When Lei is discharged from the royal ward after three days, the very first thing she does is check the news. Dr. Suh didn’t allow her access to any form of online media because she was under the spell that it would make her “more” stressed, so Lei has to scroll through mass number of articles before she can start from the beginning—from what happened after the fire. She expects her picture plastered as the main photo of several articles, but to her surprise, there are none. Not even a single one.

Lucas and Lei: Power Couple?

Of course, there’s one of those articles. From the day of the fire, there’s several articles of her and her Lucas. Walking into the library. Him reaching up to a high bookshelf, his shirt riding up. Her smiling at a book, him smiling at her. For a second, Lei wonders about their possibilities of their futures. Lucas, as terrible as he is, is still her mother’s favorite. Well, he’s nearly everyone’s favorite as long as they don’t know about how easy he is to buy. But still, in the world of royals, love isn’t an important aspect to chase in partners. It’s money and success always. Which is why maybe Lucas isn’t a bad bet. He does like some of the same stuff as she does, like… Nothing comes to mind, and she scrolls past those articles.

“Princess Lei is limiting the amount of public appearance she makes,” says her brother, Prince Kai.

Lei’s lip curls upward in confusion as she taps on the article headline.

Princess Lei Kim, daughter of Queen Ara Kim and sister to Prince Kai Kim, has reportedly decided to limit any personal public appearance she makes. “My dear sister is almost 18,” Prince Kai says, “and that comes with a lot of responsibilities. To prepare for her new roles when she turns 18, she’s going to take a break from the media to focus on preparing to enter international diplomacy.”

She gasps at how profound the lie is. It’s a fact that her mother didn’t allow her to pursue a higher form of education after high school, stating that she didn’t need it for her future “role” in “international diplomacy.” The next thing she needs to focus on, apparently, is grooming herself in artistic fields to stand as a figure of cultural aspects—and to attract a man. How dare Kai twist the truth?

“If you keep frowning like that, a bad wind will blow and your face won’t revert back.”

Lei snaps her head upward, recognizing that cool voice. “Ren?” She runs out of her seat at the dining table and into their arms. Ren is one of the only people in the world that can change her mood within seconds. “What are you doing here?” Taking a step back, she glances at their figure, noticing how they seem paler than the last time. “I thought you went to Greenland.”

“I did,” they reply, tucking their black hair behind their ears. “But I’m back for a day. Call it missing you.” They crack a smile, and Lei grins. “You look tanner, Lei. Hitting the beach more often?”

“I wish.” Lei rolls her eyes, pulling Ren to the dining table. Breakfast has yet to be served, so the table is barren. “My brother’s confining me to this place to watch over Baekhyun, prince of Yosul.” Ren’s eyebrows raise. “Right? It’s total nonsense. He just wants to torture me.” She plays around with the fork set aside for her, twisting it around her fingers. “And oh my, god, there was a fire, and Lucas left me in it.”

“Lucas did that?” they exclaim. “What breed of is he?”

Lei giggles at the well-crafted yet simple insult. “The worst kind, apparently. I still can’t believe I kissed him out of all people.” She shivers, exaggerating her disgust. “My first kiss. And it’s with someone I hate.”

“I told you. You should have kissed that girl you met in Italy.”

“But I don’t listen,” adds Lei.

“You really don’t.”

“I’ll kiss the next girl I find attractive then, how about that?”

“You know,” Ren chuckles like they’ve heard this before, “I came back, expecting stories of how you’ve managed to make your brother’s life hell, but it seems like I won’t be getting any of that. Just average teen angst, I guess.”

“This isn’t teen angst!” Lei scoffs. “This is real life.”

“You’re almost 18, Lei.” Ren shakes their head. “You’re supposed to be acting a lot more mature than you are now. Yet, I find it funny that you’re whining about kissing Lucas, allowing yourself to be left in fires by boys who don’t care, and now you’re arguing about how none of that is teen angst.”

“Of course,” she mutters, “one of my best friends wants to tease me too. I never get what I want.”

“Hey.” They touch her hand, the back of it. “Don’t be dramatic. You do get what you want. But you have to have some losses too.”

