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Mi Sook awoke the next morning.  In Dan Se’s bed.  And grinned.  They’d finally spent a peaceful…blissful night together.  But for her aches and pains.  Still, she lay smiling under the rays of the early morning sun spilling in through the window.  As she recalled the sweetness of Dan Se’s kisses last night.  And his tender embrace.

She felt…happy.

Her eyebrows smacked her hairline as she realized what this unfamiliar sensation was.  For the first time in her life, she felt adored by someone.  Whom she just happened to adore in return. 

Only one question remained.  But she wasn’t ready to trouble those waters just yet….

––

Mi Sook spent the day in their room working on her special project.  Jung Sook had stopped by early to drop off Bo A’s story, but those illustrations had not occupied the majority of her day.  Instead, Mi Sook had worked on an entirely different gift.

Dan Se returned to her at sunset.  Just as he’d promised. 

He looked for her first in the extra bedchamber, the one in which she’d set up her little painting studio.  He was not disappointed.  Not only did he find her in that room, but she also greeted him with a kiss.

“Dan Se?  Why did you ask me to paint a lilac?”

“Don’t you know?” he murmured as his eyes caressed hers.  “My wife smells of lilacs.”

She blinked in surprise as she gazed up at the handsome man.  “You know what I smell like?”

“Mm-hmm.  But…I have always associated lilacs with you, my darling.  Even before I knew that you smell like them.”

Her eyebrows flew up to assault the ceiling.  “You have?  But…why?”

“They were blooming in my grandfather’s garden the day I first met you.”

She gasped.  Dan Se seemed to possess a terribly romantic soul. 

In astonishment, she breathed a question then.  “You remember that?”

So did she.  Mostly because she had always loved lilacs.  And mourned the shortness of their blooming period.  She had taken great delight in them that morning nearly a decade ago now.  She had, in fact, been solacing herself under their fragrant branches when Dan Se had first appeared in that garden.  For some reason, he had shown up before Han Sung that day.

She had been gazing up at the light purple flowers as she reached out to draw one near to her nose.  Her eyes had fluttered shut as she had inhaled deeply of that pleasing perfume.  That had been the moment in which Dan Se had first seen the adorable girl.  And lost his heart to the rapture caught in her countenance as she delighted in spring’s beautiful bounty.

Then her glorious eyes had slowly opened, and she had pinned him with a bold stare. 

“Are you Seok Han Sung?” she had breathed.

He had been so tempted to answer in the affirmative.  But instead, he had, of course, shaken his head before responding, “I am Seok Dan Se.”

Only Mi Sook had been cognizant of the disappointment cascading through her in that sad moment.  She had known that he couldn’t possibly be an eight-year-old boy, but for one crazy second, she had hoped that she had somehow misunderstood her father’s words.  And that this quiet boy with the solemn eyes was her future husband.  In that first silent moment, she had been inexplicably drawn to him.  Of course, that tentative connection had been easily broken soon enough.  But Mi Sook had never forgotten that unusual encounter.  Or the warmth that she had felt blossoming between them for the barest of seconds.  She still remembered it even now.

In fact, she felt as if she could still feel it heating the air between them.

As she gazed up longingly at him, she wondered if he too could sense it.

It seemed to be spilling around them and vibrating the air between them with the most vibrant of colors. 

“I remember,” he whispered.

“You do?” she asked in surprise.

He nodded.  “I remember the girl with the shining obsidian eyes.  And lilac petals in her hair.”

“What?” she queried, stunned.  “I had lilac petals in my hair?”

His smile was lighting up his eyes now.  He nodded and reached up to stroke those gleaming, midnight tresses.  “You did.  Little lavender petals floating about, riding the waves of your hair.  So beautiful,” he murmured softly.

Then he bent his head and caressed her lips with his own.

She happily lost herself in his sweet embrace for several wonderful moments.  Then she twinkled up at him as he drew slightly away from her to gaze down into her eyes again.

“I have something for you,” she breathed.

“You do?”  His eyes lit up with delight.  “What is it?”  He glanced around the room.

“This,” she slid her fingers along his and tugged lightly on his hand, drawing him towards her easel. 

She had turned it around to face the wall.  Now she led him to the other side of it.  And he gasped as his eyes took in her lovely handiwork.

“It’s our lilac bush,” he whispered in awe. 

As his eyes slid over the vibrant violet hues which she’d lovingly painted on the silk that he had bought for her.  From palest lavender to deepest purple, she had captured the gleam of the sunshine on those glorious petals that fair day under a vibrantly blue sky.  She’d taken the few colors that Dan Se had purchased for her and created a captivating masterpiece for his perusal alone.  The colors of his love had bled into that fine fabric to display the wonder which her mind had seized upon that day.  A day that they would both always remember.  One that had emblazoned itself upon each of their memories.  The day that Dan Se had given his heart to a solemn, doe-eyed girl in his grandfather’s garden.

She nodded and grinned up at him.  “It’s yours.  I made it for you.”

“For me?”

She beamed at him.  Bobbing her head cheerfully again.

He glanced back at the beautiful painting.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” she quizzed him a few silent moments later.

He furrowed his brow and gazed down at her.  “No.  What?”

“I love you, Dan Se.”

“What a coincidence,” he murmured.

She wrinkled her brow at him.

“Because I have always loved you.”

As she stood on tiptoe to offer him her lips again, she reflected on the beauty of life.  Even in its sorrow.  For she had not married the beautiful boy, Han Sung.  But she had instead come to belong to his kinsman, a man with an equally gentle heart.  A faithful heart that had hidden mysterious wonders as well as a terrible secret.  A kindhearted gentleman whose eyes she was going to delight in slowly opening to the hidden pleasures that remained for them to find.  Together.

Dan Se, as life would have it, had become her one true love.  A man who had cared enough for a mere acquaintance to rescue her from her abusive father.  Simply because he could.  And because he would be honoring his brother by doing so.  But that one bold move had blossomed into a love greater than any of which she had ever dared to dream.

She knew that the key to their future lay in honest communication and unconditional love.  That future, like their past, might not be smooth, but it was possible.  And for the first time, she had a true hope that together they might just find a little happiness.  She and Han Sung’s kinsman.