Twisted Games(Ryeji ver)

YEJI[CHAPTER 43]

THE PALACE ASSIGNED SUNGHOON AS MY BODYGUARD AGAIN. I'D BEEN IN A terrible mood since Ryujin left, and the palace handlers assumed it would help if someone I knew and liked replaced her.

Sunghoon took the role after Sunoo left the hospital two weeks ago, and while no one could replace Ryujin, it was nice to see Sunghoon's smiling face again.

"Just like old times, huh, Your Highness?" he said as we waited for Seoyeon and Rei in my office. I usually didn't have a guard in the palace, but meetings with external guests were an exception. I forced a smile.

"Yes." Sunghoon hesitated, then added,

"A lot has changed over the years. I'm no Ms. Shin, but I'll try my best." A fierce ache gripped my chest at Ryujin's name.

"I know. I'm glad to have you back. Truly." And yet, thoughts of dark hair and gunmetal eyes, scars and hard-won smiles still consumed me. There was a time when I would've given anything to have
Sunghoon as my bodyguard again. In the immediate weeks after his departure, I'd cursed him every day for leaving me alone with Ryujin.

Insufferable, domineering, arrogant Ryujin, who refused to let me walk on the outside of sidewalks and treated every visit to a bar like a mission into a war zone. Who scowled more than she laughed and argued more than she talked.

Ryujin, who'd planned a last-minute trip for me so I could fulfill my bucket list, even though it must've gone against her every instinct as a bodyguard, and who kissed me like the world was ending and I was her last chance at salvation. The ache intensified and spread to my throat, my eyes, my soul.

She was everywhere. In the chair where we'd kissed, the desk where we'd fucked, the painting where we'd laughed over how the artist had drawn one of the subject's eyebrows a little higher and more crooked than the other, giving her a permanent expression of surprise. Even if I left the office, she would still be there, haunting me.

The door opened, and I curled my hand around my knee to steady myself as Seoyeon and Rei walked in.

"Thank you for coming," I said as Rei took the seat opposite me. It was my first time seeing her in person since she'd agreed to the engagement. She gave me a smile that looked almost as forced as mine felt.

"Of course, Your Highness. We are going to be engaged, after all." The way she said it, I wondered if I hadn't been the only one forced into this arrangement. She'd seemed eager enough on our first two dates, but she'd been distant and distracted since she returned from Preoria.

My mind flashed back to the tension I'd picked up on between her and Liz. An awkward silence fell before Seoyeon cleared her throat and pulled out her pen and notebook.

"Excellent. Shall we start the meeting then, Your Highness? Top of the agenda is the timing and venue for the proposals. Lord Naoi will propose in three weeks at the Royal Botanic Gardens. It'll be a good callback to your second date. We'll tell the press you've been in regular correspondence while she was in Preoria so it doesn't seem like the proposal came out of nowhere..." The meeting dragged on. Seoyeon's voice blurred into a
running stream of noise, and Rei sat straight-backed in her chair with a glassy look in her eyes. I felt like I was attending a business merger negotiation, which I was, in a way. Just the fairytale girls dream of.

"...your honeymoon," Seoyeon said. "Thoughts?" Her expectant gaze yanked me out of the place I'd mentally escaped to while she droned on about media
interviews and outfit options for the proposal. I blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"We need to decide on a honeymoon location," she repeated. "Paris is classic, if cliche. The Maldives are popular but getting too trendy. We could choose somewhere more unique, maybe in Central or South America. Brazil, Belize, Costa Rica..."