chapter soundtrack:
crystal flower - 2nd moon

That morning, when Youngro woke up from her sleep, she couldn't find Sooho anywhere inside his room.

He was sleeping with her last night, she still remembered how she was hugging him to sleep. Yet, that morning, the girl was left alone on the bed.

While she was gathering her consciousness, a small piece of memories flashed in her head. It was from earlier that morning—

 

"Youngro."

"Umm... Ugh. Why, Sooho-ssi..."

"I'm going out for my morning walk. Do you want to come?"

"At... this hour? What time is it?"

The girl hadn't opened her eyes, but she could hear the man's soft chuckling and feel his fingers her hair. "Well, it's almost six in the morning. I guess it's too early for you." Then, she felt his body shifting closer to her before he landed a soft peck on her temple. "I'll be back soon. Have some more sleep."

 

Youngro rubbed her temple where Sooho kissed her earlier that morning. His kiss felt so soft and warm on her skin and the feelings lingered there for a while. When her eyes fully opened at last, she stared at the ceiling as a soft smile grew wider on her face.

It was a perfect way to start the day.

In one swift move, Youngro kicked the thick blanket away from her body and jumped off the bed. However, when her feet landed on the floor, her head somehow turned dizzy for a while. It made the girl freeze on the spot for some seconds.

"Huh— I must be jumping off the bed too quickly..." She mumbled under her breath. One of her hands was rubbing on her forehead. Once the dizziness on her head faded away, the girl shook her head quickly and beamed once more.

She had another couple of learning sessions with Miss Pi for the day. Of course, she fully understood that she would have to be ready for the Crown Princess' responsibilities really soon. Miss Pi told her that she had everything prepared for her briefing and Eun Youngro would be ready to run the task. Moreover, she would get her own project sooner!

Eun Youngro was ready for everything that day. Thanks to the Crown Prince's kiss that morning which worked like magic. 

After taking her bathrobes and some pieces of clothes, the girl walked towards the bathroom with springs in her steps.



 

❄️


 

[Sooho] Youngro, are you feeling OK now?

[Sooho] If you still have a headache, please rest for today and take some meds

[Sooho] I noticed you didn't get much water this morning on our breakfast. Drink more water, okay?

[Sooho] Tell me if you need anything

[Sooho] I'll be there if you need me

[Youngro] I'm fine now, Sooho-ssi

[Youngro] The headache is long gone this afternoon! ✨

[Sooho] Glad to hear that

[Sooho] I have also told Miss Pi about this too

[Sooho] If the learning session with her feels too much for today, feel free to cut the session and move it for tomorrow

[Sooho] You can take it slow

[Sooho] I need to go for another meeting now. Good day, Youngro 🙂

[Youngro] Good day, Sooho-ssi

[Youngro] Fighting! 🤍

[Sooho] 🤍

 

"Crown Prince, the meeting will start soon."

Next to him, Sooho could hear Kangmoo whispering to him, trying not to be too noisy inside the quiet conference room. When he turned his head to see the older man, the Crown Prince found his right hand man nodding his head to the phone on his hands.

He was asking the Crown Prince to put his phone away.

So, Sooho did.

"And Crown Prince?"

Once more, Kangmoo bent his back lower and leaned closer to Sooho to whisper another thing to him. To which, Sooho replied with a low hum.

"You have such a handsome smile but you might get the other meeting attendees confused—"

"Oh." Sooho quickly cleared his throat, holding back his wide smile that had been showing on his face unknowingly since he got the last message from Youngro that morning before the meeting started. "Right. Pardon me." He coughed.

"Shall we start the meeting?"


 

The art and cultural festival between South Korea and Japan that had been prepared since last year had finally reached its final steps of preparation. Sooho was satisfied with all of the progress made by each of the team that was responsible for this event. Some of the team members were from Japan and they attended the meeting virtually since it would only be a weekly catch up. Next month, in the month of February when the event would be held, everyone from Japan would come to Korea and Sooho couldn't wait to meet all of the members in person. They had been doing amazing works.

