chapter soundtrack:
have yourself a merry little christmas - charles snyder

❄️

Sounds of knocking came from the door.

Youngro hurriedly gave final touches of concealer to cover the marks on her neck before shouting, "Come in!" It was probably Maeng with her team, along with Boonok too as usual.

It was the morning of 25 December, though. Youngro didn't believe they would even come to work on Christmas day, but there they were in front of her bedroom door. The girl shared her playful grin as she opened the door. "Morning! Merry Christmas! Please come in!" She exclaimed.

There were 4 people came into the room to help Youngro prepared herself that morning, and Youngro prayed hard that she had covered all the marks from Sooho last night perfectly.

They had chosen the outfit for that day— a simple knee-length white dress and a pair of beige heels. And now, Maeng was doing Youngro's make up. As the schedules would be a visit to Eun family's house, Maeng made sure the make up wasn't too heavy and kept it simple and natural.

Maeng was brushing colors of eyeshadow on Youngro's eyelids as the girl diligently closed her eyes until she got another instruction from the stylist.

"Oops." Maeng huffed as she accidentally brushed the wrong area of her left eyelid. "Wait a second, let me get another color for correction--" she said as her finger lightly tapped on Youngro's nape. And the girl suddenly shuddered.

"Hm?"

That was a simple gesture, even the slightest gesture from Maeng. She barely even touched Youngro's skin, that was just a light tap on the back of her neck. But with that only, the shattered memories of last night were triggered inside Youngro's mind.

Her wide opened eyes were now in contact with Maeng's, which were staring at her, questioning. "Is there something wrong?"

Boonok, the maid, who noticed what just happened quickly reached the air conditioner controller to make the room temperature warmer. "Is the room too cold for you, Miss Youngro? I'll make it warm, please let me know if you have any concern." She politely said to Youngro before walking back to the corner of the room where she stood by.

"Ah," Youngro pursed her lips, thinking of what to say. She didn't even know why she behaved that way. Somehow, she felt more sensitive with her skin. "Nothing. Probably because of the cold weather and I didn't set the room temperature properly."

Maeng and Boonok exchanged a wondering look with each other. They were sure the temperature inside was quite warm. However, they just shrugged it off and continued their task for the morning.

❄️

Sooho swore to God that Kangmoo got something in his mind that morning as he gave him a run through of the schedules today. He couldn't stop grinning.

Lee Kangmoo wasn't a morning person. Sooho remembered how Kangmoo grouched about his request to give him daily brief earlier in the morning compared to the other royal family. Yet, here he was, unlike the other day. He was grinning playfully as if he just got a special gift on Christmas day.

Oh. Sooho almost forgot.

As Kangmoo finished his brief, Sooho threw away his curiosity on why Kangmoo behaved that way that morning, and asked him another thing instead. "The gift for Youngro I told you before, has it been prepared yet?"

Strangely, Kangmoo left out a low chuckle when he received the question. The older man then answered, "Yes, Your Highness. We have placed it under the Christmas tree, as ordered by the Queen Dowager each year. Your gift for Miss Youngro had been prepared and placed there as well, along with the other gifts."

Every Christmas, the royal family would exchange gifts with each other, and received tons of gifts from the people and admirers. Special case for the Crown Prince, he would get tons of gifts every Christmas, way more than the King even got. His admirers, even from other countries, would happily send him various gifts each year. Sooho was thankful, but he usually let the staff or maids get his gifts instead.

"Great, thanks." Sooho simply replied, then walked his way out of the room as he was already prepared for the day.

Silently, his fingers reached up to his throat, brushing the area where Youngro left her mark. It was now covered with a concealer. Thank God, Sooho found one in one of his drawers.

He cleared his throat. Hopefully, the concealer would last until the end of the day.

"Boonok? Why are we heading back to the living room?"

"There's something you should see before you go, Miss!"

"B-but, what is—"

Youngro came to a halt at the entrance of Crown Prince's mansion living room when he saw Im Sooho was there, standing tall, next to the Christmas tree. His outfit color tone was similar to hers, as he wore white long shirt, beige pants, and white shoes. He combed his hair back, exposing his wide forehead. If only he knew how much Youngro adored the way he look whenever he styled his hair that way.

He looked effortlessly handsome and charismatic.

When she shifted her eyes to the Christmas tree next to him, her eyes sparkled with amazement. The Christmas tree looked beautiful with its lights lit up with a lot of colors, along with its decorations which made the tree even more sparkling that morning. And there was a shining silver star on the very top. 

And the gifts.

Youngro just noticed that morning, there were a lot of gifts placed under the Christmas tree. It surprised her, making her forget the fact that there was Im Sooho right there, the man who— kissed her last night. Right there, at the very same room. With a bouquet of flowers.

"Good morning. Merry Christmas."

His deep voice brought Youngro back to reality. She quickly greeted the Crown Prince back. "Good morning, Sooho-ssi. Merry Christmas to you too." She said, with her eyes barely staring at him.

To her surprise, the Crown Prince suddenly handed her the bouquet of fresh white roses. The girl gazed at the flowers with a surprised look on her face, then she checked on the man in front of her.

"You said your father and brother would give you flowers on Christmas days. And you like lily of the valley. Unfortunately, the flowers aren't ready yet, so—" he coughed. "I hope you like white roses?"

He remembered.

"I love it. Thank you." Youngro smiled in return, while her hands were hugging the bouquet of white roses closely to her. "Thank you, really."

Boonok was smiling secretly as she saw the couple being so warm with each other. Once they were together, the maid then asked for permission to leave the room and Youngro let her go.

Youngro could already feel her cheeks warm up again. She was probably blushing at this point. If only Sooho knew how much she wanted to slap herself whenever she was reminded of the memories they shared last night in this room. And now, him being so sweet with the flowers? Why was this man so good at making her go insane?

When the girl finally got a clear view of the Crown Prince that morning, she noticed that his face looked calm as ever. As if nothing happened. So she did her best to bury the memories of last night as for now, and enjoyed the sweet scent of the white roses.

Youngro then approached the Christmas tree, making sure there was enough space between her and Sooho. "The Chrismas tree is so beautiful!"

"It is," Sooho replied. "There are gifts under the tree for you and me."

Youngro's eyes rounded, "Me?" 

She couldn't believe she got one—

"There are plenty of gifts for you, if I check here." Sooho bented down to get a clearer view of the gifts stacked under the tree. "Your gifts are on this side of the tree. You receive some letters as well. You might want to see it."

Even more than one?

Exchanging gifts every Christmas was something Eun family do as well. But this year, as there were a lot of things going on, Youngro needed more time to prepare her gifts— Lord. She even forgot to get gifts for the Crown Prince himself. Now, she wanted to slap herself even harder.

"Op