When Yeona walked out of that common hall followed by her three teachers, she never expected her world to turn around so dramatically.
Well, she had guessed. She had guessed that few things were going to change once she starts staying in the Palace. But never in her wildest dreams had she guessed that it was going to happen that quickly.
After they went to the courtyard, Yeona was left alone with Ms. Kim. She was supposed to take the first lesson of the day. If Yeona was being honest, she was quite excited about the etiquette class as her mom always told her that 'manners make a man', but boy, she had no idea how hard it was going to be.
From the moment they entered Yeona's room, Ms. Kim went on a total rampage. She pointed and picked out everything that was not supposed to be used by the future Queen which included her casual clothes, her makeup kit, and even that bag of chips that she had snuck in. She even removed Yeona's previous skincare items, her crafted jewelry, and her nail art designs.
When Ms. Kim was finally done with her room, there was barely anything that reminded Yeona of her previous simple life.
Ms. Kim must have felt some sort of guilt seeing Yeona's saddened expression because she quietly stood beside her and gave a light pat on her shoulder before saying eloquently, "Do not be disheartened, Ms. Cha. Your latest items are arriving shortly."
As soon as she finished her words, several royal staff marched inside her room with a variety of items. They included brand new clothes, pieces of jewelry, accessories, watches, purse, makeup, premium skincare products – it had everything that a girl could ever dream of.
"From now on," Ms. Kim started as she motioned the staff to organize everything in the right place before facing Yeona, "You will be using these items for your daily use. Whether you attend a party or go out for a simple drive, you must never forget the position that you are in."
"The position as in 'I am the future Queen?'" Yeona questioned awkwardly as she tried to keep up with the people putting various kinds of stuff in her room.
"Yes, precisely." Ms. Kim smiled slightly before motioning the staff to leave the room. She then turned around and focused her piercing gaze on Yeona. "Now, Ms. Cha," Ms. Kim started as she sat down in front of her with both feet firmly planted on the floor. "I have decided to divide our lessons into four sections."
"Section one will include body etiquette. Section two will include dining etiquette. Section three will include speech etiquettes and section four will include social etiquette." Ms. Kim announced as she pulled out a notebook and handed it to Yeona.
"Go through these quickly and then we will start our practice." Ms. Kim said as she smiled softly at Yeona.
Expect when Yeona opened the notebook, Ms. Kim's smile seemed a little daunting.
∞
Yeona did not even realize where the four hours went away. It felt like a while ago she was just going through the notebook and then suddenly, she was walking down the hallway multiple times because there was always something wrong in her posture.
When she finally corrected her walking posture, they started with her standing postures and body language. And, before Yeona could even realize it, she was standing for the next two hours and doing poses just like Ms. Kim wanted.
And now when Yeona thought that she could finally rest for the day, Mrs. Ji entered the library along with a few royal staff. They were carrying a huge blackboard along with a stack of organized papers. Yeona let out a soft sigh as she eyed the papers.
Today was definitely going to tire her out.
Mrs. Ji smiled at her warmly and ordered the staff to prop the blackboard right in front of them. When the staff left, she turned towards Yeona and placed the huge stack of papers in front of her. Yeona watched them curiously and saw that it looked like profiles or description of some people. Before Yeona could even ask anything, Mrs. Ji cleared her throat and started writing on the board.
"Ms. Cha," Mrs. JI began as he faced Yeona again. "I am Mrs. Ji Seonhee and from today onwards, I'll be helping you remember every person that is important to the Royal Family."
"As you have already heard from Her Royal Majesty, apart from being the Monarch of South Korea, Their Majesties also own one of the biggest and one of the leading companies, The Imperial Group of Industries Limited." She continued as she wrote the name on the board.
"All of the members of the Royal family, including the close as well as the distant relatives of the Royal family will be attending the wedding. Along with them, various clients who are an extremely important asset to the company will be there too." She announced as she pulled out profiles from the stack and laid them in front of Yeona in an organized manner.
"So," Mrs. Ji said looking firmly at Yeona, "you must remember these profiles accurately, no matter what."
Yeona quietly nodded her head as she scanned the files placed in front of her.
"That is great!" Mrs. Ji smiled warmly again as she started pulling out more profiles from the stack. "Let's start with the close relatives!"
∞
It was around one in the afternoon when Yeona was finally done with Mrs. Ji for the day. She heaved out a sigh of relief when Mrs. Ji finally left her alone. If etiquette class was hard, her class with Mrs. Ji was simply exhausting. It was not like Yeona found Mrs. Ji boring; it was just the topic they were learning was quite exhausting.
She understands that she needs to know about the family she is getting married into but going through her hundred and two relatives every aspect of life was something that Yeona really did not look forward to. She understands the part where she has to remember their names but to remember which type of pots they like was way too much for her.
"Who even cares about pots?" Yeona muttered to herself as she finished her lunch.
She was so drained from that class that even her favorite dishes tasted bland. She quickly finished her meal and decided to wander back to her room. She needed some rest or else she would definitely explode.
She was about to enter her room when a butler who looked like he was around his late forties stopped her.
"Ms. Cha," the butler started with his head slightly bowed, "Ms. Wu is waiting for you in the library. She mentioned that you are running late."
Yeona almost choked on her spit. She had classes again?!
Her feelings must have displayed themselves on her face because the moment the butler finished his words, he looked extremely sorry.
He looked at her apologetically and reminded her once again that she was indeed running late. Yeona let out a soft sigh and shot him a warm smile before dashing towards the library where the first thing she saw was Ms. Wu's frowning face.
