_RelleLebby_
She served ale beneath cherry blossoms.
He wore a crown she was never meant to see.
In the final years of the Joseon Dynasty, Kim Min-Hee lives quietly above a tavern at the edge of Hanseong. By day, she serves travelers and laborers. By night, she writes poetry no one will ever read. Invisible to the world around her, she believes some lives are destined to pass unnoticed.
Then a stranger begins visiting the tavern.
He calls himself Jae.
He listens when she speaks. He remembers the poems she recites. And when he looks at her, Min-Hee feels seen for the first time in her life.
What she doesn't know is that Jae is no ordinary nobleman.
He is the Crown Prince of Joseon.
Bound by duty, trapped within palace walls, and promised to another woman, Jae has spent his entire life performing perfection. In Min-Hee's presence, he becomes something he has never been allowed to be: himself.
Their secret meetings beneath falling cherry blossoms begin as friendship. Then become longing. Then become something neither of them can survive.
But in a kingdom where a common girl's existence can be erased with a whisper, love is not merely dangerous.
It is fatal.
As court rumors spread, loyalties fracture, and powerful people move against them, Min-Hee and Jae are forced to choose between the lives they were given and the impossible future they dream of together.
A story of forbidden love, quiet rebellion, devastating loss, and the memories that refuse to die.
Some blossoms survive the storm.
Others become legends.
© _RelleLebby_// R. L.