chapter soundtrack:
우주 정복 #1 - 2nd moon

It was the beginning of February.

The day when the royal couple had to go back to college finally came. Youngro would be busy with classes and assignments along with her royal duties as Crown Princess, while Sooho would be fully focused to finish his final project with his team and his royal duties too. As it was the last term for him, he actually got more time to execute his project shootings without any distraction from lecture sessions or other assignments. The King even gave him less royal paperwork and projects to do during this period.

Early in the morning, Youngro and Sooho took a car ride together to the college. Secretary Gong was sitting at the front, while Kangmoo was driving next to him.

Youngro checked on the maps on her device, it would take 20 minutes of car ride to their college from the royal palace. With the traffic that morning, normally it would even take longer to arrive there. However, as a privilege of the royal family, Kangmoo had a royal guard with a motorcycle ready to open the way for them on the road. The guard rode the motorcycle ahead of them, right in front of their car. Magically, the other vehicles on the street of Seoul immediately moved away from the lane where Kangmoo drove his car, giving the royal family car a clear path to pass by. Youngro believe, they would arrive at the college in less than 20 minutes.

It was a total opposite of the experience the girl had before. She had always been taking the public transport wherever she went. She took the public bus to go to the campus. Most of the time, the bus she took would be so packed in the morning and the traffic would be so horrific that she had to depart earlier from her house so that she wouldn't be late for morning classes.

"Is your jacket warm enough?" Next to her, the Crown Prince leaned in closer to the girl, asking her quietly.

Youngro glanced away from her phone screen to meet the man's gaze and nodded. "It's warm."

Carefully, the girl returned her gaze on him, checking Sooho from head to toe. Her husband looked warm that day with his thick cream jacket and a navy scarf on his neck. "You have to stay warm too," She said, her right hand tapped on the man's scarf. "Don't get too tired today, and have a lot of water. You said you'll start the short film production soon, right?"

"Yes," the man smiled as he watched the girl tapping on his scarf. "We'll finalize everything by today. And we'll start moving around to shoot scenes by end of week."

"Sounds great," Youngro giggled, her fingers and showed it to Sooho. While scrunching her nose, Youngro lifted the corner of her mouths and grinned brightly at him. "Im Sooho, fighting!"

Uh oh.

The sight of her adorable wife hyping him up made him feeling overjoyed. In instant, the man quickly moved his glance away from the girl and covered his mouth. His lips were pursed together. His gestures was done nonchalantly, however Youngro could notice faint blushes on his cheeks. And that somehow made her want to go further.

"Huh? Why are you facing away?" Youngro , a playful smile was visible on her face. She tried to reach out and grab the Crown Prince's arm so that he would face her again. "I can't see your face! Crown Prince!" She laughed heartily.

At the front seat, Kangmoo and Secretary Gong exchanged meaningful stare. Without saying anything, they only glanced at each other and smiled. Kangmoo was the first one to nod his head and broke the eye contact. Then, he silently held back his chuckle as he watched the newly-wedded couple once more from the rear view mirror.

"Sooho-ssi! Look at me! Hahaha!"



 

chapter soundtrack:
crystal flower - 2nd moon

The black Mercedes-Benz car finally came in a halt in front of the Korea National College of Arts lobby. When people noticed the royal family emblem on the plate, some of them started to jog and followed the car, gathering around near the lobby. Murmurs and chatters could be heard as more students gathering around in the crowd.

"It's Crown Prince Im Sooho, right? I haven't seen him in person in a while!"

"Oh gosh is he coming with the Crown Princess? I gotta see her. I gotta see Crown Princess Youngro. Make a way please! I need to see her!"

"Damn it I forget to charge my phone. Hey, can you please record the Crown Prince as he gets out of the car? Just the Crown Prince. I wanna see him!"

"Eun Youngro! Crown Princess Youngro is here! Is that her hair? They're shining! Ohhh they're coming out!!!"
 

Youngro was feeling tense. It all felt so new to her. Coming to the college never felt that scary. She could see all cameras turning at her, recording her movements behind the car window. She hadn't even opened the car door, but she could feel the anxieties building up inside.

"Hey," Sooho softly touched her hand. "It's gonna be okay." He said.

When Secretary Gong opened the car door for her, Youngro quickly flashed her best smile and got off gracefully from the car. As she proceeded to stand up straight and wave to the small crowd around her, a smooth winter wind blew some strands of her hair away. That was when the camera flashes turned wild.

