They say the fairy is going to make him king.
Some say it's good luck to have a fairy by your side; others are wary of what kind of contract the prince formed with the fairy in the first place. He never speaks about it, but the prince rarely speaks of his private life, his thoughts or his feelings. He listens to the people when they seek him — the fairy always by his side — and he provides them with guidance and support, but he's always serious then, always focused on his duties.
It's different when he goes into town with her.
The fairy dresses in light colors and always dons a robe over her hanbok — the winged robe of her people. They've never seen her fly but she loves running around the market and blending in with people, likes looking at ribbons and hairpins and playing with the children. Sometimes she helps the elderly and gives food to the poorer families, and the prince walks with her, there is no one without the other, and some people swear they've seen the prince smile then. All that is truly known is that he looks a little softer then, when she holds his hand and, together, they walk through the city.
"You must be kind," the fairy tells him with an air of superiority.
"Are you saying I'm not kind, Hae Soo?" The prince asks, reading over documents and not giving her the attention she desired. The fairy called Hae Soo flushes, pouts and says in a lower voice,
"Okay, you must be kinder, So."
The prince laughs and if the townspeople saw him then, they'd say it's a different man.
"To the people or to you?"
"To me!"
He moves only his gaze to her, not giving her the privilege of his full attention.
"I can't go into town today, Soo, but there's a festival coming up and I'll take you then."
She's suddenly by his desk, propping her arms down and her head on her arms, looking up at him with what could only be described as shining eyes.
"Do you promise?"
"Yes, I promise."
She doesn't move from her position and he has to try very hard to focus on the numbers on the papers.
"It's going well, isn't it, So?" She asks, swinging her head from one side to the other, in rhythm with a melody only she could hear. "I think you're going to be appointed as crown prince soon and then your wish will be granted."
He stops writing down annotations and leans over in her direction, lips curved in an honest smile. The fairy stops her dance and smiles back at him, blinking her big, round eyes. So loves her eyes and the way they shine with a different color, as if capturing the light from a plane he could not see, just like he couldn't hear the melodies she was always dancing to.
"And then you'll be free from your promise, right?" He says, and to anyone who saw them, anyone who was used to their behavior would count it as another one of their banters, the push and pulling game they played every day, prince and fairy, walking in parallel paths towards a destination no one knew about — not even them. However, the fairy known as Hae Soo could see the sadness in him, as though his entire body succumbed to it, in a barely perceptible bow.
Hae Soo moves to sit on his desk, carefully picking up his documents and setting them aside, facing him and holding his face, a fairy ready to tell the future as she saw it.
"I'm going to stay here and watch your coronation and dance for your prosperity, Wang So. I'm going to stay here and watch as you make this country blossom like flowers in spring." She plays with his hair, he kept most of it down that day, adjusting his bangs like she's trying to picture the crown, her wings moving excitedly with her thoughts. Wang So smiles a smile that shows his teeth and the sadness that sat upon his shoulders vanish like smoke.
"Do you promise?" He asks her and she nods twice.
"I promise."
There were people in the palace, however, who looked upon the fairy not with suspicion but with greed, and despite the promises the two were eager on keeping, whispers and plots acted behind their backs.
And so, one day, someone steals Hae Soo's winged robe from her. The flowers in her hair and the rainbows in her hanbok seem monochrome when she runs to Wang So.
"So-yah, So-yah", she cries, taking hold of both his hands and he doesn't understand until she throws herself against him, drops them both to the floor, and he doesn't see her wings on her back. "I can't breathe, So-yah, I can't," she says between sobs and he tries to calm her down, shivers when he rubs his hand against her back but it's not comfort for either of them.
He takes her to his chambers so he can keep an eye on her. She never truly explained to him if she could survive without the robe and he can't remember any legend no matter how hard he tries. He orders a search through the whole palace and comes up with nothing, so he just helplessly looks after her, barely sleeping, barely breathing, neither of them.
On the first night, he stays beside her, one arm keeping his head upward while the other holds her hand, caressing, hoping she would play with him like she always did. Her eyes grow dark and dim and he cries, can't help crying, she evokes every emotion he's ever known. He calls her Soo-yah and she replies with a So-yah and he promises he's not going anywhere and she nods, only once, and it's the worst thing he's ever seen.
On the second night, she tells him that maybe this is a good thing and he doesn't understand.
"I wouldn't be able to stay here after you became king," she confesses. "You need to find a queen and have heirs and you wouldn't need me anymore."
"Soo-yah," he says, touching her face but it's awkward in his agony. "I don't need anybody else, I only need you."
She smiles for the first time since she collapsed.
"A king can't marry a fairy, So-yah."
On the third night he's away, losing himself in paperwork, when someone sneaks into his chambers and whispers to the fairy,
"Give your powers to me and I'll save you."
