Two years passed, and Taehyung had finally started becoming a prince he could be proud of. He had apologized to me and my mother for being so rude for the first week of our friendship, but since then, we were inseparable. He would often come to the shrine to see me practice my dances and listen to my songs.
The prince was smiling more and enjoying his studies. He often talked with his parents when he had troubles now, and he had accepted his role as the future king. He had thought he needed to be perfect in the past, and now he knew that as long as he did his best and never lied, it would all be alright. Failure kept him humble, but it would never hold him back like it once did before.
On my sixth birthday, my mother gifted me with my first shrine maiden robe. Of red and gold, it hung loosely around my shoulders and tied around my waist with a golden sash. A set of golden threads looped into small snakes on each lapel of my robe connected with a red thread across the chest.
When i was dressed in it, i was eager to show Taehyung, but first wanted to learn a dance to properly show the robe off. It was my first ever maiden robe and i had been training in the shrine for as long as i could remember now.
my mother who was growing older every year laughed as i would occasionally stumble over the long robe's fabric as i attempted to learn the way it moved with you. That evening, Taehyung had come to the shrine to see me, having not heard a word from me all day.
When he arrived however, i was fast asleep on the marble floor, resting against the side of the fountain placed inside the shrine of the purest sea water. A pyramid of bells rolled out of my palm as i sat peacefully asleep into my new robe.
"Good evening, Young Prince," my mother greeted, making Taehyung jolt. "I'm sorry if you've come to see dahyun. My daughter practiced too hard it seems and fell asleep the moment she sat to rest." Taehyung looked and watched you sleep against the fountain.
Over the course of my training and aging, he had felt a spiritual power grow alongside the power he felt in himself. He still remembers the day i finally broke him of his shell when you told him how you would train to be the proud priestess your mother said you'd be one day.
He smiled as he walked to me, lifting my lulled head up and placing it on his shoulder as he sat next to you on the shrine floor. He looked up at my mother who was stuck between telling the prince to not sit on the floor and to just wake you up.
"Do you mind if I sit with her for a while?" He asked as she just smiled.
"Stay as long as you'd like," she told him before retreating back to the castle. She later returned with the queen by her side when dinner came around and the two just stifled laughs at the young prince's head resting on yours, you both fast asleep.
