She has never wanted anything but love. Nothing her parents could buy her would make her as happy as that teensy, weensy, little four-letter word. She’d seen couples before, hand-in-hand, strolling in tandem as they viewed the world in rose-tinted lenses.

Love: “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.” No words, no matter how cleverly and skillfully spun, could describe the way she felt when she laid her eyes on him.

He was nothing like she had expected her Prince Charming to be. He was beautiful, yes, but looks could only go so far. Every little peek she dared to steal towards him, his eyes only fleeted away dismissively. She ached, ached for him to fill the void in her heart (which was a bit of a tall order when the love was unrequited). Or so she thought.

Until he came up behind her and wrapped her delicate fingers around a pink rose. Without a word, without even an exchanging of glances, he had truly serenaded her. Made her fall into a deeper love than the infatuation she previously held for him. As he walked away from her in that nonchalant way of his, she could only stroke the frail petals, mouth agape. How dare he leave a princess such as her utterly confused and tired and frustrated and so sick of it all! The games, the mixed signals, she never thought falling in love could be so complicated. Who would?

But in the end, she did live happily ever after with her prince. And he was nothing like she had expected him to be.