Chapter 42 (1/2)

Even though he vowed that he would push ahead to protect her as she was so important to him, he found himself trying to read her mind when he sat face to face with her.

He didn’t want to do anything that would put her at risk. He wanted to do as she wanted him to do. Despite his endless longing for her, she wanted to devote her heart to the Crown Prince.

If that was the case, he understood her refusal to see him, but he was wrong.

While gasping for breath, she turned her head towards him, looking up at him with clear eyes. When she looked at him directly, his eyes were opened wide with surprise.

“I ….”

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Though she tried to avoid his eyes, her eyes met his. It seemed that she could not turn away from him forever.

“I….”

Looking at him, she barely opened her mouth.

“I don’t feel hot no matter how high my fever goes up.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, looking at her eyes.

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Her eyes were red. He couldn’t figure out if it was her fever or her tears or both that caused it.

When her eyes met his, tears fell quickly. The reason she didn’t want to see him all along was that she was fighting back tears.

Her eyes looked sad. He thought he only felt sad as he was ignored, but obviously, she felt sad when she ignored him. Her sadness made his heart break all the more.

The moment he was thrilled to confirm her feelings about him, she opened her mouth again.

“I feel cold. No matter how much silk I cover myself with, no matter how much fever I have, even if I jump into a fire, I am still cold.”

While she continued to speak in a feeble voice, he just waited silently for her to finish. He didn’t cut in while she was speaking.

“When I lived in the Hwa Kingdom, I didn’t feel cold at all. Little did I think I could experience things that would make me feel cold when I came here, but I’m cold now. I’m shivering with extreme cold now.”

He could guess what she meant by ‘cold,’ and he was confident that he could protect her from that kind of ‘cold.’

“I can…” he said finally while listening to her tearful appeal. He cautiously held her hand, sitting on the bed. His voice was calm but passionate. It was soft but strong enough for her to jump into his arms and leave everything to him.

“Crown Princess, oh, I can make you feel warm,” he said firmly.

“Did you say you would make me feel warm?”

But she gave him a vain smile. In some respects, her smile was sad and troubling.

“How can you say that to me? How can you make me feel warm? You’re a prince. You are not Yuuljin. You are Prince Ruhae!”

She felt resentful about his promise that he would make her keep warm given their situation. She was upset because he made her have vain expectations. She hit his chest with her small fists, but he felt her angry voice was sweeter than any other confession of hers. That kind of rebuke was what he had been looking for. After all, he couldn’t hold back the urge to confess his genuine feelings about her.

“I love you.”

His short confession rang true and deeply touched her heart. He looked at her seriously. She felt as if she were frozen to hear his confession. She spaced out and at a loss about how to respond to his scary and terrific confession.

Love.

It was the first time she heard someone confessing his love to her.

What should I do?

As she was confused with all the complicated thoughts at the moment, she couldn’t think straight. She wanted to make excuses so that she could throw herself into the vortex of feelings.

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“I really love you from the bottom of my heart.”

Ruhae whispered into her ears once more in a softer voice.