“(Y/N | L/N), twenty four years old. Born and raised the youngest to a middle class family on (Y/B/D) of the year nineteen ninety four in Seoul, South Korea...”

You stood straight in front of the royal family’s crown prince, Junmyeon as Mr. Lee skim through your profile. Reading each details out loud for the prince to hear.

You’ve only ever seen the crown prince on TV and ads and he’s as handsome in real life as you always see him as. He doesn’t look real though, does this man even have pores? But then again if you belong in the royal family, you’ll have first access to anything that makes a human’s life better. Things that don’t matter much to you.

“Joined the military at age eighteen and served for four years. Before landing a job as one of the Prime Minister’s daughter’s main security team. Father is a general and older brother a second lieutenant in the army. Mother and older sister both manage the family business. Two restaurants and a small cafe located in Gangnam-gu…”

Mr. Lee continues to recite your general data. Junmyeon then lifts one finger and his secretary immediately stops talking.

“I’ve heard enough. You’re hired.”

“Excuse me, sir— Prince… Sir?”

You paused, not knowing what to actually call him as you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. Confusion of what kind of job you’re hired in for. Your superior only told you to report to the palace. You thought you have other service people to come with you here for a project. But as it turns out you were the only one waiting at the palace’s communications office. And now you’re in front of the crown prince himself.

“Just call me Prince Junmyeon. Please do not be afraid, I am not my father.”

Junmyeon smiles warmly, reassuring you that he's not going to bite. It’s not like you’re afraid of him, in contrary, you’re just really confused with everything right now.

Although it is true, the Emperor is much scarier than he is. Although the big man is one of the nicest Emperor this country has ever reigned, you still can’t deny his intimidating and confident stance. But every single person who has the opportunity to meet and actually spend time with him always say that the Emperor is a very warm and likable person.

You cleared your throat and stood much straighter before speaking.

“Well, Prince Junmyeon, I would like to know what kind of job am I hired for? I don’t remember applying to anything as I am still the personal bodyguard of the Prime Minister’s daughter.”

“Well, Ms. (Y/L/N)...” Junmyeon pauses dramatically to incite a reaction from you. To which you didn’t,  much to his self-disappointment as evident on his tiny pout. “Your boss and the Prime Minister himself referred you to us.”

Before you can even ask another question, a knock or two on the Prince’s office halts you from talking. Both you and Junmyeon glance at the door while Mr. Lee makes his way to it.

The door opens to see Minseok, your chief, and another person you recognize as Prince Jongin. With a huge glower on his face, he rushed to Junmyeon's desk.

“Oh, here they are just in time.”

Junmyeon spoke behind you. You see Minseok wink at you knowingly, before touching his shoulder to yours in a slight tap of acknowledgment.

“What is happening, Sunbae?”

You whisper as you ask Minseok after he bows down to greet Prince Junmyeon. Minseok just winks at you again and completely ignores your question.

“Hyuuuung! I can’t believe you’re hiring a little girl to be my bodyguard!!!”

Jongin points to you directly and looks spitefully at you. Your jaw drops at the audacity of his words.

“She’s barely a little girl, Jongin. She served the military for—”

Jongin interrupts his own brother with another whine.

“The guys you hired barely made it, what makes you think she would…”

With the last thread of your patience, you storm your way to him. You grab the Prince’s wrist with your hand and twists his arms behind him while securing a choke-hold on his neck. Jongin immediately fake makes gagging sounds. You then roll your eyes into the back of your head with his over dramatics. You’re not even choking him that hard, who’s the little girl now?

“What the hell! Let me go!”

Jongin cries as he starts clawing your arm that was around his neck with both his hands. Thankfully you were wearing a thick leather jacket, so you tighten your hold on him before speaking.

“This is what I am going to do if somebody suddenly attacks you, your highness.”

You declared calmly before letting him go. Jongin fell on to the floor in all fours as he pretends to gasp for air to breathe. The prince urgently stood up and ran to his brother’s side so he can be far away from you as possible.

“Hyung, Hyung, did you see that? She tried to kill me!!! Isn’t that considered a treason?”

“Jongin, we’re not in Joseon. Relax. She was just demonstrating what she will do to your future attackers.”

Junmyeon giggles and faced you and Minseok again.

“I really, really like her, Minseok Hyung! Good call!”

Junmyeon gushed and Minseok’s lips instantly perk up in a huge grin.

“Please, Prince Junmyeon. Don’t call me Hyung when there are other people around.”

