Yujin POV:

One more meeting.

Just one more meeting and at 21:30 my workday would be over.

All these people on Twitter saying they wanted to be me or have my life, that must be so amazing live with so much money and in a palace…I really wish they could be living my life right now. I’m running back and forth since 7 A.M from the palace to the company, going to every meeting people could possibly imagine and just because “I’m the heir” and all the unfun things came with the package. Only God knows how much I wanted Doyoung to be born before me, but no, he had to be 1 and a half years younger. He still had prep work in the company but the burden on his shoulders was visibly lighter than mine. And Yeseo, as the baby of the family and our little princess, was prevented from the slightest sight of strong work. She also had Prep-work to know how the things in the company worked and to know what she had in her hands – it wasn’t as hard as Doyoung's prep-work or my work but was still something, plus she was still in school, and mom and dad wanted her to have a ‘light childhood’.

The truth is that I hated the attention and all the responsibilities I had to deal with, I didn’t hate the work itself but the feeling of not being able to fail. Not being able to be a normal young woman and have fun, because I had an image and my family name to carry. The feeling of having a whole conglomerate of companies and people’s salaries and lives on your shoulders is really heavy. And I hated that.

Walking through the company’s hallways, going to my last meeting, I could only sigh and hope this one wouldn’t take too long since my head was about to explode.

I was walking and could hear my heels hitting the icy marble floor of the hallway while I was imagining myself going back to my house and eating my mom’s kimchi-jjigae – that she promised me and Yeseo she was going to make – when my best friend Jang Seungyeon came to me.

“Hey Jinnie, Have you eaten today? All you’re doing is work, we don’t even have time to talk anymore” she said already by my side and frowning.

Seungyeon was my best friend since we were born. We had only 3 months of age difference and were basically raised together. We never stayed apart from each other. Even when I was sent abroad to study, Seungyeon came with me, and we studied half of our middle school in Switzerland, did high school back in the US, and then went to Oxford together in England but always managed to come back to Korea to not lose our roots. Her mom was my mom’s best friend since they were kids, because they went to the same school and her dad was my dad’s friend, as was her mother since they were kids too since the three of them were heirs of big Korean companies – Seungyeon’s dad is the chairman of the Samsung group and her mom, the heiress and vice chairwoman of the Daesang corporation, her stepfather was the famous actor Lee Jung Jae, which made Seungyeon and her siblings also royalty. Not real royalty like my family was – not counting the fact the Seungyeon’s family actually had some relation with Korean and Thai royalty – but media and celebrity royalty, which made our friendship even more loved by the tabloids and by the netizens in general, some of them said that we looked like those rich friends from movies and that really made us laugh a lot and be excessively compared to a big diversity of characters daily. Normally, the kids of powerful people are forced to stay close and create a friendship because when we grow up and start taking care of our respective family businesses, we have the contacts and connections with the right people, but with Seungyeon was all-natural. We are soulmates and I consider her my sister, just like Yeseo is.

“Hello, my love. What are you doing here?” I said already placing my flirty smile on my lips

“Stop with the flirtation, Choi Yujin. You’re really a player” She gave a soft punch to my arm while laughing. Gosh, how I loved the sound of her laugh. “And I am here because I miss my best friend, can’t I?” She stopped in her tracks and pouted her lips. I stopped too and smiled at her.

“Oh my God, so the all mighty and detached Jang Seungyeon misses me? I just won the lottery” I said genuinely smiling.

“As if you needed anything from the lottery. I’m feeling disrespected right here, Miss Choi” Seungyeon said pretending she was outraged and that made me smile wider.

Seeing her always made me forget about everything…even my meeting that I was now late for. “, actually I just remembered I have a meeting right now and if I take a bit longer, Appa is gonna kill me. Can you wait for me in my office? I will treat you to dinner after, what do you think, huh?” I suggested already running to the office where the meeting was being held and throwing my office keys to Seungyeon, which she got in the air. I knew she would know where to go since she had already come to the company a million times.

“But only if you pay for dinner” She shouted, and I laughed

“For a billionaire, you’re a huge cheapskate, huh?” I said trying to get to her and smiling which she responded with a middle finger up and showing her tongue “But of course I will pay for dinner, treating you after staying 2 weeks abroad is only right” I shouted back almost reaching the end of the hallway, where the big meeting room was placed. Luckily there wasn’t anyone in the hallway during my talking (more like shouting) with Seungyeon, otherwise, it wouldn’t be good for our images, which aren’t actually really good right now.

