Ryujin is finally going to bed after a heated argument with her father when she finds out that her father wanted to meet Lia to discuss about their marriage. Ryujin finally let out the truth, the reason why she wanted to marry Lia in such short notice is to protect the girl from getting harassment from the press. She also told her father that after she talked to Yuna about her feelings, Yuna suggested her to go out more often with Lia to build the base for their relationship and she does not want to hurt Lia too. The father daughter finally made an agreement. Once Ryujin did her proposal to Lia and Lia accepts it, only then she will bring Lia over to the palace and introduce Lia to the family.

Ryujin finishes her bath and lies on her king size bed. Staring at the high ceiling. She grabs her phone and sees there were a lot of text from Lia. She opens the notifications and scroll through the message.

I just reached home

My cousin cannot stop asking about our relationship

Did you reach home safely?

I guess you are really busy.

Omg, my father told me that the king wanted to meet me!

What should I do? Don’t you think this is too fast?

I’m sorry if I disturb you, I know you’re busy.

Ryujin feels bad for not noticing the messages soonest. She looks at the time and it is almost 12 midnights. She contemplates whether or not she should give Lia a call. Ryujin sighs and she said to herself, here’s or nothing.

It took a moment to ring, and there’s no one answering. Ryujin was about to cut off the call until she heard a soft voice answering the phone.

“Hello?”

“You’re still up? I’m sorry that I had to call you so late in the night.”

“No, it’s okay, I’m still up because I need to ready my documents for tomorrow’s meeting.”

“So…I’ve read your message.”

“…is it true? The king wanted to discuss about…”

Ryujin quickly cuts Lia off before she able to mention the word marriage “I talked to him. I told him it was too soon. Particularly, this is my fault as well. I told him that I agree to choose you as my wife, but then he told me it was too soon, we had an argument and then he said fine, I can marry you and he made the decision to meet up with you without my consent. Then I told him I cannot let those pesky press keeps on pestering you about our relationship, so I wanted to marry you because I wanted to protect you.”

Lia was silent on the other side, and Ryujin is scares that she had made Lia mad. “Hello?” Ryujin tries to affirm if Lia is still on the line.

“I’m still here.”

“Are you mad?”

“No I am not mad.”

“Oh…because you were silent for a moment…”

“I’m just thinking…”

“About?”

“About us.”

Ryujin can hear Lia chuckles on the phone and without knowing it, she smiles at the girl’s cute little chuckles.

“What about us?” Ryujin asked.

“Okay, first of all, I don’t know where are we going, but I’m going to be honest with you. I do like you princess. I have a crush on you since I saw you on the TV on your investiture as Princess of Seoul when you were 16. To be honest, it was like a fairytale dream come true when I found out about my date being the princess and then to hear all those lovely words from you. I can’t believe that you would think about marrying me just so you can protect me. I am not worth the protection. I might not be the perfect wife to be standing on the future queen’s side. I am lacking as a human being, and not perfect like you.”

“You are perfect just the way you are.” Ryujin cuts Lia off before Lia degrades herself even more. “You are just perfect as the way you are and I don’t want to hear anymore degrading words from you anymore.”

“Do you like me too?” Lia asked.

For a moment Ryujin’s feelings were mixed, she wanted to say yes she does like Lia, but not more than a friend, maybe a little more than a friend but less than a lover. She does not want to lie about her feeling but she does not want to give in to her feeling toward Irene. Ryujin takes a deep breath and utter the word ‘yes’.

Little did she know that her yes changed Lia’s world. Lia was over the cloud when the princess told her that she wanted to marry her because she wanted to protect her and now for the princess to affirm her feeling toward Lia made Lia even more happier.

“I wanted to protect you. I will do whatever it takes to protect you. I know if I rush thing, it won’t end well. So please allow me to protect you in my own way.”

Ryujin words touches Lia’s heart, she is so happy that she is going to cry. The couple stay awake until it is almost 3 in the morning, both talked about their likes and dislikes and also about their favorite food and their childhood. It is true what people said, late night talks bring out the best out of someone. Ryujin ended the phone calls when she heard a little yawn from Lia.

“I think we’ve talked enough. I see you soon Lia.”

“How soon will that be?” Lia teased Ryujin and Ryujin laughs.

“How about this weekend? Let’s go on a date. A real official date.”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll text you the details. Now, go to sleep. You have to go to work tomorrow don’t you?”

“You too princess.”

“Good night.”

“Good night. I love you.”

Ryujin freezes at the ‘I love you’ part and she can hear Lia’s gasped on the other side. The call was quickly ended even before Ryujin could tease Lia about her sudden confession.

***

Lia was smiling ear to ear after the phone call ended. The adrenaline flowing through her blood and it’s making her feel fresher instead of sleepy. She hugs her big teddy bear and buried her face on the teddy bear tummy. Lia squeals in happiness, it was the happiest that she ever feels.

She takes out her phone again and scroll down her photo album to admire the photo of the princess that she took. She could not help but keep smiling like an idiot at the photo of where the princess winked at her.

“Calm down Choi Lia. Calm down. This is just the beginning.”

***

JYP PR Firm

“Morning Ms Yeji.”

“Morning y’all.” Yeji greets the staffs.

As she was about to enter her own office, someone hugs her from behind. Yeji turns around and it was Lia. She looks happy. Yeji tries to smiles, because she knows Lia is happy not because of her but because of someone else.

“Good morning Choi Jisu, you look happy today.” Yeji teases her friend.

“Well it better to start your day with a smile. Here, I bought these for you.” Said Lia as she hands the pastry that she bought for Yeji as a way for her to thank her friend for covering up her work.

“What’s this?”

“You love chocolate croissant during high school no?”

Yeji is happy that Lia still remember her favourite. She tries to be positive even though she is deeply hurt inside.

“So how is your day with the princess yesterday?” Yeji asked.

Lia turns around to Yeji and she could not hide her grin as she said “It was nice.”

“Hmm…something happened right? I can see it in your stupid grin~”

“Yah!” Lia gently smacks Yeji on the arm when she .

“I’m happy that you are happy Lia. Just promise me one thing. If the princess hurt you, you need to tell me.”

“You don’t have to be worry about the princess hurting me, because I know she won’t. She is the nicest person that I ever met.”

Lia words hurt Yeji like a thousand knifes stab her on the heart but Yeji maintain her smile and keeps on teasing Lia.

***

Son Residence

Irene woke up and she was a little surprised that she was under the cover and when she rolls over she sees Wendy is already awake and is staring at her.

“Morning.”

“Morning…” Irene greets back shyly.

The two of them don’t know how to react after their first night together. They had been married for a year and last night was the night they finally consummate their marriage. Their love making was wonderful, it was hot and steamy and both are being honest with their body. But now that they both are awake, the memory from last night causes them to blush.

They heard a soft knock on their door. “Ma’am, it’s already 10am. Do you still want breakfast?” it was their maid.

“It’s 10?!” Irene jolts up when she realized that they overslept “Why didn’t you wake me up at 8?” she asked Wendy.

“I didn’t have the heart to wake you up. You look so peaceful and beautiful when you sleep.”

Irene blushes at her wife’s compliment. This new found feeling is weird for Irene. She was surprised that she was able to open herself to Wendy last night. She clears and tries to get up from the bed but then she remembered that she is underneath the sheet so she asks Wendy to turn away while she gets dress.

