"It's this dream again. Huge white room, a strange naked female body that is supposed to be me, wearing the same flower crown as before. What am I doing here? Why do I look like this?"

- Na Ri?

"A woman is calling my name... But it's not my name?"

- Excuse me?

- Na Ri, are you happy now?

- Who are you? And my name is not Na Ri, my name is Baek Yoo Na.

- It WAS your name.

I opened my eyes again and saw the room I was staying in. My head was aching so much, that it felt like it was going to explode.

"Ugh, it is probably because I did not eat much yesterday and had that weird dream again."

I looked at the clock on the wall to my right - it was 9 AM, I slept 3 hours longer than usual. Luckily, it was Sunday so I did not have to go to the training grounds and could just have some rest inside the palace. Since my stomach was still empty and already started eating itself, I went down to the kitchen to plead with Marion for some delicious breakfast. When I finally got there, I saw Raphael sitting at the central table, fidgeting with a spoon.

- Raphael, good morning! I did not expect to see you here.

He lifted his face and displayed a very disturbing view - his face was pale, dark circles under his eyes as if he was in the process of turning into a panda, his hair was greasy and floppy, his whole body was unusually compressed, I have never seen him so small and miserable before.

- What in the world had happened to you?!

He groaned miserably and wiped his face with his big hands.

- Black Flame appointed a new commander yesterday, so they invited me for a celebration. I already forgot that people can drink this much, I have already vomited 5 times before I came here and now I feel like I just want to wash all my inner organs with soap.

I remembered my first academy gathering back in Korea, we were all freshmen and wanted to get to know each other better over some drinks. We ended up staying in the bar till 5 AM, I think we chugged all the beer and soju they had there. Although I am pretty good at holding my liquor, the next morning I also felt like shoving my whole body into a washing machine.

- Ugh, poor Raphael, you have such a big build, I never could have thought that you could have a hangover this bad.

Raphael groaned again and slammed the spoon on the table.

- Don't laugh at me, miss Yoona, if I die today, His Majesty Prince Dorian will never make it through this war.

- What are you doing here anyway, shouldn't you be dying quietly in your room instead of sitting here, ruining everybody's mood?

The maids heard me say those words and giggled, throwing mocking glances in our direction. The knight pressed the spoon onto his forehead and sighed.

- I asked Marion to make me some soup but I guess he ran away instead.

"Come to think of it, my hangover soup was famous at my orphanage, even the guardians would sometimes ask me to cook some for them. Since Marion likes to learn new recipes, maybe he'll let me use his kitchen today?"

As soon as I thought about that, Marion entered the kitchen through the back door, carrying two boxes of meat, stacked one on the other.

- Marion, where the hell did you go?! I need you to make me some soup!

- Can't you see I'm busy here?! The breakfast time for the knights has already passed, go out and order whatever soup you want in a restaurant, preferably far away from here!

Marion dropped the boxes on the floor, turned around indicatively and started organizing the meat. I felt bad for Raphael, he looked so bad that I knew his state needed some attention, however, I knew that Marion was busy too, and since it was Sunday, his other cooks are probably out on the market trying to score good deals on fresh products.

"I guess I should try my luck."

- Marion, how are you doing today?

He threw a quick glance in my direction without stopping what he was doing.

- I am very busy, miss Yoona, if you are hungry as well, take this disaster of a knight and go look for food somewhere else.

- Uhm... I was wondering, can I maybe use your kitchen for a while? I don't really feel like going out and Raphael here is on the verge of dying, so I thought maybe I can cook some hangover soup for him? I have a special recipe which you might appreciate.

Raphael lifted his head again when he heard the word "hangover", Marion turned his whole body around to face me.

- Special hangover soup recipe? Hmm... Alright, what do you need?

- I need some beef, garlic, 4 onions, cabbage, soy sprouts, radish and your finest herbs and spices, please.

The cook brought the required ingredients and placed them on the cooking table in front of me. We did miss the bean paste and the fish sauce, but I figured that if I use the spices just right, the taste might turn out even better.

- So, this soup is called "Haejangguk", we usually make it to relieve hangovers where I come from. There are many variations of the recipe, but I'll teach you the one that can be cooked here as well.

Marion was very attentive during the whole process of cooking - he observed my every movement carefully, wrote down extensive notes and kept asking me questions like "why are you adding so much pepper?" or "maybe we should stir it up some more?". There were times when I wanted to slap him in the face with the ladle but I managed to fight my demons successfully.

One hour later, I revived Raphael with the streaming bowl of Haejangguk and, since I was still starving and Marion was simply curious, the three of us shared the soup together.

- Woooow, miss Yoona, this is not soup, this is a magic potion! I am already feeling so much better, I have never tasted anything like this in my life!

- It is indeed quite a recipe, are you sure you're okay with me using it in the future?

Marion smiled happily at me and I nodded my head.

- Is there more soup in that pot? I think I'll be completely cured with a second bowl.

Raphael winked at me and pour the remaining soup into his bowl. He gulped it almost immediately and let out a long relieved sigh.

