"Ouch!"

"I apologise, Your Highness. I will be much more careful,"

"Is all of this really necessary? I mean, we're just having guest over as usual for lunch. I don't get why I have to wear all these super fancy clothes." 

Hyejin complained as she felt uncomfortable at the sight of her wearing just beautiful clothing. Even though she was royalty, she made an effort to dress plain and simple. She didn't really favour the feeling of being dressed so exclusively although she was doing nothing at the palace. 

"Her Highness did not mention to you?" the maids looked puzzled, they hadn't expected this. 

"Mention what?" Hyejin turned around, blocking the maids from doing her makeup. 

"We aren't exactly in the appropriate position to be telling you this but..." the second maid hesitated to answer the princess's question. "Her Highness arranged a meeting today with Your Highness's possible future partner." 

Her words made Hyejin's eyes widened to the size of saucers. A scoff escaped her lips, "Y-you... You don't mean partner as in that kind of partner, right?"

The maids both gave slow nods and their answer made her blood run cold. 

"We mean as your potential husband, Your Highness."

The girl didn't say anything, she was too shocked for words. Yes, she knew that one day she had to marry someone to ensure her kingdom had a king but she always imagined that someone would be her lover, Jungkook - not some snot rotten man who she barely knew.  "Leave me," she ordered, her figure beginning to shake. Her maids looked sceptical at her request. She turned to them with a burning look in her eyes, "I told you to leave. Get out!" She pushed their figures away from her and slammed her door shut. 

"What should we do? Her Highness is going to punish us we don't finish our duties on time."

"Let's just give her a moment to calm down..."

Inside the room, Hyejin was losing her mind. The thought of marrying someone never occurred to her that it would happen so early, she was only 18 after all.  "It's just a meeting, Hyejin... Calm down, calm down. There's a chance that you might not marry him," she thought to herself, knowing it was a lie. Her mother had tied the knot at the age of 23 after meeting her father only once.  She hoped it wouldn't happen to herself. She took out the necklace she hid between the pages of a book, looking at it fondly. 

It was a necklace she had kept for so many years, ever since Jungkook gave it to her when they were in their early teenage years. It was a small pebble that had broken in half and Jungkook had the other half. He picked it up when they were walking around and decided to make it into a matching set of necklaces. When the two of them were combined, they formed a perfect circle. She had cherished it so much and kept it safely hidden all these years. Hyejin knew for a fact that Jungkook wore his all the time, he said so himself. 

She held the necklace close to her heart and tears began to roll. "Please, please, please... Let me live happily with Jungkook, please," she prayed, her hands tightly holding onto the pebble. "Let us live happily together, please," she kissed the pebble for good luck before placing it back into its hiding spot. She tried to make it less obvious that she had shed a few tears before opening her doors once more. 

Jungkook sat down, playing with his part of the pebble between his fingers. He felt a strange unsettling feeling in his gut and found the pebble a great way to calm his nerves. "You're feeling uneasy, aren't you?" Hoseok appeared behind him, startling the younger boy. 

"Hyung, you scared me there..." he gave a small smile before sighing. Hoseok sat down beside him, "What's wrong, Jungkook?" Jungkook's smile faltered, "I... I don't know, hyung.