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biffhofosho · 1 year

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Prisoner to Temptation | Chapter Nine

Word Count: 10.9k

A/N: I really liked writing this chapter >.>

Cvr | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12

Another week passed and with it, the leaves began to turn in earnest. It was something Naran had never seen before. The few trees that grew near Urga were evergreen or hooded in snow. It had never occurred to her that they could be anything else. The color palette here, however, was dazzling.

It had also become clear that other things were changing with the season.

After the sailors had left, Prince Hyungwon had come to her chambers every night, though she had had to postpone each visit with a promise for later when things weren’t so busy. And things were busy. Between Hyungwon’s demanding study regimen and the creation of a trade treaty with Wessex, which was his most challenging task as prince to date, as well as her own mandated studies and social obligations to the Crown, it left Naran tired, though maybe not the usual kind of tired. She still craved the relief that came with her husband’s touch, with his smell, with his voice, but, then, that was part of the issue.

The truth was actually very simple: Hayun’s words had not left the princess since the day she’d heard them.

It bothered the princess that Hyungwon might have said the same things he said to his wife to other women. It didn’t matter that she kept hearing how he’d given up his maids—for now. What grated was that he was so good at making Naran feel so special, but she was not. If his words were recycled, so were their exploits. It made it a lot harder to fulfill their contract when her feelings could be so easily manipulated. More to the point, there shouldn’t have been any kind of feelings at all. Naran thought she’d had more sense than that, but every time Hyungwon smiled at her, it became apparent she had no sense at all when it came to him.

Adding to her stress level, though many of the serving lasses had been assuaged by the picnic—even going so far for some as to entirely redirect their attentions to more fertile hunting grounds—a few remained openly hostile to the princess. Without Magda to act as a buffer, Naran’s daily life would no doubt have been sabotaged in the pettiest of ways. The whole thing was annoying. She had always been unbothered by what others thought of her, but she’d had the freedom to either say what she wanted or the outlet to just ride away from the issue all together. Everything was different now.

Naran needed to get some control over the problem, but it was much more challenging because, as a mere princess, she did not have the executive power to summarily dismiss a servant who got in her way—after all, marriage or not, it was not her palace. Her Goryeon remained at a conversational level, her poise as a princess was nonexistent, and her power of authority was questionable at best. The only thing she was sure of was that she would not involve Hyungwon in it. The less he thought about the servants, the better.

With Magda’s guiding hand behind the scenes, maybe it would all just go away with a bit more time. Already Naran’s lady-in-waiting had made inquiries into better palace stations for certain staff, and since half the time it seemed Magda was more respected than the princess herself, she had hope that trouble would find a new home.

For now, the princess fell back on the one escape she had. Naran had just gotten back from a long early morning ride through some of the thickest fog she’d ever seen. The world was swaddled in gauze, but on the back of a horse, her mind was always clear. Everything became a simple choice between beast and sky. Usually, it depressed her spirits when she pulled back up to the stable, yet a smile was on her lips before she could think better of it.

“I’ve been looking for you, my lady,” said Prince Hyungwon as he held open the corral door for her. “You left before I could join you.”

“I didn’t know you had planned on that, sire, as you never do.”

He gnawed on the corner of his lip as he looked sheepishly at his feet. The prince was dressed in full riding regalia, with his tall boots and fitted jacket lending him an extra elegant air as always, but he made no move for his own horse. “Well, yes, you know I’m not an early riser. I just thought since I hadn’t seen you in a while, it might have been nice.”

“Sorry to disappoint you then. Perhaps another day?”

“If our schedules ever allow it again… How was your ride?”

Naran dismounted and patted her horse’s haunches as it snorted. “Too short. Are you still planning on riding out then?”

Hyungwon took her horse’s reins and walked with the pair of them back toward its stable. “I think the time has passed. But now that I think of it, we’ve both been far too cooped up in the palace, and, frankly, I’m sick of looking at paperwork. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

The princess looked back at the lifting fog to find topaz skies and the air cool and filled with promise. “It is.”

