One Shot

When I was a child, I had always thought of the fairy tales I watched, those beautiful princesses saved by their charming princes. And I always wondered how it was like to be in their place, how to fall in love and live a happily ever after.

For some people, I guess fairy tales were absurd. They were just pieces of imagination that would never happen in reality. Stories to make them hope for nothing and only to encourage them in believing to something that was an illusion. But I was different from them; I believed in fairy tales, in happily ever afters, in once upon a time. That sole reason made me wish for something.

I wished to have a prince.

"Wh-What's your name? How did you... kn-know me?" I asked as my legs wobbled.

"My name is Prince." He said, his eyes were somehow sparkling as his smile seemed to brighten the surroundings; imaginary balloons and fireworks appeared everywhere. In the dark forest, tall pink trees and flowers magically bloomed.

That one fateful encounter changed my world. I never thought that I would become a princess, that my wish would be granted and a prince with a bright and beautiful smile would appear in front of me.

"My Sophia, are you alright?"

I looked up to Prince. My cheeks felt hot as I watched his beautiful and perfect face showed worry. Prince's hand was placed on my cheek and the other one was on my waist. He was too close.

"I-I'm alright." I answered, a bit short of breath.

"But it looked the opposite for me. Have someone hurt you? Who might they be?" His brows furrowed as he fired the questions. My heart raced knowing how concerned he was and how much he cared for me.

This was a prince worrying for his princess, right?

With that thought, I smiled. My wish was really granted. I really did have a prince!

"I'm okay. But would you stay with me a little bit longer? I don't want to go home yet." I asked as my eyes scanned his face. He had a messy brown hair and I would bet that it was soft. His hazel brown eyes that always showed love and a straight nose perfectly suited his handsome face, and lastly, a pair of lips that was plump and red. It seemed like a sweet taste--stop it, Sophia!

"--course..."

I blinked. "Pardon, what did you say?"

He smiled and again, his eyes sparkled. "Of course. I'll stay with you as long as you want." I smiled back. My heart beat faster as my stomach seemed to flip.

I was sure as hell that I was falling in love!

I reached for Prince's hand and held onto it tightly. "What will we be doing?" He didn't answer and only smiled. I followed him as he took steps going to the small hill a bit far from my house.

"Where are we going?" I still asked even though I already knew where.

"Do you trust me?" I blinked at him and nodded.

"Of course."

"Then no need to ask me. I won't do you any harm." I know. "I'm your prince, remember?"

I looked down as I felt my cheeks became hot. My hair fell as I looked at the ground, hiding my face. He suddenly stopped, so I followed suit and stopped walking too.

Prince stood in front of me. I looked up at him. He cupped my face and smiled. "You know, you don't need to be shy and hide your face when you blush. I would love to see your face red because of me."

Pursing my lips, I held his hands on my cheeks. He was definitely teasing me.

Letting go if his right hand, I then gripped the left one and started walking. I heard him chuckled but did not bother to stop him.

After all, I loved to hear him laugh.

Prince quickly followed me and intertwined our fingers. My smile became bigger, and my heart thumped louder.

"Sunset is beautiful, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

I wished we could stay like this forever. We stood on top of the hill as we held hands. The quiet atmosphere was comfortable, too comfortable that I hoped for it to last forever.

I glanced to Prince, he was looking at the scenery in front of him. His face was serene and he was just... ethereal. He felt invisible and unreachable even though I was just beside him, hands connected. His eyes were shining, and suddenly, my heart felt bursting.

"I love you." I whispered. And thank God that he was too caught up that he had not heard me.

"Prince." I called him. He faced me. "Thank you so much." A smile was plastered on my face as I spoke.

He nodded and once again stood straight in front of me. He then cupped my face. I felt him kissed my forehead.

"You are always welcome, my princess." He whispered.

***

I stood in front of the large mirror, scanning my whole person. I stared at my face. I had applied small amount of tint on my lips earlier and a pink powder colored my cheeks. I smiled in front of the mirror and sighed loudly.

I was not really trying to impress anyone here. I only wanted to be beautiful by wearing a white knee-length dress and curling my hair. Thinking, I sighed again.

Fine... I wanted Prince to find me beautiful. What could I do? He was-- Prince, I loved him. I wanted him impressed, and somehow see his flustered appearance.

A knock on the door startled me. I quickly glanced at myself on the mirror one last time before opening the door and meeting my prince. My parents were both at work so nobody was home. I really thank God for making my parents so busy that they didn't notice me sneaking outside everyday.

"Hi." I said as I opened the door. Prince, with a big smile plastered on his face, welcomed me. I saw him stared at me deeply that had me very nervous. I hoped he found me pretty today.

Prince offered his left hand. Before I reached it, he spoke. "You have always been beautiful, Sophia. Now, let me take you to our kingdom."

My legs wobbled so I nearly fell, my stomach churned as my heart raced. My cheeks felt hot all of a sudden. I never expected Prince to be so straightforward!

We took our steps slowly as if time didn't matter. We just listened to our heartbeats and took each step according to each beat. I smiled as he intertwined our fingers. I had always loved how we made each contact. I felt special when he locked our fingers every time. My hand seemed to fit his perfectly. I stopped on my track. He looked at me questioningly.

I fished my phone out and opened the camera. I smiled as I focused the camera at our joined hands. I felt him tightened his grip. After taking the picture, I looked at Prince. I saw him watching me with a smile on his face. Could he not smile for just a second?

It was making me weak, you know.

After some time, we reached our destination. My eyes widened as Prince stood beside me, not blocking the view in front of us. My mouth hung open a little as I took slow steps towards the big tree.