The crowd collectively gawked at the beauty of the Crown Princess.

"Good Lord she's beautiful."

"Credits to the wind. I got a beautiful shot of her royal highness."

"I can't believe I have never noticed her before? She's freaking pretty!"

Youngro was holding back the urge to break down and be all shy in front of the crowds. That was the last thing she would do. She wouldn't want to ruin the image of the royal family, so she did her best so stay calm and graceful. The amount of compliments that were thrown at her was a lot. Some even started to congratulate her again for the wedding.

On the other side, Sooho had a short chat with Kangmoo before he walked towards Youngro and placed his hand on her back. "Let's go."

"Oh, Sooho-ssi!" The Crown Princess beamed, nodding her head. "Let's go!"




 

"Is she calling him Sooho-ssi?"

 

As Youngro walked up the stairs to the lobby with Sooho next to her, her ear caught some whisperings in the crowd.

"Why is she calling him formally?"

"Huh? That's... kind of strange."

"Are they not that close yet?"

She hardly gulped, however she still managed to maintain her confident smile on her face. Once or twice, she would nod her head and wave at some people who she passed by.

When the couple went into the building and turned to the corridor of the building lifts, Youngro peeked at her husband next to her. "Oh? Aren't you supposed to be going to the different wing, Sooho-ssi?"

The man shrugged, "I'll drop you to your first class this term. Then I'll go back to my department after that. Is that okay with you?"

"Heh," Youngro chuckled, she could feel some butterflies dancing around in her stomach. "I'd love that!"
 

❄️

Incheon International Airport, 10.00 AM KST

The winter wind blew hardly that morning at the airport. Kang Chungya even had to squint her eyes behind her black sunglasses as the harsh wind blew her hair away. Her hands gripped tightly on her suitcase, making sure it wouldn't roll away from her side.

Her uncle, Nam Taeil, had told her he would pick her up at the airport on time. But it turned out that old man was late. It had passed 15 minutes now and she couldn't reach out to him with her phone.

"Where is he..." She muttered under her breath, gritting her teeth as she felt cold from the harsh wind.

A couple of minutes passed, and a black SUV car suddenly stopped right in front of her. It stole her attention. It was probably his uncle.

The black tinted windows rolled down, showing the familiar man inside, sitting next to the driver at the front. It had been a long time since Chungya saw him, but she didn't miss him at all.

"Hello there, our dearest ballerina." Nam Taeil greeted her with his familiar grin. "Get inside. Let my man handle your suitcases."




 

Yawns.

Chungya couldn't stop yawning along the car ride. The long flight was giving her a heavy jet lag. She could feel sore all over her body and her head felt heavy. She couldn't wait to throw her whole body down to the comfortable beddings back at her home—

Oh. That's right.

She crossed her arms and leaned her upper body forward towards Nam Taeil. "Are we heading back to my home? Or...?"

"You're staying at a separate apartment. I have one in Gangnam. Don't worry. I know you'll be uncomfortable staying at you own house." Nam Taeil quickly answered. "You're running away from your family business and passing the burden to your little sister. Your parents are disappointed with you— well, they're trying to be positive and bragging around with your achievements for making it to the royal ballet in London. But still, they're still salty with your decision. Your sister hates you too... at this point I'm the one who's still on your side, Chungya."

"Did you tell my mother I'm coming back?"

"I haven't. Yet." Taeil shrugged his shoulders. "Even if my sister knew you're back here, she wouldn't care anyway."

Chungya scoffed, throwing her back to the passenger's seat upon hearing her own uncle's answer. "You're on my side just because I can help you with the Crown Prince part, aren't you?" She said. The mocking tone was noticeable as she threw the question.

"Don't be like that," Taeil groaned. "We're a team now, my dear. You know we're helping each other out this time, right? Lucky I got you, the Crown Prince's so called true love. If we're doing this right, we both will win."

Chungya remained silent, listening to the old man talked.

"If the Crown Prince really loves you—"

"He loves me." Chungya cut him mid-way, glaring at the old man from the rear view mirror where their eyes met.

"Alright, that's the spirit." Taeil hummed around in response, didn't want to make the girl fumed up. "Then, it should be easier for us. We can get him back for you, and you can be with him again. Yadda yadda, you get married with him and be the queen of our nation—"

"Let's save that talk for later." Chungya blurted out.

"Why? Are you not ready to be by his side as his wife? As the queen?"

The ballerina glanced away out of the car window, staring at