Chapter 3

Upon entering an abandoned building, a person could be seen holding their wounded shoulder while looking around to see if anyone has followed them. Walking up to a young man who was waiting for them, the wounded person quickly gets onto his knees before saying

“Sir, I’m sorry. My mission has failed. The princess, she got away.”

“Did anyone see your face?” the young man quickly asks back.

“No. I had a mask on and fled the scene before anyone could see me.”

“Okay. Then stay hidden in this country for a few days until your shoulder gets better. Once you feel better, go back to Korea and finish your job. I need her gone before the royal family goes to pick her up.”

“Yes sir. I promise the next time, I won’t fail.”

“Very well, I’ll give you one more chance. Go, and make sure no one sees you.”

“Yes sir.”

With the injured person now gone, another person comes in to stand behind the young man to ask

“Prince, are you sure you want to let him go? He failed his mission and came back injured. He’s practically useless.”

“I know, but I can’t have more people find out about this. The royal family might start suspecting me if I bring in other people. On top of that he’s from foreign land, if people find out there’s someone entering our country without permission it can cause a big stir up. As much as I want a commotion to happen, I can’t have that right now. Not when the princess is still alive. If she’s still alive, and chaos happens in our country, the royal family might move her return up even more. I can’t have that, especially when our time is so limited.”

“But why not use someone from our country? It’ll be easier since they’ll be able to go in and out of the country without people suspecting.”

“No. Having a Korean do the job will get the people of our country to hate them for killing our princess. It’ll cut ties with the country and if we’re lucky our people might lose trust in other foreign countries as well. I need this country to be weak, so it’ll be easier for me to take over. Once I get this country for myself, I can do whatever I want at that point.”

Turning around to face his underling, the Prince continues on with his orders

“Send someone to follow the shooter, have them make sure he finishes his job. If he fails again, have them kill the Princess instead and make it seem like the shooter did it. Finish him after the job is done so no leads come back to us.”

“Yes Prince.”

 

 

Finally setting foot on land after another ferry ride, Hitomi has once again gotten motion sickness. Looking pale from the waves that seem to have gotten stronger on top of having an injury with her, it seems like the girl was only getting weaker by the minute.

“Hey, are you okay?” Chaewon asks as she continues to drive her truck off the ferry.

“Huh? Yea…just a little lightheaded.” Hitomi answers with a weakening voice.

“Um…okay. Give me a minute.”

Finding a convenient store nearby, Chaewon quickly parks her car before going out and getting some water for the injured girl.

“Here. Drink some water. We’ve had a long day and I guess that kind of took a toll on your body.”

“Th-thank you.”

Quickly taking the bottle from the other girl, Hitomi proceeded to take small sips from it.

“It’ll be another fifteen-minute drive from here. You think you’ll be okay, or should we take a rest here first?” Chaewon asks.

“I’ll be okay. Now that we’re finally on land, the lightheadedness has gotten better. The water also helped as well. Thank you.”

“Okay. Then tell me if you started to feel queasy. I’ll stop the car.”

After getting a nod from the injured girl, Chaewon continues to drive her car back to the place she now calls home.

Entering the front area of the small house, Hitomi was met with a nice and peaceful place that could overlook the view of the sea.

Stepping out of the car, the injured girl took in deep breaths as she looks on to the surroundings of the place. Chaewon’s house was surrounded by large amounts of empty land and was pretty much isolated from other homes as it was one of the very few houses that was located near the coastline.

“I don’t really like living in loud areas, so this place is quite far from tourist spots. I know this isn’t much, but it’s still home.” Chaewon explains as she walks up to stand next to Hitomi.

“No…this…this is perfect.” Hitomi responds back while looking at the other girl.

As the two exchange smiles with each other, another voice suddenly comes in.

“Chaewon unnie!”

Turning to face the owner of the voice, both girls were met with another girl looking quite similar to Chaewon running up to them.

“Yuri-yah, what are you doing here?” Chaewon calls out.

“Unnie. Where have you been? I thought you were supposed to come back in the morning. I came to look for you, but I didn’t see your car, so I got worried.”

“Ah…about that…” Chaewon utters as she looks to the person standing next to her.

“Who’s this.” Yuri asks as she also looks to the person.

“Uh…this is kind of a long story. Let’s just head inside first and I’ll explain everything.”

With everyone nodding their head, all three proceeded to enter the older girl’s house and get settled in before Chaewon explains the whole situation for Yuri to understand.

