songs for this chapter:

 

>enchanted-taylor swift

>nana-the 1975

>love is not over-bts

>lost-bts

 

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"MOM! CHAEYOUNG STOLE MY MR. TEDDY AGAIN!"

 

 

"NO I DIDN'T! IT'S MINE!" The two little girls angrily tugged on the poor teddy bear, like it was the rope for Tug of War. 

 

 

The golden door opened. The two adults checked on the two fighting girls in the playroom. They all chuckled a bit at the two little girls, well, this happened all the time in their palace.

 

 

"Okay okay kids, enough with torturing Mr. Teddy." The Empress took the teddy bear away from the two kids, both of which, glared at her.

 

 

"I can't believe they're fighting again because of this." The maid, Chaeyoung's mom, muttered to the Queen.

 

 

"Okay you two, you guys don't have to fight. Mina, what did I tell you about what's yours and what's not yours?"

 

 

"BUT IT'S MINE!" The little Japanese girl squeaked with her hands pointing at the bear.

 

 

"NO IT'S NOT! YOU TOOK HIM FROM ME WHILE I WAS PLAYING!" Chaeyoung argued. The empress redirected her eyes to her daughter, who started to quiver in either anger or frustration, or both.

 

 

"Mina, is that true?" The little Japanese girl started pouting and huffing with her arms crossed.

 

 

"Mina?"

 

 

"ITS MINE!" Unexpectedly, Mina tugged on the bear's head so forcefully that the head tore off, with all of its cotton stuffing falling all over the place. The two kids looked mortified at the fallen head of the decapitated teddy bear.

 

 

"MR TEDDY!" Chaeyoung ran to the decapitated teddy bear. There were tears falling from her eyes. The other girl was frozen, still mortified at what she has done. 

 

 

Chaeyoung cradled the fallen teddy bear head, glaring at the older girl with tears welling up in her eyes. 

 

 

"MINA, YOU'RE GROUNDED!"

 

 

and that's how she came to hate her

 

 

—————————

"Tomorrow we'll be discussing about astronomy, your majesty. Make sure you read your notes." The scholar bowed down to the elegant princess who reciprocated the gesture.

 

 

"Thank you very much for this lecture, lecturer Hinata. I will see you again tomorrow." The two people exchanged goodbyes before Mina left the room, with her books in her arms. The elegant princess was greeted with the fresh spring breeze of the garden inside of the palace. 

 

 

"Good afternoon, your majesty." A female maid bowed and greeted her, the princess reciprocated the gesture.

 

 

"Good afternoon." She smiled while she continued to walk to the direction where her room is located.

 

 

"Good afternoon, your majesty." A male guard on duty greeted her and she greeted him back.

 

 

"Good afternoon to you too." Mina was a highly respected princess in this palace. People greeted her with full respect and they truly adore her for her humility and intellect, well, since that's what they mostly see on the surface. But most of them don't know the true nature of the princess.

 

 

While the princess walked around the halls surrounding the indoor garden, a viscous sight has been seen by her. Her eyes narrowed and she silently glared at the person, also known as Chaeyoung.

 

 

 

"Sana onee-chan please stay still." 

 

 

"I can't, Chaengie, it's really uncomfortable." The princess saw Chaeyoung and Sana, who was a daughter of the family's head knight, sitting on the grass. Sana was doing some kind of French pose while Chaeyoung drew the stationary girl on a canvas. Mina rolled her eyes at the scene.

 

 

"Onee-chan, please stop twitching." Chaeyoung looked over from the canvas to see the blonde girl who was already trembling in discomfort with her French girl pose.

 

 

"I-I...Chaeng can we take a break?" Mina tried to snap her focus back to where she's supposed to head to. She started to walk again, but then she saw a wooden pencil case lying around the grass, with Chaeyoung's name engraved on it.

 

 

Mina smirked.

 

 

She picked up the unattended pencil case and she went on her way without the younger girl knowing.

 

 

"Chaeyoungie, can we please take a break?" 

 

 

"Don't worry, onee-chan, I'm almost done I just need" Chaeyoung started to fumble on the grass behind her, searching for that one familiar thing. She became confused after she wasn't able to feel it lying on the grass.

 

 

"Wait..." Chaeyoung turned around to check the grassy area behind her, but the missing object wasn't on her sight.

 

 

"Where's my pencil case?" Chaeyoung got up and started to look around for it. Sana on the other hand, was already struggling with her pose and she's on the verge of collapsing.

 

 

"Ch-Chaeng? Can we take a break?" Chaeyoung looked at the struggling older girl. She sighed after realizing that her pencil case is nowhere to be found.