“Last night you weren’t this shy.” Wendy teases her wife and a pillow landed on her face.

“Last night is history, please don’t remind me of what happened.” Said Irene.

“Hmm…but we are both sober last night, none of us is drunk and…you can say that you hate it but from the way your body move…” another pillow landed on Wendy’s face before she could finish her sentences.

Irene runs into the bathroom as quick as she can before Wendy decides to again. Wendy rested her head on her arms as she watches her wife went to the bathroom. She was happy that Irene is slowly allowing her to love her.

She then sees Irene poke out her head from the bathroom. “What is it?” Wendy asked her wife in a concern tone.

“Do you want to join me?’ She asked shyly.

***

Seoul Royal Palace

“Why are you not at school?” Ryujin asked her sister when she saw her sister at the hallway on her way to her office.

“I prefer to study at home.” Yuna replied. She did not plan to be seen by anyone because she had skipped school yesterday and she decided to skip again today.

Ryujin knows Yuna loves school so it is weird that she did not attend school for two days in a row. Ryujin looks at her phone and she does not have any urgent duty for the day so she decided she need to talk to her sister.

“Do you have time?”

“For?”

“Let’s go horse riding, it’s been awhile since we write together.”

“It’s hot outside.” Yuna complains.

Ryujin lookst at Yuna with a frown and she flicks her sister on the forehead “Come on, you have to appreciate that I am willing to spend my precious time with you.”

Yuna holds on to her forehead that her sister flicked. She pouted at her sister but as soon as her sister turns her back on her, she smiles. She was happy when her sister asked her to go horse riding together, it was their hobby and it really has been a while since they horse riding together. The fact that she gets to spend time with her sister makes her happy.

***

The sisters went to their respective horses. Ryujin with her black horse that she named Darkstar and Yuna with her Brown horse that she named Brownie. The sister hops on their houses and begin to stroll along the royal compound.

“I heard you went and look for daddy again last night.”

“I did.”

“I thought you were going to proposed to Lia as soon as possible?”

“After the talk that we had last night, I change my mind. You are right, I have to at least make sure that Lia is comfortable with me. I don’t want to rush things too. I don’t want to hurt her. I was surprised that dad would take the drastic measure to called the Choi patriarchy and told him that they should hurried the wedding after he told me I need to propose to Lia first.”

“Well, you know daddy, he is a little on the hot headed side of the family. Just like you.” Yuna replied sarcastically at her sister.

“Hey!”

Yuna laughs and she says “Glad that you took into consideration my words.”

“Glad that we had the talk last night sis.”

“That’s what a sister is for.” Said Yuna.

“I’ll rest you to the end of the barn!”

“Hey wait!”

***

JaneRuby Office

“I don’t know… this new design just doesn’t have that feels to it.” Said Jisoo when she browses through the new design for their winter collection.

“The design is nice. We only need someone who can pull the style off.” Said Lisa.

“The only person that I knew is you, and look at you. How can you walk on the runway with that huge cast on your leg?”

“Well thanks to you, I had to be in this cast!” Lisa retaliate back.

Jennie comes in and smacks both Lisa and Jisoo on the head with the fashion magazine in her hand. She seated herself in between her cousin and sister.

“We need Lia for this again.”

“Come on Jendeukie, Lia is busy with her work and her newfound lover a.k.a the future Queen of Korea, and yet you want her to help you with this fashion show?”

Jennie and Lisa sigh after Jisoo dropped them the truth. Jisoo was right, Lia is now considered to be the future Queen’s consort and Jisoo had made Jennie to promise her not to bother Lia anymore. She needs to be independent.

“Let’s do some casting to hire the new face for JR.” said Lisa.

***

“So our clients wanted us represent them in the press conference regarding the allegation that they are doing chart manipulation. So Yeji, since you are new here, do you think we should take up this case?”

The company is having their monthly meeting and Sinb wanted to officially introduce Yeji to the company and also for them to go through all of the ad-hoc tasks.

“I know we are a PR firm and we are supposed to help our client to speak to the press but in my opinion. We cannot just accept their request. What if they really did manipulate the chart for their artists?”

Sinb smiles at her cousin’s reply and then she turns to Lia “What say you?” Sinb asks Lia.

“There is nothing wrong with what Yeji-ssi just said but we as a PR firm follows what our client want. Whether it’s right or wrong, it is not up to us to decide. The company should know what is right and what is wrong. PR firm is tasked to represent the company and that’s all.”

“But what if what we are trying to represent if wrong? What if it’s illegal?”

“Then it’s the company’s responsibility to find a lawyer to defend themselves. We are paid to deal with the press, not with the judgement system.” Lia fires back.

“I do still think that it is wrong to represent a company that did something that is wrong.” Yeji is firm with her opinion.

Sinb steps in between the two friends before their argument get even tense. “Alright, there is no right and wrong in your answers. Lia is right, our responsibility is to represent the company in press conference, and Yeji is right too. When the company’s objective is being too shady, we need to re-evaluate the proposal, terms and condition. So now, everyone, I want you to take the case study on your table and come back next week with a report on the case. As for this client, Source Music, Yeji I’ll let you handle this as your first client. Meeting dismisses.”

Yeji takes the files from her cousin and she looks at Lia who is a little unhappy with their argument. Yeji gathers all her stuff and she approaches Lia “Hey, I was only answering the question with what I believe is right, I did not mean to upset you.”

“No…I wasn’t upset with that. Like Sinb-ssi said, there are no write and no wrong in our answer, I am upset because we will be rival.”

“Huh?”

Sinb comes in between the two friends and she put her hands on both of their shoulders “I purposely made it that way. I wanted you two to show me your ability. I’ve seen how Lia work and I have no complain, so now, Yeji, it’s your turn to show me your ability. I pit you against my best employee, so you have to show me your best ability.”

“What are you talking about unnie?”

Sinb sighs at her cousin’s slow reaction and then she says “You will be representing Source Music, but Lia will be representing Gfriend. Got it?”

Yeji looks at Lia and Lia smile smugly at Yeji. Yeji turns back to her cousin and she nods “Okay, I accept this challenge.”

Lia and Yeji went back to their respective office and both begins to liaise with their clients. Halfway through her research Lia received a message from her mother.

Lia, Princess Ryujin is being hospitalize.

Lia jumps up from her seat and she immediately calls her mother.

“Mom what happened? Where did you find the news that she is being hospitalized? When I was talking to her last night, she was fine.”

“Calm down dear. You sound too worried. Did you not see the news? The princess fell off her horse and dislocated her shoulder. Your father wanted me to tell you because we are going to visit her later and just want to ask if you want to come along. We’ll pick you up on the way if you want to follow.”

Without thinking for a second Lia immediately agree to follow her parents to visit the princess.

“What time do you finish work dear?”

“6”

“Alright, your father and I will stop by and pick you up.”

“Okay, see you later. Bye.”

As soon as Lia hang up the call, she immediately texted the princess, but she stops halfway when she remembered that maybe the princess is not available to text back at the moment. She just need to wait until she goes to visit the princess.

She tries to go back to work but she could not focus on her work. Her concentration went downhill. She tries to go to the pantry to fix herself a drink. She cannot get her brain of the princess situation.

***

Seoul Hospital

“How the hell can you fall of your horse?”