 

 

Shocked from the story she just heard, the girl practically had her jaw dropped the whole entire time.

“Wow…who would have thought these things could actually happen.” Yuri says as she was still in disbelief.

“Sigh…yea…I don’t exactly know what to do either, but I guess for now I’ll just let her stay at my place for the time being.” Chaewon replies back.

“Chaewon-sshi. You really don’t have to do this. You’ve already done so much for me.” Hitomi utters as she feels like she has become such a burden for the people in front of her.

“It’s okay. It’s not like I can let someone in need of help go like that. That wouldn’t be very nice of me, would it?”

“But –”

“Umm…if I may intervene. I do think it’s best for you to stay here for the time being, Hiichan. Seeing as you’re injured and pretty much have no idea who you are. It won’t be safe for you to be out there all alone.” Yuri suddenly interrupts.

“Hiichan? Where did you get that from?” Chaewon abruptly asks as she noticed how the younger girl was able to put a name to the lost girl.

“You know, for someone who has spent all day with her, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.”

“Noticed what.”

“Her necklace. It says Hiichan on it. I’m assuming she must be Japanese since chan is used as a suffix for females in Japan.”

Touching her necklace, Hitomi suddenly remembers she’s been wearing it all this time as it was a gift from her father that she received when she was young. She always wore it as a way to keep him close by.

“Hiichan? Do you remember if that was your name?” Chaewon turned to ask the girl.

“I…uh…I guess?” Hitomi replies in an uncertain way as the guilt she’s been feeling all this time from lying to the people in front of her start to build up even more.

“Hmm…well since we don’t really know if this is your name or not, I guess we can just go with this for now until your memories start to come back.”

Seeing that this name wasn’t exactly close to her real name, she feels this actually might help her hide her true identity from the shooters for the time being. On top of that if her mother were to hear this name, she would automatically come looking for her. Thinking that this name could be used as a safety precaution, Hitomi quickly agrees to this suggestion.

“Well now that we have a name for you, I guess I’ll show you around the house first.” Chaewon goes on to say.

“Ahem…Unnie. Have you forgotten about me?” Yuri suddenly asks as she raises her hand up like a student inside a classroom.

“Oh yea. Sorry, kind of forgot about you.” Chaewon replies as she lets out an apologetic smile.

“Wow…that hurt.” the younger girl exclaims.

“Haha…Hiichan. This is Yuri, she’s also a teacher here on this island. She lives pretty close by as well, so if you need anything you can always ask for her.”

“Nice to meet you Yuri-sshi.” Hitomi said with a slight bow to the other girl.

“Nice to meet you Hiichan.” the girl replies back with the same gesture.

“So, what can I do for you Yuri? There must be a reason why you came to my house since the early morning.” Chaewon suddenly asks.

“I just came to talk to you about your plans for the next school year. I heard there were going to be even more students this year and I wanted to make sure you were prepared for it and I also wanted to get the stuff I ask for you to get me from Seoul.” Yuri answered with a slightly mischievous smile.

“Sigh…of course. The stuff is in my car. Wait here, I’ll go get it.” Chaewon replies while shaking her head.

“Haha…thank you Unnie.”

As the older girl heads out to her car, Yuri proceeds to move closer to Hitomi before asking

“So…you and Chaewon unnie spent the whole day together?”

“Yes…” Hitomi responds slightly confused as the other girl was asking her in a teasing way.

“Hmm…and she didn’t even show any signs of frustration or annoyance at all.”

“Uh…not that I could think of. She did seem kind of mad at the hospital, but that was sort of my fault for not being able to answer her question.”

“Hmm…interesting…”

“I’m sorry to ask, but why is this interesting?”

“Because Chaewon unnie hates talking to people, especially random strangers. The reason why she moved to this island was to get away from people. She always preferred to stay by herself and if it weren’t because her family still lives in Seoul, she would have never gone back. She even gave me a death glare the first time we met because I tried to befriend her.”

Chuckling from the other girl’s explanation of the person who saved her, Hitomi lets out a smile before saying

“Really? She doesn’t seem like that to me.”

“Well, I guess you’re different. I mean being injured is probably one thing, but honestly you seem…vulnerable.”

“Vulnerable?”

“Yep.”

“How?”

“Well, to start off. For someone that you just met today, you seem to put your whole trust into Chaewon unnie. On top of that, you woke up in a random stranger’s car with your memory gone. I mean for all you know; she could have been the one to abduct you. Yet, you still chose to have her take care of you and even followed her home.”

