chapter soundtrack:
crystal flower - 2nd moon

It had been 15 minutes and the Crown Prince had not come to the chamber yet.

Youngro started to wonder if she came earlier than expected, however she arrived just on time as scheduled. At least, that was what Miss Pi said to her. The woman was quite strict and discipline. She wouldn't be wrong.

The Crown Prince was late.

After everything Maeng had briefed her that evening, Youngro was beyond nervous once she stepped into the chamber. At the first 10 minutes, Youngro was relieved she arrived first so she could plan out what she had to do later once Im Sooho arrived to chamber. But then, after spending some more minutes, she just wanted Sooho to come really soon so she could let her braided hair that was rolled up into a heavy bun with numerous ornaments loose.

"It's heavy..." she murmured, her fingers raised up to touch her keunmeori, a head gear for the Crown Princess. It surely made her bun looked more regal and Youngro herself could feel very much like a Korean royalty. However, she really wanted to free herself from it. By then, it started to feel like her head was so heavy, her hair was being pulled hardly, and she just couldn't wait to finally let her hair strands free from it.

"His Royal Highness Crown Prince Im Sooho has arrived!"

Thank God.

That was Kangmoo's voice. It came from the outside of the Crown Prince's old quarter building.

"Oh, he's here." Youngro whispered under her breath as she slowly pulled herself up to her feet. The girl stood up straight, waiting for the Crown Prince to come inside the chamber.

The chamber where they would stay at for the night clearly show how old the building was. Everything looked as if they were sent from another time dimension— from Joseon era, even way longer back then. However, every corner of the room and every ornaments inside was still looking neat and well preserved. The royal palace staff had been doing great job taking care of the palace for sure.

The chamber was also spacious. Once you stepped inside, you would come into an open space area. Youngro guessed, it would be a room where people or visitors who used to come into the Crown Prince chamber would be seated. There was a huge thin curtains which divided the previous area with the main room inside. 

Right at that time, Youngro stood behind the thin curtains, staring at the chamber entrance nervously. The Crown Prince would come inside anytime soon...

Youngro could hear faint sounds of footsteps before a familiar man walked into the chamber. Through the curtain, her vision could catch his figure although it was somehow blurry. 

The tall man behind the curtain was in a gonryongpo— known also as dragon robe that would be worn by a King or Crown Prince— with dark blue color, which was the color for a Crown Prince. Although blurred, Youngro could see visible silver ornaments on the robe. On his head, she could also notice an ikseongwan— a tall black hat which was a part of Korean Crown Prince's traditional royal attire.

"Sooho-ssi?"

"Good evening, Youngro. I'm sorry for being late."

Once she heard his voice, Youngro took a ninety degrees bow to greet him. When she straightened up, the man proceeded to come closer to her. The sight of it made Youngro hardly gulped. 

When he came here, what should she do???

"May I come in there?" Sooho asked. He was standing closely to the curtain, Youngro could almost see his face clearly.

He was smiling.

"Yes, of course. Please, come in."

Right at the second Im Sooho stepped into the chamber, he was greeted by the scent of flowers filling the air inside the room. The floral scents were even stronger than the usual one he noticed on Youngro. It was as if someone just had a flower bath inside the room... most probably, Youngro did.

That evening, to his surprise, his preparation took longer than usual. Stylist Lee had a hard time with the layers of his robe. Sooho was feeling sorry because he would get off of the robe real soon.

When the girl gave him the permission to come inside the chamber, Sooho pushed the thin fabric of curtain that separated them away, walking through it. Once he was inside, he found Eun Youngro standing there in a Crown Princess traditional royal attire. Her head looked so big with the braided bun and a head gear worn. Behind her, there were soft beddings on the warm mat prepared for the couple. Along with a short table with some refreshments.

"Um, welcome?" The girl said carefully.

When his vision shifted back to the Crown Princess, Sooho silently left out a pleased sigh. She looked beautiful.

"Thank you for welcoming me." In return, Sooho replied her greeting with a polite bow. "You look beautiful." He said, making the blushes on the girl's cheeks turned some shades darker.

"You look... amazing too." The girl lowered her head, but she had already seen his complete look before. "You look like you just walked out of a saeguk drama."

Her words brought laughters to the Crown Prince.

Before silence and awkwardness could fill the atmosphere between them, Sooho quickly cleared his throat to get Youngro's attention. "I believe... Miss Pi had briefed you... for the ceremony tonight?"

Gulp.

"Yes, Sooho-ssi." Her answer came out as a faint whisper.

