “My daughter isn’t like her mother, the speaking type,” The Grand Duke smiled lightly towards Taekwoon, “If anything, she is more like myself: more quiet and reserved.”

            Taekwoon smiled. “I’ve noticed.”

            “So how do you like her so far Arch Duke?” the duchess asked in eager as she leaned forward in her seat. “I’ve tried so hard to refrain myself from asking but I can no longer wait.”

            “She is a charming and interesting young woman.” Taekwoon answered, looking over at her who only looked down at her piece of untouched chocolate cake. “If she lets me, I would be happy to make her my wife.”

            Silence befell as all eyes were on Alice and her decision. She looked up from her piece of cake, meeting the eager eyes of her mother and even her father. They had always told her that there was no prouder moment in a parent’s life then when their child is married. They were ecstatic to hear of Alexander’s betrothal and they had been working endlessly to find herself the perfect suitor who just so happened to be sitting right next to her. Even though marriage was something that she didn’t want, even though she wanted to have married the person that she loved, love was never an option when it came to her and marriage. Love was never a luxury the people of her status could enjoy. It was just like her mother had said so many times to her in the past: We don’t marry for love. Alice could feel her heart trembling inside her chest as she tried so hard to keep it all in. All those years that her mother had told her that, she always disagreed. All those years, Alice believed that she was going to marry the man that she loved, that she was going to find a man on her own and fall in love with him before getting married but here she was, asking if she was going to marry a man she hardly knew. This was pretty much his proposal to her and it was nothing like she had ever dreamed. We marry for status and hope that somewhere down the line, we fall in love with the man we married.

            Oh how she begged she could have said now. If only she could have said “We’ll see” or something along those lines. If only she could have told her parents to wait a little longer, to give her time to know just who Taekwoon was but she couldn’t. She couldn’t crush the twinkling look in her mother’s eyes, she couldn’t tell her father no after his constant worry of whether or not his daughter was going to be married. There was no point for her to continue single. She couldn’t continue to burden her parents the way she did. The sagging of her father’s skin, the wrinkles that the ends of her mother’s eyes, they were much too old to continue looking for her suitor. She was sure their hearts couldn’t take another rejection on her part. With her marriage they could finally die a happy death, continue living their lives knowing that they will be leaving their daughter in the hands of a capable man. Within a year, she was sure to be able to produce an heir to the Jung house and a grandchild to them, and she was sure that nothing would have made them happier to hear that they were going to have grandchildren. When she looked at them and when she looked at Taekwoon, all of her parent’s biggest worries would have been gone if she had only said yes. She would no longer be a burden to her parents, they would be happy and that’s all she ever wanted. No matter how much it tore her apart inside, she just wanted them to be happy.

            “I will allow it.”

            And the joy that showered over her mother’s face was a sight Alice could never forget, no matter how hard she may try. She jumped up from her seat to embrace her daughter, tears streaming down the 48 year old woman’s face. After almost half a year of countless searching, of constant rejections and trials, finally she was ready to see her only daughter get married. Her father had the biggest grin Alice had ever seen on him in a while as he welcomed Taekwoon to the family, Alexander grinning before giving his new brother in law a hearty handshake and a word of congratulations. Jennifer was ecstatic to see her little sister in law finally getting married and happily followed the normally collected Grand Duchess into the house to prepare for the wedding. Alice’s father and Alexander followed in unison to leave the two to be alone. As the breeze picked up and the silence wrapped around them, they sat there in the patio, Taekwoon looking at his future wife and seeing nothing but that hollow look in her eye.

            “Should I leave you be?” He asked, looking at her softly, knowing that she was ready to shatter into pieces before him if another wrong word was said. Taekwoon brushed her wavy hair behind her ear. Everyone else was happy, even he himself was happy. Everyone was happy but her.

            And she tried so hard not to crack at that moment that her words barely came below a whisper as she held her head low, staring at nothing but the piece of cake that sat on her lap, ignored and rejected. “Please.”

