Due to the shock that dear Hye Joo could not bear, she fainted on the spot after 10-year-old Prince Kai proposed to her. As far as she could remember from the otome game, Prince Jongin did not propose to Lady Haerin willingly by himself but rather ordered his secretary to deliver the proposal to Lady Haerin —but what happened completely had made Hye Joo taken aback. She was worried that she might change the plot story for the worst and her execution had come closer. She could not sleep a blink later that night and prepared a plan.

“If I make Prince Jongin dislike me he would definitely refuse to have me as fiancé,”

“but, maybe in the worst case he would be offended and behead me,”

“let’s treat him nicely for the moment,”

“Yes! I’ll respect him for the moment that he would think twice before executing me. Then, the next time the heroine came into the light I will back off for good. He would not have any reason to dispose me by force then,” Hye Joo beamed at the idea and grinned from ear to ear.

It had been 5 months ever since the incident and Prince Jongin had not failed to deliver a bouquet of flowers every single day and came to visit once a week. While in the otome game prince basically ignored the existence of Lady Haerin on daily basis and only met her in formal events and did not bat an eyelid towards her –this version of Prince Jongin was surely not bad after all; but still Hye Joo could not help but feel agitated because as far as she knew Kim Jongin is unpredictable.

They both were having tea in the garden while enjoying some sweets that Prince Jongin had picked and bought personally on his way back from the trip to neighbor country.

“Will you accompany me to the royal ball the day after tomorrow?” Prince Jongin smiled but Hye Joo knew that he would not take no as an answer since it would be a nuisance for him to deal with the ladies in the ball. So, to escape that hell he would need a bait and shield –which was Lady Haerin, his fiancé.

“Sure, why not. I am best in chasing away ladies,” Hye Joo beamed at him and grinned as she imagined chasing away all the obnoxious and ignorant ladies that never cease to irritate her. For the past 5 months, they had grown closer and become friends although Hye Joo still grew suspicious of him sometimes.

In response, Prince Jongin face fell but soon recovered into a forced smile, “I could not be happier to hear that. I’ll see you at the ball then.” Prince Jongin excused himself and about to head off back to the palace.

“W-wait did I do something wrong to upset him,” Hye Joo got worried but shrugged it off, “or maybe he has some urgent business in the palace that he forgot.”

At the ball:

“My, what a tacky dress you have there, Lady Haerin,”

“You should take care of your image and appearance more, dear Lady Haerin”

“You are after all the heir’s fiancé,”

To Hye Joo, nothing was crossing in her mind except the urge to rip all the brats’ mouth for spouting haunting remarks and mocking words. Ever since she stepped her foot into the ballroom, she could sense the daggers and glares that had been thrown into her direction. It was from her former acquaintances– they felt extremely betrayed after the royalty announced Prince Jongin and Lady Haerin engagement since they had always promised to never make a move on him and kept distances from him.

In the otome game though, the acquaintances had become minions to the Lady Haerin and proceeded to take revenge on the heroine with the claim of Lady Haerin’s orders. That was why she was accused and killed brutally. Now, Hye Joo wondered the abnormality that lead the minions to rebel in early stage, wasn’t they supposed to side Lady Haerin and against the heroine?

“I feel like running away,” Hye Joo mumbled to herself while she aimlessly poked the cake with her fork. She was sitting alone on the farthest seat, away from the crowd to avoid the attention from the guests.

“May I sit here?” a very tall kid that was assumed to be older than Hye Joo grinned and took a seat across Hye Joo before she even managed to utter a response. Then, a bulb inside Hye Joo’s head lighten up, “oh my gosh. This is the knight! The big guy in the game,”

“May I ask why?”

“No reason, just bored.”

A pregnant pause, “okay, sure”

Then the tall kid beamed, “Oh hey! I’m Park Chanyeol. An aspiring knight that will protect his king! – you are the prince fiancé amirite?”

He, Park Chanyeol was the knight for the first prince and also a rival in the love relationship between Prince Jongin and the heroine. After spending a lot of time together with the heroine as the prince ordered him to protect her, Park Chanyeol fell in love with the heroine; and he extremely hate Lady Haerin for the assaults that she was accused with. There were lots of scenes where Park Chanyeol would threaten and blackmailed Lady Haerin personally, so Hye Joo was very scared and conscious of him.

“Hello?” Chanyeol snapped his fingers in front of Hye Joo and it turned out that she had been staring Chanyeol for so long as she recalled the memories and scenes from the otome game.

“I know that I am good-looking, but it will be bad if you fall for me – ya know? You are Jongin’s,” Chanyeol bragged while running his fingers through his brown locks.

Hye Joo just scoffed and laughed at him, “me, falling for you? Boy, what a dream you have there,” Chanyeol was shocked at her reaction and laughed along,

“You sure an interesting lady,”

“So I’ve been told.”

They chatted for awhile and shockingly found a similarity, which was the abundant love to sweets and snacks. It had been an hour since they both discussing which and what snacks and desserts was the best.

“As for chocolate, I really adore the one from Melun,”

“Yea, Melun’s and Friuer’s almost taste the same but I prefer dark-chocolate, so I’ll go with the one from Friuer’s”

“Tr-”

They were interrupted as the sound of angelic music blast through the entire ball room indicating that it was time for dance.

“You want to dance?” Chanyeol spontaneously asked her.

“I can’t dance,” Hye Joo snickered.

“Me neither,” Chanyeol grabbed her hands to the dance floor and held both of her arms. He then swung her around and laughed along. Hye Joo’s feet weren’t even touching the floor.

“Ahem!”

Someone clearing his throats stood between them and put his hand on top of Chanyeol’s shoulder – when Hye Joo turned her head, she wore a confused face towards the lad.

“I see that you have taken a liking towards my lady, Park Chanyeol”