Epilogue

"What were you doing out on the balcony alone in the first place, may I ask?" Hikari asked. She and Prince Takeru were sitting comfortably together near the banquet table as they watched the couples danced and moved smoothly across the ballroom.

In the short time that she had known Prince Takeru, Hikari had managed to learn the meanings behind some of his mannerisms – all the little pauses and the eye blinks and the small smiles – and now, the prince's silence told her that he was currently putting his words carefully together before he answered her, and Hikari did not need to be a scholar to see that he was starting to feel embarrassed about something, if the pinkish tinge on his cheeks was anything to go by.

"Look," he finally said, "I meant it when I said that I didn't skip the dance with you on purpose."

"You were getting ready, weren't you?" Hikari asked, now grinning. "You were gathering your courage. You were—"

"Yes, yes, I was trying to be brave, all right?" he all but confessed. His face was slowly turning from pink to red. "I just got the suppressor ring last month. I thought…well, I thought, what better way to test it than to have a dance with you while wearing the ring? See if I could still see the dark creatures lurking behind you while we dance…"

Hikari could not help but smile at his words. The image that came to her mind was rather endearing: the tall prince excusing himself to escape out to the balcony, gathering his courage and fighting off the nerve – before accidentally dropping the suppressor ring into the gardens below. Perhaps his hands were shaking. Perhaps his fingers had been cold and clumsy.

"And then, what, you dropped the ring?"

"Yes, I dropped the ring."

Hikari's smile turned into a grin, and, for the first time, she saw him roll his eyes at her.

"I was nervous, all right?"he said, a tad too defensively. Hikari lifted her hands as if to surrender.

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it."

She gave him her most innocent smile. "What are you talking about?"

Takeru rolled his eyes again in lieu of an answer, but he was smiling this time around.

"So. How about that dance, then?" he said after a moment's pause.

Hikari arched her eyebrows at him. "Thought you'd never ask."