Authors note:  Ahaha I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter bc I enjoyed writing this chapter but you might not like reading it! Have fun, love y'all.

“Don’t you look handsome tonight.” Her cousin says, helping Sana straighten the black tie against her silk white button up. “Someone to impress?” Mina smirks at her. 

Sana turns away, a light blush heating her cheeks. “ Maybe, maybe not.” She grabs the black suit jacket on the couch behind her and pulls it on. “If there was, do you think they’d be impressed?” She flashes the two of them an award winning smile and earns a laugh. 

“The real question is, do I look impressive?” Mina remarks, running her hands down her button up blouse and black skirt. “I thought a simple but refined outfit would be best.” 

“I think you look really cute.” Momo says, hugging Mina. She’s quickly pushed off and Mina tries to smoothen any new wrinkles.

“Please, you look the best out of all of us. A Gucci belt with a short red dress? Everyone’s going to be drooling over you, you should’ve saved it for a bigger party. There won’t be enough people here to fully appreciate the look.” Sana crosses her arms, if she had her way she’d make Momo wear something else. An outfit debut was always an important event for nobles. Momo never really cared for that part of the upper class society, in her words she ‘could always rewear it, there really weren’t going to be that many people here’. Sana let it slide because she doubted anyone would notice. Compared to the usual parties, the fifty who were supposed to be in attendance tonight wouldn’t even be a sixth of the normal crowd. 

“Alright, enough complimenting each other. We have a dinner to get to. I’m going to have hell to pay if I’m late to my own dad’s birthday dinner.” Mina says, dragging the other two out of Sana’s room and down the hall. 

They pass by the dessert room on their way to the dining hall and both Mina and Sana slow down to look through the door at the workers. Sana thanks the stars that her mom wanted to work out a deal with the pastry shop, maybe she’d get to see Dahyun setting up right now. If not, then she would definitely get to see her later. She might not be able to show her off, but maybe she could steal her away for a bit during the social hour. She hears Mina whisper “wow”, but before she can find Dahyun she’s pulled away from the doorframe by Momo.

“You two will have all the time in the world to drool over the employees later. I’m too hungry to indulge either of you.” 

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Sana silently follows her mother into the dessert room; she had stayed back after dinner to ask about the plan for supporting Sunset Pastries as a franchise. Apparently her mother had loved the pastries the previous two times they had catered at the palace, and upon finding out how popular they were at their physical location she wanted to support them. Sana had no issues with this, a sponsorship between the palace and the pastry shop that the girl she adored worked at sounded fantastic to her. Just an excuse to go even more often than now to ‘check progress’. 

However, the real reason she waited for her mom before switching rooms was because she was nervous to see Dahyun. She thought that, since she didn’t get to see Dahyun through the doorway earlier, she could hide behind her mom until she found her. She didn’t want to look like a fool wandering around and searching, it was safer to look like she was with her mom and search that way. They approach, who the princess can only assume to be, the owner of the pastry shop. They look nice, wearing a blue suit and supervising the workers, dressed to impress in outfit and attitude. There’s nothing her mom loves more than a diligent worker.

“I see everyone is hard at work, I trust it’s always like this?” Her mom starts.

“Yes, our best workers are on staff tonight. We wanted to be ready to impress, I hope the quality of service ends up being to your liking, your highness.” The owner bows to her mom. In any other situation Sana would’ve been impressed, but now she was too worried to care. 

“Not all of them, there’s at least one missing.” Sana says pointedly. She’s still searching the workers’ faces, hopeful that Dahyun is just hidden behind someone. Where is she? She has to be at this dinner party. It’s crucial to Sana’s sanity that she is.

“Ah, I see the royals do their research. I’m afraid one of our best employees was busy this evening and couldn’t make it. They have worked at the palace before though, so I’m certain you’ve at least seen if not met them.” The owner laughs as Sana can feel herself mentally sinking to the floor. Dahyun couldn’t make it? What was she busy with? Was she already with someone? No calm down, maybe she didn’t feel well. But they specifically said busy, not sick or under the weather. It’s nine at night, what plans could Dahyun have more important than this?

“I see.” She responds out of programmed politeness and walks off, ignoring the confused look on her mothers face as she walks past. She should just call her, or send her a text. It was really important that she saw Dahyun tonight. She planned to tell her everything, to ask her to stay despite the lie. Now her whole plan was crumbling to pieces before her eyes. Heading to a less populated corner of the room. She pulls out her phone and sends a quick ‘hey’ text to Dahyun. 

