chapter soundtrack:
blossom - ong sungeun

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Wow.

Youngro couldn't help but gazing amazingly at the view of Yulje Hospital's lobby in front of her. The hospital was indeed huge and on the next level compared to the public hospital where her father used to be treated.

It was close to 9 PM and the hospital was still quiet crowded with people. Some doctors and medical staff were still passing by, walking through the halls in a rush.

"Miss Youngro," Secretary Gong called her and the woman turned around to face the taller man who was approaching her. Next to him was a doctor, a middle aged woman but she looked so experienced and professional. Some nurses and medical staff following them from behind. Youngro squinted her eyes, she caught the written name on the doctor's nametag. 

dr. Chae Song Hwa

Oh my God. She's that famous neurosurgery doctor. Yeongro had heard of her, some doctors at the public hospital mentioned her name several times, saying she's one of the best in South Korea.

When Secretary Gong and dr. Chae came closer and stopped in front of her, they gave a her a polite bow which she responded with a bow as well.

dr. Chae gave Youngro a smile, and somehow she found it really comforting.

"This is dr. Chae Songhwa, the doctor who will lead your father's surgeries and take care of your father's treatments." Secretary Gong explained, introducing the doctor to her. "She's one of the best neurosurgery doctor in South Korea. You're in good hands." The man smiled widely, showing some wrinkles on the corner of his eyes.

Youngro's eyes sparkled, she couldn't believe the famous doctor would help her healing her father. "Hello, dr. Chae Songhwa. My name is Eun Youngro, the youngest daughter of mr. Eun Changsu. It's such a pleasure to meet you, and I'm so thankful to have you as my father's doctor. I have heard about you a lot." She bowed one more time, showing her gratitude.

dr. Cheon waved her hands, "It's an honor to me as well, Miss Youngro. I hope I can help your father recovered soon. I believe you have heard of the scheduled date for first surgery? I have shared the details of the surgeries and treatments to your mother and brother. I would like to share it with you as well. Shall we go to my office?"

Youngro wanted to see her father first, however she followed the doctor.

dr. Chae was explaining in details while presenting her PC monitor to Youngro. Some CT scan pictures of her father's brain were shown on the screen, and Youngro unconsciously frowned, feeling uneasy. She always had this anxious feelings whenever she had consultation with her father's doctor, afraid if there would be any bad news.

However, dr. Chae gave her such a clear explanations, and by the end of it, she would give Youngro words to comfort her and it really worked. Especially with those friendly smiles the doctor had been giving her since the second they met.

"Miss Youngro, your father is in good hands. I promise the medical team and I will do our best for the surgeries. The first one will be the most important one. We will execute it tomorrow morning. The next surgery will be scheduled after we check on your father's condition after the first one." dr. Chae said.

"Thank you so much... doctor." Youngro didn't know what to say, and left out a small chuckle. "I... I don't know what to say. But thank you so much, thank you for helping my father." She showed the doctor a smile, and her eyes were starting to feel blurry. She still couldn't believe all of this was finally happening.

"As I said before, it's a pleasure for me to help your father." The doctor replied. She then moved her monitor away from Youngro to typed in some things on the PC system. "We have started the surgery preparation, Miss Youngro. The surgery will start at 7 AM tomorrow. You can see your father now, I will you to his room."

That night, Youngro stayed at the hospital with Youngu. All night long, she would stare at his sleeping father while praying inside her heart that her father will be okay.
 

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The Crown Prince checked his watch once more, making sure he had arrived at the right time.

The royal family private jet had been prepared. However, he requested the staff to give him several minutes before departure. He had something to do before his flight. He had to meet someone.

It was late at night at Incheon airport. Although it wasn't as crowded as day time, the airport still looked crowded and busy.

As usual, Sooho and the other royal family members would go through a secured and exclusive entrance to the airport to avoid the mass and press. He did it too that night, but some paparazzi managed to take some pictures of him by the time he went out of his car. He was sure Kangmoo would take care of those paparazzi.

He was sitting alone inside a private lounge. Only a couple of people were there, minding their business. Most of them looked like they were businessmen. Busy with their laptops, or tabs. Some would be on the call, discussing some stuff with the other person on the line in another language.

Sooho caught some French and Chinese there. It seemed like there would be a collaboration between electronic companies...  on another call, his ears caught some conversations about a company's crisis management. Hopefully they could handle it well... it looked serious.

He was gazing out the window once more, lost in his thoughts, when a familiar woman's voice called out his name.

"Sooho."

