Since When Was I Engaged?! {A Korean not-so-Cinderella story}

Episode 1

Eun Chae Jeong is anything but Crown Princess material. If anything, she was the most average girl in the world. She was clumsy, for one thing, and had a habit of dropping everything. She wasn't overly pretty either; not a supermodel, but not an ugly hag, Eun Chae had the 'cute' label but not the 'hot' one. That had its perks, but it didn't make her the most likely candidate to become the fiancee of the crown prince of South Korea. She was certainly a nice girl, though. She wouldn't hurt a thing and was as sweet as honey as far as her disposition went. That made her the complete opposite of Crown Prince Bae Li.

Bae was everything any girl could ever dream of having: he was hot, rich, and a prince. He was practically flawless on the outside and had amazingly high grades and GPAs. However, his personality was the complete opposite: he was a jerk and didn't even try to hide it. True, around large crowds, he was okay, but as soon as you got him alone he morphed completely. He did that mostly to girls and unpopular kids, but with his rich friends, pfft, he was fine.

What are two polar opposites doing in the same school, you ask? It just happens to be the best and only private school in the area, go figure, and the only one the royal family decides that is good enough for Bae. Eun Chae's family makes just enough money to send her to this picturesque school and refuses to let her leave because of monetary problems that they may have at the time. They insist on getting her the best education possible at the cost of half a year's worth of pay.  Money meant nothing to the two families, only their children's education mattered. Well, with background finished, time to get on to the story!

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Eun Chaesat at her easel in art class, tongue sticking out as she pondered what to paint for her assignment. She decided a simple landscape would suffice: rolling hills littered with cornfields and other crop fields with a huge rising sun in the background. She began to paint when laughter pulled her from her job half-way through. Turning around, she winced when she saw the entire back row flinging paint at one another, "Aw man, not again," even if she wasn't involved, Eun Chae had to clean up the mess they made ever since she out painted her art teacher and embarrassed her one day. Eun Chae has been hated ever since and was forced into cleaning duty every time from then on out. She tried to ignore it and it worked, well, until a huge glob of paint flew out from behind and hit a girl's painting in the front row. Enraged, the girl whipped around and flung a bigger glob back, but it missed and hit Eun Chae's friend Kyun's painting instead and before long the whole room, minus poor Eun Chae, was flinging paint at one another.

The teacher returned and was absolutely fuming, "What in the hell is going on here!? Enough!  Stop this instance!" the entire class froze and Eun Chae winced as the teacher turned to her, "Eun Chae, today you'll have some help cleaning up this mess."

With that, the entire class was sentenced to two hours of after school labor cleaning up the messy class room. Eun Chae felt annoyed as she looked up and saw paint on the ceiling, "Who managed to do that?" she asked, wiping her sweaty brow.

Her friend Rin looked up, "Hm, I'd think a fail of a thrower," she replied, adjusting her oval glasses on her nose as she scrubbed the floor.

"Hey, klutz, go refill that bucket!" a kid in the back tossed Eun Chae an empty bucket.

Eun Chae glared at the boy, "My name's Eun Chae, you punk!" she shouted as she stood up and stomped out of the paint covered classroom. She hurried to the bathroom to refill so they wouldn't have to spend the next day cleaning out the stupid art room as well. She had to come out backwards because her hands were full and someone ran into her, causing her to spill her bucket of water onto their pants, "Ah! Sorry, so sorry-" she turned to see the Crown Prince standing there, "Aiyah! Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" she gushed. She couldn't figure out why she was apologizing when he ran into her, so she stopped and bowed an apology.

Bae raised an eyebrow, "Watch where you're going next time and clean this up while you're at it, it's your fault it's all wet in the first place."

Eun Chae's jaw dropped; what kind of guy acted like that to a girl anyway? As he was walking away, Eun Chae pulled her shoe off and flung it at him, hitting him squarely in the back of the head, "Hey, you! You ran into me, pal! I could care less if you were the freakin' Crown Prince of both Koreas, you're going to come back here and help me clean up this mess right now, bud, because I sure as hell am not doing it all by myself!"

The few people in the hallway stared at Eun Chae in amazement, she never exploded like that. Bae turned around, as bewildered as anyone else in the hallway, "Did you just... give me an order?"

"Hell yes I did! Did it sound like I asked you?" Eun Chae was getting surprised at herself, "Now, help me dry this up, it'll only take two freakin' minutes of your 'precious time'!"

Bae turned and walked over to where Eun Chae was, an amused smile on his face, "Well, you're the first girl to ever yell at me," he leaned close enough to Eun Chae that she had to take a step back to keep from having their faces touch, "just for that, I'll help you."

Bae helped for almost one minute before leaving 70% of the puddle in Eun Chae's care, "What a jerk!" Eun Chae fumed as she moped up the rest of the water, "What a freaking jerk! 'I'll help' he says and mops up one measly-ugh! Men are freaks, the richer they are the freakier they get, man!" she reentered the classroom to find they had progressed quite a bit and every girl was giving her a dirty look. Turning to Kyun, she asked, "Um...what did I do?"

"You..." Kyun was even angry, "yelled at Crown Prince Bae Li! That's what!"

Every girl in the school, gorgeous or hideous, loved Bae, well, except Rin and Eun Chae, who knew what the handsome prince was really like. Rin looked up at her, "Hey man, I saw what he did and I don't blame you."

Eun Chae was relieved when the art teacher released them to return home. She was happy when she was athome and safely in her room. She sprawled out on her bed and fumed to her teddy bear, Lewis, "Oh Lewis, you're the only boy I like! That Bae is so rude! Okay, he ran into me and said it was MY fault and I should clean it up? Do you think that's fair? No? Didn't think so-"

"Eun Chae?" her mother poked her head in and noted the bear, "You're talking to that bear again?"

"Maybe..." Eun Chae eyed her in suspicion, "Why do you ask?"

Her mother smiled, "Do you want some human company?"

"Nah, Lewis is all I need for this conversation; thanks, though," Eun Chae made Lewis wave as her mother left the room with a laugh, "Oh Lewis," she hugged the bear, "and to think for a few fleeting moments I thought that Bae had a cute nose..."

****

At that same time, Bae was sitting in his room in the palace, talking to his bear, Alphonse or Al for short, "Can you believe the nerve of that girl? Telling me what to do... ha! Al, can you believe her? Still... I can't help but wonder why she thinks she can order ME around. Do you know why? No? I figured..."

"Prince Li, your mother wanted me to tell you that dinner is in twenty minutes," an attendant called in from outside.

"Oh, okay," he called, thrusting Al under a pillow until he was sure that the attendant wasn't coming into his room. He pulled him back out, "Sorry Al, you're kind of secret..." he straightened out the bear's rumpled fur, "Hm, grandmother might need to restitch your seams, you're looking kind of shabby lately..." he sat the bear on the bed and reclined, looking down at it's off-white fur, "You know, until she hit me with that shoe, I thought she had a cute face. After that shoe thing, however, I think I don't like her, what about you Al? What do you mean I was rude? Whose side are you on here!?"