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“Are you flirting with me?” Jina asked him all of a sudden.

Jungkook shrugged.  “It’s allowed, isn’t it?  For a man to flirt with his betrothed?”

She blinked again.  Still confused.  But then she snorted.  “You’re hardly a man.”

His face instantly hardened.  “I’ll be seventeen soon,” he remarked.  “I’m one of the king’s favored guards.  And I rescued you from danger.  Don’t you think just maybe I’ve earned the right to be called a man?”  

He was keeping a careful rein on his temper.  Which was itching to explode right now.  That this tiny wisp of a girl would dare to call him a boy!!

She sized him up as her eyes slid down to his toes and back up to his face.  But then she remembered Moonflower’s earlier report that Jungkook had earned several commendations in the war when he was only an adolescent.

“Hmm.  I think in some ways you’ve been a man for years,” she remarked thoughtfully.  As a look of intense shock slid over his countenance, she continued, “But in other ways, you are definitely still a boy.  Letting a tiny girl goad you into anger,” she smirked.

Forgetting his former thoughts, he retorted, “You are hardly a tiny girl!”

Her eyebrows ascended to the ceiling.  “Are you saying I’m a woman, Jungkook?”  As she asked the question in a very provoking way, she began to creep towards him on her tiptoes.  Raising the hair on the back of his neck.  What was she thinking?

Whatever her intention was, the effect of her prowling was instantly cut off as she opened her mouth to release a mammoth sneeze.  The brunt of which hit Jungkook forcefully in his face.   His eyes blinked shut as any smile remaining on his face was abruptly wiped clean. 

Her hand flew to her mouth.  “Oh, Jungkook!  I am so sorry!”  

She was sounding – and feeling – stuffed up again.  The effect of the kimchi seemed to be fading.  She crossed the room to find a handkerchief with which to blow her nose.  Once she was done, she sagged against the wall.

“You were right.  I’m feeling exhausted again.”  She dragged herself across their room and climbed back into the bed.

Sheepishly, she glanced at him.  “Are you going to sleep anymore before you return to work?”

He simply stared at her.  He was so tempted to crawl into that bed with her again.  “That depends.  Are you going to let me hold you?”

She swallowed as her eyes seemed to become trapped within his own.  But – in truth – Jungkook’s request was melting her heart.  Two weeks ago, she would have done anything to hear him ask her such a question.

“Why?” she queried in a tiny voice.

He grinned suddenly, completely deciding the matter for her.  How was she supposed to resist the appeal in that smile?

“Because earlier I discovered I quite like holding you.  I want to experience that feeling again.”  He tilted his head to the side.  “Did you not enjoy being held in my strong arms?” But he totally wiped the seriousness of his question away by grinning like a five-year-old as he suddenly flexed his biceps and quirked one dark eyebrow.

“Oh, well, when you put it that way, how can I resist?” she responded playfully.  

Then she smiled at him, and Jungkook felt his breath catch in his throat.  He had to revise his earlier assessment that she was plain.  There was nothing plain about Jina when she smiled.