She can feel her heart sink as the message doesn’t send right away, that blue bar filling slower than watching grass grow. Her stomach does a somersault when the message says not delivered. She sends it as a green message instead and tries calling. Straight to voicemail. 

“Hey, it’s Sana. I was just wondering what you’re up to. Call me back whenever you’re free.” She ends the call before she says anymore, knowing her desperation might end up showing in her voice or she might accidentally let part of the plan spill. Better to be short and sweet. She waits a few more minutes, checking her wifi and data settings. She has full bars on both, so it’s not an issue on her side. Great. She tries sending another text to the girl, but it's the same not delivered notification.

How is she even supposed to find out what Dahyun’s doing? If she's okay? It would be odd if she asked the shop owner again. Her mom had already given her a weird look earlier, and asking about the same employee twice would be an interrogation death sentence. She scanned the faces of the employees again, a little more carefully this time, looking for anyone she knew. Oh, Jihyo. Wasn’t that the girl at the coffee shop before? She starts heading in that direction and freezes. With the way Jihyo had treated her before, when she was trying to talk to Dahyun, would she really tell Sana if she asked? Worse, what if she didn’t tell Sana and then told Dahyun the princess asked about her. Too risky, she wasn’t willing to take that gamble right now. Then who else?

Her eyes scrutinize the room again. Of course, why didn’t she think of it sooner. She could see Mina hanging around one of the pastry tables and started making her way across the room. Mina could ask Chaeyoung and then she could tell Sana. If Dahyun had asked for Chaeyoung when she was sick, then it was safe to assume that she would be the person most likely to know why Dahyun couldn’t make it tonight. A smile on her face once again, she was sure it would all be fine. She decided to call out for her cousin's attention when she felt she was close enough to be heard.

“Hey Mina, could you-” Sana cuts herself off as she takes in the scene before her. Her cousin has an arm around the waist of a girl with a wolf cut that Sana can only assume is Chaeyoung. That’s not the issue. Well it’s a little bit of the issue, how come Mina gets to be so blatant with her affection for Chaeyoung? Sana wants that for herself, she silently wonders if she’ll ever be able to show off Dahyun at these events. But it’s still not the main problem, the main problem is the two of them clearly talking to Mina’s father. In front of everyone and plain as day, this has to be an introduction. No wonder Mina said she wanted to go with something simple and elegant, she wanted to impress Chaeyoung and her father. Sana moves a little closer, from this angle she can’t hear a thing or see Mr. Myoui’s face. 

“As long as you promise to treat my daughter well.” She hears the man laugh as he reaches out a hand to Chaeyoung. When the girl smiled in response, shaking his hand, Sana realized what it was Mina saw in Chaeyoung. Why did she just introduce them though? Were they dating already? So soon? Sana had met Dahyun way before Mina and Chaeyoung had met, so why were the two of them already together when Sana had struggled to even get a date with Dahyun? She stands there another minute or two, waiting for Mina’s dad to leave, but the longer she watches the worse she feels. Mina is making no effort to hide her affection for Chaeyoung and is laughing at all her jokes while the two of them talk with her dad. She’s all over her, a hand on her back or leaning against her, small displays of affection that make Sana's stomach twist.

She’s shocked to find herself grasping at the silk fabric over her heart. Mina’s just introducing Chaeyoung to her dad, why is Sana upset over that? Is she jealous? Of what? She reaches for her phone before she can stop herself. She hesitates to call, what if she’s bothering Dahyun? Maybe her phone’s just off. Maybe she’s sleeping. But maybe she’s with someone. Maybe she’s being introduced to someone else's parents. Sana hits the call button.

“Again?” She whispers to herself. Mina wasn’t going to be of any help if Sana couldn’t get over this indescribable jealousy she felt at the two of them being happy. If Dahyun had been here then maybe that could’ve been her, introducing the girl she adores to her father. She sends another text asking if Dahyun’s okay, but it quickly says not delivered. She presses down on the message and decides to send it green instead. She puts it back in her pocket and heads for Momo. 

“Woah, someone looks like they’ve got an attitude.” Momo remarks as Sana walks up to her. An attitude? Sana guesses that’s fair considering how upset she’s making herself. 

“Tell me I have an attitude one more time and it’ll be yours to deal with.” She regrets it as soon as she speaks, but doesn’t have the energy to take it back. “There’s just this girl.” She lowers her voice. “I thought she was going to be here tonight. But she’s not.” 

“The one you went on the date with?” Momo says leaning in. “Why would she be here? I thought she wasn’t a noble?”

