It's been a month since the death of mr. Kim and everyone is slowly getting back to their normal routines.

Wendy is now in charge of the bakery, making her the manager. Namjoon delivers all the ordered pastries as always and Yerim is now starting to help her older sister in the kitchen. Creating her own recipes in the meantime.

Wendy had tasted one of Yerim's creations before and she was sure she saw God for a second- or maybe it was just Namjoon, who had brought her to the hospital that day.

Of course, a huge part of Wendy and the bakery is gone now, but it gives her even more of a reason to work harder and make this the most successful bakery in the entire village.

Wendy hears the bell ring and raises an eyebrow.

The bakery isn't open today...

The baker looks up at the clock on the wall. 14:45 pm, it says.

"Unnie, this lady wants to talk to you!", Yerim shouts from the front of the bakery.

Wendy wipes her flour filled hands on her apron and quickly makes her way out of the kitchen.

A person with a hood on their head is standing in front of the counter and the blonde haired woman furrows her brows in confusion as she looks at them.

"Yerim, you can go now", Wendy tells her little sister and the latter walks into the kitchen, leaving Wendy and the mysterious person alone.

"How have you been, Wendy?", the person takes of their hood.

"Your highness!"

The baker immediately bows politely and looks at her with widened eyes. Joohyun smiles softly as she stares at the younger woman.

Cute.

"Not to be disrespectful, but what brings you here? ESPECIALLY this early in the morning", Wendy asks softly, leaning forward to make sure nobody else heard her.

"I wanted to know how you were doing", the blonde haired woman takes a step back in surprise, staring at the older woman in front of her.

"I-"

Wendy leaves the counter and walks to the front of it. She grabs the princess by her wrist and walks through the front door. Joohyun quickly puts her hood back on and the two women enter a small alleyway besides the bakery. Wendy stops halfway in the alley. She turns around and faces the princess.

"Why are we here, Wendy?", Joohyun asks, pushing her hood back a little to look at the baker.

"Your highness, you can't just come here so casually. It's dangerous!", the princess giggles. "This is not a joke, your highness. Who knows what could have happened if someone found out you were here- did Seulgi come with you? Or Hoseok?", Wendy looks around and walks out of the alley to check for the royal guards.

Joohyun grabs Wendy's wrist and pulls her back towards her, turning around and letting the younger woman lean against the wall.

"I'm fine. I may be a princess, but I am a professional swordsman and I can defend myself pretty well", she smiles and leans closer to Wendy, who just stares at her with eyes full of worry. "Also, I came here alone on Hoseok's horse. He might get suspicious soon, but I don't care. I just wanted to know how you were doing", her voice was soft and deep as she spoke to the baker.

Wendy gulps and inhales sharply.

"I... am fine", the blonde haired woman says slowly. "I'm working things out, but it's taking me a long time", she looks down at her feet and starts fumbling with the hem of her shirt nervously.

Princess Joohyun looks at the baker and her eyes soften. She raises her hand and puts it on top of Wendy's blonde hair and the latter freezes under her touch. She looks up and is met with a beautiful yet reassuring smile.

"That's ok. Everything takes time whether we like it or not...", the older woman Wendy's head softly and looks at her fondly.

"Where did she go?"
"I don't know. Let's look over there"

Wendy's eyes widen when she hears a few voices not too far away from them and she immediately grabs the princess by her wrist and drags her further in the alleyway.

"What are you doing, Wendy?"

"Making sure we don't get in trouble!", the two rush through the small spaces in between the buildings, until Wendy decides to take some stairs that were on the side of a building.

They run up the stairs and eventually end up on the roof. Wendy and Joohyun are breathing heavily, not saying a word as they catch their breath.

"I'm sorry...", Wendy says after a while, still bend down from catching her breath.

She stands up straight and walks towards Joohyun, who was sitting on the floor.

"Haven't been exercising enough I see", Wendy jokes. She feels a weird sensation in her chest when she hears the older woman chuckle and sits down besides her.

"Ah... It's been a while since I got some fresh air"

"Really?", Wendy nods.

"I guess, managing the bakery as well as being the only baker there, gives me barely any room for other things", the blonde haired woman looks down to the ground in between her legs. "I never had a normal life to begin with..."

Joohyun stares intently at the side of Wendy's and puts a hand on the latter's upper arm. Wendy turns her head and gazes into the princess's piercing dark eyes.

The baker is taken aback by how pretty the princess looks this close to her. She knew the princess was gorgeous ever since their first meeting, but she had never seen her up close like this before.

Besides that one day at the party, but that was only for a second.

"...endy? Wendy!", Wendy shakes her head, getting out of her trance.

She looks at Joohyun with wide eyes.

"Wha?"

"You were staring", Wendy feels her entire body warm up and she thinks she's going to explode soon.

The princess is smirking, giving the younger woman's arm a little squeeze and she stands up with a grunt. Joohyun holds out her hand and Wendy looks at it and then up at the older woman.

"Since you don't have anything to do today. Why don't we have some fun together?"

Princess Joohyun shakes her stretched out hand, wanting Wendy to take it and after a while of hesitating, she does. The older woman pulls her up.

"Wow!"

Wendy almost trips, but Joohyun grabs her arm right on time and pulls her towards herself until they're almost flush against each other. It makes the blonde haired woman blush and she hopes that her face isn't as red as a tomato.

"Uhm..."

Luckily, the princess steps back and smiles, tilting her head.

"Let's go before it gets dark"

Wendy just nods, not saying a thing and follows the princess.

___________________

"What is this place?"

The princess and the baker end up above a long street, made of stone. There were many small tents on the side of the street and people were yelling all kinds of things.

"This a marketplace. It's where the villagers get their food and other things"

Princess Joohyun stares down at the busy street. Fascination filled in her eyes as she watches the people below her. It wasn't too crowded, but there was definitely a lot going on.

"It's so... lively", she says, turning her head to the side to look at Wendy with big curious eyes. "I want to go there. Let's go", Joohyun stands up and was ready to make her way to the stairs, when she gets stopped by Wendy, who grabbed her wrist.

"Ok your highness, wait just a second", the baker stands up. "You can't walk around like that. It's too obvious"

Wendy suddenly takes off the dark blue hoodie she was wearing and puts it on the princess, who is slightly taken aback, but puts the piece of clothing on nonetheless. The baker puts the hood gently over Joohyun's head and holds it, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Irene"

Princess Joohyun raises her eyebrows in confusion, but she doesn't say anything.

"You're name is Irene and you're my friend from overseas", Wendy steps back and tilts her head. "We can't have you walking around with the name Bae Joohyun and expect people to not get at least a little suspicious"

The blonde haired woman turns around, but holds her hand out for the princess to take.

"Let's go"

Joohyun smiles and grabs Wendy's hand tightly as they walk to the stairs, making their way to the market.

__________________

BAM

A new chapter.

I feel like this is going to be a long, slowburn type of fic, because I like to take my time developing every character and their relationship with one another. So this one will take a few chapters.

I will drop other stories in the meantime, because everything is getting dusty in the basement ;-;

Thank you for reading this chapter ♡