Dear Prince Charming

Featuring Kris and Mara

Introduction: Dear Prince Charming is a modern retelling of the classic fairytale Cinderella. The story is set in an alternate universe where 21st century South Korea is ruled by a Monarch.

"Are you ready to fall under a love spell?"

Once upon a time, in a house in Gangnam, there lived a beautiful girl named-

 

"Ya Song Mara!!! Wake up!"

 

Song Mara

 

The modern day Cinderella. Except she's quite different from the kind, elegant princess. Mara was very sarcastic and she had no second thoughts about the words that come out of . Mara didn't have any parents. Her mother died when she was born and her father died 5 year ago when she was 13 years old because of an accident. She used to be treated like a princess while her father was still alive. She had everything she wanted because her late father was a wealthy businessman. Mara's father had remarried when she was 12. You probably know how that turned out.

 

Mara woke up from her deep sleep after hear the irritating voice from the intercom. She was still half-asleep and attempted to go back to sleep again.

 

"Ya Song Mara! Are you still asleep?!"

 

Mara groaned and rolled around her bed. This was the worst alarm in the world and she hated it so much.

 

"Ya, are you ignorning me?! Ya!!"

 

Mara took the pillow that she was laying on and covered the intercom to make it shut up.

 

"Song Mara!!! Wake up! Wash the dishes!"

 

"Mara, do my laundry!"

 

"Clean the backyard, as well! Jjanggu bombarded it with poop!"

 

Mara finally sat up and ruffled her hair from the irritating morning call. "Those witches need to shut up!" Mara said and pressed a button on the intercom. "Shut up already! I'm coming!"

 

"Hurry up!"

 

"Alright! Alright!" Mara replied and stood up from her bed while rumbling incoherent complaints.

 

She went downstairs and walked to their kitchen. She started doing the dishes while cursing everyone that she's living with in a low voice.

 

"Breakfast, Cinderella?"

 

Bang Da Yae

 

One of the evil stepsisters. She's jealous of Mara but refuses to admit it. She knows that Mara's got everything, so she tries to make her life as miserable as possibe to make up for the fact that she doesn't.

 

Mara looked at the bread her stepsister was offering her. "No, thanks. You probably poisoned it." Mara replied to Da Yae.

 

"Good call. I found this on Jjanggu's plate." Da Yae said.

 

Mara flashed a fake smile at Da Yae and continued washing the dishes. Da Yae, on the other hand, took a jar of tomato sauce and splashed it on every single plate that Mara had already finished washing.

 

"Ya, Bang Da Yae-"

 

"Ya Song Mara! Omma wants you to go to the market and buy groceries."

 

Bang Da Yoon

 

The other evil stepsister. Same motives as her sister, Da Yae, which is to make Mara's life miserable.

 

"What about the errands you told me to do earlier?" Mara asked.

 

"I don't know. Do them!" Da Yoon replied.

 

Seriously, one day! One day! Both of these Bang Das are gonna get slapped!

 

After finishing the dishes, or not, since Da Yae was being a jerk, Mara went to her see her stepmother who was watching TV in their living room.

 

"Old hag- I mean, ahjumma, you want me to go to the market?" Mara asked and stifled a laugh since she almost called her stepmother by the name she secretly created for her.

 

"Yes. Why, you don't want to?"

 

Song Da Hee

 

The evil stepmother. She used to work as Mara's father's secretary until she seduced him and got married. Ever since the beginning, all she was after was the money of Mara's father.

 

"Ahjumma, did I say anything?!" Mara defended herself.

 

"Hmph! Go ahead then. Did you finish all your chores?" Da Hee asked.

 

"I'll do them when I get home from the market." Mara replied.

 

"What makes you think you'll have time to do them when you get home? Sweetie, you're gonna have new errands when you come back."

 

"But-"

 

"I hear complaining!"

 

"Ahjumm-"

 

"Enough! You complain too much!" Da Hee said and left Mara in the living room.

 

Mara sat on the couch and covered her face with a pillow and screeched. "How could you leave me like this appa?!"

 

"Song Mara!!! Jjanggu has diarrhea! He pooped all over the kitchen! Clean it!"

 

"I hate all of you!" Mara muttered.

