Chapter 2:

It’s been an hour since Taeyong left Jisoo in the garden. His words buzz around in her head like bees on caffeine. No choice? Is that really what her life has come to? Does being a Princess really mean that she’s just some royal puppet?

Jisoo was on the merge of insanity, trying to look for ways to stop this marriage for both, her and Taeyong.

Just as she was about to scream out of frustration, she heard one of the castle gardeners yell out of irritation. Turning to the direction of the noise, which led to the opposite side of the garden, Jisoo decided to find out what all this ruckus was about. At the edge of the flower-filled garden, was the castle’s chief gardener, since there is somehow that sort of position at the palace, shouting at a young, new face crouched down behind the bushes.

“Look at what you caused!” The older man, wearing a tan fisherman hat, exclaimed at the young man, who eagerly tried to clean up his mess from all over the stone garden path.

Jisoo approached the scene to get a closer look at the situation. A medium sized, white clay pot laid broken on ground, with soil spilling from the front. A small, upright hedge would’ve grown tall from the pot if only the young gardener didn’t end up dropping it all over the floor, damaging the tree, and breaking a fraction of the green plant.

The Chief Gardener, Mister Han, paced around in frustration as the younger gardener tried his best to collect the many broken pieces of the clay pot and somehow collect the scattered soil from the floor. Losing his cool, Mister Han yelled, “Oh forget it! It’s useless!” he flailed his arms up, startling the guilty man below him.

“You’re a mess!” Mister Han hollered, while hurtfully glancing down at the hedge he tried so hard to grow from the pot. “I told you to move the pot less than 100 feet away, and you still weren’t capable of doing just that! I knew I shouldn’t have hired you! Clean this all up before you even have the audacity of showing up in front of me again!” Mister Han pushed the boy off balance under he landed onto his side, and the older man stomped away in anger.

Jisoo couldn’t properly see the young gardener’s face for he wore a baseball cap to cover his face from the burning sun. The Princess decided to walk up to the boy, to assure that he was okay after what she just witnessed. As she traversed over to his position, she saw that he had already gotten back to attempting to clean up the mess on the ground. She stopped directly in front of the hedge and gazed down at the gardener.

Slowly, he starts to recognize her presence. Startled as he looked up, the boy gasped and stumbled back onto his bottom before desperately rising up to bow to the Princess. “Y-Your H-Highness!” He greeted her with a full bow.

“I haven’t seen you before,” Jisoo started with relaxed, gentle voice. “What’s your name?”

He looked awfully young to be working at the palace. He had very light brown hair, almost considered blonde, and his face was youthful, displaying smiley eyes, a defined long face shape, and tall, thing nose. By the looks of it, he would only be in High School at the age he looks.

The boy answered nervously as he looked at the Princess, who stood a few inches below him at his height. “My name is Park Jisung, your Highness.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m 18.”

Jisoo smiled at her younger gardener and asked if he was okay after the situation. “I saw all of that earlier, with Mister Han. Are you alright?”

Jisung nodded feverishly and glanced back down to the mess underneath them. “It was my fault, anyway. I’m completely new here, I’m really ashamed to have already caused a ruckus on only my second day at the palace.”

“How did you get a job at the palace in the first place?”

“My mother has worked as a maid here for many years. After my older brother left to work abroad, she started to feel bad for not being home very often, leaving me, her only son in Korea, home alone most of the time. So she asked one of the King’s assistants to hire me straight out of High School.” He explained thoroughly.

“That’s awesome!” Jisoo applauded, “After you clean up everything, I’ll dismiss you from work for the rest of the day.”

Taken aback by the Princess’s sudden statement, Jisung stuttered, “W-What? There’s no need, your Highness. I’m fine, I promise!”

Jisoo smiled brightly to assure him, “I know you are. I just wanted to talk to you for a while.”

~

About 30 minutes has passed and Jisung had been dismissed for the day, upon Jisoo’s request to Mister Han. She invited him inside the palace and ordered the kitchen staff to prepare a sandwich and juice for him. They waited in a corner of the castle hallway, where windows shined upon a small, two-person table, where royals would often sit to drink tea. Jisung sat at attention, nervously anticipating what Jisoo had to talk about. As his sandwich arrived, she gestured him to relax and eat comfortably as they talk.

“You don’t need to be so formal, I’m just an ordinary gir--”

“No, your Highness, you are the Princess. You deserve the respect.” Jisung told her before biting into his turkey croissant sandwich.

Jisoo smiled and looked down to her hands, which laid on top of her skirt. “I don’t want to be the Princess.”

Her sentence sent Jisung’s eyes at a standstill as he glanced up to her.

“I just wanted someone to talk to.” She started again, “That’s why I took you from your gardening work… I just haven’t had anyone to rant to. I hope you don’t mind.”

Jisung shook his head, “No, your Highness, I don’t mind at all. I’m honored.” He took a few more bites as Jisoo continued to talk.

“I do