When Kihyun first dyed his hair pink, everyone was surprised. Well, because Kihyun was Kihyun. No one knew that he was into pink that much, but when he walked into the studio with bright pink hair on top of his head, everyone certainly couldn’t look away from him.

“Hyung,” Changkyun was the first one to speak up. “Why is there a cotton candy on your head?”

“Dude,” the only girl in the studio, Myungeun, looked pointedly at the youngest male in the studio. “That’s what you call style.”

“But it does look like a cotton candy!”

“Thanks, Myungeun,” Kihyun managed to say.

“But it is kind of strange to see you dye your hair pink though,” Minhyuk, the usually talkative one, only started talking then. “Is it because your webtoon character has pink hair too?”

“No,” Kihyun quickly answered, which made it seem more suspicious because it was too quick of an answer.

“Hmm, definitely not,” Hoseok chimed in sarcastically.

“Hyung,” Minhyuk turned to look at Hoseok. “You have a hair color that you call ‘Waves in The White Sand’.”

“Hey, if you look at it closely, it does look like sea waves washing over the white sand though, right?”

“Both your hair colors are cringy anyway,” Changkyun commented. “If Kihyun hyung calls his hair ‘The Color of Luda’, I’m out of here.”

“Or ‘Fifty Shades of Luda’,” Minhyuk offered.

“Dude.” This time Myungeun looked at Minhyuk. “Don’t.”

“Hey, call me oppa! You’re much younger than me!”

Kihyun had logged out of the conversation since Hoseok started talking about his hair color’s name. He was focusing on the work in his hand, the work that might actually give him the chance of publishing his very first webtoon. He had been working on twelve episodes of ‘The Queen of Aexolia’. If he finished episode 12, he would be able to submit it to either Daum or Naver or Nate, he didn’t know yet, but Naver had given him the quickest response and they requested for those twelve episodes as soon as next week on Monday. At the state of only having finished three episodes, he had quickly enlisted the help of his best friend, Minhyuk, who was also an art major fellow, who then recruited two of their juniors, Changkyun and Myungeun, to work on those as quickly as possible. Hoseok, being a clueless economic major and Kihyun’s neighbor, was there mostly for emotional support.

Thanks to the help of his friends, they had gone through eight extra episodes very quickly in only a week, although it wasn’t an easy feat because Kihyun tended to redraw some of the drawings his friends did, which earned groans from them most of the times, and some hard complains from Minhyuk.

(“You said you only have three days left, man! Why do you even feel the need to redraw this one?”

“It’s called matching the style of the drawing, Minhyuk-ah.”

“It’s not like I didn’t try hard to match my style with yours! Ugh, forget it, do whatever you want.”)

Among his drawing, there was Luda. The crown princess of Aexolia Kingdom, the main character of the webtoon. She was known as the most beautiful lady in the kingdom, always dressed in beautiful regal gown, and her pink hair, when it was long, was so beautiful, so smooth. He had her cut her hair with a knife by episode 3 as some sort of symbolism for her determination to break free from the restraint of the palace. But even when she cut her hair, she was still beautiful.

It was true that he had grown maybe a little too attached to the character he made. But he had been working on Luda’s character since he was still in high school, making imperfect sketches of her after getting addicted on watching numerous fantasy medieval-themed movies (which had quite an impact on his grade anyway). Since then, he had always wanted to make something similar, and Luda was the first character he drew.

Which was why to him, Luda was special.

“Kihyun-ah,” Hoseok called out to him. “I’ll be going home early, is it okay?”

“Uh, yes sure.”

“Well,” Myungeun started, “It’s not like you’re doing anything fruitful around here, so.”

Hoseok wanted to smack the girl on the head, but restrained himself.

“Dude, don’t be so rude. He bought us food everyday,” Changkyun said to the girl. Myungeun just shrugged before getting up from her seat.

“Actually, Oppa, can you give me a ride back home? I’m done with my homework here.”

Changkyun also got up from his seat almost immediately. “Hey, you still owe me tteokbokki, remember?”

Myungeun turned to look at her same-age friend in disinterest. “So I can buy it for you later on, right?”

“You said after this!”

“Okay, guys,” Hoseok chimed in, “I’ll go back to my home next door by myself and you two,” he gestured at Changkyun and Myungeun, “go home together. Done.”

“Yes, just go home together, you two. And thank Hoseok hyung later, of course,” Minhyuk snickered. Kihyun also joined the snickering party, especially since he was starting to realize both Changkyun and Myungeun’s faces were starting to look red from blushing.

