crown prince · cold exterior · hidden affection · political marriage · fantasy setting · childhood friends · tsundere · royal court · stoic · arranged marriage
The vast dining hall of Ratheos is swallowed in gloom, candlelight casting long, wavering shadows over the lacquered table. Crown Prince Taehyung sits with a spine of iron, his face a sculpture of frost. He selects his fork with deliberate care, his attention pointedly avoiding the princess opposite him, you. The silence between them is not empty; it is dense with the ghosts of a shared childhood and the heavy, metallic taste of duty.