“But…just from looking at her, she doesn’t seem harmless.” Hitomi answers back with a slightly hesitant tone.

“Look. I’m not saying you should be suspicious of her or anything. Chaewon unnie’s not a bad person. It’s just I want to warn you. For someone who lost her memory, you seem to trust people really easily and honestly you got lucky meeting Chaewon unnie. If it were anyone else, who knows what could have happened to you.”

“Oh…”

Seeing the other girl start to sulk and show signs of fear, Yuri quickly regrets saying those things and starts to think of a way to lighten up the mood.

“Yea…I mean look at these cheeks. Who could resist them?” Yuri exclaims as she brings both her hands up to pinch the cheeks of the cute girl.

Letting out a smile and giggle from the sudden moment, Hitomi utters

“Thank you.”

“What did I just walk into?” Chaewon abruptly exclaims as she walks into an awkward setting.

“Haha…Unnie. Come look. Hiichan’s cheeks are so squishy.”

Letting out a sigh…Chaewon shook her head before walking up to Yuri to hand her the items she requested for.

“Here. Your stuff. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve had a long day. So…get out.”

“Wow…rude much.” Yuri exclaims in a teasing manner before turning to the other girl beside her while saying

“Alright, now that I’ve been kicked out. I guess I’ll see you around Hiichan. Hope you feel better.”

Watching the girl walk out of the house, Chaewon lets out another sigh as she sarcastically exclaims

“I get the girl her stuff, and she leaves without saying goodbye or thank you…nice.”

Letting out a small smile, Hitomi looks at the other girl before saying

“Well to be honest, you were the one who drove her away before she could even say thank you.”

“Hey…whose side are you on?”

“I’m not on anyone’s side. I’m only telling the story from my point of view, that’s all.”

“But…that’s not…I just…ah…forget it.”

Not being able to reply back to the other girl, Chaewon proceeds to quickly walk to a door and before opening it she says

“This is your room. Bathroom’s right there. I’ll bring you some clothes to wear, so shower and rest up. I’ll take you to buy clothes and necessities later on tonight. This is also the stuff you need for your injury. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

Handing the girl her stuff, Chaewon quickly goes to her room and grabs a pair of clothes for the other girl to change into before settling herself back in her room leaving the injured girl with no chance to respond to anything.

Only being able to stand there dazed, Hitomi lets out a shy smile as she heads to her room to rest.

 

 

Finally reaching home after an awkward and unexpected situation, Yujin quickly enters the house without saying anything to Minjoo. After grabbing the bodyguard’s stuff from her condo, both quickly drove to the safe house without a word let out from their mouth. The car ride was both quiet and uncomfortable as they would try to steal glances at each other without the other person knowing. However, after a few back and forth tries, both decided to avoid any eye contact with the person next to them as the continued to sit in quietness the whole ride back.

Walking up to greet the bodyguard and the fake princess, Eunbi asks

“Yujin-ah…how was the –”

Not being able to finish her question, the older girl was met with her cousin walking past her without any response leaving her slightly dazed. Seeing the princess walk up to her, Eunbi continues to exclaim

“Princess…did Yujin –”

Met with another unfinished question as Minjoo also walked past the older girl, Eunbi now alone and confused looks on to the two separating ways with Minjoo heading upstairs and Yujin heading to the backyard utters

“What the hell happened?”

 

 

Quickly entering her room and closing the door shut, Minjoo leans herself against the door before letting out a huge breath. Finally alone, she puts one hand to her heart and notices it beat rapidly.

‘What is happening? Why am I getting nervous thinking about her?’ she wonders.

Bringing her other hand to touch her lips, the memory from the elevator suddenly comes rushing back.

“Why did she kiss me? And why the heck did I respond?!” Minjoo exclaims slightly frustrated.

However, it seems like the fake princess wasn’t the only one feeling these emotions as the tall puppy in the backyard was feeling no different.

Sitting down on a chair outside, Yujin clasps both her hands together as she rests her chin on it while thinking

“What happened? Why did we –”

But before she was able to finish her thoughts, a sudden ding was heard from her phone. Looking at the notification that popped up onto the screen, Yujin’s mind goes blank.

Picking up her phone to view the notification, she sees that it is a reminder for a certain date. A date that she wanted to forget. A date that she never wanted to be reminded of again.

The notification read:

‘One-Year Anniversary! Don’t forget the chocolate and flowers!’

