He strode forward with the Princess in tow. The Princess hurriedly trying to get the death like grip off of her. The man arrived in front of the King and his advisor.

“Uncle”, the man greeted briefly. “Your Majesty”, he bowed.

“Taekwoon”, the advisor spoke. “You’re over efficient as always. It seems you have started earlier than expected.”

The man raised an eyebrow at his uncle, turning his attention to the girl in his grip.

“Daughter, this is the last time you make a fool of this kingdom. Make a fool of my men, and make a fool of me!” The King shouted, locking eyes with his daughter in a deathly stare. “I will make sure you stay in the palace and do as a Princess is told to do. If you make one wrong move don’t think I won’t exile you to the farthest kingdom and marry you off!”  

The Princess raised her head and looked at her father. “Father I-“

“Guards take the Princess to her quarters… and please…make sure she stays there,” the King sighs frustrated, interrupting his daughter.

The guards bowed to their King, grabbing hold of one of the princesses arms each and escorting her away.

Once the Princess was out of the room the King turned to address the man before him.

“Taekwoon, I humbly thank you for returning our princess safely.”

“It was my pleasure your majesty. I will always be of service to you, your family and the Kingdom,” Taekwoon bowed to his King respectfully.

“I do wonder how you did manage to find her.” 

“Well I was on duty my King and I had been passed the first announcement to be on the lookout for the Princess. Just in case she had escaped the palace walls.” 

The shift was long and tiresome, but Taekwoon knew it was worth it. 

The first announcement had been passed early in the morning. The Princess hadn’t been seen since earlier in the evening the day before. 

“Taekwoon-ah”, one of his fellow knights called. 

“Your shift is over go rest.” 

“Thank you Jaesoo I-”

“Yah! What do you think you’re doing?!” A feminine voice shrieked in the distance. It sounded quite familiar. But, in this moment it didn’t matter. A woman was in trouble, and as a knight it was his duty to protect citizens. 

Taekwoon ran a small distance into the dark woods that ran through Kingdom and well into the border of the next. He kept running trying to find the source of the voice he had heard before. A high shriek caught his attention and he sprinted as fast as he could towards the scream. 

There she was. Not even a day after the announcement had been made and she was near the border. She was quite clever. How could she, being a Princess make it this far without being recognised and returned immediately to her father? 

“Well well well, it seems not only have we come into some money but it seems we have also found a Princess,” one of the four thugs surrounding the Princess had teased. 

Taekwoon approached carefully, watching the four men crowd around the girl on the ground. 

“You’ve may have found the Princess, but you’ve also found trouble.” 

“Just leave before we get mad! We’ve found a treasure, right fellas?” The smallest thug grabbed the Princess’ face in his grubby hand as they all chuckled. 

“You have all of three seconds to get out of my sight before you find yourself an everlasting sleep,” Taekwoon threatened. 

All of the men turned shocked to see a knight in their presence. What chance did they have? A sword like the one by his side could easily rid 6 men within a few moments. 

“Come on fellas, it’s not worth it!” One of the thugs shouted, as they all took off. 

“Tha-Thank you for saving me. If you excuse me, I’ll be on my way”, the Princess spoke, standing and dusting herself off.

“The palace is this way”, he spoke bluntly, taking her hand to her back. 

The King smiled softly, proud of one of his servicemen. “Your uncle has told me of your talents and of your dedication to this kingdom and myself and now hearing that you have already saved the Princess once,” The King paused, “I would like to offer you a reward for your efforts.”

“Your majesty this is a great honour. I am happy to be of service without reward, my King.”

“I would like to offer you a position as the Princesses body guard. You will be required to watch her daily, ensure she doesn’t run away again and keep her safe and out of trouble. I will offer you not only 100 gold pieces more than you receive for your knightly duties, but a room in the castle to ensure the princesses safety and your comfort as well.”

The other man listened to his King’s every word.

“Now, do you accept?”

Taekwoon thought deeply about his King’s request. It was a great honour to be able to protect his Princess. Besides, he would love the chance to spend time with her again. To be able to protect her and the royal family is the only thing  he could dream about doing ever since he was young. He had trained and worked hard for the honour to be a knight at the border, this was a definite promotion.  

“Yes your highness. I would be honoured to protect your daughter,” Taekwoon bowed once more accepting his King’s offer.

“Excellent. You will start right away. Be warned she is quite the handful. Do not fail me Taekwoon. There will be consequences if you do.” Taekwoon nodded at his King’s words. “The Princess is in her room, please ensure she stays there until I send for her.”

“Yes, your majesty,” He bowed once more at his King and then left to go find the Princess.

It didn’t take long for Taekwoon to reach the Princess’ room in the high tower. He bowed to the guards at the door before knocking at her door and announcing his presence. 

“Princess,” he called when she hadn’t answered. 

Taekwoon barged through the door at just the right moment. The Princess was working on wiggling out one of the bars on her window. One of the bars had made its way to the floor. The other she was using to wedge the bar out of its place. She was good. 

“What do you think you’re doing, your highness?” 

She looked at him incredulously, “What does it look like?” She scoffed, “Who do you think you are anyway? Entering my quarters and all.” 

The third bar came loose and she tossed it away. She quickly began working on the fourth when a hand came in contact with hers. 

“What do you think you’re do-”

“I’m your bodyguard from today on,” he stated bluntly. “Like it or not, your highness, but you will be staying in this room.” He made quick work of removing her hand from the third bar on the window. 

He took her hand in his pulling her away from the window. She fought back with him, ripping her hand from his grip. She tried ripping out the fourth bar again more aggressively this time. When the bar stayed put, she tried to squeeze her way through the gap already created. 

A sigh passed his lips, he went back over to her with a look on his face that would intimidate the largest knight in the kingdom. 

“You won’t be escaping under my watch,” the look in his eyes was something she’d never seen before. No one had ever dared speak to her like that before. A little startled and a little amused she was ready for the challenge. 

She stood up on her toes trying to get as close to his tall height as she could. 

 “We’ll see Mr. Bodyguard… we’ll see.”