Exhausting. That was how she was calling the practice of being the perfect princess was. She laid down on her bed in exhaustion while sprawling out her limbs. She had not been able to do so in ages. Until recently, of course. She was to sleep in the guest building as the minister’s daughter and also, Taecyeon wanted her to be hidden from the world, or rather the palace since people here do recognize her.

Speaking of Taecyeon, she had interrogated him after their weird meeting with his parents.

Which he ‘forgot’ to mention was the King and Queen of the country.

They were both walking towards her new house, a dozen of servants following behind them. Yoona couldn’t help but look back every few seconds because it was really creeping her out. No one said her back was so interesting before. Taecyeon saw how nervous Yoona was and smiled.

“Calm down, they’re not going to attack you.”

“Attack me? No, I wasn’t thinking about-Wait a minute. Follow me.” She held his hand and pulled him towards the far side of the palace. They both ran as fast as they could so that the servants could not follow them. It surprised Yoona when he was the one taking lead and seemed to read her mind and brought them to the place where she intended to go to.

They were both breathing really hard and Yoona leaned onto the pillar of the nearest building. She started laughing lightly, making Taecyeon quirk his eyebrows in question.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. It’s just that…running makes me laugh. It feels good to get the blood rushing in your veins.”

“Is that so? Let’s just put that aside first, I know you have a lot of questions-oof!” Yoona walked up front and punched his chest really hard.

“That, was for lying to me!”

“Hey, I didn’t mean to! Jeez, that really hurt.”

“Yeah sure, and now the Crown Prince is going to go out and report to them of how his ‘fiancée’ has started abuse before marriage! Go on!”

“Whoa calm down, lady. I’ll explain everything to you but you mustn’t go telling it to anyone, okay? Who knows what a blabbermouth you are…”

“I am not a blabbermouth! Just, start talking.” She sighed and sat down on the steps of the building.

“As you know, I am Crown Prince Park Taecyeon, son of-“

“Can we skip that part because I think the whole country knows that.”

“I was just being considerate that you might be forgetful! Anyways, a week before I came here, my family and I were at the neighboring country to meet with the King and Queen of China. Little did I know that they were going to marry me off to their princess! Naturally, I didn’t agree to this marriage. So for the few days after that, I started plotting about ways to get out of this marriage. I thought that if I got a girl to pretend to be my hidden mate, I could escape with it. But the problem is, I had no girl-friends. The only girls I’ve met are the maids in the palace, my mother and the princess. And then I met you. You seemed like the perfect candidate and I was losing time, so that’s how this whole thing happened.” Taecyeon finished and looked at Yoona. She seemed shocked about what he said and he actually thought that it was the only expression that she ever had ever since she met him. What could he say? He was full of surprises.

“Sorry, this is all just kinda hard to absorb. So I am, right now, officially talking with a Crown Prince of Korea?”

“Korea?”

“Um, I mean, Joseon.”

“That’s right.”

“Okay, now that I’ve fully accepted this fact, what do I have to do? I have no idea of how to be a princess! Moreover one better than a normal one.”

“Calm down, I’ll help you. Just listen to what I have to say…”

That’s how her horrible week started. She had to balance books on top of her head while pouring tea into a cup, had to perfect her language (since hers was a bit too futuristic for anyone’s liking), learn about all the provinces in the country and so on. She immediately regretted not paying attention for history classes although she got straight A’s. She never knew that she was going to be a ‘princess’ under any circumstances! And having Taecyeon to watch her at all times just made it 10 times worse.

Her brand new bedroom had all that she would ever need. In fact, it had a bit too much. She also had new clothes that also weight more than her usual clothes do. It feels like 3 layers of hanbok had been placed on her. Princesses sure had a tough life. She shook off all her thoughts and was about to fall asleep when she heard a knock at her door.

She stood up, walked towards the door and opened it. There was nothing but cold wind that greeted her. She was about to walk away when she saw something on the floor. It was a bun! She took it while looking around to make sure no one was looking and quietly slipped back inside. She light up the candle on the table and took a bite of the bun. Suddenly, she felt something inside the bun and took it out of to see it.

There was a note.

Meet me at the right kitchen tomorrow night, okay? I miss eating food with you.

Nichkhun.

Yoona smiled in happiness for the first time in days. He was going to save her from this misery, even if it was for just one night. She blew out the candle and headed to bed. She fold the paper into half, placed it under her bed and blew the last candle in the room, signaling the end of the day.