“It’s been one year already huh.” Yujin whispers as she lets out a sigh.

Leaving the notification page, she quickly goes into her photos and scrolls down for a bit until she reaches one photo. Clicking on the picture to pull it up, she stares at it longingly.

“I miss you…”

While in her own thoughts, a loud voice suddenly comes in.

“Ahn Yujin! What the hell happened back th–”

With the question coming to an abrupt stop, Yujin turns to face the person who’s stood there staggered from the picture that was on the bodyguard’s screen.

“Yujin-ah…you still have her picture? I thought you erased it all.” Eunbi changes her question as she walks up to her cousin.

“I…I couldn’t bring myself to erase this one. It’s the last one I have left of us. It was the last one I took with her.”

“Sigh…Yujin-ah…I think it’s time to forget this and leave it behind. You have to move on.”

“I know Unnie…I know. I’m trying my best to, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Every time I think I’ve forgotten everything; something would pop up to remind me again.”

“Why don’t you get a new phone and maybe even move out of your condo. Those things hold the most memories of her with you. Maybe leaving those behind would help.”

“I’m okay Unnie. Just give me a little bit more time.”

Giving her cousin a reassuring smile, Eunbi starts to lightly ruffle the younger one’s hair. Seeing Yujin’s mood start to lift up as the puppy has responded back with a smile while showing signs of annoyance at the gesture, Eunbi quickly changes up the atmosphere.

“So…would you like to tell me what happened with you and the princess back there for you guys to not even look at each other like that. Did you guys get into an argument again?”

With the mention of Minjoo, the smile on Yujin’s face completely disappears.

“We…uh…nothing. Nothing happened. It’s just she wouldn’t let me into her house to protect her, so we got into a small argument.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“What do you mean that’s it? It’s my job to protect her, but the only thing she’s been doing is put herself in harm’s way. What if the shooter was waiting for her in her house?”

“Yujin-ah…the house has been surveillance by the police for days now. If someone suspicious were to come in, I’m pretty sure the police would have caught them by now.”

“Then what’s the point of having me if the police are going to be taking care of it.”

“Yujin-ah…is something wrong? I thought we went over this already.”

“No…I’m fine.”

Storming off after saying those words, Eunbi felt stunned as her younger cousin has left her all alone again.

 

 

As nighttime approaches, a knock could be heard on Hitomi’s door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Opening the door, she meets Chaewon holding her car keys while saying

“Let’s go grab dinner and buy your stuff.”

Feeling a bit more energetic, Hitomi nods her head before following the older girl out to the car. However, before they leave the house, Hitomi was met with Chaewon handing her a jacket while saying

“Here. Wear this. It’s cold outside. Let’s not have you get a sick while you’re here.”

Looking at the hand that was handing her the item, Hitomi showed no response as she was taken aback by the warm gesture the person in front of her was doing.

“Something wrong?” Chaewon asks as she takes a step closer the girl.

“Uh…no…nothing…thank you.” Hitomi quickly replies as she comes back to her senses while still standing there frozen in front of the owner of the house.

As seconds continued to pass, Chaewon seeing that the injured girl was not even reaching for the jacket, she continues to walk up even closer before draping the jacket over the other girl. After doing that, she kept her hands by the girl’s shoulders and proceeded to push the girl towards the door while saying

“Let’s go now. I’m hungry.”

With Chaewon in such close distance with her, Hitomi’s face unknowingly gets red as she starts to blush. Luckily, as it was dark outside and the lighting wasn’t the best, the owner of the house did not notice any of this.

 

 

Reaching an area where there were multiple food stalls on top of small clothing shops, Chaewon introduces

“Since this island isn’t that big, we don’t really have big department stores like the ones in Seoul to buy clothes. So I guess this will do, but I will say the food stalls here are probably the best on the island. Plus not a lot of people know about it, so it’s generally pretty quiet. Let’s grab food first, then go buy your stuff.”

“Thanks, but I think we have a problem. I don’t know if you remember but I don’t have any money on me.”

“Of course I remember. But there really isn’t much of an option here. We don’t know how long you’re going to be staying with me and even though we can share clothes, there are certain things like toothbrushes and other daily necessities that I feel like it’ll be better if you have your own. For now, I don’t mind paying for you. If you feel bad, just pay me back when you remember who you are and can get a reach of your family.”

“But I –”

“Sigh…let’s not go through this again. I’m hungry.”

