Jae-sung led her to a nearby valley that was covered with tiny yellow flowers. The scene was almost romantic, but Iseul quickly pressed that thought aside. She had absolutely no idea what Binna's brother wanted to say to her, but she doubted it had anything to do with romance. Most likely he wanted to scold her for something. Or ... she straightened her back, did he learn something about the mysterious tea-accident? Perhaps he found out who the culprit was behind the embarrassing prank. Or ... did he want to talk to her about Hojin and Whan-wook?

All of a sudden she didn't mind so much anymore that he pulled her away from her friends. Were the two matters related, perhaps? But no, a selection participant couldn't be so petty as to bully another participant out of the process by such means, could they?

Almost at the center of the valley Iseul's nerves compelled her to stop. "This is far enough. Please tell me what you wanted to say. Is it about what we saw? About Hojin and Whan-wook? You've discovered something, haven't you?"

She looked at him with an expectant expression and for a moment Jae-sung's eyebrows shot up and he swallowed with some difficulty.

However he quickly straightened his face and shook his head. "No, I haven't. There is a different matter I wanted to discuss with you."

Deflated, Iseul pouted. She was really curious about what those two were or had been up to. They weren't the people to have secret rendezvous because they were secretly in love. Something else was going on and she had a bad feeling about it.

She heaved a sigh and crossed her arms. "Alright, go on, tell me. My mother is expecting me, you know, and I think my grandfather will be there as well. I don't want to be held up too long."

Jae-sung cocked his head. "Do you miss them? Being at home with them?"

Iseul frowned. Was he making small talk? Fine, he didn't want to get to the point right away. She would play along a little longer. "Yes, of course I do. I've never been away from them before. But it has only been two weeks and I know they're close by. Soon we will be together again."

He nodded, seemed to ponder his next question and finally took a small step closer to her. "I want you to be my wife. You can return home to your mother and when the selection process is over, I will come for you. I've already discussed it with my father. He will speak to your grandfather on my behalf. When I am chosen crown prince, you will become my princess and in time you will be queen. You can stop with all the exhausting Wonhwa preparations and enjoy your time with your friends again. I'm sure my sister will be very happy with our arrangement."

Iseul felt her bottom lip fall. At once she was at a loss for words. After the first sentence her mind just turned blank and she hardly heard anything of what he said next. What was he talking about? His wife? Did he fall on his head? Did the sun scorch him? Did someone feed him poison?

Maybe she heard him wrong? Maybe she was the one who had been poisoned and was now having a strange hallucination?

Jae-sung reached for her hand, but she quickly pulled it away and placed it on her forehead. "I don't have a fever, but I must be delusional. I'm sure I heard it wrong. Can you repeat what you just said?"

She wanted to laugh it off, perhaps he was joking. Jae-sung wasn't particularly funny, but this had to be a prank. Du Ho was in on it and the Jee brothers as well. She would scold them later, for making her believe for a split second that this was genuine. Any moment now, Jae-sung's face would crack open in a smile and he would take her back to her grandfather's house.

The look in his eyes, however, merely became more serious, if that was even possible. "There is no way you can become queen on your own, Iseul. And if they did choose you, you would become a puppet. You would forever be under the clutches of the council and you would hate it. Quit now and you can live your life the way you want to. I will take care of you."

She blinked. He was serious. His words resounded in her mind and one word kept bouncing back and forth. Quit. He wanted her to quit.

Shakily she took a step back. "Is this your way of eliminating competition?" she whispered, loud enough for him to hear.

His face finally relaxed, but the smile around his lips wasn't a friendly one, it was a little sad actually. "Come now, Iseul, did you really consider yourself competition? I know your grandfather is a powerful man and I also know it was his idea to include women in the selection. But you must know that nobody believes you could be queen all by yourself?"

His words were echoes of her own thoughts, from when she'd just entered the selection. Than why did it hurt so much to hear him say them out loud? With a little difficulty she swallowed her tears and managed to keep her voice steady when she replied: "I am a participant who's received no advantage since the day she set foot in Bongyo. I've done exactly the same as every Hwarang who stood beside me in front of the king." She balled her fists and took a step forward. "I even passed his own test. I may not have had the advantage of having been groomed for governing all my live, like you and Hojin have, but that doesn't make me any less qualified." Her voice got stronger with every word and in the end she was yelling in his face. "I can be queen on my own and I certainly don't need some boy like you to hold my hand!"

She turned on her heels and marched away without giving him any chance to reciprocate. Behind her she heard Jae-sung calling her name, but she briskly walked on until she was out of hearing range. She was still fuming by the time she entered the courtyard of her grandfather's house. Her friends were chatting amiably with her mother, but she needed a moment to compose herself and so she nodded with a frozen smile on her face and ran to her room.

She knew her friends would follow soon, but there was no way she could share this humiliation with them. Her only fear was that Jae-sung's father would make haste with his son's request and would present her grandfather with a marriage proposal. She desperately needed to talk to her grandfather before that.