Meanwhile, at the palace said prince was pacing in his private quarters, nervous of the day to come. He had no meetings that day, as he was preparing for the event the day after, so he was wearing casual clothing like those of a normal person. His black jeans were ripped at the knees and he was wearing a red plaid shirt. He was sure that if he went out now nobody would recognise him. So that is what he did.

He slipped out of his room after peeking round his door to check that nobody was around to spot him. The hallways were unusually quiet, what with everyone setting up the main hall for the event the next day. He managed to get into the gardens and slipped in with a group of tourists who were just leaving after being allowed in for a short time. This way the guards didn’t stop him from exiting, he would worry about getting back in later.

He soon was on the busy street outside the palace. It was swarming with tourists and reporters, so he ducked his head low and kept his mask on, with his brown hair covering his eyes even though it was a warm day. He knew he needed to get out of there fast before someone recognised him and he ended up getting harassed by hundreds of people. So, as swiftly and calmly as possible, he pushed through the people and found a side alley that lead to a much calmer park at the other end.

As soon as he found a bench he slumped down on it, still keeping his head low as there were still people around. He was glad to be away from the group of sweaty bodies and in the shadow of a tree away from the red heat of the sun in the clear sky above.

However, the weather in no way matched his personality. The nerves from earlier once again bubbled up and overtook his thoughts. He had been looking for a partner for a few years and had not been able to choose even one woman. It had become so bad that his parents even started setting him up with princesses from other countries, and even long distance relatives, all of whom left saying he didn’t pay any attention to them. He had all but given up until he was reminded that he could also marry a noble before lowering himself to look at average people (in their words not his). And so he had been forced to hold a traditional meeting, where he was expected to choose someone from a line, without knowing anything about them, so they could have a private meeting after.

The entire idea of it was stupid and entirely stressed Seungcheol out. He had no idea how he would chose one woman out of around a hundred of them, definitely when he had little to no interest in them. He would never admit it to himself, but it seemed he more often than not looked at men rather than women, which could be a huge problem.

Just as he shook the thought out of his head he saw a figure walk past him and head towards the grassy area across the path. As the figure walked past, Seungcheol caught a glimpse of their face and every thought was wiped out of his mind. The person was the most beautiful thing he had seen in all his years and his eyes were immediately glued to their retreating back.

They were wearing blue jeans and a hoodie, so all Seungcheol could see was their face. Even if seeing it was just for a second, the flash of the face ran through his head thousands of times before he realised that the retreating figure was getting further and further away. He considered following before deciding against it, he was a prince and he had to remember his upbringing before stalking someone. However, he did plan to come back to the park another day to see the beautiful person again.

He figured he should return to the palace, he had been gone for about an hour and people had probably started searching for him, he knew how overprotective his personal servant, Jihoon was. So he pushed himself up, once more hanging his head low, and made his way back to the palace with the perfect face in his mind.