3 CHAPTER II
두 번째 왕관 (2)
"NOTHING SPECIAL, JUST LIKE TALKING to a petty journalist like you who has nothing to do in life but invading someone's privacy."
Jae Kyung mouth once again ajar as she frowned while looking at the Crown Prince's cold expression.
Did he just insulted my profession? Did he just insulted me? She thought, anger suddenly sipped through her veins.
Such an arrogant, narcissistic jerk!
Before she could retort, she was pushed to the back by the other reporters and journalists which made her lose her balance. She fell square in her butt.
"Your Highness!"
"Seja-jeonha!"
"Aw…" she winced just as Min Ho helped her get up.
"Are you okay, Jae Kyung-ah?"
"How dare he…" she gritted her teeth as she threw daggers on the arrogant Crown Prince. No, she's not okay. She's never been so humiliated like this all her life!
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"Why? Why did he came back?!" the two guards flinched from where they're standing when they heard the glass shattering in front of them.
A woman in her mid-40s clenched her jaw as she formed fists because of anger. "After years of training my son, Ryeo, to gain the Crown Prince title, he'll just come back like nothing happened? Like he didn't abandoned the family's legacy for his pathetic dream of studying to the other country?" she sneered bitterly. "Does he really think I'll let him do and get want he wants? No. Never."
"What are we going to do now, Princess?" one of the guards asked.
She looked at him in fiery eyes as she looked at the red wine splattered on the shiny floor. "Call the Prime Minister. I'm ready for his plans of bringing down that brat who's being our number one threat."
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"Yah, Jae Kyung-ah. You're drinking too much now. Stop it. We're going home now," Min Ho kept on holding Jae Kyung's hand to stop her from drinking soju but the latter doesn't budge.
"I'm not yet drunk, Min Ho. I'm sober but I'm not drunk," Jae Kyung muttered as she bite the chicken leg she ordered. "Gaejasik. That arrogant jerk of a prince. I've waited for this day to come. I anticipated for this day to be successful. This is my big break to be promoted to the Column Section by interviewing that fucked up prince. But what did I get? I was insulted by that piece of fancy shit! Who is he to talk to me like that?! Who is he to insult me and my profession?!"
"Jae Kyung-ah, calm down."
"I don't give a fuck about him being South Korea's Crown Prince. He doesn't know me, my name and everything about me so he doesn't have the right to insult me!"
"Yah, yah, Jae Kyung-ah, calm down. You're drawing everyone's attention in this nightclub on us," Min Ho said, anxiously held Jae Kyung's arm to calm her down.
She closed her eyes tight as she felt the hot liquid flowing on her cheeks. She's so frustrated—well, frustrated is an understatement.
She stood up, making her companion look at her, bewildered. "I'm going to the toilet room. You stay here."
"O-Okay…" he answered. She nodded before walking towards the ladies' toilet room.
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Jae Kyung breathe heavily after washing her face. She sighed as she slightly tapped her face while looking at her gloomy reflection in the mirror. "I thought I'll gonna make something good and successful today."
A memory suddenly flashed in her head.
'You never did something good and right, Jae Kyung!'
She closed her eyes and sighed. "I did everything to be good. Why I ended up messing everything?"
She let go a sigh. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and purse her lips. Just as she was about to leave the toilet room when she heard a violent thump and two voices that she presumed, quarreling.
"Yi Eul, that's not it!" her eyes squinted as well as she frowned as she went out the toilet room and followed the voices. Her feet brought her to the nightclub's secluded area and it's not well-lighted.
Jae Kyung gasped as she scoot herself to hide when she saw Da Hyun, a member of a famous girl group TIARA. She was surprised that the girl is talking to a guy and what's more surprising is it's not just a typical guy who's now wearing a fancy Armani suit.
He's His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Yi Eul.
"What the fuck do you mean that's not it?!" she could see how Da Hyun flinched when Prince Yi eul punched the wall beside her head. "I did everything to come back here, Da Hyun. But fuck, you ended up betraying me."
Yi Eul and Da Hyun's eyes suddenly squinted when they felt a light caught their eyes as well as they heard a camera's shutter. Their attention settled on Jae Kyung who is now staring at them in awe.
"Oh," she muttered, trying to think a good and effective alibi and an effective way to escape. "T-The light here is not really tha-that bright and I-I lost my way to the exit. I thought I tapped my flashlight app. Ehehehe. Continue talking to each other," after giving them nervous chuckle, she hastily leave the place and run to the nightclub's exit, totally forgotten Min Ho being left behind.
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Jae Kyung couldn't contain her happiness as she walked in the silent alley. She felt so successful witnessing the scene, getting that picture. She laughed evilly on herself.
He insulted her, maybe it's time for to give the payback that jerk deserved.
This will be a biggest news and I will be, successfully, writing it! She giggled as she fistpump in the air.
"Yah, stop there you journalist!" she gasped when she heard an angry, deep voice behind her. She could see the fire of fury in his eyes and that made her run faster as if her life depended on it. "Give me your fucking phone!"
"Get me if you can, then!" if there's one thing Jae Kyung is proud of is that, she's a fast runner.