“Okay then, see you guys.” Hoseok left with a bright smile and also a snicker. Myungeun stomped out to another room, possibly to grab her bag. Changkyun sat back on his chair again, looking frantically around the floor, also to pick up his bag lying around there.

“Changkyun-ah.”

The younger turned his head to the pink-haired man.

“Good luck!” Kihyun pumped his fist in the air while also grinning so wide all his dimples were showing on his face. Minhyuk also pumped both his fists while still giving the younger a snicker. Changkyun just rolled his eyes at both of his (in his opinion) immature hyungs.

Myungeun walked into the working room again, this time with a backpack slung around her shoulders.

“I’ll go home first. See you tomorrow.” She bowed at Minhyuk and Kihyun before storming off to the door which would lead her to the living room and eventually, the exit. Flustered, Changkyun got up and hastily slung his own backpack before saying goodbye to the remaining guys in the studio.

“Hyungs, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

As they watched their juniors disappeared behind the door, a silence fell onto them. Kihyun discreetly looked at Minhyuk who hadn’t said anything, which was a clear sign that the other man was tired as well.

“Hey, Minhyuk-ah,” he started, “You can also go home if you want. It’s almost midnight anyway.”

“Hmm?” Minhyuk turned to his friend. “Is it obvious?”

“You didn’t say anything for like what, 30 minutes.”

Minhyuk chuckled softly, but then he shook his head.

“You have a guest room, right? I’m too tired to walk back home.”

“Well,” Kihyun’s eyes wondered to his bedroom door before going back to Minhyuk. “I have a guest bed.”

“Good enough. I’ll go to sleep then.”

The black-haired man yawned as he stood from his sitting position, and tried to cover his mouth as he walked into Kihyun’s bedroom. That meant Kihyun was alone in the studio now. Strange enough, he wasn’t sleepy even though it was near 12 am. His eyes fell onto the screen, where a scene of Luda in the palace’s balcony, staring out into the scenery of a sunset unfolded. He put his face closer to the screen as he tried to take a good look at her.

So beautiful. So graceful. So much like a queen.

Kihyun decided he could use some coffee, so he got up and opened the door to the living room, which was connected to the kitchen. He kept a lot of packs of instant coffee in the cabinets because sometimes the other guys would help themselves with it whenever they needed coffee as well. Surprisingly enough, Kihyun didn’t need to drink as much coffee during work, so it was one of those rare occasions where he just felt like sipping a cup of warm liquid. Besides, the weather was slowly getting colder, so it could also warm him up.

As he poured the hot water into the cup, he suddenly felt shivers all over his body. He stopped any movement right then, to realize that there was a wind passing through.

“What was that?” he wondered aloud to himself, and then turned to check the living room. All the windows were shut, the front door also closed. So where did the wind come from? Could it be...

“No, no.” He shook his head repeatedly, trying to swat away any strange thoughts. It wasn’t like he was a scaredy cat anyway, and even though Minhyuk was one, he felt a bit reassured with the fact that he wasn’t all alone in the house. He took a breath and then let it out before going back to the studio with the cup of coffee in his hands.

As he opened the door to the studio, he certainly did not expect to see someone other than Minhyuk in that room.

It was a girl, wearing a royal gown. Also she had a pink pixie cut hair adorning her small face.

If it wasn’t for the familiar hair and the familiar gown design, he wouldn’t be too shocked. Maybe he still would, but that was not the point.

The girl looked like what he had envisioned of Luda, was the point.

“Who are you? How dare you come into this place!”

Her voice was very womanly, but also very commanding, which almost made Kihyun drop his cup of coffee. He hurriedly put the cup on the table first, but as he did, the girl backed away from him. He also stopped to look at her. This could not be real.

“Do not come closer! Tell me who you are!”

She started to look for something around her, and Kihyun used this chance to properly put the cup on the table. Then she grabbed a ruler lying idly around his work table and pointed it at him.

“If you come closer one more time I will kill you with this!”

Kihyun didn’t believe she would kill him with a ruler, but he tried to play safe to at least not get hit by it. He still hadn’t taken in all of this happening anyway. A girl who looked so much like Luda was in front of him, wearing a dress that he designed for Luda’s wedding day, and her hairstyle was also in a bun which he had also designed. One possible explanation for this would be that she came out of the monitor screen, but that was absurd. Or perhaps reality had always been absurd.

“I’m sorry,” he finally managed to voice out, as gently as possible. She was still looking at him with untrusting eyes, but she looked slightly wavered.

“Um, I... I live here,” he started to explain, although it didn’t really answer her question. “And I actually don’t know who you are to suddenly appear in my house, so I’m... sorry if I freaked you out.”