"Brilliant. Good work, everyone. Thank you so much for your contributions for this project." Sooho spoke up as the very last team had finished their part. "I can see all of our feedbacks from previous meeting had been proceeded with updates and adjustments accordingly. It looks like we're perfectly on the right track."

Hearing the Crown Prince complimenting the team, all of the meeting attendees could finally showed a relieved smile on their faces.

"There are only some feedbacks and notes for today. Especially the run down and the talents list, we should finalize it soon so we can lock the budget management soon."

"Excuse me, Your Highness." A man from Korean team raised his hand politely, asking for the Crown Prince's permission to talk. When he was excused, the man finally continued, "We have gathered an updated list for the talents. Our team members are still actively curating list of artists for each of artistic fields. We will share it with you latest by today before lunch. As for the run down, the team is still waiting for the finalized talents list and other sub-events to be locked."

"Great. Thank you. You can send it through email and loop in Kangmoo and Secretary Gong as well." Sooho replied with a nod. "Any other things anyone would like to add or follow up before we conclude the meeting? Going once? Going twice?"

Since there was no one raising their voice either on the online call and the conference room, the Crown Prince finally wrapped up the meeting. "Alright. Thank you for the updates, everyone. See you on the next meeting."




 

"Huh?"

Once everyone left the meeting room except for the Crown Prince and his right hand man, both of them spent some times scrolling through their screens for a while inside the room on their seats before jumping on to another schedule. It was Kangmoo, who broke the silence inside the room when he spotted something on his screen. He looked somehow surprised, and his eyebrows were furrowed as he checked on the screen. Sooho could notice, the man even tried to zooming in on his screen multiple times.

"What is it?" Sooho asked, getting curious of what Kangmoo just saw. Swiftly, he pushed his heels on the floor and moved his chair towards the older man.

"It's... nothing. I was just checking on the latest updated talents list for the festival events." Kangmoo cleared his throat as he passed his own iPad to the Crown Prince. "Have a look. The team has sent us the list earlier. It's on your inbox as well, Your Highness."

Sooho nodded slowly as he accepted the iPad that was handed by Kangmoo. The screen was showing a long list of names that had accepted the invitation sent by the royal family.

When he tried to scrolled up to the very top of list, his eyes caught a familiar name written on the list. And it made him froze for a while.

A name. Too familiar.

Somewhere on the list, Sooho could catch the name of the famous Korean ballerina.



 

Chungya, Kang



 

"Isn't she still having an exclusive contract with the royal ballet in London? Can she make it? Our event will be held in a quite long time next month." Kangmoo asked in wonder.

"I..." Sooho looked taken aback, as he was also wondering on the same thing as Kangmoo. "I don't know, Hyung. But it seems like... she's able to join. Her name is under the talents who have accepted our invitation."

"She will come, then."

"I guess she will."

 

❄️

chapter soundtrack:
blossom - ong sung eun

"Sooho-ssi?"

Eun Youngro's sweet voice that was calling him pulled Sooho's attention away from his laptop screen on his working desk. When he turned his head towards the study room door, he found his wife peeking into the room with her doe eyes. She looked like she was ready to sleep as she already had her nightgowns on.

What time is it?

Sooho took a quick glance to his watch to found that it was an hour to midnight. The man sighed. As much as he wanted to go to bed with Youngro that night, he had to finish the remaining paperworks to do before they went back to college some days later.

"Are you still busy?" Youngro carefully asked, her fingers were playing with the edge of the doors.

The Crown Prince left out another sigh and smiled to the girl. He slowly nodded in response. "I have some paperworks left to do. It will be... quick, hopefully. But you can go to sleep first, Youngro. Don't wait for me."

The girl hummed, pursing her lips for a while.

By tomorrow, she had to move to her own chamber. The royal palace staff had started to help her moving her things into her own chamber this evening. So, that night would be the last night she would sleep together with Im Sooho. Not that she cou