“What do you say to a little picnic somewhere different?”

At this, Naran’s eyes lit up. “You mean outside of the palace?”

The prince nodded.

“I say yes a thousand times! Is that all right to do? Can you just walk away from your work?”

“I am more productive when I am refreshed, so consider it done. I know just the place, too. Are you all right with a day trip, my lady?” Naran glowered at him and Hyungwon smirked. “Just wanted to be sure you didn’t mind enduring my presence for a bit.”

“If you get me out of here, you shall have no complaints on that part.”

“But we shall have to keep our party very small,” he cautioned.

There was something more behind the prince’s eyes as he spoke, but the princess had neither the inclination nor the patience to decipher it. She was getting out!

“I can be ready in just a few minutes if you so require, my lord.”

“Take your time, Princess. I wasn’t so sure you’d say yes to me, so I haven’t had lunch packed yet.”

“Then let us hurry back to the kitchen and get it started,” Naran suggested, and the prince laughed at her eagerness.

“Let’s,” agreed Hyungwon. He offered his hand for a moment before he yanked it back at the last second and stuffed it in his pocket with a sheepish look. Together, the pair headed back toward the palace.

Along their way, they passed Empress Indeok with her lady-in-waiting sitting under a showy maple with quills and papers in hand. The prince and princess greeted them, and the usually placid empress offered a rare close-lipped smile.

“What are you up to, Mother?” asked Hyungwon as he squinted at her paper, though she drew it up to her chest at once.

“Writing poetry,” she answered.

“I did not know you were a poet, Your Majesty?” Naran said.

“We are all poets if we can open our hearts to the beauty that surrounds us.” Indeok held her daughter-in-law’s gaze far too incisively, and Naran looked to the crimson and butterscotch canopy to escape. “Speaking of beauty, where are the pair of you off to on such a beautiful day?”

“The princess will accompany me on a picnic to Segeomjeong,” answered her son, “so we shall be indisposed for the rest of the afternoon.”

The empress turned her focus to Hyungwon as she asked, “And what of your studies?”

The prince tried to stand tall even as his ears reddened. “They’re not going anywhere…”

“They most certainly aren’t. Perhaps both of you shall find you’ve learned something by the end of the day. Make the most of your time then and go. The light gets shorter with each passing day.”

Again, Indeok’s eyes drilled into Naran, so the princess bowed deeply, as did Hyungwon, before they said goodbye.

As far as anything in a Court was considered, the carriage was prepared rather quickly, but for the princess, it was agonizingly slow. The prospect of adventure after so long without it brought a restlessness to the princess’s legs that had Magda as cross as Naran had ever seen her.

“My Lady, please, for your own sake, try to look a little more modest. I know you’re excited, but that’s the third time the Empress has caught you prancing like a pony. It makes you look rather ungrateful for all the good things otherwise bestowed on you every day.”

“Oh, what care I for that, Magda! I shall be slipping my bonds for several hours. I’ll be a person again, not a position! I guarantee you Empress Indeok feels the same on her missions to town.”

“Except Her Majesty has the good grace to hide it.”

Naran scoffed. “You cannot ruin my good mood today. I am predisposed to like everything.”

“And everyone?” the attendant probed with a smirk.

“I see what you are getting at, and I don’t even care. Aren’t you proud of me?”

With a withering sigh, Magda admitted, “I suppose I am. Just try and act a little reserved for my sake on the highly likely chance that you encounter your subjects along the road? Since I may not accompany you, I would appreciate it if you give the appearance that at least one thing I taught you has rubbed off on you.”

The princess relented and plopped down onto a cushion, albeit ungainly like a child. “Fine, fine. Your guilt trip has penetrated. I shall play the height of prudence and decorum—until I’m out of the line of sight.”

Even Magda let out a reluctant laugh. “It is good to see My Lady smiling so freely again. It almost feels like we’re back in Urga.”

