chapter soundtrack:
come fly with me - denis solee, the beegie adair trio

'

By the time the couple finished their shopping session together, Sooho ordered Kangmoo and his guards to go back to the hotel earlier, leaving only a couple of them on stand by. No one in sight, since he also ordered them to give the couple a personal space for the evening.

Due to the winter season, the day ended earlier, while the evening was coming sooner. As the sun set and all the lights above the Regent Street turned alive, Youngro and Sooho decided to take a quick dinner at one of the restaurants that were a few blocks away from the main road.

It was a fancy and sophisticated restaurant, where they had a full course fine dining for dinner. The interior was luxurious despite of the entrance that would look smaller at the first glance. Youngro didn't expect once they got inside, the restaurant was enormous. All the dishes served looked so pretty and exquisite, making the girl hesitated to even touch the food. Once or twice, Youngro would wonder quietly to herself if the served food were edible or not.

"This," Youngro's fork carefully poked on the soft textured green cream on her plate. "This is made from what?"

"Spinach."

She scooped some of the cream and let herself took a small bite to taste it. "Hmm delicious!" She beamed.

"Try the tenderloin." Across her, the Crown Prince darted his eyes at her smiley face, then at the cutted freshly roasted beef on the girl's plate.

"Oh my days!"

Sooho chuckled gleefully as he saw Youngro expressed how much she enjoyed the tenderloin she just had. Her eyes were closed, eyebrows taunted, and her left hand was placed on her chest. She looked like she just experienced a once in a lifetime experience.

As soon as Sooho swallowed the food inside his mouth, he finally said, "You're starting to sound like a local here." A teasing smile was plastered in his face as his gaze lingered at Youngro.

"Hm? Oh!" The girl covered as she left out a small laugh. "That's right. I must be influenced by Jonathan. I often hear him saying Oh my days! when he talked casually. He's so funny, you know. After he briefed me this morning, we spent some times talking about stuff while enjoying banana milk."

"He really looks like a kind and cheerful man, indeed." Sooho replied.

"He is! He's currently learning Korean language so I helped him learn some words and expressions." Youngro giddily shared her story being with Jonathan that morning. "He stayed at our suite for a while to chat... and then he went away when he got a schedule reminder." The girl shrugged, taking another bite of the tenderloin which made her dance happily on her seat.

"I'm glad he's with you this morning when I was away..." the man cleared his throat, his hand who was holding a fork with a piece of steak on its end stop midway in the air. "For my morning walk." He said, before biting the steak.

As they both finished the last menu of their main course, the waiter took the empty plates and delivered the dessert in an instant.

"Oh, strawberries!" Youngro beamed upon seeing the placed plate on the table. She could notice a scoop of soft ice cream on it, completed with drops of honey with honey crumbs, pieces of kiwis, and one of her favorite fruits, strawberries!

The girl smiled as she remembered the memories of her with her father. Whenever the old man came back from the village with a truck full of fruits, Youngro would sneak around to steal a box of strawberries for herself. And later, Youngu would catch her in action. The brother would scold her, but her father would happily let her took it at the end, though.

To the other side, the man was silently watching his date. Eun Youngro had beautiful eyes, and Sooho had noticed it since the beginning. But those bright rounded doe eyes would shine bright and sparkle everytime the girl got excited or enthusiastic. This time, it was because of the strawberries. And the man had taken another mental notes inside his head.

Sooho himself finally took a chance to study the dessert. "Strawberry with honey," he raised both his eyebrows. "I barely have this kind of combination for my dessert. But it looks... interesting." He picked up a piece of strawberry which was glazed with honey with his dessert fork. He took a closer look, appreciating the eye pleasing colors of the combination, before finally tasting it.

On the other hand, Youngro had already took hers into , savoring the sweet and sour taste. A soft humming sound was coming out of her. "It's good!"

Her eyes sparkled even more. It meant she really liked it.

Sooho enjoyed the dessert too. Who knew a combination of strawberry and honey would be this good? Maybe he could share this recommendation to his royal palace chef later.

"Oh, Youngro you have some honey over there."

"Where?"

"Your lips— the right corner. Sorry, it would be your left. Your left. That's right over there."

"Here?"

"Yup, alright. It's clear now."

CLICK!

"Did you just take a picture of me?"

"Don't worry. You look beautiful."

"Sooho-ssi."

"You said you want me to be your personal photographer? Trust me, it's going to be good."

The couple were walking side by side, in the middle of the busy pedestrians, passing through bunch of high-end stores. Above them, the lights were sparkling, radiating golden lights. It managed to make the cold winter night felt warmer than how it was. Sooho was right, the street really looked pretty at night.

"You really didn't have to buy me stuff that much, Sooho-ssi. How could you do that without me knowing..." Youngro said in between their silence as they walked through the crowded Regent Street at night. "You even bought a lot of things for my family..." she mumbled.

"I want to," the man replied. "Consider it as special gifts as we return back to Korea from this quick holiday."

"But still..." Youngro pursed her lips together, her fingers were fidgeting inside her coat's pockets. "You didn't even buy anything for yourself, did you?"

Sooho crossed both of his arms, squinting his eyes. "I didn't find the latest collections of my favorite brands interesting. So I didn't get any." He said. "At least we already have the shopping list completed for our family."

Youngro silently nodded, her head was hanging slightly low, as she was gazing down at their feet.

Walking side by side with the Crown Prince like this reminded her of the first days she met him in person. No one could deny the man was such a gentleman. He even followed the pace of Youngro's steps when they walked together through the royal palace halls... just like what he was doing then with her that night at Regent Street.

She was walking slowly, she noticed. From her peripheral view, she could catch the sight of his long feet following her pace, slowly taking each steps forward so he could stay next to her.

For once, Youngro tried to pick up the pace a little bit faster. And it really made the man took bigger steps to follow her.

In the next seconds, Youngro lowered her pace, and the man easily reduced his speed and followed her steps.

A sweet playful grin appeared on Youngro's face. It was covered with her long wavy hair on both sides of her face, Sooho probably couldn't notice it. So, in a sudden, she suddenly fastened her pace to surprise him.

It turned out, her plan to distract him was successfully done.

The Crown Prince looked surprised when he saw the girl walked quickly ahead of him, almost running. When he saw her, Youngro was already laughing heartily as she turned her head back at him.

"Come quickly, Sooho-ssi! That's our bus stop!"

"Heh." A soft chuckle came out of his mouth, followed by a soft fog that quickly faded into thin air. The man then came in a halt as he watched the girl walking further with spring in her steps. She really looked like a bunny with her wavy hair bobbing around with each of the steps she took. "Wait for me, Eun Youngro!"

Savile Row (Stop N)

"The 22 bus will come in 15 minutes. Let's take a seat while waiting." Sooho returned his phone back to his pocket and seated himself on the long bench at the bus stop.

It was Youngro's idea to return back with the bus that night. She thought, that way, they could enjoy the night time in London even more.

However, she just wanted to make sure once more that her decision was alright. "Sooho-ssi, is it really okay if Kangmoo and the guards left us?"

"It's fine." He said, then nodded his head at the available space next to him. "Come here, have a seat."

Youngro didn't know 15 minutes would take so long.

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