'……Mm.'
Making a V with her fingers, Seoyeon took a picture and thought as much.
She had caught a pickpocket, and the police arrived.
They chattered something at Seoyeon, but of course, there was no way she could understand what they were saying.
The only thing she could say was, "I'm that Korean actress." That level.
Well, they seemed to roughly understand just from that, but their expressions remained quite dubious.
She had thought that quite a few people recognized her in Korea by now, but of course, that didn't particularly apply overseas.
Just as the police tried to ask Seoyeon something in more detail,
"Come here, all of you."
A girl who had been speaking in French stepped forward on Seoyeon's behalf.
The girl had called the police for Seoyeon, who had saved her bag from being almost snatched by a pickpocket.
The police, who had shown a lackadaisical reaction at first, began to tremble at the girl's ensuing words.
'Is she someone that famous?'
The more the girl spoke, the paler the officers' complexions grew.
No, they were so pale they were nearly blue.
That couldn't be anything but an excessively intense reaction for a mere celebrity.
Once the conversation was entirely over,
"Tell them…… I said sorry. For the trouble."
"Ah, yes. Please tell them it's all right."
"Yes."
The girl more or less translated Seoyeon's words and conveyed them to the police.
Faces still pale blue, the police bowed their heads repeatedly to Seoyeon and apologized once more.
'No, but I didn't really do anything.'
The police's attitude was a bit burdensome, but that was about it.
She wondered if they had perhaps asked to see her passport or something.
"Let's take a picture too."
"A picture?"
"Yes."
At those words, the girl took a picture with the police officers.
Since the girl suddenly told the police officers to do so, an officer who nodded vigorously snapped a picture.
Catching the gist of the English being spoken and roughly translating it in her head, it seemed to be something like, "Since we caught a pickpocket, let's take one to commemorate it."
That was exactly the situation just now.
'The police act like their intelligence drops a little whenever they hear the girl speak.'
Not that the officers were particularly stupid.
It was just that when they heard the girl speak, their faces and actions gave off that kind of feeling.
'Anyway, what do I do now?'
Only then did Seoyeon lower the hand making a V and realize.
Ah, I've become a lost child.
"Lost?"
"I've lost my group."
Seoyeon found it difficult to gauge exactly how good the girl's Korean was.
However, seeing that communication was more or less possible, it was at a very high level.
When she asked about it,
"Korean dramas…… I like. Them."
"Really?"
"I have…… nothing to do. I have…… time left."
The girl who spoke thus showed no particular change in expression.
Should I say she's similar to me, Seoyeon?
Her impression was gentle, but her actions were strangely fierce.
It was hard to read her expression because she was wearing a mask, but for the most part, one could tell there was no movement in her facial muscles.
This felt more acquired than innate.
As if she had been educated to be that way.
"Anyway, I need to go look for my group, so I'll be going now. Be careful of pickpockets."
Seoyeon delivered those words and turned around.
She didn't know where they were, but they should be somewhere inside this palace, so wouldn't she run into them if she walked around?
There were more than one or two school students, after all.
If push came to shove, she could just wait at the entrance.
But as Seoyeon was about to leave, the girl grabbed her sleeve.
Seoyeon turned back with a puzzled face.
"If it's all right……."
For some reason, the girl seemed interested in Seoyeon.
The moment she grabbed Seoyeon's sleeve and tried to say something,
"Seoyeon!!"
Gil Da-hyeon came running this way in a fluster.
For reference, her homeroom teacher, Chae Yeong-hui, was with her.
"I heard something about a pickpocket, so I hurriedly brought the teacher!"
Whether she had literally run with all her might, Da-hyeon's face was drenched in sweat.
Seoyeon was inwardly moved by such a Gil Da-hyeon.
To think she would put in this much effort to find her!
She had probably brought the homeroom teacher as a guardian in case something happened.
Truly a model class president!
"I'm fine. I already caught the pickpocket and handed him over to the police."
"……What? Ah, n-no, wait. So you really ran off to catch a pickpocket?"
"He was trying to tear Young-mi's bag with this knife."
"Isn't that more like a scrap of metal than a knife?"
"Well, that's because I broke it, isn't it?"
