-~°~-

"you have got me alone," I repeat his words over. He smirks, a smirk that sends chill down my spine. He approaches me, slowly, almost like a predator approaches his prey.

He stands infront of me before looking down at my hands. My palms become sweaty once again. He grabs the thornless rose out of my hands. It's stem sliding between my fingers.

He lets out a short chuckled as he looks at the flower in his big hands before looking up at me again.

"Are you aware of what a thornless rose means?" He asks and I stand there, dumbfound. I shake my head in response, I had no idea.

All I knew was that my mother was adamant on me giving him atleast one of her roses.

He leans in, his lips grazing my ears softly. His breath tickles and I try to not squirm at the feeling.

"Love at first sight," He whispers, I take a deep breath in as his lips draw closer and kiss my earlobe softly, my eyes flutter shut and he pulls away. His abrupt laughter causes me to snap out of this daze.

"Foolish actually, you are very beautiful princess but I doubt just looking at a person would make you fall inlove. Love itself is already a stupid topic." He says as he walks over to his desk once again.

"My mother gave to me to present to you, I do admit aswell that you are pleasing to look at but fear not, I havent fallen for you either." I say, straightening out my shoulders. He chuckles again before eyeing me up and down before looking at his papers on the desk.

"Im glad we can see eye to eye then, right Princess?" He says, it feels as if he is taunting me.

"Why did you call me to your room, Prince Yeonjun?" I ask him. His face falls from his mocking point to a more serious and stoic expression.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew where we stand, I may be marrying you but I have no intention of treating you like you are my adored wife. We simply only are to wed for the better of our Kingdoms. I wish to rule a Kingdom that is strong not because it goes to war, but because it knows when to end one," He says to me, my heart beating fast," and I also wish to let you know that this tour of the palace I've been asked to give you is a waste of time that I could be spending on other more pressing matters. My mother only wishes that I would show you around as an act of getting to know each other,but trust me, I don't want to know more, Princess. "

"You say it like you know anything about me." I say to him and he turns around to sit by his desk, submerging himself in his books like I assume he was doing before I came.

"That is how I plan for it to remain. Please escort yourself out, Princess. Our discussion has come to an end." He says and I stare at him in shock for a moment, but he doesnt even spare me a second glance.

I leave the room but both the maid and Sooyoung have left. I had absolutely no idea how to get back to my room and I certainly have no idea where to go for help. So I start to walk, allowing my feet to step one after the other, guiding me on it's own.

I had no aim but when I stood in front of a door similar to my own that was slightly ajar I pushed it open slowly. It was a large library and in the middle of the millions of books is a desk and chair, there was a boy in the chair, no, a man. His shoulders broad and muscular through his white shirt. His dark black hair was slicked back. He perked at the sound of the door squeak as it opened and turned around.

He had such soft eyes and his lips were plump and pink. Afew strands of his hair fell into his face, grazing his full brows.

He was beautiful, he had to have been Prince Soobin, all the princes were definitely something to look at. His stunning features twisted in confusion.

"Does knocking a door not exist to you?" He asks, his voice alittle cold but he had a certain softness to it. My cheeks turn pink at how even his voice was magnificent.

"I'm sorry, I got lost and the door looked similar to mine." I say as he stands up, making his way towards me. He was taller than Prince Yeonjun and his shoulders were broader. I would've mistaken him as the eldest son. He seemed to look nothing like his parents either, Beomgyu had a striking resemblance to his mother while Prince Yeonjun had many of his father's features. All of them extremely attractiove but vastly different.

"Who are you exactly?" He asks me as he stands infront of me. The close proximity causes my heart to start racing.

"I am," I let out a small cough to the side into my elbow to clear my throat so I dont have a voice crack as I talk," I am Princess Park Jina of the Kingdom of Dalnimton."

His eyes widen as he fixes himself, straightening out his shirt.

"My apologies Princess, I had forgetton you were meant to come today, I am Prince Soobin, second eldest son." He introduces and we both bow.

"Once again I am truly sorry for barging in, I'll see myself out." I turn around but he stops me.

"Wait," He calls as he grabs my hand, I was seriously boiling hot with the redness of my cheeks, "If you don't mind me showing you around the palace, I'd be honored to do it. You seem to be rather lost and I can assure you from experience it's never nice being lost in the palace and walking into the wrong room."

With us looking at each other in the eye and our hands folded together, I didn't trust my own voice so I just nodded my head.

"Splendid, let's go," He says as he drags me out the room and closes the door behind us. When he lets go of my hand, it feels almost too cold. He looked at me through his eyelashes. I could not even begin to describe how extremely breath taking he was.

We walk around the palace as he shows me the rooms, libraries, bathrooms, kitchens, dining areas and more.

