“Psst…Irene!” Seulgi half-yelled and half-whispered, trying to get the older girl’s attention for the third time with still no success.

She had been hiding – crouching pathetically, really – behind the large mahogany door of the dining room for ten whole minutes, and her was starting to hurt.

How Irene could manage to be so deeply immersed in etiquette lesson to the point where she couldn’t hear any distraction, Seulgi would never understand, but she was there to save her friend from the begrudging lesson anyway.

Never mind that Irene actually never found any of the palace class boring like she did because she was such a good kid.

Who really enjoys being told how to eat, walk and speak like automaton anyway?

“Irene! Psst!” Seulgi decided to throw a pebble at the foot of her chair – she would rather no one asked why she carried pebbles around – and made a weird, strangled whistling noise to get her attention.

Her poor imitation of a cedar waxwing bird seemed to finally work, because Irene’s blonde head swiveled around from the palace’s etiquette teacher, Mrs. Olsen, to look at her.

“Seulgi?” She mouthed quietly, stealing a quick glance at Mrs. Olsen and seemingly afraid that she would be caught not giving her full attention to the lesson as rules required any good kid to be. “What are you doing here?” She mouthed voicelessly.

Seulgi pointed at the giant window on their right and mouthed back to her dramatically, “Snow! Outside! Time to play!”

“Ehem.” Mrs. Olsen cleared all of a sudden and Irene snapped back to attention immediately.

Seulgi gasped in surprise too and instantly hid behind the door leaf.

Phew, luckily, she was fast –

“Princess Seulgi, I could see the tail of your orange cloak from here. You don’t have to hide behind the door. Could you perhaps, kindly try not to disturb another student who is in the middle of her serious class though?”

Seulgi winced and slowly poked her head out from behind the door leaf. She stood up from the floor. “Oh, Mrs. Olsen. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your class. I was just going to tell Irene that I will wait for her to play after the class ends, of course.”

A very faint smile sneaked to Irene’s lips and she covered with her hand to hide her forming laughter.

Even Mrs. Olsen seemed to realize that it was a terrible lie and gave Seulgi a narrowed eyed look.

Seulgi winced some more.

She was never good at lying.

“Surely, Your Highness. But since it seems like you feel this class is too long to wait for, how about you sit here with us throughout the remainder of the lesson so you don’t get bored? I believe time passes more quickly when one has something to do while waiting.”

At Seulgi’s widening eyes, Irene’s soft giggle finally escaped her.

She coughed a little and covered again though, as she glanced at Mrs. Olsen and tried to remember her etiquette lesson. She put on a more serious look and attempted her best, graceful voice. “I think that may be a good idea, Princess. Maybe you can help teach me a bit with Mrs. Olsen. You have learned the lesson from a long time ago.”

Seulgi blinked rapidly at her and stared at her with her jaw hanging wide open.

Oh fairies.

The betrayal against her when she had nothing but good intention for her!

She narrowed her eyes at Irene who only bit back a smile and pretended to stare back at her arrangement of utensils on the dining table.

Forks and soup spoons didn’t look that interesting even to Irene, Seulgi knew.

The blonde would have to pay her at least three chocolate bars for this.

-------------------------------

“That was sooo bad, I can’t believe you conspired with Mrs. Olsen to make me study on weekend! A perfectly nice, beautiful, free Sunday!” Seulgi threw her hands up dramatically, feigning a sullen look at her friend as if she had been wronged so terribly.

Irene continued to giggle behind her hand as they stepped out onto the castle’s yard, a full laughter eventually leaving her. “Well, studying can be more enlightening if it’s done on a nice, beautiful, relaxing day, Seulgi. Maybe you should try it more often.”

“Blargh.” Seulgi made a puking noise, which only made Irene laugh harder with a little more noise than she should.

“Oop.” She put a hand on when she realized, clearing and sobering up again. “Mrs. Olsen said I shouldn’t laugh too loud. It will make me appear graceless.”

“Mrs. Olsen and everyone in this palace should go to the woodchopper outside and get the sticks that are stuck up their butts chopped off so they can walk around more freely.”

At that careless retort, Irene failed her attempt at being graceful, the funny snort she had been trying to hold back eventually escaping her as a soundful guffaw.

Seulgi joined in and they clutched their stomachs as they giggled their hearts out on the snowy courtyard.

“Oh, Goddess. I think your choice of words has grown worse these past two years. That sentence would have gotten Mrs. Olsen – and your Mama – a if they had heard it.”

Seulgi grinned and bumped her shoulder with hers. “Well, they will be okay and all healthy then as long as you don’t tell them. And since you love my Mama so much, I trust you not to tell her anything about my woodchopper advise.”

Irene cracked a small grin and bumped her shoulder back. “I won’t. I love your Mama. She is a very good person.”

And she meant it.

Irene was aware that the past two years, she had managed to lead a more decent, almost normal life in the palace thanks to Seulgi and her mom.

Truth to be told, after opening up to the younger girl two years ago, it actually took her another year before she could brave talking to another person. But when she did, the person – the one who happened to be just as kindhearted, non-judgmental and warm as Seulgi – happened to be Seulgi’s own mother.