“I wish it was like that, Ren. I wish it was only some losses and not a lot.” Lei wrinkles her nose and looks into their eyes and flawless face. “Let’s not talk about this. How was Greenland? Did you learn a lot? Meet a lot of new people?”

“Somewhat.” Ren shrugs their narrow shoulders. “I’m not a fan of learning about the colder climates. I want to go back to New York. They had the best autumns.” They look around as if they were afraid of being heard. “And between you and me, the winter in New York is a lot prettier too.”

“I wish I could go. It sounds like paradise.” Lei sighs, leaning back in her chair. As a child, she loved to travel and explore new places, but as she gets older, the more she isn’t allowed to do what she wants. “But it’s terrible, Ren. My mom doesn’t let me do anything—especially after with what happened with my dad.” Ren, who had been spinning the ring on his index finger, shoots her a glance. “I know,” Lei mutters, “that we’re not supposed to talk about it, but it’s hard not to when it takes up so much of my life.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Just,” she shakes her head, “keep talking about something else.”

“Okay,” Ren accepts the challenge, “why don’t you tell me about your birthday party. Any plans?”

“Oh,” Lei beams, happy to be discussing something that made her feel good, “we’re hosting it here. In the castle! Wendy promised she’d try to bring in Maroon 5 for me.” Ren’s eyes widen. “Right? If I get them to play me happy birthday, I wouldn’t mind if that was my last birthday.” She giggles, kicking her feet under the table. “The theme is masquerade, so there’s going to be a lot of masks involved. Remember Venice? When we went there during Carnival? It’s going to be exactly like that.”

“I can’t believe you’d still remember something like that. It was years ago.” Ren cracks another smile and leans over to nudge her playfully. “Maybe we should continue on with our plans. Move to Venice. Europe. And just forget about everything.”

“I wish!” Lei exclaims in glee. “God, you know how great that’d be? If only I wasn’t a princess and you weren’t the duke.”

“Don’t mention titles. You know I hate them,” Ren reminds her. A train of thought passes on their features, twisting the beauty upon their face. “Speaking of which, your mother was drunk when she was talking about marrying you off to Lucas, right?”

“Oh.” Lei wants to vomit at the sound of marriage. “I hope she was drunk. I can’t stand Lucas at the moment. He was bad before, but now he’s worse.”

“You should just run away with me.” Ren winces. “Let’s go to Bali. You’ll never have to live with an Internet connection there—or titles of any sort. Better yet, Lucas won’t be there. Oh! And your brother won’t be either.”

“Ren, you’re making it hard for me to act like a princess.” Lei closes her eyes and leans her head back on the chair.

“Since when did I ever make it easy for you anyways?”

“That’s true.” She opens one eye and sees them smiling at her. “Are you staying for breakfast by any chance? You came very early.”

“Unfortunately, no.” Ren glances at their watch. “Flights and time zones are out to kill me. I’m going to head back to my hotel in a few minutes. I need my rest.” They stand up and Lei follows suit. “You’ll be okay, won’t you? You’re Lei. You’ve done this before. Gotten through the worst of the worst.” They reach forward and her cheek. “I believe in you.”

“Thank you, Ren.” Lei smiles, but it’s a smile that she only wears on her lips and not in her heart. “I’ll see you around—sometime.”

“That you will.”

With that, Ren departs, leaving Lei feeling emptier than she did than before they had come. She’s not left unattended to her thoughts, however, because Kai soon arrive in time for the servants to start placing food on the table.

“Ren was just here,” Lei tells her brother. “They came back from Greenland.”

“That’s interesting,” Kai mumbles. When Lei peers in closer, she sees that his blink rate is fluttery, signaling how tired he is. It makes Lei’s stomach growl (but she’s not sure if it’s because she’s hungry or if it’s because she can’t stand him looking good while lacking sleep).

“You look terrible,” Lei notes. Baekhyun arrives and seats himself adjacent to Lei, but she disregards him. “What happened? Are you feeling guilty about what you’re doing to me?”

“Are you the reincarnation of Narcissus?” Kai glares at her before wincing and rubbing his temples. “No, I think I’m getting sick.”

Of yourself? Lei doesn’t say it.

“That ,” she says, picking a grape from a bowl. Before popping it in , she notices that there’s small flaws over it, making the skin look patchy. “Hey.” Baekhyun, in the middle of