chapter soundtrack:
spring 1 - max richter

"Sooho-ssi..."

The mentioned man walked across the hall towards Youngro. He was wearing a set of grey suit and trousers, with black shirt and black tie under his suit. As if black was his color, Youngro had been noticing that he always looked even more dashing whenever he wore black outfits.

When Youngro saw the man was busy touching his tie, she was worried the man had another problem with his tie again, just like the other day when they had fitting session at the Crown Prince's mansion. If he needed help with his tie, Youngro wasn't the right person to give a helping hand...

Fortunately, the Crown Prince successfully fixed his tie shortly and Maeng gave her approval. His styling for that day had completed.

"Your Highness," Maeng took a polite bow as the Crown Prince slowed down his walks and the man replied with a curt nod.

"Eun Youngro, Maeng," he greeted both of the girls before giving them his apology. "It seems like you had finished your preparation much earlier than I did. My apologies, the morning meeting with the crisis management team took a bit longer than expected."

As she heard the word "crisis" mentioned, Youngro quickly asked him in response, "What happened? Is there something wrong?"

Maeng who stood next to youngro was keeping her head low, however Youngro could see the older woman trying to peek on Youngro and the Crown Prince once or twice. She couldn't hide her curiosity.

"A couple of issues," Sooho simply answered. His tone was serious and Youngro could notice a concerned look on his face when he landed his eyes on her face. Sooho was about to open and say something when he suddenly paused and gave a look to Maeng. He was signaling her to give them a private space to talk. With a nod, Maeng received his signal clearly and proceed to walk away.

"I'll see you later, Miss Youngro." Maeng tapped Youngro's shoulder before leaving both of them together.

After making sure that the other girl had walked away and gone by the end of the main palace hall, Sooho cleared his throat. He grimaced and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Your forehead, is it okay?"

Ah. Of course the news had spreaded.

She wondered how the media and press would create the headline of the morning news today— The Crown Prince's Bride to Be Was Clumsy Enough to Get Hitted by a Journalist's Camera Lens! maybe?

Right after the day when the royal palace announced the royal engagement, Youngro had been holding herself back from browsing through the internet and social media. Even when she had turned her social media into private mode, she could still get flooding notifications on her accounts... even her email inbox as well! How could these people reached out to her through personal accounts?

She swore she even saw one of the lecturers from her college emailed her a curious question to confirm if she really was the person they saw on the breaking news.

Not to mention the leaked personal pictures of hers that were shared everywhere. She was grateful the royal palace teams had an excellent job on taking them down. However, she still thought that she really needed to take a step back for a while and avoid the internet. She really had to protect her image from now on.

Youngro blatantly left out an awkward laugh while brushing her exposed forehead. She believed the foundation Maeng used had good coverage so people wouldn't see it getting blue sooner or later. Last time she checked, she didn't get any bruise because of the bump. Thanks to Boonok who helped her placing bunch of cold ice to the area that stinged the most.

"It's fine!" she answered, giving the Crown Prince a reassuring smile. The man still had a concerned look on his face, though.

"Do you still feel dizzy? I saw the video and it looked like you were hit quiet hard." He uttered as he eyed the specific area on her forehead that was hit by that big camera lens.

"Really, I'm fine now." Youngro reassured him once more.

The Crown Prince looked much more relieved and a thin smile appeared on his face. "That's good to hear." He said. "Are you ready for today? Had Secretary Gong given you a clear brief on today's schedules? It would be quiet packed..."

She had been briefed that morning. But she couldn't fully remember every single thing the old man Secretary Gong was explaining to her. She just remembered that after having lunch, they would have to join the private Christmas party with the ministries and important stakeholders of the royal palace. Then, by the end of the day Youngro would join for a royal family Christmas dinner, took a picture together, and recorded some greeting videos to be published publicly.

One thing that had been making her nervous was that she had to meet bunch of important and named famous people that day. Secretary Gong had given her a list of names along with their pictures and positions so that Youngro could have a bit of knowledge about the guests' backgrounds. Yet, the girl had a hard time memorizing all of them.

"Secretary Gong had briefed me my schedule today." She replied. "And he also gave me a list of guests... but I think I might need to relook on it since I haven't memorized all of them..." she carefully said, lowkey hinting the Crown Prince that she had tried her best but she just didn't have enough memory inside her head to fill the names into her brain in a short amount of time that day. She might need his help.

Sooho hummed, "Indeed, there will be plenty of guests for today's party..." the man left out a long exhale. "I know all of them and I understand each of their personality and preference. Just stick with me for a while as the event begins. I'll take you around with me to meet the guests. I'll also give you a tips or two to get to know them better."

Youngro slowly nodded, accepting the man's offer. "Alright..."

They both stood still for a while. Youngro was staring down while playing with the soft layers of her dress. She knew she shouldn't do it. Miss Pi had told her a couple of times on how to appear confident and proper. But unconsciously, she had been letting her guards down whenever she was together with Sooho these days.

"Shall we head to the dining room now? We can have an early lunch and I can share with you some insights... before we attend the party later?" He asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

Youngro quickly agreed to his offer, bouncing slightly on her feet. "Sure, let's go."

❄️
 

It was snowing that afternoon. Despite of the cold weather, Youngro was excited as she saw the soft snows falling from the skies. 

"Oh! It's snowing!" The girl exclaimed, couldn't hold back her excitement upon seeing the snows slowly falling outside.

The man who was sitting next to her followed her gaze, staring outside the big window of the main palace dining room where they just had their lunch together. Last ti