T/N: I love PTCOYF but my brain needed a break. This series was on sale for <$2, only two volumes, had a 5 star rating, and from the synopsis appears to feature one of my all time favorite characters (the Cheshire Cat!) as a love interest. So…happy Halloween. Let’s see how it goes!
The day our relationship is discovered! Rapunzel’s story (1)
* Rapunzel’s perspective
“Rapunzel, are you out of your mind? What if the White Queen catches sight of me? The day our secret is exposed, it’ll be the end—not just for me but for you, too!”
As soon as the White Queen disappeared, Chester appeared as if by magic, pushing me onto the bed with a look of exasperation.
Charming eyes that resemble those of a cat.
A height easily over 180 cm.
A honeyed, beautiful voice.
If there’s a fatal flaw to this man who is otherwise perfect, it’s that he’s a forbidden partner, a man that that I’ll never be allowed to have.
The first meeting between Chester and I was two years ago.
Two years ago, I woke up in this strange tower with no memory of who I was. When I came to my senses and opened my eyes, there was a woman in front of me, holding both my hands tightly in her own and looking at me with an anxious, trembling gaze.
“My child… are you finally awake?” 1
Dazzling silver hair like moonlight. Skin like the first December snow. A white dress sparkling in the sunlight….The woman in front of me was dazzlingly beautiful.
However, her gray eyes, which showed no trace of warmth, and her hands, colder than ice as they clasped mine, left me feeling an unexplainable sense of discomfort and fear.
Let me correct my statement: the woman in front of me was frighteningly beautiful.
Gulp.
I spontaneously swallowed my saliva due to the mysterious sense of incompatibility. But, perhaps because of the concern in her eyes, I had an unfounded confidence that at least she wasn’t someone who would harm me.
“Who am I, exactly? And where is this place? Also, why are you…?”
‘…staring at me with such sorrowful eyes?’ I wanted to ask, but before I could finish my sentence, tears as thick as cow dung dripped from her mournful eyes. 2
“Hic–sob! You really have lost your memory! I told you not to leave the tower like that, but you refused listen to me and ran away! Then, while dodging the chess soldiers who were searching for you, you fell down in the mountainside, and hit your head, didn’t you? The doctor did warn me that you might have lost your memory due to the traumatic impact….but I never imagined you wouldn’t even recognize your own mother!”
‘Wait, what? Ran way from the tower… fell down the mountain… and lost my memory?’
It seemed like so many incredibly important things had happened so quickly.
‘And I don’t….recognize my mother? D…does that mean that this scary woman in front of me is my mother!?’
Judging by her anxious attitude while looking at me from earlier, I’d guessed that she must be someone close to me, but…my mother!?
“Oh, my beloved Rapunzel! Do you truly not recognize this mother of yours? What shall I do…? If word of this spreads, it will be said, ‘How can a queen who can’t even look after her own daughter possibly care for her people?’!”
‘Qu-queen~? So, if this woman in front of me right now is the queen of a country, and I am her daughter, then to summarize, I’m… I’m a princess!’
A bed as soft as if it were filled with only the finest goose down, a blanket made of velvet softer than mink fur, and a dress more exquisite than a rainbow of silks….I naturally expected she must a wealthy lady of some sort, but she was a queen!
‘That’s good, right? As soon as I woke up, I found myself trapped by a scary woman, with talk of lost memories and tower escapes. It was all full of bad news, but now I’m a princess?’
I couldn’t understand why I ran away from this woman before I lost my memory. Wouldn’t a princess have lived enjoying a life of all these luxuries in this fancy tower?
“I think my memories are coming back, Mom! I’m sorry, from now on, I’ll never make you worry again!” 3
Of course, it was a lie to say that my memories were coming back, but I decided to match her rhythm for now. I am a princess! What sweeter lie could there be? Even if I wasn’t her daughter, I’d still pretend to be so in order to be a princess!
