Kate e William visitam a Estação de Ambulância de Newham para conversar com profissionais e paramédicos sobre as experiências e o trabalho das equipes durante a pandemia de COVID-19 | 18.03.2021
An easy Strawberry Cobbler made with fresh strawberries and a buttery biscuit topping made with buttermilk. For an over the top taste sensation enjoy a la mode or with fresh whipped cream.
Synopsis: The prospect of an engagement to a stranger is what makes you realize your feelings for Hyunjin. Victorian AU.
Warning: none
Word Count: 2k
Pairing: fem!reader x lord!Hyunjin
You are in love with Hyunjin.
It occurs to you when you are nineteen, when you are of marriageable age, when your father shows you an engagement contract to a man you have never met before. A man who is the heir to a banking empire, a man who is said to be even more handsome than Paris from the Greek myth, a man who is in desperate need of a proper wife. Your father tells you of his beautiful estate in the sprawling hills and the even more lavish life you will live like he believes that you will be swayed by these things alone. Your father appears to mean well; he keeps glancing over at you for approval, but you sit in front of him in stony silence.
When he finally finishes his speech, he slides a piece of paper towards you and sets his prized fountain pen across the top. You cannot even bear to entertain him by picking up the pen. You abruptly leave the room, running down the hallway to the stables as your father shouts for you to stop. Fortunately, he does not follow you or ask that one of the staff chase after you.
You only mean to ride around the property to clear your head, but your heart has other plans and leads you to the Hwang estate. You hand your horse to the stableboy and begin searching the estate on foot. It is a bright sunny day, and his younger sister will be wanting to paint him.
You eventually find them in the garden where Yeji is indeed working on her latest portrait of him. It is not quite right, you notice; the eyes are too stern and too cold.
“Hello there,” he greets first. He smiles at you and playfully tilts his head to the side. “Tell me, Y/N, has my sister finally captured my likeness? This is her third attempt, and I’m honestly getting bored of sitting here and doing nothing. Thank goodness you’re here to keep me company now.”
“Stop moving. And this is supposed to be a painting of Apollo, not you,” she corrects. She turns around on her seat and wiggles her paint-stained fingers at you. “Hello, Y/N. If you are here for a social call, I’m afraid I’m a tad preoccupied.”
You shake your head. “No, it is nothing of the sort. I was just passing by.”
“Stay a while!” Hyunjin exclaims. “You don’t have lessons today anyway.”
Yeji agrees since she is growing weary of her brother’s grumbles. They look at you with such eagerness that you weakly nod and stand by Yeji, playing director and telling Hyunjin to look in a certain direction. They chat about inconsequential things, and in the meantime, your stomach turns and ties itself into knots. You are not sure how long you can keep it hidden.
“Any suitors clamoring at your door?” Yeji asks you after you half heartedly tease her about the courtship letters she received last week. “Surely you have some yourself.”
Hyunjin pretends to be nonchalant about the whole affair, but his eyes have strayed away from you. You wring the ribbon around your waist.
“I… My father has arranged for me to be engaged.”
It is like the world has stopped. The low clouds in the sky pause in their drift, the birds go silent, and even the dust swirling in the air is frozen. Hyunjin stares at you, his lips parted but no words coming out. You see his throat bob as he thickly swallows, and you feel your own throat tightening.
Yeji, who witnessed you and her brother’s friendship tiptoe into something a little more, abruptly stands up from her seat. “I’m parched,” she loudly announces. “I think I will head inside for some lemonade.” She picks up her skirts, no doubt dirtying the wool, and hurries out of the garden.
“Engaged?” Hyunjin whispers after she is gone. “Are you jesting?”
“No.”
The silence that follows is deafening. You watch as he mouths swears to himself, a practice he adopted after being caned for using such coarse words at a dinner party. He loosens his cravat, a telltale sign that he is distraught. His mouth twists into something between a purse and a frown, indicative of his efforts to process something he cannot. You have picked up so many details about him over the years, you likely know him better than he does himself.
Slowly he says, “Congratulations on your engagement. Your betrothed is a lucky man.”
“Hyunjin, I don’t care about him.” You walk over to him and hold his hands in yours. He stiffens at your gloved touch, the way your own warmth permeates through the kid leather. “I am in love with you and only you.”
He says nothing. You wait, the sunlight making the back of your neck burn, but Hyunjin merely stands up and draws his hands back.
“Why do you torture me like this?” he quietly asks. “I can no longer have you, yet you tell me of these things.”
“I have not signed the contract.”
“And what does that mean for us?”
“That you and I can still be together. Hyunjin, ask me to marry you.”
His mouth twists again, and all you want is for him to kiss you. Too long you have waited for it. You want to run your fingers through his hair, to finally feel how soft and silky he claims it to be. You want him to pull you close, so close that you can hear his heartbeat and feel his breath on your skin.
Hyunjin Hwang is the man you have been in love with for so long, but it took you a near engagement to someone else for you to realize it.