“It was my fault.” Yuna stops her father from scolding her sister. Taemin could not believe that Yuna would cause such tragedy.

“I taunt Ryujin to go faster because she was losing, but she miscalculated it and got thrown of Darkstar.” Said Yuna to her father.

Taemin sighs and he just pat his youngest princess on the arm and look at Ryujin. He was speechless at what happened. He was having a meeting with the prime minister when suddenly his secretary burst into his office to interrupt the meeting and told him that there had been an accident at the palace compound. The royal princess was being thrown off her horse and dislocated her shoulder.

“Ryujin-ah, you’re a pro horse rider.”

“Well accident can happen right? It’s been a while since I last ride Darkstar.”

“I’ll go talk to the doctor.”

Taemin leaves the room. Yuna hurriedly rush to her sister side and she cries “I’m sorry unnie…if I didn’t taunt you earlier, this probably won’t happen.”

Ryujin was shocked to hear Yuna call her unnie, Yuna had stop calling her unnie when she came back from her boarding school. Yuna was crying by her beside. Ryujin touches Yuna’s head and it made the younger princess to look up to her sister weirdly. Somehow, Yuna misses her sister’s touch. Yuna bawls her eyes out and goes in to hug her sister but it made Ryujin yelps in pain because Yuna forgot that she dislocated her shoulder.

Yuna apologize again and Ryujin tells her to go to the other side of the bed and Yuna obediently walks to the other side with her pouty face. Ryujin asks Yuna to sits on the bed and Yuna did. Ryujin sits up and hugs her sister. Yuna who missed her sister’s warmth cries loudly in her sister’s shoulder.

Ryujin rubs her sister’s back to comfort her. She misses her sister’s warmth too but she underestimates that Yuna is just a teenager and she needs all the attention and love from her family. Ryujin failed as an older sister, she focused too much in her duty as the crown princess and neglected her sister. She should be there to support Yuna and show Yuna that she cares. That moment, Ryujin vows to herself that she will protect Yuna in whatever way she can, but her mind change when Yuna blows her nose on Ryujin’s hospital gown.

“What the! I was just going to be sentimental and told myself I must love and protect you, but then you did this to me.”

Yuna smiles and she continues to hug her sister even though Ryujin tries to reject it. Yuna purses her lips and tries to kiss her sister but Ryujin yells for help. The two sister stops when they hear someone open the door.

It was Lia and her parents. Yuna and Ryujin quickly detaches from each other and keep compose.

“Sorry if we disturb you at the wrong time.” Choi Siwon apologized.

“Oh no…we’re just…umm…” Ryujin looks to Yuna for help.

Yuna rolls her eyes at her sister. She turns to the Choi family and introduces herself “Hi, you must be the Choi, I’m Shin Yuna, the younger sister of Princess Ryujin.”

“I know.” Said Lia coldly.

Yuna is scared of Lia’s cold tone and she looks back to her sister but then she hears a squeals coming from Lia. Yuna turns to face Lia and she was shocked to see Lia runs toward her to hug her. Yuna accepted the hug awkwardly as she does not know what to do. Ryujin clears to get Lia’s attention and Lia immediately steps away from Yuna. Her parents could not help but to feel embarrass at their daughter.

Lia bows to apologize to the young princess and then she rubs her hair in embarrassment “I’m sorry. I was obsessed with the royal princesses, and when I see you here, I could not believe myself that I am meeting two of the princesses…you look so beautiful…” Lia sobs at Yuna’s beauty.

Choi Siwon laughs awkwardly in order to save her daughter from embarrassing herself. Yuna turns to Ryujin while pointing at Lia. Ryujin joins Lia’s father to laugh awkwardly.

Yuna turns to look at Lia again and she stares at Lia from top to bottom, she did not mean to be judgmental toward Lia but she could not help but to notice how good is Lia’s posture and how beautiful she looks. Yuna turns again to Ryujin and puts her thumb up. Ryujin got embarrass and she throws her pillow at Yuna.

Lia laughs at the sister’s comical reaction. Yuna picks up the pillow that has fallen on the ground and she turns to Lia “Glad to finally able to meet you Lia. My sister said a lot about you to me.”

Lia blushes and she got shy at Yuna’s word. Her parents were content that their daughter is getting along with the royal sisters. Mrs. Choi tugs her husband’s sleeve and gesture to him that they should leave them alone. Siwon agreed to his wife and he excuses themselves. He said that he wanted to meet with the king as an excuses. After her parents left the room, the atmosphere suddenly becomes awkward.

Yuna invites Lia to sit down next to her sister’s bed. Lia gladly sits next to Ryujin. She sees how badly bandaged is Ryujin. The couple smile at each other and then Lia holds Ryujin’s hand. Yuna who saw the whole scene could not help but to grin widely. She then feels like she is being the third wheeler decided to go grab some drink for them.

“I’m going to leave you two lover bird alone and go get some drink. I’m going to the cafeteria downstairs. Do you want anything?”

“Oh, I’ll go buy.” Lia offers herself to go and get them a drink. Yuna objects and she pushes Lia back down to the chair and said that she can go.

“Coffee?”

“Less ice and sugar.”

“I’ll have honey tea.”

“Be right back~” and Yuna exited the room, leaving the two girl alone.

Lia turns to Ryujin and she reaches out to Ryujin’s head and caress Ryujin’s head “Does it hurt?” Lia asked gently.

“When I fell from heaven?” Ryujin joked.

Lia rolls her eyes at Ryujin’s joke and she flicks Ryujin on the nose. “I almost had a heart attack when my parents called me and told me that you were hospitalized.”

“You’re worried about me?”

“Of course I do! How did you fall off the horse? I remember reading about how pro you were in horse riding.”

“I haven’t ride a horse for 3 years now, I may have got a little rusty, can you all stop being judgmental on my skill?”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway I’m glad you came. Seeing your face make my pain go away.”

“Can you stop~”

***

“Your royal highness.” Choi Siwon greets the king when he enters the hospital lounge and saw the king there.

“Siwon hyung!” the king greets back and he gives Siwon a hug.

“We are terrible sorry for what happened to Princess Ryujin.” Siwon expresses his grief.

Taemin brushes it off saying it was just a small matter, he said that at least his daughter did not sustain serious injury. Taemin invited the Choi family to sit together with him at the lounge while waiting for the doctor to come out with Ryujin’s result.

“Have you seen our daughters? They look perfect together.”

“I haven’t got a change to meet with your daughter hyung. The only time I met her was when she was still a baby. You are keeping your daughter too much away from the media and press hyung.”

Siwon laughs and he says “I want my daughter to grow up like a normal kid. I don’t want to expose her much to the royal life style.”

“I salute you for it hyung. It’s too late for me to teach my daughters to live a normal life.”

“Your children are perfect as the way they are Taemin. Ryujin grows up to be an elegant lady, and Yuna is a perfect example of a princess.”

“I’ve always told myself, Ryujinie is my pride and Yuna is my joy. That is the reason why I choose Lia to be Ryujin’s consort. I could not think of anyone who is perfect for my daughter.”

“I am honor that you think highly of my daughter.”

Taemin was silent for a while and then he bows to Siwon which made the older guy panicked. A king bowed to someone else.

“My king what are you doing?”

