In life, she always had a question lingering at the back of her mind no matter what she did. She always wondered what life would be like to always be with the one she loved, to always be by his side no matter what.

Love found her one day, when a young man was introduced to her as her fiancé. At first, she refused, thinking that love could not be attained in this way. She had always imagined that falling in love was instantaneous and magical, as though it would be impossible to fall in love if one missed that single, fleeting moment. But falling in love was a mundane thing, as mundane as waking up was to many, and going through the motions of daily living. Besides, falling in love never meant that one had to see sparks all the time. Those were reserved for special occasions.

“You will marry him and you will bear us a grandson, Victoria,” her father admonished. “You will listen to me and do as I say. What use is love in this world if it does nothing but feed fantasies? We are humans, and we need food, not fantasies, to sustain us.”

Saying was, as always, easier than doing. She’d heard that her mother had grown to love her father over the years that they had been together. But she didn’t believe it. She believed that love could always be seen in a person’s eyes, and that when in love, one would never be at opposing ends with the other party. To her, love meant that everything was perfect.

But perfection had no place in this imperfect world. Any inch of perfection would be gazed upon with contempt as much as imperfection was.

Victoria cried herself to sleep the night before her wedding, holding her pillow close to her chest. She had tried, she had tried so hard to go around it, perhaps even hoping to cancel it—but to no avail. Her parents were dead-set with their intentions of making them tie their knot together.

~°~

The red veil was draped over her face, blinding her and filling her vision completely with one blinding colour—red. It made her miserable. Red was supposed to be the colour of celebrations, the colour of joy. But today, red was the colour of her suffering and .

‘And it will forever be,’ she thought glumly as she nervously clutched the fabric of her skirt. She had been waiting alone for the past few minutes after her servants had left her.

Victoria had just blindly—literally—gone through her wedding ceremony. Not once had she seen the groom today, but then, that was an understatement as she hadn’t seen anything but the floor and her feet through the veil. She felt like she was being shipped off and sold to slavery.

A hand wrapped itself around her tense fist, causing her whole body to tense. “Shh,” she heard, as a hand gently patted her hair. Now, she was afraid.

“Victoria, why are you so afraid?” he asked, placing both hands over her tense ones.

She whimpered reflexively, and trembled. Suddenly, the veil was lifted, revealing the sickeningly red room. Everything in the room was decorated red, blindingly red.

Tears formed in her eyes as fear, hate and anger came together in her as she stared into the eyes of this stranger in front of her. But between the three, the biggest one was fear. There was nothing she could do but finally admit to herself that she was afraid. So very afraid. She had heard many stories from other women, others who have gotten married earlier than her, about the horrors that they had experienced.

Arranged marriages weren’t easy, but in a society where women were pretty much commodities, arranged marriages were absolutely terrifying. Some of the stories that she had heard were absolutely scarring, and somehow, they slowly wriggled their way into her heart, eating her up.

“You know, if I were you, I’d go change out of those stiff clothes. They’re pretty when you wear them, but something tells me that they’re not the most comfortable things to sleep in,” he suggested gently. “You go. Today was supposed to be a day for you to enjoy, but it seems...you didn’t get to enjoy it at all. And because of that, I’m sorry.”

He sighed, and quietly slipped out of the room, leaving her alone. Now that the veil was lifted, although the room was just as obnoxiously red, she felt different. And those words that he had said, they oddly made her feel like she mattered. His actions drove them further in.

~°~

Hangeng’s gentle nature easily won over Victoria’s trust, but not so her affection.  It took quite some time before Victoria understood that love was something that needed to be nurtured, and that love does not begin in an instant. It was difficult, because she had created so many things, many idle imaginings that she hoped would come true when she met the one for her.

The process was long, with many jabs at their relationship from outside, especially from their families that wanted them to legitimately begin their journey as a family by having their first child. But, as they say, patience is a virtue, and eventually, they had a son. And, they lived happily ever after. But then of course, they had a few bumps along the road every now and then just like every other family.

A/N: I know this sounds pretty far from the prompt at the moment, but bear with me. This is like the prologue of it. :)