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Several days after their last encounter, Lord Lee Beom Sook escorted Ni Na home alone after school.  Ae Ri had had to leave school early to help her mother prepare for a dinner party that evening with some of the members of the royal council.  Beom Sook had stayed late to tutor another student.  Just so that he would have the opportunity to walk Ni Na home.

After they’d ambled a little way down the road, she glanced up at him and quizzed him, “My lord?  You don’t have anything better to do with your time than to escort a girl home after school?”

“Absolutely not,” he murmured.

And she wondered if it was her imagination that his eyes seemed to caress her. 

“I find your company delightful, Choi Ni Na.”

She stared up at him.  “Why?” she whispered after a moment.

“You’re fascinating.” 

It was all he said.  After all, hadn’t he already delineated all his reasons a few days ago?

She cleared her throat and gazed ahead.  Setting her eyes on some distant point.  “I enjoy your presence too, Lord Lee Beom Sook.”

He smiled at her, but then he frowned.  “That’s a mouthful, isn’t it?”

“What?”  Confused, she bent her gaze upon him.

“My title and full name.  Why don’t you just call me Beom Sook?”

She gasped.  He was so much older than her.  And a lofty lord.  Of course, she was ignoring the fact that she was the daughter of an even loftier lord.  Still, she’d known this man for a mere ten days. 

“You want me to call you by your given name alone?” she queried.  Just to be certain that her hearing still worked properly.

He nodded.  “Aye.  And I’d like permission to call you Ni Na.”

She blinked as she came to a stop.  So did he.  She stood gazing up at him in astonishment for a few silent moments. 

“You wish to call me Ni Na?” she whispered.

Could he read the desires of her heart?

He nodded.  “Very much so.  Yes.”

“You may…Beom Sook,” she breathed.  After a couple of quiet seconds passed, she clarified, “If we’re alone.  At school, you must not.”

“No, of course not.  I would never dream of it at school.”  His lips twitched.

Her eyes widened.  She reached out and dusted his arm with her hand.  “I’m serious.  We could get in so much trouble with Kim Jung Sook.  Not to mention setting all the girls’ tongues to wagging.”

“I know you’re serious,” he smiled sweetly at her.  “So was I.  I understand what’s at stake.”

“What’s at stake?” she asked, furrowing her brow.

“Your reputation.”

She grunted.

“And mine.”

She fell silent as she peered up at him.

“You’re something else.  You know that, right, Ni Na?” 

But as he asked the question, he reached up to capture a strand of her hair that had suddenly blown across her mouth as a gust of wind hit them both.  Reverently, he removed that errant lock from her lip.  Coaxing it gently back behind her ear.  His fingertips grazed her skin.  Sending a flood of lightning along the nerve endings there.

She stood rooted to the ground.  Her eyes locked on his.  But his gaze was bent on that midnight tress.  He ran his fingers down it until he stroked her shoulder.  Then he allowed his hand to drop back down to his side.  He released a deep sigh before seeking out her eyes again.  Then he smiled at her.

“It’s quite windy today, isn’t it?”

She bobbed her head.  Lost in that beautiful jade gaze again.

“Ni Na.  I have a favor to ask.”

“Hmm?” 

What kind of favor could a girl like her possibly grant a gentleman like him?

“Kim Jung Sook has invited me to dinner at her house tomorrow night.  She told me that I was free to bring along a friend.  I…I would like that friend to be you.”

Shock rippled through her.  “M-me?”  She never stuttered.

Of course, that might be because she seldom spoke.  Yet, somehow, this gentleman had managed to make her do both.

His lips curved into a sweet smile once more.  “Yes.  You.  Are you free?”

Her head seemed to make a decision before her heart could catch up with it.  For she found her chin bobbing up and down in the next instant. 

But finally, her tongue joined the fray.  “I’m not sure that I’m the best person to take to my teacher’s house for dinner.”

He furrowed his brow.  “Why not?  You’re her favorite pupil.”

She gasped.  “What?”

“That’s hardly news, is it?  I’m sure if Ae Ri were here, she would back me up.  Everyone knows that you’re the teacher’s pet.  It’s completely obvious.”

She cringed as she stared up at him.  “And how – exactly – is it obvious?”

He laughed through his nose, releasing a puff of air.  But Ni Na did not look amused.

“Well, first of all, you’re the oldest.  And barely younger than Kim Jung Sook herself.  So, it would make sense for her to look upon you as more of a…peer than a pupil.  Second, you’re absolutely brilliant.  I do, in fact, suspect that you are even more intelligent than your esteemed teacher.”  He leaned towards her and whispered, “But please don’t tell her that I said so.”

