It’s my turn to run the errands today. Great. Just great. The last thing I want is to go back into that sickening town again. Growling, I grab the roll of cash sitting on the main table, grabbed an empty bag and headed outside. The sun has dried up all the water from last night and the rays blinded my eyes so I go inside and come back out with a baseball hat and a pair of aviator sunglasses. Ugh! I hate the sun! I thought. I’m not wearing a hoodie today because it’s way too hot. Instead, I’m wearing a salmon pink tank top, gray shorts and a pair of gray and white basketball shoes that I borrowed from Himchan while my other pair from last night is drying in the sun. I toss the bag over my shoulders and headed towards the city. It didn’t take long for the roar of the crowds to fill the hot air and their sweaty atmospheres around them, aren’t making it any better. Then I take a look at the grocery list. Okay, first, 20 packs of cigarettes. Heaving a sigh, I go to the nearest convenience store and showed them my driver’s license. Why do I always have to buy the cigarettes? I’m the only one that doesn’t smoke! Heaving another sigh, I left the store, stuffing the cigarettes into my bag and checked for the next thing on the list. Spray paint, AAA batteries, and 10 boxes of nails. Hardware store, got it. So I headed to the hardware store to my left. On my way there, I hear a familiar voice calling my name. I turn around to see the same girl from last night.

“Hi Daehyun!” she shouts waving her hand, jogging towards me carrying a box under her right arm. I ignored her at first and turned back around heading back for the hardware store. This girl must’ve been on drugs or something because she was 1000 ft away from me, I was 20 ft away from the hardware store’s entrance, but she reaches me before I get a chance to even touch the door’s handle to enter. She taps me on the shoulder panting,

“I thought it was you. Why didn’t you answer me?” she then groans and hunches over to put her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. I face her and look around my surroundings before pulling her into an alleyway where we can be more in private.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her in a whisper with both hands on either of her shoulders.

“I came to shop. This is one of the most popular places to shop in town.” she whispered back all jittery. Then she came to realization and looked around. “Why are we whispering?” she asks cupping one side of her face with her hand to focus her sound. Then I looked around before I answered her.

“Look, it’s not safe for you to be here seen with me in broad daylight.” I whisper to her.

“Why?” she asks curiously. “Oh!” she says. Afraid that she was going to realize why, I take my hands off her shoulders and she points at my face. “Is it because you know my true identity?” she asks. Puzzled, I give her a ‘what are you talking about’ look. “When did you find out that I was the princess?” she asked teasingly. In complete shock I step back until my back hits the wall.

“What?!” I finally managed.

“Oops. I guess you didn’t know then.” She says hovering her hand over . But then, she puts it down. Doing a curtsey, she goes, “Let me officially introduce myself. I am princess Jiyeon. I want to officially thank you for saving me last night so I want to invite you to this year’s annual ball as my personal guest.” In shock, I shook it off.

“Wait what? To the ball? Um... Eh… I… can’t…” I finally said.

“What? Why?” she asked stubbornly.

“Well first of all, I’m not all that interested in going to the ball. Second of all, I can’t dance. Third of all, I prefer to give my quote n’ quote chances to men that actually look attractive and will take care of you and are actually interested in you. Fourth of all, I just happen to be busy that night.”

Then her eyes started to water.

“You don’t like me?” she stifled. My eyes widens as my hands gesture her to calm down.

“No, no, no. Not like that. It’s not that I don’t like you, I mean, I do like you. It’s just that I don’t like, like you which means I’m not romantically into you but, you know, I’ve only met you for less than 24 hours and… and…” feeling that my nervousness is taking over, she starts to blurt out laughing. Feeling like a complete idiot, I crouch onto the ground and cover my head in my hands. Then she crouches down next to me, peeling my hands off my head.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to you. I was just teasing you. A-are you okay?” she comforted but I don’t feel comforted in anyway. Hearing the word tease just made me feel more of an idiot and more naive.

“I feel like an idiot.” I mumbled. Then she starts laughing again.

“Look. If you can’t make it to this year’s ball, there’s always next year. And the year after that. There’ll always be chances. But if you do end up coming please do tell me.” she says smiling. Her smile is so warm and gentle, it makes me feel so guilty keep my true intentions away from her. I wanted to tell her everything. Who I was, who I am, what I’m planning to do, how I really feel. But I can’t. My image of being a cool and selfish jerk has failed on her. She just makes me feel so vulnerable. Then she gives me the box that she was carrying. I looked up at her and she nodded. I take the brown packaged box and carefully open it. It was a pair of high quality, patent leather dress shoes. Dress shoes! I’ve never had dress shoes before, not to mention that these are branded and high quality made. I look up to her.

“I can’t accept this your highness.” I tell her.

“First of all, don’t call me your highness. Especially not in public. Second of all, I saw that your shoes were quite dirty last night so in my way of gratitude, this is my present to you.”

“But, your highness-” then she placed her finger on my lips.

“I told you not to call me that in public. Call me Jiyeon. And, you deserve it.” Looking at the pair of shoes, I thought, I can’t accept these. I’m not going to anywhere fancy anytime soon, nor was I planning to in the future. What is a pair of dress shoes going to do for a forgotten ghetto boy like me? In awe, all I could do was stare at the pair of nicely polished, glistening black shoes. It’s so clean and delicate, I can see my own reflection through that. Patting me on the shoulder, she gets up and leaves me for the bright sun shined city. Watching her leave, I felt as if I was really connected to her. Like I’ve met her before in my previous life. Trying to not let these thoughts get to me, I get up and head for the hardware store again. Finishing up my errands, I actually considered to go to the annual ball this year. Well, why waste a pair of nice shoes? I thought to myself. Then I snapped back to reality. Wait, what am I thinking? If YoungGuk finds out, I’ll be roasted and my plan will fall apart. I can’t do that. This revenge needs to carry on. For me. For Himchan. For my parents.