ix
No More PrincessJihyun never thought she would like it this much. Spending time with him, yes, cooking for him, yes. But waking up beside him? It never occured to her.
She stares at Kai's profile, not seeming to even want to take her eyes off him. This is the only time she's really seen him up close without him catching her. She can look at his skin now, which isn't perfect but still lovely. She can look at his nose and discover there's a small bump on the ridge, and all of a sudden she wants to reach out and feel it. And, oh, the lips that kissed her. And the eyes that look at her, which are now slowly opening and turning to focus on her. He smiles.
Jihyun feels as if her heart stops because at this moment, surprising her, she realizes she loves him.
To hide the look on her face, which she thinks must look like shock and sadness, she sits up and rubs her eyes with her fingers. "Good morning." She says.
"Morning," She can hear the strain in Kai's voice as he stretches. "Sorry, I must have fallen asleep near the end of the movie. You, however, were out in the middle."
She turns to look at him, now that she's sure she's masked her emotions, and laughs. "I like your bed hair." He smooths it out when she says that, but it's such a shame, because she really does like his bed hair. "I guess I was more tired than I thought. I wanted to watch it, though."
Kai shrugs, leaving his hair alone. "Another time. Hey, can you teach me how to make french toast? That stuff's really good; I kinda wanna make it for my mom."
Another time. Jihyun wants to say, "I hope there's another time. I really do hope so." But she keeps it to herself, not wanting to ruin the morning, and smiles at Kai. "Sure. Do you have to work today?"
He glances at the clock. "Not for another couple hours. We have time, right?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"Alright, let's wash up first."
After brushing her teeth, Jihyun heads to the kitchen to get all the ingredients out while Kai washes his face.
"I know you mix together eggs and milk, but how much?" Kai asks, coming out of the bathroom with the tips of his bangs wet. He leans on the counter next to Jihyun.
"Just enough until you think it looks right. I'll show you." She cracks five eggs into the bowl and whisks them with a fork. "Add milk a little at a time." She hands him the carton.
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Okay," With just a little bit of hesitance, Kai pours a little milk into the eggs. She stirs it, gestures for him to add some more. He adds a little less than a quarter cup each time until she tells him to stop.
"It should be something like this color."
Kai takes a mental note that the mixture was exactly how he imagined: white with a yellow hue. "Cool. Now what?"
"This is kind of the harder part. You have to dip the piece of bread in this, but you can't do it for too long, because then the bread with be soggy and fall apart when you try to take it out. So watch what I do and try it."
She does what she told him to do, dipping the bread quickly, but moving it to get all parts of the bread covered, then flipping it to get the other side. Jihyun immediately places it on the griddle, and it sizzles with satisfaction. "Put on cinnamon," As she says it, she sprinkles the spice on. "And when you flip it, same thing.
"You try." She pushes the bowl to him.
Kai attempts to do it like she did, but somehow the bread got more soggy. He puts it on the griddle, anyway, cinnamon going right on top. "That'll be my piece."
Jihyun laughs. "You can do the rest of them for more practice. I'll still eat it, don't worry." She adds when she sees the flash of worry on his face.
He starts on the next piece as Jihyun flips the first one that went on the griddle.
"So I don't suppose you'd be up to joining me for work today." Kai says.
She sighs, watching him. "As appealing as that sounds, I'll have to decline. There's this recipe my nanny told me about, and I researched it the other day, so I'm going to try and make it tonight. I'm going to have to go to the store and get everything."
"You can't do that later?"
"It's a stew; it takes a while to cook."
Now Kai sighs and flips an almost-ready piece of french toast. "That ."
"Why?"
"Because work is so boring." Kai gave her a pout. "Hold on, I'll be right back." He tells her and jogs back into his bedroom. When he comes out, he sets a credit card on the table. "You can take that to the store with you. I've got cash for lunch, so I don't need it today."
"Is it a debit or credit?"
"Debit. I'll write down my pin number for you."
Jihyun smiles, giddy that he trusts her enough to let her use his debit card without him there.
