Maia did not expect for her to end up married to a prince, but fate had other ideas. Really, she should have known that pretty of a dress was going to come with a price. But, she had been blinded by Mijung’s promise that it was enchanted and would prevent anyone from recognizing her. Mijung was the only one of her stepsisters she liked, which only made it worse that she had left home many years ago. Still, Mijung had shown up the night of the ball and had given Maia an offer she could not refuse. Yoojung and Nari had managed to go to the party. Why couldn’t Maia? So, Maia had let Mijung do her magic (which was apparently part of her trials to become a full fledged fairy godmother).
To be fair, no one could have seen what happened through out the rest of the night coming. Maia had danced with the prince and he had been charming, but there was nothing to dictate that it was special to anyone but Maia. She was not delusional. She knew he had plenty of women hoping to marry him and Maia was not one of those girls. But, she wanted to be. And that might have been the end of it, had Maia not spotted Yoojung screaming at a poor servant. Before Maia quite knew what was happening, she had accidentally set her stepsister’s hair on fire.
Of course, no one else understood what had happened Prince Youngwook had. He had seen her and had laughed the entire time. He was magical himself, though no one aside from some trusted servants and his family knew it. His mother had also been a witch, so he quite knew the signs of someone who just used magic. His father and stepmother quite hated magic, as it reminded both of them of his departed mother. So, naturally, Youngwook decided then and there he would marry that girl.
Maia, who despite being a witch was not a mindreader, saw the clock and began to run. Her shoe fell on the grounds, but she did not stop for a moment. Magical or not, her family would kill her if she arrived after them.
Youngwook, for his part, tried to catch up to the mysterious maiden. Unfortunately, she was fast. He spent the next month trying to track down who the shoe belonged to through every spell he knew. Finally, it led him to a dilapidated household which had once been a sign of greatness.
Finding out Maia was poor should have made him run back home. Instead, Youngwook laughed again. His father was going to hate that he was going to marry a poor witch. However, the king had said Youngwook could marry anyone he liked at the ball as long as he finally picked someone. So, he did.
Maia for her part, had been climbing out the window to her room. Her stepmother and stepsisters had not taken well to finding the other shoe in her room. She did not intend to land right in front of the prince, but clearly, her intentions were never a part of what fate wanted for her.
Youngwook smiled above her, holding the shoe. He held his other hand out. Maia hesitated a moment before taking it. But, considering the world she lived in before, marrying a prince couldn’t be any worse.
Of course, fate didn’t care that Youngwook and Maia had no intentions of falling in love. Because fate always knows best.
