---

Chapter 2: “The Girl Who Dared to Look at a Monster”

*From the novel: Even Villains Fall in Love

---

The first time Yume saw Rikuya, he wasn’t wearing armor.

He wasn’t drenched in blood, or standing among soldiers, or praised by generals.

He was just a boy—barefoot in the garden, staring at a dead flower he refused to let go of.

She had been walking the palace paths alone that day, the moonlight painting silver trails over her sleeves. Her lady-in-waiting had dozed off during a poetry recital, so Yume—bored and restless—had slipped away like a wind not meant to be caged.

And there he was.

Silent. Still. A shadow among flowers.

> “You’re bleeding,” she said softly.

Rikuya didn’t even look up. “Then don’t look at me.”

Most people listened to that warning. But not her.

Instead, Yume knelt across from him, hands in her lap like folded wings. “You're Rikuya, aren’t you? The King’s… brother.”

His eyes finally flicked up—storm-gray and sharp as shattered glass. “Don’t say that word like it means anything.”

Yume tilted her head. “Why are you here, alone?”

He looked back at the flower. “Because monsters aren’t allowed inside the palace after dark.”

---

She didn’t flinch. Didn’t call him cruel names like the nobles did. Didn’t ask about the rumors—the battlefield deaths, the blood, the title “King’s Fang.”

She just sat there.

> “You speak like someone twice your age,” she said.

“And carry sadness like it’s stitched into your skin.”

He blinked, surprised.

She smiled faintly. “That’s not a bad thing.”

---

Rikuya had fought enemies who screamed, bled, begged, lied.

He had watched men die.

He had heard a thousand insults whispered through palace halls.

But no one had ever said that to him.

> That his sadness wasn’t shameful.

Something in him shifted. Just slightly. Like a rusted door creaking open.

“Who are you?” he asked finally.

“Yume,” she replied. “I’m here to learn court etiquette before they marry me off to someone I’ll probably hate.”

Rikuya blinked. She said it so casually.

“That’s… honest.”

She laughed. “Well, someone has to be.”

---

Before she left, she reached out and touched his bandaged hand.

“I don’t think you’re a monster,” she whispered.

“Just someone who was never given the chance to be a boy.”

Then she rose and walked into the moonlight.

Rikuya sat there, frozen.

> It wasn’t love. Not yet.

It was something worse: hope.

And for someone like him…

Hope was more dangerous than any blade.

---