With a calm heartbeat and quiet footsteps, Andrea approached her prey. Stopping just a few feet away and hiding behind a tree, she fetched an arrow from her back, armed it into place, held the bow up, and positioned herself.

  She breathed in. Breathed out.

  “Thank you, Mother Nature, for giving me such an adequate dinner tonight.”

  Then she turned and released the arrow, watching it shoot through the air and right into the sprinting deer’s heart.

  As the deer fell to the mossy ground, Andrea let go of the breath she had been holding, and walked toward the lifeless animal while pulling out the small pocket knife from her waist.

  “So, what do we have today?” The bulky man behind the counter’s face broke into a polite smile when he saw her walk into the shack. He eyed the big sack on Andrea’s shoulder and chuckled. “I see it’s something bigger than a rabbit this time.”

  “It is, Bob,” she said as she sat down on a stool, dropped the sack onto the counter, and smiled. “Today I was lucky enough to catch a deer.”

  Bob looked surprised. “A – “ he turned his voice down into a whisper, “ – deer?” He glanced around to see if anyone was eavesdropping on their conversation before turning back to her. “Bless this world, how old are you again, Andrea?” Chuckling, he put a hand on the sack. “Even 40-year-old Charles can’t grab a chicken, but here a 17-year-old girl is giving me a deer she hunted herself. Incredible.”

  “…Thank you.”

  Bob was one of the few who treated her so… nice. Despite her strange appearances, awkward social skills and unsettling background, Bob still talked to her as if she were a friend.

  As if she didn’t suddenly appear in the village one year ago, only to be known as the daughter of the most respected hunter in this village.

  His daughter that he had hidden for 16 years.

  “So,” Bob turned back around after giving a customer his cup of beer. “What do you want today? The same?”

  Andrea hesitated. “Bob… are you really sure? I mean, what if you get caught and the guards assume it’s you who hunted – “

  “Please, Andrea.” He smiled a reassuring but slightly reluctant smile. “You have a good reason for going against the law every day. Can’t let a girl starve, eh? And it would be a pity seeing someone as pretty as you begging on the streets. Moreover, Rick had saved me and helped me so many times. This is all I can do to repay him.”

  The door to the shack opened again when Andrea was casually sipping her drink, sitting behind the counter and watching the customers chat and laugh with each other.

  If only I could have some friends, too, she thought to herself.

  Well, she had Lucas.

  Ah, but Lucas also had his own other group of friends, friends from his school. She… other than Bob, his wife, Bethany, and Lucas, she had no other friend. She knew it was just because she was considered new to the village. After all, to everyone, she had been isolated from this world for 16 years.

  Well, maybe add the fact that she had natural curly black hair that strangely shined brown in the sunlight. And maybe the fact that her eyes were the color of violet, an abnormal, unique color. Oh, and maybe even because her father used to hunt for a living, which was violating the law?

  Okay, so maybe it was reasonable why she wasn’t surrounded by friends of her own.

  After she had given Bob the deer and emptied the sack, she hid her bow and arrows underneath her dress that she had changed into after hunting, for fear some random customer would find them and expose her to a guard. But first, if the guard would believe that a teenage girl could hunt, of course.

  She was just finished tucking the weapons safely and straightening herself when she noticed the hooded figure walking toward the direction of the counter. By looking at the way he moved, Andrea could be sure he was a male. But his face was hidden well… until he stopped right in front of Andrea, with only the wooden counter between them.

  “Pardon me.”

  His voice was all it took to draw Andrea’s whole attention. It was deep and like a melody at the same time, a voice that made her think of that one person she once heard speaking with a voice so alike. But it couldn’t be, she thought to herself. It couldn’t even possibly be him, right?

  When the person took off his hood, it took Andrea less than half a second to acknowledge him.

  And another half to tell herself that she had guessed right.

  “Pardon me?” He said again, this time more clearer, and those two words rang in her ears like a church bell, gonging through her whole body and reaching the deepest part of her heart. She then realized that he had repeated himself because she was staring at him, instead of replying him. Which was very rude, considering who he was. Who would be in her right mind to be rude to the prince?

  Ah, yes, the prince.

  Byun Baekhyun, the prince whom every single female in the village secretly (obviously) wanted to marry, was standing right in front of Andrea, head tilted and waiting for her to make a fool of herself and respond.

  “Your highness!” She finally found her voice, and squeaked. “I-I mean, forgive me, your highness, I was… I wasn’t – “

  A chuckle escaped from Baekhyun’s lips, and he himself looked a little embarrassed, too. “No, I should have warned you before revealing myself like that all of a sudden. My apologies.”

  The prince was here. In the village. In The Shabby Shack, Bob’s ‘second wife.’ Not in his palace, where she assumed he always was in. Not having a cup of tea with royalties from other places of the world.

  Apologizing to her for her impolite staring.

  “Are you the owner of this place?” Baekhyun eyed Andrea for a good minute before asking. “Because I see you are… in the position of where owners tend to stand and watch over his business?”

  “I-I’m afraid not, your highness.” Andrea smiled weakly, the muscles of her face still not recovering from the previous shock. “Bob Brighten is, but he is currently running an errand. I am simply here to take his place temporary, until he comes back.”

