Work Text:
The first time it happens, it comes unbidden, six syllables slipping out unprompted the instant Princess Haseul locks eyes with her newest guard.
“Wow, you’re so beautiful…”
Perhaps that isn’t the most appropriate greeting for a first meeting, but it’s not like Haseul is lying; the blonde knight before her stands stolid and steadfast, back straight and shoulders squared like an avatar of safety and security. The morning sun paints her features immaculately, every facet of the knight’s face highlighted so perfectly that Haseul figures she might as well quit her art lessons. There’s no way she’ll ever be able to replicate nature’s beauty and how it has culminated in one human being, so why bother trying?
Kim Jungeun is seriously pretty.
Alas, it seems that her perfection has become temporarily fractured. The balance of her face is marred by a crease between her eyebrows, a slight furrow forming there as Jungeun stares at her liege. For a brief, whimsical second, Haseul entertains the thought of reaching over and pinching Jungeun there, but one: she does not need to be accused of improper conduct, and two: it’s probably best to figure out what has her new guardian frowning so in the first place.
… It was the comment, wasn’t it? Curse the lack of self control that comes with appreciating women.
“Ahem,” Haseul clears her throat in an attempt to wipe the slate clean. “Greetings, Ser Knight. I am Princsss Jo Haseul of the Verdant Kingdom, Dove of the Westerly Winds, third in line to the royal throne, Overseer of the Lunar Festival, and many more titles…” She pauses to wink. “But you can just call me Haseul!”
During her spiel, the wrinkle between Jungeun’s eyes had faded probably thanks to the familiarity of a formal, proper introduction. At Haseul’s last sentence, however, that crinkle returns in full force, and Jungeun visibly wars with how to respond.
“Alright, Ha… Has… Princess Haseul,” Jungeun finally manages to get out after a rather long minute. Her eyebrow twitches awkwardly, and she makes a passable attempt at smiling. “I am Kim Jungeun, and I am here to serve you to the best of my ability.”
The professionalism creeps back into her voice by the time she’s done speaking, and Haseul can’t help but pout. She knows the Academy drilled propriety and decorum into its cadets, but she’s not fond of being so distant with those around her. She physically closes the gap between her and Jungeun, hooking her arm around her knight’s as she pulls her towards the kitchens.
“Come on! Let’s have some tea and get to know each other better,” Haseul says brightly. “We’ll be seeing each other a lot from now on, so.”
“O– Okay…”
Jungeun allows herself to be tugged along, probably unwilling to protest against royalty. The lack of enthusiasm is a little down-putting, but Haseul takes it in stride.
At least the way Jungeun can’t seem to meet Haseul’s eyes is pretty darn cute.
The second time it happens, it’s kinda-sorta an accident.
It leads to one, at any rate.
All Haseul really wanted was to head over to the stables and check out one of the rumors swirling around the castle as of late. Whispers speak of a burgeoning romance between the stable master and one of her former personal guards, and what kind of princess would Haseul be if she didn’t verify this information first hand?
It has nothing to do with any feelings of abandonment still lingering from when Heejin asked to change her post from protecting Haseul to protecting Haseul’s horse.
“Ah, young love,” Haseul sighs to herself before picking up the pace. “C’mon, Hyejoo, hurry up! I heard they’re having lunch together today.”
“Okay, okay…” Haseul’s assigned protector for the day grumbles.
Haseul sometimes wonders how Hyejoo ever became her physically strongest knight with that near constant air of apathetic lethargy. She’s pretty sure Hyejoo doesn’t do much aside from vegetate in the barracks when off duty, so how does she maintain her physique and power? It would be nice to do nothing and be fit, Haseul thinks, but that’s a mystery for another day as the section of the castle housing the Verdant Kingdom’s finest steeds comes into view.
A certain someone chooses that very second to gallop right across Haseul’s line of vision.
