It was extremely hot today. I was just lying around in Han’s room on his giant bed. He was reading a book given to him by Minseok.
I couldn’t read the title, because it was written in Hangul. Han was studying Korean and when I asked him why he said he did it just because he was very interested in Korea and its language. But I rather think he was interested in Minseok.
I was just watching him the whole time. Once Minseok explained to me how Hangul worked and it seemed that it wasn’t that hard to be learned. Han could probably understand most of the book’s content also. He learned very quickly and he really seemed to be into it.
“You really take a risk here” I muttered while observing him critically. He returned my gaze with a confused look not seeming to really understand.
“You obviously know what I am talking about here, Lu Han.”
I overheard Minseok calling him Lu Han several times already.  And when I asked him about this he told me that Han’s face looked exactly like our mothers. She died when I was seven but I was old enough to remember her face and could confirm this. Han had her eyes; his face was shaped just like hers.
My mother’s first name was Hua and her maiden Name was Lu. So Minseok called my brother jokingly Lu Han just like mother was named Lu Hua once.
And sometimes when Minseok became subject of our conversation I started to refer to Han as Lu Han to a little.
Han rolled his eyes as he usually would. “Because I read a book given to me by Minseok?”
“I know you started to learn Korean just because of him.”
“Well, yes that is true. He has awakened my interest in Korean culture. What is so wrong about it?”
“It’s not about your damn so called interest in Korea; it’s about you not able to keep your eyes of Minseok every time he is around!”
He looked at me with a frown and hushed for a moment.
“I think we should better talk about how you can’t keep your eyes off Yi Fan’s new fiancée.”
I let out a growl. “Yes, but I don’t droll every time I look at her. What has this even to do with the other thing?” I screamed at him as I jumped of his bed.
There was this stupid smirk on his face as if it was said on purpose to put me in rage.
“I’ve seen how you were staring at her during lunch today. I was afraid that you would completely forget to eat.” He said to me and I knew he was right, but it still had nothing to do with him and Minseok.
“It’s because there is something wrong with this . Has ANYONE ever looked at her closely except me?” I was literally yelling right now. Han was still grinning at me.
I couldn’t believe how delusional he was. I was so angered that I simply stormed out of his damn room and left him alone with his damn Korean book.

Now it was Han who I was staring at madly and he still grinned at me the whole damn time. Miss Yang Mei Lin wasn’t present again at the dining table. I’ve only seen her during lunch today. She also seemed to have left out breakfast. That poor thing was probably so scared of me that she was avoiding every contact. And that was a relief for me.
“Yin Xue, Yi Fan and me had a talk.” I heard my father saying. I just looked at him waiting for him to continue. But it was Yi Fan who started talking again.
“Mei Lin doesn’t seem to feel very comfortable yet and hides in her room all day.”
I gave him an angry look.
“Maybe you should try to have a talk with her.”
Did he do that on purpose? He seemed to be serious though. I noticed how Han was suppressing a grin.
“Why me?” I asked him trying to sound calm.
“You are both girls and around the same age. It would be easier for Mei Lin to open herself up to you than to anyone else.”
I looked at him with a blank look. “Are you kidding me? What has my age and gender to do with this?”
“Yin Xue!” I heard my fathers’ deep voice. “The way you speak with your brother is not appropriate.”
I sighed. “Fine, I’m sorry.”
And then Yi Fan said: “Just give it try”

I didn’t go straight up to Mei Lin’s room. I was sitting on my bed and was watching the sunset through the window. I had no idea how to start a proper conversation with her.
Why it had to be me? It could have been Han. He was very charming and he always knew how to talk to people. I didn’t.
To be honest I ended up reading a book trying to block out reality. But when it became pitch dark I finally decided to leave the room. While I was walking to her room I tried to control my emotions and put on a poker face. I must have been struggling very hard, because on my way I met Jongdae and he seemed to be very worried about me and even asked if I felt sick.
I waved it off and said that I was very busy.
When I was standing in front of Mei Lin’s room it was very quiet. Was she sleeping already? First I wanted to knock on her door but then I decided to just enter her room. I was the damn princess why I would knock? I was not going to lose this fight.
I slammed the door open and that was when I became paralyzed, my eyes widened.
It wasn’t Mei Lin who was standing in the middle of the room, but a man.
He was just as tall as Mei Lin with a fit stature that he seemed to have covered up with clothes before. On the right side of his back there was large tattoo of a dragon. It was stunning and for some reason it looked familiar. His skin was so tanned.
His natural hair was black and short and it complimented his face way more and his dark eyes were staring at me in shock. That was the moment I noticed a strange attractiveness about them.
He gasped but he wasn’t able to speak or to move. He was just standing there, completely lost.
I wouldn’t say I was as surprised as it seemed at the very beginning. Everything just started to make sense. He was still holding a dress in his arms, the wig he was usually wearing was placed on the bed.
And then suddenly I found this scene terribly amusing. I closed the door quietly behind me and just grinned at him silently.
The boy was still staring at me with widened eyes.
“Well, now I want to hear the whole story.”

He was walking around the room, being completely upset. He had just put on some simple clothes but had left the wig where it was.
“You knew it. You knew it the whole time.” He was mumbling.
“I didn’t. I knew there was something wrong but I didn’t know you were a man!” I replied still finding it very amusing.
“Hush! I will be killed if they find out!”
“You will be ing killed by Yi Fan at your wedding night!”
Then he looked at me for a moment and said: “You swear a lot for a princess.”
I gave him a smirk. “There are sure a lot of interesting things we going to find out about each other tonight.”
He watched me with a lost expression. Then he turned away from me for moment revealing his tattoo again. “I beg you, don’t tell anyone.”
I snorted scornfully. „Give me reason“
“Like what could I do?” He was facing me again. He sounded so desperate.
“What about explaining everything first?”
The boy sighed and lowered his gaze.
“Right, the whole story…” He sat on his bed.
“Yang Li Wei planned to marry his daughter to the royal family for a long time, that’s why he tried the hardest to keep up a friendship with the emperor. But when Mei Lin was finally engaged to your brother she ran away from home. There was another man she was desperately in love with and she wasn’t able to give him up even for a prince.”
“And that’s why he put you in a dress and sent you to our castle?” I asked him and raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, that was exactly what he did and I think it shows how desperate he really is. He tried to find Mei Lin for half a year but she just disappeared. Since his business was crumbling he really needed this marriage, so he thought he would replace Mei Lin, for a while at least he said. How should that even work? How can he just replace one face with another after a while?”
His voice was trembling with anger and he sighed.
“I heard you were arguing about that with your servant yesterday.”
“So it was you standing there. And Hai Su isn’t my servant. She was Mei Lin’s servant.  But she is so delusional. Well, of course, it is me, not her, who is risking his head here. Well Hai Su is very pretty but she is so dumb sometimes and a bad liar actually. That’s why she barely speaks around here. Anyways, so Li Wei decided to send me, since the other candidates were either too uneducated, dumb or too…manly.”
I chuckled. “And you are not, as far as I understand?”
“They blamed it on my behavior sometimes and I don’t agree at all.” After he said that he seemed to be in his thoughts and was just staring blankly into space.
“So… and you were also a servant or what?”
“No, not really a servant. But that’s a different story…”
Then we were silent for a while again.
“I beg you, don’t tell them please.”
I felt how a smirk appeared on my lips again. “I won’t, not yet…”
Our eyes met and he looked so hopeless right now, that I almost felt sorry. He was begging me silently.
“And tell me your name.”
He hesitated for a moment. He lowered his gaze, then looked around the room. I don’t know if I have ever seen a person that nervous in my life.
“Zi Tao.”