"Glad I caught you."

In the middle of the ballroom, an elegantly gloved hand, held me for an instant before I kissed the ground by the hit that some opulent member of the nobility had given me with his bottom. I looked up to find a dapper young man with green eyes smiling gracefully at me.

"Thank you."
"A pleasure to be useful to you, princess."

I got up quickly and recomposed my dress.

"Just Anna, please."
"As you wish, Anna. Prince Hans of the Southern Isles," he introduced himself bowing to me.

'Oh… another bow…' I thought as a slight smile escaped my lips as I remembered the unusual reaction that Kristoff had had a while before in a similar situation.

"It is my pleasure, Prince Hans."
"Only Hans."
"Okay, Hans."
"Would you grant me, Anna, the honor of dancing with you?"

The boy extended his hand to me in a stretched and normative posture to invite me to dance and, unconsciously, I made the comparison with the huge, bare and rough hand that had been extended to me only a few hours before: the relaxed and close posture in front of the pedantic etiquette, the warmth and hardness of the skin of someone who works with the sweat of his forehead versus the cold, unpolluted and soft fabric of someone who lives off the sweat of others. I guess I wasn't the one to criticize though.

I shook my head almost imperceptibly knowing that all this was getting me nowhere and I returned to the role that was expected of the Princess of Arendelle.

"Of course I do."

I took Hans's hand again and we danced to the piece that was beginning to sound with the grace and elegance of someone who has received years of tedious practice.

After dancing, we enjoyed the party in each other's company. For a long time we raided the treat where, thank God, there was no shortage of chocolate. Then I took him on a short tour of the palace, the stables, and the castle gardens. Finally, as night fell, we stopped to eat something else and rest while, from one of the large balconies of the main building, we enjoyed the views of the illuminated town. There, the two of us told each other a little about how our lives had been. Hans told me about his twelve older brothers and how they shut him out and I told him how my only sister had done the same to me.

Despite having felt the rejection as well as I did, I couldn't feel in him the understanding and empathy that I had received from Kristoff.

The dark sky was widely illuminated by a huge full moon that made the light of all the stars that accompanied it almost imperceptible. My gaze traveled to the mountains and I wondered if that tremendously free ice harvester had already finished his work or if he was there, enjoying the fresh air of the mountains and of that moon that bathed everything.

"It's really beautiful, right?" I said without taking my eyes off the mountains trying to bring up the topic of conversation.
"Indeed it is, but not as much as you are."

I turned to him somehow blushing. I didn't expect that kind of reaction. I wasn't used to hearing compliments of that kind about my person.

"I can understand how lonely you've felt so far, but you know?" Hans carefully took my hand and fixed his eyes on mine. "I would never shut you out."

I immediately read his intention to woo me and couldn't feel more uncomfortable with the idea. The party, next to him, was being quite entertaining, but not nearly as fun as I expected. I envisioned myself locked in the palace writing letters to a refined, elegant, and uptight prince until, hopefully, it was time to get married. And then, living locked up in my own castle with that man or living free in another kingdom; in an unknown place that wouldn't be my home, surrounded by twelve princes and their princesses, all equally refined and pedantic… That was the life that awaited me, right? That was definitely my best option.

'And you are... alright with that?'

Unexpectedly, Kristoff's voice echoed out loud in my head.

"No! I'm not!"
"Excuse me?"
"Okay, Hans… I…"

I thought of a gentle way to reject the prince without hurting his feelings and came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to tell him the truth. How I had bumped into Kristoff, how he had made me see that there is a lot of world out there and that I also had the right to enjoy it, and how, probably, I had developed some kind of feeling for him. Maybe it was too soon for that, I didn't know him and he didn't know me, but I couldn't deny that the idea of seeing him again hadn't left me since before I left his side.

"Can I just say something crazy?"
"I love crazy."

'Yeah... we'll see if you like this one so much.'