I couldn't help but feel happy. The concealer and prince Luther yesterday, the soup and Raphael today, I could never imagine that something so simple that even I could do, could bring people so much joy. Knowing that I was abandoned even before I was even able to do anything, I lived my life always being wary of others, keeping my distance, being afraid of getting hurt, and even my dream to become a trainer did not have a great meaning behind it, I did not want to do it because I wanted to help people, I wanted to do it because I needed to prove to everyone else that I too can do something big.

"Funny how in the end, it turns out that you do not need to do something big to feel accomplished."

As a thank you for saving his life, Raphael insisted that he would walk me back to my room but I have already figured out that he had something he was curious about.

- Go on, what did you want to know?

He flinched and looked down with a guilty expression.

- How did you know I had something to ask you?

- Well, you have this particular look of a person that has something awkward they want to ask.

Raphael hesitated for a while and finally looked straight into my eyes, his face all red.

- The head butler said he saw a man leaving your room late at night yesterday... Who was it?

"Oh crap, he probably saw Luther... Was it even okay for him to be in my room that late? Ugh... I don't know, what should I say?"

- Uhm... Would you be very upset if I told you it was a secret?

The knight's expression indeed turned gloom, it almost made me think he was even disappointed. I waved my hands in front of him and shook my head, I did not want him to think that I am the kind of person to bring strange men into the prince's palace to do unspeakable things.

- Don't get me wrong, it was nothing like that! He is not a stranger or anything, he actually lives in the other palace, he is a friend of mine...

- You have a friend in another palace?!

"Geez, why is he so surprised?"

- What? Am I not allowed to?

Raphael widened his eyes but then relaxed his face again and smiled somewhat sadly.

- No, of course not... Anyway, the reason I asked is that I was worried, nothing else. If it was the person you knew well, then I guess I was worried for nothing. I will keep going then, I think I should have some more sleep.

He swiftly turned around and dashed away as if he was on his way to put out a fire.

"I think he really was jealous... Cute."

Since I did not really want to sleep and there was literally nothing to do in my room, I decided to go visit Luther and ask him some questions about the book he gave me. When I got to his library, the first thing I did was look at the tops of the shelves to expose his hiding positions. I walked around the library two times but he was nowhere to be found, I felt quite disappointed and a little bit annoyed.

- He told me he wouldn't hide anymore, so where the hell is he?!

- I'm here, of course.

I almost dropped enough bricks to build another library.

"He's gotta stop doing this."

I turned around ready to show off my extensive knowledge of curse words but fell completely silent instead as my dropped jaw prevented me from speaking. It was definitely Luther but this time his face was exposed completely, revealing his shining emerald eyes and beautiful kind smile. Not only that, but he also got himself a haircut! His black hair was now shorter, carefully styled to have some volume to it, with spiky bangs scattered in both directions as it was divided in the middle. His scar was no longer visible, he used the concealer just right himself, the only thing that gave the scar away was that crease above it which appeared every time he smiled.

- Prince Luther...

- What's wrong? Do I look weird now? I thought I covered the scar pretty well myself. Do you think my hair looks strange? I don't remember the last time I had my hair short like this, I told them to style it in the last fashion but I'm not really sure about the trends myself...

I was finally able to come back to my senses as the prince was mumbling about his trendy hair, I smiled brightly at him and put both thumbs up right in front of his face.

- You look amazing, Prince Luther, totally amazing!

I think my enthusiasm rubbed onto him pretty well, he took my hands in his, stared at me with a perplexed expression for some time, his face completely flushed, and then laughed happily. His face looked the most beautiful when he was happy, I thought he could even overshadow Dorian's looks if he was just a little bit more confident.

- To be honest, Prince Luther, you look beautiful even without that concealer, but if covering up the scar was all it took to see this happy smile of yours, then I'm glad you did it.

For a moment there, I felt as if I lost my balance. I closed my eyes and prepared for the fall, but it didn't happen. It took me a couple more seconds to finally realize what had just happened - Luther was hugging me.

I felt warm being held in his big arms even in that huge drafty library.

"How insecure and lonely must he have been to get so emotional from just a couple of kind words? I guess even having a family doesn't always mean you would feel happy and loved all the time. All he needed through all this time was a kind person to be next to him, a friend whose hand he could hold during hard times, someone to turn to, someone to rely on, I know exactly how it feels."

I pushed Luther gently away and looked into his eyes - he was crying.

- Prince Luther, I did not know you were such a softy! Come on, don't cry, you will smudge the concealer off.

I wanted to smile as brightly as I could so that the prince could feel better, but I myself was on the verge of crying. I did not remember the last time someone hugged me for any reason. I guess there were those times at the orphanage when the teacher Sun Ah would hug us for our birthdays but she left us when I was 13... I guess my last hug was when I was about that age.

"How strange... All it takes for us to go soft is to receive a little bit of kindness. I wonder if people who received a lot of love starting from their childhood feel the same happiness when they are being hugged again and again all the time."

I carefully wiped the tears from Luther's face and pet him on the head a little. He was still a bit bewildered, blushing either from crying or being embarrassed, but still looked beautiful as ever, as if those tears were just an act and he spent years working on the fake crying in front of the camera.

"I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how long I'll be staying... But Prince Luther, I hope you can find a friend in me, and I hope you won't feel offended by holding my hand."