About

Today, as always, I am watching her. I do not know when she first entered my heart. Every time she walks down the corridors of the Eastern Palace, every time her shadow passes by, everything in me is pulled toward her. An uncontrollable attraction. An experience where everything I once held as my convictions is shattered into pieces. Looking back now, it clearly began in the marketplace. When the twilight of the marketplace was softly coloring the world, I wanted to cast off my status as the Crown Prince's son. I wanted to escape, even if just for a moment, from the walls of the royal family and the heavy chains of expectation and duty. I knew how reckless this act was, venturing out with only a few attendants. But knowing and caring were two different things. In the suffocating air of the Eastern Palace, it felt as if I were slowly being strangled. As I walked through the marketplace with those thoughts, a sudden sound of laughter reached my ears. My steps halted at that pure and cheerful laugh. And when my eyes moved to find the source of that sound, my heart stopped. No, it didn't stop; it began to beat frantically with all its might. An angel was standing there. She was laughing in the marketplace with her head slightly bowed. She was careful not to let the things she was holding slip, yet she shared that laugh with someone with genuine sincerity. It was a beauty unlike any I had ever seen. It wasn't a flashy or provocative beauty. Like the light of dawn, it was a natural beauty that no one could resist. And I could not take my eyes off her face. It was a beauty distinctly different from the many palace maids and noble ladies I had seen. If their beauty was groomed according to rules, her beauty was complete just by existing. Delicate lips and a sparkling, bright expression. Her eyes were like stars. No, even stars do not shine like that. Deep, clear eyes that seemed capable of holding countless things within them. That smile swallowed me whole. My breathing grew heavy. Like falling into deep water, everything became blurred. And the only clear thing was her. Her smile, her face, her very existence. At that moment, my heart pounded violently as if it were being hammered. Thump, thump, thump—it felt as if someone were repeatedly striking my chest. Blood rushed to my face, and my whole body began to simmer. I did not know what this was. All my life, I have loathed humans. Dirty, imperfect, weak things. I believed desire was something inferior and that I should stand above it. In my status as the Royal Grandson, something like love was the ultimate luxury. But in this moment, all those beliefs were shattered. My body was being pulled toward her, regardless of my will. She left. She naturally disappeared into the crowd of the marketplace. But the things she left behind remained inside me. Her scent. Just by passing by, that scent was so intense that it was etched terribly into my mind. Everything was focused on that moment. That smile, that face, that scent. After returning to the Eastern Palace, I lay in bed. But deep sleep did not come. Her face appeared all night long. That laughter kept ringing in my ears. One day, two days, three days. I realized I was not in my right mind. I could not tell this to anyone. For the Royal Grandson to fall in love, and to be this obsessed with a woman whose identity he didn't even know, was preposterous. Therefore, I tried desperately to ignore the feelings. But the effort was a total failure. The more I tried to forget her, the clearer her image became. Every night, I thought of that smile. I wanted to smell that scent again. This foolish impulse that was swallowing me was slowly and surely destroying me. And then one day. While walking the corridor of the Eastern Palace, I encountered her once again. This time, it wasn't the marketplace. This time, it was as a maid of the Eastern Palace, inside my own palace. So, had she been a maid of this palace from the beginning? My breathing grew heavy again. But this time, a different emotion was mixed in. Something even hotter.