At this, Naran’s joy tempered. With a bittersweet pang, she realized she’d been thinking less of home as she’d grown more accustomed to the structure of Goryeon palace life, and the guilt she’d just felt a minute ago turned more acutely inward, that maybe she was less and less Moghul every day.

“I wish Saran were here,” said the princess.

Before Magda could respond, Hansol appeared in the doorway to their wing and bowed. When he came up, he was wearing his usual gentle smile. “Your Highness, everything has been prepared. Are you ready to go?”

“I am,” Naran answered without the vigor of a minute ago. Hansol extended his hand to help the princess up, and together, they headed toward the courtyard where the carriage her parents had gifted them waited like a cold rain shower on the sunny day as yet another reminder of what she was allowing herself to forget.

Prince Hyungwon was waiting there, holding the carriage door open with a smile on his face, though when he noticed how muted she looked, he worried. “Did you change your mind?”

“Of course not, my lord,” answered the princess. To cover her suddenly glum mood, she said, “Magda just gave me a bit of a dressing down about my eagerness.”

The prince leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Ah, well. Perhaps it’s for the best then that we must keep our party small. I will not scold you on that account.”

Naran recognized he was being charming, but with her guard stubbornly back up, it made it harder for Hyungwon’s warmth to penetrate. Still, the softness of his hand in hers as he helped her into the cabin lingered long after she was seated across from him. With Hansol manning the driver’s seat, they took off through the palace gate.

It had been weeks since Naran had stepped foot outside the palace walls and even longer since she’d left the main streets of Namgyeong—if she thought about it, perhaps not since she arrived as a fiancée. Beyond the city limits, things were much wilder. There were no artfully tamed gardens or permanent architecture here; indeed, aside from the roads themselves and a loose line of humble houses, ready to blow away in the next typhoon, there was hardly any manicuring of the country at all. It was wonderful. The further they went, the easier it was to shed the thoughts that had soured her good mood, and by the time the princess spied the first cow, her excitement had returned.

“Where are we headed anyway?” Naran asked.

Hyungwon brightened across from her, looking as proud as she’d ever seen him. “I’m taking you to a waterfall.”

“A waterfall! How exciting. I haven’t seen one in ages.”

“It’s not so dramatic as the ones at our summer home in Chungju, but it should be refreshing enough in the meantime.”

“Will it be much longer?”

Hyungwon considered before he shook his head. “Not too much, I should think, but it’s been a long time since I’ve gone. I might have been Princess Sarangerel’s age the last time I went.”

Naran stared out the window, her chin in her hand, as she watched the wilderness trundle by. It was harder to dwell in self-pity over the thought of her sister now that she was free of the prison of the palace. Instead, she pictured the lively teenager clapping with anticipation as clearly as if the girl was actually in the carriage. How different life would be if she could escape like this more often.

At length, the carriage slowed where the road got a bit rougher. The sound of a bustling stream outpaced the squeak of the wheels and the snort of the horses until, finally, it roared in earnest as the carriage stopped altogether.

Naran didn’t wait for her husband or his valet to get the door before she threw it open and leapt into tall grass. As wonderful as the gardens were at Changdeokgung, the air was sweeter here, damp and wild with a crispness to it that excited even the tastebuds. She could hear the surge of the waterfall somewhere beyond the bushes at the top of the creek bed and nothing else—not carriages or horses or people shuffling by. The sun had long-since burned away the morning fog, leaving its dry kiss on her face, and she turned toward it like a starved flower. With her eyes closed, she felt free.

“Having fun?” asked Hyungwon as he pulled up alongside her.

“You have no idea how much. It’s perfect here,” the princess replied.

“It will only get more so. Come.”

He took his wife’s hand and pulled her through a split in the hedgerow to the edge of the embankment. There squatted a lavish pavilion in the same colorful and ornate fashion as those on the palace grounds. He brought her through its charming little gate and into its shade, and together, they looked out over the stream.

