Sophie’s POV

I enter the house absentmindedly. Daehyun’s a prince? Why didn’t he ever tell me? Was he afraid of admitting such a thing?

“Hello,” Daehyun says brightly greeting me as I enter.

“Oh, hey,” I say giving him a half-hearted smile.

“Is something wrong?” he worriedly asks as he looks at me.

“No,” I say shaking my head. I don’t want to lie to him, but I need to sort out my thoughts first before I tell him that I know.

“Are you mad at me because I wasn’t in class?”

“A little,” I say looking at him. “Normally you would tell me if you weren’t going to be in and you’re almost never sick, so what could it have been?”

“My parents wanted me to work,” he says with a disgusted face. Does he mean that his parents wanted him to work and do princely things? Does he not like doing those types of things? “But I’ll make it up to you.”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” I say shrugging my shoulders.

“It’s the least that I can do for worrying you,” he says pleading with me. “I don’t want you to stay mad at me.”

“Well what did you have in mind?” I ask.

“We could go bowling,” Daehyun suggests. “We always used to go back in America, so why don’t we go while we’re here?”

I think about it. He is right; we did used to go all of the time back in America. Whenever we were bored we would go out bowling with a bunch of our friends. Even though it’s a bit old fashioned, it was something that we all enjoyed doing.

“Fine,” I say nodding my head. “I’ll go bowling with you. Just let me change.”

“Sure,” he says with a smile. “Ah, did you come home with Youngjae? Maybe he wants to go, too.”

“I didn’t come home with Youngjae,” I say shaking my head and I see fear come across Daehyun’s face for a moment before he pushes it away. Is he afraid that I’ll know that he’s a prince and that I’m living in a palace?

“Who did you come home with?” he quizzically asks.

“L.Joe,” I simply respond before disappearing into my room before he can say another word.

As soon as I get into my room, I sit on my bed in an attempt to digest everything. Daehyun and Hyosung are a prince and princess, which means that their parents are the king and queen. Youngjae is Daehyun and Hyosung’s cousin, which means that he’s also royalty, but he’s just not in the same bloodline. If Daehyun is royalty, then why did he come to America? Why did he leave this life behind and come to a different country?

Even more than that, why did Daehyun keep this from me? Why didn’t he tell me about him being a prince? I think if I would’ve heard it from him it would’ve been better than hearing it from someone else, but I can’t do anything about it now. Should I tell Daehyun that I know about his secret? Would that change our friendship between us?

I sigh as I lean my head back on my bed before I get up to change out of the stupid uniform and into something comfortable. I decide to go with skinny jeans and a t-shirt with a jacket over top of it since it’s still cold before making my way downstairs.

Daehyun’s POV

I sit in the living room and wait for Sophie to come down. If L.Joe brought her home and he saw the house, then does that mean that he knows? Well obviously that means that he knows, but does Sophie know? Does she know about me being a prince?

I hear the front door open and immediately get up. “Hey,” Youngjae greets me as he’s eating something when walking though the front door.

“Hey,” I say greeting him.

“Were you waiting for someone? Why do you look so anxious?”

“Nothing,” I say shaking my head. “Sophie and I are going to go out bowling, do you want to tag along?”

“Nah,” he says shaking his head. “I have some games that I have to tend to.” I roll my eyes as I watch him go up the stairs. As soon as Youngjae gets upstairs, Sophie comes down.

“Youngjae’s back?” she asks pointing at his disappearing figure through the hallway at the top of the stairs. “Is he coming with us?” I shake my head. “Okay, then, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” I say.

The car ride is slightly awkward, or at least that’s how it feels towards me. I want to bring up the subject that she might possibly know, but I don’t know how to. I don’t know how to tell someone that I’m a prince, that my parents are in charge of the country and it’s a secret that I’ve kept forever.

Should I tell her? Sophie’s bound to find out sooner or later because of that stupid party because now everyone knows that I have blonde hair. It’s going to be harder to keep out of the public eye because of it. I guess I should say something to Sophie, but I’m only going to say something if something happens when we’re bowling. If someone says something then, I’ll admit it. What could be the worst thing? Oh yeah, Sophie could hate me for life. That’s an option.