Jungeun’s eyes are focused as she charges forward on a white stallion. Her uniform’s jacket is off and her sleeves are rolled up, the wind holding her hair aloft like a goddess of freedom and speed, grace and determination. She lives up to that imagery, the lance in her hand steady as she targets a poor dummy sitting in the middle of the field. It stands no chance, Jungeun striking it straight in its nonexistent heart while deftly avoiding the dummy’s counterweight when it swings back at her.
“Hm, not bad,” Hyejoo comments, and she somehow manages to sound sincere despite the lack of inflection in her tone.
Either way, her assessment isn’t off. Haseul finds an eagerness building inside her as Jungeun prepares for another go at the dummy. She brings her horse to one end of the field, allowing it a moment’s break as she runs a hand through her hair. The sun has, once again, decided to dedicate its existence to worshipping Kim Jungeun by bathing the air around her in a radiant glow, and the excited murmur in Haseul’s chest increases its intensity to a steady thrum when Jungeun begins charging forward again.
“Go, Jungeun, go!” Haseul can’t help but shout as she closes in on her foe. “Gosh, you’re so cool!”
“Wha– Princess!?”
Jungeun looks away from her target, eyes wide in shock.
And then she promptly smacks her face into it.
The noise that comes out of Jungeun’s mouth as she falls off her horse is nothing short of impressive. It’s some hybrid between an eagle's screech and a chicken’s squawk, and Haseul is torn between laughing and staring in awe. Hyejoo, on the other hand, has no such scruples. She cackles without remorse and doesn’t bother following Haseul as the princess rushes over to her knight.
“Are you okay?” Haseul asks as soon as she’s close enough. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
Jungeun remains facedown on the dirt.
“Just my pride,” she grumbles to Haseul’s relief.
“There, there,” Haseul says. She gingerly pats Jungeun’s bicep. “Everyone makes mistakes! I heard one time Sooyoung fell off her horse when it wasn’t even moving.”
Jungeun lets out a snort, but she’s grinning as she rolls over and sits up properly.
“That’s because Jiwoo smiled at her,” the knight reveals with a shake of her head. “No offense, but our Captain of the Guard can be kind of useless sometimes.”
“Hey, it can be hard to function around cute girls,” Haseul pouts in solidarity with Sooyoung, and she has to tell herself to not be so blatant about checking out Jungeun’s side profile from this close proximity.
Unfortunately, her appreciation of whatever went into Jungeun’s genes is interrupted when Jungeun suddenly remembers who she’s talking to. She visibly stiffens, straightening her back before elegantly scooting away from Haseul while staring at the dirt between them.
“Anyways!” Jungeun coughs into her hand. “P– Princess! What brings you here?”
“It’s Haseul,” the princess in question corrects patiently. “I was looking for Heejin until you, well, decided to say hi to the dummy with your face. It’s a very lovely face, by the way.”
Jungeun’s eye twitches.
For a second, Haseul thinks she’s finally broken through that slowly melting layer of ice around her knight. Jungeun’s lips are pursed, and she looks as though she’s fighting the temptation to snark at her boss the way she squabbles with her colleagues. Haseul wouldn’t mind; she’s looking forward to it, in fact, and she watches with glee as that increasingly familiar eyebrow crinkle makes its reappearance.
A loud voice cuts Haseul’s moment of hope in half.
“Hey, Chaewon, watch this!”
“Yah! Son Hyejoo!” Jungeun barks out as she immediately leaps to her feet. “Get off Lippington!”
Haseul blinks.
“You named your horse Lippington…?”
“It’s a perfectly fine name,” Jungeun says defensively, crossing her arms.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t, but…” Haseul fails to hide her laughter this time, and she’s rewarded by the sight of Jungeun’s lower lip jutting out rather adorably.
Heejin should have asked for a change of station to be with Hyunjin sooner.
