Come Friday early evening, Yeonhee had a number of problems.

First was Taehyung.  He didn’t believe that she actually had a date, and that the reason there was a private number on the text that she’d shown him was because she’d used an app to send a message to herself so that she could escape the situation.  (Yeonhee didn’t understand how this could ever not equate to I don’t want to be around you please go away, but he was persistent.)

Second was her friends.  All of them knew that she wasn’t dating, and while they were perfectly happy to go along with her having a pretend boyfriend if it would get Taehyung off her back (which appeared not to be working so far), they were definitely dubious about her “date” on the Friday evening.

“I don’t understand why you’re in such a flap,” Mihae said.  “Why do you need to pick out something to wear?  You honestly don’t need to go this far to keep Taehyung off your back.”

She’d made the mistake of telling Baekhyun that she was actually meeting somebody, but that she wasn’t dating the person.  He frowned at her.

“Do we know him?” was his first question.  Yeonhee shook her head.

“Is it the sugar daddy with the nice car?”

Yeonhee didn’t know how to respond to that, because it was blatant he disapproved.  He took it as silent acquiescence and launched into a very serious lecture about the dangers of dating people you barely knew, especially if they didn’t move in the same friendship circles as you.

“I don’t like it,” he finished up.  “Yeonhee, he’s evidently rich and— where did you even meet him?  Online?”

Yeonhee tried to deflect.  “It’s purely platonic, Baekhyun.”

“Purely platonic does not drop you off in a car worth millions and invite you out for the dinner, just the two of you, the next Friday.”

Third was her sister.  Minhee would not rest, she knew, until she had actual receipts of Yeonhee eating dinner with the boy she’d stood up.  After getting the date and timings from Yeonhee, she’d demanded for a photo to be sent to her during the meal of the two of them, in a pose that she was going to ask at the time so that she could be sure Yeonhee wasn’t cheating her.  (She probably felt Yeonhee would be too awkward about going up to a random boy she was sure Minhee wouldn’t know and asking him to dinner so that she could get round this, and she was probably right.)  If it had been anybody other than the prince, Yeonhee would have been fine, if not a little grumpy about it, but it was giving her the gibbers and she didn’t know what she was going to do.  The prince was probably not going to be okay with a stupid selfie pose for her sister.  Heck, there was a high chance he’d think Yeonhee was trying to show off that she knew him, and that would be a pretty big problem and also likely offend him.  It might even get her into legal trouble.

Fourth was what she was going to wear.  All her clothes were out on her bed, and she was aware that time was ticking away.

The prince had said casual, which was all well and good, but she wasn’t sure that his version of casual and her version of casual were the same.  She’d seen him dressed comfortably a few times now, and for her that was on the high end of smart casual and well out of her price range.  It was also easier for a male because smart casual essentially meant a nice jumper, well cut jeans or chinos, and a shirt that went with both, and all of which were not in colours one would usually wear to work.

Yeonhee didn’t even know where to start.  If it was a casual evening with friends, she’d normally throw on an oversized hoodie and tatty jeans, but she wasn’t sure that would fly on this occasion, especially not one that had paint stains down the front.  She also didn’t know whether she ought to be wearing trousers or a skirt or a dress.  If she wore a dress, obvious it would have to be a day dress, but then did she dress it down with a jumper over the top (and if so, which one?) or did she wear a cardigan with it?  And if she wore a cardigan, should she wear the one that went best with it, which made it look extremely smart, or should she wear a fluffier one that didn’t go so well but that said she was comfortable?

If she wore a skirt, should she wear a blouse or a t-shirt with it?  If she wore a blouse, could she dress it down with a zip-up hoodie, or would it look too casual?  Or did she dress it up with a cardigan, and would that look like she was trying a bit too hard?  If she wore a t-shirt, would that be too casual?  She couldn’t really dress it up with a jacket because none of her jackets went with that look, and none of her cardigans really did either, which left hoodies and jumpers.

On the subject of hoodies and jumpers, was she better off wearing plain ones, because all of those were navy and black, or was she better off wearing whichever one fit best or went best with the rest of the outfit despite some being quite distinctive (or having the university logo on), and risking the chance of being caught on camera if the prince was recognised (she hoped he knew what he was doing and that he wouldn’t be) and consequently making herself easy to hunt down.

When it came to trousers, she felt that hoodies and jumpers (unless the latter was with a blouse) was probably too casual.

And that was before she even started with hair, make up and jewellery.  Was it more casual to have hair up or down?  Clip or hair bobble?  Hair band?  Make up should obviously be light, but did she want to make it so light and natural-looking that it came across like she wasn’t wearing any at all, or did she just want to do something nice around the eyes?  Was lipgloss (or lipstick) a yes or a no in this situation?  (She couldn’t go out with no make up at all.)  And jewellery – earrings, necklace and bracelet?  Or earrings and bracelet?  Or just earrings?  Rings?  Should she wear a set?  Should she coordinate all her bracelets, or were bangles okay?  What kind of earrings?  If she wasn’t careful, she knew that if she picked her jewellery