Up the course to the left were the foothills of the green mountains north of the city, every nook and cranny lush with flora of diversifying hues. The first blush of autumn reds dappled the hillsides, interspersed with flecks of gold and rust while the creek, bulging from a recent bout of rain, babbled between sturdy sheets of table rocks and sent up fine sprays over mini rapids that shattered the sun into little rainbows. The waterfall there wasn’t much taller than her husband, but Naran thought maybe it was the most remarkable one she’d ever seen. The creek bounced back and forth between several boulders in misty white arches until it crashed into a shallow green pool at its base. Down to the right was more pretty countryside without so much as a hut in sight. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Hyungwon was watching her with a smile on his face as Naran stared out at the stream. “Would you like to take a walk while Hansol sets up the picnic?”

“Our Hansol works hard enough as it is. Part of the fun of a picnic is creating it, my lord. Are you too spoiled as the prince to take out a cushion?” she teased.

Hyungwon bristled. “Of course not. I thought perhaps you were too spoiled though.”

“Do you have any idea how often I would simply nap in the grass on the steppe?” she returned with a laugh. “Spoiled for me is a cushion.”

“Very well. Today, we live our dream. Today, neither of us is royal.”

Naran watched as her husband busied himself with supplies, and a very strong compulsion to hug him overwhelmed. It was the first time the thought had come to her, and though she thought better of it before she could cross that boundary, the fuzziness in her heart remained. With a soft smile, she mumbled, “A better plan could not be made.”

As Hyungwon dug through the trunk, he lobbed a cushion unexpectedly at her, and it clapped the princess in the face, sending both of them into fits of laughter.

“You call me lazy, but here I am, doing all your dirty work,” he complained though it was with a grin. “I’m a fool whenever it comes to you.”

“I never said I wasn’t coming to help!” With his arms full, the prince shuffled toward the pavilion, but Naran barked, “Not there. Let’s enjoy the scene. Shall we set up on the rocks below?”

“Sounds good,” said Hyungwon as he headed down the steps of the embankment to the wide, flat rock that abutted the water’s edge. There, he laid out the blanket and a cushion while Naran followed him down. He raised an eyebrow as he questioned, “Two cushions?”

“One for Hansol, of course. We are not royal today after all, so why shouldn’t he eat with us?”

At this, the prince’s lips puckered as though he had bitten into a lemon. “He’s not interested in lunch.”

Naran shot her husband a withering look before she called down the stream bed, “Hansol, come eat with us!”

The servant jogged back with his usual smile, but it faded as he looked awkwardly between the prince and princess, who wore polar opposite expressions. After finally settling on his master’s stern face, he bowed and said, “You are very thoughtful, but I had breakfast at the palace, Your Highness.”

“What nonsense,” she scolded. “That was a long trip, and you did all the work. Sit and drink something at least then.”

Hansol looked at the prince again, but Hyungwon’s face did not change. The valet bowed again as he added, “Her Ladyship is all politeness, but it is best if I keep an eye on the road as the carriage will stick out even more than usual in the country.”

Naran sighed as she plopped down onto her cushion and cast off her shoes to stretch all her toes. “Honestly, have you never had a meal with the Prince? Haven’t you two known each other for decades?”

“This is not really done in Goryeo, My Lady.”

“Well, who else is going to know? We know you well enough to know you wouldn’t say anything, Hansol. I’m sure there’s no one better at being discreet than the prince’s valet.”

“But—” the young man hedged.

“It’s weird, okay?” Naran said abruptly. “Magda and I eat together all the time, and I’m sick and tired of being watched with every meal of my life. Sometimes it feels like Goryeo is strangling me with its well-mannered hands.”

Hyungwon sighed as he grumbled, “Hansol, please join us, at least for tea.”

“Your Highness!” the servant shouted at full attention, this bow even deeper than the last two. “It would be the greatest honor of my life.”

“Having a cup of tea?” the princess laughed as she poured some for all of them. “Come, sit. The world is our palace today.”

