he already basically knows this girls full of shit, he confirms it shortly when he’s kinda interrogating her, he asks a question about the flower field they visited in front of her, paula, joelly and a few close aides i think. he asks “do you remember the flower field we visited? wha colour were they again?” and sis chose yellow, and then he turned to paula and asked what she thought they were - paula reluctantly says white and he IN FRONT OF EVERYONE confirms that’s true however doesn’t act on it.paula tries to get her sister to escape with her ( which she’s obv refuses), because she knows that this lie can’t be upheld and she doesn’t want her only remaining family to be killed for lying to nobles,when paula tries escaping alone he catches her in the act. professes how much he missed her and all- basically confesses and paula chose to stay but bc of her trauma she basically gaslights herself in her head that it isn’t romantic attraction he feels for her. even tho it blatantly is. they keep it on the DL that she’s actually the one he was searching for but tells paula that she needs to reveal it soon otherwise he will, he’s waiting for her to make tha choice
THE BIG REVEAL: so i can’t remember her name but the girl that used to like ML? his close friend- she basically comes to the estate and goes up to paula and affirms her identity in a blatant way- i can’t recall if she knew what was happening or not- but all the main characters were in front of the estate or in a main part of the building and she came in and was super happy to see paula and called her by her name etc. sister loses it saying “no i’m paula- it’s me!” yada yada and she like “do you think I wouldn’t be able to recognise my friend? you are not her” honestly this reveal was satisfying bc it all crumbled down right in front of this lil bitch. and then tries crying to ML saying “please don’t listen i am paula” - ML basically affirms it all, saying he’s known she was paula and that he knows she is lying to him. she freaks out and gets dragged off to the dungeon for lying to a noble.
just for reference that isn’t the end of the story- a whole bunch of annoying bs happens afterwards and paula is forced to face the truth that she needs to get over her family’s deaths and stop believing she’s unlovable. her sister tried killing her, some assassin tried killing her too. just a bunch of bs that could’ve been avoided if paula grew a backbone and let her sister face the consequences of her actions.
too all those that were rooting for esra, DONT. like this guy is not it at alllll- he hates commoners and only wanted to marry her to get back at the ML and to make his position stronger (<this isn’t really an issue since they’re nobles but yuh). when she eventually tries to get away she thinks she can turn to Esra and be honest and that he was a good guy but he shuts her out and abandons her because she’s not worth anything as a commoner.











usually i live for this drama- however i don’t exactly like that she’s getting sensitive about not being included after literally running away.. like bffr. and i kinda understand his lack of awareness that it’s LOVE however as a king and given WHO he was raised by you’d think he’d have a little more understanding that speaking like your care factor is the result of how “useful” someone is to you - is incredibly insensitive and wouldn’t exactly be beneficial in a political setting either. i get that his position atm is precarious because other kings view him as inexperienced but like have SOME SELF AWARENESS towards those close to you, or those you KNOW you need.
For that particular thing u mentioned at first. For me I totally understand because she didn't want to run away, these people are literally the only people she's close to, at least as close as she will be to people because of her trauma. Everything she does is for the ml because she believes she owes him and that she's the cause of his father's death making her build up her walls, and that grew more and more as she believed ml does not care for her or even hate her. So yes she ran, but because he told her he would rather die than marry her, so she ran not for herself but for him.