“She’s not, but she was supposed to help cater. Or at least I thought she was. I don’t know, I didn’t exactly ask. I was too busy worrying about how to tell her.” Sana says, more to herself than Momo.

“Tell her what?” Sana freezes when Momo asks. She wonders if she still has time to backtrack. “Is that why you’re being weird tonight? You wanted to tell her something?” 

“Well, it’s not exactly like that. I didn’t mean I really had anything to tell her.” She tries to hide the truth, but Momo sees right through her. Sana tries to look away from the look on Momo's face that's clearly calling her a liar. “Fine, but you can’t say a word to anyone.” She leans in to whisper into Momo’s ear. “I was going to tell her I’m the princess tonight.” 

“YOU MEAN-” Momo starts to yell before Sana clasps her hands over Momo’s mouth. 

“Quiet.” Sana hisses, looking around to see if anyone is paying attention. It looks safe so she takes her hands off her friend. 

“She doesn’t already know?” Momo furrows her brows, shocked. “ I mean I guess it’s possible if she moved here from elsewhere in the kingdom. But still! You haven't told her yet?” Momo asks, Sana just shakes her head. “You have to tell her Sana. The sooner the better.”

“I know that, I meant to. It was just nice to not be seen as a dollar sign for once.” Sana puts her head into her hands. It wasn’t just that, she always had to be so careful with her relationships. Mina and Momo always got to do whatever they wanted when they showed their partners off, but Sana had to get interrogated by the press and forced to tone down her affectionate nature for the good of the crown. She was tired of doing what was good for the crown, and sick of watching her friends do the things she wasn’t allowed to.

“Sana you don’t get that luxury. I love you and I wish you did, but being the princess is not something you should’ve hidden from her. It’s a serious thing to date a royal, let alone the actual next-in-line princess?! She needs to know what her future could look like!” Momo says with an exasperated look, before putting a hand on Sana’s shoulder. “I get it, it must’ve been nice for her to treat you like a normal person, but you’re not a normal person. She needs to know now. It’s your responsibility as the future Queen to tell her.” 

“BUT YOU DON'T GET IT DO YOU?!” Sana yells, smacking Momo’s hand away and pushing herself to her feet. She doesn’t care if she attracts more attention than they already have. “I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN TO BE NORMAL! You got to go to a normal school and I studied HERE in this ing castle! You got to play with all kinds of friends growing up but I only had you and Mina! No one has ever treated me like a normal person, everyone looks at me like I’m a ing prize! Everyone walks on eggshells around me if they’re not trying to seduce me for my money! And when I am with someone, I can’t be affectionate with them the way you and Mina can! I’m sick of it! And you-” She jabs her finger into Momo. “You will NEVER understand how I feel, so don’t ing lecture me about the future and my responsibilities!” 

Sana takes a second to glance around the room, fuming, almost everyone is looking at the two of them. She dares a glance back at Momo, worried she’ll see tears in her eyes. What she actually sees is worse. Disappointment. That’s the only thing in Momo’s eyes, maybe a hint of concern mixing in. Sana can’t find the right words to apologize, and she’s still too angry to try, and storms off in the direction of the bar. 

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“What’s got you so agitated?” Sooyoung says as she places yet another shot glass in front of Sana. 

“You wouldn’t ing believe it if I told you.” Sana scoffed. She wasn’t annoyed at the bartender. No, the object of her frustration wasn’t here and wouldn’t bother picking up the phone either. What could possibly be more important than the princess herself? Dahyun should know better than to ignore her. 

“Your highness, you’ve been stressed all night and I’ve served you like five shots of whiskey by now. If you’re still frustrated, maybe it's something alcohol can’t fix. Why not retire early for the night? It's not like it’ll get out to the public.” Sooyoung had a point. Sana should be happy and out socializing, she shouldn't be here drowning her sorrows. But she was too upset to talk to anyone without being snappy. She’d already said things to Momo she would have to apologize for later. She just desperately wanted to talk to Dahyun right now. 

But why? Why should she bother being so frustrated over ONE girl. She’d been in countless relationships and she’d never gotten this frustrated at them for not answering. There was something about Dahyun that just drove her crazy, but if all she was going to get out of it was a push and pull then why even bother. 

“I can’t seem to give in yet. What’s been bothering me, if I leave the party over it then it feels like I’m giving in. I mean seriously!” Sana wildly gestured her arms out, “I’m the ing princess! People would trample each other trying to get to me! Eve