princess lee yuri had no choice.

she's the royal princess of the kingdom of emerald, of course, she can't escape from doing "princess" things.

"time for your table manners class."

"be prepared for your dance class."

politics, geography, nature, history, so on and so forth.

however, as she grew older, she felt that she isn't just the typical, royal princess that everyone idolises and respects. she thinks she has something more than just that. so when she decides to tell her favourite maid-of-honour (whom she felt more like a mother than her biological mother) about what she thinks, she giggled.

"you will never know, my royal highness. but i can tell you, you are one of a kind."

yuri can't tell if that was an insult or a compliment from her (or should she say, mom), but she thought positively from that and just hugged her out of love.

yuri doesn't like it when people treat her differently. yes, yes, she's the royal princess, blabla. but to her, years of having a big wall between the people who worked in this castle and herself makes her uncomfortable. so she decides to tell them to treat her as a friend when the king and queen are not around. the only person who has been formally calling her is her maid-of-honour, taeri. yuri already begged her to not be formal with her, but she insisted. despite that, yuri felt the closest with her.

talking about the king and queen, or her parents for short, yuri rarely meets them, even though both of them live at the same castle. maybe it's just too big, or they are too busy ruling the kingdom. the only time she meets them was during special events like her birthday or kingdom day. kingdom day is when a part of the castle area is opened to the public to visit. some stall owners can come in to sell their items too. as for her birthday, it's surprising that they even remember her birthday despite the rare meetings.

here's the thing that she felt weird about her own family. from what she knew, she should be getting married soon, to another kingdom's prince. but so far, her parents never mentioned anything about marriage, even to the messenger, who always pass messages from her parents whenever they need to inform important things. it's not that yuri wants to get married, but she just thought that it's weird that her parents never even brought up this topic in the first place when usually it is one of top priority of being a princess. she decides to brush it off, again, taking it positively and minding her own business.
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"time for your beauty sleep, my royal princess." taeri said as she helped to pull the blanket for yuri. the night was pretty cold due to the strong winds coming from outside. droplets of rain were heard dripping with increasing speed.

"thank you, taeri." taeri would never forget to kiss yuri's forehead before leaving the room. as taeri closed the door, yuri moved her body, facing towards the balcony with transparent doors. she could tell the rain was the heaviest amongst the other days since she could not see the view of the nearby forest and even the beautiful sky she admired every night. it's one of those nights that yuri will be overthinking, questioning why things happen, or expecting things to happen. she needs more colours in her life than just being the perfect princess. eventually, this overthinking caused her to be mentally tired and would make her yawn. and she did. she let her eyes droop till it closes.

she thought she was overthinking again when she heard unrecognisable sounds right outside the balcony. but as it grew louder, louder than the sound of the heavy rain, she opened her eyes again and wrinkled her eyebrow, wondering when in the world did plants grew so fast and since when it can carry a human at the same time. she was too amazed by the situation that she decided to get closer to the balcony door. the plants grew to the point it shelters the whole balcony from the rain, protecting the unknown human from getting wetter.

yuri only got out of her amazement when he knocked on the door lightly. there's was a slight fear in her, but somehow she believed that this would be alright and opened the balcony door.

somehow, there are lights in between the plants with no source whatsoever.

now, it's much clearer.

he had his finger on his lips, gesturing to keep quiet. his wet, pink hair caught her attention next. then, his unbelievably long eyelashes and then his lips again.

his chapped, dry lips. he must be exhausted.

"are you lee yuri?"

yuri nodded slowly.

"thank god, i finally foun-"

yuri felt a weight on her.