chapter soundtrack:
lovely - park jungeun

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"They're here, Mother!"

"Oh God! Welcome! Welcome! Please come in, oh welcome to our house. Thank you for visiting us, Your Highness."

"Hello, good morning Mrs. Hong Aera and Youngu-ssi." Sooho took a bow politely as he entered the house. "I apologize for not visiting you sooner. And Merry Christmas for your family. We have brought some gifts for you as well. Secretary Gong and his team will help to deliver it here."

"You're too kind, Your Highness!"

Sooho only replied with a smile.

"I haven't properly introduced myself yet," he politely took another bow as he introduced himself. "My name is Im Sooho, the only son of His Majesty King Im Jirok. I will be your daughter's soon to be husband as we will be engaged by 30 December. Thank you for accepting my visit."

Youngro could see it clearly, her mother's eyes were sparkling. Her hair was styled neatly, making her look younger and beautiful that day. It seemed like she had visited the salon where she booked her appointment days ago. Youngu too, he looked handsome with that new fresh cut.

"We know you, Your Highness!" Hong Aera giggled as he patted Youngu's back next to her. "My name is Hong Aera, Youngro's mother. And this is Youngu, our oldest son. The father, Eun Changsu, can't join us today... since he's at the hospital. And thank you so much for you and your family, he's getting the best treatment he could ever have. So, we are the ones who should be thanking you!" The mother replied to the Crown Prince and took a deep bow, along with Youngu.

"It's our pleasure that we can help your family," Sooho said. "I pray for your husband and father speed recovery."

It was 11 AM at the Eun family's house, and as soon as Sooho and Youngro entered the house, Hong Aera welcomed both of them warmly. Youngu at the back politely followed, but he made sure he took some time to give his younger sister a tight hug.

"Hey, welcome back!" He giggled.

Sooho took his time to study Youngro's family member. The mother was Hong Aera, wife of Eun Changsu, and the other guy was Eun Youngu, Youngro's brother. He could notice similarities of their face features, eyes and nose. They looked even more similar when they smile.

They were entering the small house and were about to enter the living room area when Aera suddenly said, "Let's have brunch, we have prepared the dishes and they're still warm! Let's eat first, shall we?"

Youngro peeked at Sooho on her side, waiting for his reaction.

"Of course," he said. "I can't wait to enjoy your dishes, Mrs. Hong."

Various home made dishes were served on the table. Unlike any other days, Hong Aera had given all her best that day, preparing brunch for the Crown Prince. Eun Youngu helped as well, and he didn't complain at all since he would love to eat various dishes made by his mom, and of course, he believed that they should come prepared with the Crown Prince joining their dining table.

The chairs at the dining table were four, and for the last couple of weeks, even months, there were only three of them seated there. If only Eun Changsu was all healthy and fit like before, he would have joined them. But that day, all the chairs were full, since Im Sooho was there, sitting next to Youngro, across from Eun Youngu.

Hong Aera finally placed the very last meal for brunch, and Sooho politely bowed his head as he thanked her. "Thank you so much for preparing the dishes, Mrs. Hong."

"Oh!!" Aera exclaimed as she took her seat across Youngro. "Really, it's nothing! It's not everyday you have the Crown Prince joining your family's dining table for brunch. Me and Youngu happily prepared all of the dishes for you to enjoy, so please eat a lot!" She said, then laughing happily like a mother who just received a straight-A student report. But this time, she was happy because her daughter brought home an extraordinary man as her future husband.

"I would happily do that, Mrs. Hong." Sooho nodded, giving the older woman another smile from him.

And again, Hong Aera looked like she was whipped with the Crown Prince.

Youngro could understand her reaction, though. Being with Im Sooho for the last couple days and even got to know him closer, she understood that there was no way anyone could not like him. Especially whenever Im Sooho smiled, whenever the cold looking and stern Crown Prince showed her his smile, Youngro couldn't help but falling for him deeper and deeper each day.

And the way he always managed to trigger the butterflies inside her stomach...

The thoughts of last night memories made Youngro blushed again. And she forced herself to throw away the memories as they all started the brunch.

Hong Aera let Sooho take his first bite first, saying she would like to see his reaction. And so, the Eun family members were watching the Crown Prince expectantly as he took his first bite of rice with Hong Aera's special bulgogi.

"How is it?" The mother asked while raising both her eyebrows.

Sooho carefully chewed and savored his first bite then swallowed. A thin smile appeared on his face once more as he said, "It's delicious."

With that, Hong Aera left out a hearty motherly laugh as she clasped her hands together. "I'm so happy you like it! Okay then, go on, eat a lot for today, everyone!"

"How is our Youngro doing at the royal palace? Did she make any trouble, Your Highness?" Youngu asked in the middle of their brunch sessions. He grinned when he saw Youngro shooting him with daggers from her eyes.

Sooho took a glass of water before answering, "She's been really well. She has been doing a lot of learning sessions and she has done amazing throughout the days. We're happy to have her." He said, making Youngro shyly smiled to herself.

"Glad to hear that, then." Youngu replied.

"The engagement will be on 30 December, right?" It was Hong Aera this time who threw a question at the Crown Prince. "Have you both started preparing it? It's such a short amount of time... but I hope you two are doing well."

"There are teams who are helping us to prepare the engagement day. We will focus to prepare the engagement day starting tomorrow." Sooho answered, and Youngro responded with a nod. "The wedding too, we will prepare it soon."

Youngro almost choked. But she quickly gulped down a glass of water before she made any scene on the dining table.

"Mother, can you help pass me the soup?" Youngro said then, as she felt like she need more refreshment and she had enough rice already. In respond, Aera happily helped her by passing a big bowl of seaweed soup to Youngro.

"Here you go!"

"Thank you, Mother—"

The next thing that happened made Youngro's heart stop beating, and her face turned pale. Accidentally, she dropped the spoon that was on the bowl, making some of the hot soup splashed directly at the Crown Prince next to her. That was the last thing she expected that day. She didn't even imagine the worst case scenario being like this.

"Oh dear."

Im Sooho next to her instantly closed his eyes shut as some droplets of the soup also landed on his face. But now, his white shirt was stained with light brown color from the seaweed soup.

Why did it always happen whenever he wore white shirt? First, hot coffee. And now, seaweed soup?

Luckily, his shirt wasn't as wet as the time Youngro splashed her hot coffee on him. It was just a spoonful of soup. And it wasn't that hot. But for sure, he had to change his clothes. He better called Kangmoo in with a fresh white shirt after the brunch.

"Sooho-ssi! I'm so sorry!"

Hong Aera and Youngu were speechless in their seats. Jaws dropped open, with rounded eyes. Not a single word came out from their mouth until finally, Aera hurriedly took a box of tissues and handed it to Youngro. "Help him." She said.

Youngro frowned as she was checking on the Crown Prince. He was waving his hand, gesturing to Youngro to be calm but how in the world could she be calm when she just splashed the Crown Prince again with another hot liquid, seaweed soup this time?!

"Sooho-ssi, I'm so sorry, really. Oh dear, did you bring another shirt with you by chance?" Youngro took a couple of tissue sheets and started rubbing it on his shirt. "Excuse me, let me clean this up."

"Youngro, it's fine, it's alright,"

"It's not fine," the girl worriedly took another sheets to dry his neck that was covered with droplets of soup. "Did it hurt? The soup was hot, wasn't it?" She asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"It wasn't that