PREVIOUSLY…

Barely escaping from the obsessed kidnapper’s hands, Chaewon spends a fruitful 10 years in Miyawaki Residence, honing her skills while aiding Eunbi who loses her memories. Not only that, but she also discovered Sakura’s secret! A letter from Minjoo who seeks Chaewon’s strength caused a little devastated goodbye in the mansion and stir bold confession from her fellow friends. However…

***

Her heart is racing at the light of speed as she paced around her room a few times already. 10 years, it’s been a decade since she last saw a certain girl with a distinct scent of mint. The little girl who can only cry from back then has now grown into a total beauty who had broken countless hearts since her coming of age ceremony. No one able to take Chaewon’s special spot in her heart and at the thought of meeting the girl again enough to make Minjoo felt giddy.

She is wondering how much the tough-looking girl had grown after this long time. Will Chaewon still smell the same? Will the girl with platinum mint hair grow into a bulky, strong lady, or will Chaewon retain her frail yet agile look? Minjoo closed her eyes and kept her imagination about the grown-up Chaewon running wild. She thinks Chaewon will be adorable if she had bangs covering her forehead but even if she parted her hair and reveal that tofu-like forehead of hers, that would be amazing too.

“Oh well, Chaewon will look amazing in whatever appearance.”

Concluding spending a good amount of time thinking about Chaewon, Minjoo glanced towards the door, awaits for her maids to inform about Chaewon’s arrival. It’s weird, she thought. The older Kim is supposed to arrive already as Minjoo makes sure to pester her cousin, Sakura who is adept in magic and has a great connection with the mage guild. Preparing a warping crystal for Chaewon towards this kingdom will be a cinch for Sakura.

“Where is Chaewon? Shall I call Kkura unnie? What if the griffin had some problem? Gosh, I should be the one fetching Chaewon alright. What if-”

Minjoo couldn’t hide her anxiousness because it's been a few hours since the estimated arrival time for Chaewon. She knew that there must be some sort of problem that occurred for Chaewon to come late. They both know that this will be quite a dangerous move because Estelle’s Kingdom currently facing quite a hardship as there’s someone who tried pulling a coup de tat and Minjoo is fully aware of the perpetrator but things are hard to settle as long as she had no concrete proof.

She had limited power to sneak around and gather enough evidence and there’s where Chaewon comes into the picture. The princess trust Chaewon to be able to be her hands, eyes, and ears to stop those heinous nobles from raking any more wealth to themselves and let their citizens died in starvation. Clenching her fist, Minjoo can only pray for Chaewon’s safety as she will blame herself if anything happened to Chaewon.

A soft knock can be heard and that attracted Minjoo’s attention, snapping her away from her thoughts. However, those sound only came from the window and Minjoo turned her heels and runs towards the window. Her face lit up with euphoric feelings upon seeing a slender, slightly short woman standing in front of her, donning a wavy, short black hair.

“Chaewon!”

Her feet felt lighter than usual as she tackles the girl who spread her arms as if awaiting this moment to happen the entire of her life. Wrapping her arms around Chaewon’s nape, she can certainly felt firm muscles on the girl’s back who lifted her and buried those small faces onto Minjoo’s nape.

“I miss you, Minjoo.”

“Welcome home, Chaewon.”

“I am back, I am finally back to you.”

This moment with Chaewon felt just right for Minjoo. The girl still had her signature mint scent mix with some refreshing powdery smell. “Here, a present for you. I am late, it’s so hard choosing the one that suits you because everything is too beautiful, like you.”

Bold. Minjoo arched her eyebrows as she listens to Chaewon’s words as they broke their hug. She just realized that Chaewon is holding a bouquet of rainbow-colored roses. She gasped at such amazing flowers which she has never seen before. Whipping her head towards the older Kim, she is surprised seeing Chaewon’s face is blushing hard, redder than the petals of roses the older Kim is holding right at this moment.

“I am late because the roses are more delicate than I thought. I want to come to you as fast as I can but the magic mix-”

Cupping Chaewon’s face, Minjoo just planted a kiss on the shorter girl’s forehead which makes Chaewon produce incomprehensible sounds that resemble a baby cub’s whines. Giggles at the adorable reaction, Minjoo is about to wrap her fingers with Chaewon and exchanging stories with her but their moment was interrupted by hurried footsteps outside of her room.

“Sorry, Minjoo. I need to take that back.”

Chaewon words surprise her as the girl snatches those bouquets of roses from Minjoo’s hand before concealing herself. Frowning at Chaewon’s action, Minjoo just turned her head towards the door, and almost freaked out upon seeing a bloody maid who held the door and uttered, “Princess, run-”

There are a few men wearing cloak slashed the maid, spattering blood all over the door, and pooling onto the ground. They are shouting about finding the princess and about to proceed and wounded Minjoo not until a flashing zap tackled them down.

