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Being locked up in a tower all alone forever with little to no contact with anyone ever again had initially seemed like a horrifying concept to her when her lunatic of a father proposed it. Or rather forced it. Minji's father was the king and no one defied him, not even his daughter.
His reason for doing this was just as crazy as he was. He didn't like how men looked at her, his precious and only child. Minji didn't like how they looked at her either, but that didn't mean she wanted to be locked up in a tower, which was why she found it funny that she had grown to like it. There was no maid waking her up early to attend courtly matters, no princes courting her, no nagging and complaints from her father about anything at all.
She could relax for the first time in forever.
She loved it.
“Oh fair princess, will you let down your hair so I can climb this tower and let you bask in my undying love?”
Except when the princes found her tower of course, then she hated it. Somehow they had caught up on where the king had placed her and at least once a day a prince would come by, asking her to let down her hair. She had no idea why though, it's not like she was Rapunzel, her hair only reached past her shoulders.
“That's not gonna work I'm afraid.” She responded to him, leaning her cheek on her hand as she looked down on him. She could just about make out his expression and he didn't seem to like what she said.
“But how am I to reach you then? I feel so empty without your love-”
She groaned loudly, rolling her eyes as she sank down to the floor. God, she was sick and tired of this.
“Princess?” She heard him call for her, voice filled with concern. “Princess, are you alright? If you do not answer I will have to climb this wall with my bare hands-”
“I'm fine!” she popped up again. “Now please leave.”
“But princess-”
“It's Princess nap time, bye bye!”
She didn't hear from him again after that and as she laid down to take her nap (yes, Princess nap time was a real thing) she assumed he had decided that climbing a slippery castle wall was not worth it. Not that he would have been able to.
The next day she got no visitor until late at noon. She already felt exhausted as she heard footsteps close in, and as she looked down she saw a... woman?
“Hey, you up there?” The dark, long haired woman asked rather abruptly. There was another woman behind her as well, a little shorter with hair chopped to shoulder length.
“...Yes?”
“Oh dang. Didn't think it was true, but okay.”
“Just ask her Siyeon.” the woman in the back said. This Siyeon turned to look at her for a second before looking back at Minji.
“Fine,” She heard her say. “Let your hair down?”
Well that was direct.
“No.” She answered simply, sick and tired of explaining that her hair didn't go that long.
The two were silent for a few long seconds before Siyeon shrugged. “Oh well, I tried.”
“Just barely. Try again!”
“Yoobin, you do know that no means no, right?”
“Don't start with me, Siyeon. Your father said he'd have me executed if I let you come home empty handed.”
“Let's not go home then!”
“What?”
“None of us like my father, why would we go back? Besides, I saw this really cute girl at the tavern we just passed through-”
“Do you not care about your royal responsibilities?”
“No, not really.”
She turned, then walked away.
“Siyeon, come back here!”
“I want some mead at the tavern and you can't stop me!”
They bickered and yelled as they walked, and Minji could hear them even after they were out of sight. Well that had been amusing at least. In fact she was still smiling even though they were long gone.
“More of those would be nice. I'm sick of princes.” She mumbled to herself. She had noticed how her habit of talking to herself had increased a lot after moving up here. And before she only muttered, now she often just had long and casual conversations with herself. Sometimes she caught birds looking at her, judging her probably.
“Are you the princess?” A new voice said, another female. Minji sighed as she looked down, eyes landing on what looked like a knight. She was rather tall for a woman, far taller than her maids at least. She had long hair that was braided back into a ponytail, her armor light but still impressive. It helped a lot that the woman was beyond beautiful as well.
“Yes?” She answered carefully, unaware of her intentions.
“Oh, nice. Would you let your hair down for me?”
She had forgotten why people came her for a good minute there, her mind very occupied by the sight of the woman down below her.
“I don't actually have hair long enough for people to climb up. Why do people think I do?”
“Oh, well, Youngjae back at the tavern has been telling the tale of the beautiful young princess trapped up in the tower for weeks now. Princes from all over the realm has traveled here.”
“Yeah, I've noticed.” She said begrudgingly.
“They want gold and your hand in marriage, just like the tale promises.”
She was dumbstruck for a minute. Was she supposed to believe that the reason so many princes had come to climb her tower was because of some fake story a boy in a tavern has been telling? Well, yes, it did make sense.
“And what do you want?”
A smile rose on her face.
“I want to keep you company.”
That was it? She came all the way here just to keep her company?
