The Other Side of the Mask

"Oh my, that's beautiful, girl. You are that girl, TianYu from the first day right?"

"Yes, your majesty."

Prince Fu glances our way and smiles. Wow, catching his attention. If I were supposed to make him like me, then I would care, but he's going to have to die, so I could care less.

\tI stare as each woman goes up, giving sweet words about their dish. I head up with my dish and the Prince takes a bite.

"Wow, amazing!" he exclaims.

Huh? XiaoLong? Where? … haha I guess I'm too tired since I stressed over cleaning up that mess SanXing did on TianYu.

\tThe Queen asks, "May I also try the tarte?"

"Of course, your majesty."

I head over to my kitchen. Originally I was going to have one tarte for the prince, one for TianYu, and one for me. Welp…

\tI serve my tarte to the Queen.

"My, this is amazing!"

She smiles in approval. I curtsy and thank her majesty. I head back and TianYu goes up.

"These are my madeleines, your majesty."

\t"Mmmm, these are amazing as well!"

TianYu smiles sheepishly, but doesn't cut in out of respect. I smile at her, as if I'm saying it's okay. She smiles back.

\tI glance over at SanXing. Her angry face was so satisfying… I snicker quietly in the corner, as she literally bit her handkerchief, glaring at Tianyu.

\tAt night, I meet up with XiaoLong on the roof.

"Hey, XiaoLong, I'm sorry about the troubles I made you do," I say, thoughtfully.

\t"Where's this coming from?"

"N-nothing… thanks for teaching me…"

\t"No problem, you're an amazing student."

I glance at his face, just like the first night. He wore a mask that covered half of it, but you could see the glimmering dark eyes that complemented his flowing black hair. His lips were a faint pink color and the background of beautiful stars; it was like a fairytale.

\tI turn away quickly, before he realizes that I was staring. M-maybe if this was another life, I would have married XiaoLong. He's so different from those snobbish nobles, yet still wealthy enough to be a high tier knight.

\tMy face turns red as I think about it. No! What am I thinking about?! I look back over at XiaoLong and our eyes meet. I turn away somewhat shyly. This is totally not me….

\t"D-do you want some madeleines?�� I try to change the topic, grabbing the madeleines out of my pocket.

"Sure"

I hand the bag over to him and munch on them.

\t"Did you make them?"

"Ah, no, my friend TianYu made them; I only helped her out."

\t"Really? Why did you help her out?"

"Ah, it's those nobles…"

"... you're different from other nobles… like they're usually really spoiled and mean. Even the royal family sort of is… no offense, please don't tell them."

\t"Well, you're different too, from all the other nobles...you're not spoiled... "

"A-uh yeah…"

I don't tell him that I'm a commoner. He listened on to my story, attentively until I finished.

\t"A-anyways, what practice should I do today?"

"Do you want to try jumping from roof to roof?"

\tI look at the roofs across the palace.

"Sure!"

\tHe helps me as we get from roof to roof. We run across each roof and have to jump and land onto the next one. After a full circle, we collapse on my roof.

\t"Ha- that was fun…" I say, out of breath.

"Yeah… say, QiLing, what's your purpose of being in the trials, since you're different from other nobles… did your parents force you or something?"

I gaze down at the roof, "It's for my parents."

I repeat it, "For my parents."

XiaoLong smiles at me, "What a nice daughter you are."

I smile sadly back at him.