I stopped before entering the room, took a deep breath, fixed my hair, and came in with calmness. When I entered the room, everybody was already sitting in their designated places, as the vice-chairwoman and soon-to-be CEO, my sit was right next to my father that was at the end of the table.

“Good night, sorry for being late, father and grandfather. Seungyeon came by and wanted to talk about our contract with the Samsung-Choi hospital and I stopped to talk to her” I said already moving to sit on my chair after a longbow to my father, grandfather that was sitting right in front of me - since he was still a member of the board – and a normal one to the other members of the board.

“It’s okay, Yujin. Let’s start the meeting” My dad said with a ‘we will talk about this later’ look that only me and my grandpa noticed and that my grandpa smiled about it.

Our family relationship back at home was the sweetest and warmest possible. But we knew very well how to differ our relationship at home from the one we had when we were working or on a ‘Crown Duty’ and let’s say my relationship with my dad wasn’t in its best form these last few days for a lot of different reasons but mostly because of my behavior, that he insisted in saying ‘was not the behavior of a person with such an important responsibility in society.

“So, this meeting is being held because of the changes being made in the crown positions. As I’m going to be crowned as the King in the days to come and because of the difficulties our country is facing with the start of a new war with North Korea, the Asian Russia, and China, I’ve decided I will step out of my position as the CEO of Choi Enterprises to focus on our great motherland and my position will be paced to my heiress, Princess Choi Yujin. Is there someone that doesn’t agree with my decision?” The last sentence was said mostly to me than to anyone else. He was challenging and provoking me.

I always knew one day I would become the CEO of Choi Enterprises and the Queen of South Korea. But I didn’t expect any of those to come so quickly. I knew I was capable of being the CEO, I knew I could do the job, but I was actually scared and angry that I had to get such an important position as this one, even more, after the discussion me and dad had yesterday.

~ Flashback ~

After a party night, I was coming back home at 6 in the morning already preparing myself to get an earful from my dad. I always liked to go to parties and have fun, and my parents always let me, with the condition that I wouldn’t do anything that could embarrass the crown, the royals, or the family name and I always respected that. Actually, I used to hate the feeling of getting drunk and not doing it anyways. However, after those past 2 years, I started to go really wild when I was still in England

“Bye, Hyukkie, thanks for the ride,” I said on my flirty way to Lee Minhyuk, my ex-boyfriend and one of the most famous Idols in Korea. We were exes but we still hooked up when we wanted to.

“Everything for you, babe.” He said before pulling my head in his direction and kissing me. The kiss was quick but y as our kisses always were. Minhyuk was one of the best kissers I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I would always accept an offer to kiss him. “Now go, otherwise your dad will call out the army to kill me for sleeping with his daughter again.” He said pretending he was scared, and I laughed. We both knew my dad do not hate Minhyuk. I didn’t say he liked him; he only didn’t hate him.

When I was preparing to go out of the car that was parked at the back of the palace, he took my hand. “Jinnie, wait” I sited back and looked into his eyes. Before being my ex, he was my friend. A great friend. And thank God we didn’t let our hookups or our relationship or break up ruin that.

“Are you okay? You were really weird at the club last night. I’ve never seen you drink as much as you did today. And I knew you did some drugs back in England but yesterday was too much.” He looked at me tilting his head to the side and trying to read me when suddenly something came to his mind. “I know which day was yesterday…if you want anyone to talk to, I’m always here for you, okay? I love you, Bunny”

My eyes were full of tears and right before I knew they were rolling down my cheeks and Minhyuk was hugging me saying everything was okay.

“Thanks, Oppa…it really meant a lot”

“Always, Bunny” He showed his beautiful smile to me that always made every girl pass out “One more thing, put this on your eyes and fix your hair. You look like you just had a wild night and even though we know that’s true we don’t Our Majesties to discover, right?” He said his hands on my long curly hair and fixing it, while I put the eye drops on my eyes.

“Thanks again, Hyukkie Oppa. For everything” I kissed him on the cheek and grabbed my purse from the car floor.

He smiled and I stepped out of the car jogging to the back entrance of the palace, that would be the entrance of the kitchen, where the maids would prepare the meal for the whole royal family that lived at the palace – My Grandparents, My parents, Me, and My 2 siblings.

