ℜ𝔬𝔶𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔶 𝔖𝔪𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔫 | Ｈｙｕｎｊｉｎ ｘ ｏｃ ｆｆ(Royal AU)

1 - 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝓇𝒾𝓋𝒶𝓁

"I'm sorry, Merissa. I can't deal with this on my conscience. Not now that he's found out."
"We could still make it work, Joseph! I promise it'll be-"
"No! I just...I just can't, Your Highness."
Those words shattered me permanently. I watched dejectedly as Joseph bowed and left my chambers. He bowed. He hasn't bowed unironically to me for more than two years.

We were over.

I'd tried to plead with my father, tried to appeal to his good drunken side, but all I got was the nonsensical rage. The same nonsensical rage that he had when he stumbled upon Joseph and I, embracing in my room. I'd never felt as embarrassed as I did then.
And now, I couldn't even live in the palace anymore. I was going to some random school on the other side of the world. Great.

📖💖✨

'I hate it already' I thought, as I dragged my bags down the corridor with me. This school was too shiny, too illustrious.
The headmistress' assistant, Maria, was leading me to the dormitory I was to be staying in, when, in the late evening of a Saturday, I walked past him. Him. The man that would later become the love of my life. But, more of that later. Currently, I was still heartbroken and mourning the loss of my lover, tears constantly threatening to break the surface and overflow.
I was shown my dormitory and left, being told that no one would arrive to school until the Sunday evening, and so I was free to do what I wanted. So, a day in a ghost building on a random island. Yay.

In the end, I'd decided to walk around, maybe scout my new classes. The institution was nothing like I'd imagine it to be. Home schooling hadn't given me much information on the 'outside world'.
I'd navigated my way through the identical hallways to an archway exit, and took it out of curiosity, not knowing where it led. A quaint little cobblestone path took me to a rose garden, sides of the path clothed in high walls of greenery. The path seemed to be like a maze, turning this way and that until I gave up trying to recall my old directions.

Eventually I came to a clearing, probably in the middle of the whole place, where there was a bench.
And a person.

They turned around just as I had started to back away.
"Wait."
The man was... Very handsome. Golden hair tied back from his face, big brown eyes, full lips. Absolutely gorgeous.

As I stood still, entranced, the man asked,
"I don't recall having seen you before."