--

 

“Pssstt!”

What?

“Hey, you there!”

Me?

“Yes you, come here for a second!”

 

He was clearly amused when he quietly made his way towards the anxious looking girl located a distance from him. The young lady seemed not to notice anything different about this young man, if ushering him nearer and talking in gibberish were any indication.

 

“Hey, I know this is a little odd and weird but can you do me a favor?” The young lady pleaded, clasping her both hands together.

 

“Umm…okay?” He answered uncertainly but gave a curt smile when he saw her broke into a grin.

 

“Uh, can you…lift me up over the fence?”

 

The young man—Siwon—was bemused at her request but said nothing. Instead, he merely nodded, a smile forming on his lips as he chuckled mentally. He got on his knee and held his both palms out without hesitation, looking closely at the young lady—probably in her early twenties—removing her shoes and stepping on his hand with a few mumbles of Sorry.

 

“When I count to three, I’ll lift you up okay?” Siwon said, and the young lady nodded.

 

“Hana…Dul…Set!”

 

He lifted her effortlessly (how much does this girl even weighed???), and the tall brunette grabbed hold on the edge of the brick fence firmly before pulling herself up. She succeeded into doing so, and sat on the fence with triumph on her face.

 

“Thank you, kind person.” She breathed out, smiling. “How can I ever repay you?”

 

Siwon chuckled.

 

“You can repay me by telling what you’re doing, sneaking into the house like that.”

 

The brunette bit her lower lip. “Sorry. I locked myself out. Stupid, huh? I think I might have dropped the keys somewhere but I’m not too sure…..”

 

“Oh, so you live here?”

“Yup.”

 

Siwon glanced into the house, his tall height made it possible for him to see what was beyond the fence. The house stood in front of him was an average sized house, not too big or too small. It was well decorated too—with flowers of all sorts in the garden.

 

“Oh by the way, my name is Sooyoung.” The brunette extended her hand out for him to shake. “Nice to meet you.”

 

Siwon accepted the shake with a laugh. “Nice meeting you, Sooyoung-sshi.”

 

“I’d love to talk to you longer but I must go in now. I’m supposed to cook lunch for my father and he’ll be coming home any second now.” The girl named Sooyoung said as she swiftly turned her body around on the fence made of brick, her two long legs now dangling inside rather than outside. “Thank you again!” She gave him another smile before jumping down into the grounds of her house.

 

Sooyoung made her way towards the gate, extending her hand out and waving a goodbye at her new friend found before disappearing inside. “Bye!”

 

Siwon could only chuckle at how amusing he found this young lady to be. Had she known who he was, she would probably have died in embarrassment.It was a good thing for her  that she did not.

 

“I guess those years of keeping me hidden from the people outside resulted into them not knowing who I am, huh?” He thought to himself, still smiling.

 

“Your Majesty!”

 

The handsome young man turned around swiftly upon hearing that voice, greeting his chauffeur with a curt nod and smile.

 

“Your Majesty, where have you been? You’re alright, right?” The chauffeur asked, slightly worried.

 

“Calm down, Mr Kim. I’m fine, aren’t I always?”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, you disappeared suddenly so I was worried—“

“Right, I’m sorry to disappear like that.”

“Oh, no! Don’t apologize, Your Majesty—“

“Don’t call me that outside the palace grounds, Mr Kim.”

“Oh….It’s a little awkward…”

 

Siwon turned around to make sure no one overheard their conversation, particularly that one lady who just went into her house.

 

“Let’s go home, Mr Kim.”

“Sure Your—I mean, Siwon-sshi.”

 

He gave a final look at the house behind him, wondering if he would ever be seeing that cheerful girl again.

 

“Sooyoung, huh?”  His mind repeats her name over and over again.

 

--

 

3 weeks later.

Seoul University.

 

Rumor has it that a certain Royalty would be studying in their university starting any day now. The female students were of course so excited that they found it harder to walk properly each day.

 

“I heard he’s about our age!”

“Are you dumb or what, of course he’s around our age if he’s going to study here!”