“I owe you a lot. Thank you for giving me your only daughter hyung. I know it’s not going to be easy for Julia being the future Queen’s consort, many will be expected from her. I wanted to apologize to you in advance.”

“I know my daughter well Taemin. She is not the type to give up easily, and I can see that she is in love with the princess. You don’t have to worry about my daughter. However, as a father I just want to say this. If the royal family ever hurt my only daughter, I will not forgive the royal family even if that means I have to go against you as the king or Ryujin as the Queen.” Siwon warns the king.

“I promise you, I will protect Lia with my life and no one shall hurt her.”

***

“I think we should just cancel our weekend date.” Said Lia to the princess.

“What? No.”

“You’re injured!”

“I just dislocated my shoulder, I still can move.”

“I want you to rest, so you can heal faster!”

Yuna was sitting at the other side and she sips on her iced drink while watching her sister and her ‘sister-in-law’ bickering with each other. She almost chokes on her drink when she could not help but to laugh at her sister give in to Lia.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing, it just that the two of you looked like married couple.”

Yuna statements made Lia blushes. Ryujin was not amused by Yuna’s joke, but when she notices Lia’s blush, she realized, Lia is indeed had fallen in love with her. The signs were obvious, but Ryujin remain oblivious.

She sees her sister bonding with Lia and she realizes how Yuna is more relax with Lia around than when Irene is around. Ryujin remembered when she introduced Irene to Yuna, Yuna was scared of Irene for some reason, and she still is. There is something in Lia that makes people want to be around her.

“Let me tell you a well-kept secret, unnie is actually afraid of bugs.”

“The charismatic crown princess is afraid of a mere bug??”

“Yah, Shin Yuna…”

“You should see her face when she saw cockroaches, it’s like her soul had left her body!” Yuna adds.

“Yuna!”

***

The Duchess of Seongbuk-dong and her wife have to attend an official matter at the Duchess’s wife hometown, Daegu. They were about to go when the Duchess’s phone rang and she is being notified by the royal secretary that her cousin is hospitalized after she was thrown of the horse she was riding.

Wendy reluctant wanted to tell her wife about her cousin. This is the first official trip that they are going to attend outside of Seoul, and might consider as their first official honeymoon. However, Wendy decided to tell Irene about the news anyway. No matter how much she wants Irene to love her, she knows deep down inside her wife is still in love with her cousin.

“Let’s cancel this trip.” Said Wendy “Maybe we should reschedule it.”

“But why? The festival is in 2 days, if we go there by today, we got some free time to explore my hometown. I can’t believe that we have to wait until a year for us to go for honeymoon…I wish I could be…”

“Ryujin is hospitalize.” Wendy cuts Irene off before she could finish her words.

“What?”

“Let’s go visit her. She is hospitalized, I just received a call from the royal secretary…”

“…”

“I think we should just cancel the visit and we’ll…”

“We can just send her a get well soon card…as the Duchess, you need to do your duty to the country.” Irene cuts Wendy off.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go and visit her?”

“We can do it after we come back.”

Before Wendy could questions Irene furthermore, Irene grabs Wendy’s hand and pull her back into their house to get more of their stuffs.

***

Lia pulls over the blanket to fully cover Ryujin’s body. The princess had fallen asleep after she finished her dinner. Lia’s parents went back first after they checked on the princess, they asked if Lia wanted to follow them but Yuna offered to drive Lia back later on.

The King also left the hospital after he checked on his princess and told Ryujin that he had talked to the doctor. There is nothing serious, Ryujin only dislocated her shoulder and she can be discharge in the morning.

After all the elders went back, there were only Ryujin, Yuna and Lia in the room. Lia keeps on staring at Ryujin who is sleeping peacefully. Yuna could not help but to notice the look in Lia eyes.

“You’re in love with my sister aren’t you?”

“What??”

Yuna smirks when she notices how flustered Lia is and she keeps on jabbing on Lia “I can see the way you look at my sister. It’s full of love.”

“I…”

“Come on~ be honest with me~ my sis is sleeping so she won’t know what we are talking about.”

Lia looks over to Ryujin to make sure that the princess is really sleeping. She takes a deep breath and she nods to confirm Yuna’s allegation.

Yuna grins widely at Lia’s confession, she pumps up her fist and almost wakes Ryujin up. Lia had to shush the younger princess down.

“I knew it.”

“But…the princess doesn’t seem like she shares the same mutual feeling. I mean I know she likes me…but mine is more than like…”

Yuna sympathizes with Lia, she knows that their relationship is not going to work if Ryujin still hanging onto her old fling with Irene. Yuna knows it will take a while for Ryujin to move on from Irene and she believes that Lia is the only person who can changes her sister.

“You don’t have to worry. If my sister ever bullies you, all you need to do is call me and I will definitely come to your aid. Honestly, out of the girls that my sister had dated, you’re the only one that I can vibe with.”

Lia mind went array when Yuna said that out of the ‘girls’ that her sister had dated. She did not know that the princess had dated a lot of girls before and in her mindset the princess is not a playgirl. Yuna saw the changes in Lia’s expression and she realized that she might have said something that made Lia upset.

“Did I said something wrong?” Yuna asked.

Lia shakes her head and smile at the princess, but Yuna guts is telling her that Lia is upset with something that she had said.

“You’re jealous when I said that my sister dated some other girls before?”

When Yuna saw the pained expression on Lia’s face, she knows that Lia is indeed jealous. Yuna smiles and she goes to Lia side and she holds Lia’s hand.

“Unnie never actually officially dated anyone…oh…wait…well the only woman that she ever dated is Irene Bae…”

Lia stops Yuna when she heard Irene’s name being mentioned “Wait...so it wasn’t just a rumor? They really did date each other?”

Yuna wants to give herself a smack across the face. She should not have brought Irene and Ryujin past to Lia but since she already digs the grave, she might as well finish digging it.

“Yeah, the rumor was true, but you know that Irene’s family used to be pro-communist, so their relationship is not well received by the senior royal family members. My father had to put a stop in their relationship, so he sent Ryujin unnie to study abroad at Massachusetts and planned for my cousin…”

“The Duchess of Seongbuk-dong…” Lia cuts Yuna off and Yuna nods to affirm what Lia said.

“Yes…the Duchess of Seongbuk-dong…it was a mess. It was the first time I saw my sister had a break down. The marriage causes a rift between us and our cousin. I know Wendy unnie did not want this to happen too, but the king’s order is ultimate no.”

Lia was silent after she heard the story from Yuna. She who was the avid fan of the royal family did hear about the rumor of the princess and Irene Bae, and there had been shots of paparazzi photo of the two being intimate.

“Does the princess still love her?” Lia asks.

“If I said she still does, what are you going to do?”

“I…”

“My father chose you for a reason, I know he sees something in you. I was surprised too when he ordered my cousin to take Irene as her wife, but I know he only did that because he wants to protect the royal institution. What will the people have said when they find out that the crown princess married an ex-communist’s daughter?”

“But it was not Irene’s fault that her father is a communist…”

“Yes it was not Irene’s fault…maybe that’s what people said, right person but at the wrong time…you still haven’t answer my question. Are you going to continue with the plan if my sister is still in love with Irene?” Yuna asked the older girl again.

“……”

“Well?”