"The stew will be extra good."
Kai laughs, "I'll take your word."
For some reason, being at the amusement park today isn't as boring as Kai expects it to be. There's a summer camp that comes through, spewing off the different chants that they came up with during their days at the camp as they walk through the park. The camp counselors talk to Kai plenty of times, getting on and off The Scorpion. And it's also pretty amusing hearing the chants in the distance, with guests asking him, "What is that?" and him responding nonchalantly with, "Just the Camp Champs passing by."
Another of the park's workers comes by a little later and takes his spot while Kai goes on break. Kai decides on going to Minseok's rather than the employee cafeteria. He hasn't gone there since taking Jihyun, and really, he should go more often. Why eat the cafeteria's food?
When Kai pulls into the parking lot, he almost laughs. Looks like he's going to be having lunch with Chen. He parks his car beside his co-worker's and sets off inside.
"Chen!" He sees him pretty much right when he walks in, sitting at a booth and moving the ice around in his cup.
"Hey, Kai," He greets when he looks up and points in front of him. "Have a seat."
"Is Xiumin here?" He asks as he sits, using Minseok's nickname. He knows that Chen's aware of Minseok being Xiumin's real name, and he's told Kai that he doesn't mind it if he calls him by that, but Kai doesn't want to make Chen feel left out, since he's known Minseok longer. He'll just feel weird.
"Yeah, he's in the back. Wanna go get him and get your order in quick?"
He shakes his head. "No, I'll just wait." As he says it, a waitress comes up to the table, pad and a pen in her hand. He smiles at Chen, "Or not."
"I saw you just came in." She explains. "Were you planning on getting a meal?"
"Yeah, I'll take a Sprite for my drink and a quesadilla."
"I'll put it right in for you." The waitress smiles and taps what she just scribbled with the end of her pen and walks off before Kai can thank her.
"Is she new?"
"Looks like it," Chen answers, watching her as she records Kai's order in a computer. "She's doing pretty well, compared to other new waitresses I've seen. Plus, she has a nice ."
Kai turns to look, only glancing for a second before settling back in his seat. "Yeah," He says half-heartedly.
Chen raises an eyebrow. "What's with you? Usually you're all for checking out girls."
Kai doesn't answer and moves over for Minseok when he slides in next to him.
"Didn't know you'd be here," Minseok says. "I thought I was stuck with this douche." He gestures to Chen across from him.
"Yah,"
"What were you guys talking about?"
"Kai's lack of interest in women."
"There's no lack of interest." Kai protests.
"What happened?" Minseok asks, lost.
Chen fills him in. "Your new waitress over there--she's new, right?--has a nice , but Kai here only admired it for as long as it would take me to step on a damn bug."
"Yes, she's new, and yes, her nice is a good addition to hiring her, but I think I know why Jongin isn't interested." At this, both boys lean forward a little, anxious for Minseok's interpretation. He smiles before he sings, "Jongin's in love."
Kai shakes his head, "No--"
"With who?" Chen asks, eager.
"With the girl who he came here with a couple weeks ago."
"Oooh, what girl? What does she look like?"
"Guys. It doesn't matter," Kai tries to intervene. "I'm not in love with her."
"If you don't want Jihyun, I'll take her." Minseok says, laughing at the deadly expression on Kai's face. "See? You like her!"
"Woah, wait, Jihyun?" Chen grabs Kai's attention. "The girl you brought to the park? You're in love with her?"
"No, guys . . . I don't--jeez!" Flustered, Kai puts his head into his hands and tries to get his thoughts straight. "I'm not in love with anyone. Stop making assumptions."
"But you must like her." Chen reasoned. "I haven't seen you look at any girl like you used to after I saw you with Jihyun."
"Yeah," Minseok pipes in. "And you two make a cute couple."
Chen nods his head in agreement.
Kai sighs, already feeling tired even though his day isn't half over yet. "Look, I don't know how I feel about her." He admits. "I kinda like her, yeah, but it's just attraction or something like that. Affection. I care about her. What?" He asks, annoyed, when all he gets is stares at his confession.
