Yi Hyun, Crown Prince of Joseon, doesn't want to get married, until he absolutely has to. Especially when he can enjoy his freedom with his close friend, Son Eon-jin, the daughter of Right State Councilor Son.
Until the king takes the matter to his...
"Ten points!" The junior royal guard shouts as the arrow touches its mark on the target. Yi Hyun squints his eyes at the distance satisfactorily and picks another arrow to shoot.
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Beside horse riding, archery is the crown prince's choice of activity to calm himself. Or to work out his anxiousness. Focusing on a target allows him the time to think about something else other than what currently transpires around him.
Namely, the festivity surrounding the inauguration of the Heart Race that will be held in an hour, after the sun sets down for the day. He has a long week in which he spent it by having internal debate about the royal event and the contemplation yielded nothing as of now.
He is not exactly warming up to the idea of the race, but at some point he can no longer escape his responsibility to ensure the continuity of the royal lineage. Albeit still feels premature to him, he will have to set aside his grave reservation and accept his fate.
And if he has to tie himself in holy matrimony, his mind wonders whether he can bestow upon his consort a more favorable living environment than the king ever gave his mother.
Too many factors he can't control to have an immediate answer, to be honest. He needs a long period of time to give it a thought. But at least, the event gives him a chance to spend time getting to know each of the contestants and measure his compatibility with them.
For the inauguration, invitations have been sent out to his choices of ladies, all twelve of them, to meet him for the first time tonight.
Although calling it their first meeting is certainly not applicable to one of them. He never counts it, but surely he has met Eon-jin in more than two hundred days since last year.
Yi Hyun smiles remembering the direct invitation he sent her way when they met two days ago at the library after his confucianism lecture with Left State Councilor Cho.
"Jeoha, what is this?" Eon-jin took the scroll with question in her eyes.
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Those expressive eyes filled his nightly dreams ever since he, in an uncompromisingly forthright way, included her name as the twelfth lady of his choice last week. If only she knew, despite his reservation, he wanted to mention her name first and foremost.
