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Jimin approached Insuk quietly from behind.  She was sitting in her wheelchair in the courtyard.  She seemed preoccupied.  She was staring at the flowing stream that passed through this section of the yard.

Jimin bent over her from behind and inhaled deeply as he closed his eyes.  Honeysuckle.  Insuk always smelled of honeysuckle.  Her scent drove him mad.  He wanted to taste her skin.  Kiss her lips.  Hold her in his arms.  

Nearly all of his close friends were already married; he longed to be too.  To this woman here.  But she was oblivious to him as anything more than a friend.  She was still breaking her heart over that handsome guard, Jungkook, who had recently married.

Jimin sighed.  When would Insuk wake up and realize what a gem he was?  And that he loved her enough to make up for all the men who never bothered to glance down long enough to notice her quiet presence in that chair?

Insuk heard that sigh.  Startled, she jumped, and her head swung around.  “Jimin!  You scared me!” she exclaimed, throwing her hand up over her heart.  “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“How else am I to inhale your enticing fragrance if I don’t?” he suddenly asked boldly.

Confused, she furrowed her brow.  “What?  What are you talking about?”

He bent over her and sniffed her neck, his breath stirring the hairs near her ear.  And making her shiver.

“What is that scent?” he asked, though he well knew that fragrance.

Insuk closed her eyes.  Jimin’s breath was sliding over her skin.  For some reason today, she was riveted to those puffs of air.  She wanted to concentrate on them.  They seemed to contain comfort and…something deeper.  She wanted to turn around and bury her face over his heart.

She was weary of being alone.  Of investing herself emotionally in men who never even acknowledged her presence.  Let alone returned her affection.  Jungkook was just one of a long line of boys she’d been attracted to who had never even spoken to her.

Would anyone ever love her?  Not the girl stuck in this chair.  But the one who lived in her heart.  The one who danced in the garden hidden in her soul.  In that colorful place, she danced with complete freedom, unimpeded by two lame legs.  

She lifted her face to the kind sun and basked in its rays while she danced away the days.  In perfect bliss.  With her own true love.  Whoever he was.  

He didn’t seem to be coming for her, though.  She’d been waiting patiently for several years.  Praying for a knight in shining armor.  Somebody who could see past the confines of this stupid chair.  Someone who would look beyond her two broken legs and see her heart.  And decide it was worth loving.

But alas!  No knight had appeared.  No prince of love had graced her life with his affection.  No king of kindness had come to bathe her in his attentive presence.

“My sweet friend, what are you doing out here?” Jimin breathed into her ear.

Her eyes flew open as an entirely new sensation sailed along her nerves, causing her stomach to tighten.  

What was this?

She turned back to look at him.  As her head swiveled towards him, her lips nearly collided with his.  Her eyes widened.  

Jimin noticed.  How could he not?  Those eyes were so beautiful.  A deep rich mahogany, he wanted to sip from their fine waters.

Her heart began to race as her eyes met Jimin’s glorious, dark chocolate orbs.  Glorious?  She had never before found them so.

Ah, but that wasn’t true.

She’d once had a crush on Jimin.  Back when he was a gorgeous boy of fourteen and she a shy and awkward almost-teen.  She’d been painfully in love with him.  So much so that she had spent many nights crying herself to sleep after days spent joking and laughing in his presence.  Because she could tell that he had no special affection for her.

Jimin didn’t really know her heart.  He never had.  She had prattled on about other boys.  In the beginning, she’d done it to see if she could get a rise out of him.  If he would respond positively to any of her bait.  Giving her any indication that he reciprocated her feelings.  But he never had.

So she had packed her desires towards him away.  Buried them deep in the soil of her heart.  And left them to decay.  She had moved on, transferring her affection to boys who couldn’t hurt her.  They couldn’t reject her because they didn’t even acknowledge her presence to begin with.  Being unaware of her, they seemed safe.  She could simply convince herself that if those boys had noticed her, they would have loved her.  But after four years of playing this disappointing game, she was tired of it.

She just wanted to be loved.  Wooed.  Desired.  Adored.  Cherished.

But who would treasure a girl in a wheelchair?