We finally arrive and exit out of the car. Already I think some people recognize me, but I try to ignore them. I can’t have them ruin this time already, I just can’t. “Let’s go in,” I suggest as I open the door for her.

Like any other bowling alley, the place looks the same, except the writing is in Korean. There are some people that are bowling and others that are playing in the small arcade. There are also some other people that are eating. Sophie and I give our shoe size, well, at least I do after we convert it to centimeters since the metric system is used and Sophie doesn’t know how to speak Korean.

“It feels like a really long time since we last hung out,” Sophie says as she puts on her shoes and as I set up the machine.

“It does,” I say smiling at her. “It just feels like everything has changed since we started school.”

“I know. It’s like our school lives have taken over,” she says sighing. “I made friends with L.Joe and you made friends with your seating partner, right? She wasn’t in class today either.”

At the mention of Jieun, I slightly cringe on the inside. I can’t tell Sophie we’re getting married. I can’t tell her that. I don’t think I could be able to tell anyone that I’m getting married. I’m too young to get married and it’s next month. How am I supposed to tell people that I’m getting married before I graduate high school? It just all seems impossible right now and too surreal.

“Yeah,” I quietly say. “That’s strange. Why do you think Jieun was out?”

“I don’t know,” Sophie says shrugging her shoulders. “Let’s play.”

Sophie’s POV

At the mention of Jieun, it seems like Daehyun’s mood went down. Is there a particular reason? Maybe they aren’t on good terms after all. I shouldn’t have said anything about it.

“You’re still good like always,” I say as I watch Daehyun bowl.

“Hey, my skills are the skills that won’t fade,” he says sticking his tongue out at me as I get up to take my turn and I manage to get a spare. “See, yours are still good, too.”

“Yeah,” I say sitting down in the seat.

“Hey, is something wrong?” Daehyun asks sitting next to me.

“No,” I say shaking my head. “Why? You should go take your turn.”

Daehyun eyes me suspiciously as he takes his turn. It’s like he doesn’t believe me or something, but he just lets it go. We spend the rest of the bowling peacefully with the ultimate winner being Daehyun. As we’re cleaning up and returning the shoes, Daehyun’s phone rings. I don’t understand anything that he’s saying because he’s speaking in Korean. He’s probably speaking to his mother; does she have more princely things that he has to do?

“Sorry, I have to go. Do you want me to drop you off somewhere?” Daehyun offers.

“Sure,” I say nodding my head. “Can you drop me off at the school?”

“The school?” he asks looking with a questionable look, but he doesn’t press anything further. I guess whatever was on the other line sounds important.

I manage to get dropped off at the school and wait until Daehyun disappears to walk to L.Joe’s house. He should be home now, at least I think he’s home. If he’s not, then I guess I’ll just have to make my way to the Korean Palace or just continue walking through the city even if I don’t know any Korean.

Hesitantly, I knock on the door and wait a couple of moments before it opens. “Sophie?” L.Joe asks opening the door. “Why are you here?”

“I was bored and I was just out when my friend suddenly got called away. I didn’t want to go back home either.”

“Well come in,” he says moving aside.

We both sit on his couch in silence before I turn over and look at him. “Can I tell you something?”

“You can tell me anything,” he says as he gets himself comfortable. “You know that.”

“Can you keep it a secret, though?”

“If you want it to be a secret, it’ll be kept one,” he says sticking his pinkie out. I just stare at it. “This is a promise in Korea.” L.Joe grabs my hand and intertwines our pinkies with each other before gently touching our thumbs. “There, I promised you. What’s on your mind?”

“You can’t tell anyone, you promised, okay?” I ask pointing sternly at him.

“Yeah, I promised,” he says with a smile and moving a bit closer to me. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I’m friends with the prince,” I finally say as I breathe a sigh of relief of finally telling someone.

“Well, if you’re living in the Korean Palace, then you’ll probably be friends with him,” L.Joe jokes.

“But I didn’t know there was a king or queen or prince or princess,” I say looking at him. “I didn’t know. I was friends with him before.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re kind of losing me,” L.Joe says lightly chuckling.

