How To Win A Husband ✔️

Part 3

"Lady Goeun, we heard about the incident that occurred last night, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Lady Hyerin repeatedly checked my hands and my face for any injuries.

She was the first to come up to me when I came in the dining room this morning and I was grateful for that. "it was an unexpected turn of events but it was taken care of swiftly. You don't have to worry anymore" I gave her a smile and ushered her to sit down with the rest.

We all greeted each other again and I found some familiar faces. Although I couldn't remember all, the names that stuck out to me the most were Nari and Miyoung. I had met them at Lady Byeols residence when I went with mother.

As we were all finishing up our meal, the door slid open and Court Lady Choi came in gracefully. "Have all the meals cleared away, our first lesson begins today." Immediately, the maids came swarming in and in no time, the tables were clean and tidy. "I am sure you guys know the rules that are to be followed when in this selection. But let me go over it once more to stress the importance of it." She eyed all of us but no one dared to look back at her and instead, we kept our eyes down.

"The contestants will not be able to leave on her own accord. However she can be dismissed by the crown prince or the King himself, which will not be a pleasant experience."

"This is to be a fair match and any signs of cheating, sabotaging, or fighting will not be tolerated. Punishments will be handed out according to the degree of crime that has been committed."

"And lastly, although we are testing to see your level of skills and intelligence, the decision will ultimately be up to the crown prince himself. "

"So to wrap this up, I would like to thank you all for being here and I would like to wish you ladies good luck on the upcoming tests." "Now, shall we begin?"

Court Lady Choi clapped her hands and the maids came in once again. "We will begin a physical checkup and screening for today. A spouse for the crown princess has to be healthy, pure, and have no scars on her body. We will be recording it down in your charts as the first step of this process. Do not worry, it will all be done separately and privately, and our records shall not be leaked to anyone but me and if needed, the crown prince."

We all waited for our turns as the maids ushered a few ladies out at a time.

I knew I was going to go through this, but having them check my body like that makes me feel weird inside. Noble ladies take care of their skin very well and are treated like a delicate flower. And just as how they treat us, we are required to look and act like a flower. Delicate, beautiful, pure, and obedient.

---

Once everyone was done, we were all dismissed for today. She said we could have our own personal time to either go to the pavilions or rest in our rooms.

"It's just the afternoon and we came out of our rooms a few hours ago.." I muttered to myself as I wandered around the endless halls. I heard someone's running footsteps from behind me and quickly turned to see who it was. There stood Hyerin holding her knees as she was panting, stabilizing herself.

"What's with the rush Hyerin? Do you want to tag along with me?" I smiled at her holding her hand up to me to give her a minute. "I wanted to take you to this beautiful spot I found in the palace yesterday. Do you want to come with me?" she showed me her pearly teeth as she linked our arms together.

I don't know when we dropped formalities but it felt more comfortable to talk to each other casually.
I also figured out that we were the same age, only I was a few months older.

"Then you can lead the way"

"Let's gooo" she put her other hand forward and eagerly led the way there

---

"Wow" I admit, the place she took me to was so beautiful. We walked along the bridge as we observed the nature around us. There was many water lilies floating above the lake and the cherry blossom trees surrounded both of our sides. Right ahead, I saw a sitting place that I fell in love with immediately.

"Let's go sit down over there. It's such a beautiful spot where we can see everything happening around us."

We sat in comfortable silence until I broke it first. "Hyerin, if you become the crown princess, do you think this place would make you truly happy?"

She pondered over this question and her eyes scanned the area before she smiled. "If this place can't make me happy, I'll just have to be the one that makes this a happy place."

I was in awe with her way of words and I smiled as well. "Have you ever met the crown prince before? All I hear is how handsome he is or how he's got both the looks and the brains."

"No I haven't, but the girls here say that he's an eye candy to look at. They saw him passing by and I swear one of the ladies said they saw the gates of heaven open."

We looked at each other before we fell into fits of laughter at how cringey that was. The rest of our afternoon passed by like that, with us telling our childhood stories and getting to know one another better.

Just as how we were surrounded by pretty flowers and cherry trees that day, our friendship slowly started to blossom beautifully.