“I heard he’s handsome!”

“Duh, he’s a prince for goodness sake!”

 

It was very hard to not find any female students who were least excited about this, most of them were talking about the rumor day and night each day, causing the male students to feel annoyed at ‘the prince’ they (the female students) claimed was coming.

 

Particularly one female student though, wasn’t as excited as the others.

 

Choi Sooyoung felt nothing when she was bombarded with the news of the Prince enrolling in their university. Her friends, Im Yoona and Tiffany Hwang were shocked at how casual she was reacting to that treasure of such news.

 

“Sooyoung, how can you not be excited?” Yoona exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yeah, he’s a prince! A PRINCE!” Tiffany agreed with Yoona and threw darting stares at her friend who merely shrugged.

 

“He’s still human.” was all Sooyoung had to say to shut both Tiffany and Yoona up.

 

Today marked the 6^th day of the said rumor, and some had given up hope that the Prince would be attending their University although some still standing strong with the hope that the Prince might just attend the same alma mater as them.

 

“Yoona, what are you holding in your hands?” Sooyoung had asked when she noticed a pink and striking paper on the hands of her best friend.

 

“What? This? Nothing.” Yoona gave a fake laughter and quickly shoved the piece of paper into her bag.

 

“You’re not thinking of joining the fanclub are you?” Sooyoung asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

 

 

The fanclub Sooyoung meant was one that had just been formed lately by some senior female students. It was a fanclub dedicated to the Prince (Sooyoung had burst out laughing when she heard about its existence) and it was a lie to say that the fanclub wasn’t getting any response. The striking pink pieces of forms on almost everyone’s hands were enough to tell that 90% of the female students’ populations are registering their names for the fanclub.

 

“What? No! Why would I do that? Ha-ha.” Yoona shrugged that thought out and quickly changed the subject. “Fany-ah! Here!” She waved at the red-haired beauty who had just exited the music hall (Fany plays the Flute).

 

“Yoong! I heard you got a form to join the fanclub!” Tiffany exclaimed excitedly and Sooyoung shot an accusing look at Yoona. You liar!

 

Yoona ignored the look given by Sooyoung and instead, linked arms with her two besties and dragging them out from the corridor.

 

The Trio was making their way towards their next lecture hall when their ears were pierced by screams and a bunch of female students ran across them, heading towards the main entrance of the University.

 

“What?” Sooyoung arched an eyebrow but both Yoona and Tiffany glanced at each other. “Could it be….?”

 

They both gave a shriek before following suite the direction of where the female students were running towards.

 

“Hey! Where are you guys going?!” Sooyoung cried over all the sudden screams as she followed behind her two best friends slowly.

 

“Come on, Soo. Isn’t it obvious?” Tiffany asked, pulling her closer and urging her to walk faster. “He’s here! The Prince is here!”

 

“Oh.” Sooyoung exclaimed in monotone.

 

With the entire large crowd forming, Sooyoung gave up trying to take a glance at the Prince everyone had been going crazy over the week for. She walked towards her original destination, realizing that she only had five more minutes before the lecture begins and therefore making a run for it. She knew Tiffany and Yoona wouldn’t be bothered about the lecture anymore, seeing how they were so curious in seeing how handsome the young prince was. To be quite honest, Sooyoung did felt a bit curious to see how he looked like too, but decided against it as she knew it was near impossible for her to take a glance at him with all the people around him.  Maybe next time.

 

--

 

It was near afternoon when her lecture class finally ended. As she had expected, the ones in the class were only the male ones (excluding herself). She walked out of the hall with her fellow lecture-mate, Kris.

 

“I don’t see you getting all hyped about the Prince.” Kris said as he opened the door for Sooyoung to leave. “Not really, maybe a little.”

 

“I overheard some of the girls talking. They said if they could just win the Prince’s heart, they might get a chance to be part of the royal family.” Kris chuckled, recalling the conversation he had overheard a few days ago.

 

“Oh, so is that their intention? I was wondering why they were all so overly excited for the Prince to come here.” Sooyoung shook her head in disbelief. “I hope Tiffany and Yoona are not thinking that as well.” She silently prayed.

