Chapter XII
1727 Words
열두 번째 왕관(12)
As soon as the Crown Prince entered the backseat of his car, he looked around and saw that Jae Kyung is not there. “What takes that woman too long?” he then tapped his driver as well as his bodyguard. “Hey, the two of you. Can you fetch Jae Kyung? I badly want to go home. I’m already tired. Tell her that if she’ll not gonna hurry up, we’ll leave her.”
“Ye, jeonha,” his driver and his bodyguard left the car in search for Jae Kyung, leaving him alone in the car. His bodyguards were also in their respective cars, waiting for him to leave.
“Ugh, that troublesome woman,” Prince Yi Eul sighed as he leaned on the backseat and closed his eyes. Before he could fully fall asleep, he smelled something awful. Something that makes him dizzy and suffocate at the same time. He opened his eyes and saw smoke around him.
“f**k! What the f**k is this?!” he coughed and covered his nose using his arm and tried to fan away the smoke around him using his hand. He couldn’t think straight anymore that he couldn’t have the strength to unlock the window and just kept on thumping the car’s window with all his might.
“Let me out! Let me out! f**k! Let me out!” Prince Yi Eul kept on shouting as he tried to open and thumped the window.
Someone, someone let me out of here!
Prince Yi Eul was about to lose consciousness when he heard a thumping from the outside. He saw Jae Kyung thumping loudly on the window. “Jeonha! Jeonha! Are you okay?!”
Her voice is muffled from the outside but the Crown Prince could still hear it. Prince Yi Eul is also thumping weakly and said “Let me out I can’t breathe!” even if he’s aware that his assistant couldn’t hear him from the outside.
“Stay back, Your Highness and cover your head!” as loud as she could, Jae Kyung yelled and Prince Yi Eul managed to hear and do what Jae Kyung said even if it’s really, really muffled. Before his bodyguards could go out from the cars they’re riding and knew what is happening, Jae Kyung already used her heel and her elbow to break the car’s window which, she’s kind of thankful, that the window is not laminated glass or else it’ll be difficult for her to break. Since the car is using tempered glass type of window glass, it could just break into tiny pieces like pebbles and it will not wound anyone.
As soon as she broke the window, she covered her nose using her arm and opened the door and saw Prince Yi Eul almost lose his consciousness. She, then, pulled him out of the car and threw his coat away as his bodyguards dealt with the car that actually had nerve agent smoke inside of it.
Prince Yi Eul was already gasping for air when his bodyguard and his driver came back from the Princess’ house in search of Jae Kyung. “Your Highness!”
“Your Highness, are you okay?!” Jae Kyung asked as she kept rubbing Prince Yi Eul’s back while he’s leaning on her. His eyes were teary and his vision is still dim.
“Good thing we saved His Highness on time,” one of the bodyguards said.
Jae Kyung slightly frowned at him. Excuse me? I’m the one who saved him. “We should stop chitchatting and take him to the hospital!”
“It’s a nerve agent. Fortunately, it’s not that fatal and it’s not VX or else it’ll be a huge problem, we couldn’t save His Highness on time,” the doctor said. They’re currently in the nearest hospital they could find and admitted the Crown Prince there. The doctor is now looking at Jae Kyung who’s already wearing a Retro Green shirt and black slacks since her clothes earlier got exposed with the nerve agent. “You got exposed by the nerve agent, right? Are you okay? Should I check on you as well?”
“Ah, yes, I’m okay. Fortunately, I didn’t inhale the nerve agent when I pulled Prince Yi Eul out of the car,” she responded.
“It’s a relief but if you felt something in your body such as eye pain, teary eyes, cough, and such, let me check on you,” the doctor said.
“Ah, yes. Thank you,” she answered. “Can we see His Highness now?”
“Yes but he’s still sleeping.”
“It’s okay. We’ll just guard him and wait for him to wake up.”
“Ugh.”
Prince Yi Eul groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Opening and closing his eyes slowly to adjust his blurry vision, he, then, saw a white ceiling above him and smelled something.
Something like the hospital.
“Finally, you woke up!” he looked at his left side and saw Jae Kyung looking so sleep-deprived and happy.
“Ugh. Smells so hospital,” Prince Yi Eul groaned as he held his pulsing head, massaging his temple weakly.
