It felt almost like a predator methodically herding prey or perhaps a deliberate, slow warning, if you carelessly run from me again, next time I will tighten around your throat even more leisurely, until you can barely breathe.

 

“So for your own safety… stay by my side. I swear on my master’s honor — I will protect you.”

 

“…You speak of protection, yet you unleash this kind of pressure on me. How am I supposed to trust and follow you?”

 

Theodore slowly withdrew his arm, one eyebrow lifting in faint, displeased amusement.

 

“I treat you with such respect, and yet all you do is tease me, then scheme to flee at every opportunity. Isn’t that terribly unfair?”

 

Unfair?

 

The one who had tormented her in every possible way for the past three months was him!

 

Deciding to swallow her anger for now and just get out of this space first, Renata shot to her feet — only to stagger violently.

 

She had completely forgotten, her legs were still trembling, strength long drained from hours of suppressed shivering.

 

As her body tilted and began to collapse, Theodore’s arms swiftly enclosed her, catching and steadying her falling frame.

 

Startled, she instinctively threw both arms around his neck to regain balance.

 

The sheer audacity of it — drawing such a firm line one moment, then clinging to him the next whenever she needed saving — irritated him deeply.

 

He lowered his head, fully intending to snap at her to stand on her own.

 

But unfortunately — or perhaps fortunately — the exact moment Renata lifted her face to murmur a shaky “thank you” aligned perfectly with the descent of his.

 

「…」

 

Soft, warm lips brushed against his.

 

A sweet, dizzying fragrance flooded his senses.

 

Theodore froze as though something inside him had shattered and locked.

 

Renata, too, went rigid. She recovered her senses a fraction of a second earlier. Flustered, she tried to jerk her head back, to put distance between them.

 

But in her panic, her arms — still wrapped tightly around his neck — instinctively pulled harder to keep herself from falling.

 

The more she tried to retreat, the more inevitably he followed.

 

Their mouths remained sealed together.

 

Worse still — because of the awkward angle of her leaning body, every small movement only seemed to press them more tightly, more intimately together.

 

She twisted her head sharply to the side.

 

“W-what are you—!”

 

Theodore’s large hand moved languidly. His fingertips slowly, deliberately glided over the back of her hand that still clung to the nape of his neck.

 

“First…”

 

His voice came out low, hoarse, almost a growl, “…let’s untangle this.”

 

He didn’t release her.

 

He didn’t step back.

 

Instead he simply held her there — chest to chest, breath mingling, lips still ghosting dangerously close —waiting for her to either push him away for real… or surrender to the pull neither of them could quite name yet.

 

Let me know if you’d like it dialed up even more, toned down slightly, or adjusted in any particular direction.

 

Realizing a beat too late what kind of enormous mistake she had just made, Renata practically jumped out of her skin and immediately released him.

 

“L-last time too, and now again— if you keep doing this…!”

 

“N-no! Both times were really accidents! I didn’t mean to—!”

 

“…Right.”

 

Surprisingly, Theodore accepted the excuse easily.

 

Too easily.

 

Even while he wore that dazed, half-broken expression… his big hands were still firmly locked around her waist. 

 

Not letting go. Not even thinking of letting go.

 

Renata, who had been secretly gauging whether she could run away, completely forgot her original escape plan and started frantically babbling to somehow fix the situation.

 

“Y-Your Highness, look… in reality neither of us suffered any real loss… so how about we just treat both incidents as coincidental accidents and… and decide they never happened? Hahaha…”

 

The prince who usually fired off smooth, silver-tongued excuses without even breathing — was now only quietly, motionlessly staring down at her.

 

The atmosphere instantly grew heavy. Somber.

 

It felt like attending a funeral.

 

…Probably my own funeral.

 

When even she finally ran out of words, the room sank into perfect, ringing silence.

 

Then.

 

“So.”

 

Theodore’s low voice finally shattered the suffocating quiet that had felt like it would last forever.

 

“Have you thought about how you’re going to compensate me?”

 

The moment he casually dragged up that day — the one she was desperately trying to erase from existence — her mind went blank.

 

She hurriedly dropped her gaze.

 

Because she had accidentally met his eyes.

 

And in them… was only her.

 

Nothing else.

 

Just her, endlessly, obsessively reflected in those normally languid, now strangely decadent, molten eyes.

 

The face she thought she knew so well had turned into something else entirely — something raw, stripped of every mask, every pretense.

 

Simply put…

 

He looked like a man drowning in desire.

 

“…What should I do?”

 

Her voice came out very small.

 

“You already know.”

