In Another Life

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Mingyue tried to hide her face the best she could before leaving the office to join the rest of the group.

"What happened to your dress?" Kangdae noticed.

"It tore when I tripped." Mingyue said, the excuse rolled off her tongue. She didn't want people to judge Jingjing before they actually met her. This was only a bad time for her, or that's what Mingyue kept trying to tell herself.

"Should we get going to the village?" Jake asked.

They stopped right outside the village so their carriages wouldn't draw so much attention. Mingyue led the way, her pace was surprisingly fast, but she also forgot that she didn't need to hurry somewhere.

"Mingyue, wait up!" Kangdae called to her. She looked back and all of them looked worried that they lost her.

"Right I forgot that the rest don't know..." she muttered to herself.

"Mingyue, is there somewhere you need to be right now? You looked like you were on a mission!" Aki said, skipping towards her.

"I just forgot something and I guess I didn't realize how fast I was walking. Sorry about that."

"Is that the Li Bakery?" Ni-ki asked, pointing towards the cozy little bakery.

"Looks like it," Sunghoon pointed out, nodding towards the sign that read 'Li Bakery'.

As the group made their way into the bakery, Mingyue saw how nothing changed. Everything was as she had left it. Her heart felt relieved that Mrs. Kang didn't change anything when she took over the bakery.

She looked at the people working there, none of which were Mrs. Kang.

"Is Mrs. Kang at her house?" Mingyue asked one of the woman working there, the lady nodded. She then turned to Haneul, "I've got to run a quick errand I'll be right back."

Before Haneul could say anything, Mingyue was already out the door.

"Hello Mrs. Kang!" Mingyue said, hugging the older woman. "I saw the bakery, thank you so much. You don't even know how grateful I am to you."

"It's not a problem Dear." Mrs. Kang reciprocated the hug, "I've missed you're everyday good mornings, but at least I still have your secret recipe for pumpkin bread~"

"Aish, such a menace these days," Mingyue joked.

"I heard that your that your Mom was made The Queen, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Does that make you a princess then? Should I refer to you as Your Highness?"

Mingyue laughed, "It does make me a princess, but I will forever be Li Mingyue to you."

"You're too kind to me, come sit, do you want tea?"

"Where did Mingyue run off to?" Sunoo asked, pouting.

"She said she needed to run an errand, I assume that she will be back soon.."

As the group had wandered out of the bakery, Mingyue was making her way there with Mrs. Kang.

"Is it alright if I stay here for a while? We can meet up afterwards at the market?" Mingyue asked. Everyone seemed to come to an agreement on that before they separated.

"Did you hear that the gem of the town is now a princess?" A boy around their age said, he had a black stained shirt on, his trousers were covered in mud as well as his boots. It was the same for the another boy, except his shirt was originally with stains of time and the third boy looked very clean in comparison to the two others. They were walking in a group of three.

This statement caught the attention of the others.

"Ah Li Mingyue! Isn't she Li Jingjing's daughter?" The boy with the white shirt asked.

"Yeah, that's why the bakery had to be sold." Black-stain-shirt boy answered

"I thought it was because Li Mingsheng died and they ran out of his money."

All the while, the boy with the clean clothes hadn't said a single word. He just looked down, his face said everything that was needed to know. It was sad and pained, but in his eyes there was a spark of happiness for Mingyue because he thought that she deserved the world. And that was simply something that he couldn't afford for her. 

"Jeez sorry Beomseok, we all know that you loved her. How does it make you feel knowing that you have no chance with her now?"

"Maybe if you weren't such a coward you could've actually married her!" The two other boys were laughing at Beomseok, the boy with the clean clothes.

All of the princes and princesses overheard, but none felt comfortable enough to comment. All except Kangdae felt stupid with how they were oblivious to her comfortability around the village.

Back at the bakery, Mrs. Kang asked if Mingyue could make the pumpkin bread, she claimed that it's ten times better when a Li makes it. One thing about that girl is that she is a pushover for Mrs. Kang, just like her father was for her.

"Girls, I would like to introduce you to Li Mingyue."

"Your Highness," All the girls bowed.

"There's no need, for today I'm back to Mingyue of Lumena."

Mingyue washed her hands and went behind the counter. She prepared everything and Mrs. Kang and her chatted while she was working.

"How is Seojun?"

"He's doing well, although he's bragging about meeting you before you became a princess," The elder woman laughed at the memory of her grandson.

When the bread finished baking, Mingyue took a cloth to protect her hand in order to take the bread out. She let it cool for a good half hour before taking it out of its pan and cutting it up for Mrs. Kang.

"You look like a mess, kiddo~" the woman began trying to brush the flour from the girls hair, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.

"It's alright–"

"There you are Mingyue!" Haneul said, "Oh sorry," she slightly bowed her head.

"I've stolen you're friend away, haven't I? My apologies Your Highness. Looks like it's time you return kiddo,"

"Bye Mrs. Kang, I'll be sure to visit you again next time. We can even make pumpkin bread again!"

"Sorry, I lost track of time." She tried brushing the flour off of her arms and dusting it from her apron.

"That's alright, we should bake something later–"

Haneul was cut off by the same group of boys from earlier. "Beomseok loves Li Mingyue!" Two of the boys broke into laughter once again and the third one turned away, embarrassed by his friends outburst.

"Do you know him?" Heeseung asked.

"We found out that you grew up here," Haneul whispered, informing Mingyue. Although Mingyue wasn't as embarrassed as Jingjing, unlike her mother, Mingyue was proud of her background.

"Yeah, he used to be a frequent at the bakery. Jung Beomseok, he always ordered the same thing, one cinnamon roll."

"Do you memorize orders? Or just his order?"

"I know quite a lot of them. Like Mrs. Kang always gets pumpkin bread, Mr. Hwang gets a different flavored croissant everyday, but usually in a three day rotation order of normal, cinnamon, then chocolate. There's a lot more, but I don't think that it's really interesting."