At Seoyeon's nonchalant words, Gil Da-hyeon was flustered for a moment, unsure how to respond.
Seoyeon spoke as if asking why she would ask something so obvious, so for a moment Da-hyeon thought she had asked something wrong.
'Ah, is breaking a knife a basic thing?'
Somehow, she felt like her common sense was being denied.
A knife is clearly a weapon, isn't it?
If the pickpocket had something like that, shouldn't you run away rather than catch him?
Breaking it like it's nothing and catching him—don't you think the world is too difficult for pickpockets to survive in?
"Uh, y-yeah, I see. But you aren't hurt anywhere?"
"Yeah."
"The police?"
"They already left. But how did you find me?"
"Because you stand out, Seoyeon. I came asking people around."
People around?
Seoyeon looked at Da-hyeon with a puzzled face.
Naturally, this was a tourist spot, so there were many foreigners.
She saw Koreans too, but only a few.
How could Da-hyeon have come asking about her in this situation?
Had the teacher helped her?
Meeting Seoyeon's curious gaze,
"Mostly I can just speak in English. I know a little French too."
"I-I see."
Class president, you know French too?
Isn't she too smart?
As she would find out later, Da-hyeon liked learning foreign languages and could speak nearly five of them. Though she herself said she only had a superficial grasp of them, from Seoyeon's perspective, she was practically an alien.
"Ah, but who is the person next to you?"
"The fleeing pickpocket tried to snatch this lady's bag, so……."
Seoyeon explained the situation at the time roughly.
How she ended up helping the girl and being with her.
"Pictures? Is it okay to take things like that?"
"There wasn't really a way to refuse."
"Yeah, I suppose."
How many people would refuse when French police take it to take pictures?
It seemed to have been taken at the girl's request, but Seoyeon didn't know the exact circumstances.
After finishing her conversation with Da-hyeon, she turned to Teacher Chae Yeong-hui.
"Ah, th-then, are you really all right?"
"Yes."
For some reason, Teacher Chae Yeong-hui was talking to the girl with a dazed face.
The girl, who had momentarily lowered her mask for some reason, slowly pulled it back up when Seoyeon looked this way.
'Why bother hiding?'
She had seen her earlier anyway.
Of course, she had only glimpsed her, so she couldn't remember properly.
Honestly, Seoyeon didn't know many foreign celebrities, so even if she stared, she wouldn't know.
"Th-then shall we go? It's a relief nothing serious happened."
"Yes, I'll be more careful next time."
"Yes, and next time you must tell the teacher, all right?"
At Teacher Chae Yeong-hui's strangely stiff words, Seoyeon meekly nodded her head.
Honestly, even though she knew she wasn't in danger for most things, other people weren't the same.
To put it bluntly, Seoyeon had only worried about getting lost, but others must have been worried about something much worse.
If something had happened to Seoyeon here, all the school trip plans would have been ruined.
"By the way."
Seoyeon walked after Teacher Chae Yeong-hui and quietly pointed behind her.
"Is she coming with us too?"
"……Yes."
At Seoyeon's words, Teacher Chae Yeong-hui nodded.
Why?
Seoyeon looked at Da-hyeon with that question in her eyes.
"I don't really know either? Maybe she's a lost child too?"
"Aha."
A lost child, she supposed that was possible.
Could there be something like a lost child announcement at the Palace of Versailles?
'……For that, she looks like a child from a very wealthy home.'
Her figure standing with a luxury bag naturally hung on her shoulder radiated an air of nobility.
Should I say she's similar to Jo Seo-hui, the young lady of a chaebol family?
Call it dignity—one could sense it in her trivial actions.
'Come to think of it, I didn't ask her name.'
She thought that for a moment, but soon shook her head.
Since they would part soon anyway, what was the point in asking?
However, Seoyeon's thought persisted.
Until the girl boarded the tour bus together with them.
And by the time they were going to the lodgings together, she couldn't help but have a question mark floating over her head.
'……Why?'
Because she wondered just how far the girl was going to follow them.
***
"She's a princess."
Chae Yeong-hui, the teacher of Yeonhwa High School, was dumbfounded.
She couldn't help it.
She had rushed over in a panic because Seoyeon had suddenly disappeared, and there was a woman wearing sunglasses and a mask with her.