Not letting the girl finish her sentence, Chaewon has already grabbed onto Hitomi’s hand and dragged the girl to a nearby food stall to start their dinner.

 

 

Back in Daejeon, as nighttime approaches, everyone gets ready for dinner. This time, Eunbi made sure to order delivery as she was still scarred from the dinner Minjoo had cooked for everyone last time.

Approaching the dining table, Minjoo notices there were only two people joining her for dinner.

“Where’s Yujin-sshi?” the fake princess quickly asks as she noticed there was no setting for her bodyguard on the table.

“Yujin already ate. She said she wanted to go out and exercise, so she had an early dinner and left for a jog around the neighborhood.” Eunbi responds back.

Sensing that this might be because of what happened earlier on in the day, Minjoo tries to brush this feeling aside as she ponders

‘I should be happy; I don’t have to see her face.’

However, looking at the other girl’s empty seat, a smile was never seen on Minjoo’s face.

Finishing her dinner, Minjoo quickly excuses herself as she walks out to the backyard area. Sitting in the same seat Yujin was sitting at earlier in the day, she looks up to the dark sky as her mind goes through flashbacks of what happened throughout the day.

Remembering how they started the day well, but ended up fighting at the Honda’s resident, Minjoo shakes her head as she thinks

‘Will there be a day where we don’t fight?’

Now moving onto the memory at Yujin’s condo, Minjoo brings one of her hands up to touch her lips again while wondering

‘Why?’

Considering she literally just met the girl two days ago, Minjoo kept questioning why things played out the way they did. The only thing that keeps replaying in her head at this point was when they both leaned in to kiss each other and it frustrates her on how there was no answer on why they did that.

Thinking she needed to find an answer to this question, she knew she had to talk to Yujin first. However, ever since they’ve returned, Yujin was nowhere to be seen.

Looking at her watch, she notices that it’s been over an hour already since Yujin left. Deciding to wait on the other girl’s return, Minjoo heads back into the house before waiting in the living room for the bodyguard to come back.

After another hour has past, with everyone else in their room probably asleep, the fake princess suddenly hears the door to the house open.

Alerted by the abrupt sound, she quickly gets up onto her feet to await the bodyguard.

As Yujin walks into the house, she notices Minjoo standing there waiting for her, but instead of saying anything, she swiftly walks past the other person causing Minjoo to grow irritated.

“Hey, where are you going? I’ve been waiting here for you for more than an hour now.” Minjoo said as she hastily trails behind her bodyguard.

Hearing the other girl’s voice, Yujin comes to an abrupt stop in front of her room. Not even turning around to face the person she says

“Is there anything I can do for you Princess?”

“No, there isn’t. But –”

“If there isn’t, then I ask to be left alone. Please.”

Saying those words, Yujin opens her door and heads into her room. However, the fake princess was not going to let all that time waiting go to waste. Sensing that Yujin was trying to avoid her, she quickly follows Yujin into the room without even giving the other girl time to process anything. And before they knew it, the both of them were now in the bodyguard’s room alone with no one being able to bother them.

Locking the door behind her, Minjoo turns to face Yujin and utters

“Are we really not going to talk about what happened in the elevator?”

Hearing the question, Yujin looks down to the floor before responding

“What happened earlier today was just a mistake. You were in fear, and I…I just wanted to comfort you.”

“By kissing me?!”

Getting such an absurd answer from the bodyguard, Minjoo was about to blow up in anger.

“That is not how a person comforts another person, Yujin-sshi. Especially when they’ve barely met each other. Unless this is what you do with other people you’ve protected as well.” Minjoo continues in annoyance.

“No, I don’t.” Yujin answers, still not facing the girl in front of her.

“Then give me a reason on why you did that. A legit reason this time.”

“There is no reason. You were scared and had a hard time breathing, so I –”

“And what?! You thought kissing me was going to help?! Try again.”

“What is there to answer?! We both kissed each other, it already happened. There’s no point in bringing it back up. Now will you leave me alone!” Yujin retorts back in frustration.

“No. I’m not leaving without an answer.”

“Then what do you want to hear? I don’t know why we kissed. I’m just as confused as you are. So, if you’re going to continue with this question, that’s my answer. Now please, leave.”

Heading to the door to open it for Minjoo, Yujin was met with the other girl pushing her back into the room. At this point, the only thing Minjoo wanted was to figure everything out and she was not willing to leave until all her questions were answered.

“No, I’m not leaving.”

“Gahh…why are you like this?!” Yujin shouts in infuriation.