I entered the kitchen squatting afraid that my family would be there since any of them knew that I haven’t slept at home, and all the maids inside were already smiling and giving light laughs to me. That wasn’t the first time that happened and since they all saw me growing up, they all have a lot of caring for me.

“You can get up, your highness, your family isn’t here,” said one of the maids that when I got up, discovered to be Chaerim Imo, one of the maids that was here since I was a kid. And since I was a really bubbly and simple kid, I would spend a lot of time in the kitchen talking to them and playing, which ended up making us all really close and me calling them ‘Imo’ and them mostly calling me ‘Yujinnie’ – that I preferred in the place of Your highness or Princess.

“You scared me, Imo, oh my gosh. I thought it was my Appa for a moment” I fixed my clothes and smiled at them

“It’s not your Appa, but if I were you, I would stop sneaking out and only come back in the morning, Yujinnie, someone will discover those adventures of yours. And go take a shower and change your clothes right now, your family will wake up soon for breakfast” I recognized the voice of Ma Searim. My nanny Kim Saerim took care of me until I was 14 and moved out of the country. I used to call her Ma because she took care of me like a mother, so she is my Ma. After I grew up and didn’t need a nanny anymore, she became the house administrator, so she is always around and treats me and my siblings like her children. My parents consider her part of the family, and I do too.

“Okay, Ma. I will take this dress off and I will come back so we can talk” I came closer to her and give her a big kiss on the cheek while she laughed my back that was exposed by the y yet elegant black dress I was wearing. The dress came till a little bit before the knees and was full of black diamonds with a huge open circle in the back.

“Deal. Then go quickly and try to use something to cover your neck.” I furrowed my eyebrows and didn’t understand what she was trying to say with that. She smiled at me and spoke:

“Didn’t know you and Minhyuk had gotten back together” Then it clicked, Dammit Minhyuk!

“Okaaaaaaay. I’m out! I’m coming back in a bit” I smiled and run out of the kitchen listening to their laughing.

I ran out of the kitchen just to find out my grandma on the balcony of our living room with a mug in her hand and that look of someone that had just woken up but still looks like it was on full makeup without even passing a single lipstick on her lips

“Good morning, my love, can grandma know where you were?” Grandma said turning to look at me and giving me a genuine smile

“Good morning, Halmeoni. I was errr studying, yes, studying” I said with an eye smile

“With that dress? And the whole night? You weren’t. Come, let’s talk” she said mentioning for me to follow her to her bedroom upstairs.

We went up the stairs to the 3^rd floor, where she and my parent's chambers were placed, and entered her room where I noticed grandpa wasn’t there anymore and sat at her chairs and table on her bedroom balcony.

“Now you can talk. I was afraid your dad might’ve come up and scolded you” That’s my halmeoni!

“I went out to a party and slept at Minhyuk's, no big deal,” I said pouring some tea for myself and avoiding her eyes.

“Okay, I didn’t know you and Minhyuk were back together”

“Errrr We are not hihi” I replied sipping my tea and noticing halmeoni getting straightened out in the chair.

“Look, baby. You know how much grandma will always support you. Always! But I think it's about time for you to slow down with the parties and focus a bit more on your work, don’t you think?” I sighed and drank a little bit more of my tea admiring the view of the big yard in front of my grandparent’s chambers. “I know we already had this talk but I’m afraid you will regret not listening to halmeoni this time.” She looked deep into my eyes and gave a little smile.

“What do you mean?” Grandma for sure knows something that she doesn’t want to talk about it. But this is getting weird

“Just listen to me this time, sweetie.” She came closer and passed her hands through my long hair.

“But~ “

“Yujin!” She raised her voice a little bit because she wasn’t the type to scream plus, she was a queen and as we were taught, queens should be classy, something that I really hated. “Go change your clothes, your dad is going to find it strange if you won’t come to breakfast”

“Okay, grandma, thank you.” I gave her a smile and a bow and walked to my room.

For a miracle, I didn’t find anyone in the hallways to my room which is on the second floor. I entered, left my purse on the sofa, and walked to the bedroom to take a shower. After taking a shower, dressing up, and putting on some light makeup I walked out of the room wearing a turtleneck dark green crop top with Prada black gabardine shorts.

As I was taking the stairs, I could already listen to Doyoung and Yeseo bickering and my Eomma laughing at them.

“Good morning, Sis, have you brought anything for me from your trip to Thailand?” Yeseo was already clinging to my arms as I was arriving in the big dining room.

