If someone had told me that I would one day be kissing the third prince, the one everyone compared to a vicious fire, I would have thought that they were completely insane. Yet here I was with Wang Yo pushed up against a temple pillar by one hand and intensely kissing him as the rain continued to pour down beside us.

“Ahem.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat made me jump back in an instant and I quickly let go of Wang Yo’s wrist which I had earlier pinned against a pillar in the spur of the moment. The person who had interrupted us was wearing a royal robe and unless I was mistaken, he was trying his best not to laugh.

“Did you also come to pray, third brother?” he asked.

Another prince!

Wang Yo stepped in front of me and tauntingly smiled with the corner of his mouth. “You have chosen an auspicious day to visit the temple, Crown Prince. If you came today to pray for better health, I only hope that the heavens will see to it that your illness no longer troubles you.”

Oh, no… So he is the crown prince!

If word got out that I, an unwed and notoriously troublesome brat, had kissed the married third prince with whom I had no official romantic ties, I would already be at my execution and the only one who could put me there would be the crown prince unless he was willing to pretend he had not seen anything. Not everyone is as tolerant as the third prince and the crown prince certainly had no reason to show me mercy.

I did not realise that my hands were shaking but the crown prince had and to my surprise, he sent me a comforting smile. This made me regain my senses and I quickly bowed in his direction.

“Lady Yura greets the crown prince,” I said, trying my best to mask my worry. “I am Lady Yura of Chungju’s Yu clan."

“Yu?” the crown prince repeated before turning to Wang Yo with a brightened smile. “That explains a lot, third brother. I understand now – the two of you came to pray for a blessed marriage. You should have told me earlier rather than allowing me to find you in a comprising situation. I am happy for you.”

No! No! No!

The former hostility vanished from Wang Yo’s face and was replaced with amusement. “That is pleasing to hear, brother. Now that the rain has stopped, we can all be on our way.”

The third prince had neither confirmed nor denied the crown prince’s words and though he may have thought nothing of it, I felt that it was him protecting me once again. If only I could save him as many times as he had saved me.

I was embarrassed that the crown prince had misunderstood things and that he had even caught us in a moment that he should not have caught us in but more than anything else, I was extremely grateful! Even more so when he noticed that we had no mode of transportation and arranged a carriage to take both myself and Yo back to the palace. It was my first time seeing the crown prince and I found him very pleasant. With him as the future king of this nation, I would feel very comforted.

“Yura.”

Tearing my gaze away from the carriage window, I expectantly turned to Wang Yo who was sitting opposite me. My eyes inadvertently flickered down to his lips which I had felt just moments ago. Oh, gosh, did we really kiss? Why did we kiss? “Yes, Your Highness?”

“What are you thinking about?”

“You,” I answered a little too quickly. “I mean nothing! Yura is thinking of nothing, Your Highness.”

Wang Yo smiled. “You are being coy again.”

“You’re right,” I admitted before returning his smile with a meek one. “I have always wanted to live fearlessly as a girl without regrets but lately I have been doing so many things that I later come to regret. I feel like a foolish person who is fuelled only by anger and yet I like myself very much the way I am.”

“I understand. Though our struggles are very different, I feel that I can understand. You should know, Yura, I also like you very much just the way you are,” Wang Yo told me.

The third prince is truly such a good person. I can no longer understand why there was so much turmoil between us from the start. Perhaps it is the case that the