Lia takes a deep breath and she turns to look at Ryujin before turn back to face Yuna “Yes. I will still continue with the plan and our relationship even if Ryujin is still in love with Irene. I want to clarify that I am willing to go with the plan is not because the king’s order or that she is the future Queen of South Korea…First love is hard to forget, but I believe I can make the princess fall for me, just like how she made me fall for her.”

Yuna smiles at Lia’s answer and she offers a handshake. Lia was confused at first but then she accepted the handshakes.

“Welcome to the family, dear sister in law.”

Little did the two girl know, Ryujin was wide awake, but she keeps her eyes close as she eavesdrops on everything that is said between the two girl. When Yuna told Lia about her relationship with Irene, Ryujin was almost wanted to get up and stop Yuna. She does not want her past to be known by anyone outside of the royal family, but she stops herself when Yuna questioned Lia what she will do is Ryujin is still in love with Irene. Ryujin was honestly surprised at Lia’s answer. She did not expect Lia still want to be with her even if she learned about the truth that Ryujin might be still in love with her former lover.

***

Lia had gotten closer with the Royal family, she often spends her time with Ryujin and Yuna at the royal family estate. The king and the queen were content with their bonding season. Lia had taken a few days off after the princess was discharge to spend more time with the princess. However, their time spend together had to be shorten when there was a sudden meeting with the Asian countries leader. Apparently North Korea is threatened other country and South Korea had to be alert just in case North Korea decided to attack them. Ryujin had to be in the front line to lead the meeting with all the Asian countries leader.

A month later…

Due to Lia and Ryujin busy schedule, the two of them haven’t had the time to meet. They did exchange a few phone calls and video call. Lia had been busy representing Gfriend. Ryujin managed to convince other countries’ leader to lend their military expertise if North Korea really start the attack and she had already arranged a meeting with the North Korea leader to talk through it and hoping that North Korea can withdraw their threat.

The press still follows Lia everywhere but she managed to ignored them and goes on with her daily life. She ignores all of the questions that the press asked her. But over time, she begins to question it herself. What is her relationship with the princess? Are they lover? Or just friend? The princess had never pop the question, to ask her to be the princess’s girlfriend. But all of the moments they had when they go out on a date is definitely more than just friend.

Lia lost her case with Gfriend vs Soumu and she was devastated with the result. Gfriend did not blame Lia though, all of the members were very kind to Lia and encouraging her. Yeji felt guilty after she won in representing Soumu, she did not want to go against her best friend but she had to do what she had to do in order to prove herself to her cousin.

Yeji invited Lia to come over to her house but Lia rejected Yeji’s offer and it upset Yeji. Yeji feels like after she came back and after Lia and the princess got together, she and Lia had been drifted apart. She did consult Lia regarding the matters, but Lia brushed it off. Lia told Yeji that she is being paranoid, Lia is just busy that is all, and it got nothing to do with her relationship with the princess.

Lia suddenly feel guilty that she keeps on rejecting her friend so she invited Yeji to go shopping with her. Yeji accepted the invitation and even offer to pay for Lia’s shopping because she wanted to apologize for beating Lia in their cases. Lia jokingly accepted her friend’s offer and they decided to meet at Lotte Departmental store.

***

Lia was getting herself ready to meet with Yeji for their shopping date when Ryujin called. Lia smiles when she saw that it was a video call. Lia swipes to answer the video call.

“Hey~”

“What’s up beauty.”

“What’s up pwincess.”

Both of them laugh. Lia misses Ryujin so much but she understands that with the circumstances with the North Korea now, she had no choice, but she is worried that Ryujin had not recover properly and she had to attend all the meetings.

“You’re going somewhere?” Ryujin asked Lia when she noticed that Lia had make up on.

“Yes, I’m going out with Yeji, to shop for some clothes.”

“Oh~ Have fun.”

Lia puts her phone on the dressing table and continues to set her hair up. “How is your shoulder? Is it getting better?”

“Yeah, I can lift up my arms now, no problem.”

“Good then.”

Ryujin had her chin on her palm as she watches Lia getting ready. Ryujin could not help herself but to admire Lia’s beauty.

“How is the affair with the North Korea threat?” Lia asks out of curiosity. Her father is also involved with the military so she is worried for both her father and the princess safety if North Korea decided to start a war.

“We’re in a good term now. Well you have to thank Red Velvet for it. If SM decided not to let the girl perform at North Korea, we’re probably ended up in a world war 3 with North Korea.”

“It’s a surprised that the North people would enjoy kpop.” Lia chuckles.

“Hahahaha, yeah. I think I’m going to suggest my father to give RV bravery medal for what they did.”

“It’s a good move. I like the RV girls, they are very humble.”

“Yeah. Anyway, so I heard, you lost the case, but to be honest, it was Soumu fault for the mistreatment toward Gfriend. I love Gfriend and it was sad to see them disbanded like this.”

Lia sighs and she puts down her powder puff and she takes her phone to see Ryujin face to face through the screen. “I know right. It made me sad too, but the girls were so positive when they lose their case against Soumu.”

“Alright stop talking about depressing stuff. Tomorrow is Sunday, do you have any plan?”

“No I don’t…”

“How about we go out on a date?”

Lia blushes at the invitation, it has been a while since she had meet the princess. “Where do you want to go?”

“You know, we haven’t really meet each other for a whole month now. I really missed you, do you think you can take a day off on Monday and Tuesday? I was thinking to go somewhere far and private for 3 days 2 nights.”

Lia blushes even harder at the princess suggestion. The two of them alone, at a private place. Lia shyly nods and she says “I think I can request to my boss.”

“Alright, I’ll pick you up at 8 in the morning tomorrow.”

“Alright…see you.”

“See you, bye.”

“Bye…”

***

Wendy’s Office

Wendy is tired, she felt her energy depleted over the mountain of paper works. Despite her non active role in overseeing the country, she was called in by the King to help her cousin in handling the current situation. Wendy had been staying over at her office for a week now. Every now and then Irene would stop by to deliver clean clothes for her to change and sometimes even accompanied her in her office.

Her relationship with Irene had change. They are more comfortable with each other now. Wendy is grateful that now Irene is willing to spend more time with her and Irene also decided to leave the entertainment world and spend more time in helping Wendy in her duty to serve the country.

She heard a soft knock on her office and she sees her wife through the glass door. She smiles and gestures her wife to enter. Irene enter with a box of food in her hand.

“I brought some fried chicken and some boba milk tea.”

“Thanks, I was starving.”

Irene moves away all the papers on Wendy’s desk and put the fried chicken on the desk and handed the boba to Wendy. Wendy quickly grab it and she sips on it.

“This taste like heaven.” Wendy exclaims.

“I make sure to order it with less sugar and less ice just like you always order.”

Wendy smiles when she heard her wife explained her preference. She put down her drink and open up the fried chicken box, she takes out a piece of chicken wing and hands it to Irene. Irene took the chicken and begins eating it.

“Anyway, I think I’m going to take the day off later.”

“Yeah you should, you deserved to get a day off, you’ve been working nonstop now.”

“Yeah.”  Wendy looks at her watch to see the time and it’s only 11 in the morning so she tilts her head up to look at her wife then she asks “It’s still early, do you want to stop at anywhere later?”

