chapter soundtrack:
crystal flower - 2nd moon

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"That was quick."

Sooho threw a glance at Kangmoo at the front seat who was screening through list of articles. The news of the King and the Crown Prince's visits to the orphanages had made it to the news, and Kangmoo was checking it as usual.

It wasn't really a part of his job, but it had become some kind of habit to him. He would check the live updates on social medias or online platforms whenever they were on their way back to the palace after a schedule.

That day, he was just like a fisherman who got back to the shore with tons of fish. The royal engagement news were really spreading like crazy.

"There are a lot of media coverages of you and His Majesty visiting the orphanages online, but look what comes up as the number one news?" Kangmoo flipped his phone and showed it to Sooho at the back of the car. "Your engagement. You and Miss Youngro."

As expected.

The news of the Crown Prince was about to get married was known publicly for quiet long time until most of the people would think of it as a joke by the royal family. The King himself announced it, but there was no news following up the announcement since then. Until finally that day, the breaking news came up.

"Whoa. Your Highness." Kangmoo switched the application on his phone to Twitter. "You've made into the trending topic again. Worldwide! Seems like your fans are crying right now. This is an international heartbroken day." He joked.

The Crown Prince calmly watched the older man in front of him showing his phone screens. He had expected all of this. However, there was something that triggered his curiosity.

"How about Youngro?"

"Hm?" Kangmoo paused, then turning his head to the Crown Prince. "Miss Youngro?"

As if the man was surprised, Kangmoo stared at Sooho with an opened jaw. Sooho who saw this could only stared back raised both of his eyebrows, signaling the older that he was waiting for a response.

Kangmoo didn't respond immediately, instead he took a peek to the driver next to him. The driver who felt Kangmoo's stare from the corner of his eyes coughed, his eyes never leaving the road in front of him.

The driver looked like a chill guy who wouldn't tell stuff to his upper supervisor. Kangmoo could talk freely.

"Miss Youngro also has her name on the trending list, Your Highness. She's right below you." He answered. "Eun Youngro." Kangmoo pointed his index finger to his phone screen while mentioning the girl's name, the Crown Prince's fiancée's name was written there clearly.

Sooho reached out for an iPad next to him and launched the search engine page. He tried to look for the news as well on online platforms. Indeed, there were tons of published news articles featuring the royal engagement news.

There's even an article giving a deeper information about Eun Youngro as the Crown Prince's fiancée. A picture of her during her childhood, school years, and her latest ones were uploaded as the main banner.

Sooho grimaced as he skim through the comment sections.

"How's the public response? Have you received any report from the PR team?" Sooho asked. "How's the sentiment?"

"For the live updates... to sum it up, 40 percent of the public are happy you're finally met the woman you're looking for. They are amazed of how you guys finally fulfilled your late grandparents' promises and they see you two as a match made in heaven. They're congratulating both of you right now, saying your wedding would be the wedding of the century." Kangmoo paused. He took a long breath before continuing his report.

"The other 40 percent of the public are in rage, mostly women, saying it's unfair and they're against the idea of you marrying a commoner, saying Miss Youngro as a 'nugu' girl on the internet. They're... let's say, they're attacking her verbally but don't worry, the PR team had the legal people ready to handle this." Kangmoo raised his hand when he saw Sooho was about to ask another question about Youngro.

"Hold up. I haven't finished yet." Kangmoo said, making the younger man closed his mouth. For a second, the driver next to him slightly peeked at him, couldn't believe the personal assistant just shushed the Crown Prince. "The last 20 percent are neutral. That's it. That's the summary of what I received from PR team. Any questions, Your Highness?"

Sooho was busy scrolling through another articles while he's processing the reports he heard from Kangmoo. "Make sure the people from legal team are doing their job. Brief the IT and Digital Security team to protect Eun Youngro and her family privacy and personal information from leaking out. If they found personal informations or private pictures of her and her family spreading around, take it down. Also, look up for any posts or comments that could be considered as an attack or harmful to us. Report and proceed them accordingly." He commanded, and Kangmoo immediately passed the instructions to the people in charge.

"Got it, Your Highness." He said. After he made sure all the instructions from the Crown Prince were clearly passed to the respectful team, his eyes darted to the rear view, checking on the Crown Prince who's back with his iPad. Once in a while, he saw him opening his personal mobile phone and chatted someone. He believed it was Eun Youngro he's chatting with.

That day was the first day Kangmoo finally met Eun Youngro in person. She's pretty, he couldn't deny it, but she looked plain to him. As far as he remembered, Sooho also saw her as a plain woman. He didn't know how Sooho, the ice prince, could open up to that girl so quickly and from what he saw that day, Sooho was being so caring with her.

Kangmoo didn't know what's going on inside the Crown Prince's head but he would talk with the Crown Prince later when it's just to the two of them.

"Focus on the road." Kangmoo blurted out as he saw the driver peeking at him again.

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[Sooho] How are you doing after the public announcement?

[Sooho] Make sure to turn your social media accounts on private for now. Your closest family members too.

[Sooho] Focus on your learning session first, don't worry too much about the public reactions.

[Sooho] I'm on my way back to the palace for dinner. See you then.

Youngro nervously typed her replies to the Crown Prince's messages she just received, thanking him and letting him know that she actually had done the man's advises. She was texting her mother and brother before.

Prior to that day, Youngro had turned her social media accounts into private, deleting pictures and posts, and even made her brother and mother turned their socials to private as well. But somehow, these people on the internet could still find out deleted pictures of her and shared it online. Hell, they even found Youngro's baby pictures!

Her heart calmed down when Sooho let her know that he had these problems handled by respectful team. Following his instructions, Youngro finally locked her phone screen and returned her focus to the book in front of her.

Miss Pi had left the reading room half an hour ago, but Youngro chose to stay for a while before she was called by Secretary Gong to change her outfit.

"Miss Youngro,