.forty three.
It was still early afternoon when the two went back to Han and Soon Deok's home, having nothing else to do at their own home after the king left. Their siblings were outside, underneath the shade of the trees in their back yard, practicing their martial arts and sword skills. Since Han was a soldier, he was allowed to take a few weeks off in honor of his wedding. But he would need to return to the battle fields sooner or later. Eun helped Minji sit down in the grass and then plopped down beside her, the eighteen year old prince watched his brother and his brother's wife train while Minji enjoyed the nice afternoon breeze that rustled the trees surrounding them. It had only been a few minutes of their arrival before Eun started to whine a complaint to the three people present.
"This is boring. I want to do something fun. I want to play." He pouted like a child, jutting out his lower lip. At the same time, he groaned and pressed his forehead into Minji's shoulder dramatically.
Minji giggled as the force of it sent her falling onto her back, with her husband's head still on her shoulder. Her arms wrapped around him for balance and the tenth prince started laughing with her. Soon Deok eyed them from a few feet off with sadness. She was glad that her sister was not unhappy with her marriage, as she initially thought she would be. But it hurt. It stung to see the two of them like they were actually in love. The two people she loved most, being happy without her, and she was the odd person left out. She had Han, of course, but it just wasn't the same. He wasn't Eun and she didn't love him the way that he wanted. She didn't like the way things had turned out--her sister forced to marry the tenth prince, while she was forced to marry his brother.
At least, she consoled herself on the thought that, she would be able to see her younger sister every day. She wouldn't have to be apart from her.
Minji thought about her husband's complaint, that he was bored, and started to think of things for them to do which would keep him entertained. Eun was already making himself comfortable on the grass by her side, cuddling into her and burying his face into her neck, when and idea came to her and she tried to sit back up.
"I know what we can do." She said to everyone, and their attention was instantly on her. She then continued with a grin forming on her lips, "There's this really nice place in the forest that I used to go to with--" She stopped herself before saying Jung's name because she knew the tensions between the youngest Goryeo prince and Minji's husband were high. Eun didn't want Jung anywhere near her, as he blamed him for everything that had happened to her up until now. While Jung was just not willing to give up on her. A pang of guilt also touched her heart as she remembered it was their place, and Jung had mentioned only they knew about it. Now she had accidentally leaked its existence to other people. Jung would surely feel hurt if he knew about it.
"Where?" Eun asked her with excitement, breaking her out of her thoughts.
But she shook her head, refusing to give further details about it. "It might not be such a good idea to go there. I used to go with Jung and he always told me it was our secret place. Only the two of us could go there."
Han scoffed in amusement at her words--not because of what she said, but because she had mentioned that only she and Jung knew where it was. "Jung-ah is so innocent." He said about his youngest brother, "He claims that no one knows of that waterfall, but I know the forest like the back of my hand, all military people do. Plus, Ji Mong used to take us there all the time when we were kids."
"Oh, that waterfall." Eun said as it dawned on him and he remembered what his brother was talking about. "I remember going there. Can we go?" He looked to Han, and then Minji, for approval with excitement filling his dark brown eyes. The smile on his lips was evident. For the moment he had chosen to ignore the fact that Minji and Jung used to go there together. It wasn't something worth his concern, as it had happened before they got married.