Everything he had said sounded like a lie to him. He probably knew who she was, and if anything, he was more freaked out than anything right now, but she looked just about the same, and he was the one to walk into the scene, so.

“You do not know me?” she asked instead. Again, he would say that was a lie, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if his suspicion was true or not. “Weren’t you the one who brought me into this place?”

Now, that was something Kihyun didn’t know. So he shook his head fervently, hoping she would put down the ruler already.

“Wasn’t it you, the one who had abducted me into this place using your black magic?”

“Black magic?” It was getting even more absurd as Kihyun tried to engage in the conversation. “We don’t have black magic around here.”

“Then how would you explain this situation?”

She sounded so demanding that he felt like going to a corner of the room and staying there. Instead, he had a dumb face on (which was genuine, because he still hadn’t grasped the situation fully) before shaking his head again.

“I honestly... don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t even know who you are.”

The answer finally convinced her to put down the ruler. Her gaze was still piercing through his soul, but this time, she was the one who approached him, although just a few steps. He took in what he saw. Just like what he had imagined of Luda, she was beautiful, graceful, perfect for a queen.

“Answer my first question. Who are you?”

She stared at him, and even though she was shorter than him, he felt like she was staring down at him.

“I, uh, I’m Yoo Kihyun,” he finally started, “a webtoon artist, well, not yet, but soon to be, I guess.”

She looked confused for a moment, and then a fascination started sparking in her orbs of eyes. “An artist?”

“Yes, a webtoon artist. You know. Drawing and making a story.”

“Ah.” She looked at him up and down, which honestly made him a little more uncomfortable, if he already wasn’t. “You do not look like an artist.”

“Well, I heard that a lot,” he tried to laugh it off, but she was still staring him down, so he bit back the urge to laugh.

“Uh, if you don’t mind, perhaps you can tell me your name?” he asked tentatively.

She still looked at him with distrust, but it didn’t take that long before she started doing as she was asked to.

“I am the crown princess,”

The introduction was starting to make Kihyun’s eyes bigger than their usual size.

“of Aexolia Kingdom, Luda.”

He was beginning to feel the shock sinking in, as he took in the images drawn in front of him. Luda. She said she was Luda. His creation, Luda. Okay, she didn’t say she was his creation, but she was still his creation. He glanced towards the monitor of the computer, at the scene where she was standing at the balcony facing the sunset. Except she wasn’t there and only the empty balcony was left. Then he looked back at Luda, and then back to the screen, and back to Luda again. No way.

“Your expression tells me that you know me.” She was looking at him with those orbs full of suspicion again. “Did you just lie to me? In my presence?”

“I-I-No this is—no way.”

He waited for himself to faint just like in dramas where people would faint when they receive shocking news, but he didn’t. Instead, he stepped back until his back hit the wall, and slowly, he slid down to the floor, his eyes falling onto the ends of Luda’s gown. He didn’t dare to look up at her.

“According to the king’s law, for every false statement in the presence of at least a member of royal family, you will be punished a sentence in jail for 5 years.”

Kihyun looked up at her at last, feeling the urge to tell her what he thought might be the truth after all.

“I suggest you do not run away, or else, your punishment will be added tenfold.”

“Luda.”

At the sound of her name, she suddenly tensed up. He rose back to his feet again, his eyes looking anxious. At this point, he surely would tell her the truth.

“If I tell you the truth, I hope you won’t be too shocked.”

That was a stupid request. Of course she would still be shocked anyway, he thought in his head. Still, she folded her hands on her chest in genuine curiosity. “If you decide to tell the truth, your punishment may be reduced.”

Now Kihyun was confused. He didn’t know from where he should tell her. He bit his lips as he looked back and forth at Luda and the monitor screen. He decided to point at the screen.

“You see there?”

She looked at where he pointed —a drawing of a balcony and sunset from afar—, a setting she felt vaguely familiar with.

“That is my drawing. And you...”

She turned back to him, looking expectant now instead of untrusting. Kihyun couldn’t find it in him to break the news to her, but he had to, otherwise she wouldn’t let this go ever.

“Oh my, I can’t believe I’m going to say this.” He threw his head back in frustration. “You... I think you came out of there. You...”

His hands were flailing around her, trying to signify to her whole existence.

“I drew you. In that setting. And then you’re here. You…”

Her face expression was starting to form that of disbelief as she was now looking at the monitor screen and Kihyun back and forth.

“Are you telling me that you’re the one who created me?”

Kihyun bit his lips harder in anxiety, so he opted for nodding his head for affirmation instead.

The look on her face was hard to read, but there was a mix of frustration, disbelief, devastation, and acceptance all at once.

“No way.”