It made sense, in a way, that her mother would be just as kind as her.

Irene was immediately taken with the affectionate Queen, probably missing – craving – the presence of a motherly figure in her life after losing her own three years prior.

That loss still stayed with her and left her a scar that would never completely heal no matter what, but just being able to lead a life that was half as happy as she had before the incident, Irene was grateful enough.

She had received so much help from the Royal family.

“Snow in the nose!” Seulgi hurled a small ball of snow at her all of a sudden, hitting her in the said body part thoroughly.

“Hey…!” Irene spluttered and fell backward on her bum, wiping her face and coughing out a mouthful of snow.

Seulgi laughed out loud.

“That’s – such a bad thing to do, Seulgi! I wasn’t even ready!”

“Well, everyone should be ready for unexpected things in life, Irene.” Seulgi quipped playfully and dropped beside her on the snow, throwing herself backward until she lay flat on the soft whiteness. “Or so Papa said, I think.”

“I’m sure the King didn’t mean sneaky snowball attack when he said that.”

“Whatever. It can be applied to a lot of things. Besides, I can’t believe you just sat there and took a snowball in your face without trying to throw anything back. Joy and Wendy would have buried me under a whole mountain of snow as payback. Mrs. Olsen will be very proud of you.”

At the mention of Seulgi’s friends, the light in Irene’s eyes dimmed a bit and her voice came out smaller. “Your friends…do they still talk about my powers sometimes?”

Seulgi sat up and looked at her. “Oh, your magic? They do ask sometimes, about what it can do. But I told them to come and ask you themselves if they are so curious about it.”

Irene winced and gripped the end of her long, blue sleeves. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Seulgi. I’m not sure I can talk to them yet –"

Did they even really think that her power was magic? What if it was just Seulgi talking?

“Oh, c’mon. They may come off a little obnoxious, but they are very good beans deep inside. Besides, I really think you need to talk to other people who is not me or my Mama. One can’t just have two people in their life.”

“Two are more than enough for me.” Irene’s voice crawled out smaller, thinking back on her late parents and how happy she was living with the two of them. “I don’t need a crowd of people...I just need a few close ones.”

Seulgi’s bright eyes seemed to morph into mini panic when she realized where she had accidentally driven Irene’s thoughts to. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to –”

“No, it’s okay. I’m sorry. I get sad easily sometimes. But really, you and your Mama are more than enough for me. You are all that matter.”

Irene rose from the snow and helped Seulgi up, dusting the snow off of the younger girl’s cloak.

She was about to say that it was nearing dinner time when Gerda’s voice beat her to it. “Princess Seulgi and Miss Irene, it’s almost time for dinner! The Queen is calling you to come inside.”

Irene turned to look at the middle-aged helper and gave her a small, formal smile with a slight nod as acknowledgement.

Now that she had spent three years in the palace and had turned 12, she could manage to not appear fearfully startled whenever she saw all these people, but a small, stiff polite gesture was all that she could put out at the moment.

Being comfortable around others was still a taxing task for her.

She was still a work in progress, and so were the palace staffs, she supposed, because they were still trying to not appear wary in front of her even though they still did.

“We will come in soon, Gerda.” Seulgi replied, shaking the snow off her boots. “Come on, let’s get in. Mama promised to make us ice cream tonight!”

----------------------------------------

“Ooh, so that’s how you make ice cream.” Seulgi watched her Mama with awe, practically climbing and standing on top of a chair to compensate for her short height and get the full view of the kitchen table.

Queen Hana gently mixed the concoction of milk and chocolate and poured it into smaller bowls. “And now, we take them outside and leave them to freeze overnight with snow. In the morning, we collect them again and grind them into ice cream.”

Seulgi’s mouth formed a wide O and her eyes sparkled brightly. “But wait, does that mean I have to wait until tomorrow before I can have ice cream, Mama?”

Irene chuckled slowly from below her chair and so did Queen Hana.

“I’m afraid so, sweetheart. There will be no ice cream yet for you tonight.”

Seulgi made a long, disappointed noise and flopped on her chair. “But I thought we would be able to eat it together tonight!”

She sulked and pouted, bottom lip jutting out so far, Irene was afraid that it would never go back to its original place.

“Patience, sweetheart, will take you a long way in life.” Queen Hana smiled affectionately and ruffled her hair before taking the bowls away.

She was about to hand over the bowls to Gerda to take outside when Irene offered timidly, “Um…your majesty, maybe I can help with the ice…?”

Queen Hana turned to look at her and a dawning realization seemed to flash in her eyes. “Oh, would you try, Irene? It will save us a lot of time. I know you have no problem waiting until tomorrow, but there is a particular child on the chair next to you who does.”

Completely ignoring the little jab just made at her, Seulgi stood immediately and hopped off from her chair. “Oh, yes! Do the magic, do the magic!” She giggled excitedly.

Irene smiled a little before looking up at Queen Hana again. “I – I could try, if you want me to.”

The Queen lowered the tray of bowls