 

 

"Alright onee-chan. You can take a break." Sana finally collapsed and gave out a sigh of relief. Chaeyoung continued to look around the garden in hopes of finding the missing pencil case.

 

 

"Hey, Chaengie, are you okay?" Chaeyoung looked at her onee-chan and she shook her head.

 

 

"My pencil case is missing."

 

 

"Maybe you left it back in the room?"

 

 

"But I just placed it here, behind me." Chaeyoung patted the space where she knew she left the pencil case.

 

 

"Maybe one of the guards took it or whatever?" Chaeyoung let out a frustrated sigh after failing to find the missing pencil case. She packed her things, grabbed her bag and she swung it over her shoulder.

 

 

"Let's just eat, onee-chan, I'll just try finding it again later if I truly misplaced it." Sana stood up from her spot enthusiastically.

 

 

"Okie, Chaengie!"

 

 

—————————

 

 

Only silence and the fresh cold air surrounded the room while Mina read her book on her table in peace. The room was engulfed with the scent of jasmines.

 

 

The picture was still on her peripheral vision. Mina cannot help but to feel total discomfort while she read. She finally gave in and she stared at the picture frame on the right shelf.

 

 

It was a picture of her and her mum when she was younger.

 

 

Mina had a sad smile on her face, remembering the times when she was with her mother.

 

 

Just by staring at the picture, she can already deeply reflect of so many past days. Days that became actual reasons why would she be genuinely happy, days that made her feel motivated to continue in life. Days when she was still with her mother.

 

 

But those days are over now.

 

 

Mina quickly looked away from the picture frame and she proceeded to read her book. But as she was about to, her door opened. A male servant entered her room.

 

 

"Princess, your majesty has requested to me to bring you to him at this moment." Mina stood up as soon as she heard him.

 

 

"At this moment?" The servant nodded.

 

"Yes, princess." Mina stood up and went outside the room with the servant by her side. They traveled around the palace in silence. Now they were getting closer to the emperor's room.

 

 

"What do you think would be the reason why he has summoned me?" Mina asked in curiosity. The servant shrugged.

 

 

"He only commanded me to summon you. But I believe that the coversation that you're going to have with the emperor is between you two only." Mina nodded. Her hands were becoming sweatier and at the same time colder, feeling the nerve wracking feeling because of the curiousity that's eating her.

 

 

Is this it? The day I lose my liberty?

 

"We are here, princess. I'll leave you now to talk with the emperor." The servant bowed and Mina reciprocated the bow. The servant left and the princess opened the door of the Emperor's room. They saw the emperor, her father, sitting at a high golden throne.

 

 

"Father. You wished to see me?" The elegant princess bowed down to the emperor dressed in gold robes. She knelt one knee right in front of him with her head hung low to show respect for him.

 

 

"I have. I wanted to make this conversation as urgent as possible since we're about to conduct this later tonight." 

 

"What is about to happen, father?" Mina raised her head to look at her father.

 

 

"We will have a meeting with Mr. Byun tonight. He is a very powerful merchant from Korea and he's currently settling here in Edo. I wish to merge with his business to produce more income for the kingdom." Why am I not surprised. Mina sighed quietly after hearing her father's inner desire.

 

 

"This will happen tonight at our palace's main dining room. Please prepare and look well as much as possible. Do you have any more questions?" Mina shook her head.

 

 

"No father." The emperor nodded.

 

 

"Good. You may return to your room to have enough preparation for tonight's event. You are dismissed." Mina nodded and she proceeded to exit the room. She took another deep breath and she let out a sad sigh.

 

 

When can I ever be truly happy again?

 

 

—————————

 

"Where do we put these candles on the table this time, onee-chan?" Chaeyoung asked Sana while she pointed at the group of candle holders on the table.

 

 

"Hmm...let's put them in a circular pattern." They proceeded to fix the candle holders to the planned positions. They fixed up the fancy table cloth and they made sure that the fabric satin chairs were squeaky clean.

 

 

"Okay everyone, go back to kitchen! We all have something to talk about!" Everybody finished up with fixing the whole dining area and they went to the kitchen. They all grouped up inside.

 

 

"So guys, this is a very crucial dinner actually, compared to the last dinners actually." The maid head, Jihyo loudly announced to the palace maids and servants.

 

 

"So basically, we need to be very organised when we work as much as possible. All I know is that this meeting and dinner the emperor will have is more related to the kingdom's new rulers and whatnot, so I totally think it's grand." Everyone in the kitchen started murmuring words.

 

 

"Wait so, we'll have a new emperor after that meeting?" Sana asked but the maid head shrugged.