“Well then, from now on (Y/N) is not considered other people anymore. She is part of the team.”

~~~

It’s already five months since starting your bodyguard gig with the royal rascal but you refuse to give up. It took you less than three months to change the rowdy daughter of the Prime Minister, why is it harder for this one? You think maybe he is a lost cause, yet you still refuse to surrender.

In the last 7 months, he was able to slip through the watchful eyes of the royal guards for at least twenty times. Sneaking out at night to party with two of his equally disorder friends. Causing distress and headache for the whole Royal family. To be fair though, he was only able to get away from you on three occasions. And after that, you swore you won’t get fooled by him anymore.

Jongin was so disobedient that the Emperor, ordered for you to take a temporary residence at the palace. So you can still keep an eye on him, even when you’re on your day off of duty.

It was a big honor to serve the Royal family and both your father and brother was so proud when they found out. You can’t let them think otherwise. You won’t let them down just because you were appointed to a troublemaker.

Of course, your sister was so ecstatic when she found out you’re personally serving the prince. She said ‘you should bring him to our house and introduce us and we’ll totally fall in love together.”

Your mother was less than elated knowing you’re going to be the bodyguard of the royal rascal. She said to your sister that she wouldn’t allow a punk like that prince inside her peaceful home. Let alone allow him to marry one of her precious daughters.

“(Y/N), (Y/N)!!!”

The panicking screams of Prince Jongin woke you up from your slumber. He pounces on your bedroom door loudly. The alert in his voice made you crawl and fall out of bed and scramble your way to open the door.

“What is happening?”

Jongin stops jerking on his feet when he saw what you were wearing (or lack of it) in bed. His reaction goes unnoticed because you were already on your way to his bedroom to check what was happening. With him trailing behind you. It was only eight on a Saturday morning. And today is your break and you were planning on sleeping in. Yet Chanyeol and Sehun are already here in Jongin’s part of the palace to cause more disturbance.

Both Chanyeol and Sehun’s jaws drop when they saw you clad only in sleeping shorts and a tight fitting tank top. Feet bare without slippers and a scowl already forming on your face.

“Damn, (Y/N)...”

Sehun his lips lewdly while ogling your body up and down. You feign to punch him and he immediately winces and cowers away behind Chanyeol.

“What the hell is happening, why are you two here at this early morning already? Don’t you have your own mansions and servers to piss off?”

“The Palace is much more fun to stay at and it’s more amusing to annoy you, (Y/N).”

Chanyeol grins widely as he pushes Sehun off him when the younger man clings to him so you won’t get to hit him.

“(Y/N), look! My favorite Gucci sandals got stuck on the tree over there.”

Sehun points at a tree that was directly outside Jongin’s bedroom window. And sure enough, one piece of a pair of plastic sandals was stuck in the middle part of the tree.

“And what do you want me to do?”

You roll your eyes back to grimace at Sehun.

“I want you to climb that tree and get it for me.”

Sehun crosses his arms in front of his chest as he smirks at you.

“And why would I take orders from you?”

You deadpanned.

“Because I was the one who threw that sandal there.”

You look behind you and Jongin was just a few feet away, looking down at your much smaller form.

“I am ordering you to get it for Sehun.”

Jongin sneers and his two other idiot friends chuckle loudly.

“Fine!”

You grunt and stomp your feet before storming your way outside in the garden. The three stooges were peering and watching you as you make your way in front of the big tree. outside

You examine the bark of the tree and calculates where you’ll place your feet in your mind. And before you can even convince yourself not to do it, you just jumped and grabbed one of the lower tree trunks. You just went for it. It’s not your first time climbing a tree, you have done it in the military a lot back in the day. But tree climbing is something you don’t really care for. You don’t at it, you also don’t excel at it.

“Go (Y/N)!!!”

Sehun and Chanyeol were cheering as you struggle to place your feet where it won’t scrape your skin. With the help of your body’s general strength, you made it up to sit on the first big branch.

Standing up, your tried jumping up and down to shake the tree so that the sandal will slip off. But you just made it hang on and entangle on the leaves some more.

“Ahhh, you’re making it worse!”

The three of them were screaming profanities your way!

“Gaddamit!”

You curse silently as you stealthily slide your way on the other side of the branch. Carefully doing so, so you won’t fall down to crack open your damn head and die. Just because the Prince Jongin orders you so. What a stupid way to die, getting a freaking slipper stuck in a tree.

“You’re almost there, you can do it!”

Sehun screams triumphantly more for his slippers than your actual achievement.

“I am going to kill the three of you after I get down from here!!!”

You scream in frustration after successfully grabbing the dumb slippers. That belong to an even dumber person.

“Hah, too bad it’s illegal to kill!”

Chanyeol laughs as he sticks his tongue out at you.

“Chanyeol, I literally have a license to kill. I’d just tell the court I did it in self-defense.”

The huge grin that was plastered on Chanyeol’s face was immediately wiped off with what you said. Sehun and Jongin laughed at his reaction before realizing that you can and will if you have to kill them too.

You see the opportunity and fling the sandal at the window and the thing hits Sehun’s face. Making Chanyeol and Jongin drop on to the floor laughing their lungs out.

“Hey!!! That was uncalled for!”

Sehun screams while dusting his face off of the imaginary dirt from his slippers.

Carefully, you cling your limbs on the main tree so you can lower yourself and jump the rest of your way down with ease.

The thin strap of your tank top gets caught on the bark. Tugging your shirt off the bark rapidly, you feet missed a step that caused you to totally let go of your hold.

“!”

You hear Jongin yelled as you dwindle down to your untimely death.

You fell on your side with a loud thud. You heard a cracking sound on your shoulder and pain instantly shoots everywhere. The pain was so unbearable, you can’t even open your mouth to cry out. So you just close your eyes, tears b immediately. Your breathing became erratic as you try not to think about the pain on your left shoulder.

You tried rolling on your other side to stand up, but with the pain on your shoulder. You didn’t even notice that your right foot was also injured. So you fell on your knees, skin scraped on the tiny rocks on the soil.

“Chanyeol, call 911!!!”

You look up and Jongin was running towards you as you cradle your left shoulder with your hand.

“(Y/N), are you okay!”

Jongin slides down on his knees in front of you, examining you for any more injury.

“Do I look like I’m—”

You stop as another wave of pain shoots down your whole body.

“I know, stupid question. .”

Jongin’s warm palms cup your face, checking to see if you’re hurt anywhere else. You tried pulling away, but the pain was very bad, you can’t even move an inch.

“Jongi— Prince Jongin, please help me stand up. My knees are bleeding.”

This was the first time you felt so vulnerable in a very long time, you even asked for the Prince’s help.

Jongin delicately lifts your uninjured arm and place it around his neck. You clenched on his arm, nails digging into his skin. When he accidentally presses the part of your shoulder that hurts the most.

“Aah, that hurts.”

You cry out, Jongin immediately removes his hand and lowers his hold on your waist instead. His other hand then slides behind your knees and carries you inside the palace again.

The maids immediately crowd around the both of you. Jongin grabbing the moist towelettes from one of them so he can clean your bleeding knees on his own.

“Please don’t—”

You tried pushing him off, but Jongin grabs your wrist and proceeds to clean you up in silence. All the maids who became your friends were so worried. Some of them were even crying about how bad your injuries look.

“Do you want water, I can get a glass for you (Y/N).”

One of them sniffles as she dries her tears away.

“Yes, please thank you.”

The paramedics suddenly burst in through the door. They asked everyone to make way for them so they can get to you. Jongin was hesitant at first but was peeled away by both Chanyeol and Sehun. The three of them went with you, while the paramedics attend to you as the ambulance makes its way to the ER.

