Chapter LXXVII
1755 Words
일흔 일곱째 왕관 (77)
She was entirely wrong.
Jae Kyung was entirely wrong.
As much as she wanted to convince herself that it’s only just an infatuation and she should act like what she usually acts around Prince Yi Eul, she just couldn’t.
This is just ridiculous.
She swore that she would never, ever like the Crown Prince and she was confident about it because first and foremost, Crown Prince Yi Eul is not her type—never will he and second of all, Crown Prince Yi Eul is the hardest person to deal with because of his attitude, mood swings and all the shitty things he had ever said and done.
“But why…”
Why the heck she ended up liking him?
Jae Kyung is having an emotional crisis as she kept on walking back and forth around her room, trying to figure out what she’s going to do about her feelings.
“Get your s**t together, Jae Kyung,” she said to herself. “You should forget what you felt about him. It’s against the contract, it’s against your rules. You shouldn’t invest any feelings for him. You shouldn’t like Prince Yi Eul. You shouldn’t. You must forget about it and do your job like nothing happened. That’s it, Jae Kyung. That’s what you should do.”
She slightly flinched when she heard a knock on the door. Her heart started to pound crazily inside her chest as she looked at the door.
“Your Highness, the breakfast is ready. His Royal Highness is already waiting for you in the dining room,” she heard the muffled voice of the servant outside her room.
Jae Kyung sighed and composed herself for a second or two before she responded. “Y-Yes… yes. I’ll go, I’ll go. Thank you so much.”
She heard a muffled ‘Yes, Your Highness’ outside her door as well as the fading footsteps outside. She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself once again.
“Get your s**t together, Kim Jae Kyung.”
“I didn’t recall that one of your jobs is to wash the dishes.”
Jae Kyung immediately turned her head on Prince Yi Eul who’s now staring at her while leaning on the kitchen’s door frame.
And once again, she felt her heart beating fast inside her chest seeing how Prince Yi Eul stared at her intently.
Jae Kyung turned to the sink again and focused on washing the dishes. “I know it’s not part of my job but I just want to help, you know what I’m saying? The servants are really busy doing some chores and I’m not that busy nor doing anything so I think there’s no harm for me to help.”
“I hired many servants for a reason,” she gasped silently and became stiff in her position when she felt Prince Yi Eul’s presence behind her.
Calm down, Kim Jae Kyung. Get your shits together and calm down. You’re already used to this closeness with him several times so calm down. You can do it.
“I-It’s not like these are a bunch of plates. This is just a teacup with a saucer and a plate that I actually used while eating cake. I will not bother the servants just for this,” she responded, biting her lips secretly because she stuttered.
“You’re lying. I could see more than five plates here and some glasses,” Prince Yi Eul immediately went to her side and wore the dishwashing gloves. “Move aside.”
“Yo-Your Highness!” Jae Kyung exclaimed. “Your Highness, no. Let me just do it. I can do this alone.”
But the Crown Prince didn’t listen to her. Instead, he silently took one of the plates and washed it with soap to the second sink next to Jae Kyung. “I usually watch my mom while she washes the dishes when I was a kid. I find it fun watching her hands and the sink full of foam and create bubbles. She sometimes pranked me by putting some bubble foams on my nose and I also get some huge foams and put them on her nose but since I couldn’t reach her nose, so she ended up having a foam mustache all over her face. It was fun. Really fun. Brings back childhood memories.”
“Do you miss the princess, Your Highness?” Jae Kyung couldn’t help but ask. The Crown Prince fell into total silence so she decided to take back the question. “If you’re not comfortable to answer, you can—”
“I am…” Prince Yi Eul responded. “I may not be a perfect kid to her because I always… always give her headaches because I’m such a spoiled brat but I will not gonna deny that I miss her… I miss dad too.”
“I’m sorry if I made you talk about it,” she said in a low voice.
“No, it’s okay,” Prince Yi Eul responded to her with a tiny smile on his face. “I’m fine to talk about it and besides, it’s quite unfair to me that you opened up your past to me but I can’t talk about myself.”