  “Oh.” Somehow looking relieved, Baekhyun took a seat at the counter. “I’ll just wait for him then.” He flashed the same smile that Andrea had once been mesmerized by, a smile that always made the girls in the village go crazy for whenever they came back home from sneaking glances at the prince from the palace windows.

  Andrea told herself that she had no interest in this boy. The 18-year-old prince, who was charming, intelligent, kind and well-mannered, was crushed on by almost every girl in the whole village. As in, almost every girl wanted to marry him, and of course, become queen. Two birds with one stone. Andrea didn’t want to be like them.

  But gosh, Baekhyun was just the human definition of ‘perfection’, and it was extremely hard to not be interested in him.

  As he waited at the counter, Andrea secretly observed him. His beautiful, perfect jawline, his light brown curls, his clear, brown eyes, his –

  She almost stopped breathing when Baekhyun suddenly cut his gaze straight to her, catching her staring at him and locking gaze with her.

  He prompted himself up a little. “If you are not the owner of this shack,” he questioned, “what do you do for a living? Work at a workshop like all the other teenagers? I do not recall seeing you before.”

  A wave of panic surged through her, but she didn’t show it. “I…” hunt. “Babysit.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Babysit?”

  Andrea nodded, trying to sound perfectly unsuspicious and innocent. “Children… in the village need to be taken care of when their parents are out for work.”

  She wasn’t completely lying, though. Sometimes, after trading at The Shabby Shack, she would play with the children in the back, the children who all seemed to take a liking in her. Their parents were busy drinking and gambling, so that could count as babysitting, right?

  “Ah, I see,” Baekhyun said, though not taking his eyes off her.

  “What,” Andrea teased, trying to ease the sudden tense atmosphere. “Does someone in the palace require some babysitting, your highness?”

  Amusement twinkled in his eyes, as he tried to suppress the smile threatening the corners of his mouth. “No…” he cleared his throat, regaining his former gentleman self.

“Then what wind blew you to here?” She asked out of curiosity.

Baekhyun moistured his lips with his tongue before replying carefully. “I… came for investigation.”

  Andrea’s heart stopped for a second. “In… vestigation?”

  She was responded with the prince’s sudden leaning forward, causing her to forget to breathe as she stared into those rich chocolate, deep eyes with a hint of mischief in. “It involves national security, actually.”

  His low, husky voice made her heartbeat accelerate, and she gulped. “National security…?”

  After seeing Andrea’s reaction, Baekhyun chuckled and leaned back. “Forgive me, I was just joking. Can’t I leave the palace for a while to check up on how the people of my uncle’s country are doing?”

  “O-of course!” Mentally, Andrea breathed a sigh of relief. “I-I mean, you’re the prince. Of course you can do anything you want to – “

  “Maybe not everything…”

  “… your highness?”

  Baekhyun snapped his gaze away from the floor back to Andrea and smiled. “My apologies.” She waited for him to explain his sudden look of sadness, but he didn’t. So she cleared .

  “S-so, um, what is the real purpose of your visiting to this place, your highness?”

  As if he suddenly remembered what he was doing here, the prince pulled his cloak’s hood over his head and tightened his grip on it. “Is there a fellow, Rick Archer, around here?”

  Memories started flooding into Andrea’s head again, along with the feeling of loss and grief as she stiffened at the name. “He… Rick Archer…” she took a deep breath. “He passed away a few months ago.”

  “What?” The prince’s sudden exclaim startled the both of them. “He has already passed away?”

  Why does he look so surprised? Andrea nodded slowly.

  If royalties could publicly swear, Baekhyun looked like he had done so already just by looking at his face. “Then… then – “

  “He is my father.” Gasping and taking in the shocked look on the prince’s face, Andrea covered with her hands. “P-please forgive me, your highness, I had no intention to interrupt…”

  “No, no, it’s okay.” Baekhyun flashed a reassuring smile, and it made Andrea’s stomach do weird flips. “But… correct me if I heard you wrong… you are Mr. Archer’s… daughter?”

  “Yes, your highness.”

  Bending forward again until their faces were only inches apart, Baekhyun lowered his voice into a whisper after erasing the unbelief look on his face. “If you are his daughter… then are you aware of your father’s… doing of living?”

  Andrea could literally feel her bow and arrows pulsing underneath her skirt. “My father’s… job?”

  She was responded with a simple nod and a never-leaving, intense gaze. After a millisecond of hesitation, she shook her head. “I have no idea what my father used to do for a living.”

  The silence that hung in the air for a minute seemed like a year, and it was suffocating Andrea. Finally, Baekhyun’s swooning voice appeared again. “No?”

  “He always set off before dawn and came back only after the night had fallen. Other than the bow and arrows, he takes nothing with him.”

  “But you must have once guessed,” Baekhyun insisted. “That he was a hunter.”

  Andrea pushed her shaking hands deeper in her lap. “Y-yes. But he never confirmed,” she quickly defended. “Father never told me, and I never went to school in the village so – “

  “Never?” Baekhyun let out a small gasp of surprise. “You have never accepted education before?”

  Even if I once did, I can’t remember, she thought. “Your highness, I – “

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Author's Note: Boring chapter one, I know TAT. The first few chapters might be a little boring coz it's explaining stuff and... stuff LOL. BUT I WILL TRY HARDER TO MAKE IT THRILLING. YAY.

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