Forever It's You (It's You Series #2)

8 ✽ The Royal Wedding

In Joseon, a royal marriage would take place once every few decades. After months of thorough preparations by the Royal Wedding Directorate, the wedding procession would take place on an auspicious date chosen by the Diviner.

On this day, the entire nation would witness the marriage between the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. As grand and elaborated as it sounded, sometimes life wouldn't go in the direction as one would desire. Unforeseen events somehow wiggled their way into what everybody thought was a flawless plan, but it shouldn't come as a surprise when the Crown Princess was Eun-bi.

As dawn approached, the court ladies dragged a sleepy Eun-bi out of her bed. She had tried to fall asleep early the night before, but her nerves got to her and it was only hours later did she finally start feeling drowsy. Now, the night was almost over and the sun was peeking above the horizon.

The little sleep she got annoyed her, her nervousness long forgotten.

She was barely awake throughout her bath as they scrubbed her skin clean. The sweet-scented water filled with rose petals that had her sneezing a few times, but it didn't get rid of her drowsiness. Even as they dressed her in several layers of the ceremonial dress, she was half-asleep while standing, which wasn't the best idea because the occasional loss of balance would jerk her back upright.

A couple of seconds later, she would fall back into the same routine. Her head lolled to the side several times as they applied a layer of powder and rouge to her face and ink to her eyebrows, before braiding her hair.

Her head dipped forward suddenly, causing a few strands of her hair to get pulled out from their roots, and she yelped in pain immediately.

Now that woke her up.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Amidst the court ladies' apologies, they coiled her hair into a tight bun. The more pins they added to secure it, the louder her shouts became. Soon, it became like a battle between her scalp against their pins, as if they were intent on turning her bald.

However, finishing her hairdo wasn't the end, because they brought over her wedding headpiece and it was huge. It seemed capable of swallowing her head whole, and suddenly, escaping seemed like the better option.

They set the headpiece on the crown of her head slowly, but the heavy weight tipped her forward until Eun-bi came close to meeting the floor. If it wasn't for Court Lady Kim and Byeol swiftly grabbing both her arms and hoisting her upright, Eun-bi was certain that she might either have a broken neck or her face would end up with a bruise.

Just as she thought she was saved, another disastrous thing happened.

That near-fall had her accidentally stepping on the hem of her underskirt, and they heard a ripping sound. Everyone in her bedchamber came to a standstill, blood draining from their faces.

"Your Highness!"

"Oh no." Eun-bi froze as guilt crossed her face. "I swear I didn't do it on purpose!"

Still stunned, the court ladies didn't respond or move an inch, but the horrified expressions made her feel even worse.

She was aware of how much effort they had put into preparing her outfit and yet it wasn't her fault that it was long and difficult to manoeuvre around.

Now that there was a minor mishap in her outfit, the court ladies were afraid of being punished if they could not resolve this. After all, Senior Court Lady Yi would not tolerate any mistakes if something went wrong during the wedding procession.

Fortunately, a saviour came to their rescue at the right time, like a ray of sunshine breaking through a storm.

She burst into the room and greeted Eun-bi with great enthusiasm, breaking the tension in the air.