Chapter 4:

Jisung stood in fear beside his mother in the maids’ quarter of the palace as the King searched every room and every corner of the palace for the Princess after the royal messenger reported that she couldn’t find the her. “Where is the Princess?!” He screamed as he barged into the double doors of the maids’ room. The staff was flinched at the volume of the King’s angry voice, including Jisung, himself. “Have any of you seen the Princess?!”

Every single one of the staff shook their heads feverishly and held their heads low.

“If any of you know, or have any clue regarding where the Princess may be, tell me at once! Understood?!”

The maids and Jisung answered in unison, “Yes, your Majesty.”

Jisung held his breath in until the King stomped away, followed by his assistants. Jisung pulled his phone out from his hoodie pocket and checked the time. 3:45 p.m. The Princess should already be halfway to America. At this point, the Princess is gone.

Jisung’s mother nudged him and whispered, “Do you know where she is?”

The boy’s heart pounded. He lied shortly, “No.”

“Aren’t you close with her?” His mother pushed.

“She just likes feeding me sandwiches.” He responded nervously.

“Did she tell you anything about where she might have gone?”

“No, mom.” Jisung ended her line of questions. “And no matter where she would’ve went, it must be better than living in this place.”

~

The plane ride was long. Jisoo must’ve unconsciously fell asleep because she was awoken by a tap on her shoulder. The elderly woman beside her had woken her up to eat.

“Excuse me?” She nudged Jisoo awake.

Jisoo quickly opened her eyes and sat up. Seeing that everything still appeared dark, she slowly removed the sunglasses from her groggy eyes. The elderly women briefly turned to her friend, who was also an elderly woman, and whispered, “See! I told you she was a woman!”

The other lady replied, “Well how you I know? I don’t often see women dress like that!”

The woman turned back to Jisoo and complimented, “You have very pretty eyes, Miss. I woke you up because I didn’t want you to miss lunch.”

Jisoo slightly bowed her head and thanked her, while keeping her face mask intact to her face. She checked over her seat to see if Jaehyun was still sitting in his seat across the plane. To her relief, he was peacefully eating his plane food, not paying any attention to her direction. As she sat back down, the flight attendant approached her row and offered everybody a small, cardboard box.

As she received her lunchbox, she watched the old ladies pull the little table out from in front of them and set their boxes on top, following them unraveling the box and digging into the food. Jisoo curiously imitated them and opened her lunchbox to see a hearty meal of two rolls of kimbap, a tangerine, and a mini apple juice box. She beamed at the sight of food that her stomach has been craving for every since she boarded the plane. Without hesitation, she removed her face mask and dug in. One bite of the kimbap made her full of joy and contentment. Although she has tasted kimbap many times, eating kimbap on a plane in the sky made her heart happy.

She finished the contents in her lunchbox in under 15 minutes closed it up, in order to hand to the flight attendant, who would be soon collecting any trash from the passengers. The elderly woman beside her turned to Jisoo and laughed, “Wow, young lady, you eat well!”

Jisoo let out a slight smile, triggering a memory in the lady’s mind.

“Say…” The older woman told Jisoo quietly, “You look familiar.”

Realizing that Jisoo had forgotten to put her sunglasses and face mask back on, she immediately did just that and turned her face away from the ladies, who luckily did not recall who they were recalling right away.

She felt the iPhone that Jisung had given her in her hoodie pocket. She pulled it out and unlocked it. There were no notifications. The time in Korea is now 4:00 p.m. I wonder what’s going on over there at this point.

~~~

The King sat in his quarters, frustrated as can be, still having no idea where his daughter is. Suddenly, a knock came from his quarter’s door. “Come in.”’ He welcomed.

It was Chaeyoung, the Princess’s royal messenger, holding a pink memo paper in her hand. “Your Majesty,” she bowed respectfully, “I found this on Princess Jisoo’s vanity.”

She handed him the pink paper and she departed from his room, per request of the King. He quickly unraveled the paper and instantly saddened. It read:

Dear Father,

Thank you for being the patient father that you are. Thank you for raising me with love. It must have been difficult for you to lose mom so early in my life. It must have been hard for you to raise a daughter whose only wish was to leave the palace and be a normal girl. I’m sorry for not often letting you know that I love you and that I am thankful for everything you have done to raise me well. I just wish that we would’ve lived a different life, living as not the King and Princess of this country, but as faithful, normal citizens of this country. Now, I only wish that you live long and well without me.

You were right when you told me I was selfish. I realized this as I was planning to escape. Maybe the only reason why I’ve become so selfish is because I’ve lived my entire life, being taught to live for the sake and well-being of the country we run. As I did, my only wish was to do something for the sake and well-being of me, and only me.

Fath