.nineteen.

Minji had been unable to convince the tenth prince to get his horse, to make the trip to her house a shorter one. Even though she offered to accompany him to the stalls, he swore he would go nowhere near them after the ghost stories Ji Mong had told him and his brothers had scared him way too much. He was more afraid of the supernatural to the point where he preferred walking her home despite the risk of being attacked by bandits or animals that were lurking in the nearby forest. 

It was about fifteen minutes later when he and the general's daughter made their way out of the house. The two teenagers had to climb the stone walls of Songak in order to get out. No one was allowed to enter or leave the palace after hours and all the doors were closed, with guards posted to keep anyone from going in or out. It had been a two person effort. In her six layer dress, the tenth prince lifted her up with difficulty and helped her climb over. Once she was sitting atop the stone wall, she reached for his hands and helped him climb up, struggling, but trying to stifle her laughter at how amusing he looked while struggling to climb.

She had been surprised that they weren't caught climbing over the wall near the garden of the palace, given that it had taken them quite a while to climb. 

"Jung would have gotten us out of the palace in three seconds." Minji said in a teasing voice, but there was an undertone of truth to her words. After spending so much time with him, she truly admired him and she really liked him. She thought he was brave, handsome, and strong. All qualities that she saw were perfect for a future husband.

The tenth prince gasped, faking offense to her words. "How dare you say that? You should be thankful that I even offered to help you."

"As your future sister-in-law I would think you had to help me." She pointed out, the playful tone remaining in her voice. By now, most of the royals in the palace and at General Park's home knew about it. The wedding between Prince Wang Jung and Park Hak Soon. She thought that Jung's siblings would have known the news by now, but especially Eun and Baek-ah, since he was closest to them. 

"You're gonna marry Jung-ah?" He asked her in disbelief, though at the same time he wasn't entirely surprised either.

He remembered his youngest brother and the general's daughter being close as children. He used to spend time with them as well, though not as much. He had gotten closer with Baek-ah and Jung when Han and Minji had left town. Before that, it had been Jung, Baek-ah, Han, Hak Soon, Soon Deok, and Yeon Hwa who were closest to each other. They were all very close in age and had grown up together. When Hak Soon and Han left for two years, the rest of them seemed to grow apart.

With their return, they were bringing everyone back together, as opposed to Wang So. Eun's older brother Yo was always complaining about how So was ruining everything by coming back and refusing to leave. Eun was starting to believe it as well, and he found his older brother to be completely terrifying. 

He had also noticed how since her return, Hak Soon and Jung seemed to have grown closer, but in a different way. They didn't just look like friends anymore. Eun didn't know much about love, nor was he interested in getting married at his young age of seventeen. But he thought that Jung and Minji looked like they were in love. Answering his question, Minji gave a nod of her head, a smile breaking onto her face. It was something she couldn't contain. Though she was only fourteen in that life, she couldn't help but like Jung. And the idea of marrying him was not one she shied away from. "My father already talked to yours about promising my hand in marriage to your brother."

"That's good to hear." He smiled at her, adding with a sigh as his smile dropped at another thought that came to mind. "He'll probably already be looking for some woman for me to marry. I know--" He perked up yet again--like an excited little pup. "Would you talk to your friend? I don't want to get married yet. But I wouldn't mind marrying Soo-yah. I really just want to hold her hand."

Minji almost choked at his idea of being romantic with a girl. Though, she should have known better when he brought Hajin a box full of toys as a present. Minji heaved a sigh, "I guess it can't be helped. You really are pure of heart." She said, repeating what Hajin said about him not too long ago. "But you know, Shrimp Prince." She pointed out, matter of factly. She wasn't afraid to hurt his feelings and shatter his dreams because she knew it would be for the best in the long run. Especially now that she was finding that she actually didn't hate the tenth prince like she initially thought. "Hae Soo isn't really into you. If you want a woman who's willing to date you, I can point you in the right direction."

"I don't understand a lot of the things you say, Hak Soon-ah." He tilted his head in confusion and eyed her like she was speaking gibberish to him. "Why would I want a woman to feed me dates?"

She rolled her eyes at him in annoyance, but she refrained from taunting him when she remembered that in their world, the language was different. She had to explain herself better to get him to understand. "I meant that Hae Soo doesn't have feelings for you, but I know of someone else who likes you."

"How would you know?" He argued, a bit disappointed at her words.

"She's my best friend." Minji pointed out. 

He scoffed at her, suddenly annoyed with her. He stopped in their way towards her house and he refused to budge, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're just saying that because you have a crush on me. Baek-ah, Ji Mong, and Won said so that time we got into a fight in Wook's courtyard. But I like your friend and Jung likes you--"

"Uhm, excuse me." Minji stopped just a few steps ahead of him and laughed sarcastically.