"We have all servants on the lower floor where the kitchen and laundry rooms are. The middle area is all the dining rooms and places to sit and eat your food,"  He explains to me ehile we walknthrough and go up the stairs to the second level again, "this level is for my brother's and I, and ofcourse our guest. Ill guess its your level now aswell seeing as you'll probably start living here permanently."

He stop by the next set of stairs, not going up.

"The next level is for my Father and Mother, they have separate quarters but they share a room still. It is likely that you and Yeonjun will stay there once you've married one another." He says it and for a moment I had nearly forgotten about the horrid Prince I was soon to marry.

"Don't remind me of that, I'm still alittle nervous to marry a complete stranger." I say and he nods his head.

"Im sure it is no walk in the park, you'd truly want to be with someone you actually like." He says to me, "my brother is also rather lucky to be betrothed to such a lovely girl such as yourself."

"Thank you very much, Prince Soobin," I swear he thought I had a naturally pink complexion, there was not a moment with him where my cheeks weren't flushed.

He then takes me outside to see the garden. Like the entire Kingdom that I had seen coming to the palace, it was stunning and green.

"Over there is the greenhouse, we dont use it often but Mother likes to hold some tea parties in there every now and then." He says pointing to the greenhouse in the distance.

"My mother basically lives in our greenhouse," I said to him and he looks over to me.

"Did you often join her, I think a Princess with a green thumb would thrive here." He says to me and I tilt my head.

"I've never killed a plant, that I know of, but I'd never say that I necessarily have a green thumb. I spent only afew hours of my spare time helping her out." I said and he nodded his head in understanding.

"Where is it that you enjoy spending your spare time?" He asks me, my heart swelling while thinking about the beautiful sunroom at my palace.

"There was this room made of windows, it had this beautiful view of the greenhouse and the sunsets were so amazing. I loved sitting there and painting. My brother often brought with paints he bought when traveling for me, so I'd use those. " I say to him and he smiles at me.

"You had this glow in your eyes when you spoke about it, you must truly like it," He told me with a soft voice, it was soothing and deep. Our eyes were drawn to each other.

"Soobin hyung, Princess Jina." Beomgyu says as he joins us. Our eyes snapping to the boy next to us. He was wearing sports uniform and telling from the bat in his hand, he was playing crochet.

"Beomgyu, done with your match?" Prince Soobin asks his younger brother.

"Yes, Prince Heeseung has nothing on me when it comes to this game." He boasts, puffinh out his chest. Prince Soobin laughs at his antics.

"Did Yeonjun hyung not show you around?" Prince Beomgyu turns to me and asks. His face screwed with confusion.

"Oh," I didnt want Prince Yeonjun and I's matters to be a concern, "He seemed very busy and when I got lost I stumbled upon Prince Soobin, who offered so generously to show me around."

My smile was so sickly sweet, I was worried it would come off as fake.

"Sorry if I seemed to busy Princess, you should've waited around for me. I dont mind such a beautiful lady in my room while I work, would be slightly distracting but I don't mind a distraction." A voice came from the side, Prince Yeonjun himself appears by my side, he slides his hand onto my side and pulls me closer.

"Brothers, thank you for keeping her company but do you mind us spending some alone time." He asks them, Prince Beomgyu and Prince Soobin both keeping their eye on Prince Yeonjun's hand on my side.

"Sure Yeonjun hyung." They chorused and let us walk passed them into the hedges.

We kept walking through the garden til Prince Beomgyu and Prince Soobin were out of sight. There was an archway that was looped with pink roses and a small picnic table on the other side.

Prince Yeonjun lets go of my side and takes a seat on the bench.

"Princess, I don't like you getting close to my brothers," He says to me, his eyes are dark.

"Well, Prince Soobin was lovely enough to show me around the palace since a certain someone declined to do so," I glare back at him.

"Princess, your eyes are stunning but I dont enough the glaring. Very unprincess like of you." He says, my blood starts boiling.

"I don't understand what you want from me, first you don't want to spend time with me to even just show me around the palace and noe you are dragging me away to spend alone time, I'm not a mind reader. Tell me what it is that you want." I say to him and he leans back, putting his elbows on the table.

"I must say, Princess, you really are hot when you are fired up like this," I wasnt having it with his taunting and I hoped he got the message in my facial expression, " what I want from you? What I want is just for you to simply live in the palace without talking to anyone unless you are told to."

"Well, I hate to break it to you but I'm not some lifeless doll you can throw around and force to do whatever you want." I say and he stands up. He walks up to me, I cross my arms infront of me which causes him to let out a chuckle.

"Well if you can't obey that simple fact, I guess can't have you leave my sight. If you aren't asleep in your room, you are in mine under my supervision. My parents will be delighted to see we are 'spending time together'." He says and my jaw drops. He plays a hand on my shoulder, gripping it before pulling me closer.

