Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 97

As the onlookers squeezed their eyes shut, Lee Jae, drained of all strength, was about to fall backward completely. But the King possessed beast-like reflexes.

In that fleeting moment, he slipped his hand between the back of Lee Jae’s head and the floor.

Barely managing to prevent her head from hitting the ground, the King sat Lee Jae upright.

Then, looking at the small pebbles rolling around on the ground, he said,

“Seriously, why do you always fall in places like this?”

“I’ve always been unlucky… so I always walk carefully…”

Lee Jae mumbled, but Roderick didn’t seem to hear her words well. He kept patting around her buttocks and asked,

“What to do, are you okay? Let me see. Huh?”

Lee Jae, who had been relying on his strong arm, flinched and looked at him.

Her face was utterly bewildered.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yeah, what is it? Does it hurt a lot? Let me take a look.”

“Why are you trying to look at something like that outside right now?”

“You’re not thinking about what I’m thinking, are you?”

Only after a while did the King realize the situation and look around.

People were avoiding eye contact and pretending to do other things.

But they had already seen the King not only patting but also fondling the Queen’s buttocks.

The King, as if asserting the purity of his intentions, removed his hand from the most likely affected area.

Then, he repeatedly sighed and swept back his hair.

It was an attempt to regain his composure, but he quickly failed.

Rather, a sense of relief washed over him, followed by belated anger, and he burst out shouting.

“Hey, if you felt dizzy, you should have called me right away!”

“…I just fell on my butt a little.”

Lee Jae said nonchalantly, flinching slightly.

However, the King frowned, even more displeased with her reaction.

“Why are you so nonchalant? Don’t you know you could crack your head? Were you waiting for your head to hit the ground?”

“…”

“Then I would have been stuck between you and the ground?”

“…”

“Geez. I thought my heart was going to drop.”

“Seriously, it’s fine if I’m not hurt, why are you getting so worked up again?”

Lee Jae’s reaction was consistently indifferent. Of course, she was also surprised, but she thought that if she panicked or showed any signs of distress, the King would become even more agitated.

However, she widened her round eyes even more at the words that followed, despite pretending to be calm.

“You were a very cunning baby fox, just like you said. Your tactics are getting more sophisticated.”

“What did I do?”

“Do you think I don’t know that you’re just doing things first and then seeing what happens?”

“…”

“I don’t know what you did, but you’re deliberately not explaining it to me right now, are you?”

The King was also a man of good intuition. Although he didn’t sense any sinister energy, he knew that Lee Jae had done more than just shoot an arrow.

In fact, he could tell to some extent when she was lying just by looking at her expression.

Lee Jae flinched at his accurate assessment and avoided his gaze, and he looked at her with reproachful eyes.

“If you do this one more time, I’m confiscating that bow.”

Then, Lee Jae, who had been watching his mood, puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

That bow was her masterpiece, succeeding the Yama [likely a legendary or significant bow].

It might look shabby to the King and knights who only handle good weapons, but it contained her soul and spirit.

So, she couldn’t let him take it away like this.

The King chuckled at Lee Jae’s expression.

When he pressed his finger against her cheek, air quickly escaped from her red lips with a soft puff.

“Why are you puffing air into your cheeks again when you’ve done something wrong? Are you a squirrel?”

She replied sullenly.

“It feels like there are more and more things I’m not allowed to do.”

That was the correct answer.

“Don’t you think you’re pushing yourself too hard? Without me knowing?”

This was also the correct answer.

“Lee Jae. I asked you not to do anything reckless, not to pretend to be okay.”

“How can you not understand your husband’s heart like this?”

“Why do you think I don’t understand?”

Both had dissatisfied expressions. Both sides thought this negotiation was disadvantageous to them.

But when you looked closely at this negotiation, everything was strange.

Negotiation is ostensibly a process of reaching an agreement, but in reality, it is not.

It is a fierce battle of wits to reach a conclusion that is favorable to oneself.

However, the condition Lee Jae put forward was not to stop her from doing what she was doing.

That condition was not for her benefit but ultimately for the King’s.

What the King wanted was for her to perform the ritual in front of him and for Lee Jae not to overdo it. That was ultimately because he was worried about and cared for Lee Jae.

The proviso was also strange.

The King said that if she even had a nosebleed, this negotiation would be broken.

And she said that if he worried about her more than necessary, this negotiation would be broken.

From beginning to end, there were no conditions for herself.

It was all about the other person.

But in order to achieve what she wanted, she had to argue with that very person, so the fight would start but then fizzle out.

Rather, it often ended on a more affectionate note.

