In Another Life

The Grand Move

"Welcome to the castle," Yoobin greeted Jingjing and Mingyue.

"Thank you, your Majesty." Mingyue bowed her head.

"There's no need for that, Mingyue, we are officially going to be family as of next week. You can refer to me as Yoobin if you want."

"Thank you," Mingyue smiled at the king, but she was hung up on some of his wording. 'Family as of next week'? She made no comment on the topic, although Jingjing seemed panicked about the reveal.

She had yet to tell Mingyue that she and Yoobin were getting married.

"I'll have your personal servent, Ms. Byun, show you around."

A younger girl, around Mingyue's age, greeted her with a bow. Yoobin laughed as he saw a look of obfuscation on Mingyue's face.

The girl led Mingyue around the castle, although Mingyue already felt lost– even with Ms. Byun's aid. The castle was filled with marble and gold, everything about it screamed wealthy.

"Why did you bow earlier?"

"It's customary, you are to be a princess soon, Ms. Li."

"You can call me Mingyue if you'd like, it's a bit odd being referred to as Ms. Li..."

"I'm afraid that I'm not allowed to do so, Ms. Li, it's against the rules for servants."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

"That's completely alright, now, would you like to see you're room?" Ms. Byun led Mingyue to a huge room. The girl felt like it was bigger than her whole house, well, old house.

The closet was filled with the most beautiful dresses, she didn't want yo imagine how much some of the embroidered dresses cost.

Ms. Byun left Mingyue to explore the room, it was amazing, but it wasn't her. She missed the coziness of her old home, this felt cold and empty even though it was filled with things. The bed might've been comfortable, but it wasn't the one she grew accustomed with.

"Mingyue?" Ms. Byun called out from the hall. "You have a visitor."

Mingyue went to the door to open it. Ms. Byun's eyes were opened in shock, as was the other girl that came to visit her. It was normal for the servants to open the doors apparently.

"Would you like to go with me for tea?"

"Okay," Mingyue responded. She had yet to change from her commoner dress.

The two walked down the corridor, their shoes were clicking and clacking, against the marble flooring, the sound bounced offed the walls and echoed back to them.

"I'm Haneul," The princess introduced.

"I'm Mingyue..."

"You seem confused," Haneul laughed.

"Should I call you, Your Highness?"

"You can just call me Haneul, you're going to be part of the royal family soon anyways," She giggled, "I want to take you to my favorite place."

"Shouldn't we get the things for tea?"

"It should be out there already. I asked my servent to set everything up."

Haneul led Mingyue to a round stone pavilion, the two pillars by the entrance were carved into people holding up the roof, the other pillars that supported were normal. It was placed in a green garden that had pops of colors from the flowers and a small little pond that had the most glassy water.

"This is beautiful," Mingyue said, looking around. There was a table placed in the pavilion, three cups were set.

"This is my favorite place to go when I need to think, Kangdae also comes here sometimes, but he doesn't really have much time to admire."

"Kangdae?"

"Yeah, he's our brother. I've made sure that he cleared his schedule so you could meet him. He seems very unapproachable during dinner because of his stressful days."

"I see, is that him?"

A boy walked into the garden, once he stepped foot in there, his demeanor completely changed. He went from a look of neutrality to tranquility. Mingyue saw the slightest change, but nevertheless it was still there.

"Yup! Kangdae!" Haneul called over with a bright smile. "Kangdae, this is Mingyue. Mingyue, this is Kangdae."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mingyue." Kangdae smiled.

The three of them sat for a while, this might've been the first time in a long time that the royal siblings were able to converse freely. They also warned Mingyue about the harshness of being a princess, but both of them also reassured her that they were there for her.

Haneul and Kangdae took a quick liking to the girl, although she was quite oblivious to the rules of royalty. They promised Mingyue to help her adjust to this new life, they couldn't even imagine how overwhelmed she was.

At first, the siblings assumed that she would be bratty and arrogant, it was a happy surprise when Mingyue proved them wrong. They didn't want to set the girl up for failure, but they also didn't want to scare her away. Kangdae frequents the villages to see what he can do to improve their standards, so he's more familiar with that kind of lifestyle than his sister.

Both ways of life are harsh, in a different way, but it doesn't change the pain that everyone has to endure. The villagers had to worry about finances, shelter, food. The royal family plans to fix everything, they set up financial aid, they give out food baskets, they built shelters for the homeless, but that doesn't just fix everything. They are blamed for everything that goes wrong, and they just take it. Yoobin uses the criticism as a motivation to work harder. His people need his help, so he will give it his all so everyone is happy.

When night fell, Mingyue couldn't help but admire how different the castle is at night. The walls were no longer a stone cold marble, but they were reflectent of the warm candle glow from the deliberately placed candelabras and sconces.

The more she wandered through the castle, the pretty it became in her eyes. This was the first time today that Mingyue felt that she would be alright here.