Behind The King

Viral

Seung-a scrunched up her face in concentration as she rushed to write the press release in time to meet the deadline of this evening's papers.

The Public Affairs Office had been busy all day fielding questions from the press, now that the King had officially announced his engagement to Tae-eul. She was happy that they had finally reached an arrangement that worked for them both, after so many months of deliberations and negotiations with one another, some of which she and Yeong had to referee.

"Hey, are we doing anything with Captain Jo's social media accounts?"

Seung-a's head popped up and she turned to her colleagues. "No, what's up?" she asked.

"He's going viral, for some reason," someone replied, and Seung-a raised an eyebrow in wonder.

She took out her phone and quickly opened Yeong's social media account.

She gasped and dropped her phone, and her colleagues turned to her in concern.

"What is it?? Is it a sex video??" they asked, which of course was the worst public relations nightmare anyone could imagine.

She shook her head and managed to say, "No, it's okay, it's nothing."

She took a deep breath and picked up her phone again, then tapped the first of three new photos.

It was a photo of Yeong, and she recognized it as one of the photos she had taken at the rowing event when she emailed him all of the photos from her camera. It felt so long ago that she was content to take photos of him from afar, giddily crushing on him from a distance. But what got to her was the caption, just one word that held so much meaning now.

Yours.

She then tapped on the next photo, and her lips curved into a smile when she saw a photo of herself, laughing into the camera with a daisy tucked in her ear. She remembered the moment, how she had asked Yeong to pose with the daisy, and he surprised her by tucking it into her ear. She didn't realize that after that first photo of her with her eyes downcast, he had kept shooting and captured this moment. She could almost hear herself saying, "Okay, that's enough!" Her heart melted when she saw the caption.

Mine.

It was the last photo that made her gasp. She tapped it now to enlarge it, and held her breath when she saw the diamond ring nestled among the daisies. It was beautiful, and she felt tears spring to her eyes when she saw the caption.

Forever?

She sniffled and shook her head in wonder. "How did he even--"

And then she remembered. That afternoon by the river.

"I figured it was only right that you have access to your own social media account," she said. "I hope you don't mind. I couldn't use a generic password like 1234. So the password is seunga143."

He remembered.

She looked at the photo of the ring again, and knew exactly where the photo was taken.

She wiped her eyes, then stood up. "I'm going to need to step out--"

Seung-a stopped when she saw all of her colleagues looking at her with knowing smiles on their faces.

"At least put on some lipstick first!" one of the girls said, and Seung-a laughed. She quickly checked herself in the mirror, ran her hands through her hair, and swiped on some lipgloss.

"Go get him!" they cheered her on as she grinned at them on her way out the door.

Seung-a rushed through the halls and out the Palace entrance, then made her way to the garden, Yeong's secret spot.

True enough, Yeong stood there with his back to her, and Seung-a's heart began to pound when he turned to face her and she saw that he was wearing his Honor Guard uniform.

"You found me," he said with a smile, and she smiled back, "Of course I did."

She stepped up to him and he took her hands in his.

"I still mean what I said all those nights ago at the courtyard," he said softly, "All I have to offer you is one day at a time. But I'm hoping that we can just keep taking things one day at a time, and before we know it, we've spent forever and a day together."

Seung-a felt tears spring to her eyes when Yeong got down on one knee and held out the ring to her.

"Myeong Seung-a, I love you. And I want the entire world to know that I love you and you're mine. So let's make things official? Will you be my wife?"

Happy tears streamed down her cheeks as she nodded, "It would be my honor to call you my husband, Captain Jo Yeong."

He grinned as she held out her hand to him, and he gently pushed the ring unto her finger.

She looked at the ring sparkling on her finger, and Yeong stood up, pulling her into a tight embrace.

"I love you, Yeong," she whispered as she hugged him tight, and she felt him kiss the top of her head. "I love you too, Seung-a."

She pulled away slightly and looked up at him, "By the way, what's with the uniform?"

Yeong got a mischievous glint in his eye as he said, "It's part of my gift for you. I seem to recall you wanted to do something with this uniform."

She laughed and replied with a teasing tone, "That's the best way to seal our engagement!"

"But first," Yeong took out his phone and opened the camera, "We need to give a proper end to the story we started."

She looked at him quizzically, and he explained, "The social media posts. It's time to tell the world that we're both taken for life."

Seung-a grinned at him, then held up her hand to show off her ring as Yeong snapped a photo of their beaming faces.

Yeong uploaded the photo, then pocketed his phone and wrapped an arm around Seung-a's shoulder as he said, "Now let's head back to your room for the second part of your gift."

She giggled and snuggled to his side as they walked across the Palace grounds. And in the time they walked from the garden to the barracks, Yeong's latest photo went viral thanks to the caption, one word that signalled the beginning of a new chapter for them both.

YES.