---

Alice leaned against the railing of the third floor balcony, looking out at the ocean that reached out to the starry night and kissed it in a sweet bliss off into a dark abyss she wished she could run after. It was night and the world had gone to bed as the stars came out to play and the moon glowed beautiful from heaven above. The gentle breezes from the West played with her hair and trailed along the ends of her dress, encasing her in a veil as she tried to keep her heart from breaking. She tried to remember how the view looked like in the morning, how the sun would glisten against the waters and how, if she watched closely, she could see the mermaids dance before her in an attempt to make her smile. She remembered that she would spend hours here, just staring out into the distance, trying to find something that would fill the void in her chest and make her whole again. All those years that she had spent searching, she never found it but as she stood there now, staring off at the world she called home, she knew she had found what she was searching for. She knew that she had found that missing piece that had take her years to find but had always been there all along. She had yearned for something more but all she ever wanted was right before her and she scorned herself for taking so long to find it.

            Alone, she looked around at the green pastures that now swayed in the wind with a wash of blue splashed over by the translucent glow of the towering moon. Even to this very day, the magic the moon played on the grass made it look like the ocean and she laughed lightly to herself, remembering the stories of her past, the memories that she always held dear.

            “What’s so funny?” Taekwoon asked as he walked out into the balcony, walking up beside her before placing a blanket over her shoulders. He made sure to wrap it tight around her, to make sure that she could at least stay a bit warm despite all that had happened.

            Alice smiled to herself, taking a hold the blanket to keep it from falling off her shoulders. “When I was little, I used to come out here with my best friend and pretend that the house was on the ocean and I was the captain of the grand vessel at sea.” She looked over the landscape, a look of reminisce befalling her as she remembered how she used to run around on the balcony when she was supposed to be in bed. “She was a maid here, a non-H named was Maria. She was an elf and even though she was old, she was so pretty. She would sit out here and play with me when I was sad.”

            “What happened to her?”

            Alice looked out onto the ocean, smiling softly to herself. “She died when I was 12.”

            Taekwoon looked down at her, not willing to ask as he traced his fingers down the length of her hair, brushing it behind her ear as she continued to look out onto the ocean, the only friend she had left. She could feel herself cracking again and the fact that he was there, that she would have a shoulder to cry on made it seem all the more tempting. But she refused. She didn’t want to cry in front of him or anyone else in that matter. She didn’t want to dwell on these thoughts that she held dear to her, thoughts and memories that sculpted her to become the person she was today. She didn’t want to mourn for someone that was looked over by everyone else.

            “What about the wedding,” She asked, no longer able to keep her mind on the distant past without having her heart break to bits. Alice turned to Taekwoon, facing him to only find herself looking into his chest as she leaned against the wide marble railings of the balcony, finding warmth in his touch has finger curled lightly behind her neck. “I’m surprised mother hasn’t approached me about it.”

            “I’ve asked them to withhold it for now.” Taekwoon said softly, bowing his head so that his forehead pressed against the top of hers. “There’s been trouble lately in Vlascu and it may be troublesome if it was made public that you are my wife.”

            Alice looked up at him with large grey eyes as he looked down at her, “What kind of trouble?”

            “It’s nothing that you have to worry about. Just a lot of political problems.” Taekwoon sighed, closing his eyes as she stood close to him, him leaning close to her for support. “I know it may seem brash but I will need you to come with me tomorrow morning when I leave.”

            “Have you asked my parents?”

            “I would rather you stay here until I am ready to bring you to Vlascu but your mother is the one that insisted you come.”

            Those words broke her poor little heart even more. “Then we shall leave by dawn.” Alice said softly before removing herself from him. “I will be heading to bed. It’ll be best you do so as well.”

            So she turned and she left, walking back into the building before disappearing into the darkness. And Taekwoon watched as she left, sure that she was shattered inside from the turn of events that entire day. He sighed heavily as he watched her leave; unable to do a thing for her but to offer the most support that he could possible muster. But even then it wouldn’t be enough considering all that he had waiting for him back in Vlascu. Slumping his shoulders, he leaned over to rest his elbow on the wide railing, looking out unto the ocean that stretched farther than he could ever imagine. As he looked out, he remembered the story that the duchess had told him, about how Alice would go out to the shore. He didn’t understand what any of that meant and although he wanted to believe in Alice’s words, he couldn’t imagine how the ocean would be able to listen and respond to a person. It was impossible because, just like her mother said, the ocean wasn’t alive. As he took a deep breath, he sighed again before standing up straight on his two feet. Everything was trivial, the ocean, the stories, even the joy of her parents. Tomorrow he was going to be taking her back to Vlascu and he had a really bad feeling about it.