Naran swiveled toward the creek and leaned back onto her hands so she could bask in the sun. Though the weather was mild, the sun was hot, and the cooled fruit tea was more refreshing than ever. Combined with the rush of the water, the princess felt positively rejuvenated.

“It could not be more beautiful,” she remarked to the others. “I shall remember this for a long time.”

“So will I,” echoed the prince, and when Naran opened her eyes, she found him smiling at her. “I am relieved it all pleases you.”

“More than you can imagine, my lord. I didn’t know how much my heart needed this.”

Hyungwon dropped his gaze to his cup. “Glad to hear it.”

Naran hummed. “The sky may be crowded out by trees here, but I like it more than I ever thought I would.”

“You do?”

For a moment, the prince’s voice was brighter than the sun, and she teased, “Some days.”

Hyungwon dug into one of the baskets he’d brought and pulled out a plate of fruits and nuts as Naran cast a glance back to their guest. “What do you think, Hansol? Isn’t this lovely?”

“Very much so, Your Highness.”

“Ah, what a lot we are. Even sharing a picnic alone in the wilderness, we’re still so formal,” she lamented. “I guess it can’t be helped.”

“I brought some games to play,” Hyungwon interjected.

At this though, Naran sat bolt upright, her eyes fixed to her husband. “You did?”

“Yes, but you should know that, today, I am the ringer, Princess. This time, I picked games to my strengths.”

At the boast in his voice, she couldn’t help her lip bite. “Is that so, my lord?”

“It is so, so be careful what you wager with me.”

“Oh, and we’re betting again, too?”

“Where’s the fun without a bet?” he replied.

“Fair enough. Before I make mine, I should like to see the games.”

With a few more handfuls of food, the prince leapt up with his valet, and the pair of them headed back to the carriage to unpack the first set, which was a simple game of wooden arrows meant to be tossed into the necks of jars. Once the jars were set up in the grass above the stream bank, the pair each took four arrows, and Hansol was made the Master of Ceremonies in charge of keeping score.

“Your bet, my lady?” asked the prince as he mimed a few throws.

Naran smiled from ear to ear. “When I win, I want mutton dumplings for dinner.”

Hyungwon raised an eyebrow. “Mutton? Really?”

“It will remind me of home, and I will expect even a picky eater like yourself to try it.”

At this, his cheeks lifted to his eyes. “Very well, I suppose if you win, that can be arranged.”

“And what of your bet, my lord?”

The prince’s smile tempered as he looked at her. “I want you to call me Hyungwon.”

All the breath in Naran’s lungs rushed out. She hadn’t expected him to renew his same bet from their horse race, especially when she’d worked so hard to forget it, but there it was again. The princess swallowed hard and kept her chin up as best she could as she answered, “I hate to tell you, sire, but I won’t lose.”

“We shall see.”

Unfortunately for the prince, he seemed to have forgotten that Naran was a superlative archer, and though there was no bow, her aim was perilously true. The wind was out of his sails before he’d even thrown his first arrow, and he missed every single toss after that. Hansol tried to hide his snicker, but Hyungwon caught him and yelled, “Master of Ceremonies, you have been demoted to clean-up crew!”

Naran joined in with the servant’s laughter now while her husband continued to pout.

“A fine way to treat their prince,” Hyungwon grumbled as he tossed one of the arrows as far as it could go into the creek itself. “Go clean that up, clean-up crew!”

There was something about seeing Hyungwon so sulky that prompted the richest laughter from the princess while also provoking her desire to make him feel better, and she leaned into the effervescent feeling. “Cheer up, my prince. You have yet another game for redemption, do you not?”

At least this roused the brightness back to Hyungwon’s face. “Yes, and this one I will not lose, of that I am sure. My second wager will have to wait for another day then as the first has yet to be satisfied.”

“Fine then. And when I win this, I want you to find a bottle of kumis for our dinner. It’s a delicacy from my homeland, and I miss it.”

Hyungwon scowled. “Is that that weird milk liquor we had at dinner that one night?”