“Oh, my good daughter Rapunzel!”
‘I guess my name is Rapunzel.’
She was crying so sadly, as if the world was about to collapse, but she seemed to be moved by my words that my memories were coming back, so she stopped crying and pulled be into a tight embrace as her expression brightened.
“Thank goodness, Rapunzel. You must have been so confused … but your memories must have returned. Now, I think it would be best for you to have some peace and quiet to organize your thoughts. Then, who knows? Perhaps the rest of your memories will come back as well?” She smiled, tucking my sweat-soaked bangs behind my ears with hands as cold as ice. “Well then, let’s go back and leave Rapunzel alone to rest.”
Unlike her friendly voice when she called me, her voice when she called the soldiers was cold.
“Yes, White Queen.”
Bang!
As soon as the door closed behind the chess soldiers following her out, I quickly kicked off the blanket and stood in front of the mirror.
What she said must be true; the reflection in the mirror resembled the White Queen too much for her words to be false. Dazzlingly long hair, gray eyes, and even an aristocratic air of nobility. It was obvious that I was her daughter.
However, if there was a difference, it was that my hair was more golden than silver? And my seemed to be slightly tanned by the sun, a bronze that had a warmth to it that the White Queen’s icy complexion lacked entirely.
…As if I didn’t quite belong in this land of mirrors.
But the White Queen herself said I was her daughter. And I clearly inherited her beauty and grace!
‘There’s no way I’m not a princess!’
I checked my beautiful reflection in the mirror once more, clenched my fists, and made a silent vow.
‘Yes, I am Princess Rapunzel, the daughter of the White Queen,! And, befitting my title as a princess, I will live a life of splendor more extravagant than my wildest dreams!’
However, contrary to my expectations, life as a princess was absolutely terrible.
Every morning at six, I was awakened, rushed through breakfast, and started lessons and training right away. And then, a mountain of documents piled as high as I was tall!
This ‘princess’ felt more like a servant.
After spending a week like that, I began to understand why I tried to escape the tower before I lost my memory.
But the most terrible thing of all was that, due to the White Queen’s overprotection, I wasn’t allowed to take even take a single step away from this tower. That meant there was also a limit on the people I could meet with. The only people I could meet were the tutors who taught me various subjects such as martial arts, fencing, literature, music, art, society, philosophy, and science, and my mother, the White Queen.
‘Meeting a handsome knight like you read about in a storybook, a wise, well-spoken count, or a sexy prince from another land! Let alone a prince, wouldn’t it be a dream come true to meet and fall in love with a handsome commoner?’ 4
Trapped in the tower, I could only whisper my small wish to have a normal relationship to the twinkling stars in the night sky every night above my lonely tower.
“Dear stars in the heavens, just like you form the beautiful Milky Way in the night sky with your wonderful friends, all I want is to find my match and weave a beautiful love story together! Oooh… Thinking about it, I’m so mad …” 5
But, fine, I’ll be honest: After the first three days, I stopped whispering my wish like a sweet fairytale princess and started yelling it out in frustration. Everyone has their limits. The stars in the night sky were reduced to beings who listened to my cries of frustration, sorrows, and complaints is part of a nightly routine.
Then one day, out of nowhere, a cat appeared outside of the window with a “poof!”.
At that time, I never dreamed that the encounter of that moment would completely change the course of my life.
“Who, or what, what are you? “
‘A flying cat! What’s more, a devil-like cat that suddenly appears like a thunderbolt out of the sky!’
I once read in a book that in ancient times cats drove away ghosts, and it seemed that the cat that appeared before my eyes might be the ghost cats I’d only heard about. 6
Surprised by the sudden appearance of the ghost cat, I grabbed the wooden practice sword on my desk and swung it threateningly at the floating feline outside my window.
“If you so much as take one step into this tower, I’ll beat you so badly you’ll beg to die!”
“Calm down! Listen to me!”
