Across the Stars || 진기

.six.

.six.

-

"He would have been seething upon seeing me in his old room. My mother was the only one who truly loved me."

-

It took Jinki several days to recover, and in all that time he remained in the palace, in the bedroom that had once belonged to his father long before he was even born. Heiran remained by his side the entire time. Soon Deok and Han visited often, and tried to convince her to return home with them, but she would not budge. She would not move until she could be sure that Jinki would be okay. He was her person after all, the one person she felt like she truly loved in the way that two people were meant to love each other. She had already decided. Jinki was seventeen and she was still sixteen.

She had learned from the servants that came by to bring him food each day that it was tradition in their country for young people to marry at the age of eighteen. Soo Hyun was already nineteen, but was still in time to choose a bride to be his queen, since he was still young. But then it was rumored that Jinki would be next and it was being said that the members of the court already had a girl in mind for the second prince of Goryeo. A young woman from a wealthy political family. Her older sister was to be queen and marry Soo Hyun, but the younger sister--quiet, reserved, and filial--was to marry Jinki. The sleeping prince still had no idea what was coming to him.

But it made Heiran's blood boil. She was sixteen, and would be turning seventeen in the next few months. Upon turning eighteen she would also be married off to some person she didn't know. What bothered her the most about it was the fact that no one had in mind the idea of her and Jinki getting married. They were cousins--their fathers were brothers, and their mothers were sisters--but still, Heiran felt a conection with Jinki that she felt with no other person, and she knew he felt the same. 

When he finally awoke from his slumber days later, he had finally expelled the sickness from his system. His eyes fluttered open and he smiled at Heiran warmly. "Well, hello there." He croaked a weak greeting at her.

She had been kneeling by his bedside, head down and leaning on his arm. She quickly raised her head at the sound of his voice and was flooded with relief. She hadn't seen his eyes or heard his voice in days. She was almost starting to lose hope that he would even get better. But she prayed to the skies and she was certain they heard her. 

The second prince of Groyeo--as was his formal title now, Soohyun was the first prince, but would soon be titled king after his coronation ceremony in a few weeks--tried to sit up weakly, pushing up onto his elbows. The blanket that had been covering him up slid down his torso, exposing his chest. He felt a blush tinge his cheeks as he quickly pulled the covers back up. He was full of scratches and bruises, since he had always been sensitive and bruised easily. Then there was the fact that his body could not retain nutrients and food the way other people did, and as a result he felt like he was rather weak and scrawny. Jinki was always self-conscious about his body and it was another thing he envied his brother for. 

Soo Hyun was tall and well built.

But--it seemed--Heiran still seemed to prefer him over his older brother, and that had to count for something.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Jinnie." Heiran said through a shakey voice.

The prince's eyes wandered around the dimly lit room with confusion. He didn't remember this place and he wasn't sure how he got there. The last thing he remembered was getting on a boat with the rest of the family and sailing back to Goryeo. Then other memories filled his mind about Heiran jumping into the ocean to retrieve her bracelet, and him jumping in to save her. That was where his recollections of it all stopped. He assumed that they were in Goryeo now. If not at his parents' house, then they were probably at the palace. The place that might've been his if Soo Hyun didn't exist...