"You are late, Ms. Cha." Ms. Wu huffed as she looked at her watch before looking at Yeona skeptically.
"I was having my lunch," Yeona answered, lowering her head as she walked inside the library and took a seat beside Ms. Wu.
Ms. Wu did not comment on that. Instead, she pulled out a small schedule and placed it in front of Yeona. Before Yeona could even question what it was about, Ms. Wu began speaking.
"As you have already heard from Her Majesty, I'll be teaching you the history of Korean Monarchy. Along with that, I'll be teaching you current affairs and important topics of discussion like business administration and the sector of telecommunication."
Yeona looked at her with confusion. As far as she can remember, Her Majesty said that Ms. Wu would only teach about their history and current affairs. So why would Ms. Wu teach her about business administration and telecommunication? Were they really such relevant topics?
"What level are you at English?" Ms. Wu asked, snapping Yeona awake from her thoughts.
"Uh…B1?" Yeona answered hesitantly.
Ms. Wu hummed as she wrote that down in her notebook. "Do you know any other language? Like Chinese or Japanese?"
"No…" Yeona faltered a bit as she saw her writing that down too. Why in the world Ms. Wu was making her this nervous? It felt like she was back in fifth grade where she had to meet the principal she was too scared of.
"You will need to learn three more languages." Ms. Wu said looking at her. "But we will go to that part later. For now, let us start from the Joseon dynasty."
Even though Yeona was a sociology major and had History as one of her minors, she must mention that she did not find it exciting at all.
∞
When Yeona was finally done for the day, she felt like she was a bag of stones. Not only her body felt exhausted, but her mind was famished too. If she thought that the first two classes were too demanding, then she must say that her third class with Ms. Wu was simply draining. She was teaching her way too quickly that it was taking a lot from Yeona to just focus on the topics.
Yeona let out a loud sigh and decided that it would be best for her to take a shower. She picked out her new clothes and entered the bathroom. Half an hour later when she returned to her room, she saw that she had three missed calls from Jia. She felt her smile at the thought of Jia and flopped down on the bed before dialing her up.
Jia picked it up in one ring.
"Where were you, Yu?" Jia whined, her thick accent coming through. "I missed you."
"Sorry, I was just taking a bath." Yeona apologized as she settled more comfortably in her bed.
"Are you okay?" Jia asked after a pause. "Your voice sounds strange."
Yeona could not help but chuckle. Jia was indeed her best girl. Of course, she would know that something was wrong with her just from the tone of her voice. "Yeah…I guess I am," Yeona muttered. "I am just a bit tired."
"Are they making you work hard or something?" Jia tried guessing. "Are they making you take any classes?"
Yeona sighed aloud. "I guess you can say that. I had three lessons today."
"Oh really?" Jia asked surprised. "Tell me about them!"
Yeona chuckled a bit before explaining what the lessons were. She told her how the teachers were and what they were teaching her. She then explained the details of lessons and even shared with her the facts that she managed to remember that day. She also whined about the teachers and expressed how strict they became whenever Yeona could not do a task in one go.
"That…sounds kind of rough." Jia sighed through the phone. "By the way, how is everything going on with the Prince? Did you speak to him?"
As soon as the Prince was mentioned, Yeona could not help but recall the morning's event. She winced a bit as the memory of the Prince's bruised nose showed up. Along with that, she also remembered the deadly glare the Prince threw at him.
"He…" Yeona paused for a bit as she tried to think of a suitable word. "I think he kinds of hates me."
Yeona had a feeling from the start that the Prince did not like being around him. Maybe it was because she was a commoner or maybe it had to do with something else but Yeona always had that feeling. But today when the Prince glared at her like that, her thought was confirmed.
Prince Dojin really disliked her.
"Oh…" Jia drawled slightly. "What about the others? Are they nice to you?"
"Yeah Jia…" Yeona answered with a slight smile. "They are all nice. They treat me well too."
"Okay…" Jia answered even though she sounded slightly hesitant. "If anything happens, you call me okay? I'll kidnap you out of that place no matter what!"
Yeona laughed as she shook her head. Zhang Jia always has a way to lift her mood. "Yes, yes, my little assassin!"
They spoke for a few more minutes about various things before Jia hung up for the night. Yeona sighed as she dimmed the lights and laid down on her bed. She felt exhausted and slightly frustrated too. She did not understand why she had to go through all these. She did not sign up for this.
But she did not understand why after all of this, she still had a lingering feeling of hope. Just maybe, maybe there was a truly big reason as to why she was here and why she had gone through this. She did not understand it yet but maybe there was a much bigger destiny that she was a part of.
The days passed by fast and soon Yeona became used to the palace grounds. It has already been more than three weeks since she got engaged and moved in to live there. She was learning all about the etiquettes and she had almost memorized the relative's profiles. But most of all, she really enjoyed Ms. Wu's classes. She did not think she would but nowadays she really looked forward to it.
Overall, Yeona was starting to accept her new life. She was finally getting used to her fate.
∞
Dojin, on the other, hand became more restless.
Yeona was a nice woman indeed, but no matter how hard Dojin tried he just could not seem to accept her in his life. He knew that he was being a little stubborn with her, borderline rude too but Dojin really could not fathom marrying Yeona.
If they had met on different circumstances then maybe, Dojin would have taken a liking to Yeona but right now, it felt as if someone was forcefully putting her on his back. And if Dojin was being honest, Yeona was truly a wonderful woman but she was just not Dojin's type.
Overall, Dojin still could not accept his new life. He was still not getting used to his fate.