 

 

"Not sure, but we have to served everyone at the dinner as organised as possible, to ya know, avoid what happened last year..." There was a dinner where the emperor met a group of scholars for his daughter's education. But that dinner became a mess because everyone was confused on who will serve the each of the scholars and who will cook the food. Oh, and Sana accidentally spilt wine on one of the scholar's clothes.

 

 

"So I decided to assign one maid and servant to each of the guests, to the emperor and to the princess." Everyone started murmuring once again. Then Jihyo tried to shut them up.

 

 

"Okay okay, shut up guys. So anyways, the person who would serve the emperor..."

 

 

"You look down, Chaeng. Is it because of the pencil case?" Sana looked down on the sad and gloomy girl who looked like she gave up on listening to the announcements of the maid leader. Chaeyoung nodded sadly.

 

 

"I mean, it sounds immature but, most of the things inside of it is kinda...sentimental to me y'know. My parents gave me that and all." The older maid nodded in understanding. 

 

 

"It will be alright, Chaeng. It's just in the palace, we'll find it." Sana gave the younger girl a bright smile and Chaeyoung reciprocated it.

 

 

"Chaeyoung, you are assigned to serve the princess for the whole dinner." Chaeyoung's head snapped to Jihyo's direction.

 

"Wait what?! I will be that Mina's  personal servant-"

 

 

"Chaeyoung, watch your words or I'll tell your mother-"

 

"Okay okay fine, I'll do it." Chaeyoung irritatedly answered. Sana started giggling while Chaeyoung huffed angrily.

 

 

"What's wrong, Chaeng? You don't like the princess?" 

 

 

"Oh not only dislike, hate. And we have some...chaotic history together, onee-chan."

 

"Like what?" Sana curiously asked. Chaeyoung raised her eyebrow at her.

 

 

"I don't even wanna-"

 

 

"Sana, you'll be serving the son of Mr. Byun." This time, Sana's head snapped to Jihyo's direction.

 

 

"What?! But I don't want to be a-"

 

 

"Minatozaki...-"

 

 

"Fine, I'll do it!" Sana huffed and Chaeyoung smirked at her.

 

 

"I guess we're all in this together, right Sana onee-chan?"

 

 

"Shut up!"

 

 

—————————

 

 

"You've become so pretty, your majesty." 

 

 

"Mrs. Son, you can drop the formalities. You've been taking care of me for so long, you don't have to treat me as a princess when we're together." Mina's maid smiled at her while she fixed the princess' hair.

 

 

"I'm sorry, Mina. It's just, you've grown so much over the years. You've changed a lot as well. Well, except for the tense atmosphere between you and Chaeyoung though." The princess let out an angry groan.

 

 

"Ugh, I don't even want to be reminded of her. She's-"

 

 

"Stubborn, hard-headed and that she lacks manners?" Mina's maid, Mrs. Son retorted.

 

 

"...and she eats unappetisingly." Mina's maid started chuckling.

 

 

"Trust me, Mina, I've tolerated her for so long since I am her mother, but that girl has a kind heart. She's very caring, creative, and understanding. I guess she doesn't get to show it when you two interact." Mina let out a sigh.

 

 

"Let's...not talk about that pain for now. I guess I've been feeling a little bit...uneasy about this dinner we're about to have." Mina's maid started to brush some of Mina's bangs for it to become perfectly straight.

 

 

"Why is that, princess?" Mina shrugged.

 

 

"I don't know...I'm at the age of 18 now, and I have a strong feeling that..." Mina trailed off. She started to feel more uneasy for every second that's passing.

 

 

"That what, princess?"

 

 

"That-" 

 

 

"Your majesty, it's time for dinner." Mina's answer was cut off when a male servant entered the room. The princess nodded.

 

 

"I'll be there." 

 

 

The dining area was beautifully set up. There were the twinkling lights coming from the chandeliers. The candles let out a beautiful glow while the table was covered with a golden satin sheet. Everything was fancy in the dining room. Everything was amazing.

 

 

Everything was amazing, except the fact that Mina's bored to death.

 

 

"So your son, Baekhyun will take over your position?"

 

 

"Most likely, your majesty. He's at his proper age and I think he'll do good in the future."

 

 

Mina was surprised when she saw Mr. Byun with a strange teenage man trailing behind him, turns out that it was his son who he had brought to the palace. But Mina was unaware since her father didn't tell her.

 

 

She was also unaware that this dinner would be so boring that she started hitting her wine glass quietly with her fork.

 

 

"You're bored, aren't you?"

 

 

"What?" Mina stopped hitting her fork on the wine glass. Baekhyun smirked at her.

