The handmaiden brought a tray with cups and a teapot that the princess used daily to her bedroom, knowing that she had a habit of drinking a cup of tea every morning.

From afar, Seola had been watching the handmaiden’s every move. When the handmaiden was starting to approach the princess’ room, Seola stepped out from the shadows and stopped the handmaiden in her track.

“What do we have here?” Her hand went straight away to open the teapot, and the handmaiden looked in shock.

“I’m sorry, it’s for the princess! Please put the lid back to its place.”

Seola didn’t do what the handmaiden asked straight away, instead she looked at the content of the teapot for a moment. A very delightful-smelling tea, which she suspected as chamomile. After that, she put back the lid and smiled a little bit too sweetly at the handmaiden.

“Please, deliver it to the princess,” she said, before walking away with her head high and a smirk on her face.

The handmaiden felt something was not right, so she tried to support the tray in one arm for a moment to check the content of the teapot. The tea still smelled like the usual, it still looked alright, but she still felt like something had happened.

Trying to shake off the bad feeling in her mind, still with one arm propping the tray, she knocked on the princess’ bedroom door.

“Princess, time for your morning tea.”

As usual, she pushed the door with her whole body. She got to see the princess in her bed with her diary in her lap.

While bringing the tray to the princess’ bed, the handmaiden suddenly tripped on her own feet, and spilled the tea all over the floor. When she realized what she had done, she could barely lift her head.

“Apologies, Princess! How foolish I am to have done such horrendous mistake in front of your presence!”

While bowing down, her hand suddenly felt like it was on fire. She held on for a moment until it started to sting. That was when she yelped and looked at her hand.

It was indeed burning, with red traces all over it, and a little sign of melting skin. She looked at it in horror as she looked back at what she touched on the floor.

It was the tea.

The princess, who had been watching the whole scene, immediately approached the handmaiden while avoiding the pool of the tea on the ground. She saw the burn in the handmaiden’s hand, looking as shocked as she was.

“What happened to your hand? You have to treat it to the physicians right away!”

“Princess, I think the tea was, ouch... poisoned.”

Luda looked at the spoiled tea on the ground and then back to the pained expression of the handmaiden, determination slowly set in her face.

“Tell me, who did this?”

Luda burst through the throne room, where the king and the witch was there, seemingly discussing something.

“Father! You have to send her away from this palace!” She pointed at Seola, who was throwing her an unpleasant look.

“Princess, you know that we still need her.”

“She tried to poison me using my morning tea, Father!”

The room fell into silence for a moment, before Seola turned towards Luda, looking like someone who had just been wronged.

“Princess, how could you say such thing when all I want is also what you want? I am here only to help the queen recover, that is all.”

“Then how would you explain my handmaiden getting her hand burned by the tea? She has also testified to have run into you this morning, and you have done something by looking at the tea. You must have put a deadly spell in it.”

“Princess.” She set her hair behind her back, and started approaching Luda. “I only wanted to know what kind of tea that you drink in the morning. It was chamomile tea, and it smelled good. One thing for sure, I did not do anything to your morning tea by just looking at it. I do not have that kind of spell by just looking in fact. I was simply curious, that is all.”

Luda still looked at Seola with untrusting eyes, until the king finally cut through the tension with his words.

“Princess, let this go.”

That brought Luda’s attention to his father, who was looking at her with a firm gaze, making her stance waver.

“But, Father—”

“You do not have enough evidence to prove that Seola did the crime that you accused of her. But I will send the royal investigators to find out who put the poison in your tea. Now, rest assured, my dear.”

As much as she wanted to protest, she also knew that what her father said was true. She didn’t have the evidence that Seola poisoned her tea, but she was still sure that Seola did it. But it was no use to argue at this moment, she realized, as she left the throne room without words.

Once she was back in her room, she saw the spoiled tea had already been cleaned up. The thought that someone had tried to poison her though was distracting. If anything, she was sure that it somehow had connection to her mother’s illness.

Should she ask for help? The Shirian prince, her fiancée showed his disapproval for having a witch in the palace. He could probably help her chase the witch out of here.

Or she could probably ask someone else.

“Yoo Kihyun,” she muttered his name in a very low voice. The name was stuck in her head due to her good memory. The one who created everything in this world, including herself. If she could ask him to create the story the way she wanted, would he grant it?

The fact that she was a creation was starting to weigh down on her again. And that there could be more than one people who saw her story was also burdensome. If that world had more people than the ones she had seen, then probably they would be able to see it.

She couldn’t describe the feeling of knowing the truth behind her existence. It wasn’t like meeting God or anything. Yoo Kihyun was not a god, at least in his world, that’s for sure, but he was in this one. Someone she couldn’t see in this world, but probably controlled everything that was happening from there.

“Can you see me?” she spoke while looking at the ceiling of her room. Nothing happened for a moment.

