Authors Note:

I was going to add more to this chapter, but it ended up becoming way longer than I thought it would, so I decided to shorten it by splitting it into parts, so, instead of one big chapter with 5,000 words, it will be about 600-700 words per chapter instead! Sorry! I really wanted to make them longer, but then thought it flowed better this way, but I promise the next chapter will be at least 1,000 words!


Chapter Two

"The Ball" (Part One): A Tingly Feeling

"Who would you want to have your first kiss with?"

The sudden question sliced the air, cutting any prior conversations present at one of the many tables placed around the ballroom, but Corrin wasn't interested in answering it just yet.

The table she was currently sitting at was arranged near the balcony on the far left in a diagonal fashion in order to face the center of the ballroom.

A crisp breeze blew in through the opened doors of the balcony causing her to rub her hands against her pale slender arms shivering.

In hindsight, she should have realised from the beginning a sleeveless dress wasn't going to fair well against the winter weather. It was at the end of December, after all. Though that didn't excuse the suggestive glances and rude remarks being directed at her from across the ballroom by a variety of pompous men, their minds brooding with lewd thoughts.

Grimacing from the smirks and snickers being made by men from seemingly everywhere around the room, Corrin looked out onto the sea of guests dancing to a waltz being strung by her father's personal musicians.

She had decided to ignore their greedy eyes and focus on something else less… revolting.

As she stared at the performing musicians from her seat in the back of the ballroom, she felt as though someone was missing. Desperate to grasp at her memories of who exactly wasn't present at her father's Gala, her eyes sifted through the group of performers.

A moment or two went by as Corrin plucked at her brain before remembering a mysterious young singer with charismatic long blue hair…

Well that's strange.

Unable to find the aspiring singer, Corrin shrugged it off as just a day the girl had taken off.

Corrin's eyes full of boredom wandered until she spotted Jakob in the midst of a conversation with a woman Corrin thought to be around his own age on the other side of the ballroom.

Jakob's eyes sparkled giving off a look of pleasure as he talked. His lively appearance reminded her of the first time Corrin had praised Jakob for making her tea every morning just to her liking and caring for her daily without fail. It was a simple praise really, nothing out of the ordinary, at least in her opinion.

She had pulled him aside to hug him and thank him for his hard work, yet he still broke down in tears. It was the first time Jakob had shown himself as vulnerable to her. At first, she didn't know whether the tears he had produced were happy ones or filled with masked sorrow, that was, until he smiled.

She cherished that moment. That smile. That look. The look of pure happiness and bliss when he looked down at her.

But now, here he was, revealing that exact same precious expression which only she could cherish to another girl he had just met. A tinge of pain seared up the young princesses chest.

Upon further inspection, Corrin could've sworn it almost looked as though they were a- …

No.

She wouldn't let herself finish that train of thought. Her eyes must have been deceiving her.

Yeah, that must have been it.

Jakob never had relationships with people outside of the castle, heck, he never even left the castle! And even if he did, he would have told her. He had always been by her side, whether she needed him or not. He trusted her.

She trusted him. Didn't he as well?

Lost in thought, Corrin's breath caught after realising Jakob had been looking back at her out of the corner of his eye.

He flashed a grin in her direction.

Sighing from relief, Corrin's chest no longer rested in her stomach, but instead gave off a slight tingly feeling.

Taking this new feeling as a sign of hunger, Corrin looked away from Jakob after returning a smile and a slight flutter of her fingers in an attempt to wave a hand from underneath the table only to think better of it and instead excuse herself to head off towards the luxury gourmet in order to get a bite to eat.


Authors endnote: If you feel cheated out of a reply from Corrin about who she wants to kiss, don't worry, it will be released in the next chapter, so stay tuned! ;)