Sooho clearly noticed his Crown Princess was beyond nervous. Her fingers that were almost hidden by the long sleeve or her robe could be seen busily fidgeting. The sight of it made Sooho feel warmth in his chest. He left out a soft chuckle before a fond smile was plastered on his handsome face.

"Kangmoo and Secretary Gong have briefed me too. And now I'm as nervous as you are." He said carefully. He hoped his honesty could make the tension between them became lighter. When he caught Youngro's doe eyes staring back at him, the corner of his lips curved up higher, smiling even wider to the girl. "So, let's just take it easy tonight. I don't want to make you uncomfortable too. Just relax. Since it's just both of us here inside this chamber, no one would know if we really go through the whole ceremonies or not."

As Youngro listened to the man, she pursed her lips together, processing his words.

He was right. Since it was only them together inside the chamber... no one would know if they really do the wedding night ceremonies—

"But... is it okay with you, Sooho-ssi?" Asked Youngro, a concerned look was shown in her face. "I mean... I mean, if we... if we really have to—"

"Your head must feel heavy. I used to help my mom opening her hair ornaments when I was a kid. Let me help you with that." Sooho cut her midway, pointing at Youngro's head. "I need to get this hat off of my head too. Let's get comfortable first before we..." He paused for a while, then cleared his throat once more. "Talk? And enjoy the refreshments."

Ah. That's right.

The maids had prepared some refreshments for them that night. There were some drinks served on a round short table on the warm mat. Youngro knew in one of the teapots, there were some alcoholic drinks. And she knew for sure, they both had to avoid it that night if they really didn't want to do anything... 

"So... have a seat," Sooho said. "Let me help you with your hair."

"O-ouch."

"I'm sorry. I'll be more gentle."

When Sooho— who had already removed his Crown Prince royal attire and now was left with a simple layer of white royal robes— finally managed to unattached the Crown Princess head gear from Youngro's hair, the girl left out a long exhale. Youngro could feel her head became much lighter, and the muscles on her shoulder felt much more relaxed. Once the head gear was removed, Youngro just realized how heavy it was.

"Gosh... it feels so good without that head gear." She whined, whispering to herself.

"Now, the bun." Next, Sooho moved his hands to work on Youngro's braided hair that was tied up into a bun. Surprisingly, the man could easily find the pins that were attaching the hair all together. 

It took him some times to unattach all of the hair pieces. He was sitting closely behind Youngro, so close that she could feel the warmth from his breath on her neck whenever he leaned down closer so he could see the pins on her hair more clearly. Once, or twice, Youngro would caught herself gasping silently when Sooho got closer to her neck...

Right after he was done unattaching the bun, his fingers then moved to work on her braids. It didn't took long since he just had to untie the ribbon on the tip of Youngro's braid, and voila! Youngro's long black hair was now free. He let her long hair fell loose on her back.

"All done." Sooho said proudly, tapping on the girl's shoulder. "How is it?"

Youngro turned her head around, her finger raised up to touch her hair. "It feels so much better. Thank you, Sooho-ssi." A soft smile appeared on her face as she combed her long hair with her fingers. "Now I need to get out of these... layers of royal robes." She chuckled as Sooho gave her an empathic look. He knew it would be such a hassle to remove all of those layers.

"Can you... do it yourself?"

"I... I think I can. I watched Maeng closely when she put these robes on me."

"Take your time, I'll turn around so you can remove the robes comfortably."

"It's... okay if you want to get some refreshments first."

"No. It's alright, I'll wait for you." Sooho gave her a quick nod before shifting his seat, moving around so then he was not facing her while she's removing the layer of her robes. When the Crown Prince turned around, Youngro stared at his back for a while and smiled.

"Thank you." She whispered, thanking him before finally worked on to remove the outer layers of her Crown Princess attire.

Whenever Youngro removed another layer of her robes, she could feel herself being exposed. She didn't realize, her outfit consisted of that much layers of clothes. Maeng must had a very hard time helping her dressed up that evening. Each time she removed another layer, she mentally apologized to Maeng that she had to remove the layers sooner than expected.

"Whether it's you or him who removes your clothes tonight, be very careful! It's a royal attire made of priceless fabrics!"

One of her warnings was echoing in Youngro's head as the girl removed the last layer of the robes, leaving her with a simple white hanbok. It was the very last layer of her royal attire that night, and what was below it was just her underclothes. When she had finished removing the robes, Youngro quickly folded and stacked all of it beside of the soft beddings.

Secretly, her hand pulled out something out of the folded clothes.

It was her phone.

Miss Pi told her not to bring it with her that night, however for once, she felt like she just had to bring her phone with her so she sneaked it into a small