Naran laughed. “The very same, but as you made me drink that swill from Champa, I am determined to get you drunk on kumis, and then—”

She cut herself off as her face heated at the memory of what had unfolded between them the last time they drank together. Hyungwon seemed to remember the same, though his color crept up under his collar instead.

“It’s a bet then,” he said.

“And our game this time?”

“Simple enough.” Since Hansol was still fishing for the arrow down by the creek, Hyungwon fetched a little leather pouch from the trunk and came back, tossing it in the air. “Whoever can keep this bag in the air with the most kicks wins the round.”

“So it’s to be sudden death for this as well?”

“Scared?” he challenged.

This time? A little, thought Naran.

“Never,” she fired back. “But perhaps you’ll take a little mercy on your wife and let me practice a few times?”

Hyungwon considered before he ultimately smiled. “Since I haven’t played in years either, a few warm-up rounds might do me some good as well, though I will warn you that when I was young, I could kick it all the way to town and back.”

“‘When’ you were young, sire? Are you a young prince or a tired grandfather?” she teased, and now that Hansol was back with the soggy arrow, he joined the trio in a laugh. Naran rested a hand on the valet’s shoulder and added, “See? Hansol agrees with me.”

Instantly, the smile left the prince’s face.

“Let’s practice,” he said flatly before he dropped the bag and brought his foot up to hit it. They collided once, but he missed the second kick, and the bag fell limply to the grass.

Naran raised a brow. “This is what I’m supposed to be afraid of, grandfather?”

“We said a warm-up, didn’t we?”

This time when Hyungwon kicked the bag, he was more focused. He was four kicks deep before it hit the ground, and Naran’s anxiety stirrred a little. But on his third attempt, it fell to the ground after a single kick, and she trusted she would win soundly.

She undid the ties at the neck of her hanbok before Hyungwon shouted, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?”

“You don’t get to choose a challenge that I won’t be able to do because of the skirt. I’m taking it off so I can actually compete.”

The prince’s eyes slid to Hansol, who waited passively beside the carriage with eyes glued to the princess’s ankles.

“Maybe we should—” Hyungwon started, but Naran cut him off by shucking off the hanbok with a careless toss to the grass.

“Oh my word, you are old. It’s not like we’re in the palace, and that certainly has never stopped us before, has it?”

The prince cleared his throat as the memory of their recent tryst overtook them both.

“Besides,” she said, softer now, “I’m wearing the regulation undershirt and pants. The only thing you have to fear is my natural athleticism.”

“Very well. You have convinced me, so you will have no excuse when you lose. Ladies first.”

Naran nodded and braced for action. She grabbed the bag and squared up to her husband.

“Just remember,” he said, “you only get one chance.”

“Are you saying that for my benefit or yours?”

“Yours, obviously.”

They grinned at each other only for as long as it took the princess to widen her stance, sharpen her eyes, and drop the bag.

Naran landed her first kick perfectly, and with that success out of the way, the next one came even easier. Since she had only gotten better with each passing practice and Hyungwon had gotten worse, she was confident this would be her best run yet.

Three. Four. Five. Six.

She landed each kick with no problem, but just as she brought her foot up for the seventh, her ankle wavered and she missed. The bag fell to the ground with a soft plop! and he scooped it up while Hansol applauded vigorously.

“Impressive, Your Highness,” the valet cheered.

“Six is very good,” Hyungwon observed, “but seven will be better.”

The prince tossed the bag high in the air and caught it, a huge grin splitting his face.

“I’m hardly worried considering what I've seen from you thus far, my prince.”

Hyungwon snorted slightly, and a strange pit formed in the princess’s stomach. Something was off.

“I am sorry, My Lady,” said Hansol with his head hung, and the pit expanded inside her.

Hyungwon dropped the bag and kicked it effortlessly high, enough that he could spin quickly and level the next kick handily with his other foot. Back and forth, the bag moved without so much as a question that it might drop.

Three. Four. Five.

“You liar!” Naran wailed. “You faked that poor warmup!”