Up to that point, she hadn't thought much of it.
When she heard Seoyeon's circumstances, she merely thought it had been dangerous.
It was fortunate the police had left without saying much; otherwise, Seoyeon might have been pushed into quite a difficult situation before she arrived.
While Seoyeon and Da-hyeon were talking there, the auburn-haired girl stealthily spoke to Teacher Chae Yeong-hui.
"Would it…… be all right…… if I accompanied you…… for a while?"
"Pardon?"
For a moment, she wondered what she meant.
However.
"I'm a little…… interested."
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The girl pointed at Seoyeon with her finger.
Ah, could she be a kid who recognized Seoyeon as a Korean celebrity?
'So our Seoyeon has become recognizable even to foreigners!'
Though it had only been a little over a month since Seoyeon became a student in her class.
It was still awkward, but to Chae Yeong-hui, Seoyeon was unmistakably her student.
Having always watched her on TV as an actress, her inner intimacy was at its peak.
She felt as if her own daughter had been praised, so Teacher Chae Yeong-hui couldn't help but smile warmly.
Of course, separate from that, accompanying them was naturally something she couldn't permit.
"We came from Korea on a school trip, so that's a bit difficult."
Though she refused in that manner, the girl slowly lowered her mask and gave a strange smile.
"I'm Mary Mountbatten-Windsor."
"Pardon?"
"I'm the only princess of the current British royal family."
Princess.
In that instant, Teacher Chae Yeong-hui's mind was launched beyond the universe.
With countless stars and planets floating in her head, she wondered if what she had just heard was true.
No way. If she searched on her smartphone, such a lie would be…… No, the face is the same?
"I'm active as an ambassador for the same Viol as Seoyeon. I'll be participating in this event."
"Th-then why are you alone?"
Chae Yeong-hui couldn't get her words out properly.
She knew it was rude, but somehow she felt her vocabulary had plummeted.
"I hate having guards. I wanted…… to look around France."
"But that's dangerous."
"I'm fine. I can protect…… myself. I was just…… careless…… with the pickpocket."
"Goodness……."
What kind of shameless princess was this?
'Ah, wait, is this someone I can't just send away?'
If she let her go and something happened, would it be their responsibility?
"Seoyeon has to participate in the event. I have to…… participate too."
So, wouldn't it be all right to go together?
Mary seemed to be saying that.
And when she came to her senses, this was the situation.
"No, but to bring her here like that!"
"Then could you have just told her to go there?"
"Ahem, you should have."
"Then Teacher Jang, why don't you try saying it?"
When Chae Yeong-hui spoke indignantly, the teacher called Teacher Jang closed her mouth.
Today's schedule had been to visit the Palace of Versailles, then unpack at the lodgings and have free time.
Of course, they weren't allowed to go outside.
Because unlike Korea, it was dangerous to walk around at night in France.
"Who should we even contact in the first place? The French police? Does the British royal family have a number?"
"I don't know that either."
"Th-then where is that British princess right now?"
"The thing is……."
Chae Yeong-hui pressed her temples as if she had a headache.
"I had her stay in the room Seoyeon is using."
"……It seems Seoyeon is really interested?"
"Yes. It seemed sincere, but……."
She said she liked Korean dramas.
Mary had said that.
Hearing only that, it was words that might make one swell with national pride, but believing it wholeheartedly felt slightly ambiguous.
It was clear she knew Korean and was interested in Korea, but…….
"I don't know. Let's keep an eye on her for now."
The teachers sighed as they spoke.
Praying earnestly that nothing out of the ordinary would happen from here on.
However.
"Teacher, that girl who came with us got knocked out by a pillow Seoyeon swung."
"Pardon?"
The teachers nearly fainted at the incident that occurred from the very first night.
Of course, Princess Mary got up bravely and said nothing in particular, so they were relieved before long.
And so the next day.
[Actress from Korea Punishes Pickpocket Who Assaulted British Princess!]
The morning of the second day of Seoyeon's school trip.
Park Jeong-woo, who had just arrived in France, was captivated by the article plastered across the French newspaper.
"……What the hell?"
He truly wondered just what on earth this was all about.