I took a breath and began to open my mind and my heart in the form of a song. I love improvising songs! You have to spend time on something when you have no one to share it with. The prince was in front of me, but my words were directed to the boy of that morning. I had to make Hans know how I was feeling about another man and that I could never accept him, so I sang to Kristoff so that Hans would understand me. Thinking about it now, maybe I didn't explain well who I was talking about…

"All my life has been a series of doors in my face,
and then I suddenly bump into you."
"I was thinking the same thing, because, like,
I've been searching my whole life to find my own place,
And maybe it's the party talking or the chocolate fondue."

'¡Wow! He's such an understanding boy! He's taken it very well. I thought he would take it badly for me to sing to him about someone else and it turns out that he even joins in on the song. Okay, it'll be more fun if it's a duet.'

"But with you…"
"But with you, I found my place,"
"I see your face,"
"And it's nothing like I've ever known before."
"Love is an open door. (x3)"
"With you, with you."
"With you, with you."
"Love is an open door."
"I mean, it's crazy,"
"What?"
"We finish each other's…"
"Sandwiches?"
"That's what I was gonna say!"
"I've never met someone,
who thinks so much like me.
Jinx! Jinx again!
Our mental synchronization can have but one explanation:"
"You"
"And I" 'Wait, what? Whatever.'
"where just meant to be."
"Say goodbye to the pain of the past.
We don't have to feel it anymore.
Love is an open door. x2.
Life can be so much more with you, with you, with you, with you.
Love is an open door."

'Okay, maybe the lyrics were a little over the top, but this was the most fun I've had in the whole party.'

"Can I say something crazy?" Hans asked clearly excited.

'Will he now want to sing a song of his own?'

"Uh-huh."
"Will you marry me?"
"What?! No!" I exclaimed perhaps with some uncontrolled rudeness.

'For God's sake, what did he not understand about the song?'

"Uh… I thought… I'm sorry, I think I rushed things."
"No, is not that. I mean, yes. But it was not for that. Look, Hans, there are things I want to do and… there is someone I need to see. The truth is that I thought I had explained it to you with the song."
"What?"
"Anyway. I can't accept you, sorry."
"Is there another man?"
"Technically… no."
"Is he the wagon man?
"How do you know about him?"

'A spy ring?'

"I saw how you kissed him this morning."

'Right, it couldn't be something that exciting.'

"Oh, but that was just a gratitude and friendship kiss. There is nothing more between us."
"And yet you want to go with him, right?"
"You are right. But that does not mean that nothing will happen. We just met."
"Anna… I understand that you can feel excited to have a relationship with someone from outside, even because of the exotic of the commoner, but that relationship could not work. I'm telling you for your sake. Accept me and I will make you a happy q… princess."

'The exotic of the commoner? Did I just hear that?'

"I'm sorry Hans but, right now, I don't think I want to be a happy princess."

Without thinking too much about it, I left him standing there and ran without brakes to the dance hall where Elsa was in the same place and position in which I had left her.

"Elsa! I mean, queen. Me again."
"Anna. What is it?"
"I can't do this! The idea of being locked down again is driving me crazy. Today is being the best day of my life! I can't even bear to think of going back to being like before. I beg you, now you are the queen, this is in your hands… Declare the open gates, please!"

Elsa's expression gradually went from surprise to fear and then to sadness.

"It can't be, Anna. I'm sorry."
"But, Elsa!"
"It is my last word."
"Elsa, please! Please! I can't live like this anymore."
"Then leave."

'It looks like it'll be a day full of surprises'. "I was both puzzled and hurt by her reaction. I didn't understand anything. I didn't understand why we should be locked down or why there was so much insecurity in her eyes, but I did understand that this would probably be my only chance to live my life: I gave her a deep bow, a sad smile, and a hurt look."

"Now I have the blessing of the queen."

And, before she could react, I ran out the door. I passed through the crowd that waited for the queen in the castle courtyard and revered me as I went by and, just after hearing behind me the desperate voice of Elsa giving the order to close the gates to the guards, I crossed the threshold of these with the firm intention of never entering through them again.