“Because you’re not answering my question properly!”

“Then what’s a proper answer? That I like you or something. If that’s it, then I’m sorry. I don’t like you. I didn’t even want to take on this job and ever since I met you, I have never met such a stuck-up and annoying person in my life!”

Hearing the other person spit out such harsh comments drove Minjoo even more mad. As hurt as she is by it, she knew the other person was just trying to get her out of the room. Clenching both of her fists, Minjoo takes a step forward, inching closer to the other girl. Seeing this, Yujin takes a step back. The cycle continues until there was no more room to walk back into. And with one more step back, Yujin falls onto her bed.

Standing in front of the fallen girl, Minjoo continues

“Don’t make me force an answer out of you.”

“What answer do you want from me lady?!” Yujin replies as she sits up at the edge of her bed.

“Why the hell did you kiss me? That’s the only question I have, if you can answer that then I’ll be happy to leave you in peace.”

“And I already told you, I don’t know. What more do you want from me? And for your information, we both kissed each other. There was no one that started it first.”

“Well if you didn’t lean your forehead on mine, then none of this would have happened. Would it?”

“Well if you would let me go and call the maintenance crew like I was trying to, then none of it would have happened either.”

“Fine…you’re making me do this.”

“Do what?”

Inching even closer to the bodyguard, Minjoo leans down and puts both hands onto the bed locking Yujin in place.

Shocked by the distance between them, Yujin scoots back a little.

“What the hell are you doing?” Yujin asks.

“We’re going to stay like this until we talk everything out.”

“Lady, what is there to talk out?! Everything happened already, can we just forget it and move on.”

“No.”

“Why are you so stubborn?”

“Because I can’t go to sleep like this. I just want to clear everything up.”

“What is there to clear?! We’re not in a relationship, we don’t like each other. Everything was probably just a spur of the moment. Nothing else. This is getting frustrating. You’re making me say the same things over and over again. Unless you want to just sleep here, there’s nothing that’s going to be different in my answer.”

“Then why do I feel like there’s something more.”

“I don’t know. Ask yourself that. Now, will you leave my room. I’m tired, I want to shower and sleep.”

“No.”

“Sigh…what the heck is wrong with you? Have you never kissed someone before or something?”

Surprised by the sudden question, Minjoo freezes. Seeing the girl’s reaction, Yujin pushes forward as she says

“What? Don’t tell me that was your first kiss.”

“It…it doesn’t matter if it was or not, the only thing that matters is why we did it.” Minjoo says as she tries to steer away for the first kiss topic.

“I DON’T KNOW. How many more times do I have to say that? Please stop pestering me.”

“It just doesn’t make sense. Why the heck -?”

“Princess! You’ve been asking the same question for literally fifteen minutes and I’ve been saying the same thing for fifteen minutes. Nothing’s going to change. Now leave me alone.”

Seeing how annoyed the bodyguard was, Minjoo stood up and crossed her arms as she says

“Fine. I have a new question.”

“What now?” Yujin asks as she also stands up.

“Why are you acting like this? Don’t you want to find out as well?”

“No. I don’t. I just want to finish my job and get all this over with.”

Feeling hurt by the constant spiteful words, Minjoo was on the verge of giving up.

“Do you hate me that much?” the fake princess asks as she could tell how irritated Yujin was right now.

However, that question seemed to hit the bodyguard a little too hard, as the answer she got back was something she never expected.

“No…it’s not that Wonyo–”

Eyes widening from her unfinished sentence, Yujin had realized she almost slipped up on something she’s been trying to forgot. Trying to hold herself together, she had no choice but to resort to force now. Knowing the other person wasn’t willing to leave the room on her own, Yujin proceeded to walk up to Minjoo and pretty much pushed her out the door. Luckily the bodyguard was taller and stronger than the fake princess as Minjoo was starting to throw even more questions as well as resist her exit.

“Hey, what did you just say? Was that a name you were saying? Who was that? Answer me. I told you I’m not leaving without an answer.” Minjoo said as she was being pushed out of the room.

And with no other response from Yujin, Minjoo was now standing in front of a closed door with no questions answered.

Letting out a tiring breath, she finally gives up.

Looking at how Yujin reacted after saying those words, Minjoo knew something was up. She could tell she might have triggered something emotional for her bodyguard. Knowing there was only one person that could help her answer this, she sets out to find the truth first thing tomorrow morning.