Her thoughts were turning more and more bitter of late.  She had been present at several weddings over the last three years.  All of her girlish acquaintances had married within that time.  She was the only remaining maid.  And it seemed that she was to continue the rest of her life in that state.  Except…

…Jimin had made an odd proposal the other day.  Asking her to marry him in three years if she’d married no other by then.  But, surely, in that span of time, Jimin would meet and fall in love with some other girl.  He would forget his promise to Insuk and marry some cute, little woman who could run through a field with him.

Insuk was not in a good mood.  She was feeling terribly sorry for herself today.  Really, of late.  For weeks on end now.  

“I want out of this chair!” she exclaimed suddenly.  Bitterly.

Her vehemence slid across his cheek, and his eyes widened.  His normally cheerful friend was not in evidence today.  He could see the storm brewing in her gaze.  She was decidedly unhappy.

So he bent his kind smile on her.  “All right, milady,” he bowed to her regally.  “Your wish is my command.”

He bent over her and slid his arms underneath her.  Disconcerted, she drew away from him even as he gathered her into his arms and straightened himself, pulling her up out of her chair.

“Jimin!” she ejaculated as her arms slid around his neck to steady herself.  “What are you doing?!”

“Giving you your heart’s desire.  I am freeing you from that blasted chair.”  He beamed down at her before pivoting to head towards the royal gardens.  “I’m taking a little beauty to enjoy the beauties of the queen’s garden.”  

He glanced up at the bright cerulean sky.  “It’s a glorious morning, and we don’t need to begin lunch preparations for another twenty minutes yet.  Let’s go bask in the sun together.  And see what flowers its cheerful rays have coaxed into opening.”

She stared up at him in amazement.

He peered down at her.  His smile fading.

“My happy friend has been absent of late.  I miss her.  I miss you,” he whispered as he bent his head towards hers until the tip of his nose brushed hers.  “Why so glum, friend?”

She couldn’t breathe.  She had gone cross-eyed trying to keep track of Jimin’s gaze.  He was so close to her now.  It would be nothing for him to kiss her.  With that thought, her eyes left his to skim his lips as he drew his head a little away from her.

Distracted by those smooth, plump lips – ones she had often practiced kissing in the garden of her heart as an adolescent – she failed to answer his question.

So his head dipped towards her again.  “Insuk?  What’s breaking your heart, my love?” he asked tenderly.

Her eyes grew wide as they lifted to meet his again.  

My love?  

Jimin had occasionally called her that in a teasing tone over the years.  He’d first said it when they were adolescents.  He’d been mimicking someone.  But even then, those words had slipped into her heart with a definite heat that had warmed her whole being.  Even though she’d told her heart to ignore them.  They were meaningless.

Yet once again, they washed over her with a ray of hope.  That one day Jimin would speak them to her and mean them.  Today as he’d spoken them, they’d come out with a feeling attached.  A discernably different feeling.  Tenderness.

Her eyes sought his.  She gazed deeply into his chocolate orbs.  Her favorite eyes in the whole world.  She searched them for something.  For the thing she’d been looking for throughout her entire life.  Since she was cognizant of her need for it anyway.

She gasped as her seeking eyes seemed to discover it hidden within that intent gaze.  Was it even possible that Jimin was growing to love her?  Or was she just imagining what her heart was longing for?

Was there a hidden motive behind Jimin’s request that she marry him at twenty?  Had he perchance begun to become more than fond of her?  Was there any possibility that he saw her as a woman now?  And not just as his best friend?

“I want to be adored,” she whispered.

Her breath floated across his lips, and everything within him tightened.  

“You do?” he breathed.  But he wasn’t sure how.  She’d just stolen his breath.

She nodded.  Then a tiny sob bubbled up from deep within her.  It escaped her lips in a puff of air that sailed across his.  He felt like he was inhaling her grief.

He bent his head towards hers.  “I adore you, Insuk.”

His tone lacked its usual teasing quality.  