 

His voice dropped even lower, sweeter, curling around her ears like velvet smoke.

 

“Exactly what I want.”

 

The deep, honey-slow timbre felt like it was stroking her eardrums.

 

Renata froze on the spot — like a sailor who heard the siren’s song and no longer remembered which way land was.

 

His hand slowly, deliberately tightened around her waist, drawing her infinitesimally closer.

 

And in that dazed, overheated moment, an absolutely insane thought flashed through her mind.

 

…Is it possible…

 

…that the reason he’s like this right now…

 

…has something to do with me?

 

Let me know if you want this part even more suffocatingly tense, a little softer, or if you want to push the mutual awareness / dangerous attraction feeling even further.

 

That ridiculous, secret suspicion she’d harbored before — the way he had so brazenly let his body respond right in front of her eyes last time… maybe, just maybe, he felt some inexplicable pull toward her too.

 

His approach was slow.

 

Deliberately slow.

 

Slow enough that she could have pushed him away with ease.

 

And yet she didn’t.

 

No — she didn’t want to.

 

But what exactly did he want? Surely not… what they’d just been talking about moments ago…?

 

No. No way. That can’t happen.

 

“Will you do it for me?”

 

As if deliberately recalling how much she hated his usual overbearing manner, Theodore deliberately gentled his hold — fingers loosening until they were barely cradling her waist, his voice turning low and coaxing, almost tender.

 

Renata’s head gave two tiny, helpless nods before she could stop it.

 

A soft, dark laugh rumbled out of him.

 

“Hah… With such a reliable ally suddenly on my side, all that’s left now is to raise a toast to victory.”

 

Renata squeezed her eyes shut so tightly stars burst behind her lids. Heat roared from her throat all the way to the tips of her ears, turning her crimson.

 

I’ve lost my mind.

 

She had to have lost her mind.

 

There was no other explanation for why she — she — would ever imagine that this debauched, rogue of a prince might actually want to touch her. Want her close. Want her.

 

It was all his fault.

 

All those times he wielded that unfairly angelic face like a weapon, deploying every honeyed glance and velvet word until resistance felt impossible.

 

And she — stupid, spellbound fool that she was — had just answered that she would follow him.

 

Even into treason.

 

“Since I’ve received such a pleasing compensation plan,” 

 

Theodore murmured above her bowed head, voice thick with genuine, almost boyish delight, 

 

“I suppose I should keep my end of the bargain too.”

 

Renata stood frozen, dazed, while his next words rained gently down on her like warm ash.

 

“We’ll have to prepare for the hunt. Suddenly there’s a mountain of work… which means our dear aide will be pulling some late nights.”

 

“You say that like it’s someone else’s problem,” 

 

She shot back, channeling every tangled, frantic emotion into sharp reproach. 

 

“You realize you’ll be there too, right?”

 

“Together all night?” 

 

His tone dipped into wicked, teasing silk. 

 

“My, my. You move fast, Renata.”

 

“Don’t—don’t phrase it like that!”

 

Her voice cracked with mortification.

 

“And get your hands off me!”

 

Stop making me picture things I shouldn’t be picturing.

 

His palms stayed exactly where they were — warm, steady, maddeningly gentle — as though he could feel every wild heartbeat she was trying to hide.

 

And maybe he could.

 

Maybe that was why the smile in his voice turned just a shade darker, a shade hungrier.

 

Let me know if you’d like the push-pull between them sharpened even more, the internal denial cracked open further, or the moment stretched into something slower and more dangerously intimate.

 

🫧

 

The following morning, Renata forced every tangled, feverish emotion from the night before deep into the darkest corner of her chest and stepped back into routine as though nothing had changed.

 

Had she truly decided — heart and soul — to devote herself to aiding the leader of a rebellion?

 

Of course not.

 

Her real plan was brutally simple. Pretend to join him. Play the loyal aide. Stick around only long enough to meet the Tower Master and secure a way out. Then vanish from this kingdom forever — together with my little sister.

 

With that cold, clear resolve locked behind her eyes, Renata gathered an armful of documents from the aide’s office and started down the long corridor toward Theodore’s chambers.

 

“Renata, the aide?”

 

She had been walking with her head bowed so low over the papers that she might as well have been reading the floor. 

 

The sudden sound of a low, resonant voice — warm and pleasing, like dark honey poured over velvet — made her snap her chin up.

 

Golden hair catching every stray beam of morning light like spun sunlight.

 

Eyes the exact startling blue of Theodore’s… yet somehow softer, brighter, framed by an almost tangible aura of effortless nobility.