Irene’s eyes lightened up when Wendy asked if she wanted to go anywhere, she has always wanted to go shopping with her wife because she wanted to change her wife boring style. All of Wendy’s clothes consist of black suit, black pants, black jeans and white shirt. Irene wants to spicy her wife’s wardrobe but she does not know how to tell her wife.

“Why don’t we go shopping?”

“Shopping?”

“Yeah.”

“But you have a lots of new clothes that you just bought.” Wendy replies with full.

“Not for me, but for you.” Irene replies.

“Me? I don’t need new clothes.”

Irene scoffs and she rolls her eyes at Wendy’s reply “Your wardrobe is boring, every time when I get ready all I see is black and white. You need some color in your life.”

“I prefer to wear clean color.”

“Come on Wendy~ please, let’s go shopping…” Irene begs her wife.

Wendy could not resist her wife pouting face so she reluctantly agrees. Irene grins happily when Wendy agrees to go shopping with her and she hurriedly finishes her fried chicken.

***

Lotte Departmental Store

“If I knew that you wanted to buy so much, I probably said no.”

“You said you’ll pay for it didn’t you, so why are you complaining?” Lia teases Yeji, when she had to pay for Lia’s bill, which cost her 1,702,000.00 Won (around USD1500).

Yeji sighs as she put back her card into her purse. Lia request of Yeji’s phone, without any objections and question, Yeji hands her phone to Lia. Lia taps her phone to Yeji’s phone to transfer the money back to her friend then she hands the phone back to Yeji.

“Done.”

“What thing done?”

“I’ve transfer the money back to you.”

Yeji takes the phone and she checks on her account, “You don’t have to transfer back.”

“I was joking when I agreed to accept your offer to pay for my shopping.”

“But I mean it…you have to at least let me buy something for you!” Yeji insisted.

Lia knows there is no point for her to argue with Yeji, so she agrees to let Yeji pay for their lunch. Yeji is delighted and they decided to stop their shopping spree and head to the nearest restaurant to have lunch.

On their way out, the place got a little crowded and Lia accidentally bumped to someone. She dropped her shopping bags. The woman that Lia bumped to apologized to Lia and Lia apologizes to as both of them bend down to pick up the bags. Lia lifts up her head to see who is the person that she bumped to, and she can almost feel her heart stop when she saw the first of the woman.

Irene Bae.

The smiles on Lia’s face disappear, and she hurriedly takes all of her stuff. She bows one last time to apologize to Irene before take her leave. Irene just stares at Lia who hurriedly runs out from the store.

“You okay?” Wendy comes to her wife aids when she noticed the commotion.

“Yeah…I just bumped to a parasite.”

Wendy was shocked when Irene said that. She looks at the direction of the woman whom Irene bumped to and she realized it was her cousin’s future consort. She turns to look at her wife again and she saw the fire in her wife’s eyes.

“It’s not good to call someone like that.”

“Well, she is a parasite isn’t she? Leeching off the royal family fame, and then even though she is in a relationship with the princess and yet here she is, enjoying her free time with some random chick.”

Wendy can smell the jealousy coming from Irene. She is confused as, Irene told her she does not care about Ryujin anymore and yet her she is. If eyes can kill, Julia Choi probably is dead by now.

“Irene Bae Joo-Hyun.” Wendy calls her wife’s full name and Irene is finally snaps out of her jealousy.

“I do not approve of this behavior of yours. As the wife of Seongbuk-dong Duchess, you should know better not to react this way in public.” Wendy scolded her wife.

Irene was angry that Wendy scolded her because of Lia. She was too blinded by jealousy when she saw Lia that she does not realized how toxic she is at the moment. Wendy grabs Irene’s hand and she tugs Irene along with her to leave the store.

“Where are you tagging me?”

“We’re going home.”

“We came to shop for you!”

“How can we shop if you’re acting like this?!” Wendy finally loses it.

The couple went silent as everyone around had their eyes on them. Wendy grabs Irene’s hand again and this time Irene did not resist and follows Wendy.

***

“You look blue. Did you saw a ghost?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

Yeji could not stop staring at Lia because she sees how pale Lia is. Yeji sighs and she put down on her watermelon juice “Clearly something is bothering you. May I know what is it?”

Lia takes a deep breath and then she faces Yeji with serious look on her face “Yeji…if you’re in love with this person but this person is in love with other person however the other person is married and is clearly is in good relationship with her partner. What will you do?”

Yeji was stunned for a moment because her brain could not register what Lia just utter out. “Huh?”

“I mean…” Lia stops then she takes a deep breath before she looks around her and she sees that their table is pretty far from other patrons. She scoots closer to Yeji and says “You know a few years ago there was a rumor that the princess is dating Irene Bae?”

“I did hear such rumor, but Irene is married to the Duchess of Seongbuk-dong.”

“They did date before Irene married the Duchess.”

“What?!”

Lia quickly covers Yeji’s mouth to silent her then she looks around and sighs in relieve when no one is paying attention to them.

“Please control your reaction Yeji. I don’t want to attract any attention to us.”

“Sorry about that, but is it true?”

“Yes.”

“The princess is still in love with her ex?”

“Apparently she is.”

“How did you know that she is still in love with her ex?”

“Princess Yuna told me.”

“Ah…”

“If you are in my situation what will you do Yeji?”

Yeji tinkers for a moment before she answers “Okay, I know you like the princess, but sis, that is a huge red flag! How can you be sure that you will be happy with the princess if her heart is belonged to someone else?”

“But I can feel it that she likes me too…”

“Lia…you know I… you know I care for you right. I just don’t want you to get hurt. What if the princess can’t give you all the love that you need?”

“I am willing to take the risk.”

Yeji realized, the feeling that Lia had for the princess is far more than just like. Her best friend is in love with the princess. It is love. Yeji takes a deep breath and she holds onto Lia’s hand.

“If she hurts you, you know I will always have your back right.”

Lia smiles and she puts her other hand on top of Yeji’s hand and she nods “I know I can count on you.”

The two friends smile at each other and then they continue eating their food. Half way through eating, Lia suddenly remembers that she made a promise with the princess that she is going to take 2 days off from work. She clasps her hands together and beg Yeji. Yeji rolls her eyes at Lia’s request but she eventually agreed to help her to tell her cousin that she will be absent from office for two days and offer herself to cover for Lia’s work.

***

The Palace

“Unnie~~~~” Yuna calls for her sister. Her voice echoes throughout the palace.

“Your highness, perhaps you should try to use the intercom.” Said one of the maid.

“Nah, I don’t know in which room she is. Shouting for her is way faster than intercom all the rooms one by one.” Replied the young princess and she continues to yell her sister’s name.

“Shin Ryujin~!”

The queen comes out from her office when she heard her younger daughter’s voice “Yuna-ah, why are you shouting your sister’s name?”

“Mommy! Did you see unnie anywhere?”

The queen is surprised that Yuna called Ryujin unnie. It had been so long since she heard her youngest daughter had call her older daughter unnie.

“I think she’s at the garden with your father.”

“Okeyh~ thanks mommy!”

Yuna kisses her mother on the cheek and hops her way to the palace garden. The queen is confused by her daughter’s attitude but she is happy that Yuna seems a lot happier nowadays.

Yuna went to the garden and she sees that her father and sister are having serious conversation. She contemplates whether to interrupt them or just wait for the right moment. Yuna bites her lips and she waited behind the glass door for her father and sister to finishes their conversation.

