Among Blood & Cherry Blossoms

2: 皇室生活不適合我 (The Royal Life Is Not For Me)

It seemed as though the stars had barely left the sky when Lee Jin was woken up.
    "Your highness." A voice whispered. Confused on if it was just her imagination or if it was really happening, Lee Jin chose to ignore it. That is until the voice called again, slightly louder than before. "Your highness. You have to get up. Unless you wish to be in trouble with Advisor Wang."
  Lee Jin sat up and rubbed her eyes. She was still trying to adjust that she wasn't living with her mother anymore,but with royals and people she had to be approved by.
   "Oh. I'm sorry!" Lee Jin quickly stood up and bowed. "I really do apologize."
   The woman before her laughed before urging her to stand up straight.
  "Your highness. You really don't need to do that."
   "I'm sorry." Lee Jin smiled, accidentally bowing again.
"It's okay, your highness." The woman chuckled a bit before bowing. "I'm Liu. I'll be guarding you and Prince Ming but right now you need to meet with Advisor Wang."
  "Advisor Wang?"
    "Yes." Liu smiled as she helped Lee Jin onto her feet. "He'll be helping you prepare for your duties in the future, seeing as you'll be the future princess and/or queen."
  "I see." Lee Jin smiled as she got up and changed her clothes that Prince Ming had left her last night. "Shall we go?"
  As  they walked along the trail to get to the palace, the atmosphere felt awkward, out of place. So breaking out of her shell, Liu spoke.
   "I'm so glad that you're not as snooty and superficial as all the previous suitors for Minnie."
   "Minnie? Zhao Min?" Lee Jin giggled a bit, gently shoving Liu's shoulder. "I was honestly a bit mean to him when we first met."
   "Really?" Liu gasped with interest. "All the previous girls were so in love with the idea of marrying a prince so I'm a bit surprised."
   "Well certainly not me." Lee Jin shook her head in amusement. "In fact, I kind of resented him. I want to make my own choices and my own life. Marrying a prince was never in my plans."
   "So what about Minnie?" Liu stopped in her tracks, worried for your highness.
  "We're both in love with someone else." Lee Jin stopped in her tracks as well. "We both don't want this marriage to happen."
   "Oh?" Liu slightly smiled,continuing to walk down the path. "That's information I'll keep in mind."
   As they continued walking down the path, the two talked and became a bit closer,almost as if they were meant to be best friends.

🌸♡🌸

"One more time, Lee Jin." Advisor Wang sighed, tired of repeating the same bowing etiquette.
   "We've been doing this for hours, Advisor Wang." Lee Jin puffed, restraining a groan of frustration. She understood that Advisor Wang was just trying to do his job. "We've been working on my etiquette for the past 12 hours."
  "I know,I know." He waved his hand in frustration. "However, we only have a few weeks to pull this off. So,we have to keep practicing. After you try once more,we'll be done for the day."

🌸♡🌸

"I take it that the etiquette classes went well." Zhao Min chuckled, sitting beside an exhausted Lee Jin.
   "Not. Funny." Lee Jin groaned, lazily swatting at the prince's arm. "I'm so tired."
  "Well,look at it this way," Zhao Min smiled, lying beside Lee Jin. "It's not going to last forever and I'll be by your side through the whole thing."
    "Hmm, tempting." Lee Jin smiled, turning her head towards Zhao Min. "I'll take what I can get, I suppose."
    "You suppose?!" Zhao Min gasped in fake hurt,beginning to tickle Lee Jin. "Well, I guess I must work hard to be in your presence your highness to be."
After calming down, the two layed there in comfortable silence. Zhao Min resting his head in one hand and the other running through Lee Jin's hair. Lee Jin resting her head on her arms enjoying the comfort.
  "In all seriousness, I'm here for you Lee Jin. I promise." The prince whispered softly, breaking the silence. "Hopefully, we don't have to go through with this marriage and we can love who we want as we please. However, if we must, I promise that I'll be your best friend through it all. You have my word."
   "I hope we don't either." Lee Jin sighed, half in content, half in high hopes. "But we'll stick together as best friends."
  The silence grew again and as always, it was comforting and serene.
  "Goodnight, Lee Jin." The prince whispered, seeing that the girl beside him had fallen asleep. "Things will get better. For you, for me, for us. We'll both get our happy endings."
  Things went like this for at least three weeks. The morning talks with Liu, 12 hours of etiquette, and the late nights talks with Zhao Min. Things went like this everyday until the people of the court and the people of China were summoned. The announcement bringing a shock to everyone including Liu and the Prince.
    "Ladies and gentlemen." Advisor Wang began, the silence of the crowd serious and discouraging. "We regret to inform you that the future princess, Miss Huang Lee Jin, has gone missing. Anyone who knows anything of her disappearance, please inform us. There will be a reward of 140,000 yuan for anyone who finds her and returns her safely. Thank you. That will be all."
With murmurs in the crowd, some judgemental and uninviting, Liu and the Prince couldn't help but look at each other in shock and concern, curious about where Lee Jin could have gone.