 

 

"You're bored. I am too. Who wants to listen to old people conversations anyways." Baekhyun lazily leaned on his chair with his arms crossed.

 

 

"I don't get why were here with them in the first place anyways. We have so many better things to do than to be in this dinner." Baekhyun complained.

 

 

"Well, I guess so we could...get to know each other better once your father's business merges with our kingdom." Mina said. Baekhyun snorted.

 

 

"Point taken." There was another dead and silent air between the two teens while their fathers conversed eagerly.

 

 

"I'm hungry." Baekhyun said out of nowhere.

 

 

"C'mon Chaeng, just serve her the food."

 

 

"But-"

 

 

"I know you want Mina to starve but please this is an important event and we can't embarrass ourselves again so go!" Jihyo shoved Chaeyoung out of the kitchen. The plates on Chaeyoung's tray were rattling because of the strong force. Chaeyoung muttered some words, probably cursing the maid leader out before walking to the fancy dining table.

 

 

"Your meal, y-your majesty." Chaeyoung's eyes twitched a bit once she said that. Mina shot her a look. The smaller girl placed the princess' meal right in front of her until her tray was empty.

 

"T-Thank you." Mina internally cringed after saying that while her cheeks started to hurt because of the forced smiles. Chaeyoung quickly returned to her post after that very awkward interaction.

 

"Chaeyoung, you did well." Jihyo gave Chaeyoung light pats while they watched Sana serve the son of the merchant.

 

 

"Your chicken, sir." The blonde Japanese placed the chicken right in front of him.

 

 

"Thanks." Sana left the table as soon as she served the young man. She returned to her post.

 

 

"Thank god, the food's here." Baekhyun started to dig in to the chicken hungrily, like he hasn't eaten for days. Mina just stared at him eating while she lazily forked her chicken repeatedly.

 

 

"Yeah, thank god." Mina sulked while she stabbed her tattered chicken repeatedly. Can we be done with this already?

 

"You'rf noft goingfp tuph eaft fthaft?" Baekhyun asked with a muffled voice because his mouth was stuffed with food. Mina was taken aback with the lack of manners this man has, but she just let it pass this time. At least he's not faking anything. 

 

"It's...stale. It needs more salt. Excuse me!" Mina raised her hand to call out for one of the table servants. Chaeyoung scoffed.

 

 

"What does she want now?" Chaeyoung cursed under her breath as she went over to the table.

 

 

"What do you want?"Chaeyoung spat. Mina gave her a menacing look.

 

 

"I'll tell your mother." Mina mouthed to the younger girl.

 

 

"Whatever." Chaeyoung mouthed back.

 

"I need some salt please." Mina gave the younger girl a very forced smile. Chaeyoung fought back the urge to roll her eyes and to scoff at the princess.

 

She returned to her post to get the salt shaker and the pepper and she returned to the table to place the two on top of it.

 

 

"Here it is, your majesty." Chaeyoung lazily said.

 

 

"Thank you so much." Mina grinned at her creepily and forcefully. Chaeyoung shot her another look and she quickly left the table, not wanting to deal with the princess any longer than 1 minute.

 

 

Mina started to pour the salt all over her tattered chicken and she took a bite of it. Her face scrunched up after realizing that she put too much salt.

 

 

"Your daughter has grown to become very elegant, your majesty." Mina's head snapped to the older men's direction once her name was mentioned.

 

 

"Yes. She has reached the age of maturity. She has grown up to become very intelligent and wise."

 

 

"Will she be the one to inherit your kingdom, your majesty?" Mina became more invested in hearing the conversation. She turned her head again to her food, pretending that she wasn't listening.

 

 

"Yes, as soon as she marries your son, Mr. Byun." Baekhyun choked on his chicken while Mina dropped her fork on her plate, causing a loud clanking sound to be heard in the suddenly silent room. 

 

Everyone in the room was shocked, even the maids and the servants. Chaeyoung had her eyes wide after hearing what the emperor has said. The two older men stopped their conversation after hearing the reactions of their son and daughter.

 

 

"WHAT?!" Baekhyun and Mina yelled at their fathers.

 

 

"You can't just...you can't just force me to marry him!" Mina stood up yelled at her father. Baekhyun was trying to calm her down by holding on to her arm.

 

 

"Mina, please understand that-"

 

 

"No!" Mina shrugged off Baekhyun's hand on her arm.

 

 

"No! I won't let you decide on who I want to marry and how I'd want to live my life! I won't let you do another thing that's related to money!"

 

 

"It's for our kingdom!" The emperor suddenly sat up from his seat, with his voice booming all over the room.

 

 

"It's for our kingdom, Mina! This is the only way for it to survive-"