“Can I see you?” she asked instead with a tiny hope that she would be able to see him again. She didn’t even know why she wanted to see him. Probably because she really needed him to make her story the way she wanted. But that sounded so strange. She didn’t feel... real. But she was at the same time.

Her right hand reached up to her chest, feeling the soft thumping of her heart, trying to make sure she was alive. She was real.

Suddenly, she felt a cold breeze passing through her room. She still had her windows closed, so where did the wind come from?

At that moment though, a familiar rectangle was shining through one of her bedroom walls.

She widened her eyes in surprise, but also in excitement.

Everyone had left for their house, and now Kihyun was finally alone. Minhyuk had promised to send the first twelve episodes to Naver by tomorrow. They had finished all of Hoseok’s dumplings and also the kimchi fried rice (but that was quite some time ago) before leaving home.

Also, to think that they hadn’t worked their off so much like they used to be, Kihyun felt so much tired than usual.

He had checked on what happened to the webtoon. Episode 14 continued, and he had read most of it in awe. Partly because he still couldn’t fathom how in the hell the webtoon wrote and drew itself. Partly because he had seen some of it generate as if he was watching a speed painting video in front of him. And mostly because he had seen Luda saying his name in one of her speech bubbles.

“Yoo Kihyun.”

He was surprised to see it at first, almost wishing that he had seen it wrong. Then he rubbed his eyes once, twice. The name was still there. And another drawing was in the middle of generating itself right below.

It was a close up of Luda, and a speech bubble next to her.

“Can you see me?”

That had him holding his breath again. This time he was sure that she meant to say it to him, what with her mentioning his name first. When he saw it the first time, he wasn’t sure whether it was really directed at him or not, but he was certain now.

“Can I see you?”

As if on cue, a gust of wind blew throughout the studio. Kihyun didn’t let any window open, and he was starting to wonder if this was a sign to something.

The next thing to happen was a hand coming out of his monitor screen, and he jumped away in shock, his back landing on the studio wall.

Suddenly, his monitor screen started getting bigger, right in front of his eyes, and the hand extended into an arm, and the arm was attached to a body, a body wearing a long pale pink dress, and a head with short pink hair. And suddenly Luda was standing as a whole in front of him, and the light from the computer screen dimmed behind her.

Both were wearing an astonished look on their faces as they stared at each other.

“You...you came back,” was the first thing Kihyun said, since the shock apparently still didn’t make him faint like people would in dramas. The other side of him felt relieved to see Luda again though, even if he wasn’t supposed to feel any kind of relief what with the main character in his webtoon keep coming out without warning.

“Yes, I... did,” she awkwardly responded, still taking in the familiar view of the studio. “I need your help.”

That was unexpected, but looking at how the story went, it seemed like she would actually need some help. He just didn’t expect that she would request any help from him.

“Save the king and queen. Get rid of the witch. Let us live in peace.”

He blinked once, still trying to process the request. Soon enough his face started showing a confused expression, unsure of what to do with what she asked him to do.

“I don’t... I don’t think I can...”

“Why not? You are the creator of my world, you can change things as you please!”

He bit his lips, feeling the same thing as when she just came out the first time. He was afraid. Afraid of refusing her, but he also didn’t have any other choice.

“I don’t know... I can’t... for now. The webtoon keeps writing and drawing scenes by itself, and I don’t know how to stop it...”

She looked at him in disbelief, and then started approaching him in furious steps, hidden behind her dress.

“My father is still alive. I thought he was dead, based on what I saw from there.” She pointed at the computer screen without looking back. “Wasn’t it you who decided to change it? Then you can still do it, right? Change the whole outcome of the story. Let me and my parents live in peace.”

He bit his lip harder this time. It was an easy solution she had provided him, but half of him said not to follow. As much as his webtoon was probably going into some unpredictable plot right now, he was going to publish it. And he didn’t plan on letting the story without conflicts, that’s for sure. The solution that Luda offered would make his webtoon free of conflicts, and there was no point in even starting it in the first place.

But knowing that the main character was out here, complaining about the conflicts happening in the webtoon and wishing to just live her life peacefully in that webtoon, made the other half of him feeling guilty.

Seeing Kihyun’s lack of response, Luda sighed in frustration.

“I have always believed in the presence of God,” Luda suddenly started, bringing back Kihyun’s attention to her after dealing with his own inner conflict. “I just never thought that the God would be you. And if you are not going to let me live in peace, I will show you then. I will strive for my peace.”

Luda turned her back to him, facing the monitor, where she could see the room she was in as a drawing in it. She didn’t need his help to go back, she could do it herself, she convinced herself. Her fingers slowly reached to touch the monitor when she suddenly felt a current running through her fingers. She yelped in shock, but right at that time, the lights went out as well. In utter shock, she looked around the darkness surrounding them.

“What kind of sorcery is this? Explain it to me!”

Kihyun was in as much shock as she was, but he couldn’t find words to explain. Instead, he pulled out his phone from his pocket and the flash, illuminating the floor of the studio, making Luda looked at him in awe.