Still, she retorted, “No, Jimin!  I mean for real.  As a woman.  I want to be wooed.  With flowers.  And poetry.  And sweets.  I want some man to see past my wheelchair and these dumb legs,” she rapped one of them with her knuckles, “and see me.  The real me.  The woman inside my soul.  The one who isn’t bound by these two lame sticks.  The woman who longs to run free through fields of wildflowers with the wind in my hair.”

Tears were streaming down her face now.  And Jimin’s heart was convulsing.  It devastated him to see her in such pain.  

He strode purposefully towards the garden.  Without another word.  

If he declared himself, would she be able to receive his love?  Or would he forever be just her friend, relegated to second place in her heart?  Never able to reach the most intimate space of all.

He carried her into a secluded corner of that garden.  Where a fountain flowed, its cheerful chatter punctuating this bright summer’s day.  He didn’t want to release her, but he set her down on the edge of that fountain as he bent to pick a beautiful bloom for her.

With a flourish, he bowed before her and held the pretty flower up for her perusal.  “For you, milady.”

She blinked and reached out to receive his bounty.  “Won’t you get in trouble for picking the queen’s flowers?”

“If I do, I shall appeal to Queen Moonflower herself.  I will tell her I was trying to cheer the broken heart of a fair maiden.  I feel assured she’ll issue me her pardon.”

“Do you now?” came a crisp voice.

They both glanced up in fear at the hovering guard.  Startled, Insuk fell backward towards the pool of water.  Jimin lunged towards her, but he was too late.  She’d already slipped beneath the cool water as a scream left her lovely lips.  Jimin plunged into the shallow depths and dragged her from their terrifying hold.  The pool wasn’t very deep, but she lacked the use of her legs.  Even sitting straight up, her nose would have been underwater.

Jimin pulled her up snug against him.  She was dripping wet.  He was fairly soaked himself.  The glowering guard was now standing a foot from them.

“Let’s pay the queen a visit,” he murmured.

Jimin glanced up at him in shock.  This man was truly going to interrupt the queen’s schedule to quibble over a flower?

“Sir, if I offer to pay a fine to the queen’s treasury, can we forget disturbing her day?”

“Are you trying to bribe me?” the man asked gruffly.

Alarmed, Jimin exclaimed, “Not at all!  I’m simply seeking to repay the queen for what I’ve taken.”

“So you admit you stole her flower!  Come along.”  The guard turned and began to stride back towards the palace.

Jimin sighed.  But Insuk’s heart was racing.

“Jimin, she won’t have you flogged, will she?  Or let go?”  Tears were filling her eyes once more.

“Shh.  I’ll be fine.  You’ll see.  Queen Moonflower is not unkind.”  He hugged his dripping friend close to him as he followed the grumpy guard.

A few minutes later, Jimin stood before the queen.  He was still holding Insuk in his arms.  Mari looked from one to the other.  

“What’s the meaning of this disturbance?” she demanded of the guard since she could see the shocking tableau, and Moonflower could not.

The guard answered, “I caught this man plucking a flower from her majesty’s garden.”

Moonflower turned towards Jimin.  He wondered briefly how she knew where he was standing.

“Is this true?” she spoke in a clear, kind voice.

“It is, Your Royal Highness,” Jimin breathed.

Mari noted the fear on Insuk’s face.  

Moonflower addressed the guard as her eyes moved towards him, “You may go now.”

“Your Royal Highness,” the man bowed and then disappeared out the door.

Mari spoke up, “My queen, this man stands before you holding a dripping woman in his arms.”

“What?” Perplexed, Moonflower directed her gaze at the young couple.  “What’s this?  Why is the lady wet?”

“I fell into your fountain, Your Royal Highness.”

“What?  Goodness!  Mari, get the poor girl a towel.” Her head swiveled back towards Insuk.  “My dear, how did you come to fall into my fountain?”

“Jimin set me down on its edge.  When the guard startled me, I fell backwards.”

“Wait.  Why did Jimin set you on its edge?  Could you not seat yourself?”

“No, Your Highness.”

“Why not?” Moonflower asked softly.

“I am lame, Your Majesty.  Since birth.  Jimin was trying to cheer me up, so he carried me from my wheelchair to the garden.  He picked the flower for me.  Because I told him I was longing for a man to woo me.  He just wanted to make me happy, Your Highness.  Please don’t punish him.  If you must punish someone, punish me instead.”