"Oh. You're here." Upon hearing the woman called him, Sooho stood up from his seat. His eyes captured the woman's looks from head to toe. As always, she looked pretty and elegant. "Have a seat, Chungya."

The woman smirked, checking her phone screen. "I still have around 20 minutes left. Lucky we can have some times before we separate ways."

They proceed to sit across each other. Chungya placed her cabin sized pink suitcase next to her seat.

"Where are you going this time? Tokyo?" The woman guessed.

"You're right." The man answered with a grin. "Are you an insider? Or a paparazzi? How could you know my schedule? Did some royal palace staff spill my flight information to you?"

Chungya chuckled, "I have my ways. And you often go to Japan anyway. So that's my first guess."

Sooho hummed in response. "I'm having a meeting with my dad tonight, and tomorrow I guess? I hope we can conclude the plans soon on the meeting."

"Yeah," Chungya shrugged her shoulder. "Those meetings would be boring anyway. But you'll do great as always." A small smile was shown on her face.

Both of them shared a smile and for the next couple of minutes, they both went silence. In front of them was a huge window with the airport view. They could see countless planes taking off and landing on the runways. They looked like fireflies.

"Are you really departing from this terminal?" Chungya asked, out of the blue.

"I requested them to prepare my departure from this terminal." He answered. "So I can see you before you go."

The woman couldn't help but widened her smile, her eyes turned into crescent moons. "Aww, I'm touched." She left out a joke, followed by another chuckle. 

The Crown Prince had a good couple of seconds staring at the woman in front of him who had her eyes gazing outside the window. "I'm..." he said slowly, "I'm proud of you, Chungya. Congratulations."

"Thank you." She whispered. Her smile was still there on her face, but this time there was bitterness on it. Her heart suddenly felt heavy. "And sorry. For leaving you."

They both met each other's gaze. Sooho could see that the woman in front of her was sorry. He got it. But he wouldn't want her to leave with a sense of guilt. He wanted her to be happy. He always did.

"Don't be sorry. This is your dream, you've always wanted this."  He replied. "I'm happy for you."

"It is. It's my biggest dream and it's coming true. God. I can't even believe I'm finally at this point in my life!" She said excitedly. "I'm leaving to London. I don't know when I'll be back. But yes, don't worry Sooho. I'm super happy now. I don't have to worry about my family's business anymore. My sister will take full charge of it, and I'll live my own life that I've always wanted."

Sooho smiled softly, "If one day I have a schedule or appointment in London, I'll make sure to come see you, Chungya. I'll see you dancing on the stage and bring you tons of flowers."

The woman tilted her head, her lips forming a warm smile. "Yeah, please do. You can call or chat me anytime too, you know." She said. Her eyes darted elsewhere when she said, "and I want you to know that... I'll still be there for you, Sooho. No matter what. You still have my heart with you."

❄️
 

Tomorrow morning came.

Eun Changsu had been taken away to the surgery room. Youngro, along with her brother and mother were at the waiting room, routinely checked the clock on the wall, counting down the time until the surgery was done.

It was gonna be a long one, that was what dr. Chae said to them. It was only an hour and a half passed and it felt like forever to Youngro.

Secretary Gong and some royal palace staff were there as well with her. They came to pick up Youngro to the royal palace once she's ready but as requested, she would only leave when her father had done his first surgery that morning. So, they were waiting with her inside the same room.

To pass some times, Youngro opened up her smartphone and opened one of the PDFs Secretary Gong gave her yesterday. She had to finish this one before her next lessons with Miss Pi that day.

Geez... Political stuff... this is hard...

Once in a while, Youngro would frowned, pursed her lips, or scratched her head whenever she found some confusing lines. She would read it many times and looked it up on the search engine to understand the meaning.

She was about to move on to another page when a pop up notification appeared on the top of her phone screen.

It was from the Crown Prince.


[Sooho] Good morning, Eun Youngro. This is Im Sooho.

[Sooho] I hope my message finds you well. Sorry for reaching out to you early in the morning but I'd like to apologize to you and your family because I can't be there when your father is undergoing a surgery.

[Sooho] I hope everything goes well... and may your father recovers soon. Please send my greetings to your family

[Sooho] It turns out there will be another meeting this morning. I'll be back with the King this afternoon. I believe you'd be at the palace then. I hope to see you soon.

[Sooho] Have a good day.

Youngro didn't realize she was reading the messages with rounded eyes and a hand covering . "Oh..." 

Receiving messages from the Crown Prince itself surprised her. She thought she'd be the one to reach out first to ask him about royal family or royal palace related stuff— but she was wrong.

Youngro was already working on to reply th