 

“So are you coming to the Party tonight? Bacon and I need to get confirmations so that we can order the correct amount of food.”

 

“Oh right, of course. I’m sure Yoona and Tiffany are coming too. Where’s Baekhyun anyway?”

 

“I’m pretty sure he’s stalking the Prince. You know how curious that kid is.”

 

Both of them walked towards the cafeteria, noticing immediately the overly large crowd gathering outside by the door. Both of them groaned as they knew what they would be finding inside.

 

“Excuse me, hey, excuse me!” Kris retorted loudly, pushing his way into the cafeteria. “I’m trying to eat here!” He grumbled out loud, pulling Sooyoung closer to him as both of them made it into the café successfully.

 

“Hah. Look,” Kris made a gesture at the center of the cafeteria, where two bodyguards stood side by side behind a young man—probably the Prince—eyeing the crowd sharply as if they might swallow the Prince any time if not careful.

 

“I see he knows some of them here.” Kris continued, gesturing at the three men around the Prince. Sooyoung noticed that the three men around him were some of her lecture mates--Donghae, Eunhyuk and Sungmin. They knew a royalty?

 

“I never knew they knew the Prince.” Sooyoung mumbled. “They never mentioned it to me.”

 

“Of course not, his identity has been kept a secret for years. I wonder why the sudden public appearance after all these years.”

 

Something about the Prince bugged Sooyoung. She doesn’t know what, but it just does. Although the Prince was wearing a sunglass which shielded his eyes, she had this feeling that she had met him before……..

 

“Come on, let’s grab something to eat.” Kris’ voice broke her thoughts abruptly, and they both made their way towards the counter. For a few minutes, Choi Sooyoung had forgotten about the Prince and the odd feeling she was having. Just by staring at the bowl of Ramen on her tray made her forget all that was around her.

 

Both Kris and Sooyoung were halfway across the cafeteria towards an empty table when they suddenly realized it was dead quiet. Whatever happened to the loud chatters and half shrieks from the female students?

 

“Uhh….Kris, why is it so quiet suddenly?” Sooyoung whispered, looking around and finding that everyone had their eyes on them. “Why are they looking at you?”

 

Kris gulped. “Soo, they’re not looking at me.” He whispered nervously. “They’re looking at you.”

 

Sooyoung immediately felt all eyes on her, and she too gulped nervously. “Why? What did I do?”

 

Kris then grew wide eyed, mumbling a chain of incoherent words before bowing his head down. Sooyoung, initially shocked at the sudden nervousness her always so cool friend was experiencing suddenly realized another presence standing beside her. She turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin, for the young Prince stood there staring at her.

 

She quickly bowed her head in respect; better not mess with a royalty.

 

“Sooyoung?”

 

Upon hearing her name, Sooyoung jerked her head forward, her eyes meeting with the eyes of………..what?!?

 

“You don’t remember me?” The tall man asked, now smiling.

 

Sooyoung’s eyes widen, her jaw dropped as realization hit her hardly between her chest. She looked at the young man in front of her closely, studying his expression, his hair, his….his…hands....are those the hands that she once stepped on........?

 

Then it hit her, like a wave. The memory of the incident that happened 3 weeks ago where she had locked herself out from her own house was now crystal clear in her mind; how she met with a stranger and how she had shamelessly asked him to help her. How the stranger had gotten down on his knee and held his hands up to push her up. How she had let him pushed her up. How she had stepped on his hands. How she had so casually talked to him like he was some other guy in the area.

 

The bowl of ramen she was holding on her tray dropped lifelessly onto the ground—the sound of the bowl colliding loudly with the ground as she now fully recognized the young man in front of her. Beads of sweat rolled down her cheeks as she found herself unable to speak.

 

“Wow, I can’t believe you’re here, Sooyoung-sshi.” Siwon exclaimed, seemingly not to notice the bowl and its content on the floor. “It’s really you, isn’t it?”

 

That very moment, all Sooyoung wanted was for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

 

 

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