"Jia! Get up! Get up! We are late!!!"
Yeona yelled at the top of her lungs while shaking the sleeping girl. Jia just whined and rolled over to hide her face. Yeona sighed. She did not want to do this, but Jia did not leave much of a choice for her. Desperate, Yeona got on top of the sleeping girl and decided to blow on her neck.
She leaned close and after exactly two blows the slumbering girl started wailing and almost threw Yeona off the bed. Jia jolted up, her hair astray as her face formed morphed into a frown and started muttering Chinese angrily.
"We'll have time for that later, Jia," Yeona said as she scrambled to grab her textbooks. "Just get up and get ready! We are late for Professor Kim's class!" Yeona yelled again as she started running around their room to gather all her stuff.
Jia looked at her for a while before the words finally registered on her mind and she immediately shot up from her bed howling in her accented Korean "Oh My God! I can't believe I slept in again!". She repeated as she hurriedly started to gather her stuff while dressing up in a fury.
Yeona waited by the door, watching, as her friend tried to defy the speed of light in getting ready. As soon as Jia was done, both hastily got out of the dorm building and ran as fast as possible towards the lecture hall. With only a minute to spear, they reached their destination in the nick of the time and scurried to take their seats.
By the time they settled down in their seats, they were both panting and beads of perspiration were evident on their face. "I think we made it on time" Jia panted as she got out her laptop and placed it in front of her. Yeona nodded while catching her breath as she took out her books.
The bell rang, signaling the start of the class but instead of their old, grumpy Professor Kim, a young and handsome man, dressed in a blue sweater and khaki pants entered the hall and stood on the lecturer's stage. Yeona looked at Jia with confusion but Jia just shrugged as she also had no idea.
"Good morning everyone." The handsome man started, "I am Chris Wang and I'll be replacing your Professor Kim Sung Ho for this semester. Nice to meet you all." He announced politely. As the new professor started arranging his papers for today, Yeona looked at Jia to see her reaction. She was not at all surprised to see Jia gaping at the new professor. That man had a chiseled jawline, sharp eyes, a high nose, and looked like he had straightaway come from a fashion magazine.
"He is handsome, isn't he?" Yeona teased, "Quite your type," she smiled mischievously. Jia did not answer that question but instead just showed her dimpled smile and motioned Yeona to focus on the class.
∞
Cha Yeona or just Yeona was your average simple girl. She lived a simple, non-complicated life like any other person. She hailed from a small town named Andong in South Korea and her family consisted of her mother who was a high-school teacher, her dad who was a well-renowned lawyer, her older brother who was working in a big company in Seoul and recently got married to his long-time girlfriend and their family dog Miso who got named after his remarkable smile. She studied in public school all her life and later, after a lot of hard work, got a scholarship at the prestigious Seoul National University.
She was so shocked when she heard the news of her acceptance that she could barely sleep for days.
Even though she had loads of acquaintances here and there, she barely spoke to people. Still, she had her small circle of close friends which consisted of Kang Jungmin who was her long-distanced cousin, Lee Woobin whom she met in her junior year of high school, and Zhang Jia who was her roommate/best friend. Even though she had a small group of friends, Yeona was happy and content with her life. She loved her family, adored her friends, and she was quite content with how her life was going.
∞
The lecture ended after an hour & a half and most of the students tiredly got out of their seats before leaving the auditorium. Yeona stretched her arms with a yawn and glanced at Jia who was snoring softly beside her. A fond smile spread across her lips and suddenly she remembered how she became friends with this sleeping woman beside her.
It was raining cats and dogs that day and it had been a week since she moved to Seoul and the SNU dorms. She was still getting to know Seoul and enjoyed the thrill of this busy city. For her Seoul was like an adventure, a place for endless exploration. As her hometown was quiet most of the days, seeing the rush and chaos of this big city was nothing but adrenaline for her.
She was walking back to her dorm after getting some groceries when she saw a girl drenched in rain standing near their university gate. She was wet and was slightly shivering from the cold. Yeona felt something tug at her heart and she carefully walked towards the stranger not even thinking twice about the possibility that this woman could be a kidnapper.