Minseok turns to Chen. "It won't take long."
"What won't take long?" Kai exclaims.
"I'm thinking a week at the most." Chen says.
"For what?"
Minseok ignores Kai. "Five bucks?"
"Ten, I have a good feeling about this."
"I call three days." They shake on it.
"Are you betting on me?" Kai asks, looking back and forth between the two.
Chen shrugs. "What do you expect us to do when there's a good opportunity right in front of us?"
Kai sighs exaggeratingly and leans back in the seat. "And Jihyun thinks you guys are nice-s." He says under his breath. "Where the hell is our food?"
"Hey," Minseok puts a hand out in a calming gesture. "New Nice Waitress still has some things to work on. You're not the only one."
"And what exactly do I have to work on?"
"To stop avoiding things. It won't get you anywhere."
It's taking longer than Jihyun thought to buy all the groceries she needs for her stew. She couldn't find half the stuff to begin with, and when she asked for help, the auntie said, "How many people are you making that for?" Only two. "That's an awful lot for just two people. You don't need all this." So then she had to put half of everything back. When Jihyun finally got to the checkout, she could feel a headache coming on.
Now she is carrying three grocery bags back to the apartment, not rushing but walking a little faster than usual--she needs to get this stew going. She feels her calves burning with each step she takes, but as she rounds the corner to their block, she stops suddenly at the two men standing in front of the apartment building, right where she's about to walk through.
Jihyun can recognize them from anywhere. Leo and Junseo, two of the guards from the castle.
She tries to go unnoticed, hoping that it will work and squeaking an "Excuse me," while attempting to squeeze by them, but one of them grabs her arm.
"Nice try," Junseo says, smiling. "You were never good at sneaking around."
"You're lucky we found you," Leo tell her, standing a little behind Junseo. "Just a little longer and your father would have sent out a search party."
"Aren't you guys the search party?" Jihyun asks.
Leo shakes his head. "I mean an even bigger one. Including higher authorites."
"Oh," Jihyun says in a small voice. Higher authorities. That was something Jihyun didn't expect. But still, she had to try and stay, just long enough to say goodbye to Jongin face-to-face. But . . . did she want to say goodbye like that? How hard would it be, to see his reaction when she tells him she has to leave and maybe will never see him again?
To see him one last time, she's willing. "Can you just tell him you found me but I won't be back for a while longer?"
At her question, Junseo releases her arm and tilts is head. "Why? You like it out here?"
"Seems like it," Leo answers for her. "She's already shopping and everything."
"Oh, yeah," Junseo looks down at the bags like he didn't even realize she was holding them. "And you were going to take them in here?" He points to the building in front of them. "Who are you living with?"
"A friend."
"What friend?" Leo asks suspiciously. "You don't have any friends outside Alcea."
"Well obviously I do." Jihyun retorts. "How did you guys find me?"
"When you go to an amusement park without a disguise, someone's bound to recognize you."
"But that was like, three weeks ago."
Leo shrugs. "She was skeptical."
Junseo gestures with a nod to the apartment. "You can take your groceries inside and say goodbye to your friend, but after that, we have to leave."
At Jihyun's hesitation, Leo steps closer. "We know you don't really want to go back, but you're a princess, Jihyun. You can't run away from that."
Reluctantly, she nods. "Alright. But I want to go in alone. I won't take very long."
She drags herself to the elevator, the groceries not weighing her down, but the sadness. She almost feels as if she's betraying Jongin by leaving, but she really has no choice. If she stays, her dad would use force to bring her back, and she doesn't want to embarrass Kai like that, never.
So that's why she sets the groceries on the counter, putting away the refrigerated items so they wouldn't go bad and looks for paper, and sitting down at the table with a pen to write her letter to Kai, hating every minute of it.
Guys! I started a new story starring Baekhyun and an oc, so please check it out! It's called Phoenix, and I really like it so far, so hopefully you will too^^
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