🌸♡🌸

Running as far as she could, the dress that she had first arrived in at the court covering her body with the cloak she wore, Lee Jin ran and ran, hoping to escape the commotion for just a while.
She kept going as far as her feet could take her,until she bumped into a hard surface. Too soft to be a tree, but hard enough to send her falling backwards.
She almost fell on the ground until a hand reached out and grabbed hers.
  "I'm sorry, I-" Lee Jin began to apologize before the boy in front of her began to speak.

"You know, it's not really safe to run in the forest like that." The boy before her huffed in annoyance. "Especially if you can't seem to look where you're going."
  "I apologize." Lee Jin bowed, unsure of where she was or how to react.
  "It's fine." The boy shook his head, frown still etched on his features. The boy before her had long, wavy black hair that he halfway tied in a ponytail. His eyelashes were long and thick and he wore 3 noticeable birthmarks on his left cheek in a triangle pattern. His eyes dark and his lips a pink pastel. He was so different looking from Prince Ming. Prince Ming sporting dark but glowing eyes, with a slightly wide button nose and a smaller upper lip. The boy's eyes slanting downward whereas the Prince's slanted upwards. Both having distinctive features that made them attractive. "Just watch where you're going next time."
  The boy walked off without another word afterwards, leaving Lee Jin standing there. Unsure of what she should do, she decided to follow the boy, leaves crunching beneath their feet.
  "What are you doing, girl?" The boy turned around, letting out that signature sigh of annoyance. "Why are you following me?"
  "My name isn't girl." She frowned in equal annoyance. Knowing that she probably shouldn't say her real name, she stuck out her hand and said, "My name is LJ, Huang LJ."
  Reluctantly taking her hand, he raised an eyebrow mumbling a mere, "Seong Hun. Lee Seong Hun." turned around, and simply kept waking.
    "Are you from here?" Lee Jin asked, trying to keep up. "You're name sounds a bit unique."
  "No, I'm not." He shook his head but not without releasing a sigh. "I'm from Korea. You from here? You're name sounds pretty strange,too."
  "Yes." Lee Jin nodded. "Thanks for letting me tag along."
   "Yeah, yeah," Seong Hun shook his hand, looking at the sky. "It's really late."
  Taking out a lantern and grabbing Lee Jin's wrist, Seong Hun careful went down the path of leaves where the sound of water slowly became audible.
  "We'll camp here for tonight."

🌸♡🌸

  "Seong Hun?" Lee Jin asked. The light of the lantern and the campfire illuminating their faces. "You have a sword?"
  "Yeah. Why?" He furrowed his brows.
  "May I see it?" Lee Jin gave her cutest smile.
  "As long as you never do that again." He made a face of confusion and disgust. "How do I know I can trust you?"
  "If I wanted to harm you in anyway, I would have done it by now and this conversation wouldn't even be happening."
  "Fair." He handed the sword over, eyeing Lee Jin carefully.
  Before he could even register what was happening, Lee Jin wrapped her long,wavy hair over to one side and cut it slightly past her shoulders.
  "Are you hiding from something?" The boy raised a brow at the girl, taking the sword back. "Or are you just plain crazy?"
  "I-"
   "You know what? I'm too tired to even discuss this." Seong Hun shook his head, lying on the ground with an arm supporting his head. "If you're sticking with me, just know that we're going to be traveling a bit far. We're staying in China, we'll just be going really far and to where? I don't know."
   "I understand."
  "Go on and get some rest. We leave in the morning."
  With those last words spoken, the two lied on the ground with much distance in between the two. Unlike the nights Lee Jin and Zhao Min spent together, the silence was awkward, anxious, and strange. It would be a long night and an even longer day for the both of them.