Hyungwon laughed as kick number six landed expertly, this time sailing it high again so he could put on another fancy spin for a decisive kick number seven.

But then Naran’s hand shot forward automatically to tickle the prince on his ribs. Hyungwon let out a squeal, and the bag fell into the grass.

“You cheated!” he shouted, indignant, but Naran couldn’t see his face as she had already taken off running.

“So did you!” she cackled as she zipped down the slope toward the creek.

Hyungwon raced after her with a war cry, and when the princess risked a look behind her, she found that his much longer legs were closing the gap between them. She laughed and charged forward, arms pumping, lungs gulping for breath, as she passed their picnic and thundered into the creek. Icy water rushed around her ankles, but it only made her cackle louder.

“You’ll never catch me!” she shouted. “I’m the wind.”

She should have looked back before she boasted.

Hyungwon caught up to his wife in time to grab her by the shoulder and fling her back against the stream bank. Naran’s spine collided with hard soil as one of her husband’s hands clapped beside her head while the other gripped her hip, caging her in. Their chests heaved, their cheeks rouged, and their eyes locked on each other.

“You robbed me of my victory,” Hyungwon growled as he pressed closer.

“All’s fair in love and war,” Naran retorted, but when she realized her words, she added, “and this is war.”

“Is that so?” His face dipped down toward hers as he whispered, “Let’s test that.”

His lips were just about to skim hers when, through hazy, half-lidded eyes, the princess murmured, “You know the rules…”

“What happened to ‘all’s fair’?”

“I just said that so you wouldn’t be angry with me.”

“Hmm,” said the prince as his forehead kissed hers, and there was no way to escape his black gaze. “I should be angry. I was about to win my bet.”

“I know. I was scared,” she admitted. “I don't like to lose.”

“I don't think that's what you're afraid of.”

Hyungwon’s thumb glided across Naran’s lips, and a full body shiver ripped through her. Ice water surged around her ankles, but that wasn’t what had her frozen beneath her husband’s whims.

The prince pressed his lips to the freckled apple of her cheekbone, and she let out a shaky breath somewhere between relief and despair.

“Oh…” Naran whimpered.

The hand beside her moved into her hair now, twining the loose strands there to fasten her to him.

“I'm hungry,” she stuttered.

Hyungwon’s lips moved from her cheek to her earlobe, and he nibbled it before he said, “I'm hungry, too.”

“We—we only had fruit and tea.”

“Mm-hm,” he murmured as he kissed her neck now.

“Let’s eat?”

Beneath those swelling lips, she felt his teeth graze her throat before his tongue chased the tremor of her moan upward.

"Yes, let’s…” he purred.

“And—ah!—and my feet are freezing. We should get to shore, sire. Hansol’s probably wondering where we went.”

Hyungwon sighed and stepped back into the heart of the creek with an angry splash. “Fine, let’s go.”

He stooped to pick up a rock and chucked it as far as he could before he stomped back toward the picnic blanket.

The rest of their picnic was unusually tense, and Naran didn’t know what to do about it. This time, Hyungwon really was angry with her—she could feel it—but she didn’t know how to get out of it because she wasn’t sure for which offense he’d ultimately convicted her. They ate in silence, and though everything had been prepared with its customary perfection, it was all tasteless. At the same time, she wanted the meal to last forever because she was dreading the ride back to the palace for more than just the return to her royal life.

And the princess was right to dread it, too. All the wonders of the scenery and roads faded with every attempt at conversation she made. Hyungwon outright rebuffed them all until Naran thought she would lose it.

“I’m sorry!” she blurted when they reached the first inklings of Namgyeong.

She thought he’d brighten at her apology, but Hyungwon didn’t even turn to look at her. “Sorry for what?”

“It was such a nice day, and I didn’t mean to ruin it. I had a lot of fun, and I know you worked hard.”

At this, the prince spared a glance for her though his face remained blank, but Naran realized it was easier to talk when he wasn’t looking at her with those soft, full eyes.