The Prince continued chasing her, desperate to get her phone and delete everything that happened earlier between him and Da Hyun. South Korea's perspective in issues like this on celebrities—it's quite a trouble especially to him, the Crown Prince of South Korea. Publication of the photographs would lead to massive chaos and reputational damage to the both of them.
He was stopped abruptly when he was blocked with five men in black and mask. He frowned at them.
"Who are you?"
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Jae Kyung was panting, feeling her lungs expanded to get bigger amount of oxygen. "Dang, I never thought he's a fast runner too," she craned her neck a bit high, trying to find him. "Where did that jerk go? Did I lost him? I wonder why he doesn't have any bodyguards on his side. His the Crown Prince, right? It's not like he's just an ordinary person to walk so freely like that. Oh well, it's not my concern anymore. It's his life. I better go home and do the article!"
She's grinning ear to ear and was about to leave the alley but she stopped when she heard violent thumps and thuds as well as groaning and yelling. "Omo, what was that?"
If normal people in this kind of situation, they might run off because they don't want to get involved. But Jae Kyung being Jae Kyung, she's a woman full of curiosity in her body that instead of running away to save her life, she hastily walked towards the voices.
Her eyes widen when she saw the Crown Prince fighting against some men in black and mask, throwing punches, dodging their attacks and throwing kicks on them. It's not the right time but Jae Kyung couldn't help but ogle on how cool the Crown Prince fighting against some anonymous thugs.
But then it was changed to gasped and shock when she saw one of the man aiming a gun on the Crown Prince behind his back while fighting against the other man.
"Wangseja!" Jae Kyung ran towards Prince Yi Eul and pushed him to the ground as she hovers on him. Good thing she did it in the right timing as she heard a bang! from the distant.
Prince Yi Eul looked at her in surprise but his attention settled on the guy in front of them, still aiming the gun. Luckily, Prince Yi Eul felt a rock beside him and before the man could shot the gun, the prince threw the rock on his face, making him fell on the ground and released the gun on his grip. The prince abruptly stood up, holding Jae Kyung on her waist as he picked up the gun and before the guy could get another gun, Prince Yi Eul shot him on his chest, making Jae Kyung yelp in a terrified manner as she shivered. The Prince hugged her tighter, making her bury her head on his broad chest as he shot the other guys aiming guns on him.
"Fuck!" he saw another set of men coming after him, he was left no choice but to escape on that place. He grabbed another gun from the dead assassins before running away with Jae Kyung.
"W-What's happening?! Who, who are they—kyaah!" Jae Kyung yelped once again when Prince Yi Eul shot some men chasing after them.
"They're assassins. They're plotting to kill me," Prince Yi Eul huffed as he kept on running with her.
"Where are your bodyguards?! They should be by your side to guard you from this men who're trying to kill you!" Jae Kyung covered her left ear when she heard another sets of shots again, almost hid herself to the crown prince.
"I let them leave me," he answered, huffing.
"What?! You let them leave you?! That's the most idiotic thing you ever did, Wangseja!" Jae Kyung groaned, frustrated on how this prince is such a big of an idiot.
"I just wanna be free for a day! They're suffocating the shit out of me eversince I lived in New York!" he shot some more men as he held Jae Kyung tight.
"But still, you didn't have to do that! Your life is in danger now you see and here I am, because I'm also a big of an idiot trying to help you, might die because of you!"
"Fuck!" Jae Kyung shrieked when the crown prince fell on the ground.
"Wangseja!" she crotched down to hold the prince who's face is now scrunched. "Wangseja, are you okay—oh my god! You're wounded!"
"Fuck, fuck," he clutched on his shoulder, blood starts to spill on his coat as well as in his slacks—he was shot on his left leg and shoulder.
"W-Wangseja, W-Wangseja, please hold on. We-We can still ask for help—" Jae Kyung gasped in terror when she saw a man in a black mask in front of them aiming the gun on them. The crown prince raised his gun and pulled the trigger but there's no bullet came out. He curses violently.
The man in the mask laughed in their bad luck, amused on the Crown Prince's struggling expression and Jae Kyung's blood shot, teary eyes. "It's time to say good bye to your throne and crown, Prince Yi Eul."
Jae Kyung closed her eyes tight as she hugged the weakening Crown Prince tight, burying his head on the crook of her shoulder, waiting for the bullet to penetrate in her head.
She heard gunshot, but she doesn't feel anything.
Am I dead?
"Prince Yi Eul, are you okay?" Jae Kyung slowly opened her eyes and looked at the owner of the voice. She blinked at the man in black suit in front of her before settling her gaze to the ground. A faint gasp escaped in her lips when she saw the assassin on the ground, dead on the spot.
"Peter…" Prince Yi Eul muttered as he groaned in pain.
"I'm sorry for leaving you in that place, Your Highness. I'm sorry, we're so sorry for the huge mistake we've made."
Prince Yi Eul only responded a groan, making him clutch on Jae Kyung's arm.
She gulped the lump on her throat. "He-He's wounded. We need to go to the hospital."
"We will, Miss. Don't worry, you're safe now," the man gave her an assured smile as the other men, which she presumed that were all Prince Yi Eul's bodyguards helped her and the crown prince to get up.
"The Crown Prince is safe now. Mission complete."