Wait… was I imagining things? Did this cat just talk?!
“I wasn’t sure before, but now I’m certain. A cat that suddenly appears in a clear sky, flies, and even talks! You must really be an evil spirit. If you don’t disappear right now, then I will use the Horn to call the White Queen and destroy you!” 7
I picked up the horn that was hanging on the wall for use in emergencies and shook it in front of the cat’s nose.
“Please calm down and listen to me. I’m not an evil spirit, I’m not even a magical cat. No, I mean, yes, it’s true that I’m in the form of a cat now, but it’s just my transformation! That’s right, I’m actually human!”
“Human …? “
I squinted at the cat with eyes full of suspicion.
If this cat, or rather this ‘human’, spoke the truth, then this feline floating in the air at that moment, would be the first outsider I met since my memory was lost. 8 I still didn’t know the identity of this cat-person, but I was intrigued, so I decided to find out more about him.
“If what you say is true, transform into a human being right now.”
No sooner had I spoken than the cat began drawing a large circle with its tail. A thick cloud of smoke appeared from nowhere and enveloped the cat, and soon a binding, brilliant blue light pierced through the smoke.
Suddenly seeing a blue light in the middle of the night that would have been blinding even in broad daylight, I quickly covered my eyes from the flash of pain.
‘Did I just get cursed by an evil cat spirit!?’
With pain that felt like I was going blind even with my eyes closed, I regretted being curious about the first cat/person/maybe-evil-spirit that I’d ever seen. I clenched my fists and prepared to be eaten by the demon.
‘Why… isn’t anything happening?’
Still very nervous as the blindingly bright blue light gradually weakened and eventually disappeared completely, I cautiously opened my eyes.
An unbelievable sight awaited me.
The sinister-looking cat from before was nowhere to be seen, and instead, a well-dressed, super handsome, young man man with strikingly feline features stood before me!
‘Huh? He’s so gorgeous?’
As he stood in front of me, it was as if one of the dashing knights I’d read about in books had stepped out from the pages into the real world. Well, a knight would have been wearing armor. Judging by the fact that the black suit he wore was well-worn, he wasn’t a count or baron with noble blood, and he certainly wasn’t a prince from a distant country, right?
But so what? Wasn’t it all about being good-looking? No, even if he wasn’t handsome, he was the first outsider I met after losing my memory, so I couldn’t just let him go like this.
“See? I’m not some strange devil or anything.”
Since I was startled by his unexpected appearance, he took the initiative to extend his hand first and greet me.
Already blushing, I shyly took his hand, trying my best to look cute as I tucked my hair behind one ear and greeted him best I could.
‘Keep a slightly downward gaze, one hand tucking my hair behind an ear, looking as bashful as possible! Hehe.’
In my entire life, I’d never held a man’s hand before. Of course, I didn’t know what it was like before I lost my memory, but back then I was trapped in the tower just like I was now, so the situation probably wasn’t much different.
Anyway, my first time holding a man’s hand, and it was a suuuuper handsome man’s hand! 9 My heart was pounding so hard that I couldn’t help but stutter.
“S-sorry for the misunderstanding. My name is Princess Rapunzel. Or, well, it’s Rapunzel, and I am a princess, ha ha… What’s your name?”
“Hahaha. You’re a princess, huh? Well then, should I address you formally? Princess Rapunzel, my name is Chester.” 10
When I revealed that I was a princess, Chester introduced himself using an abrupt shift in formal tone, as if he hadn’t expected it.
Of course, as soon as I first saw Chester in human form, I had all sorts of fantasies of falling in love and even getting married, but even though I was trapped inside the tower, even I knew that going straight there from the start was a no-no. Okay, then we’d start as friends first. And it wouldn’t be a lie to say that I was bored because I didn’t have any friends, right? After completing my self-justification, I spoke to Chester, who still had his head bowed politely.
“No need for formality, you can just talk to me normally. I don’t have any friends here anyway.”
