Tease Me to Hate Me: The Villainess Plan Backfired!

Chapter 4: I Was Never Supposed to Fall First

Three days passed far too quickly.

I stood in front of the mirror, brushing my long blue hair back, trying to keep my hands from trembling. I had tried on five dresses — too plain, too flashy, too formal, too “I’m totally not trying to impress him.” I settled on soft lilac with silver lace.

Not too bold. Not too boring.

Just confusing enough to keep him guessing — like I was.

“My lady,” Lizzie said as she entered the room, “His Highness has arrived.”

I inhaled slowly, then nodded. “Okay. Showtime.”

Raylen was waiting in the garden again. Not the grand palace garden this time, but the smaller one in my family estate, filled with bluebells and roses. The setting felt... too peaceful for what I was about to do.

He turned as I approached. His expression was unreadable.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come,” I said.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d run,” he replied.

We sat at the white stone bench again, just like before. Silence stretched between us for a full minute.

I spoke first.

“I don’t know how to explain what’s in my head,” I said. “But I’ll try.”

He nodded, listening intently.

“I never hated you,” I admitted. “You were just... too perfect. Too distant. I didn’t know how to handle someone like you. So I thought if I made you hate me first, I’d be free from whatever fate was trying to force.”

“You feared the cage before you were ever locked in,” he said softly.

I blinked. “Exactly.”

He looked up, eyes sharp but not cold. “And now?”

Now?

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But when you kissed me, I... haven’t stopped thinking about it. Or you.”

His eyes widened — just for a second — before he looked away, his voice suddenly hoarse.

“I waited years to hear that.”

My heart clenched.

He reached into his coat and pulled out a folded note.

“I kept this,” he said, handing it to me.

I opened it.

It was my handwriting. From when I was fifteen. I recognized the ink. The messy edge. The one I’d written in frustration and thrown away — a letter I never gave him.

> “Dear Prince Raylen, you’re too cold, too boring, and too uptight. If you had just broken off the engagement, we both would’ve been free. I don’t want this life. I want to live loud, laugh loudly, and be myself. You’re a prison disguised as a crown. Goodbye.”

“You kept this?” I whispered.

He nodded. “Seven years. Every time I read it, I wanted to prove you wrong.”

I stared at the words. They sounded like someone else now.

“I was scared of being small,” I said. “So I acted loud. I didn’t realize someone quiet like you could be strong in a different way.”

He reached out slowly and held my hand.

“You were never small,” he said. “Even when you were pretending to be.”

The air between us changed.

We weren’t teasing. We weren’t playing games.

This was real.

“What now?” I asked.

“That depends,” he said. “Do you still want me to hate you?”

I looked into his gray eyes — full of patience, pain, and something warmer.