Under an enormous moon.

We climbed onto the top of the balcony back again. In the corner of the balcony was a tiny door that paved the way to another staircase. We climbed the spiral staircase round and round and ended up under a door fixed on the ceiling. Chithak opened the door in the roof and climbed out of it using a ladder. I followed him. He lent me his hand and helped me climb out. We were inside a tiny room.

"Close your eyes," Chithak said. "Don't open them until I tell you to."

I closed my eyes. Chithak held my hand and guided me out of the room. Once I stepped out of the tiny tower-like room, I felt a mild breeze passing across my skin. It was so cold.

"Chithak, where am I?"

"Open your eyes," Chithak said while letting my hand go.

The beautiful scenery made me speechless. I was on the black sand on top of the city. There was a bright shining moon over the horizon, at least 20 times bigger than our moon. Thousands of stars were dazzling on top of me. Even the stars shinned brighter than what I had seen on earth. Since there was no other light, the stars were Crystal visible.

"Wow, this is soo beautiful!" I cried. I lay down on the sand and started looking at the stars.

"Hmm. Our night sky is the only thing that can beat your planet" he said staring at the sky.

"It must be so good to see this sky every night."

"I don't come here every day," Chithak smiled. "I have seen this sky only once.

"What!?" I laughed. "If I were you, I would come here every day."

"I would love to, but" Chithak sighed. "This place reminds me of someone. So I couldn't make up my mind to climb up here."

"Who?"

"Muhao. I was here on her lap spending her last night."

His voice cracked as he tried so hard to stop his tears. I wanted to know muhao's story so badly. But I didn't want to hurt Chithak, trying to make him remember the whole thing again.

"She is a lucky mother to have such a loving son by her side," I said turning to his side. "But if this night sky hurts you so much why did you come with me today?"

"I don't know, maybe because two is better than one."

We both looked into our eyes and started laughing.

The cold wind started giving me chills. Seen me trying to cuddle with my arms wrapped tightly, Chithak took off his leather coat and covered me with it gently.

"You must be dying to know about muhao," Chithak said, looking into my eyes.

"How did you know?"

"Your eyes are too loud," Chithak said while pointing at my eyes. "They are screaming everything in your heart that you don't spit out" he laughed.

I blushed. Chithak's laugh was so warm. I got to hear it many times after we started meeting each other in the library. But I wanted to see it.

"Chithak," I said while sitting with my legs crossed. "Can I remove your mask for a bit?"

More than Chithak, I was surprised to hear what I said at that moment.

"What will you give me if I let you take it off?" He started teasing me.

"Ahh... I'll take off my mask too."

"Nope, I need something special than that. Something that I don't know about you." He started leaning closer to me.

"I heard you doing something called singing in the videos. How do you do that? Can you do that for me?" He was so impatient.

"What do you mean by 'how do you do singing'?" I was confused. "Singing is singing. I am pretty sure that there must be many who can sing this planet too."

"We don't do singing on our planet," Chithak said. "You were the first person I saw Singing."

Music was a part of my life. Like eating and sleeping, I was a person who sang or listened to a song routinely. I couldn't believe it when he said that they don't have music on Pluma. But after recalling for some time, I remembered that I couldn't hear any sort of music since I came here.

"Okay, I'll sing for you" I smiled.

He turned around to let me untie the ribbon of the mask. I pulled the ribbon, letting the mask fall onto his lap. He turned back to me saying "now it's your turn."

I took a deep breath and let my voice entangle with the slowly flowing breeze. I sang "Somewhere over the rainbow," one of my all-time favorites. Chithak was gazing into my eyes as if he was trying to dive deeper and deeper into me. I was so happy because that was the first time someone enthusiastically listened to my singing. I finished my song and smiled at him. He was still looking at me as if he was stuck deep inside me. Then he started pulling the ribbon of my mask and let it fall into my lap. Without even giving a second to let me understand what was going on, I received the warmest kiss I could ever ask for from someone.

I panicked. Though I didn't want to, I pushed him. He looked hurt, but I was confused as to understand how he would have felt. I stood up immediately.

"I think we need to go now," I tried my best not to make eye contact with him. "It is almost morning, and I don't want to get caught by grandma. She will start looking for me."

"I am so sorry. I... " Chithak was stuttering.

"That's fine" I started feeling sorry for what I had done. "Just give me some time. I need some time to clear my thoughts. Okay?"

"Okay"

We wore our masks back. Chithak took me back to grandma's room.

I jumped back to my bed, immersed in an ocean of emotions. That was my first kiss That was the most beautiful kiss I had ever imagined. Under a beautiful night sky with an enormous moon and stars, a handsome man gave me a gentle and soft kiss. I, like a fool, pushed him away without even thinking twice.

But he was a prince. I was a maid in the palace brought from another world.

"Loving that pure heart is going to be beautiful. But that love is going to hurt both of us."

My thoughts started getting more and more confusing. So I closed my eyes.