28 parts Ongoing In the golden halls of the royal palace, where polished smiles hide knives and every word is a calculated move, Princess Orm plays her part - warm, naive to some, but quietly drowning under the weight of her fractured family. Her father rules through fear and politics, her mother dotes only on her golden son, and every "friend" she meets either wants her power or fears the consequences of knowing her too well. Behind her practiced smile, she's alone - desperate for real connection, but too cautious to trust anyone.
Enter Ling, the cold, sharp-tongued outsider everyone whispers about but no one dares to confront. Raised in the palace since childhood, invited to every royal ceremony yet kept at arm's length, she knows only this: her mother died giving birth to her, and her father was a close friend of the king - a convenient explanation that never fully made sense. With biting humor and fierce loyalty to the few who earn it, she fights daily to carve a place for herself in a world that refuses to let her belong.
Their paths have always collided - the princess, with her gentleness and subtle sadness; the noble, with her bitterness masked as indifference. Both convinced the other has the life they crave. Both resenting the other's existence. Both irrevocably wrong.
But when buried secrets rise - when whispers of war, bloodlines, and betrayal threaten to unravel the court - they'll discover their shared hatred is built on carefully constructed lies. The noble's true identity is far from what she's been told.
Everything they know shatters - loyalty, identity, even the feelings simmering just beneath their constant battles. Enemies by design, drawn together by something neither fully understands.
In a palace built on deception, can love survive when the truth finally claws its way to the surface? Or will they destroy each other before the walls come down?