The Prince’s First Love Was Me Chapter 19

The dish looked like a whole raw chicken sitting in green broth. The waiter explained that I could think of it as chicken stew boiled with medicinal herbs.

‘Is this something like samgyetang?’

Looks like I’ll be getting a nice boost of energy.

‘Could he have ordered this on purpose…?’

I cautiously raised my eyes. Aaron tilted his head as if to say, If you have something to say, go ahead.

In that case…

“Hmm?”

I deliberately made a coy little sound through my nose and pointed at the dish.

As if I knew exactly why he’d ordered it.

But Aaron merely avoided my gaze, looking as though he was wondering what was wrong with me this time.

‘Tsk. Guess not.’

Feeling embarrassed, I clicked my tongue and picked up my spoon.

As I did, I failed to notice Aaron hiding his smile behind the napkin covering his mouth.

“Ugh…”

I hesitantly scooped up a spoonful of broth.

Maybe it was the color, but it didn’t look particularly appetizing.

Still, remembering how proudly the waiter had described it, I finally took a taste.

‘Huh?’

My eyes suddenly flew open.

I couldn’t say it tasted exactly like samgyetang, but the familiar flavor on my tongue wasn’t all that different.

‘Now I see why this place is so famous. It’s worth every penny!’

I couldn’t stop marveling at the nostalgic taste. Then I abruptly set my spoon down.

“Wow. This broth is insane! I can feel my strength coming back with every bite. Look!”

I immediately rolled up my sleeve and flexed my arm.

Thanks to all the heavy kettles I’d been tilting and straightening every day, I was pretty confident in my right arm.

I twisted it this way and that to show off my bulging muscle to the two men. Just then, an arm with a muscle as big as my face casually appeared in front of me.

“Compliments of the house.”

The muscular man with the deep voice gently placed a beautifully arranged dish of stewed peaches on the table.

‘Why are there so many ridiculously muscular men in this country?’

Feeling thoroughly pathetic, I lowered my eyes and quietly rolled my sleeve back down.

Our utterly oblivious muscleman kindly offered to clear away the empty plates and continued swinging his massive arms around as he worked.

Somehow, our eyes met. The two men clenched their lips tightly and hurriedly turned toward the window.

“Is there something outside?”

At my question, both men shook their heads vigorously before going back to their meal.

“Um, Aaron.”

I stirred the broth and let out a long sigh.

“Hmm?”

“I mentioned this to Chris earlier, too, but I’d like to train with the other soldiers at the training grounds.”

After seeing that muscular man, I wanted to train my body even more.

I might never get as big as him, but at the very least, I didn’t want to look so weak and delicate next to everyone else.

“Do you want to become a knight?”

“No. I just want to be able to protect myself. I don’t want to become a weakness that someone could use against you, either.”

Aaron stared blankly for a moment, as if I’d caught him off guard. Then he let out a low laugh.

“Who’s worrying about whom?”

“I’m worried about you, Aaron. Don’t laugh. I mean, you can laugh, but don’t laugh at me. I’m being extremely serious right now, you know?”

When people of different social ranks dated, wasn’t it usually the lower-ranking person who got taken hostage?

To threaten or persuade someone of higher status.

If Aaron ever found himself in that situation, he could simply cut me off and insist I had nothing to do with him. But now that rumors were spreading that I was his lover, even that wouldn’t be easy.

It would expose the fact that our relationship had been an act all along.

So it was best to prepare for every possible situation.

“All right. I’ll introduce you to a suitable instructor soon.”

“Really?”

Things seemed to be going surprisingly smoothly. Of course, I’d never have received such a privilege if I weren’t Aaron’s lover.

Thinking about that made me feel guilty toward Paul all over again.

It felt as though I was enjoying things that should have been his.

After finishing every last drop in my bowl, I wiped my mouth with a napkin and absentmindedly glanced out the window.

Perhaps because it was mealtime, more and more people were passing by the restaurant.

Among them, I spotted a little girl carrying a small wooden board.

‘What’s she doing? Is she looking for someone to play with?’

The girl approached a group of children her age, waved the board, and pointed somewhere.

But the children, who had already paired up with one another, shook their heads with a coldness that was almost cruel.

The other groups did the same.

Every time she was rejected, the girl deliberately smiled even more brightly and walked away with a cheerful step.

If she’d cried or gotten angry like any other child, I might not have been so concerned. But something about that forced smile, the way she tried to swallow her sadness, made it impossible to look away.

‘I used to be like that, too.’

Images from my childhood flickered before my eyes. My parents had repeatedly ignored my whining pleas to play with them, and I’d eventually had to spend my time playing with dolls all by myself.

Even as I went outside to see the two men off, I kept an eye on the girl out of the corner of my eye.

I hoped she’d find a friend who got along with her.