Your heart pounds when he says nothing. Is he engaged to someone else? Can he not be with you like you have so hoped? Certainly he would have said something if he is betrothed to another woman. Or maybe he is in a position similar to yours. Your head spins with possibilities for why he does not accept you, and you can hardly focus. You lower your gaze from him to the ground where everything is much simpler.
“Y/N, look at me.”
When you see his face, you know he feels the same. Longing drips from his eyes like honey. With a faint smile on his face, he gently cradles your face and brings his lips a hair’s width away from yours. You are able to just feel every movement of his mouth, so you know he feels your growing smile. You let out a shaky breath as he says his next words.
“Lady Y/N L/N, will you do the honor of becoming my wife?”
“Yes.”
You tilt your chin upwards to finally, finally kiss him, only for him to move him away at the very last moment. He chuckles, and you feel his chest shaking as he does so.
“You rake,” you tease, making him laugh again. What a joyous sound it is! Why have you only become conscious of it now?
He lets you kiss the second time, and you could just melt. The way his lips meld with yours and the way he holds you just feel so right. He tastes of coffee and brandy, and you can imagine yourself kissing him like this after breakfast every day.
He pulls away first, but his thumb still draws patterns on your cheekbone. “I didn’t give you a ring.”
“What is a ring to your words?” you say, sighing into his shirt. You do not care about anything else in the moment. “Come, we must tell my father immediately.”
“Yeji first,” he disagrees, “lest she wonder where you and I have disappeared to. I think it is only fair that she learns of it first anyway.”
You nod. Whenever you told your father that you were going to the Hwang estate for a social call on Yeji, you spent most of the time chatting with Hyunjin. Whenever you and Yeji visited the city, she brought Hyunjin along as a chaperone instead of her governess and made no comment about you and him being a little too friendly. If you realized your true feelings sooner, you would bet your entire inheritance that she would have helped arrange illicit meetings. Yes, Yeji deserves to know of this happy engagement before anyone else.
But until she returns to the gardens, it is only you and Hyunjin.
Your head still rests on his chest, and his steady, even breaths calm your excitement. He is yours now, and you his. Already, his arm wraps around your waist protectively. You quite enjoy the feeling.
Yeji eventually comes back. She holds a pitcher of lemonade in one hand and balances a stack of glass cups in the other. When she sees you and Hyunjin nestled in each other’s arms, she nearly drops all the drinkware.
“My goodness!” she says once she has recovered from her shock. “Y/N, I thought you were engaged!”
You take great pride in telling her, “I am to Hyunjin now.”
She sets down the lemonade on an empty stool and looks back and forth between you and her brother in bemusement. “Then what was all that fuss earlier? Have you been going to the theater without me?”
You explain to her the situation, and she nods along in understanding, a wide grin forming with each sentence. By the end of it, she is nearly dancing around.
“Oh, I knew you two loved each other! And you will marry him and be my sister now!” She sighs and clasps her hands together rejoice. “You must tell your father at once! Go on now!”
She ushers you two away, acting more like an overenthusiastic aunt than a proper young lady. You and Hyunjin laugh at her eagerness and head for the stables.
On the ride back to your family’s estate, you and him trot side-by-side like usual. At a cursory glance, it appears that everything is normal: the gentleman from next door has graciously offered to escort you home after your outburst, and you are ready to be engaged to a banking heir. However, a closer look shows that Hyunjin is watching you more than the field ahead of him and that you are keeping your head down to conceal your elation.
The two of you hand your horses to the stableboy and head inside the house. You lead Hyunjin through the hallways to your father’s office, ignoring the curious stares from the house staff. He must be in there.
The door is ajar, and you knock on it twice. Your father obliges you to come in, and you wish Yeji were here to paint his stunned expression when you stride in holding Hyunjin’s hand. He pushes his chair back and stands up.
“Child, what is this?” he asks, his eyes flickering back and forth between your face and you and Hyunjin’s intertwined hands. He is not upset but confused.
“Father, this is my fiancé, Lord Hyunjin Hwang. You know him as Lady Yeji Hwang’s brother and our neighbor.”
Hyunjin bows, low and sweeping, in greeting. “Good afternoon, Lord L/N.”
“Fiancé? Since when?”
“Since today,” you answer, gazing at Hyunjin with adoration. He squeezes your hand in response. “I love him, and I have loved him for some time now. I will not marry the gentleman you spoke of earlier.”
“You are certain?” he quietly asks. “I see no ring on your finger.”
Hyunjin gives you a look that says, “You should have listened to me,” but you brush it aside. “I’m certain,” you tell your father.
To your surprise, your father throws his head back and laughs. “Child, if I had known about this, I would have arranged this myself with Lord Hwang. I had considered it, but I didn’t think your feelings were so strong.”
“So you will allow it then?” you say.
“Of course. He is more than a suitable match for you now that I see you two like this.”
You embrace your father in thanks, and he whispers a hearty congratulations in your ear. Then, he and Hyunjin awkwardly shake hands as your father welcomes him as a part of the family, never mind that there has been no wedding yet or even an official engagement.