 

 

Finishing up all the shopping for clothes and necessities, Chaewon and Hitomi are now walking back to the car. With Hitomi’s shoulder still injured, Chaewon tries her best to help the girl carry her stuff.

“It’s okay, Chaewon-sshi. I can carry this myself. You’ve already done so much for me.” Hitomi says as she tries to prevent Chaewon from taking the bag that was in her hand.

“But your shoulder is still hurt. I don’t want it to get worse.” Chaewon replies as she continues to reach for the bag.

“This isn’t that heavy. I’m okay. Really.”

“No, let me help you.”

Starting to walk a little faster to prevent the other girl from grabbing the bags in her hand, Hitomi starts to playfully move the bag around as if she was teasing the other girl. As Chaewon gets close to grabbing the bag, Hitomi would quickly pull it away from the girl and the both of them would continue this routine in lighthearted smiles until they reached the car.

However, it seems like the real princess had forgotten about her injury as the minute they reached the car, she could feel a slight aching pain on her shoulder. Reaching up to grab her injury, Hitomi scrunches her eyebrows together out of pain.

“See. I told you to give it to me. Now you’re starting to feel pain again.” Chaewon exclaims as she finally grabs onto the bag the other girl was holding.

Letting out small pants from the exercise she just got, Hitomi replies

“It’s okay. I guess I just moved my arm a little too much.”

“Well let’s go home. We’ve had a long day.”

However, as Chaewon helped Hitomi to her seat and closed the door for the girl, a voice calling her name was heard.

“Chaewon unnie!”

Turning to the owner of the voice, Chaewon sees Yuri running up to her.

“Yuri? What are you doing here?”

“I was hungry, so I thought I’d come out to grab some food. Didn’t think I would see you here.”

“Yea, I brought Hiichan to buy necessities and have dinner.”

“Hmm…unnie, do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Uh…sure?”

“Did you guys really meet today?”

“Huh? Of course. Why would you ask that?”

“Because I know how you are unnie. You hate people.”

“What does me hating people have anything to do with me helping Hiichan?”

“Well, you literally just met the girl. If it were anyone else, you would have probably grown annoyed by now.”

“What are you talking about? If it were anyone else, I would do the same thing.”

“So you’re saying that if I was injured, you would go out of your way, feed me and buy me clothes and necessities.”

“Yes…” Chaewon said in an uncertain tone.

“Really? Because, I remember the last time I was sick, you paid one visit to me and brought me the most horrible tasting soup. I couldn’t even finish it. And when I ask you to get me water, you looked so annoyed and left after you bought it for me.”

“Hey, you were asking for way too much.”

“I was asking for water that I need to take with my medication.”

“And you had the energy to get it yourself.”

“I was sick unnie!”

“Is something wrong Chaewon-sshi?” Hitomi intervenes in as she opens the car door to see the two people standing there.

“Yuri-sshi?” Hitomi continues to utter.

“Hi Hiichan.” Yuri responds back as she waves at the latter.

“Is there something wrong?” Hitomi asks again.

“No…it’s nothing. I was just catching up with Yuri on something. You should just sit back and rest Hiichan. We’ll leave right now.” Chaewon says as she walks back to the passenger’s side of the door before closing it for Hitomi again.

With the door close, Chaewon walks up to Yuri before saying

“I don’t know what you’re trying to get at, but please don’t say this stuff like this in front of Hiichan. I’m only doing this because she’s injured and in need of help. Nothing else.”

“Really unnie? Cause by the looks of what I witnessed earlier; I don’t think I’ve seen you smiling like that ever.” Yuri responds back with a slight tease in her tone.

“You…you saw.”

“Of course. I saw you guys leaving the clothing store and followed you guys here. I was going to call you earlier, but I didn’t want to interrupt your fun.”

“Hey, stop saying nonsense.”

“You can say this is nonsense, but by the looks of it you seemed to have enjoyed this nonsense.”

“What? What are you trying to say?”

“I was just wondering, is our teacher starting to develop feelings for someone?”

“What?! No…what are you talking about? I just met her.”

“Haha…exactly. You just met her, and she’s already made you smile this much.”

“Hey, I smile all the time.”

“When you’re with kids and in an environment where you’re forced to. Other than that, you hardly do.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Sigh…this girl.” Yuri utters as she facepalms herself.

“You know what. I’m just going to head home. I’m already tired enough as is.” Chaewon exclaims.

Not even waiting for a response from the other girl, Chaewon proceeded to walk around to the driver’s side of the car before heading back to her house, leaving Yuri to stand there shaking her head.