“Daejae is the prince,” I say attempting to clarify things for him. Now that I’ve actually said it, it feels like a weight has been lifted off of me, even if it wasn’t on me for that long.

“Daejae? But that’s not the name of the prince, the name of the prince is Daehyun,” L.Joe says confusingly.

“It’s a nickname,” I explain, “Daejae is purely a nickname. It’s Daehyun, he just dyed his hair.”

“So the Prince of Korea is in our class?”

I nod my head, but quickly grab onto his arm that slightly shocks him. “You can’t tell anyone, though, you promised. He doesn’t even know that I know his secret.”

“Is it a secret?” L.Joe asks.

“I…guess?” I ask shrugging my shoulders. “I’ve known him for six years and he’s never said anything to me before. Back in America, he never said anything about being a prince. So it’s a secret, he probably doesn’t want people to know. Why he wouldn’t want people to know is beyond me,” I say as I sigh. Why would Daehyun want to keep it from other people that he’s the prince? Doesn’t he want people to know?

Daehyun’s POV

“What do you want?” I ask entering my parents’ study for the second time today and I don’t like the sight I’m presented with. Tuxedoes are all over the place. I don’t know what the difference between any of them is, but there are hundreds just sitting in this room. Are they set up in another, room, too?

“Daehyun,” Mom says coming over to hug me. “We need to pick out your tuxedo for your wedding.”

“You just told me about the wedding today and you already want to pick out the tux?” I ask. “Can’t you just give me some more time to digest this whole wedding thing?”

“There’s no time,” she says as she quickly pushes me to the middle where some guy takes out a measuring tape and starts measuring my legs, the width of my arms, waist, everything.

“Why must this be done now?” I ask.

“We can’t be waiting on something as important as your marriage,” Mom says as she watches the guy measure me.

“Why do I have to get married, though? Why can’t noona get married?” I ask. “She’s the older one.”

“But she’s not the one that’s next in line,” Mom says as she goes over and begins looking at the racks of tuxedoes that look the same to me. “Plus, she has Himchan.”

I sigh. This is a completely lost cause with my mother. I sigh as I do what I’m told to do as the guy measures me. “What do you imagine as your tuxedo?” he asks. Is this like picking out a wedding dress?

“I didn’t imagine anything because I just found out today that I’m getting married,” I tell the guy being completely honest with him.

“Do you have any ideas?”

“No, but I bet my mother does,” I say looking over at her as she sorts them into two racks. One is probably for ones that she wants me to try on. The other one is probably for ones that she wants to throw out or burn. One or the other would be fine for her.

“Here, try this one on first,” she says extending her hand while she’s holding one.

I stare at it before the guy grabs it and shoves it onto me. Why would they be starting this already? There’s a month and I haven’t even said if I wanted to get married or not. By this point, it seems like I don’t have a choice. It seems like I’m just going to get married whether I want to or not, isn’t that how most of these things go anyway?

“What if I said I didn’t want to get married?” I randomly ask.

“Jung Daehyun, what are you talking about?” Mom asks coming up to me. “You have to get married, the future depends on it.”

“What future?” I ask. “What future is going to depend on me getting married or not.”

“Yours.”

“How?” I ask not understanding why getting married is such a big thing.

“Because you’re going to have to start the new generation here,” she simply states as she turns around and starts going through the tuxedoes again.

“You’re talking about having children already?” I ask in disbelief. “Why can’t I be just like Aunt? She made a life for herself outside of the palace.”

At the mention of my aunt, Mom turns around and faces me. “I thought we said not to mention her.”

“We never agreed on anything,” I say staring at her. “And why can’t I mention her? I lived with her for six years. Even if you don’t like her, you still called her while I was over there.”

“Every once in a while to check up on you, not because I actually wanted to talk to that horrid woman.”

“Look, you call her a horrid woman but she knows me better than you do. What do you know about me?” I ask. “You don’t know anything. The only thing you know about me is my name. Other than that, you don’t know anything.”

“I know that you’re going to get married to Jieun,” she says giving me a stern look. “And that’s final.”

She turns back and looks at the tuxedoes indicating that the conversation is over. “Will you be trying that on?” the guy asks pointing to the bag that’s in my hand.

“Sure,” I say defeated. “I’ll try it on.”

