She does not go to the gala. She does not answer the palace’s summons. Instead, she takes a night train to Chiang Rai, where Ananda is finishing his project. She finds him in a small guesthouse, packing his cameras for the fellowship abroad.
Pai is stunned. She loves Chula—truly—but it is the love of a sister, a partner in quiet battles. Ananda, meanwhile, represents passion, risk, and a world outside the gilded cage. She is torn between safety and fire. The gossip pages catch wind of Pai’s outings with Ananda—a commoner, an artist, and a man known for criticizing establishment policies through his work. A quiet word is passed from the palace: “Appearances matter.” Her mother, Princess Ubolratana, who has always lived by her own rules, surprises Pai by saying, “Do not let other people’s thrones dictate your heart. Your father didn’t.” Khun Ploypailin Jensen Sex Added
“You’re supposed to be at the Crystal Ball,” he says, not turning around. She does not go to the gala
Pai, used to deference, is both irritated and intrigued. Over weeks of traveling together, a slow burn develops. Ananda sees her not as a Jensen or a royal relative, but as a woman carrying immense grief—the loss of her father, the estrangement within her family, the pressure of being “almost royal but not quite.” He photographs her without asking, candid shots: her laughing at a child’s joke, her wiping dust from her eyes, her asleep in the car. When she demands he delete them, he refuses. “These are the real you,” he says. “And the real you is beautiful.” Chula notices the change. Pai is distracted, happier, and mentions “Ananda this” and “Ananda that” with a lightness he has not heard in years. Jealousy, which he has never allowed himself to feel, blooms painfully. One night, after a foundation gala, Chula confesses his feelings in the garden under a banyan tree. She finds him in a small guesthouse, packing