The fairy who once had rosy lips and peach-tinted cheeks looks at the man with a frown.
"I have nothing to give you," she says firmly, despite her weakness, despite death. "All I ever had I already gave Wang So."
"So you shall die."
She looks at the ceiling of the room as beautiful as her prince.
"So I shall die."
On the fourth night, she has a request. So never looks away from her, no matter how much it hurt, because he owed it to her, owed everything to her. Because they had promised.
"Take me to the forest where we met."
And he takes the fairy in his arms and walks into the dark night, towards her home.
Ah, she remembers it vividly. She always dreamed about it, their encounter, the way he had looked then. She dreamed about it for years and years. When he places her on the ground and she looks at the night sky, she remembers when he saved her. She remembers how he hunted down a man who had stolen her robes while she bathed and how he seemed to glow in her eyes, his long hair framing his face so perfectly, the most beautiful human she had ever seen.
"Do you remember our first promise, So-yah?"
He kisses her hand and she feels warm. He heals her as much as the forest does.
"I do."
"I promised to stay by your side and help you become king and everyone thinks I use magic for you."
"Soo-yah, you don't have to speak."
"It's okay," she says as she sits up and he moves to sit behind her, supporting her back with his chest, embracing her. "The forest will heal me and I'm not going to die." She looks around with sleepy eyes, raising her hand to the breeze. "This forest is magical, not me. All I ever did was give you tips and try to ease your mind with games, you always did so much more. You taught me about the people and their nature, their happiness and their struggles." She lets her head fall against his shoulder and she looks into his eyes. He can see the light going back into her, reflections in blue. "You taught me about love, So-yah."
He brings her hand to his lips then to his forehead, crying, heartbroken.
"Are you saying goodbye to me?"
"I can't leave the forest anymore, So-yah, and you need to go back."
He can't face her anymore so he hides his eyes on her shoulder.
"It's all my fault. If you hadn't met me..."
She backs away from him and he lifts his eyes. He looks scared, like he's still the young boy she met so many years ago. When she holds his face, the forest sends a breeze in their direction and her long hair dances, the life going back into her, little by little.
"So-yah, haven't you been listening?" She giggles and it sounds like bells. "I love you. And I don't want to ever regret that."
He holds her, tightly and desperately, whispering that he loves her, over and over, one time for each year they spent together, and Hae Soo feels like a human woman. She wishes she could stay by his side and become his queen and give him heirs, each of them with his eyes and his hair but her feet so they could dance and play and run through the forest where she was born. He kisses her and she wishes he had kissed her sooner, she wishes he had kissed her a long time ago, he's her best friend and they spent so much time holding hands.
Sadly, they're fairy and human and she wasn't meant to know his love. She breaks up from the kiss and stands up, ready to walk away, she's back home and she has no wings with which to fly and no spring to her step with which to dance. Her only wish, her true wish, was that she could send him away with a smile but when she tries, she cries.
Her fingers almost let go of his when he holds them back.
"So-yah..."
She knows they must be looking for him at the palace.
"You must leave. The forest is not good for you, it'll consume you."
"And if it does?"
She has enough strength back to widen her eyes at him.
"So-yah, you can't be consumed by the forest, you'll become a spirit and then you'll never be able to go back to being human."
"Does it hurt?"
"Wang So!"
Her fragile hands turn into fists and she tries to beat his chest but of course it doesn't hurt. Her tears shine like mermaid's pearls.
"I promised you! I promised I'd make you king!"
He kisses her hand, her finger, where a human woman would hold her wedding band.
"I promised you I wouldn't go anywhere. Will you stay with me?"
Her breath is heavy when she asks, "And the country?"
His warm, rosy human lips form the smile that she adores.
"They'll live without me. I cannot live without you. Will you stay with me, Hae Soo?"
She nods, knowing his stubbornness and his resolve, knowing everything about him and accepting it all.
"Do you promise?"
"I promise, So-yah."
He kisses her again, the only human who ever kissed a fairy. He feels his existence becoming lighter in the forest, but he's not scared. He begins to see colors he had never noticed before and oh, he can hear the melody, the melody to which Soo dances and it's everywhere. As a spirit he can breathe underwater, he can smell the rain before it comes and he can hold her hand, he can hold her in his arms and that's all he ever wanted, the only thing, everything else is a surprise, a gift.
They stay together as kings rise and fall, as years end and begin anew, stay together until their happiness reaches the people of the kingdom and they build them a shrine, a shrine that stays up even when the forest tumbles down, when civilization changes around them and into their space, still their shrine stays there, the shrine for the fairy queen and her king.
And even today, if you walk in the path where their forest used to be, with the few remaining magic trees watching you, you can hear their laughter like bells as they dance, their children forming constellations in the night sky and coming down to Earth to grace us all on New Year's Day.