~~~

You were released from the hospital the same day. And Jongin, Chanyeol, and Sehun were at your beck and call the whole time.

Jongin called back home. To order the maids to prepare everything you will be needing when you all made it back.

As Jongin was wheeling you back, he completely passes by your door.

“That’s my room, Prince Jongin.”

You exclaim as you point at your door with the best of your might. The pain meds are slowly knocking you out.

“I know.”

One of the maids opened his bedroom door and closed it behind you when you got it. You saw a smaller bed beside his king-sized one when you entered and you crane your neck to the side in question.

Jongin stops and walked in front of you. Carrying you up bridal style, Jongin carefully puts you down on his bed. He tucks you in snugly and sighed in both relief and frustration.

“Why am I here?”

You question, as you groggily push the soft duvet off your body.

“Hey there, don’t move.”

Jongin pins you back and tucks you back in.

“I need to keep an eye on you.”

He added as he frowns.

“You don’t have to do that, your highness. I can go home and my mother—”

Jongin places his finger on your lips to stop you from talking. Removing his finger, he slowly dips his head to capture your lips in a chaste kiss.

“I don’t have to, but I want to.”

The effects of the painkiller are suddenly not working anymore. Your heart pounding so bad, you can feel your cheeks threatening to flush.

“I’m sorry, (Y/N) it’s my fault you’re injured like this.”

“I… It’s—”

“Shhhh. Just rest.”

Jongin lowers his head again. This time giving your forehead a careful and warm peck.

“I like you, please forgive me.”

He drops his lips down to your level, kissing you again for the second time.

“You are rude, you know.”

You say with a small smile as Jongin pulls away.

“I know and I’m sorry. I won’t cause trouble anymore, I promise.”

He is a royal pain in the , but he is your pain in the .