“Because you’re in the hospital, Your Highness. You actually inhaled smoke from the nerve agent so we admitted you to the nearest hospital.”
Prince Yi Eul fell silent as he recalled what happened last night—he got trapped in his own, almost got suffocated with the nerve agent and Jae Kyung saving him.
Suddenly, seven of the bodyguards and the Crown Prince’s driver kneeled and bowed in front of them. “Joesonghamnida, jeonha! We shouldn’t leave you like that! We almost let you in danger once again!”
Ah, right, Jae Kyung forgot to ask them.
“Where did you guys go that you left him like that?”
“His Highness ordered us to search for you since you took so much time inside the Princess’ house so we left him. We didn’t expect something will happen like that,” one of the bodyguards said.
She actually wanted to compare them to Do Wan and Peter who, actually, were not with them since Prince Yi Eul ordered them to escort his grandma which is Her Highness’ (Prince Yi Eul’s mother) mother. They move so sloppily unlike those two.
Well, it’s half of the Crown Prince’s fault for bringing only seven of his bodyguards.
She eyed Prince Yi Eul who stared at them blankly. “Uh…”
“Go out and just guard outside,” in a slightly raspy voice, Prince Yi Eul ordered them to go out.
The bodyguards and the driver stood up, bowed, and went out. Jae Kyung stood up and was about to go out when Prince Yi Eul held her wrist. “Where are you going?”
“Uh, I’m going out as well and I also want to buy food for you and the others, Your Highness. It’s past lunch,” she answered.
“Sit down,” with authority, Prince Yi Eul commanded.
As if someone overtook her body, Jae Kyung sat down. She, then, cleared her throat when she felt that the Crown Prince’s silence meant that she had so much explaining to do. “Uh, first of all, I’ll gonna apologize for what happened last night. I was actually about to follow suit but Princess Chae Rin pulled me for a short chat when she saw me escorted by Prince Yi Ryeo out that’s why I took so much time inside. Ah! Speaking of Princess Chae Rin, she’s going to visit you as well and she’s actually worried about what happened to you. Do Wan and Peter will conduct an investigation about what happened as well. But before that, Secretary Jeong said that we’ll be going home to treat you because he didn’t want the media to know what happened.”
The Crown Prince is still silent so Jae Kyung cleared her throat and sighed. “I’m really, really sorry that I let that happen, Your Highness. I’m so—”
“Thank you.”
“Eh?” Jae Kyung stared at him, bewildered.
“Thank you,” Prince Yi Eul’s gaze settled on her. “Thank you for saving me.”
Jae Kyung blinked. She wasn’t expecting for Prince Yi Eul to thank her but somehow, It caught her by surprise that she felt so warm in her chest as well as in her cheeks.
Without a warning, Prince Yi Eul knocked her head.
“Aw! What was that for?!” Jae Kyung whined as she ran soothing circles on her head. (It was not really painful, she was just exaggerating.)
“For keeping me wait like that. You should be the one who got trapped in that car and not me, geez,” Prince Yi Eul crossed his arms.
Jae Kyung’s eyes widen as her jaw dropped. “What?! That’s so terrible for you to say that, Your Highness!”
“Because my life is precious, you know?”
“That’s why I tried my best to save you, you bad, bad prince! And what? You just said that we should switch positions last night?! You’re so terrible and ungrateful!”
“Me? Ungrateful? Hey! I already said thank you and—wait—are you crying?!”
“No! Shut up!”
“Wha—how dare you shutting up His Royal Highness?!”
“Seja-jeonha, gaebbul! I’m not crying!” she sniffled, her eyes started to well up.
“H-Hey! I'm just kidding. Don’t take it seriously—”
“Haah… after I’ve been through so much just to save you and this is what I’ve got…” Jae Kyung pouted as she rubbed her misty eyes.
She hiccupped when she felt a warm hand on her head. She, then, saw Prince Yi Eul patting her head while staring at her.
“You did a good job, Jae Kyung-ah.”
Prince Yi Eul was mentally unconscious when he did that which really took him by surprise but he couldn’t take his eyes and his hand on Jae Kyung who’s now tearing up while staring at him.
For the first time in Jae Kyung’s life, someone said that she did a great job… sincerely.
- Writer
