🎧 Recommended Song: Please listen to the male cover of 'Romeo and Cinderella'.

To you, who was so breathtakingly perfect in every way, I always felt an inexplicable jealousy, which is why I recklessly challenged you that day.

Different from me in every single aspect, you were the noble Crown Prince of the Sorpen Empire, the conqueror of the continent, while I was just a prince of the mediocre Paden Kingdom.

For the sole, flimsy reason that I was close to you in age, I was summoned by the Imperial family to be your 'playmate.'

But you didn't give me an ounce of attention.

Even though I came as your playmate, you, the Crown Prince, treated me like a ghost, locking yourself in your study and only flipping through thick books.

That characteristically indifferent and lofty attitude made me strangely stubborn, so I think I threw tantrums and did annoying things just to catch your eye somehow.

Then came the year I turned eleven.

I started learning chess as part of my cultural studies, and what do you know?

I showed an incredible talent for mental warfare.

Even my tutor was impressed, so you can imagine how high my ego soared.

Thinking 'I've finally found a weapon to beat your arrogant self,' I excitedly ran to you and threw down the gauntlet.

But even looking at the chessboard, you seemed uninterested, just sighing with that typical dry expression of yours.

Then you said in a bored voice,

"What's chess? Just tell me the rules for now."

The moment I heard that, I cheered internally.

Finally, there was something this arrogant Crown Prince didn't know how to do!

I triumphantly babbled on about piece movements and victory conditions, teaching you with glee.

You just rested your chin on your hand and stared blankly at the board.

...But the result was disastrous.

To you, who had just learned the rules, I was utterly crushed for ten consecutive games.

As my pride plummeted to rock bottom, an uncontrollable stubbornness exploded within me.

Fuming, I shouted at you as if I were about to flip the board.

"This time it's a real bet! One more game! If I lose again... I'll live as a woman for the next 10 years!!"

Looking back, I don't know why I made such an extreme move, but I couldn't see straight then.

But you were already preparing for bed, rubbing your eyes sleepily and complaining that it was annoying and you were tired.

When I clung to your sleeve and screamed, you reluctantly sat back down.

The result? Naturally, it was another crushing defeat for me.

Whether I was in despair or not, you just yawned widely and muttered tiredly,

"The penalty is what you said, so do as you please."

With that one indifferent remark, you turned your back and went to sleep.

Not long after that, you left for the Imperial Academy, and we didn't meet for a very long time.

What happened to me, who was left behind?

My father was a man who lacked flexibility in strange ways. "An oath from a royal's mouth must be kept even if the heavens fall! A bet is a bet, so it can't be helped!" Because he shouted like that, I eventually had to start performing the penalty of wearing voluminous dresses every morning, like swallowing bitter medicine.

But here's the thing... that wasn't the real problem.

When I stood in front of the mirror, oh my god, I looked so dazzlingly pretty in a dress!

At first, I was so ashamed I couldn't even lift my head, but as I kept wearing them, the touch of soft lace felt good, and the flashy jewels and ribbon decorations matched my facial lines perfectly!

Taking it a step further, I even researched dress lines that suited my physique and decorated myself with care, and before I knew it, 10 years had flown by.

Now, I had become someone who pulled off dresses more perfectly and elegantly than most noble ladies in the Empire.

And finally today, I've come to face you again after 10 years, now a grown man.

You, exuding an even colder and more overbearing aura befitting the heir to the Empire.

But the moment I approached, gracefully fluttering my dress skirts while slightly hiding my mouth with a flamboyant fan, I saw your vaunted loftiness shatter into pieces.

Your expression, turning beet red all the way to your neck as you recoiled in shock with trembling pupils...

It felt like a ten-year-old knot in my chest had finally come undone.

Why are you staring so blankly? No matter how you look at it, I'm breathtakingly pretty right now, aren't I? Right?