Six

"What makes you think something's wrong? Everything is just fine."

"You seem good at quite a number of things but lying,not so much."

She had never really been good at lying. Apeke was the kind of girl whose thoughts you could read with her expressions. She was never able to school her expressions. She felt guilty when she lied and that was always obvious to tell.

She thought it might have to do with the story her mother told her when she was younger. Her mother made her believe that the goddess punishes children who lie by making them dissapear,never to be seen again. She was older now,she knew the tale was false but it had become an habit.

"So are you going to tell me?"

Should she? She wasn't really sure how he'd react. Would he run to the hills or stay and help? She was just going to have to take a gamble.

"The head queen wants me to marry her son."

"The crown prince?"

"Yes"

"Oh."

Was that all he was going to say?Oh? She felt like her freedom to literally breathe was going to be taken away from her and all he could say was, oh? Her life was about to change drastically

"I don't get it. Shouldn't you be happy though? You'd be queen, right? Most people only dream of this. So,why aren't you happy to be among the few who get to live the dream of many?"

"Well,in case you haven't noticed I'm not everyone. I don't want to marry someone that looks like he's always in a scowling competition . He bearly ever smiles."

"He smiled at you though."Micheal reminded her.

"He smirked ,he didn't smile .He looked like he was amused at my audacity."

"Yeah that was funny by the way."

Funny?It wasn't supposed to be funny .She thought it was how dancers looked when they were trying to seduce . Wasn't it?

"Funny? It wasn't supposed to be funny." What was he saying? It must only be his perspective. She had aced that dance! She had even gotten a reaction from the crown prince,that was enough.

"What was it supposed to be?"

"Seduction, obviously."

"Are you sure? It looked more like comedy to me."

"You're impossible!" She tried walking away from him but he stopped her. He hugged her from behind,carried her and carefully placed her on the ground.

"What are you doing?"

They were so close. She could feel his breath on her. She could clearly see his handsome features. She couldn't stop looking at his brown eyes. They were so beautiful.

The spell was broken when he started to tickle her.

"Mike,please stop."

"Mike,huh?" He said smirking at her and she realized that she had called him that like they were that familiar when we had just met. What if he didn't like it?

"I'm sorry Michael."

"Sorry for what? Aren't you going to call me Mike?" He whispered into her ears and she smiled,blushing.

"You look so beautiful when you smile."