“Minjoo, let’s run away. I felt traces of Dark Magic on those men.”

“B-but Chaewon, we need to find out what is happening-”

“Sorry, Minjoo. Your safety is my priority.”

***

Her heart is thumping out loud upon seeing Minjoo’s maid being killed in front of the princess.

Just who in the world is bold enough to infiltrate the palace and even dared to kill as they like?

Pulling Minjoo into her arms, Chaewon heaves the princess into her embrace before escaping through the window, away from any possible back up for those cloaked men. Whistling, Chaewon able to call her griffin and rides away from the castle. Thick smokes rise from Minjoo’s wings and Chaewon is sure that there’s some sort of plot going on, targeting Minjoo’s life.

“Chaewon, look!”

Minjoo who seems to be comfortable in Chaewon’s arms pointed out towards the guards and a few groups of people fighting in the palace’s ground. Chaewon just ticked her tongue upon seeings strings of Dark Magic floats from those people’s heads.

“Someone is controlling these people. What do you want me to do, Minjoo?”

As much as she is eager to go and beat this perpetrator of causing mayhem in Minjoo’s palace, Chaewon wouldn’t move if Minjoo didn’t want her to. After all, she only trained to the core because of the sole reason, to protect Minjoo from any harm.

“Let’s go and catch the culprit, Chaewon. If they are brave enough to harm a royalty, we can imagine what they capable to do towards our citizens.”

Nodding to Minjoo’s words, they both carefully glided along those strings while helping a few guards fending off those controlled men. Their search resulting in a rather surprising twist as the culprit is a little person whose physique reminds Chaewon about Yujin. She isn’t sure why her heart is somehow screaming out loud in nostalgic feelings upon seeing the silhouette of a young boy turning his head towards them.

“You come at last, useless products.”

Blood leaves Chaewon’s face as she stares in disbelief at this young boy with platinum blonde hair who had the same feature as hers. She felt like losing strength in her knees as she is facing the child who is having an empty look inside his eyes.

“Chaeun?”

“My foolish version of older me, you finally coming back from the enemy’s side, huh? What does it feel living among them, you traitor?”

This is wasn’t a part of what Chaewon imagine when she decided to come back to this kingdom. Why would her brother suddenly act like a total ?

“You know, I have been pondering about our principles of being a good master for the citizens. Why would we when they are being utterly ungrateful for all of our hard work? Tell me, what’s the difference if we simply erase them all?”

“You’re wrong, Chaeun! We can live in prosper thanks to all of those people!”

“Enough of your foolish ideals! Nobles should act like nobles and never give a damn about their people!”

“Chaeun snapped out of it! What’s wrong with you?”

The boy stared at Chaewon with glassy eyes as he shook his head, “You wouldn’t understand. You’re gone from this kingdom for over a decade after all. We need a reformation here. I’m sick of this old system already.”

Aware that she had no choice but to stop Chaeun as those groans from the guards are growing louder, the girl with short, wavy black hair springs into action, ready to attack her brother. Images of the sweet, younger brother of her flash in her eyes, making Chaewon gritted her teeth as she about to swing her fist.

“Sis… Help me, sis… It hurts…”

“What?”

“Tck, this boy is more resilient than I thought.”

Her mind couldn’t comprehend when Chaeun seems to suddenly return into the sweet, kind boy like she used to know before muttering like totally another person. “Chaeun?”, she called her brother as the boy turned towards her while shedding tears.

“Sis, please come and help me. I don’t want to be a-”

Those small hands are calling for her and Chaewon about to grab him before Chaeun suddenly vanished into thin air. “No! Chaeun? Chaeun!”, screaming frantically, Chaewon expanded her field vision trying to pick up traces of her little brother but to no avail.

“Chaewon, are you alright?”

Minjoo’s voice greeted her and she pulled the princess into a long, silent hug. What is happening, she wonders. Upon receiving Minjoo’s letter, Chaewon is fully aware that she needs to prepare herself to face any upcoming hurdles but she isn’t prepared in battling her brother.

It took Chaewon around 5 minutes before she can calm herself. Staring directly into Minjoo’s pair of amazing orbs, Chaewon finds her strength again and pick up herself. Sure, she didn’t have much information about what is happening now but then, she had Minjoo by her side. She is not alone like she used to like 10 years ago. Minjoo is here to support her and pull Chaewon back on her track.

“Let’s go somewhere else. This place isn’t safe for you anymore.”

***

They both settled down in a hut deep inside a mountain range. Chaewon realized that Minjoo looks a bit cold and is quick to wrap her blanket on Minjoo too while intertwining their fingers together. It’s weird, Chaewon thought. She didn’t meet Minjoo for a long time b