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Soo Yeon flung herself onto Jung Sook’s bed.

“What’s wrong with you?” her friend asked.

“Ban Ryu just asked me to marry him.”

“And that’s a problem?” Perplexed, Jung Sook frowned at her friend.

“Yes.”

“How so?”

“Because he’s only marrying me because my appa made him.”

“Your appa is making Ban Ryu marry you?”

“Mm-hmm.”  She buried her face in a pillow.

“Why?”

“Hmm?”

“Why would your appa – who has, all this time, been opposed to the idea of you marrying Ban Ryu – suddenly force him to marry you?”

Embarrassed, Soo Yeon felt heat rising in her cheeks.  She was glad her face was buried in a pillow.  “Because we were caught in a compromising position,” she muttered into that pillow.

“Ah.  He found you in bed with that young gentleman?” Jung Sook asked boldly.

“What?!  No!” Soo Yeon gasped and unearthed her face to stare in shock at her friend.  “Well, not exactly.  Not in bed.  Just on the bed.  And Appa didn’t catch us.  It was Eomma.”  Suddenly, she pouted in anger.  “She must have sold us out!  She told on me!” she huffed.  Quite put out with her mother now.

Jung Sook suppressed a chuckle.  “Sounds like she did you a favor.”

“How so?” Soo Yeon sulked.

“Well, she convinced your appa to let you marry Ban Ryu.”

Soo Yeon crumpled her forehead into a series of becoming wrinkles.  “But…this isn’t the way I wanted to be engaged to him.  He shouldn’t be forced to marry me.”

“But…doesn’t he want to marry you?  I mean,” Jung Sook cleared her throat, “he was caught kissing you on his bed.  It doesn’t sound to me like the boy is indifferent to you.”

“I don’t know.  Around the same time, he refused to kiss me and told me to marry Lee Beom Sook.”

“That’s just because he knew that your appa didn’t favor his suit.  And Ban Ryu loves you.  So he wanted to see you well taken care of.”

“Maybe,” Soo Yeon murmured.  “But how could he want me to marry another?!  When he knew how much I love him!” she wailed.  “Ooh!  I am so confused!”

“I can see that.  But I see no reason for it.  The boy is clearly smitten with you.”

Soo Yeon’s face lightened, and her eyes brightened as she glanced up at her friend.  “He is?” she asked in delight.

Jung Sook bobbed her head vociferously.  “Honestly, I would be jealous if your brother weren’t as crazy about me.”

Soo Yeon giggled suddenly.  “Soo Ho is nuts about you.”

Jung Sook’s face fell as she bit her lip.  “You think so?  I mean, I think so too.  Most of the time.  But then sometimes I wonder….”  She met Soo Yeon’s eyes again.  “You don’t think that he ever regrets giving up all those other girls for me?”

A ripple of laughter left Soo Yeon’s pretty mouth.  “My brother didn’t give one fig about any of those girls.  But his eyes light up every time you enter a room.  Or a conversation.”

“They do?” Jung Sook breathed in surprised elation.

Soo Yeon nodded definitively.  “Indeed, they do.  That boy worships the ground you walk on.  And you have turned him into a man,” she sniffed after a moment of considered thought.

“I have?” Jung Sook queried in astonishment.

“Absolutely.  He was the most annoying of brothers before he met you.  Now he is sweet and considerate.  Most of the time,” she grumbled.

Her friend smiled.  Soo Ho was also sweet to her.  And most considerate of her.  And he had saved her life.  And, possibly, Bo A’s too.  She reached out and grabbed a pillow and hugged it close. 

“I can’t wait until we get married,” she murmured, shocking herself. 

She had once vowed that she would never marry again.  Now look at her.

“So…when are you getting married?” a soft voice queried.

She glanced up to see Bo A framed by her doorway.

Jung Sook sighed.  “I don’t know.  We haven’t set a date yet.  We were waiting for him to return from Goguryeo.  Then we were going to discuss it.  But he and Ban Ryu were injured.”

“That was weeks ago!” Soo Yeon pointed out.

“I know.  But we both want Ban Ryu to be there.  We were just waiting to see how he progressed.”

“He is fine now,” Soo Yeon insisted.  “You should get married now.”

Startled, Jung Sook glanced sharply at her.  “Now?”

“Why not?  There is no time like the present.  Once his arm fully heals, he could be sent on another mission.  You should marry him now while you have some time to enjoy him.”

Jung Sook frowned.  “It’s harder than I thought it would be.  I’ve been independent for so long that I thought I couldn’t get too attached, but…”

“What are you talking about?” the younger girl queried as Bo A disappeared to help her mother with the cleaning of the house.

“Being engaged to a soldier.  I thought I was okay with his leaving.  Until he was injured.  And then, I…”

Soo Yeon nodded.  “I understand.  It’s living with the uncertainty that’s so difficult.  Is this the last kiss we’ll share?  Will I ever see him again?  Or will some unforeseen danger steal him from me?”

Her eyes grew wide, and she suddenly jumped off the bed.  “I must go to Ban Ryu!” she cried and disappeared from the room.

Leaving Jung Sook to her thoughts.

Could she really marry a man whom she might so easily lose?  If Ban Ryu hadn’t stepped between Soo Ho and that sword, she would have been planning a funeral instead of a wedding.  Did she truly want to put herself in such a precarious position?  Trusting her heart to one of the king’s elite soldiers?

She sighed.  For it seemed that she already had.