“Insuk!”

Moonflower heard the man’s startled voice.  

He continued, “I am much stronger than you.  I will not allow you to be punished for something I did.”

The queen could hear the distress in his voice.  “Calm down.  Both of you.”  Her gentle tone broke through their argument.

Mari returned with several towels.  “Here,” she laid one over the seat and back of a chair, “set the girl down here.”

Jimin carried Insuk over to the chair and reluctantly deposited her upon its seat.  Then Mari knelt before her and wrapped a towel around her.

Moonflower spoke.  “Mari, escort the girl to her chamber and help her change into some dry clothes.  I will call a guard to carry her.”

Once this was accomplished, Jimin stood alone before the queen.  She gazed intently at him. 

“Now, tell me.  Why did you pick one of my flowers?”

“To make Insuk smile,” he whispered.

But it was Moonflower’s face that broke forth into a wide grin.  “You love her, don’t you?”

Shock lit up his face.  He gulped.  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I take it she’s clueless,” she murmured dryly.

Jimin sighed.  “Indeed, she is, my queen.”

“I have decided on your punishment,” she uttered abruptly.

Jimin stood up straighter.

“You will go retrieve her wheelchair and have it delivered to her room so she can get around without the help of my guard.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I’m not finished,” she scolded him sternly.

Jimin sealed his lips shut.

“What prompted the picking of my flower?”

“Insuk said she wanted a man to woo her with flowers, poetry, and sweets.”

Moonflower’s face broke into a wide smile.  “I assume you recognize your assignment then.”

“Your Grace?” Jimin questioned, unsure that he had caught her meaning.

“She wants to be wooed with flowers, so you will pick her a dozen blooms from anywhere in my garden every day for the next week.”

Jimin’s eyes grew wide.  “Your Majesty!”

“I’m not finished,” Moonflower intoned again.  But this time with a smile.

“You will also write her a poem each day.”

His eyes grew wider.

“And it’s excellent for you that you are a pastry chef so you may satisfy her desire for sweets.  Each day as you deliver her poem, you will also give her some delectable little goody that you’ve dreamed up in your kitchen.  But only if you allow me to sample them first.  Just to make sure they’re good enough for her.”  Her lips twitched.  “You are, after all, going to be baking for a queen.”

“Yes, Your Royal Highness.”  He bowed again.

“Not I, Jimin.  I’m speaking of Insuk.  The girl was born to be the queen of your affections, so convince her that she is.”

Jimin felt a tear invading his eye at the queen’s kindness.  “My punishment for picking one flower is to pick eighty-four more?  And to compose seven poems and create seven sweet treats to delight Insuk’s taste buds?”

“Exactly.” Her eyebrows lowered as a thundercloud appeared on her forehead.  “So think very carefully before you pick any more flowers.  Will you be willing to pay the price next time?”

Jimin just gaped at her.  But then abruptly the sun broke forth to enlighten her countenance with her delight in him.  “I think Insuk is one very blessed girl.”

“Your Majesty?”

“To have a man willing to risk the queen’s wrath just to please her momentarily.”

He smiled.  “It was wrong of me to pick your flowers without asking.”

“So now you know how to remedy the situation next time.”

“Your Grace?”

“Just ask.”

Wonder passed over his countenance.  “You would allow me to pick her flowers just for the asking?”

“Certainly.  But,” she leaned towards him conspiratorially, “don’t let that get around, or I won’t have any flowers left in my gardens!”  

She grinned broadly at him.  “You’d best be going!  You have a lot of work to do to woo that girl!  And I would still like to eat my lunch soon,” she chuckled.  “By the way, your punishment is between me and you.  We wouldn’t want Insuk to know that I ordered you to be romantic, now would we?”

“No, Your Majesty.  We would not.”  He gazed at her thoughtfully for a moment.  “But you discerned the desires of my heart.  Thank you, Your Grace.”  He bowed reverently before slipping out into the hallway.  Absolutely astounded at his good fortune.

He didn’t see the sweetness lighting up the face of his queen as she watched him depart.