CHAPTER #5

THE REALIZATION

“It’s never too late to make things right.”

Bora still remembered the way her father always used that same sentence, again and again, to convince her mother to change her ignorant ways. He always used to advise her that it was still not too late for her to change; that it was still possible to gain the wisdom that their society lacked. He was always willing to share his wisdom with her, but being the stubborn women of the society that practiced in gender distinction she never heeded his words. Sometimes she thinks that maybe things would have been different if her mother was educated and independent. Maybe, she would have been alive today; maybe, just maybe her life would have been better than what it was now. There were too many ‘maybe(s)’ which were now useless, but sometimes she can’t really help thinking about them. Her father always used to say that it is never too late to make things right. He told her that it’s better to come to your senses late than never, but why was she feeling it hard to believe now when it was too easy to do so when she was still a child. Why was she feeling like his philosophical words were not for this world; at least, not for people like her who couldn’t afford to make a single mistake.

At this point, I can’t make anything right...

Bora thought to herself with a remorseful sigh and lifelessly continued dusting the antique vase that was positioned on one of the marble pedestals placed in the long, narrow hallway of the castle. She really didn’t get the purpose of their existence. It almost felt like the royal family had too much money to spend so they decided to waste it on getting countless engraved marble pillars which were almost impossible to clean; vases were just an added accessory which probably cost more than her whole life’s income combined.

There are so many of them in this hall alone.

She couldn’t have been any more unfortunate than this. Bora really can’t believe her luck; with all the talent and knowledge she has she was still stuck cleaning decoration pieces at people’s humble abodes. Not that it was any different back at her aunt’s house, but at least the evil witch didn’t ask her to clean rows of useless marble pieces. Cleaning them once a week would have been understandable, but some intellectual had believed that the beauty of the white rare marble would really look stunning next to the countless open windows of the castle which gave way for dust to enter and accumulate into the deepest corners of the delicate carvings.

Damnation!

“I can seriously use some rest.” The tired girl mumbled under her breath and carefully rubbed her left eye with the back of her hand. It has taken them two whole days to finally reach the border of the main city of Siris and an additional two hours to reach the castle which was located in the heart of the bustling city. It was an extremely tiring journey which has left her completely exhausted and even after a whole week has passed; she was still feeling the effects of the fatigue on her body. The fact that she has started working at the castle the very next day didn’t help her a lot. If she was to be honest, the life at the castle was easier. They didn’t force her to do chores the whole day, provided her with proper clothes, a proper bed to sleep in and sufficient amount of food. The salary was good too, but the fact that the castle life was way too mundane didn’t sit well with her.

There is nothing interesting in here.

There seriously wasn’t. As far as she was concerned she still hasn’t had the opportunity to come across any of the royal members which was actually surprising considering that she was working at the castle. From what she has heard the Queen was out to visit some distant relative which was explainable. Sooyoung has been nice enough to inform her that the Princess didn’t like to associate with people unless it was highly necessary. Bora has been afraid to ask her friend for the reason worrying that it might be a very sensitive topic that they shouldn’t be talking about, but the head maid has pushed aside all her worries and explained that the King’s sister wasn’t really that friendly with a lot of people. She has provided that the female actually had a very warm personality, but there were only handful of people she associated with; Sooyoung being one of them. That explanation brought her to the surprising revelation that their King was actually young.

How can I not know about that?

That was actually a wonder, but Bora concluded that it might have to do something with the timing the new King was crowned with his title. She hasn’t really been aware of the world after her parent’s death; she didn’t even know that the former King was killed in the previous war too. That was actually sad to hear.

“Whoa~ Watch out-” The poor girl was cruelly snapped out of her trance as one of the running maids bumped into the marble pedestal; effectively knocking off the expensive vase which would have toppled to the ground and shattered into pieces if it was not for her fast reflexes. The girl at fault just looked at her with a sneer before ignoring her presence and continuing running to wherever she was going to before.

They have no manners!