So quickly they had gone back to their fighting and arguing when she thought she and the tenth prince were starting to get along. 

"I don't have to listen to you." He told her arrogantly. "I'm a prince and I can do whatever I want."

"Fine by me." Minji huffed, "Go back to your palace and leave me alone."

She didn't even wait for an answer before marching back down the road in the direction of her house. She was so upset that she didn't even look back to see if he would follow her. But he didn't, nor did he shout for her to stop. He didn't try to stop her. 

-

When Minji's anger had died down, she thought things over and started to regret getting into  a fight with the tenth prince. It was cold outside, she was shivering underneath her six layers of clothes. It was dark and she could barely see a thing. She wished she had a flashlight, but they hadn't even been invented in that life time, or at the very least she wished she had a torch to light up her way. Even the trained eyes of an arrogant little prince might have been sufficient, since he was probably accustomed to seeing in the dark. 

But now she was all alone, trying to find her way back home.

And she further thought over her life's choices when she heard rustling in the trees nearby. She looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, but she could see nothing. Still, it was like whatever was hiding in the trees was following her. 

Minji gulped nervously, but continued walking, picking up the pace slightly. Soon the road before her curved, coming closer and closer to the edge of the trees. The fourteen year old had the thought to run the rest of the way home. But she knew that it would be impossible to do so in her dress. She tried to walk faster as she heard the rustling in the trees getting louder and closer to where she was. 

Then it died out completely and she thought she was in the clear.

She stopped for a moment and sighed in relief, bringing her hands to her chest in fear. 

Just as she was about to continue her path, she felt a jolt when something touched her from behind. It was a touch, followed by a scream that was an attempt to startle her. And it had worked. Minji screamed at the top of her lungs and fell forward onto her hands and knees. The shock had been so big that her breathing and her heartrate kicked into overdrive. Before she knew it, everything around her went pitch black and she fell forward into the dirt road in front of her. The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was the familiar laugh of the tenth prince.

His amusement quickly turned to worry when he realized what he had done. He knelt by her side, his smile wiped clean off his face. "Wench." He placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to shake her awake. He tried several more times and got no response. Now filled with concern, he called her by her real name. "Hak Soon-ah...stop playing. You can get up now."

The prince grabbed her shoulder and pushed her onto her back, his heart racing madly and all kinds of thoughts running through his mind. The first thing he thought to do was to check for a pulse. The only way he knew to do that was to press his ear to her chest, like he did when he and his brothers watched the doctor do at the palace so many times when one of their other brothers was sick. But she was wearing so many layers of clothing that he couldn't hear or feel anything. 

He confirmed that she was still breathing when he saw the soft rise and fall of her chest. That gave him some relief and he sat by her side to wait for her to come back into consciousness.

"You deserved that, you know." He told and unconscious fourteen year old with a pout on his lips, justifying himself. His words served more to make himself feel better about scaring her so badly that she fainted. "You said Soo-yah wouldn't want to marry me and you hurt my feelings."

He knew well that if Minji were awake, she would retaliate.

Eun didn't know how far into the night it was. But it felt like a lifetime had passed by the time she opened her eyes. She stirred by his side on the dirt path beneath her, her eyes doing their best to adjust to the darkness. As she remembered what had happened and where she was, she quickly sat up and grabbed his arm with an urge. "We have to get out of here right now, Eun oppa." Her words were hasty and quick. Her heart had gone back to beating a hundred times per minute. "There was something in the trees that attacked me and it could come back."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Aish, you pabo. That was me."

As his words sunk in, her fear was soon replaced by anger. "What?" She asked, blinking back in disbelief.

"I was the one who scared you." He informed her. Her dark eyes widened in surprise. 

"Why would you do that?" She wondered with outrage, eyebrows furrowed in anger. Her voice slowly escalated in volume until it was almost a shout. She wouldn't back down, but neither would he. 

"You made me upset when you said those things to me." He pointed out, slowly not feeling as guilty for scaring her.

She shot him a look. "I'm sorry I don't baby you like everyone else does."

"Apology accepted." He said, thinking she had been genuinely apologizing. Another thing that Minji noticed about that past cerntury--they weren't very familiar with sarcasm. The tenth prince, however, was on an entirely different level of clueless.

Minji sighed with frustration. But she was quick to turn around and give him a warning. "If you ever so much as think of doing that to me again, I will throw you off a cliff."

"I like you better when you're not talking." He shot back, sticking his tongue out at her.

-

just a chaopter before i go home. i came to school with my sister so this was written in about an hours. its unedited so i might go back and fix mistakes and add stuff tomorrow. this is for those of you who wanted some eun interaction. 

there was some good interaction and then some negative because i still need my characters to develop. they wont just fall in love over night.

thank you all for reading. have a wonderful night.

-clary