“Hey, cutie. I bought the clothes that you asked for. After breakfast, you can come to my room to get it” after I said that to her, she kissed my cheeks and walked back to the table with me behind her back.

“Good morning, everyone,” I said taking my place at the table right beside my mom and she caressed my left arm while kissing me on my hair. “Where is dad, eomma?” I asked after looking in front of me, where my dad sits and noticing he wasn’t at the table.

“He said he must resolve some work problems but that he will join us later. We can eat without him; we were just waiting for you” I nodded showing that I understood, and we started eating while chatting as we religiously do every morning, since all of us have a busy schedule, breakfast is the time that we always try to stay together.

“And then Mark said I could already be part of the group since my dance skills are getting better,” Doyoung said, talking about his trainee mates in the company he is enrolled in.

“Wow, that’s awesome, youngie! I’m proud of you” I said, and he gave me a proud smile. We all knew that Doyoung was more into arts than business even though he had to inherit grandma’s company, we were all willing to take another company to administrate or give to one of our cousins to make him follow his dreams.

“But when are you set to debut, son?” Grandpa asked him while taking a sip of his soup.

“I’m not sure yet, but soon, grandps. I’m just afraid people might assume things because of my rule in society or even treat me differently” he said showing how concerned he was

“I’m sure everything is going to~”

“CHOI YUJIN” I was cut by my father’s soulful scream

“Here it comes…” I whispered while rolling my eyes.

“Where were you last night?” My father started saying pretty irritated as he walked to the dining room and closed the door, not letting the guards hear what he was talking about.

“I went out with a friend, no big deal. why?” I was trying my best to keep calm but in reality, I was fuming with rage still I couldn’t react the way I wanted since he was my dad and my soon-to-be king.

“Then how do you explain this?” He handed me an iPad where it showed an article with the headlines ‘Party Princess. Is the princess still a good choice to rule us in the future?’ with a picture of me at the party yesterday with a drink in one of my hands and a cigarette in the other one, while I talked happily with one of my friends. I could see a lot of comments from people saying that there wasn’t anything bad happening in the picture and that I was only having fun and that I am still young and had to enjoy. But a lot of other comments were saying harsh things about me: ‘I always said this girl isn’t mature enough to rule our country', ‘I wish Prince Doyoung would be our King in her place’, ‘Maybe our majesties didn’t raise the princess that well’…

“And? I don’t see anything bad happening here.” I handed him the iPad back and kept eating my croissant when I saw my grandma frown because she knew what was coming next

“Are you kidding me? I already told you that when you do something, the whole family name is dragged with you. I don’t know what happened with you these past feel years, you weren’t like this”

“That’s right. You shouldn’t talk about things you don’t know, your majesty” I said while getting up from my chair and starting to walk out of the dining room when my dad slightly held my arm just for me to stop, looking into my eyes, and spoke.

“I want you to get better, honey but I also think that you need some boundaries and some real work to keep you from trouble and I will get that for you,” he said looking sharply into my eyes

I got away from his hold and walked to my bedroom to sleep for an hour and get ready for work.

~End of Flashback ~

“All in agreement, your Majesty.” One of the members of the board said.

“Princess? Do you accept the offer?” One of the other board members, that looked younger than the other ones, asked me, looking rather nervous when I looked in his direction and avoiding my gaze.

“I do accept the offer,” I said turning my gaze to my father’s direction and watching him smirk.

“Then we are done. I hope to see the documents of the post switch on my table by tomorrow. I want Yujin to work on this new deal we are having by the weekend.” My dad said to the young man that asked me the question earlier.

“Of course, boss.” He said while my dad gave him a pat on the back. I noticed in my years working in the company as the COO, that my dad had a great relationship with all his co-workers, to the point that they could call him ‘boss’ or just ‘Hyunbin-nim’ which for a Crown Prince is a lot, and I planned to have that too.

As everybody was walking out of the room, I stayed and leaned my back in the chair to talk to my dad, my grandpa came closer to me, and I got up and bowed to him. After that, he gave me a sweet kiss on my forehead.

“I know you will make a splendid CEO, sweetie. You are an amazing businesswoman and manage the best deals in the company. Everybody here is looking forward to working with you. Make it count” I nodded and smiled at him.

He grabbed my hand and said “Don’t be too harsh on your Appa, ok? He just wants what’s best for you” He let my hand go and said that we will meet at home.

After the last person went out of the office, my father closed the door and looked at me, muttering for me to talk.