If so, this was not a negotiation. It was just love and concern in the guise of negotiation.

And Deborah and the knights were witnessing the hybrid-like result of this strange negotiation as it was.

They all had strange expressions, unable to either cry or laugh.

“Keep making me worry like this. Huh?”

“Seriously, I’m telling you, you don’t have to worry?”

“Why are you deciding that? And can I control it? I told you my heart almost dropped.”

“I didn’t want to say such childish things, but, Your Majesty. Our hearts don’t drop that easily.”

“No, touch it once. I think it’s really gone.”

“Wow, you’re even more childish than me.”

“Then I won.”

The King and Queen were bickering terribly.

But even while fighting fiercely, they were hugging each other tightly and sticking very close.

Even the King sometimes stroked the Queen’s hip area, worried even when he was upset.

Perhaps this situation had been foreseen long ago.

The King was a husband who grumbled with his mouth but diligently cut meat with his hands [a Korean idiom meaning someone who complains but still does the caring action].

The onlookers thought.

That couple would probably be kissing while fighting soon.

The King and Lee Jae finished their meal in a somewhat quiet atmosphere.

This was because she was preoccupied with thinking about the divination throughout the meal.

Roderick, seeing Lee Jae clam up again, kept checking her complexion.

It was always the same ending.

However, when they returned to Lee Jae’s residence, she was a little embarrassed. This was because the King, after sitting Lee Jae on the bed, left the room as it was.

There wasn’t even a word of explanation as to why he was suddenly leaving.

She stared blankly at the door that the King had closed and left through.

“Did he leave? Did he really get sulky?”

But her husband only ever said he was sulky; he wasn’t actually that kind of person.

Saying he was sulky was closer to meaning that he wasn’t angry or that he had already let it go, so don’t worry about it.

Even while constantly showing a sulky expression, the King had taken care of her meal all evening.

Tilting her head, Lee Jae eventually got up from the bed and cautiously opened the door. The apricot-colored fox peeked out to assess the situation but visibly flinched.

The King, who she thought had disappeared, was talking to the doctor right in front of the door.

The King, who turned around with a puzzled look when the door opened behind him, asked,

“Why did you come out?”

Lee Jae, hesitating, mumbled,

“Just… I was wondering if you had left.”

“Ah, are you going to talk about separate rooms again just because I said something you didn’t like? I can’t say anything because I’m afraid of my wife.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Roderick chuckled and swept back her short bangs.

“I’m just kidding, stay inside. I’ll be there soon.”

However, Lee Jae couldn’t go straight in and hesitated for a while.

No matter how she looked at it, that doctor seemed to be here because of her right now.

She hid behind the King and gently tugged at his sleeve.

And whispered in a small voice.

He turned around as if asking what was wrong again and bent down.

“What are you doing right now?”

“I’m just talking.”

“…The doctor is okay, but.”

“What’s okay?”

No matter what, I don’t want to tell the doctor that my butt almost got smashed.

I don’t want to say that my tailbone almost broke.

However, Roderick replied nonchalantly to her embarrassed expression.

“The injured body is healed by the doctor and medicine. But the injured heart will be healed by my wife.”

“…I’m not hurt.”

“When did I say it was about you? It’s about me.”

“Don’t worry about it and just stay inside. Go and rest.”

Roderick pushed Lee Jae back into the room as it was and closed the door.

Lee Jae, left alone in the room, tilted her head.

She couldn’t figure out what he was trying to do.

Looking perplexed, she scratched her cheek and moved her feet back towards the bed.

Lee Jae lay on the bed for a while, just blinking her eyes.

Roderick came back into the room when she was bored and had picked up Hailey’s diary.

Lee Jae put the diary down on her chest and smiled at her husband.

However, her face became somewhat puzzled as Roderick climbed onto the bed.

This was because her husband, who had clearly left empty-handed, was holding something in his hand.

“Your Majesty, what is that?”

Lee Jae tilted her head in confusion.

Roderick placed the small container he had brought on the head of the bed.

Her expression became even more puzzled when her husband suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders.

He turned her over as she was, and Lee Jae raised her head while lying face down.

And her face was filled with shock at the words that followed.

“Let me see where you fell.”

“What did you say?”

“I need to check. I thought my kingdom was collapsing because of our little bean.”

“…Are you kidding me right now to tease me?”

Or is this a bloody revenge? Was I that annoying earlier?

The King did not answer her question.

But when his hand grabbed the hem of her dress and tried to lift it, she jumped up.

No matter how she looked at it, this was not a joke, and her husband was now one hundred percent serious.

Flustered, Lee Jae fled to the end of the bed in a hurry.