“I’m off.”

“Have a safe trip!”

With half my attention still elsewhere, I hurriedly bowed the moment Aaron finished saying goodbye.

Then I stood there blankly, waiting for him to get into the carriage.

“Ronnie.”

“Yes?”

“Is that all you have to say?”

Aaron tilted his head at an angle, looking dissatisfied.

‘…What exactly would you like me to say?’

I stared at him in confusion.

“You should at least pretend you’re sad to see me go.”

Aaron leaned closer and whispered.

Only then did I notice people watching us from all around.

After quickly figuring out what was going on, I took a deep breath and immediately began wailing.

“Ohhh, no! Are you really leaving me like this? Just thinking about spending the night alone already breaks my heart! I’ll see you tomorrow, won’t I? I absolutely must! Otherwise, I’ll spend the entire day longing for you until I dieeeee!”

I squeezed out tears that weren’t there and dabbed at the corners of my eyes with my sleeve.

When I raised my head after that heartfelt performance, I saw Chris sighing and pressing a hand to his forehead.

‘What? Was that not what he wanted?’

Aaron had his eyes gently closed, as though he were trying to shut out reality.

“…You really don’t do anything halfway, do you?”

His voice was full of sighs, but there was a smile at the corners of his mouth.

Whether I’d gotten it right or not, as long as Aaron was enjoying himself, that was good enough for me.

After seeing the two men off with a bit of a scene, I immediately turned around and went looking for the little girl.

‘Where did she go?’

Finding a small child in the middle of a surging crowd was no easy task.

I was circling around the fountain in the center of the plaza when I happened to spot her crouching on the steps outside a bank.

She’d propped the little board she’d been carrying upright in front of her and was playing marbles all by herself.

Without even introducing myself, I went straight over and plopped myself down beside her.

“What’s this? It looks fun. Can I play, too?”

The girl was wary of a stranger, but she couldn’t quite hide her excitement, either.

Gradually, a spark of life returned to her big eyes as she struggled to decide what to do.

“How do you play? Teach me, and I’ll give it a try. Let’s have a match!”

“You just put it down on the ground like this and flick it, wheee!”

At the word match, the girl’s guard dropped. She excitedly explained the rules to me.

She must have been lonelier on her own than she was afraid of strangers. After all, she’d let her guard down and warmed up to me so quickly.

I deliberately missed my shots over and over to keep our scores close, raising my voice each time.

“Huh? What the heck! Does this thing have legs? Where’s it going?!”

I threw in some exaggerated reactions for good measure.

The girl seemed to find my antics hilarious. She giggled so hard she could barely breathe and kept offering me more chances to play.

Apparently, our little game had caught the other children’s attention.

By the time I came to my senses, we were surrounded by a circle of kids.

“I want to try, too!”

“Me, too!”

One by one, more children volunteered to join.

The girl readily handed out some of the marbles from her own pocket.

Before long, the children were chattering excitedly like a flock of birds, quickly becoming friends and taking turns competing against one another.

I watched from a little distance away. Once the little girl was so caught up in the game that she no longer paid any attention to me, I quietly slipped away from the group.

When it came down to it, the secret to happiness was simplicity, without overthinking or measuring everything.

Just as I turned away with a satisfied smile, a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Ronnie?”

I turned toward the sound and saw Paul approaching, waving happily with a broad smile.

“Paul! Fancy running into you here!”

I’d told Paul my real name on the way home after finishing the contract with Aaron.

Though, technically, Ronnie wasn’t my real name, either.

I hadn’t had much free time since then, so we hadn’t been able to meet. And now, here we were, running into each other in the middle of the street.

See? It pays to do good deeds. Good luck comes your way!

My cheeks twitched into a grin all on their own.

“What brings you here?”

“I had something to do at the bank on my way home after my shift.”

“Ohhh, you work on Saturdays, too? You’ve got it rough.”

What a hardworking boy.

I patted Paul on the head as if he were my little brother.

I’d never actually had a younger brother, and Paul was a whole head taller than me, but I was so proud of how hard he worked that I wanted to praise him, even if I had to stand on tiptoe to do it.

But then—

“So that’s why you were in such a hurry to send me away.”

A chilly voice rang out beside my ear.

‘No way. That can’t be it. I already saw Aaron off earlier. It definitely can’t be him, so why… why does that voice sound so familiar?’

An ominous feeling slowly crept up behind me.

I couldn’t bring myself to turn around, so Paul checked who it was for me and hurriedly bowed his head.

As a result, my hand—which had been enjoying a life of luxury atop Paul’s head—dropped limply to my side.

‘Wow. What a twist of fate. How did things get so tangled up again?’

Anyone watching would think I’d sent Aaron away just so I could spend some sweet, private time with Paul.