one

♕

It was her last day, her last shoot, her last lines, and yet Jung Soojung can’t seem to concentrate. Locked in the car, she finds herself getting dizzy no matter how hard she tries to read the script. The fact that she’s been doing the same time for a decade now and is still struggling frustrates her the most.

A knock on the door was heard on the door. It was her manager, Qian.

“Are you okay now?” She asks, looking utterly concern. But Soojung being Soojung smiles at her as if she was actually fine.

“He got mad, didn’t he? The director.” The actress asks the older woman, and though her manager denies it, she knows that he did. She could hear him screaming from the parking lot and she understood what he was saying despite her not fluently speaking mandarin; aside from the help from her manager, the company had her study a little before accepting the Chinese movie she is currently shooting.

“Are you really sure your okay?” Qian asks once again. She obviously didn’t want to talk about the fact that the director did scream at the staff in frustration though it was the actress’ fault for forgetting the line. “Is there something wrong with you?”

“No, unnie. It’s just… I’m a bit tired.” She smiles at her again, and this time, her manager finally believes her.

“Alright then. Just… try not to up this time. You’ll have to leave the set early if you want more hours to sleep. I just want to remind you that you have a photoshoot with High Cut tomorrow morning back in Seoul.”

Ah, that photoshoot. She thought that it was on next week and that she could have a little rest on the weekend before that film festival she was invited to, but she guesses she could not do that. She isn’t surprised though. With her popularity and the duration of her career, she’s more surprised when she has a day off as it happens rarely. Even so, the actress smiles at her manager, thanking her for reminding the said schedule. When the door closes, she breaks down once again.

15 years. That was how long it took him to go back home to his homeland.

15 years of studying.

15 years of waiting.

And now he’s coming back home.

No matter how much he loves everything Europe had to offer, he was glad to be back. Before leaving Switzerland, his friends were joking about how he might never return to see them again. He was laughing along, but deep down he feared that it might be true. After all those years, he couldn’t see himself living there again. He was patient, but not that patient – which was obvious by his actions.

Though he wasn’t doing it very loud, Prince Jongin had been tapping his feet without him even noticing. After finding out that his flight has been delayed due to the bad weather, he had been deep in thoughts, mostly thinking about how warm his throne probably has gotten as his uncle has sat on it on his replacement ever since his father died when he was just 8 years old.

Oh how he longed to be a king. He just couldn’t wait to finally be crowned. He had been studying everything a ruler should be, socializing with the likes of Prince Harry of England and Prince Albert II of Monaco, which was efficient for a small island like Jeju, and thinking of the ways he could help his countrymen.

But of course, he had missed his family a lot, though they do get together abroad sometimes -His uncle, King, whom he couldn’t be more thankful for taking in charge of the kingdom while he was gone, his siblings Prince Mingyu and Princess Doyeon, both lovely but very mischievous teenagers. He’s looking forward to spend time with them and see how they’ve matured, if they had that is, and then his cousins, Prince Junmyeon and Prince Jongdae, his old playmates. He remembers very clearly how dear they were to his father who considered them as his own sons as well.

His smile after remembering all the fun that they had was short lived, as sudden screams that filled up the airport had startled him. Seeing how calm his bodyguards were made him confused. He didn’t understand how calm they seemed to be until he took a peak of the ground from the second floor where the noise was coming from. He sees a huge crowd, lots of flashing cameras as a group of young teenager girls followed a figure. He couldn’t see who the person was clearly, but it seemed like a scene from a movie.

“Your highness!” He hears his Eunuch, Byun Baekhyun scream. Jongin turns around to see him running towards him with snacks in his both of his hands, casually dropping a Pocky that made him struggle to pick up. “Excuse me for suddenly charging at you, but your highness needs to hear what I’m about to say!”

“Not now, Eunuch Byun. I’m curious to who this person might be.”

“That is what I want to say!” The servant says excitedly. He had gotten used to his bright and bubbly personality that he doesn’t even scold him for sounding informal. Either way, Jongin’s eyebrow arches in curiosity. If there’s anyone who deserves that kind of welcome, it would be him, the prince of Jeju. When the prince didn’t answer, Baekhyun beams into a wide grin, “It is miss Jung Soojung, your grace!”

Ah, that name. Baekhyun notices how his prince’s eyes widen in surprise, causing him to face the railings once again in attempt to see a glimpse of the actress. His actions was not surprising in Baekhyun’s standards however, as Jung Soojung has always been the prince’s childhood crush, the one who had made his homesickness fade while watching her movies. If there was someone who could make him unprince like, it was her. And she hasn’t even met him yet.

“Shall I arrange a meeting for his royal highness and miss Jung Soojung this instant?”

“No!” Prince Jongin replies, loud and clear. He looks at Baekhyun, and then at his outfit. “I don’t look my best, Eunuch Byun. What will she think of me if she sees me like this?”

Eunuch Byun did not understand what the prince has meant. He was wearing a suit and actually looked good if he was asked. You wouldn’t even tell that he hasn’t slept due to the excitement that he felt at his flight prior to landing in Incheon. Either way, he shuts his mouth up, not wanting to interfere to his decisions of not wanting to meet the actress currently.

“I’ll meet her on Saturday.” The Prince states. “I want to look presentable, and charming…” He then looks at his Eunuch to whisper, “Plus, we need to talk about how… you know, how I should present myself to her.”

This is exactly what it meant when Baekhyun thinks about how Soojung’s the only person who could break Prince Jongin’s walls. The prince, after studying so hard abroad, has grown to be a confident and intelligent man and yet here he was getting nervous by the thought of meeting her. He’s suddenly so humane, almost child-like, when it comes to her. The thought of the two meeting makes Baekhyun smile in a weird manner, but luckily for him, his prince was too busy watching Soojung make her way out of the airport.