Chapter 3:

It’s Saturday, the day. Jisoo had only gotten 3 hours of sleep last night, for her heart pounded harder and harder each hour as the time to execute the grand plan crept nearer. The clock read 7:45. She had just finished eating a light breakfast with her father, the King. As expected, he didn’t suspect anything different from his daughter’s behavior. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him, which perfectly aligned with the escape plan. She sat silently in front of her vanity mirror, where she stared down at the open drawer that held her passport and ID. As she waited for Jisoo to arrive at the palace, she decided to take a piece of pink memo paper from her other drawer and a pen. She began writing: Dear Father…

The palace gate remained guarded by two manly guards armed with small, modern weapons. Jisung’s taxi cab parked at the curb a few yards away from the gate and stayed there as Jisung sat in the back seat, trying the triple check that everything the Princess needed was in the black Jansport backpack that he brought. When he finished making sure that everything was inside, he paid the much older taxi driver x4 the amount due.

“Sir, sir! You only need to pay 20,000 won.” The driver exclaimed, feeling like he just robbed the customer.

Jisung shook his head, “Mister, I’ll be back in about 15 minutes. I just need to pick up something that I forgot.”

“Then why are you paying so much right now?” The man asked, still confused.

“I just want to pay in advance. I already calculated how much I’ll have to pay you for a ride to Incheon Airport.”

The driver inputted the destination, Incheon Airport, into his cell phone navigation system and accepted the amount paid. Jisung grinned, “Thank you, Mister! I’ll be right back!”

As he opened the cab door, Jisung put his black Adidas Baseball Cap on, as well as his simple black clubmaster sunglasses, then lastly a black face mask, which covered the area between his nose to his chin. The objective was have the guards suspect him, head on, then reveal himself to the guards so they won’t have to suspect anything the next time they see the same outfit, in which Jisoo will be wearing.

Jisung trotted over to the gates as the Taxi Driver waited in the car. As expected, the two guards halted him. “Who are you?!” They asked sternly, almost yelling.

Jisung removed the accessories that obstructed their view of his face and revealed himself to them. “You don’t remember me? I’m Jisung, the new gardener.”

The guards went back to ease and nodded. One of them asked, “But don’t gardeners get weekends off?”

Jisung nodded nonchalantly, “We do. I just forgot to tell my mom that I’ll be staying with a friend over the weekend. I don’t want her to get worried when she doesn’t see me home tonight.” He lied.

“Oh…” The guard comprehended, “Why didn’t you just text her that?”

“You know older moms…” Jisung nervously fake-chuckled, “They’re not as tech-savvy or useful with a smartphone. Plus, I wanted to tell her in person, since I won’t be seeing her for a couple days.”

The guards smiled and they let him pass without any more questions. Success.

Jisung hurried over to the Princess’ quarters, where she made sure wasn’t being supervised by anyone on that morning. He quietly knocked and she let him in immediately.

Inside her room, Jisung sighed in relief, “Phew! Success!” He let out in a quiter tone, to make sure no one hears. “Do you have everything ready, Noona?”

She nodded and he handed her the backpack full of women’s clothes, a pair of women’s sneakers, socks, a few loose papers filled with notes and tips for her life outside, her plane ticket and receipt, one of Jisung’s old phones with charger, and an envelope with some extra cash. Princess Jisoo added her passport and ID into the backpack, as well as a small bag full of hair and face necessities, something girls usually need.

“Did I miss anything?” She asked him anxiously.

He shook his head, “I don’t think so. The exact outfit I’m wearing right now is inside the bag. The sneakers match too, except yours fit for women, and are your size.”

Jisoo pulled out a plain, bold yellow hoodie, black joggers, and black converse in her size out of the Jansport bag. Jisung. then, handed her the black Adidas hat, sunglasses, and face mask. She quickly went to change into her disguise from her long, simple baby blue dress. After tying her hair into the hoodie, no one would’ve ever recognized her as the Princess.

“How do I look?” She asked Jisung as she posed in her disguise.

“You look like me.” He applauded, causing her to giggle a little.

“Anything else I need to do?” She asked one last time.

After a minute of thought, the boy suggested, “It might be a good idea to bring some of your jewelry to America to trade in. This is only because the money I gave for you to spend won’t last very long. Once you get to America, I suggest you trade some of the ones you don’t want, so you can earn a few hundred more dollars.”

She, then, immediately scurried over to her walk-in closet, where she stood in front of a wall filled with pearly necklaces, diamonds, jewels, and more shiny things. As Jisung followed her in, his jaw almost dropped to the floor in astonishment. “W-Wow…”

Jisoo resumed grabbing a few gold bracelets, a couple diamond necklaces, and a couple of diamond studded rings. Before leaving her closet, she glanced over at Jisung’s face in awe and turned back to fetch one of her least-worn necklaces. She asked her Jisung’s open hand and placed the necklace into his palm. “P-Princess! I--” He started, but got cut off.

“Thank you, Jisung.” The Princess hugged him briefly, but tightly. “Thank you.” She beamed at him. “You’ve been my closest friend in all of these years of living in the castle. I hope, one day, I can make it up to you.” She put her face mask back on and stuffed the other jewelry in the small pocket of the bac