Of course, I didn’t forget to end my statement with a sweet smile on my face.
When I told him that he could be comfortable with me, Chester responded with a smile as bright as the full moon.
“Got it, Rapunzel! Then, we’re friends from today onwards. From now on, I’ll be your one and only friend and come to visit you every night!”
“Really? Are you really going to come visit me every night?”
Regardless of the self-interest I had toward him, I was genuinely delighted by Chester’s unexpected proposal. But there was one thing that would prevent Chester from coming every night.
That’s right, the White Queen!
All of my cheer drained from my face as a realization dawned on me; the day that the White Queen found out about Chester meeting me every night, not only would Chester’s life be in danger, but I would be put under the 24-hour surveillance of a chess soldier.
Turning to Chester with a very serious look on my face, I added, “But you must be careful, Chester. The day my mother, the White Queen, learns of your existence will become the day of your funeral.” 11
From that day on, Chester became my only friend, visiting the tower every night for the past two years. And fortunately, the White Queen has never came close to catching Chester.
At least not yet…
T/N: Random fact – I’ve performed in the Alice in Wonderland ballet three times, twice as the Cheshire Cat, which is quite possibly my favorite role! And omg, so far this heroine is entertaining me immensely. Going from ‘I will beat you the hell up’ to ‘Ready to get married when you are, hot stuff’ in less time than it takes me to sneeze? Why not! To be fair, who can resist a kitty who decides you’re special? They’re usually so aloof…
- She calls Rapunzel 아가 which translates literally to ‘Baby’ and is an affectionate to call one’s kid, not necessarily literally an infant, though it is typically used for younger children. ↩︎
- 소똥처럼 굵은 눈물” (“tears as thick as cow dung”) a rather colorful metaphor but yeah, a humorous yet vivid way to describe someone crying wholeheartedly. A more localized phrase might be “bawling her eyes out” or “crying rivers,” I saw someone once say it was like Studio Ghibli tears:
↩︎ - Rapunzel calls her 엄마, informal way to say mom. ↩︎
- Y’all I was trying to figure out what the actual hell ‘섹~쉬한!’ meant and then I read it out loud XD sometimes MTL misses stuff. ↩︎
- “하늘에 계신 별님, 별님이 다른 멋진 친구들과 함께 밤하늘의 아름다운 은하수를 이루듯이 저도 제 짝을 찾아 아름다운 사랑을 수 놓아보고 싶은 거뿐이라고요! 우씨. 생각해보니까 존나 빡치네… ” 하늘 can mean sky/heaven/paradise/God, 짝을 can mean pair/match/mate/spouse. ↩︎
- Rapunzel uses 악귀 고양이인가보다 / 악귀 고양이의…which gets MTL’d as ‘evil cat’ (which is kind of hilarious honestly) 악귀 = evil spirit/demon, it’s not clear to me if she means this is the cat that hunts evil spirits or if this cat is an evil spirit, but the latter doesn’t make sense given the prior statement about what she read in books. She first refers to it/him as 마귀 같은 고양이라니 ↩︎
- Horn is written in English: 지금 당장 사라져버리지 않으면 그때는 이 혼(Horn)을 이용해 하얀 여왕을 불러서 너를 소멸시켜 버릴 거야!” FWIW, 혼 is pronounced ‘Hon’ and usually means ‘spirit/soul’. ↩︎
- 외부인이라는 outsider in the sense of like, stranger/visitor/unknown person. ↩︎
- 아무튼, 난생처음 잡아보는 남자의 손이 초초초미남의 손이라니! Three 초’s lol ↩︎
- Both Chester and Rapunzel have 하하하 in their dialogue, which is just like, the sound of laughter. ↩︎
- She doesn’t say funeral, she says 제삿날이 which is an ancestral rite / a sacrificial day, a (memorial) sacrifice day, the anniversary of ((a person’s)) death ↩︎
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