She continued to stare at him.  Bewildered by his words.  But also, by his closeness.

“Third, you’re very good at explaining things to the other students, so she calls on you often to describe your methods and reasoning.  And fourth, she simply delights in your quiet, sweet personality.”  Again, he leaned towards her and breathed, “As do I.”

Ni Na blinked then.  Once again at a loss for words.

“What’s wrong, Ni Na?”

“You…f-flatter me, my lord.”

“Nonsense.  You are all of those wonderful things and more.  And it will do you good to hear it.”

She wrinkled her brow in confusion.  “But aren’t you afraid that I’ll get a big head if you pay me such outlandish compliments?”

“Not a bit of it.  And there’s nothing outlandish about my compliments.  I am simply speaking the truth.  Your problem is that you’ve had no mother around in recent years to tell you how wonderful you are.  And no father either.  So…it’s left to me, I guess.”  He grinned down at her.

“You are too kind, my lord.”

“Stop that.  We agreed.  Remember?  You’re to call me Beom Sook.  Not ‘my lord.’  I have plenty of people kowtowing to me already.  I would like one person who truly treats me as an equal.  As a true friend.”

Her heart bent in his direction at those words.  At the confiding of his own heart to her.  She turned her face towards him then. 

“You may count on me, Beom Sook.  I would be quite happy to be your friend.”

“Would you?” he queried with a lift of his midnight eyebrows.  “And I daresay that you’re not worried what you’re going to get out of a friendship with me, are you?”

“Of course not.  Look, this friendship has already proven quite profitable for me.  After just ten days.”

With a quirk of one dark eyebrow, he quizzed her.  “What are you talking about?” 

He didn’t like the chill feeling creeping up his spine right now.  He was used to people using him.  But he didn’t want to think such a thing about this lovely girl here.

“Well, for starters, you’ve relieved me of the burden of having to tutor Ae Ri.”  It was her turn to lean towards him and whisper, “Please don’t tell her.”

He chuckled as she flashed her pearly whites at him.  She stood up straight again as she began to walk towards her house once more.  “Then there’s the honey.  That’s the thing that’s most sweetened the deal,” she quipped.

And he chortled, shaking his head at her lame joke.

“But now you’ve managed to finagle me an invitation to my teacher’s house for dinner.  What’s next, Beom Sook?  An evening at the palace?”

He leaned towards her again.  “It could be arranged,” he breathed.

“Could it?” she queried as her eyebrows bounced up.

“But that can’t possibly impress you, my dear.  Your father is an ambassador.  You must get plenty of invitations to the palace.”

“Actually, I don’t.  Nor do I need any.  I’m sure that the king is a perfectly wonderful person.  But I wouldn’t have the foggiest notion how to behave in front of him, and I would be sure to be quite nervous in his presence.  It would be terribly awkward.  I am perfectly happy here in my solitary existence.  I do assure you.”

“You can’t fool me, you know.”

She glanced sharply at him.  “What?”

“You already revealed your loneliness to me, remember?” he prodded her gently.

She heaved a deep sigh.  “All right.  Well, maybe I’m not perfectly happy.  But I would be if I had the right person to share that solitary existence with me.”

“But then it would no longer be a solitary existence,” he pointed out logically.

She shrugged. “You are, of course, correct.”

“And the question is…who would be the right person to make your existence…unsolitary?”

His eyes probed hers.  And she felt her heart beginning to race.  She glanced up then and realized that her home was just a house away.

“Oh!  We are home already!”  Her eyes slid his way as she debated inviting him in.  “Would you…would you like a cup of tea?”

“My dear Ni Na, I would love one,” he sighed, “but I promised my mother I would escort her to a friend’s directly after I walked you home.  But I will take you up on it the next time you offer, all right?” 

He flashed that beautiful grin at her again, and she felt her heart catch in her chest.

Could it be that he was interested in a long-term relationship with her?  Something more extraordinary than a simple friendship?  He seemed to be hinting at a special interest in her.  Dare she hope that he…was contemplating marrying her?

She felt rather giddy even considering such questions.

“Of course,” she responded smoothly, willing her racing heart to calm down.

“Then I shall take my leave of you, sweet Ni Na.  Until tomorrow.”  He bowed to her.  Then he was gone.

And she was alone again.  And this time she didn’t feel satisfied with her solitary existence.  Not at all.