“I'm supposed to believe that you've traveled across the country just to keep me company?”
“Oh, no, I live an hour away.”
“What-”
“Yeah, I live in a cabin near the local tavern. It's just me and my goat, Karen. It's nice, we have a a little strawberry field-”
“Get me down from here.”
The knight blinked “What?”
“Get me down, come on, I don't even wanna be here anymore. Go get a ladder or something.”
“I-... Aren't we supposed to climb up your hair-”
“No, go get a ladder.”
The knight blinked again, then slowly nodded, turning around to leave. As she walked Minji yelled out a question.
“Hey, what's your name?”
“Yoohyeon,” She briefly said as she kept walking, soon gone behind the small hill in the distance. Minji sighed, hoping the knight, Yoohyeon, would come back. The tower might be better than the gray, depressing castle, but she'd rather stay in a cozy little cabin in the woods if she got a choice. It's not like her father would go look for her in some lonely cabin. Right?
It took half a day before Yoohyeon returned, Minji's letting out a sigh of relief as she saw her walking back to the tower with the sun setting behind her, along with a gigantic ladder on her back.
“Wow, she actually found one.”
She was stumbling, almost falling to her knees several times. The ladder was so big, it was probably supposed to be carried by several people at a time. But here she was, carrying the thing all alone. That alone made her heart swell, her lips rising on her face.
“Got it!” Yoohyeon was breathless as she dropped the ladder down, the heavy thing landing with a loud thud. “Just give me a second and I'll be up there. I'll help you down.”
Minji leaned against her hand, smiling down at Yoohyeon. “Take you time. I'm not going anywhere.”
Yoohyeon laughed at that, standing up straight. She huffed, then put on a smile as she lifted the ladder. “Okay, let's do this!”
It was when Minji found herself descending the ladder that she wondered how the hell she got up. She was terrified, her hands clenching onto the ladder. Her dress didn't help either. She should have put on some pants.
She got down eventually, stumbling the moment she sat foot on solid ground. Of course.
“Sorry,” She muttered as held onto Yoohyeon's shoulders for support. High heels on muddy ground didn't seem to being doing her any favors either.
“No problem! I'm happy to catch you,” Yoohyeon was still all smiles, holding tightly onto Minji's waist as she balanced, a red flush creeping up on her cheeks. “We should probably get you on my horse though. Wouldn't want you to face plant into the mud.”
No, she'd like to avoid that. She was still a princess after all and mud was something she was from fine with. Though she'd probably have to get used to it if she were to live out in the woods...
She had only ever been in carriages before so sitting atop of a horse some something else entirely. It was scary.
“Relax, she's very calm... most of the time. Only bucked me off once.” Yoohyeon said as she lead them along. “She saw a badger run across the road, apparently that's more scary than wolves, which we also ran into once-”
She listened to Yoohyeon telling her stories of what she had experienced in the wild, finding it very calming and entertaining. If this is what waited for her, a cozy cabin, freedom and peace, Yoohyeon telling her stories by the fireplace, then she knew she'd be fine, and maybe for once in her life, truly happy.
“Oh, hey, can we stop by the tavern? I need to go say hi to a certain someone.”
-
Youngjae had had a great few weeks so far! As a bard he was always welcome in taverns, and this one was by far the best one. It was on the kings road you see, just where the royal convoy passed and sometimes stayed at the tavern. He had been lucky enough to be informed of the princess that had been placed on the top of a tower not far from here, and for fun, (also for the money), he had decided to make a up a false story about the princess.
Soon enough Princes flocked to him, filling his pockets with coin as they begged him to tell them where she was. It was hilarious watching the serious look on their face as he told them about the princess who would throw down her hair for them, he could barely keep a straight face whenever he told the story.
“What an idiot,” He chuckled as he watched yet another prince exit the tavern. He sat back, letting out a breath before taking a swing of his mead. Life was great.
“Hey! Bard!”
Youngjae's brows were already raised as he looked over at whoever was talking to him, but somehow they rose even more as she saw a princess stand there, the look on her face one of anger. She had to be a princess, who else wore rose golden dresses and tiaras? No one. Which was unfair. Youngjae would look great in a tiara.
“Bard, I'm talking to you!” She pointed at him, and Youngjae didn't even have time to answer before the girl stormed towards him, fist raised. Before he could figure out what he had done to wrong this woman he was knocked out cold, the mead from his mug pouring down on his face.
How great.