story idea by @Kuro06

"we made it out." feng jiu said. flopping on the ground, breathing ragged and shallow from exhaustion because of all the running.

ye qingti flopped down beside her. "and i thought we would both get killed."

the two of them had decided to leave the palace for the day and spend it in the marketplace. he wouldn't be a general for the king; nor was she a concubine to him. just two people, enjoying a day and a friend's presence, somewhere far away from the palace. they had been caught, of course, and they had hidden their faces and fled back to the palace amid lots of laughter.

"we should go and do something like that again," feng jiu said, a smile now making its way on to her face as she remembered the scene, "that was fun."

"should we?" ye qingti smiled too.

"it's a good way to distract myself from inexplicable boredom."

ye qingti laughed. "but it has been long since we talked, and had a proper conversation. when was the last time?"

"i don't know." feng jiu's smile started to fade. "the country affairs have been mostly bad news nowadays. the king says that it isn't wise to leave the palace too often. but i can't stay here all day, it's too uninteresting."

ye qingti nodded. "a battle is inevitable."

feng jiu shook her head. "it isn't just that. the king hasn't been well ever since those news started coming in. he won't be able to maintain his health if this goes on."

she sat up. "speaking of which, the king might be looking for me now. he did say he wanted to talk to me about something."

she got up, but stumbled. ye qingti caught her, but that movement was unfortunately caught by dijun, who had gone around to look for her.

he raised his eyebrows. "what's going on there?"

she jumped to her feet, and smiled abashedly at him. "i almost fell."

he narrowed his eyes. "is that it? nothing more?"

both ye qingti and feng jiu laughed, and feng jiu skipped over to dijun after a quick goodbye wave to ye qingti.

"why do you ask?" she lowered her voice, but it did not lose its mischievousness.

"jealous?" she asked.

and then she skipped away, not seeing the small smile that tugged on dijun's mouth, because she and any other man that came into her life, indeed, with no doubt, made him jealous.

i hope you enjoyed this story, do comment if you feel that i should improve on something :)