The first few days were quite boring. Serim had nothing to do as she was always done with her work early and she couldn't talk with the other girls since as soon as she tried talking to them all of them looked her up and down and left snickering. She didn't really mind being the outcast as she was used to always being one, but it bothered her that they all judged her without even talking to her first. 

The only thing that kept her somehow exited inside the palace were the daily messages she received from the guard. Just like Yi-Jong promised, everyday around lunch time, a guard was placed on duty close to the section Serim was working at and everytime gave her a message from Yi-Jong about the plans and how was the situation evolving. Each day she grew more nervous but somewhat exited about the 'attack'. 

"Ya! Serim-ah, come here, you have work!"

Serim sighed and stood up, quickly stuffing the half eaten bun inside her pocket, her fingers tracing the crumpled paper she received just a few minutes ago from the insider. She walked to the other girls who were alrady waiting on Young-ja who always gave them tasks to do until dinner after they finished lunch. Someone tapped her shoulder, pointing on her skirt part of the hanbok she was currently wearing. Serim looked at where she was pointing, quickly brushing away the dirt that was all over her, smoothing out the wrinkled fabric. She was scolded countles times by the gungnyeo about how little she did about her appearance when she was inside the royal palace. 

"Ah yes, leave it for Jo Serim to waltz in here looking like she came crawling out of a sewer."

"Shut up Minseo."

Serim growled at the snickering girl, who only scoffed before giggling at her with her friends. Minseo has been bothering her since her arrivial to the palace. She, and her friends, thought they were better than her becouse they came from a richer family, which angered Serim to no end. 

Just as she was about to say something back, Young-ja appeared around the corner, carrying the familiar rolled up piece of smooth scroll with this days tasks to be completed. Serim was sure the scroll alone costed more than her food expenses for a week, if not month.

"Alright girls, listen up. As all of you know, tommorow will pe the highly awaited arrival of thegongju mama (the princess) Han Eunji, and we have to prepare for such a special occasion, so no slacking. With that she sent all of the girls at their workplace, everyone exited for the princesses arrival.

---

Serim was nervous. Today was the day. The daughter of the monarch was going to arrive here in less than thirty minutes, which meant that the ‘attack’ was only about a hour away. Serim already received the instructions from the insider, all of them written on a old piece of paper that was currently tucked away deep inside her pocket. 

The princess was going to arrive in a red car, two guards and one driver with her. Both guards will go inside with her while all the staff is going to bow to them. The driver will return with the car and leave the palace. The guards will her to her room, one remaining outside her room to make sure she’s alright while the other will go outside. About a hour after that, the guard will be changed with another one. That’s when the attack will be happening, one of the attackers making his way to the princesses room. The second guard won’t have time to get to the princess, giving Serim the room to ‘save’ her from the guy already in her room. If someone asked her why was she inside the princesses room, she’s supposed to say that she was worried about her well being and decided to check on the princess. Luckily she was able to get there before the attacker did anything to her. 

Serim was currently sitting at lunch with other maids, a few of them giving her a side eye glare. She wasn’t really popular with the others, as the head maid kept giving her as a example what everyone was supposed to be doing, resulting in some of the girls to resent her. 

“Hey! The princess is here!”

The room erupted in chaos as everyone tried to get out of the room as quickly as possible. 

“Calm down girls! Get in pairs and quietly walk outside.”

Everyone followed the instructions, Serim was walking with one of the girls that she made friends with. Her name was Wang Yiren and she was a year younger than her. They both bonded over not being popular with the other girls as she was from China and didn’t speak korean as well. 

“What you think the princess look like?”

Yiren asked her with her broken korean, making Serim chuckle.

“It’s ‘What do you think the princess in going to look like’ and I don’t really care.”

That wasn’t true at all. Serim always heard stories about how breathtaking and beautiful the princess was and wanted to take a look at her herself. 

“Plus, we probably wont even see her, don’t you remember we have to keep bowing in-front of her so the only thing we will se out of her will be her shoes.”

Yiren laughed and was about to reply, but the head maid shushed them and ushered them to position. All of them were lined up with the other staff for the gates to open. 

Once they did, and a red car made its way through them, everyone simultaneously bowed. As Serim said, the only thing they saw was black tires and three pairs of feet, one clearly belonged to a woman as the end of a hanbok could be seen around her ankles. Serim could tell it was expensive just from the part she was seeing, beautiful gold embroidery on the hem of the skirt sparkling in the sun like some kind of a treasure. The princesses steps were light and elegant, almost making it look like she was floating. Serim couldn’t help but to feel a bit jealous, she could never move so gracefully, her steps were heavy, like she was alway carring something just beside the burden that was constantly on her shoulders, weighing her down every day.

The moment the princess and both her guards disappeared inside the palace, everyone began to gush about her. Serim left everyone talking and quietly made her way to the place she was instructed to go to by Yi-Jong, her steps hesitant as if they knew what was about to happen, and tried to stop it.

"BOOOOOM!"

Serim almost yelled at the loud noise she heard from outside. Yi-Jong didn’t really said what he was going to do but she certainly didn’t expect this. 

The loud boom was shortly followed by the sound of yelling and Serim didn’t waste any precious time this was giving her and ran to the princesses room, sliding the door quickly open ready to shout at her to follow her. However, her voice got caught in and she couldn’t get a single sound out of it, her eyes widening.

They didn’t tell her the princess was this beautiful.