The Hands of Time

Chapter 12: Stalking Horse

Snow had fallen for a few days now and Jimin had been busy planning a strategy that might bring them to victory with The Royal Army, but mostly, with the rest of her crew.

She kept the information Minjeong had told her to herself, fearing for the reaction that the others might give her, especially Kim Aeri who knew that she was in love with The Princess.

Jimin was screwed. Not only in this era, but also in the future.

Trying her best not to let the thoughts affect her, she continued doing what she had to do, to fix her mistake she did, saving The Princess, and also to keep her alive. Even if she wouldn't and couldn't be together with her, she wished that Kim Minjeong would have a different fate than she originally had. She was going to make sure of it.

Right now, she wished that she hadn't eaten her dinner because looking at Minjeong's joyful face staring at her as she put a spoonful of food inside of her mouth, swallowing it down to her already full tummy, she genuinely wished she could give her a more genuine smile.

"Is it not good?" She asked her, frowning.

Jimin shook her head. "It's good, I'm just a bit full."

Eyeing her body in a weird way, the woman tilted her head. "Do you even eat at all?"

"Excuse me?" She laughed it off, knowing all of the food and energy was always drained out of her by the amount of activity she had to do. "Are you calling me skinny? Because you should take a look at yourself."

Minjeong shrugged but smiled. "I guess we both are small."

That night, Jimin managed to play it off as a dream and hallucination that Minjeong had of her. Though the woman looked like she still had questions inside her head, she kept them to herself as they continued talking with lighter topics that Jimin led her to.

"Do you now have any relatives?"

Still curious, of course. Jimin couldn't blame her, after all, the woman didn't even know her name. "No." She shook her head, continued munching on her food slowly. "Do you have siblings?" It was her trick, leading back the question to Minjeong whenever she asked about herself.

"I do. But we're not very close, my mom died when she gave birth to me and people said she was my father's first love, so he has a special place in him for me." She scrunched up her nose and Jimin smiled. "I rarely see them, I know that the rest of them are closer to each other than me, but well.. I guess they hate me."

She did notice it too, the other princesses were not as kind as Minjeong and seemed to be whispering behind her back. It made her a bit upset whenever she witnessed it, but she also wondered why. "Because your father favors you more?"

"I don't know why they think that, he was ready to send me far away to form an alliance." She took her own spoon to her mouth and munched slowly as Jimin waited. "If The Prince didn't refuse, I'm pretty sure he would still force me." She sighed. "He's probably planning to send me to marry someone else now."

Jimin eyed her, smiling pitifully as her own heart clenched unpleasantly. "You don't want to marry anyone?"

"I don't want to marry someone I don't have feelings for."

She didn't have to ask, the familiar blush appearing on her face every time a certain topic came up already taught her what or who Minjeong was thinking about. "I thought you said he has something with the other princess?"

When Minjeong told her she thought that Jimin and Ningning were in a relationship, she almost laughed even though she already knew that the idea was inside that pretty head of hers, it was still funny.