Isabella POV
The entire night had been a mixed rush of excitement, intrigue, laughter, smiles, and fun. So much fun. The most fun I'd had as far back as I can remember. Taehyung had found me right when I walked out onto the palace lawn and whisked me away. First, we sampled every food offered together, both giving too-in-depth-reviews of everything that passed through our lips. It was a recipe for laughs and grins with mouths full of food.
Then, we snuck away for a little while to the palace gardens. We walked side by side down the narrow paths, talking about anything and everything. He was amazing at holding a conversation, constantly wanting to know what I thought about something and never interrupting me when I was making a point for myself. He also wasn't afraid to disagree with me. He was a person who I could tell saw me for me while all my life I had lived in a world occupied by people who only saw me as a princess.
I found relief in the fact that I was not in my own kingdom. Miles and miles away from the southern kingdom I could actually feel like myself. Not like a princess or like the daughter of the king and queen or like the sister of the heir to the throne. Like me. Isabella.
As we both admired the statues that stood in the garden, Taehyung's hand brushed mine. I jumped slightly at the feeling but melted when it happened again, and I knew it was intentional. Soon, the backs of our hands kept their contact and from there, enveloped one another's. It was an innocent display of affection, but sweeter than I ever could have imagined.
After we returned to the party from the gardens, our hands still tightly interlaced, the night sky had grown completely black. Taehyung left for a moment and came back with drinks for the both of us. I sipped it and immediately was taken aback. My face scrunched up and he laughed loudly at my reaction.
"Haven't you ever had alcohol?" he laughed, teasingly.
I blinked. "I've had wine before, but nothing anything like... this." I looked at the drink with wide eyes, only eliciting more chuckles from him.
We sat in front of the people who played music, talking quietly and enjoying the time together. All thoughts I'd harbored about being forced to be here at this castle had disintegrated a long time ago. Once Noor, y/n, and I all became friends, I no longer felt like a hostage. In fact, it made me giggle at the thought that anyone would consider me one.
And now, with Taehyung added to the equation, everything was the opposite of what it was before. So unexpectedly, I loved living here. I didn't want to leave. I didn't have to do any of my princess-ly duties like I did back in my home kingdom, but I still got to wear the pretty gowns. I had friends around every corner, and a handsome, charming, and extra flirtatious man to fill my hours with. It was a dream.
Soon, a man near the lake made an announcement that it was time to collect your candles. Taehyung and I stood, instead of taking each other's hands, linking arms in order to be even closer. His body radiated warmth, so it felt nice to be so close.
I caught a glimpse of a group of people I recognized. I pointed it out to Taehyung, and we walked over. There, Noor and Hobi stood, Noor making eye contact with me first and opened her arms to me. I walked over and happily linked arms with her now, seeing who else was around. I saw Jin, Jimin, and Namjoon were also in the group. I furrowed my eyebrows and turned to the girl I held arms with. "Where's y/n?" I asked quietly.
Noor stiffened and looked around. "She was just here, I swear."
I could see the look of panic in Noor's eyes and I began searching the crowd for her face. Just then, Jungkook joined us. "Jungkook," I started. "Have you seen y/n?"
He smiled and nodded. "I was just with her don't worry. She just said she needed a minute alone before getting on the water."
I could feel Noor and I simultaneously let out a breath of relief. There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Taehyung, a bright boxy smile wiped across his face, holding two candles mounted on their small floating plates. "Ride in my boat?" He asked
I grinned. The kind of grin that would only occur when I was near him. It was childish and warm, and love struck. I took one of the candles and followed him over to the line of boats tied to the shore. I got in first, sitting on the far side. He sat down on the opposite side. It was a small rowboat, and although we sat on opposite sides our knees still almost touched.
He pushed us off the shore and we began to float towards the middle of the lake. We waited there quietly. The music from back on land had grown a little dimmer from being farther away, but still filled the air romantically. The waves rocked the boat slightly, but soon Taehyung started swaying exaggeratedly, making the boat wobble and see-saw.
"Tae!" I squealed, holding on to the side of the wooden boat. "Stop!" I laughed. He snickered in reply. "What if I fell in?" I asked scoldingly while looking over the edge into the dark water.
"Then I'd jump in after you and save you." He smiled charmingly.
Man, was I whipped for him. My heart beat faster and skin felt hot even though I shivered under my cloak.
"Then we'd both be cold and wet and stupid looking," I retorted matter-of-factly.
"At least we'd be cold and wet and stupid looking together." He responded, looking me in my eyes with his intense yet always kind stare.
My lips pricked up and I could tell we were slowly moving closer to each other. Our faces were no more than a foot away from each other, but our deliberate movement was halted when a horn sounded from back on the lawn. This was the signal to begin.
Taehyung bit his lip and pulled a match out from his pocket, running it on the bottom of his shoe, igniting it up in a flame. I held out my candle and the wick caught. Taehyung tossed the match into the lake and held his dark candle up to my bright one. The flame transferred and now both were on fire. We smiled contently.
"Now we place them in the water." I said in a hushed voice. "But don't lean to the same side I do, or we'll tip our boat," I joked.
He hummed in agreement. I leaned to the left side of the boat while he went to the right. I placed the plate that held my candle onto the gentle waves and shoved it away, my fingers barely entering the frigid water.