Under it was a basket with a mat rolled on the top.

Prince-- Prince thought of having a picnic? My prince prepared these things?

I looked back and saw Prince watching me with tenderness in his eyes

"Th-Thank you..." I breathed.

I always imagined this. I always wished for this to happen to me. And my prince just unknowingly granted my wish.

He walked towards me and put his arms around my waist.

"I told you, I'm your prince and I'll do anything to make my princess happy. Anything..."

He then led me to the tree. I helped him unroll the mat and placed it under the tree. We then put the foods outside the basket. I smiled as I saw a blue-stemmed rose lying inside the basket. Prince reached for the rose and gave it to me. I hugged him and kissed his cheeks.

We started eating the foods. I laughed at Prince when he started telling corny jokes. I told him stories about me. What happened to school, how was my life, what I did before meeting him...

After all the talking, he motioned for me to sit beside him. I did what he told me. To my surprise, he suddenly put his arms around my shoulder and snuggled me closer to his chest. I smelled his scent, mint mixed with sweet flowers and fresh trees.

I closed my eyes and savored the moment. My experiences taught me to always savor and treasure the moments for you can never guess when it would happen again or would it even ever happen again.

Days passed, Prince and I always met at our kingdom-- the forest. We would go to do new things and explore new adventures. He always surprised me with things and my heart only swelled bigger and bigger because of it.

Right now, I was waiting for Prince to come. He told me yesterday to meet him at the hill near my house. I looked at my watch. It was already 6:49 pm. The sun was already down.

I roamed my eyes and saw a freshly bloomed flower. I smiled at its color. Blue. I remember the rose that Prince had given me. They had the same color.

"Sophia..."

I turned to my side and saw Prince breathing heavily. He must have been running to reach the top of this hill. I smiled at him and went to his side. I hugged him.

"I missed you..." I told him.

"Hmm... I missed you too, my princess." He said and touched my hair, caressing it softly. This gesture would always touch my heart and create an irregular heartbeat.

Silence ate us as we just stayed hugging each other. I saw a firefly appeared. I gasped. I was dumbfounded as another firefly came out. Then another. And another one until several fireflies flew everywhere, surrounding the two of us. I giggled at the sight. This thing felt so magical!

"Sophia, my princess..." I faced Prince when he called me. I did't know if I was right when I saw a tinge of sadness crossed his eyes before he smiled.

"Are you satisfied with my love?" He asked.

Even though puzzled as to why he asked that question, I still nodded and smiled.

"Of course! I've never felt loved like how you did to me. I-I love you..." I bit my lips.

"Thank you." I looked at my prince's eyes who were always honest and sparkling.

"Ah?" Why would he thank me? I should be the one thanking him.

"You're satisfied with my love and I want to thank you for that." His right hand cupped my left cheek. "May I go now?"

"Y-You're leaving?"

He nodded. "I am bound to leave you, Sophia."

"B-But you told me... You will stay as long as I want..."

"But I can leave now. Now that you're satisfied."

"I don't want to let you go!" I shouted at him.

Oh god! How did this happen? Just yesterday, we were laughing at our hearts' content then now...

My legs wobbled and I felt myself fell on the ground. Prince just watched me. My tears fell and again, my prince just watched me.

"B-But I don't want you to leave..." I said, breathless.

He sat-- leveling me. His eyes that held love just the other day was now gone. I wanted to beg him to stay. I wanted him to stay! My prince couldn't leave me! A prince should never leave their princess!

"Sophia," I looked at him. "I was given to you to teach you a lesson. I was just borrowed. Today is my last day with you."

"L-Lesson?" I asked.

He sighed. "You need to learn what reality is from fantasy. You see, a prince from fairy tales can never be good to a human. Reality is far better than fantasy."

"But why? I thought we were happy! We can stay like that forever!"

"And that's the problem, Sophia. We-- beings from fantasy can love a human forever and stay with them forever. But what about you? We will be left behind when you leave.

No-- that's not my only point. We were created to just make humans understand how love is happiness. We were created to let you see how to love is a blissful thing. A happily ever after is not life." Prince smiled.

"It is the moment we are talking about. Do you remember the things we did? They are those happily ever after. You need to learn that fantasy is never yours. Fantasy will never suit your life. Because you're human. And humans are bound to love a real person. Not a piece of imagination..."

I cried. And cried. Until I saw Prince stood up and started to walk away. Before he completely disappeared, I called his name.

"D-Did you ever love me? Even just a second?"

He stopped walking but didn't bother to face me.

"You're lovable, Sophia. But as I told you earlier, we are never meant to love reality. Just like you should never love fantasy."

"Why?"

I knew I was going in circles but I didn't care! I wanted him to stay! Even for just a minute... I wanted to see him, to hold him. To redo all the things we did. I wanted to do all of it again!

As if on cue, he turned to face me. A small smile was visible on his lips.

"Because we never wanted to hurt what created us. You see, we can never be together because we are just a piece of imagination. You can dream, imagine to be with us but it will never be true. You will never be truly happy. Your love for us will be just wasted because no one can reciprocate it.

Because reality is for reality,

And fantasy is just fantasy."

He then turned to leave again. And this time, I didn't call him nor stop him. Because a part of me agreed with him.

I roamed my eyes. The fireflies were still there, flying. I realized, there were times in human life that we felt the magic. And we wanted to feel it forever. But then as they say, humans were not humans if magic was there.

In fantasy, hurt and misery could not be found in their stories. But that is the reason why fantasy was fantasy. And reality was reality.

Once upon a time, a girl wished for a prince...

Then her wish was granted.

Only that a prince was never meant for her and a man would come to save her.

The End.