 

The Prince of Korea seems to have been reported missing the moment the plane he was on arrived from China this morning. No one is sure where the Royal Prince is and the Royal family doesn't want to issue a search party as of now, since-

 

Mara scoffed from what she heard on TV. "Idiot! Why would you escape if you're living luxuriously?! I should look for that guy and marry him, so he can get me out of this hell. I should do that. I need a picture." Mara said and looked at the TV, waiting for them to show a picture of the prince.

 

We asked the Royal Family to release a picture of the Prince, but they refused to for his safety.

 

"Really?!?!" Mara exclaimed angrily.

 

"Ya Song Mara! Who the hell are you talking to?" Da Yoon asked Mara from the kitchen.

 

"Darth Vader, who else?!" Mara sassed her stepsister.

 

"Ya!"

 

 

Mara finished her morning chores and went straight to the market. The market was out of shopping carts, so she waited for someone to finish with their shopping. When she saw an available cart, she jumped for the chance to grab it, but at the same moment, someone stole it from her.

 

"I saw this first." Mara told the guy, who was trying to steal her cart. The guy was wearing a hat, some sunglasses and a mask that covered his mouth, so she grew suspicious of him. Who wouldn't?

 

"Can't you just give it to me? I'm in a hurry."

 

"Waa~ ahjusshi, do you think the world revolves around you?!" Mara asked the guy.

 

"What?! Ah...ahju...ahjusshi?!" The guy stammered.

 

"Neh, ahjusshi. I know I should be giving to elders, but today's really not the day. There's these 3 evil witches in my house that will really lose it if I don't get back in time, so please..." Mara begged and took the cart from the guy.

 

The guy pointed his fingers at something. "What's that?!"

 

Mara looked, but the guy took this chance to steal the cart from her and walk away.

 

Mara looked back after seeing nothing and realized that she was tricked. "Ya ahjusshi!!!" Mara ran after the guy and when she caught up to him she said, "Ahjusshi, do you think people would believe me if I screamed that you have a bomb with you?"

 

"Ya..."

 

"OMONA-"

 

The guy suddenly covered Mara's mouth to make her shut up. "Ya! Do you want to die?"

 

"Omo!" Mara reacted and took the guy's hand off . "You're even threatening my life?! SECURI-"

 

The guy covered Mara's mouth again, tightly. "Fine! I'll give you the cart, when I'm done."

 

"SOMEONE HAS A BO-"

 

"Let's share it!" The guy said and took his sunglasses and mask off, in case Mara threatens him again.

 

Mara just stared at the 'Ahjusshi' that she called so just a few moments ago. The 'Ahjusshi' was actually a tall, handsome, young man who made the air around himself sparkle.

 

Mara stopped staring at the guy and said, "Uh... fine. Let's share, ahjussh-"

 

"Kris. My name's Kris."

 

"Ahh~ neh."

 

"And yours?"

 

"Why should I tell you my name?"

 

"But... I just gave you mine!"

 

"Who's fault is that?"

 

"Ya!"

 

As expected, there wasn't any harmony at all when the two shared the shopping cart. When Mara wanted to get milk, Kris wanted to get meat. When Kris wanted to get vegetables, Mara wanted to get bread. No one could imagine how they would be able to finish shopping in time.

 

The two finally finished shopping and both went to the cashier to pay. Mara separated her stuff from Kris' and put it on the conveyer belt, so the cashier could check it out.

 

"That would be 70,000 won, Miss."

 

"Neh~" Mara searched for Da Hee's credit card in her pockets, but it was nowhere to be found. She remembered Da Yae hugging her before she left the house and suspected that she was the one who took the card. The cashier was waiting and there was a long line, so everyone was getting frustrated at Mara.

 

"Miss, I..."

 

"Here." Kris took his wallet and gave the cashier 70,000 won to pay for Mara's groceries.

 

Mara just looked at Kris, while grabbing her bags of groceries. She felt gulity, so she waited for Kris to be done with the check out. Once he was done and got his grocery bags, Mara went up to him and said, "Song Mara. My name's Song Mara. And I'll make sure to pay you back, Kris-sshi."

 

"Why do I feel like those are just empty words?" Kris retorted.

 

Mara ripped a piece of her receit and wrote her phone number on it. She handed it to Kris and bowed. "I swear, I'll pay you back. That's my number. Call me whenever you want to meet so I can pay you back."