"You'll need to get used to it, Princess." He says and then turns me around, arm wrapped around me. We then walk until we reach the dining room.

"Ah, Princess Jina, we are eating soon, please sit." Queen Kathryn says as zhe finishes off ordering the maids around with the food.

Prince Yeonjun pulls out a chair for me and then sits next to me. Queen Kathryn sits across from me and smiles brightly.

"I was sure what you'd like for lunch so i put in a request for alot of food." She says as the doors open to show Prince Beomgyu, who is no longer in his sports uniform, and Prince Soobin.

They all sit down at the table.

"Excuse King Hajoon, he has an important meeting currently."Queen Kathryn says to me to which I respond with a pardon on behalf of King Hajoon.

I feel icy cold fingers graze my leg, which causes me to suck in a breath. Prince Yeonjun is just smiling as he eats his soup with one hand. He wants to get a rise out of me.

We all sit and eat in silence, I tried my hardest to not let out any noise whenever Prince Yeonjun squeezed my thigh.

-~°~-

Prince Yeonjun shoved me into his room and dismissed the maids, even Sooyoung.

"Please take a seat." He says as he goes to his desk. I look around to see no seating area, so I make my way to his bed and sit on his. Feeling the silk material underneath me.

"Somone is eager to get into my bed." He says, I turn my head to look at him. My mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. My mind had wondered off, had he slept with anyone before?

Without any response, he smirked and stood up, raising a single brownat me.

" So you are, hey, Princess?" He says and I blush,turning my head away from him.

"No I am not," I say before taking a deep breath and then turning back to him, my eyes widen as I see him unbuttoninh his shirt. My breath hitching.

"What are you doing?" I ask in panic, no response as he continues to unbutton his shirt.

He pulls it off his shoulders and throws the shirt to the side. He was lean, definitely had muscles and a body to die for, I couldn't even tear my eyes away from him, even though I know i should. I was having this internalised argument with myself that I failed to notice that he was approaching me on the bed.

I abruptly stand up and watch ad he walks closer to me and stops infront of me, he lifts my chin up with his finger placed underneath it. Our eye contact is heated.

"Don't worry, Princess. I'll keep it til after marriage." He says in a joking tone, before he lets go of my chin and walk around me, kicking off his shoes and getting into bed.

"You can't pull things like that," I say to him, alittle angry. I just was unsure if it was anger at the boy cosying up in the bed or at myself for getting excited by his approaches.

Although he was arrogant and rude, he was charming and I needed to catch myself before I fall for his tricks.

His forehead creases before he opens an eye to peak at me.

"You are making it difficult for me to sleep, come lay next to me."I was taken back but before I could turn him down and leave he says,"Just til i fall asleep, then you may leave."

Something in me was trying to fight but another thing was telling me how soft and sweet he sounded. I didn't want to decline him now when he sounded nice. I want to be on his good side. I need to be in order to live in comfort here at the palace.

I walk around the bed and sit on the other side, scooted in a half laying position. I lay there and waited til i heard his breath soften, he was asleep. I was ready to get up and leave til he turned around.

His face seemed so relaxed and he looked so innocent. I stayed there and watched him, my hand reaching out to fix a strand of hair that fell into his face. My hand then falls lower and then subconsciously starts to trace his lips. His beautiful full lips.

I remember what it felt like when it kissed my ear, starting to wonder what it would feel like against my lips. I lowered myself more into the bed, face to face with him and before i knew it, my eyes started to close and i was falling asleep.

-~°~-

My eyes fluttered open to see Yeonjun sitting with his head in his hands, his shirt was now on again, but unbuttoned.

"Prince Yeonjun, are you o-" I was suddenly cut off my by him.

"Get out of my room." He said, his voice was deep and almost scary.

"What are you talking about?" I ask anf he turns to me, his eyes still filled with evidence of sleep.

"I said get out," He growled. My heart was racing at how his mood shifted, he seemed more menacing that before.

"Who said you could sleep in my bed? I told you to just lay there til i fell asleep and then you leave!" He was shouting but his voice was loud.

"Im sorry, I-" he once again cut me off.

"I said get out!" He said and I quickly shoved my shoes on and made my way to the door in a rush.

Whatever part of me thought that Prince Yeonjun had any redeemable qualities hiding beneath his attitude completely shattered.

There was nothing but a sinister man behind those doors. A man unworthy of love.

-~°~-

word count: 3248 words

THANKS FOR READING MY BOOK, IF YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER PLEASE DONT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT.

I HAVE A VERY DEEP LOVE FOR THE CHOI LINE SO IM EXCITED TO USE THEM ALL IN THIS BOOK. THE OTHER MEMBERS WILL BE MAKING AN APPEARANCE TOO LATER ON, SO LOOK FORWARD TO THAT.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT CHAPTER