In the distance, Hyejoo lets out a whoop as Lippington jumps over a fence and somehow does a midair spin at the same time. Several onlookers, Haseul included, cheer and clap at the feat, and even Jungeun cracks a grin. She quickly schools her features, however, and she’s back to scowling as she tromps across the field.
“Oi, give my horse back!”
“Come get him!”
To Haseul’s disbelief, Jungeun actually takes Hyejoo’s challenge to heart. She begins chasing after her fellow knight on foot, arms raised as though she’s prepared to claw Hyejoo off her steed as soon as she gets within range. Unfortunately for Jungeun, she’s no match against a stallion’s speed, and Haseul gets the feeling that neither of her bodyguards will be doing much guarding for the next thirty minutes.
Oh well.
At least the way Jungeun laughs while she runs around is pretty darn cute.
The third time it happens, it’s completely, undeniably intentional. So are the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and so on times.
In Haseul’s defense, how can one not compliment the great Kim Jungeun? She’s dashing, cute, skilled, gorgeous, cute, kind, funny, handsome, cute… the list goes on. Granted, Haseul’s definition of complimenting has grown looser over time (Jinsol outright accused her of flirting the other day), but Haseul can’t help it. Jungeun’s spectrum of reactions is just too precious to leave be, and Haseul truly enjoys exploring what she can provoke from her knight.
The eyebrow scrunch remains one of Haseul’s favorites. She sees it pretty often these days, usually accompanied with that half-embarrassed, half-resigned smile of hers. Sometimes it disappears in favor of a totally unamused, deadpan stare, which Haseul finds hilarious and encouraging; if Jungeun’s willing to make that kind of face nowadays, it means they’ve gotten closer, right?
A rarer specimen is the one Haseul has mentally labeled as the Jungeun Tomato. It made a brief but unforgettable appearance the one time Haseul unknowingly pushed a little bit too strongly with her words. Jungeun had been debating with Jinsol about classic fairy tales and matters of consent and whatnot when Haseul’s mouth decided to interject the following:
“For the record, Jungie, you’re allowed to wake me up with a True Love’s Kiss any time you’d like.”
“Ackughawaugh– See!?” Jinsol had promptly slammed one hand down on the table while using the other to jab in Haseul’s direction. “Flirting!”
“I’m just telling the truth!” Haseul had protested. “And how did you do that with your mouth…?”
“Ask Yerim,” Jinsol had said before the two of them turned to their third party member.
Their beet red, completely crimson third party member.
Ah, what Haseul would do to witness that sight again…
To her dismay, Jungeun seems to have magically increased her immunity after that day. No level of “flirting” or teasing has been able to replicate that legendary shade of crimson no matter how hard Haseul bats her eyelashes while saying sincere but sacarrhine words. She’s able to get some sputtering and plenty of squishy eyebrows, but still no Jungeun Tomato.
Well, at least Jungeun has begun firing back every now and then. Progress!
The thought of seeing Jungeun again has Haseul in high spirits as she makes her way out of her personal quarters to find her appointed babysitter for the day. Humming a song as she steps out of her private wing of the castle, Haseul beams brightly upon spotting that familiar back standing not too far away. She raises her hand in prime tickling position, sucks in a deep breath, and braces for a charge.
“Back. Off.”
The unexpected harshness and hostility in those two words brings Haseul screeching to a halt. She’s never heard Jungeun this angry before, the knight usually mild mannered when she’s not exasperated at their friends. The sheer acidity radiating off of her now though, visible even from behind, sends Haseul’s heart plummeting to her stomach.
It seems she’s finally crossed the line that she didn’t want to believe was there.
Lowering her head in remorse, Haseul closes her eyes.
“I’m sor–”
“Oh, come on, missy. Can’t take a compliment?”
Haseul pauses again, this time in confusion, then with slowly dawning realization. The shameful feeling in her melts away to relief before solidifying into displeasure as she moves forward to confirm that, indeed, Jungeun is speaking to someone else.