***

“So, you are planning to do it?”

“Yeah. It was my duty after all.”

Taemin pats his daughter on the back to show that he supports her in everything that she does. Then he puts his hands behind, looking up to the sky.

“I know you hate me when I broke you up with Irene. But you are my pride Ryujin. My first daughter, my first responsibility as a father and as a king too, because I have to raise the next monarchy to be someone who can lead this country. I am proud of you. Never once did I am not proud of what you did.”

Ryujin chuckles at her father’s long lecture “What, are you being sentimental now dad?”

“Me and your mother are not getting younger. You are my only hope to protect this family Ryujin.”

Ryujin gets worried when her father suddenly being sappy “Dad, you and mom are only in your 50s. You still have a long way to go. Don’t make me the queen too fast dad, I still want to enjoy my life as princess.”

Taemin only smiles at his oldest daughter. He is proud of her. He may seem harsh on Ryujin and the two of them always argue over things, but he loves her more than his own life. He always tells Ryujin and Yuna that Ryujin is his pride and Yuna is his joy. That is how he expresses his feeling to his daughters. The king decided to end his conversation with Ryujin and heeds back inside and he chuckles when he sees Yuna standing behind the glass door.

“Yuna-ah, are you waiting for us?” the king asked.

Yuna nods and she peek her head out “Are you two done?”

“Yeah, we’re done.” Ryujin replies.

“Unnie, can I talk to you?”

The king and Ryujin exchange glances and then look back to Yuna. The king leaves the two sisters along and he managed to pinch his youngest daughter cheek before leaving.

“Papa always treat me like a kid!” Yuna whines as she rubs on her cheek.

“You are his joy.” Said Ryujin and she invites Yuna to sit at the swing in their garden.

“So what is it that you want to talk about?” Ryujin asked.

Yuna could not hide away her smiles and she fishes for something inside her cardigan’s pocket. She pulls out a paper and show it to her sister. Ryujin opens the letter and she reads through it, the more she reads the more her face change.

“Oh my god! Is this real Yuna?!”

“It is real! I am officially representing the country in the Female Polo tournament!”

The two sisters squeal in happiness and both share a tight hug. Ryujin cannot stop congratulating her sister. Ryujin knows Yuna’s passion in playing sports, especially Polo sport, she had always tried to join the national team but she always got rejected because her skills were not on par with the professional.

Both Ryujin and Yuna used to play Polo, but Ryujin got bored of the sports too quickly so she stopped. Yuna however is still passionate with all the sports that she plays. Ryujin had watch how many times Yuna had fallen from the horse and injured herself. Ryujin ever requested her father to ban Yuna from joining the Polo team because she scared that Yuna might sustained serious injury, but the king said if they stop Yuna from pursuing her passion, Yuna might hate them so he rejected Ryujin’s request. Despite Yuna does not look like someone who played sport, she is an ace in all the sports she played. Ryujin is the brain while Yuna is the brawn of the royal family.

Ryujin stops celebrating when she realized that Yuna had to take her exam in few more weeks. “Wait, you have exam right? If you accepted this offer, you cannot take your exam because these two events happen in the same week.”

Yuna pouts when her sister mentioned about examination. Yuna never like studying. She loves school but she hates studying. She rather dropout of high school and join the tournament instead.

“But…I get to represent the country…I worked hard for this.” Yuna whines.

Ryujin knows the dilemma that Yuna is in. She sighs and she pats her sister on the head “It’s fine. You can join the tournament, but you have to promise me, once the tournament is done, you have to retake your exam. I know you hate exam and studying, but at least get your diploma.”

“I promise I will!!”

Yuna hugs her sister tightly and even kisses her sister all over the face. Ryujin cringes when Yuna kisses her.

“I’m going to tell mommy and daddy!”

“You haven’t told them?”

“No.”

Just before Ryujin want to stops Yuna, her phone rings and it was Irene. Ryujin let Yuna goes and when Yuna is out of her sight, she answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Jin…nie…”

Ryujin was triggered when she heard Irene’s trembling voice. She is worried something happened to her ex.

"What happened? Are you crying?"

"It's Wendy." Irene sobbed.

***

Son Residence

“Yah Son Seungwan!!”

All of the Son’s family maids came out at the sudden commotion. They were surprised when they see the crown princess barged in the house. The princess was enraged. Her eyes are red, she had a baseball bat with her.

Wendy calmly walks down the stairs to greet her cousin. She remains compose even when her cousin swings the bat toward her, but Ryujin stopped just inches away from Wendy’s face.

“Is this how you greet a family member?”

“I told you if you made her cry, you are dead.”

“So, an outsider is more important than your own family member?” Wendy questions Ryujin calmly.

Ryujin hits the floor with the bat and the bat spilt in half from the force “Shut up!”

“I am older than you are Ryujin! Learn how to respect your elderly!”

“How do you expect me to respect you when you can’t even respect your own wife?! What did you do to her?!”

“We only talked.”

“If you only talked why did she cried?!” Ryujin questions with rage.

“She is my wife and you have no rights to interfere in our marriage life Shin Ryujin. Please leave this instance.”

“Where is she? I want to see her.”

“As her rightful wife, I won’t allow you to.”

“I said I want to see her!”

“No.”

Ryujin could not control her anger and she lunges toward her cousin. She landed a punch on Wendy’s face. Wendy fells down from the impact and she accidentally bit her lip and it start to bleed. Wendy wipes the blood away and get back on her feet. Ryujin attacks her again and yet she did not try to avoid all the punches from Ryujin.

Ryujin only stops when she heard Irene’s voice asking her to stop. The cousins look up to the stair to see Irene standing there with tears streaming down her face. Irene runs down and Ryujin opens her arms to accept Irene in her arms but she was disappointed when Irene run pass her and goes to Wendy’s side.

“Wendy, are you okay?”

Wendy refuses to answers. The couple had a fight on their way back home. Wendy accidentally raises her voice and hand toward Irene but she managed to stop herself. Irene was scared of Wendy and she hides from Wendy and that is when she called Ryujin to complain, but she did not expect that Ryujin will come to attack Wendy. Wendy did manage to apologized to Irene and they already get back together before Ryujin came.

When the maid told the couple that Ryujin had come, Irene was surprised and she look to Wendy for help. She told Wendy that she did called Ryujin when they had a fight earlier but she did not expect Ryujin to turned up to their place. Wendy knows her cousin well and from the CCTV she saw how angry her cousin is. Wendy asked Irene to stay in their room while she goes and calm her cousin down.

They did not expect Ryujin to be so violent. Irene takes out her handkerchief to stop the bleeding from Wendy’s nose. She turns to Ryujin and with disappointed tone she asks Ryujin to leave.

“I don’t understand, you called me, you were crying, and yet, you sided with her?” Ryujin asked.

“Yes we had a fight, yes Wendy almost hit me, but I never ask you to come and attack her. She is my wife Ryujin.”

Ryujin was scared of the look that Irene is giving her, Irene had never looked at her like that. Ryujin slowly takes a step back and then she leaves the couple alone. The maids hurriedly clean up the mess and one of the maid help Irene to get Wendy up on her feet.

“Take her to the room.” Irene requested.

They carry Wendy to the bedroom and slowly lays her on the bed. Irene asks the maid to prepared some ice and a clean towel. The maid excuses herself and she runs to the kitchen to get some ice.