A lot of things changed regarding her life as soon as she joined the castle, but one thing that remained same was the hate that always seems to follow her around everywhere. At least, this time she wasn’t alone. The old maids of the castle weren’t really welcoming towards the newcomers which Bora later found out was because of the fact that they all were delusional enough to think that there was a possibility of the King having a romantic interest in them and more females in the castle meant more competition.

What a waste…

She thought to herself with a sigh and quickly rushed to stand in front of the vase when she spotted another running figure coming in her direction. Thankfully, this time the girl was more aware of her surroundings and ended up leaving her unbothered.

God knows how I will pay for any of these vases if they end up getting broken under my watch.

“You look excited.” Bora abruptly turned around in her place to look at Sooyoung who was standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.

“I feel dead.”

“Heard of the word sarcasm?”

“Never in my whole life…” She claimed with a mocking smile before going back to her task of cleaning.

“It’s not as bad as you make it to be, you know?” Sooyoung laughed at the expense of her friend and casually leaned against the marble pillar. An amused chuckled left her lips as soon as the girl pushed her away with a glare while carefully holding on to the vase.

“Yeah, I know. It’s worst.” Bora deadpanned.

“Think what you want to.” The head maid replied with a condescending laugh which only caused her to roll her eyes.

“I will,” She replied stubbornly and slightly tilted her head with a frown when another maid ran past them.

“What in the devil is going on?”

“You don’t know? The King is back. He returned to the castle with his mass last night.” Sooyoung informed her friend nonchalantly, briefly wondering how someone can be so uninformed and peeked over her shoulder to gaze down the hall where the maids were already gathering to get the glimpse of their King. It seemed like he was somewhere around otherwise, there won’t be such a hustle.

“Oh- I didn’t know about that.” The King has been out with his troops ever since she joined the castle. She even hoped that the trip would be extended for as long as it could be so that she wouldn’t have to come across that smug general. She was still a little bit afraid that she would be caught even though there was no way; well there was no way for him to recognize her unless he remembers her from that night.

“How can you be so oblivious to everything?” Bora shrugged her shoulders as a response to her friend’s inquiry and swatted away the white curtains that were freely floating in the air due to the wind.

“Beats me.” She replied before moving towards the window to briefly gaze out of it. They were currently on the third floor which meant that the view that she was witnessing at the moment was pretty outstanding.

“Are you not curious about the King?” Sooyoung inquired once again and worked her way over to her side.

“Should I be?”

“They say that no one can resist his charm…”

Sounds like someone I have encountered.

The new maid wanted to smack herself as soon as the face of the general crossed her mind.

“No one?” She humored her friend while deciding to go back to her work. Walking towards the next pillar in the line she released a suffering sigh before crouching down to start rubbing off the dirt.

“Hmm…not one I have heard of well except-” Sooyoung cut herself off in the middle of her sentence in favor of grabbing a cleaning cloth herself to help her.

“…except this one mystery girl.” The crouching girl tilted his head up to gaze at her friend curiously as soon as she heard that.

“Mystery girl?”  

“Yeah, we were in Ceya,” Bora immediately went rigid in her place as soon as she heard the name of her town.

He was there?

“There was a competition being held in the open ground and suddenly this mysterious girl in all black jumped in. Can you believe that she fought our King and actually beat him?” Her friend continued completely regardless of the pale complexion of her face.

Why do I have a feeling that the guy I spent the night with was actually the King?

He can’t be, right?

“T-That’s interesting…”

“Quite interesting! I’m sure Chanyeol and Jongin didn’t spare Sehun from all the teasing.” Only if Bora hadn’t been too focused on the idea of her doom she would have asked her friend about the identity of the two males that she formerly mentioned, but at that moment the only name that was ringing inside her head was ‘Sehun’. She would have also questioned her friend regarding the informal way that she used to address the three males, but again she was way too worried regarding her own person.

I fought the King…

He knows that I’m a girl!

I spent a night with him…

I kissed him!

Oh- Lord!

I kneed him in the s…

I’m freaking working at his castle.

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