 

Kris looked at the phone number and kept it in his pocket. "Okay. You said whenever, right?"

 

Mara nodded and bowed to Kris. "I'll leave first." Mara said and left Kris.

 

 

Kris went inside of his apartment and dropped his grocery bags on the dining table. All he could think about was the girl who he was just with at the supermarket.

 

Song Mara

 

Kris suddenly received a phone call. He looked at the caller and it showed,

 

Secretary Kwon.

 

"Prince Kris, where are you right now?"

 

Kris Wu.

 

The modern day prince charming. He's the kind of person who's eager to learn new things and not depend on his family, especially the title of the Royal Prince. He's not very outgoing, but likes meeting new people who leave an impression on him. His parents could not wait to marry him off to some other royal girl but Kris has rejected it so many times. He hope that by running away from hom, his parents would give up on forcing him into an arranged marriage with someone he didn't care for.

 

"Seoul."

 

"Prince Kris, I know you're rebelling, but you have to come back. Your mother and father are worried about you."

 

"No! They wanted me to marry a complete stranger and I really don't like that. So, I told them I'm going to be independent for a while." Kris said, while putting water on the pan.

 

"Will you be okay, Prince Kris?"

 

"Yes. Don't worry about me." Kris assured his secretary. "And please, don't tell omonim and abonim where I am." He asked. He tried turning on the stove, but it wouldn't cooperate with him.

 

"Okay. I'm going to hang up now, Prince Kris."

 

"Wait."

 

"Yes, Prince Kris?"

 

"How do you work a stove?"

 

 

When Mara got back from the market, she didn't see anyone in the house besides their little poodle, Jjanggu.

 

"Ya, where did your owners go?"

 

The little puppy just barked, wanting to be fed.

 

"Aigoo~ the orders in this house just doesn't end, huh?" Mara talked to the speechless Jjanggu.

 

Once Mara finished feeding Jjanggu, she went on to do her afternoon chores. She saw a note on the fridge saying,

 

Do your chores, we just went to the mall to shop for new clothes. We were going to bring you along, but you weren't here when we were thinking about it.

 

Mara just took a deep breath and released. "Who said I wanted to come with you?!" Mara talked to herself. She took her iPod out of her pockets and plugged it on their speaker.

 

"Yo, okay. I’m warning you just in case (listen carefully). It’s dangerous now (so dangerous)." Mara sang along to the song that was playing while she was vacuuming the floor. "Aigoo~ EXO jjang!"

 

Suddenly one certain part came on and she sang along with it. "If you don’t back away then I don’t care if you get hurt."

 

Kris

 

"What do I do? What if he doesn't call and just go straight to the police? What if he's some psycho? Why the hell did I give him my number?!" Mara mimicked the sound a child crying. "What did I do?!?!?"

 

 

Two weeks pass and Kris never called Mara back. Mara was eagerly waiting for him to call since he's the only one who can start the conversation. Mara finally gave up on waiting for Kris' call and continued on with her life. She figured that if anything was going to happen, like Kris reporting her to the police or something, he should've done it a long time ago.

 

It was a Monday morning and Mara, dressed in her school uniform with sweat pants under her skirt, rode her bike to school, while her two stepsisters drove their own cars.

 

Mara scoffed. "Those witches! I hope their cars break down." Mara suddenly bumped into a tree and fell off her bike. That day wasn't modern Cinderella's day. She landed on a puddle when she fell of her bike.

 

Mara had no other choice, but to go to school at that state since she was already running late.

 

Mara arrived at school while complaining. "I blame those two! This is all their fault." She said while squeezing the dirty water out from her soaked sweatpants and skirt.

 

Cinderella had animals to talk to, but Song Mara didn't. Another thing about Mara is that she's very anti-social. She used to be very popular when her faher was still alive, but then when he left, she became a mute for a while because of shock. This caused her to lose all of her friends and she failed to gain them back, so she just gave up.

 

Mara went inside of her classroom after changing into her gym uniform.

 

"Guess who decided to appear?" The teacher said and everyone looked at Mara. Even the new kid.

 

"Are you an idiot? It's not gym yet." Da Yoon made a joke.

 

"Heol." Mara said when she saw the new kid. She didn't mind Da Yoon's joke since she could not believe what she was seeing.

 

"Sit down, Song Mara."

 

"N.. neh." She replied.