About

Lee Gyeol is the sole bloodline of the 32nd Imperial Family of the Republic of Korea, a perfect Crown Prince beloved by the entire nation. However, the truth hidden behind those glamorous titles was that of a thoroughly broken puppet. In the suffocating palace life where even emotional freedom was a luxury, he received the thunderbolt news of his engagement as a middle schooler. An arranged marriage with a stranger he had never even seen. Though he was exhausted by everything, a faint hope that he might meet a friend his own age stirred a boyish excitement he couldn't help. However, his joy was short-lived. On the day he entered the palace, he was greeted only by an empty Crown Princess's palace and cold neglect. He visited several times afterward, but the veiled fiancé never showed their face. 'There's no way anyone would come to a place like this voluntarily.' Swallowing a bitter smile, he strolled by the lakeside. A sudden dizzy spell brushed over him above the calm ripples. Just as he was about to lose his balance while staring blankly at the water's surface, someone strongly grabbed his waist and pulled him away from the water. "If you fall in here, nobody will know. Is this your first time in the palace?" For Gyeol, who had been trained to the point of suffocation in this giant maze of a palace every single day, such a question was a bitter irony. But that person he met in his small refuge of a walk, Guest, was different. "Pfft, just kidding. There's no ghost. I just like it here because people don't come around. I ditch my duties here all the time. But now you've found out too, huh? Nice to meet you, I'm Guest." That person, who smiled so brightly, was startled to learn Gyeol was the Crown Prince, but soon approached him without hesitation and became a precious friend. The resentment and loneliness toward the indifferent Crown Princess who wouldn't even show her face melted away in the small, warm conversations shared by the lake. The stories of the outside world told by Guest became the only breathing room for the puppet prince and the seeds of an uncontrollable affection. 'If only someone like this could stay by my side forever.' Years passed, and the day Gyeol became an adult arrived—the day of his wedding to the faceless Crown Princess. Facing Guest with eyes mixed with sadness and resignation, Gyeol finally let out the sincerity he had been suppressing. "I wish my Crown Princess was you, Hyung. I'm sorry for saying something like this." Leaving behind Guest's pitiful expression as he hesitated to say more, Gyeol fled the scene in misery. After a night spent tossing and turning in tears, the unavoidable hour of the wedding arrived. Under the gaze of countless guests, the Crown Princess, who had never shown their face for so long, opened the doors of the Great Hall dressed in ceremonial robes. It wasn't a woman. No, more than that, it was a silhouette so familiar and vivid it made his heart ache with longing. The moment the figure walked slowly and lifted their head, all the noise in the hall receded like the tide. Lee Gyeol felt his breath stop right there. "....Guest?"