“So that’s what you had in mind with that ‘You need some real work’ thing?” I mumbled when he sat down in his chair

“Exactly that!” He smiled proudly. “And I hope you will behave. The deal you will have 3 days from now is going to work not only with your business knowledge but also with your political one. Call it a pre-Queen assignment”

“What do you mean? With whom is going to be this deal?”

“This deal is going to be with the Chinese Government. Since the energy with the start of this war against North Korea and Russia is rising and we are kind of part of this too and probably will be on the field in the next months to come, we should keep them close. The times have changed, and the Chinese Royals are different right now.” He said untying his tie and pouring some whisky into a cup. “King Xiaoming is a friend of mine and agreed to talk about it and also wants to let our economic interests are clear – mostly about the electronics, fuels, and grains that they import from us – and I want you to deal with that and also participate in the talks about the economic situation of our country, since China is our main exporter, and we need them. We are also going to talk about the Korean ban than still perdures in China and we want to abolish it. “

“Wow…That’s a lot” I said taking a deep breath and pouring some whisky for myself this time while receiving a disgusted look from my father, that hated when I or Doyoung drank. I took a sip of the drink trying to calm myself. “And when are they coming?”

“They are arriving two days from now. The whole family is coming, and they are staying with us in the palace” I almost spilled my drink and started coughing really hard, which made my dad gets up worried and give light taps on my back. The whole family…That means…Omg!

“Wait, Is Xiaoting coming too?”  I said almost vomiting my words.

“You should drink slowly, sweetheart. And yes, Princess Xiaoting is coming too. Why the disgusted look? The last time I checked you two were friends” Dad said caressing my back. He was back on cute dad mode

“I wouldn’t say friends but it’s ok”

“You should try getting closer to her, it’s going to be good for you two,” He said with a different tone that I couldn’t decipher. “With YangYang too. He is going to be the King of China and you the Queen of South Korea. You two should be friends.”

After that something passed through my mind

“Hey, Appa. You promised me that you would let me marry for love, right? Is this still up?”

He looked at me and tilted his head to the side

“Why are you talking about this all of the sudden?’

“Because you mentioned YangYang and I’m afraid you will want me to marry him,” I said avoiding his gaze.

“No, love. Dad promised you I won’t make you have an arranged marriage and That’s what will happen. Plus, YangYang is already promised to a Princess.” He said looking at me “And like, you two are the main rulers of your respective countries, you can’t marry each other and let one country with no ruler. If it’s for you to marry a royal, you should marry a Prince…or Princess.” I looked at him with widened eyes,

“What, baby? The times have changed. Marriage between two people of the same gender is normal right now between royals, not as if it was ever an anormal thing. But it’s more common now. And we all know you date girls too. I don’t see the problem.”

“Yeah, dad, but this won’t happen. I don’t intend to marry a royal.”

“Ok. But you should keep that in mind. You never know when the time comes.” He gave me a wink and got up took his coat that was in the chair and placed it on his shoulder.

“Let’s go. Dad will give you a ride”

“It’s okay, dad, I will have dinner with Seungyeon,” I said still thinking about what he just said to me.

“All right. Send my regard to my favorite monkey. Behave and sleep at home” He kissed me on top of my head, and I stood up to go to my office and have dinner with my best friend.

So, my dad would accept me to have a relationship that could lead to marriage, with a girl? I always had a thing for Seungyeon but never said it out loud afraid that my family wouldn’t agree and that my friendship with her would be ruined.

I might have a chance.

That night we went to dinner and this idea couldn’t get out of my head. What if I asked her to be my girlfriend, would she accept?

After dinner, and a lot of talking, I went home and started preparing for my meeting with King Xiaoming. Still thinking about the Seungyeon matter that couldn't get out of my head, when suddenly something else invaded my thoughts: Shen Xiaoting.

I was super nervous about Xiaoting coming over. We don’t have a good relationship. Never did.

She was always taller than me, so she used to pull my hair when we were kids and I used to prank her a lot. When we got older, we started growing more distant than we already were and when we met in Oxford, we’ve been through some real .

We know so much about each other.

This is going to be dangerous. She can’t be her, Under the same roof as I.

I can’t see Shen Xiaoting again.

I can’t.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hello, Guys! This was more like an introductory chapter to the story! I will try to make a "Characters Chapter" too for you all to know how to visualize each character and know their personality a little! 

Hope you guys liked it and please give me your feedback! 

Xiaoting's chapter is next! See you guys soon!