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IN the end, Ray was so completely opposed to Kirion taking the job that he went straight to Prince Dario about it. His protests were ultimately in vain, however; the Prince was not the type to judge a book by its cover, and he was content to let Kirion stay as long as he proved he was the right person for the job.
And so Kirion Soh was officially appointed as my apprentice.
“I’m excited to be working with you, Miss Mayna!”
“Likewise, Kirion, I look forward to teaching you.”
For lack of a better place to go, I led him to my quarters so we could show each other the tools we were most accustomed to using. As it turned out, Kirion had far more of a collection than I did when it came to male-targeted hair care items. I’d worked on men in the past, and so I stocked the bare minimum necessary for trimming and shaving, but his sheer variety of gels, shaving creams, and razors had me all agog.
“What beautiful hairdressing scissors! They’re not bulky, either—I already feel right at home using them!”
“They’re nice and sharp, too. I see you’ve got a whole selection of brushes and hair oil and pins here...not to mention all these decorative accessories! You could open your own shop with all this!” Kirion exclaimed as he opened a wooden box full of hair accessories. Although I made sure to dispose of any that grew rusty or otherwise fell out of fashion, I still had three whole boxes’ worth.
As we were fawning and gushing, I caught sight of Ray standing in the corner of the room.
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He had tagged along right from the moment I invited Kirion back to my quarters, standing behind me and exuding a venomous aura. I wasn’t sure why he had bothered to come with us, but his presence was clearly making Kirion uncomfortable, and frankly, it was a buzzkill.
“If you came here just to glare at Kirion, then please leave,” I sighed. When he didn’t budge, I pushed the point, “I really don’t know what you expected. You’re the one who asked Torpan to hire a new hairstylist. I get that you don’t like him, but everyone else does. You should try not to be so openly antagonistic towards people you don’t like, because believe it or not, it really hurts.”
Trust me, I would know.
As I pushed him toward the door, his expression grew conflicted, like he was tempted to say something...but whatever it was, the words never came. In the end, he trudged from the room of his own will.
Once I had shut the door behind him, I turned back to Kirion. “Sorry about that. He’s just really protective of His Highness Prince Dario—he cares for him like a younger brother. So when it comes to the Prince’s bride-to-be, he can’t help but want to protect her, too. It’s nothing personal.”
Kirion gazed at the now-shut door through which Ray had disappeared. “I can’t deny that might be the case, but to me, it seems a lot more like you’re the one he’s trying to protect. Are you two an item?”
“Wh—No! Don’t be silly!” I snapped hastily.
His lips curled into a playful smile. “Oho? Something’s definitely going on here. Is he your ex or something?”
“Nngh...” I couldn’t exactly deny it.
Kirion’s smile broadened. “Oooh, I love boyfriend-girlfriend drama!”
“Really? I didn’t peg you for the type.”
“Okay, so he’s totally your ex, right? And he wants you back?”
“He does not want me,” I corrected him.
Instead of letting him jump to conclusions about the situation, I decided to give him the gist of what had happened between myself and Ray—that he had mistaken me for his Bondmate, then ultimately changed his mind before we ever got together.
“Is it even possible to make a mistake like that?”
“I admit I asked myself the same question, but if it wasn’t possible, then it wouldn’t have happened. Anyway, wouldn’t you know better than I would? You’re the Dragonkin here.”
“I guess so...” Kirion muttered vaguely. Then he suddenly brightened up. “Well then, if you’re not with Sir Ray, then that means I could have a chance with you, right?”
His tone was lighthearted, so I laughed. “Trust me, I’m done with romance after that.”
But Kirion kept going. “Aww, c’mon. Just because it didn’t work out your first time?”
He was a walking contradiction—the innocence of a boy paired with the charm of a full-grown man. He looked down at me, and as I gazed back into his eyes, once again I found myself oddly restless. I wanted to look away, but somehow I couldn’t.
Then I saw my own entranced expression reflected in his eyes, and I snapped back to my senses. Turning my face away from him, I hastily gathered up the accessories lying around and returned them to their proper container.
“My job is more important to me than having a relationship.”
Kirion chuckled and shrugged. “I guess you’re just that dedicated.”
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AFTER three days of working with Kirion, I found him to be a good and honest person—smart and talented to boot. He was a quick learner, and whenever my explanation fell short, he was quick to fill in the gaps using his own intuition.
But if there was one observation I could make, it was that he was rather chatty. He would gossip with Mona about the latest scandals in the aristocracy, and sometimes he would fill me in on the secret factions he’d discovered amongst the servants. Either he came across this information incidentally while chatting up a storm with half the castle, or he was intentionally seeking it out to slake his thirst for drama.
Lately he had started to enjoy the negative attention from Ray, too. Evidently he had quite the thick skin. At first I felt sorry for him and thought about telling Ray to back off, but then I noticed that Kirion seemed a bit too eager to provoke him—leaning in close to me whenever he knew Ray was watching—and at that point, I abandoned any notion of choosing sides.
If anything, I couldn’t comprehend how Ray could get angry at the mere sight of Kirion within close proximity to me. It didn’t make sense. What was he thinking?
As the days passed, Princess Patricia grew more and more at home in Vaxwald. I could wager a guess that the kind gestures from the royal family had helped a great deal—not just from Prince Dario, but from Her Majesty the Queen as well.
“Her Majesty invited me to tea tomorrow afternoon! She told me she can’t wait to see my next hairstyle. She also mentioned she’d like to see me try something more Vaxwaldian... Something that isn’t a bun...”
While the Princess seemed excited at the prospect of attending a royal tea party, she couldn’t quite hide her unease.
“Well then, tomorrow we’ll just have to try the Vaxwald style,” I nodded.
“But I just know it won’t look nice on me! My hair’s too poofy!”
“I could use hair gel to contain it, but that might give it an odd sheen... Plus, it would make the hair unnaturally firm, to the point that it won’t rustle in the breeze... Hmm. I’ll have to come up with a solution that doesn’t use gel,” I concluded.
Behind me, I could feel Kirion’s eyes on me.