Crowned Prince | hendery

10: In the Room

If awkwardness could take form, it would have been this room. The room, just as the castle was not too grandiose or huge, so was the room that they would be sharing. It was the same size as her room, the one that shares a living area with Hendery, but the difference with that room was that she had that space all to herself, which she had to share with the prince.

"I would like to make myself clear," Hendery takes a step inside the room right after her closing the room behind him, "I have no intentions to disrespect you or your honor."

Taeha turns her head away from the prince. This was a talk that she was not ready to share with him just yet. "That is enough," she could not stand sitting through this any longer, "we are engaged, not married, there are limits." That was how she ended the conversation with the prince.

"No," when she expected silence, she was greeted by the prince's protest, making a shy face, that she hid away from him, turned to look at him, "I do not have plans to disrespect your honor even after we wed." Hendery was looking at her straight in the eye without batting an eyelash or wavering with the resolve written on his face.

Taeha stands there completely baffled and she wasn't trying her best to hide the shock that was written on her face. "Do you," she pauses, unsure what words to use to ask him, "perhaps," she tries to stall, "have a lover?"

In an instant Hendery's eyebrows knit together. "I have loved," again no trace of malice or lies on his face, "but I do not have a lover."

Taeha tilts her head. Before straightening her back as her face reflects one thought in her mind, realization. Her once relaxed body goes stiff as she stands up properly, just as she has been taught. "You do not look like someone who has loved."

"What is it that you are trying to imply?" Hendery takes a step forward.

Taeha was prepared to answer, but their conversation was cut short when a knock echoed in the quaint room that they shared. The two immediately take a step back as the door to the room opens with both their heads focused on who was entering the room. There, probably for the first time since she got married, she sees the former princess and now countess standing by the door.

In an instant Hendery looks away.

"Glory to the kingdom of Hwei, and to the kingdom of Sui" she bows her head.

"There's no need for such formality, lady Guanxi." Taeha shakes her head with a smile on her face, one that greets her as soon as she lifts her head upwards. "We have known each other for far too long for you to act that way towards me."

Indeed, unlike her relationship with Hendery prior to this engagement, her interactions with Guanxi have been countless. Before her marriage, during the gathering of the lands it wasn't uncommon for princesses of several kingdoms to gather among themselves and gossip and it wasn't out of practice either that they share company with each other outside of the gatherings. In grand weddings, it was common for princesses to huddled together gossiping among themselves. Theirs was not mere acquaintance, but friendship.

That is until she got married a few years ago.

"I have not seen or conversed with you in so long." Taeha walks up to the countess and grabs her hands.

Guanxi simply offers a smile. "It is great to see you, princess." She turned back, taking her hands away from Taeha as she looked back towards the two maids that stood behind her. "I came in order to give you extra blankets and pillows," she lets the two maids enter the room and rest the extra blankets on the couch, "knowing that the prince would not dare share bed with his betrothed."

"Is that your assumption?" Hendery retaliates almost instantly, making Taeha turn her head around immediately.

"We conversed about a similar topic earlier, Hendery." Taeha, if she could, would've pushed the countess behind her back.