“What is that?” She looked a bit afraid to see the light coming out from his phone, and he noticed it, even in the dark.

“Uh, first and foremost, this is not magic, this is... technology,” he unhelpfully explained.

“Technology? What is that?”

“I’ll explain later! I’ll go find my flashlight, so wait here, okay? It won’t take too long.”

He didn’t wait for an answer before dashing out of the studio, leaving her alone in the dark. She didn’t dare to move around, instead she stood still until he came back to the studio, flashing the light right on her face, making her flinch away from the source of light.

“How dare you attack me with that sorcery?” she shouted in anger once he directed the flashlight somewhere else. She was glaring at him in the dark, but he was too focused on the floor, afraid that he would trip over something.

“I’m sorry,” he said once he was in front of her. She looked away, not wanting to let him see her angered glare, which she was starting to feel as childish. Luda tried to look at the corner of her eyes though, to see the source of light that he was holding.

“This is called a flashlight. If you press this button,” he showed her a black round thing on the so-called flashlight, and then pressed it, and soon, the room became pitch dark again.

“It will go off, but you can press on it again.” And soon, the room was illuminated by the light again. “Like this, the light goes on again. Do you understand?”

She rolled her eyes, feeling like he was looking at her like a fool or something, before grabbing the flashlight from him.

“I do. Thank you for telling me,” she said half-sarcastically, but also half-serious. “Is this what you call ‘technology’ and not magic?”

“Yes, well, we don’t have magic around here.”

“So how did you know about magic? Why did you put it in the world I live in?”

The room went stagnant for a moment. Kihyun couldn’t find any word to that question, not because he didn’t know the answer, but because his mind was still a mess. He didn’t expect any sharp question to come out of her, especially not at this moment.

“Lead the way,” she decided to rest the case for a moment. She tried to direct the light to the door, just like what he did, and then to the floor, making sure her dress wouldn’t be a nuisance. She was still a crown princess, so she wouldn’t let not even her dress make a mess out of anything. Thankfully, Kihyun also helped by using his phone to light up the floor.

They decided to settle down on the couch in the living room, with a portable emergency lamp being set on the table, which also seemed to fascinate Luda.

“How did you people gather lights like this?” she wondered to herself aloud, but of course, Kihyun could hear her.

“Well, humans’ ideas are getting brilliant over centuries.”

She didn’t expect his answer, but continued to respond anyway. “And this is technology?”

“Yes. Similar to alchemist in your world, I guess.”

“Alchemist? Oh, those people love inventing new things, indeed.” She looked at him, whose eyes were focused on his phone. “And what is this that you cannot seem to separate with?”

“This? It’s my phone. It has a lot of functions though, but I can explain to you later.”

Then a realization suddenly dawned on him as he came to meet eyes with her. “How long are you going to stay here?”

“Aren’t you the one who is supposed to answer that for me?” she asked in a deadpan tone instead.

He gulped as he put his attention back to his phone, avoiding her glare that seemed to intensify as the second went by.

“I will not be too curious of your world,” she said out of the blue. When he looked up at her, she was already leaning back on the couch, her eyes on the emergency light. “You will send me back there, I know. But I also need you to fulfill my wish.”

“Wish?”

“I told you my wish. Let me and my family live in peace. Most importantly, get rid of the witch in the palace. We do not need her presence there. I will solve my mother’s illness on my own.”

Looking at her stern face, Kihyun felt like he would do as she wished. She had always been his favorite character, and to see her like this in flesh made her feel like she was also like him, like any other humans, not just a character. He was starting to think of her as a human.

Another realization dawned on him. No, she is not real, she’s just a character in your webtoon, get your together, Yoo Kihyun! He could feel the thought in his head screaming at him. Just when he was going to get lost in his own thoughts again, a hand reached to hold onto his wrist.

“I hope you will fulfill my wish, Yoo Kihyun.”

Hearing the sound of his name for real this time made his whole body tremble. Sure, it was a weird experience to see her say his name in the webtoon, but hearing it with his own ears was an even weirder experience. He could feel something bubbling up in his chest, a very strange feeling he couldn’t put a name on it, which caused the trembling of his body. And soon after that, the room was getting brighter, both of their eyes getting attacked by the sudden increase of the intensity of light around them.

Kihyun didn’t take too long to adjust his eyes to the now fully illuminated room, and he broke away from Luda’s hold on his wrist to check on his computer in the studio.

Luda only realized that Kihyun was gone from the couch after blinking her eyes rapidly to adjust with the lights. She looked at the slightly ajar door of the studio, and with enough carefulness, trudged back in the opened room.

She found Kihyun, busy with the CPU next to the monitor where she came from. The look in his eyes was that of panic, and she deduced something bad might have happened.

When he noticed her presence in the studio, he looked very conflicted, but surely a bad news had struck that made him look near to tears.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he bit his lips. “I think my computer is broken.”

“Broken?” she raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that... I can’t draw you back.”