"Hey, can I help you?" Yeona asked as she held her umbrella to keep the drenched stranger from getting further wet. The girl looked at her and attempted to give her a meek smile but immediately regretted it when her teeth started clattering. Yeona looked around to spot anyone from the university and noticed that her luggage was quite wet from the rain too.
"Are you new here?" Yeona questioned the stranger to which the stranger nodded while shivering. Yeona thought for while about what she should do with this shivering stranger. It was not her responsibility to look after some lone stranger but Yeona could not just ignore someone in need. She was not made of stone after all. It just did not sit right with her to let this girl stand here under the cold, pouring rain.
Hence, she picked up her luggage and told the stranger to follow her so they could at least sit inside her dorm until this stranger found hers.
After a bit of struggle with the groceries and luggage, Yeona finally reached her dorm room with the stranger and lent her some of her clothes since the girl was drenched from head to toe. The stranger went inside the bathroom to change while Yeona prepared some warm coffee for both.
When the stranger came out, Yeona let out a hearty chuckle because the stranger looked quite ridiculous in Yeona's small clothes. The stranger's calves were almost exposed through Yeona's sweatpants and the white tee was a little too tight on her.
"Hey…Don't laugh at me" the stranger muttered with a small pout.
Yeona noticed the weird accent and stared at her. "You're not Korean, are you?" she asked curiously.
"No, I'm not. I am Chinese." The girl answered as she looked around the room. "I came here for the exchange program" she then announced as Yeona handed her the cup of coffee. She whispered a thank you and continued to look around Yeona's room.
"By the way," Yeona hesitated for a bit. She was not comfortable with new people but since she dragged this girl inside her dorm, it would be awkward if she at least did not introduce herself. "I am Yeona, Cha Yeona." she introduced herself as she extended a hand towards the tall and beautiful Chinese girl.
The Chinese girl eyed her hand curiously for a moment before saying, "I'm Jia, Zhang Jia." She smiled softly as she shook her hand and Yeona could notice the deep dimple on her right cheek. She was truly pretty. "Nice to meet you Yeona"
∞
Yeona quickly got back from her memory land and saw that the auditorium was almost empty. She woke Jia up and together they went to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast before their separate classes started. While Yeona was a Sociology major, Jia was majoring in Astronomy. Therefore, their classes and everything was separate except they both were having a minor in English.
They took their seat at their usual table and soon Jungmin and Woobin came rushing in.
"Guys, Big News!" Jungmin yelled, grabbing the attention of the entire cafeteria.
"Quiet down will you" Woobin shushed him. But instead of feeling sorry, Jungmin showed his signature Cheshire grin and took a seat opposite to Jia.
"So?" Jia asked curiously, her sculptured eyebrows raised slightly.
"You do know that the Prince Park Dojin is studying here right?" Jungmin asked excitedly. The other three gave him a knowing look and he continued "Well I heard a rumor going around the college saying that they're going to get him married soon. I also heard his fiancé is a commoner. They are not from the royal blood! Isn't that so exciting?!!" Jungmin chirped with brimming excitement.
Yeona rolled her eyes and scoffed at Jungmin.
Jungmin shot her a confused look and asked "What?".
Yeona replied with a sigh and said, "I feel bad for whoever they are. Adjusting in the royal family won't be easy."
"It is not our concern." Jungmin interrupted. "But imagine, from a commoner to a queen? Talk about crazy luck!" He chuckled, clearly amused with the information he had.
Yeona did not want to argue with Jungmin so, she got up from her seat and went to pick up their breakfast. She waited in the line for a while and after she was done, she walked back to their table. She distributed their packages and was about to start eating when the Student President who was also known as Shin Soomin came towards their table and handed them some flyers.
"What are these?" Yeona asked eyeing the papers.
"Just fill it Yeona. It's not going to eat you up," she said, seemingly uninterested. "Fill them up and drop them on the box outside my office once you're done."
Yeona scanned the flyers carefully and saw that it was asking for identification and personal details. It was quite strange because the university was supposed to already have these data.
"But really why do we need to fill them?" Yeona asked again. "the university already has these data."