Before heading back to a food stall, Yuri watches as the car leaves and whispers to herself

“This is going to be interesting.”

 

 

As the next morning approaches, Minjoo gets up bright and early before heading downstairs to look for one person. Knowing Yujin was going to continue avoiding her, the fake princess knew her bodyguard was going to either be in her room or go out for a morning jog. And Minjoo used this as an advantage to ask all the questions she needed too without getting bothered.

“Eunbi-sshi.” Minjoo called out as she noticed Eunbi sitting on the dining table with a can of cider in hand.

“Princess. Is there anything I can get you this morning?” the older girl asks back.

“No, I’m okay. Thank you.”

“Then is there a reason why you’re calling for me so early in the morning?”

“Umm…where’s Yujin-sshi?” Minjoo asks trying to scope out where the girl in question was first before asking for anything specific about her.

“Oh…she went out running a while ago. Probably won’t be back until lunch. Do you need to go somewhere? If you do, I’ll call her back right away.”

“No…no. I don’t. I was just wondering that’s all.”

“Ah…okay?” Eunbi utters confusingly.

“Eunbi-sshi. Is it okay if I ask you something?”

“Of course. You can ask me anything?”

“Yesterday, I was talking with Yujin-sshi and it seemed like she mentioned a name I’ve never heard of. She kind of stopped mid-sentence so I never really got a good hearing of the name. It started with a ‘Wonyo’ and that’s about all I heard.”

Hearing the fake princess mention a familiar name, Eunbi chokes on her drink before letting out a series of coughs.

“Eunbi-sshi. Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?” Minjoo asks worriedly as she walks up to the other girl and rubs her back.

“I’m fine.Um…I’m sorry Princess. I’ve never heard of that name. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have a phone call to make.”

Trying to find a way out of the situation, Eunbi grabs her can of cider and tries to walk out of the dining area only to be stopped by a stern voice.

“Eunbi-sshi.”

Coming to a stop in her steps, Eunbi closes her eyes as she lets out a sigh.

Walking up to stand in front of the older girl, Minjoo continues to say

“I know you know who that person is. Now please explain to me why Yujin kicked me out of her room after saying the person’s name.”

“You were in her room?” Eunbi asks back slightly taken aback.

“Yes. We had something to talk about.” Minjoo says with hesitation.

“What did you guys need to talk about?” Eunbi continues to ask.

“It’s nothing important.”

“But –”

“Eunbi-sshi. I believe my question is still unanswered. So before you start your questions, I want mine answered.”

“I…I’m sorry Princess. I can’t tell you. This is something that is part of Yujin’s personal problem, I can’t say anything.”

“Then at least tell me who the person is. If you don’t tell me, I’m going to go ask it from Yujin-sshi herself and I’m going to keep bothering her about it until I get an answer. But judging from her reaction last night, I don’t think she wants me to ask it from her.”

“No! Please don’t.”

“Then I expect an answer. Who is the person, and why is Yujin-sshi so attached to them? You don’t have to go into detail if its going to burden you, but at least let me know who they are so this question doesn’t linger in my mind.”

“Sigh…okay. I’ll tell you, but please, promise me you won’t tell Yujin I told you this. You can’t even mention the person’s name to her.”

“Okay, I promise.”

Letting out another sigh, Eunbi continues with her answer that would leave Minjoo speechless.

“The person’s name is Wonyoung. She was Yujin’s ex-girlfriend and also the reason Yujin quit her job as a bodyguard.”

 

 

 

---

That ends it for this chapter guys.

I know it's been so long since I posted and I am very sorry for that. I have been busy with work and life that I have not had time to write any of my stories and when I did, I sort of gotten into writer's block. I know this is no excuse, but this is the most I can do for now.

The story is off to somewhat of a slow start on the main plot, but the relationships are moving fast for a reason. 

Next chapter will start the main plot as the royal family will have their official introduction there as well as Yujin's back story.

I honestly don't know when I will be able to update again especially since my chapters are normally pretty long, but I will try my best to write as much as I can on my days off.  

So until then, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter even though not much has happened.

PS: I don't know if you guys noticed but the timeline on Jinjoo's part is like a day ahead of Ssambbang's and I will be fixing that next chapter. I do apologize for that again.

 

Previews:

"Wonyoung-ah...we can't keep doing this. Your Dad is going to find out sooner or later if we do."

"Hiichan. It's okay, I'm right here, it was just a nightmare."