“Then let’s head this way, alright?”

“Sure,” I say as I follow him to where I can change into this. This doesn’t look like it’s going to be a battle that I’m going to win and it’s barely even day one.

Sophie’s POV

After a while, L.Joe and I drift away from the subject about Daehyun being a prince and start talking about more random things until my phone rings.

“Hello?” I ask answering it.

“Sophie, where are you?” Daehyun asks on the other line. I look at L.Joe and mouth to him that it’s Daehyun and he nods his head. L.Joe understands that Daehyun doesn’t want anyone to know, but in the end, people will probably end up knowing. He can’t keep it a secret forever.

“I’m at L.Joe’s house, why?” I ask him.

“When did you get there? I thought I dropped you off at the school.”

“I walked here.”

“I’m coming to pick you up.”

“No need,” I quickly say to cut him off. “I can get a ride with L.Joe.”

“I’m going to pick you up,” Daehyun sternly says.

“Fine,” I say sighing. It seems as though Daehyun still wants to protect his secret at all cost.

“I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Daehyun hangs up the phone and I look at L.Joe. “You have to leave, right?”

“Yeah,” I say. “He insists on picking me up. I guess he thinks that we still don’t know about the whole prince thing.”

“I would figure,” he says with a light laugh. “But…it was fun talking with you and don’t worry; I’ll keep everything a secret.”

“Thank you,” I say standing up from the couch as I get ready to go. “But I think I might tell him that I know. I won’t tell him that you know, though.” L.Joe nods his head in understanding.

Within five minutes, I hear a car horn honk. I look out and see Daehyun sitting there. “You should go,” L.Joe says opening the door for me.

“Okay. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow in school?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says waving as I climb into the passenger’s seat next to Daehyun who doesn’t look very happy.

“What’s wrong?” I immediately ask him as I sit in the car.

“Nothing,” he quickly says as he starts driving back.

“It surely doesn’t look like nothing,” I say staring at his face. “Why do you think you can hide things from me? I’m your best friend; we know everything about each other.”

“I don’t know,” he says shrugging his shoulders. “I guess our lives are like an open book to each other.”

“Right,” I say staring at him. Does he not even care that he’s lying to me about his life?

“Sorry I had to leave early. I’ll make it up to you some other time.”

“Will you really?” I suspiciously ask causing him to laugh. It feels like forever since I’ve heard him laugh, but I know it hasn’t been that long.

“I promise. I always keep my promises, right?”

“You do,” I say sighing and looking out the window.

“I should take you more on a tour of Seoul, would you like that?” Daehyun asks as he begins to pull into the driveway. “I haven’t taken you around much and we’ve already spent who knows how long here.”

“I haven’t been to many places. L.Joe took me to some places, but not that many. We just walked around,” I honestly tell him. “We didn’t really do much.”

“Well I promise that I’ll take you around,” he says turning and smiling at me.

“Okay,” I say nodding my head. “It can be like old times back in America before any of this craziness actually happened. Only, I won’t know how to talk to anyone.”

“I’ll help you,” he says laughing at me. “I should teach you some basic things so you can stop trying to fall asleep in class.”

“You see me?” I guiltily ask.

“Everyone sees you,” he says as he lightly flicks my forehead. “Now let’s go inside. Youngjae’s probably wondering where we all disappeared to, and it’s dinnertime, isn’t it? We can make something in the kitchen.”

“Daehyun,” I say grabbing his arm and preventing him from going out of the car and from ranting on and on.

“Hmm?” he asks looking at me.

“You don’t have to pretend anymore,” I tell him as my heart begins pounding in my chest from nervousness.

“Pretend? What are you talking about?” he asks giving me a crazy look.

“I know who you are. I know who Hyosung is. I know who Youngjae is. I know what this place is.” I begin to see the realization setting in Daehyun’s eyes. “Daehyun, I know that you’re a prince.”

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How will Daehyun react to Sophie knowing? Will the wedding go smoothly? What will happen between Sophie and L.Joe? What will happen between Daehyun and Jieun? Why doesn't Daehyun'sm other like the mention of his aunt, her sister?

Heres is Chapter 13. Hope you enjoyed :D