Soomin sighed softly and said, "I don't know. Our Director wants it so do not ask any more questions. I'm already tired from having to distribute this." she showed the bag filled with the flyers as she sighed again.
"Okay…" Yeona nodded, feeling bad for Soomin. "Good luck on distributing this!" Yeona smiled in hopes of cheering her.
Soomin returned her smile as she handed the rest of the flyers to their group. "Anyways, I'll see you when I see you guys." She said as she lifted the bag up. "Bye Jungmin!" she bid them farewell and left for god knows where.
As soon as she left, all the eyes fell on Jungmin because The Shin Soomin just said bye to him personally. But before they could ask Jungmin any questions, they saw that the said male was already lost in his dreamland as his unfocused eyes kept looking in the direction of where Soomin went.
"He's already a lost cause, isn't he?" Jia whispered in Yeona's ears.
"Absolutely."
∞
The rest of the week went by in a hurry.
It was a continuous cycle of sleep, classes, food, classes, and sleep. Finally, after what felt like ages, it was Friday and Yeona had enough time to get a breather. She lazily walked around the campus and went to her favorite café along with Jia.
"I think we should try something new," she announced eyeing the menu carefully. Suddenly, a giant body shoved past them which caused them to stumble and almost fall. They moved away instantly and glared at the person who seemed to be in such a rush that they could not even see two people standing.
"Watch where you're going, Mister!" Yeona yelled, shooting daggers through her eyes.
"Don't stand in the middle, Lady." The tall stranger shot back without even turning his face towards them.
Yeona felt so angry that she left the café without sparing a second and marched towards her dorm room. She calmed down a bit by the time she entered her room and saw Jia running towards her with two cups of coffee in her hands.
As Yeona was sipping her coffee, Jia suddenly straightened in her seat and said, "Didn't that guy resemble the prince a lot?"
Yeona huffed, "I don't care, Jia. Can we not talk about the incident anymore?"
Jia nodded her head and quietly sipped on her drink.
Eventually, the incident was forgotten, and they went on with their days.
∞
The next morning, Yeona was awoken by Jia shaking her violently.
"Yu! Wake Up! Wake up!" Jia yelled at the top of her lungs.
"What?" Yeona croaked out. She had gone to sleep late last because of an assignment and she knew that Jia knew about it. So why in the world was her best friend screaming at her?
"See this!" Jia shoved the phone in her face, but she could barely see anything due to sleep still clouding her eyes. "you're everywhere" Jia Yelled.
"That's great, Jia" she replied with a groggy smile and went back to sleep only to be awoken by Jia snatching her blankets away.
"It is not great Yeona!" she yelled again. "You're the fiancé everyone was talking about! You're going to get married to Prince Park Dojin!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs.
"Yeah, sure." Yeona sat up on her bed. Whatever tiredness she had was now out of the window because her best friend just could not stop shouting. "Now he is going to pick me up in a white horse and we're going to live happily ever after." Yeona chuckled, unable to hold the laughter bubbling inside her because of this ridiculous situation.
"I'm not joking Yeona!! See this!" Jia said exasperated as she shoved her phone on Yeona face once again.
Yeona casually looked at the displayed screen until she read the news and her big eyes grew wide like saucers. She could not believe what she just read. She switched to another article in hopes of finding that the news was fake but all the articles she opened only showed what she feared the most. In every single article, there was only one heading.
"Prince Park Dojin, the first Prince of South Korea, is going to get married to his long-lost fiancé, Ms. Cha Yeona!"
"How...?" Yeona looked at Jia dumbfounded. She could barely think straight. What in the world was happening? Just when did she become the Prince's fiancé?
"They are saying that it was arranged between your families because of a favor your grandfather did to the previous King" Jia sighed as took her phone away from Yeona's limp hands.
"But…I don't know about anything like that," Yeona mumbled as her eyes became unfocused.
She could not think. Heck, it was becoming difficult to even breathe. Just how in the world could everything change so quickly? She slept last night as a normal university student and the next morning she found out that she the fiancé of Prince Dojin?
Is this even possible?
Yeona could hardly believe it.