Chapter 17:

The royal guards gasped and panicked at the sudden appearance of the nation’s princess. Immediately, granting her access into the palace, she strutted through the courtyard and pushed the gates open for herself, as nobody had the time to properly recognize that she was in the Princess. Her heels, in which she changed from her pink TOMS in the cab, clicked on the marble floors of the castle, making her feel superior. Jisung followed behind her, just not as confidently.

As they were passing the halls, one of the royal workers recognized her at an instant: The Royal Messenger, Chaeyoung. At the sight of the Princess, she dropped her upper body down to a full bow and greeted her, “Your Highness! May I be of any service to you?”

Jisoo paused and asked the messenger, “Where is the King?”

Chaeyoung led the Princess to the King’s location, which was his majesty’s quarters. Following Chaeyoung’s knock, the Princess met her father in his quarters, leaving Jisung in the hallway. The King was speechless, seeing his daughter, who's been missing for months, walk into the room.

“J-Jisoo…” He stood from his desk as his face went pale.

“Father. I apologize for coming without any notice.” He greeted nonchalantly, only focused on finishing what is needed.

The King approached his daughter slowly and asked her, “A-Are you returning to the palace?”

“No, father. I’m here to fix everything. But I’m not here to stay.”

“But… What must you do elsewhere? Didn’t you get what you wanted? Isn’t that why you were gone for so long?” The King questioned.

“I don’t have what I want until I go back home peacefully.”

“You are home…”

She shook her head slowly. “Home… is not this place. It’s in Los Angeles, with a person that’s made me feel more like a Princess than this castle, this country, this crown ever did. And I promised him that I would come home.”

“H-Home?!” Her father’s voice started to rise as all of this sounded preposterous to him. “You’re telling me… you messed around and fell in love while you were over there?”

“Yes.” The Princess stood her ground without hesitation. “And one day, father… I hope that one day, I can introduce you to him. I hope that one day, you take a look at the person that’s made me happier than I ever have in my 22 years of being alive.” She looked the King straight in the eyes, with all seriousness. “I feel more like a princess in his arms, than being in a castle. And I would choose to be his more than anything.”

“I don’t understand how your so-called love will fix this fiasco.”

The Princess turned around and took steps towards the door. “Watch it.” She shrugged as she disappeared through the door of the hallway, leaving the King dumbfounded in his room.

~

Jisung took care of calling the press and the news channels to come in tomorrow morning. After taking care of everything, Princess Jisoo allowed him to go home and stay home with his mom for a few days, so that they won’t have to be involved with the castle chaos that will follow after the Press Meeting that she was going to hold the next day.

The Princess sat in her old bedroom, uncomfortably. She hated the fact that she back in her room as a Princess, back in this palace. She looked around and found everything untouched from when she left two months ago.

Jisoo unpacked her backpack and returned the jewelry that she didn’t end up selling, back into her closet. As planned, the sold one, and kept one to herself. The pure gold bangle, carved with her name “Jisoo,” that she kept for herself was in her room back in Los Angeles. Not knowing whether or not Jaehyun knows it’s there, she knew it was safe.

In the smallest pocket of her backpack, she found a polaroid picture of her and Jaehyun. It was a pictured moment of the two of them at USC. The picture displayed their faces smiling brightly as Jisoo clung onto his long arm and Jaehyun was posing with his pearly whites and a peace sign. She smiled unknowingly as she stared into the polaroid picture.

I miss him. She knew. But she also knew that she needed to focus. She needed to fight for them, both, so she could return to him peacefully. She ran her finger around Jaehyun’s face on the polaroid picture and spoke directly to it, as if he could actually hear her. “I’ll be successful.” She apostrophed, “I’ll do this for us… for you.”

She put the picture back into pocket of her backpack and sat on the side of her large bed. As she sat there and waited for the sun to sink into the horizon, she took her smartphone out and played from her music playlist that Jaehyun helped her set up. By pressing play, she let the phone play EXO’s “Don’t Go” on the loudest speaker setting. Jisoo fell back onto the sheets with open arms and closed her eyes as the melody flowed into her ears. Without noticing, one song became two, then two songs became ten, until she was fast asleep in her royal quarters.

~

It was an extremely long first day back at school without Jisoo. The entire day felt heavy, and the friend group couldn’t find the right words to say to make the man feel better. Inviting him to hang out or have dinner with them was useless. He had no energy, no motivation for the time being. He excused himself to just go home and finish leftover homework and make his own food. Jaehyun tried to accept the little memories of Jisoo that made him miss her more. In order to feel a little less lonely at home, he framed pictures of her and them together. He picked up the picture frame on his bedside table, displaying a photo of them smiling brightly with their Disneyland headwear in front of the infamous Disney Castle.

He stared at the beautiful moment in his hands and traced around her face with his finger. I miss her. He knew. And I will keep mi