 

Crown Prince Karlheinz.

 

Renata felt something inside her tilt — as though she had just stepped into the presence of a living masterpiece. 

 

A halo seemed to shimmer faintly behind his head; she half-expected to hear distant choirs.

 

“Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

 

She hurried forward, pulse suddenly racing for an entirely different reason.

 

“On your way to the office?”

 

“Yes, Your Highness.”

 

“Shall we walk together, then?”

 

He offered his arm with the same calm, gentlemanly smile that had launched a thousand secret sighs among the court ladies. The universal gesture. 

 

Place your hand here. Let me escort you.

 

For one dizzy heartbeat Renata almost obeyed — then Theodore’s warning from the night before sliced through the haze like cold steel.

 

“Just in case… it would be best to stay as far from my brother as possible.”

 

She swallowed hard.

 

Instead of slipping her fingers onto that offered sleeve, she thrust the thick stack of documents forward like a shield, shoulders lifting in an apologetic shrug.

 

Too many papers. Can’t possibly accept. Sorry.

 

But before she could voice the polite refusal, Karlheinz simply reached out, plucked the entire bundle from her arms with easy grace, and tucked it under his own.

 

“Oh—!”

 

Guilty. Deliciously guilty human being.

 

Manners and beauty like that? 

 

No wonder half the noble daughters in the capital nursed hopeless crushes in silence.

 

If only Theodore had inherited even half of this effortless kindness, this quiet decency…

 

How could someone so upright, so genuinely warm, be the one scheming in the shadows?

 

The contradiction refused to settle in her mind. Still — better safe than sorry. Caution cost nothing.

 

Renata dipped into the deepest, most respectful bow she could manage while still standing upright.

 

“Your Highness, please… I can carry my own documents—”

 

Her voice came out softer than intended, almost pleading.

 

He tilted his head slightly, studying her with those luminous eyes — not mocking, not pressing, just… quietly curious.

 

And somehow that gentle regard made her heart stutter worse than any of Theodore’s dark, hungry stares ever had.

 

Let me know if you’d like the contrast between the two brothers sharpened further, more of Renata’s inner turmoil pulled to the surface, or the subtle undercurrent of danger around Karlheinz leaned into more heavily.

 

Just as Renata was about to insist he return the documents—making it crystal clear that she neither needed nor wanted his kindness—Karlheinz simply turned and began walking ahead, as though the matter were already settled.

 

“Is Theodore inside?”

 

“Yes, Your Highness. He’s there.”

 

“…Theodore is actually in the office at this hour?”

 

“Yes, he is.”

 

A soft hum of surprise escaped the Crown Prince. 

 

“Hm. It seems having you around has made him unusually diligent. I’m truly grateful.”

 

Renata’s mind flickered darkly.

 

Two or three months ago, at this time of day, he would have already slipped out of the palace entirely—off to some salon, lounging among admirers, playing the perfect wastrel prince.

 

And now she knew the truth: every careless exit, every late-night absence, had been nothing more than exquisite misdirection. 

 

A mask worn to hide the slow, deliberate construction of his own downfall.

 

She couldn’t help but wonder—

 

What expression will cross the Crown Prince’s face when he finally learns it was all a lie?

 

Would another carefully buried version of himself emerge, the way Theodore’s had—raw, unguarded, dangerously real?

 

“You give me too much credit,” she murmured.

 

“No,” 

 

Karlheinz replied gently, turning just enough that sunlight caught the edges of his smile, turning it luminous, almost blinding in its warmth. 

 

“It’s no exaggeration. I mean it.”

 

The sincerity in his voice—soft, unguarded, like summer light spilling across stone—made Renata falter.

 

For a heartbeat she forgot every suspicion, every whispered warning.

 

She simply stared.

 

At the golden hair haloed by morning glow.

 

At eyes so startlingly blue they seemed to hold entire skies.

 

At the quiet, effortless grace that made the whole corridor feel suddenly smaller, warmer, safer.

 

She was still lost in that dazed appreciation when she noticed the tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth—like he was fighting back laughter at her obvious enchantment.

 

Heat flooded her cheeks.

 

Snapping back to herself, Renata lunged forward, snatched the stack of papers from his arms with more force than elegance, and spun on her heel to lead the way.

 

“This way, Your Highness!”

 

She knew—perfectly well—that Karlheinz, who had been born and raised within these walls, could navigate the palace blindfolded.

 

Yet she strode ahead anyway, claiming the role of guide, putting deliberate distance between them.

 

His outstretched arm dropped, empty.