In Another Life

And So It Begins

The boys all made a plan, if she was forced to be married, one of them had to take up the offer. It wasn't going to be Kangdae because they were siblings, so the question lied between Heeseung, Jake, Sunghoon and Jay.

They all thought that she was a very ambitious girl, she was also quite beautiful... but they didn't want to force themselves if she had someone else in mine.

The most troublesome thing was that they could never get a good read on Mingyue. She was also so serene and sensible, they had no doubt that she would make a great queen. The only problem was with who she would want to rule with.

None of the boys thought that they were very restrictive, but they also had to see this from her perspective. They had different lifestyles so 'restrictive' could be completely different for them.

"I can marry her if the time comes."

"Why do you look so sad Jake?" Ayame asked, seeing Jake walk out of room. Shortly after the four older older boys walk out too.

"No reason. Hey, we haven't really gotten a chance to catch up, how have you been?"

"I've been alright, although I'm getting weird vibes from Mingyue. She was completely rude to me yesterday."

"Was this the discussion on marriage in the kitchen?"

"No, it was before then. We were in the study and she was very harsh to me. I complimented her and she was very arrogant about it. It was mearly a compliment, she didn't have to go as far as to call me a–" Ayame started crying, "She called me an ugly whore."

Jake found this quite hard to believe. But he still comforted her anyways. Why would Mingyue call Ayame a whore? He had no clue– he wasn't even sure if it happened in the first place.

"Are you sure it wasn't a misunderstanding?"

"I knew no one would believe me! She seems so sweet and kind! I was deceived too." Her sobs got louder. This attracted the attention from the passing servants.

"Let's go somewhere where you can cry freely, yeah?" Jake said, leading her to the pavilion in the garden. A little smirk played on her face as she thought that he was convinced.

"And she claimed that Mingyue called her a whore." Jake told the Hyung group.

"That doesn't sound remotely like Mingyue?" Heeseung questioned.

"But we've only known her a little more than a week..." Jay butted in as devils advocate.

"What if Ayame was being over dramatic, we all know how she gets sometimes. It's not out of the ordinary to stretch the truth." Sunghoon commented.

"But that means that there has to be some truth in the story she told." Kangdae pointed out. "I think that I'll have to talk to Haneul about keeping an eye on the both of them."

Hums of agreement filled the vacant room.

From then on, the whole group would still hang out without a problem, but Haneul was to be watching for any suspicious behavior coming from either Ayame or Mingyue.

"We're going to go star gazing, do you want to join?"

"Yeah sure, causal attire?"

"Yup! Meet you near the grand entrance in ten minutes?"

Mingyue rushed to get ready, it didn't take her as long as it used to and she didn't really need Ms. Byun's help as much.

"Mingyue, The Queen has summoned you."

"Can't I refuse? I'm going star gazing...."

"I'm afraid summon is a command."

Mingyue sighed, but she nodded understanding that she really didn't have a choice in this matter. "Could you tell the others not to wait up? And that I'll eventually join them."

Ms. Byun nodded, leaving the princess alone. She really didn't want to see her mother. She hadn't talked to her mother in ages it felt like.

Ms. Byun did just that, informing all of the royal children that Mingyue would be delayed.

"Isn't it odd how Mingyue wanted to join, but ditches us?" Ayame asked.

"She didn't ditch us, The Queen called for her." Jungwon pointed out, "Plus, seeing how she acts around her mother doesn't exactly say that it was a thing that Mingyue wanted."

"What do you mean?" Jay asked quietly, more so for the younger boy to hear him than anyone else.

"You can see in her body language that something isn't right between them. Jay, did you ever notice that when The Queen walks by, she stands a little bit straighter? Her smile seems a little more dull?" Jungwon whispered.

"I see, don't mention this to anyone else."

Jungwon looked confused at the older boys words, but nevertheless nodded. It must've been important if he was told to keep it quiet.

"This seems like a good place?" Heeseung said, stopping on the top of a hill. He, along with some of the others, laid out the blankets for everyone to share.

Everyone gathered around, some sitting on the blanket and gazing upwards, others laying down. The night was beautiful to be star gazing, there were no clouds nor anything else that could take away the attention from the bright starts.

Maybe an hour or so had passed before everyone started getting nervous for Mingyue.

"Should we head back to check on her?" Haneul asked, her heart couldn't take the suspense of not knowing what was happening to her sister.

"I'll go back with you." Heeseung said.

"She's probably getting a lesson." Ayame said, rolling her eyes.

"Lesson for what? She's gotten a couple months ahead with her studies already." Haneul stated.

"Not those kinds of lessons genius." Ayame pulled Haneul in closer and whispered, "the kind that her eomeoni used to get to your dad. I heard that she's trying to seduce the princes. Just watch out for her."

"Are you ready to head back Haneul?" Heeseung asked, helping the princess up. She dusted off her dress before nodding.

"What did Ayame say? You looked uncomfortable." Heeseung broke the silence.

"It was just something strange... I don't understand where it came from though."

"Do you want to get it off you chest?"

"I'm not sure if I can talk about it with you..." 

"It's probably not as bad as you think it is."