three.

For some reason, the prince and I became close. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Alexis and Harsh stayed together, and I was the only one close to his age. Whatever the reason be, I was sure that the prince at least enjoyed my company. And to my surprise, he was one of the people with whom I could feel comfortable right from the start.

But it was not a surprise that the prince and I didn’t have many things to talk about.

We both preferred different things.

One thing similar about was that we both were curious, so our conversations simply consisted of asking each other things.

He was interesting.

He called me interesting too. I smiled at that.

I had known him for two days only, but I liked him as a person. He was intelligent, didn’t objectify women (at least in-front of me), and was polite. Even when he was disagreeing with me, he seemed like the politest person in this world. And he was funny. I felt like both of our humour matched.

The only thing I didn’t like was that he always seemed so perfect. His behaviour was perfect, his posture was perfect, the way he talked was perfect. He seemed unreal because of this reason.

“Is there anything to see in this town?” I heard him ask me.

“No, there is literally nothing to see here.” I told him, without looking up from the book I was reading.

“Seriously?” He sounded frustrated. I chuckled internally. This was the first time I heard his voice deviating from his normal perfect tone. Otherwise, he always talked like nothing in this world bothered him.

I looked up from the book I was reading, “There is a lake 10 minutes from our house and people say it’s cursed.” I told him. He was sitting on the floor, next to me and I found the situation a little funny; the prince of the country sitting on the floor. He stopped playing with the books I gave him and looked at me.

“What is the curse about?” He seemed interested, and so I closed the book and gave him my full attention.

“If a couple visits the river for a date, everyone here says that they will break up by the end of the month.” I told him.

He didn’t look interested anymore, “That’s it? I thought some more crazy curse existed in this area.”

“Do you want us to live with a human-killing curse?” I questioned, with a raise of my eyebrows. “Alexis took Harsh to the lake. They got married.” I added, as an afterthought.

“Maybe, that was the curse.” He said, lamely. I let out a laugh.

“I want to be cursed in that way too. A curse to finding your soulmate.”

He suddenly stood up, “Let’s go to the river.”

I looked up at him and blinked, “Huh?” He leaned down, and grabbed my left hand before pulling me up. I was surprised, and as a result tripped while standing up. He grabbed my waist, “Let’s go to the river. Maybe, it will be our turn to find love then.” He said, grinning widely. He was so close to me. I could feel his voice on my cheeks.

“Yeah!” I breathed out. He let go off me, and I could only think about how blue his eyes

were. They were so pretty.

When we were out of our house, I knew that I was going to regret it. It was 2 in the afternoon, and the sun was high up in the sky. It was mid-May.

“If I die because of the heat, I am going to haunt you, Prince.”

“Please do! I’d have a companion I like following me around. Doesn’t sound bad.”

“You will start disliking me once I start to follow you around.” I muttered and at the same time I was also focused on the road. The last thing I wanted was to die because of tripping on a stone after surviving for so long.

“Why are you here? Are you not supposed to be busy as a prince?” I asked him after a moment of silence between us.

“Ran away.” I gave him a horrified look. My thoughts spiralled into how the King and the Queen must have been looking for him, and the prince was here. A town, very far away from the capital of this country.

“My parents have been nagging me to get married the whole month. I couldn’t take it anymore.” He informed me with a deep sigh. I could feel the emotion behind his sigh.

“Wow, I should try running away sometimes.” I jokingly said.

“You can be my runaway partner!” He placed his hand on my shoulder, and pulled me closer to him. I noticed that he was a touchy person. He always had his hands around Harsh, and whenever he laughed, he would slap the back of the person next to his.

I was not a person who liked having much physical contact, so being around him was sometimes nerve-wrecking. But I knew that he would stop if I told him to stop being so touchy.

But I didn’t feel like asking him to stop. So, I didn’t.

We continued following the trail inside the woods.

When we reached the river, he let out a gasp, “Wow, this place is really breath-taking” And, indeed it was. I had visited this lake multiple number of times, but the feeling of awe always remained the same. The whole place looked like it came straight out of a painting. Hues of green, and blue greeted our eyes.

We sat down on the grass under a large tree, and the cool air touched our skin. I let out a sigh of relief, “This is a wonderful feeling.”

He chuckled, “So, I am to assume you are not dying and haunting me in my sleep?”

“Yes, the universe decided to spare you it seems.” He laughed. His whole face was shining. I was in awe.

After some time, he pulled out his phone, and started playing songs. It was a nice feeling; surrounded by nature, and the soft voice of the singer.

“We should have brought a bedsheet or something. I want to sleep here. It’s so peaceful here.” I looked at him, and he had such a serene expression on his face. I looked away towards the river, “Yeah,” I whispered as I didn’t want to disturb the tranquillity surrounding us.

We stayed there till the sun touched the horizon. I thought it made a wonderful picture; the sun behind him, and his black hair dancing shyly along with the wind.

The place was so serene that we forgot anything related to the curse. How could a

place this beautiful be cursed in the first place?