I zeroed in on watching my own candle float away, moving farther and farther from the place where our boat rocked, but my attention was pulled away when I heard a soft whisper from Taehyung. "Wow," he said under his breath.
I looked to him, then realized his face had now changed from being shrouded in darkness to fully illuminated. The golden light only accentuated his features, making me pause to swoon for a moment. Then I thought about the source of the honey glow. I turned my head towards the side of the boat that Tae shoved his candle off of and lost my breath.
The entire lake glowed like a fire. The candles making little dots of light, all collectively turning the lake into a shining pool of incandescence. I'd never seen anything like it before.
"It's beautiful," I whispered, almost as if talking too loudly would make all its magnificence disappear.
My gaze held, not ever wanting to remove this vision from my eyes. I scanned the lake and all the other boats, everyone else who filled them just as mesmerized as me. The light from the candles made the boats around us visible, and I spotted a few familiar faces. Noor and Hoseok occupied one boat not too far off. They sat on the same side of the boat, Hoseok holding Noor in his arms. They were silent but obviously absorbed in the light show.
Jimin, Jungkook and Namjoon sat in another boat. They talked quietly, the boat shaking a little more than all of the other due to the groups tendency to sporadically move around. It brought a smile to my lips. I considered them all my friends at this point.
I had had many friends before. I was social and very well-known considering my title of princess back in my kingdom, but none of those relationships felt genuine. It felt like all those friends were around me because I was a princess, not because I was a person. But I wasn't the princess here. I didn't carry that burden. Here, these friends are around me because they like me. It was a feeling so familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.
While I was lost in thought, a touch at my hand pulled me out of it. Taehyung had taken my hand in his. His hand was warm, feeling heavenly on my cold stiff fingers. I glanced to him reluctantly, wanting to keep my vison filled with radiance. Instantly, I realized he had been looking at me the entire time. Probably watching the way my face looked childish in awe as I watched the floating lights. I was a touch embarrassed, but he just looked at me with a soft smile. He looked... enamored.
I could feel myself blushing, so I broke eye contact and looked down to my feet. I heard him chuckle. "Don't be shy," he cooed. "Sorry for staring, you just look so beautiful right now."
You smiled towards the floor. "Right now? Is that insinuating I don't look beautiful other times?" I joked.
"You've looked beautiful since the moment I met you," he replied quickly, as if he'd been meaning to say it for a long time. "You are beautiful," he added, and I knew he wasn't just talking about my looks when he said it. He had a way of speaking and expressing his emotions that so genuinely communicated that he meant that about all of me.
"Isabella?" he murmured in his deep baritone voice that never failed to make me weak.
"Yes?" I looked up to him and met his gaze, which now seemed intimate but hesitant.
"Can I kiss you?"
I let out a huff of air as a laugh. It was so surprising to me that this boy, no, this man, who was big and strong and handsome and intimidating, was asking to kiss me before he did it. "You wanted to ask my permission?" I giggled. "Why don't you pen a letter to my father back home and ask for his permission too, and while you're at it why don't you-"
He interrupted me. "Oh, hush."
And quickly leans in and cups my face, pressing his lips to mine. I soared. Every inch of my skin vibrated, and I sucked in air through my nose in reaction. He was just so much. His soft lips, his gentle touch, the light that surrounded us so completely and enveloped us in our own world, it was so perfect. My whole body felt warm now, completely forgetting the fact that it was below freezing out. Our bodies no longer obeyed the laws of science, and for a moment, I could've sworn that I was flying.
I leaned into him closer to deepen the kiss, wrapping my arms around his back. I just wanted to touch him. We kissed for a long while. Longer than I ever had before. I had kissed other boys, but this one was the best. The sweetest, the kindest, the tenderest.
We pulled back from each other slightly, with the sole purpose of catching our breaths. Our faces were still so close, our eyes holding contact as we couldn't help but smile at each other. Suddenly, whooping and yelling came from not too far off. It surprised both Tae and me. We looked around, finding the source of the encouraging screams were coming from Jimin, Jungkook, and Namjoon, who had apparently watched the entire scene. They whistled at us and cheered us on, making me laugh. Taehyung seemed a little annoyed and a lot embarrassed, his face turning red.
"Oh, why don't you buy tickets for the show next time ya pervs!" Taehyung yelled over to the boyish group of men. Jimin started making kissing noises, eliciting a fit of laugher from Jungkook. Taehyung looked back to me. "Sorry, they're a bunch of assholes." He muttered.
"Don't worry about it, Tae. We'll continue this later maybe where three pairs of wondering eyes aren't watching us."
He laughed and took both of my hands in his. His eyes went back to looking at the glowing water. "It really is gorgeous," he said softly, referring to the gleaming lake.
But now, I couldn't bring myself to look at the lights, only his face. His soft features, his permanent smirk that played on his lips, his freckle right at the end of his nose, it all came together so perfectly. "Gorgeous," I repeated under my breath. But of course, I wasn't taking about the lake anymore. I was only talking about him.
My instinct was to turn and look at the light again, but I decided to keep my eyes on him.
I didn't need the beauty from the candlelight anymore.
He was my light now.