“I’m… I’m just fine about it, Your Highness…” Jae Kyung muttered. “I respect your privacy, though.”
She heard him chuckle. “What?”
“That’s the first time I actually heard a journalist telling me that she respected my privacy,” he said while chuckling.
“What the? I’m just being honest here!”
“Well, whatever, Kim Jae Kyung,” he teased her and she immediately showed her gloved fist on him. “Ooh~ do you want to punch my handsome face? I’m scared~”
“Handsome, your ass!” they both laughed as they continued washing the dishes.
“This is actually fun, not gonna lie.”
“So next time, you should do the dishes, Your Highness.”
“What?! No way!”
“But you said this is fun.”
“Just for today—” Prince Yi Eul heard his phone ringing. “Wait,” he took off his gloves and fished out his phone. As soon as he saw the Caller ID on his screen, he immediately answered the phone in a very low, almost a whisper voice. “Yeoboseyo? Da Hyun-ah…?”
That actually made Jae Kyung paused, slowly gripping onto the plate she’s washing before letting it go.
“Just stay there. I’ll be there,” Prince Yi Eul hung up and hastily removed his gloves and put them over the sink. He immediately called Do Wan to prepare the car.
“Your Highness, where—”
He cut Jae Kyung off. “I’ll be right back,” he hurriedly went out to the kitchen, leaving Jae Kyung alone.
Her gaze followed him until she could no longer see him. “Your Highness…”
That moment, she felt so frustrated and hurt that she had the urge to stop him from going to where he’ll going. But she knew she couldn’t.
Da Hyun’s weight in Prince Yi Eul’s attention is much heavier than hers.
He went home at ten in the evening.
Prince Yi Eul spent the whole day after he received a phone call from Da Hyun. Of course, Jae Kyung was worried that he went out like that—like he didn’t mind if the paparazzi are going to see him and take pictures of him and Da Hyun. She was relieved that he came home safe and didn’t make any breaking news from the paparazzi.
But that didn’t change what Jae Kyung felt when he left for Da Hyun like that.
“Is she… okay?” Prince Yi Eul flinched when he heard Jae Kyung’s voice. He didn’t expect that she’s awake at this hour and she’s now standing in the living room.
“Eo?” he muttered. It took him a second to respond. “Yes…”
“Why did she call you?” she asked him.
“She…” he trailed off. “It’s about her emotional struggles and stuff. You know that we’re close since we were in high school since we’re basically best friends before we even dated. I am the one who can understand her about it so she called me and I went to her.”
“So you went to her because of it?” Jae Kyung asked. She could feel the lump on her throat that she wanted to swallow but she couldn’t. But still, she managed to compose herself. “Are you guys frequently called each other and text each other?”
That made Prince Yi Eul kept his silence for a couple of seconds before he managed to answer her. “We… texted. But it’s not always.”
“But that doesn’t change the fact that when she has a problem, you’re just one text and call away and you’ll come to rescue her like Superman,” she said, seriousness dripping in her voice. “How can you manage to make her go back to you if you’ll like a lapdog coming to her when she feels like she wanted your presence?”
Prince Yi Eul looked at her, meeting Jae Kyung’s stern expression.
“You just proved my point that she could take you for granted because she’s certain that you still have feelings for her.”
“Jae Kyung—”
“The whole jealous plan thing in our agreement and the thing that you made me your wife just for Da Hyun to come back to you as well don’t make sense if you’re like that to her. This is pointless,” she told him. “If you want to ensure that she loves you as much as you do, then don’t answer her calls. Don’t respond to anything until she yearns for you and proves that she loves you in the same frequency as you do and not because she’s making you her rebound just because you’re her ex and her best friend and her current boyfriend doesn’t have time with her. Don’t make my job as your fake wife pointless, Your Highness.”
Before Prince Yi Eul could even have a chance to respond, Jae Kyung turned her back to him and left.
She left like that because she’s scared that Prince Yi Eul might see her misty eyes.
- Writer