A man.
He stands just around the corner, out of Haseul’s original line of sight. There’s a sneer on his face, just as disrespectful as the way he’s leaning against the portrait on the wall next to him. His clothes may look rich, but Haseul knows for a fact that he’s a minor noble not worthy of anyone’s attention; she can’t even remember his name in the first place. Jacyeon or something?
“I said… Back. Off,” Jungeun says again through gritted teeth. “Unwelcome advances are exactly that: unwelcome.”
Haseul flinches even if the statement isn’t directed at her. Vowing to correct her behavior moving forward, she quickly enters the scene before things escalate further.
“Aha! Princess!” Jaerin or whatever says as soon as he spots her. “Thank goodness you’re here… Your knights are rather rude, you know. This is the second one I’ve met that has no manners whatsoever.”
“How dare–”
“Count, um, Chaedon, was it?” Haseul interrupts Jungeun with a smile. “Ser Yeojin mentioned you.”
“Is that the short one?” Jadoong sniffs in a rather haughty manner. “All I did was talk to a cook and she threatened to chop off my hand.”
“He was harassing Vivi,” Jungeun hisses into Haseul’s ear.
“I know,” Haseul murmurs back. In a louder voice, she says, “Count Jooden, would you mind doing me a favor?”
“Of course,” he immediately replies, smirking like the slimeball he is. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do to– for a fair maiden.”
Jungeun’s hand twitches towards her sword.
Haseul clears her throat.
“Count Jamden,” she says sweetly. “Please kindly leave out the west gate, and never come back.”
“What–”
“Finally!” Yeojin shouts as she pops out of a decorative suit of armor of all places. “I’ve been waiting for this!”
“Hang on– Unhand me, you gremlin!”
“Only I’m allowed to call her that,” Hyejoo growls as she too shows up out of the blue to help eject this walking stain on humanity. Haseul’s pretty sure Yeojin and Hyejoo will be dragging him towards the moat instead of the gate, but she doesn’t mind.
There’s someone more important here to worry about.
Jungeun’s eyes are still smoldering when Haseul turns to look at her. There’s something bittersweet about seeing that little crinkle between her eyebrows when it’s paired with a genuinely unhappy frown, and although Haseul longs to reach over and smooth it out with her thumb, she recalls Jungeun’s words about unwanted advances.
“… Jungeun,” Haseul calls out quietly. “Can I say something?”
“Of course,” Jungeun replies, her expression softening.
Taking a second to gather her willpower, Haseul inhales deeply before sharing her heart’s true thoughts with Jungeun one last time.
“Thank you,” Haseul says sincerely. “I just wanted to say thank you for being here and protecting me. Thank you for looking out for all of us, thank you for brightening everyone’s day, and thank you for… always putting up with me.”
“… I’m not putting up with you.”
Haseul blinks.
“S– Sorry?”
“I’m not putting up with you,” Jungeun repeats. Her eyes flicker to the side briefly before locking on intently to Haseul’s. “It’s… fun spending time with you.”
“Oh…” Haseul breathes out, and just like that, an invisible weight vanishes off her shoulders. “That’s good… That’s great!”
“Yeah,” Jungeun says before coughing into her hand. She mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like “the flirting is okay too”, but before Haseul can fully process those very important words, Jungeun loudly declares, “ANYWAYS.”
“Yes?” Haseul asks, leaning away a bit to preserve her hearing.
“You’re welcome,” Jungeun says. “… Haseul.”
The calling of her name is accompanied by a gentle smile, one that makes Haseul’s heart pound a little harder than usual. Her breath catches too, and she decides right then and there that she literally has no choice but to continue with her own, personal way of getting closer to Jungeun. She’s been given permission after all, if Haseul’s ears haven’t betrayed her, and how could she possibly resist?
The way the tips of Jungeun’s ears have turned red and the way she grins shyly at Haseul is just too darned cute.