“I’m sorry.” Irene cries while she rested her head on Wendy’s shoulder.

Wendy gently her wife’s head to tell her that she is okay.

***

Ryujin speeds on the road to cope with her anger. She does not feel like she wants to go back to the palace. So the only place that she knows it Lia’s house. Ryujin speeds to Lia’s house. When she reached Lia’s house, Lia was just about to enter her house after she went out with Yeji.

“Ryujin?” Lia questions as she sees the princess walks out from the car.

Before Lia could ask any questions, Ryujin grabs Lia and kisses her on the lips. Lia was so surprised that she dropped all of her stuffs.

Ryujin feels that Lia has relaxed her body against her, she wraps her arm around Lia’s waist and deepened the kiss. Lia slowly wraps her arms around Ryujin’s neck. They broke the kiss when both of them are running out of air in their lungs.

Ryujin feels a little better after the kiss, and she gets her senses back which made she feels guilty for stealing Lia’s first kiss like that. Lia slowly opens her eyes and her eyes met with Ryujin’s eyes.

“Sorry… I’m so sorry.” Ryujin apologizes.

“Wh…why are you apologizing?”

“I know you told me you never had your first kiss. I shouldn’t steal it like that. I kissed you out of anger. I don’t know what is wrong with me…please forgive me.”

Ryujin rested her head on Lia’s shoulder and without realizing it, her tears come streaming down her face. Lia did not know what is wrong with the princess. She did not hate the kiss. She is surprised but she did not hate it or felt disgusted by it. She rather fond of the sensation of the kiss.

Lia sees that people are secretly taking their picture. She does not want to invite the princess in her house because her parents would question her why is the princess in such state. So she asks for the car key from the princess. Ryujin hands Lia the car key.

Lia start the car and she drives away, far away from her house. Ryujin asks her why she did not just invite her to her house.

“I don’t want my parents to question me if they see your state.”

“I’m sorry I led out my anger on you.”

Lia who is still shy after the kiss tries to calm herself down and focuses on the road as well so she ignores Ryujin. Ryujin thinks that Lia is angry at her when Lia did not answer her.

“I am the worst am I not? Everyone’s first kiss should be romantic and mutual, and yet, I aggressively stole yours and it was definitely not romantic at all.”

“Well, at least my first kiss is you.” Lia finally answers.

“Huh?”

Lia drives into a quiet secluded place and she parks the car under a large three. She turns to Ryujin and she smiles “I’ve been thinking about us lately. What am I to you Ryujin? I know that the king had chosen me as the future queen’s consort. But I want you to be honest with me. Are we just in a friendly phase or are we more than that?”

“I…” Ryujin wants to answer that she does not know what they are. Ryujin is fond of Lia, she really is. She is well aware that Lia knows her situation. She knows Lia already know her circumstances. Yuna had told her everything, that is why she does not want to give Lia an answer. She does not want to hurt Lia.

Lia is hurt by Ryujin silent response. She feels that her tears are going to fall down so she immediately turns away to hide her face. Ryujin saw it so she quickly grabs Lia’s face with both of her hands.

“I love you.” She utters out to Lia and instantly she saw that Lia expression change.

“You do?” Lia asks with her trembling voice.

Ryujin hesitantly nods and they share a hug. But Ryujin did not meant what she said. She just said it to makes Lia feels better. Ryujin breaks the hug and she wipes away Lia’s happy tears. They stare at each other for a moment before Ryujin leans in again for a kiss. And this time she did it gently.

Ryujin cups Lia face gently and she deepened the kiss. It was Lia’s sudden moan that causes Ryujin to break the kiss. Ryujin could not stop staring at Lia’s plum wet lips. Ryujin uses her thumb to touch Lia’s lips. She is by the lusting look on Lia’s face, but she tries to calm herself down. She smiles when their eyes meet.

“Now, that is what a real kiss feels like.”

Lia was speechless, she can feel something inside her is , but the feeling is too new for her to register in her mind.

Ryujin holds Lia’s hand and Lia snaps back to reality. “So…did you managed to get your boss permission to take leave for 2 days?”

“Yeah…I mean I asked Yeji to help me request, but consider it done.”

Ryujin raises her eyebrows at Lia and Lia answers “Yeji is my boss cousin.”

“Oh…well, very well then.”

“By the way, you didn’t tell me where do you plan to go?”

Ryujin stretches and she puts her hands behind her head and she turns to Lia “Let’s go to Jeju.”

“Jeju?”

“Yep.”

“Why Jeju?”

“Why not Jeju?”

“I mean…we have to fly.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, we can use the royal private jet.”

Lia glares at Ryujin and she reminded Ryujin of Ryujin’s uncle who abuse his power and got questioned for using the royal facility for his own benefits.

“I know that, but the royal protocol doesn’t allow the royal family to travel via commercial flight. So, what do you want me to do?”

“Let’s take the ferry!”

“No! I have seasick!”

“But…”

“Okay fine, if you don’t want to go to Jeju, let’s go elsewhere.”

Lia burst out laughing at the Princess’s reaction.

“Yah, why are you laughing?”

“I thought you have everything planned.”

“Yeah I was going to plan it before I sleep, but now you ruin it. I think Jeju is a nice choice because there is where my parents went for their honeymoon when they got married.”

Lia was flustered when Ryujin mentioned the word honeymoon. “Fine. We can go to Jeju.”

***

Irene cooked some porridge for Wendy. She had called the family doctor earlier, and the doctor said that nothing serious but Wendy’s face is so swollen that it wrenches Irene’s heart. She felt guilty for what happened.

Irene brings the porridge to their bedroom and she puts it on the nightstand. Wendy is resting against the bed frame while holding the ice pack against her face.

“I cook some porridge. Are you feeling better now?”

“Ryujin can really throw some punches.” Wendy joked but Irene does not find it funny.

“It was the first time that I see Ryujin reacted that way.”

“Well it was not the first for me.”

“Huh?”

“Ryujin punched me when she found out that the king had arranged me to wed you.”

“She did?”

“She did.”

Irene goes silent for a moment then she puts her hand on Wendy’s thigh “It was my fault for what happened today. Only if I did not call Ryujin.”

Wendy cups her wife’s face and she looks at her wife with tenderness in her eyes “No. It was my fault that I got jealous when you got jealous. It’s hard for me to see that my wife still has feelings for her ex. When you got jealous over Lia, I got jealous too. Though I know I cannot force my feelings toward you. But when you kissed me that night, I thought I got hope. I thought I have the chance to make you fall for me. I’m sorry that I got jealous and almost hit you and I’m sorry that I raised my voice at you.”

Irene’s tears fall down at her wife’s words. She never thought that Wendy is in love with her. She thoughts that Wendy treats her good and protected her because it is her duty as a wife. Irene hugs Wendy and cries on her shoulder. She had wronged Wendy for so many times. She had treat Wendy coldly but Wendy never left her side. She was too blinded by her own desire to be the future queen’s consort and oblivious about those people who really care for her.

“There there…” Wendy tries to calm Irene down by patting her on the back.

“I promise I will be a better wife.”

“You don’t have to force yourself.”

Irene rested her head on Wendy’s shoulder and she keeps on muttering the words that she will be a better wife to Wendy.

 

To be continue…