“And I’m sorry about the stuff at the creek… It’s not that I didn’t want to, but I think I was worried it might be a bit weird with Hansol right there—”

But this only made Hyungwon huff and return to the window, and no matter what else Naran tried to add, he wouldn’t look at her again.

It was twilight by the time they returned to the palace. The prince did not wait for his wife to disembark but instead leapt out and stormed back to his room, and by the time she got back, his bedroom door was firmly shut.

Hyungwon had never been mad at her before, and it didn’t feel right. She was used to being mad at him—or maybe not him exactly, but this situation of theirs—so she had no idea what to do to set things right that didn’t also mean exposing parts of herself she’d never exposed before.

Perhaps it was best to let it all blow over. He would go to bed and so would she, and when they woke up, the status quo would return.

Except, as Naran stared up at her ceiling, tracing maps and patterns in the woodwork, she realized that maybe he wasn’t angry.

Maybe she had hurt him.

She had shut down his attentions rather abruptly at the picnic, so perhaps it had wounded her husband’s pride. Sex, she understood. Sex, she could fix. Then things could go back to normal.

Determined to set things back on their familiar—and safe—path, Naran opened her door and checked the sitting room. Thankfully, there were no servants since she did not need them notating tonight like a secret diary.

The princess didn’t bother with her robe but slipped only in her nightgown through the darkened room. There was a thin slash of candlelight beneath Hyungwon’s door, so she trusted he was awake before she convinced her hand to knock at last.

His voice came gruff and firm through the thick wood. “For the tenth time, Hayun, I just want to be left alone.”

Hayun?

Naran felt her heart in her throat even though she knew she had no right to.

“No, my lord, it’s your wife.”

She meant to simply say “it’s me,” but somewhere between her head and her heart, the wires got crossed.

There was silence at first and then a great deal of shuffling as she heard clothes being tugged on. For a brief second, she wondered how undressed he really was, especially if Hayun had been by. The door jerked open, and her husband’s broad frame filled it. Hyungwon looked down at her with complete nothingness, and that, more than anything, stirred the dread in Naran’s stomach.

“What are you doing here?” he asked flatly.

“May I come in?”

“Why?”

He asked it like he genuinely had no idea why a wife should ever show up at a husband’s door, and Naran began to question how much of a fool she really was.

“I wanted to see you. It has been weird between us since we got back, and even when things are weird for me, they’re not usually so weird between us.”

“They’re not weird. They’re distant. Isn’t that what you wanted?” he probed. “You wanted distance, and I’m giving it to you.”

Naran narrowed her eyes at him. “If you wanted to keep your distance from me, then you shouldn’t have planned a picnic for the two of us.”

“For the two of us…” Hyungwon laughed incredulously as he turned into his room, leaving enough space for the princess to slip in and close the door behind them, lest one of those servants show up unexpectedly.

His room was a mess. The bedding was off-kilter, and Hyungwon’s outfit from the day was strewn about the floor. Surrounding his desk were several crumpled letters, and though Naran’s Goryeon had steadily improved, she still could not read the foreign script with any sort of speed. She wondered what he’d been writing.

“My prince—”

“You say that to me now like it meant anything to you earlier,” Hyungwon snapped suddenly.

Naran reeled back under the force of his words. The prince had shown her many sides since they’d met, but she hadn’t seen his anger before, and it surprised her, not just because of its conviction but because of its power. When Hyungwon was angry, he could cut—not just with the razors of his eyes but the arrows in his tone. She trembled.

He sank onto the edge of his bed, his eyes on his bare feet. “How could you flirt with him like that while I was standing right beside you?”

Naran jolted. “Flirt— With Hansol? That’s not—”

“I organized today for you. For us.”

Her mouth hung open as the strength of his words felt like a punch to the gut.

“I didn’t intend to share it, least of all with someone you’re obviously courting.”

“Whoa,” she objected. “I’m not courting anyone. Hansol and I joke like that all the time, sire.”

His face fell even more. “All the time?”

“I don’t understand why you’re getting so upset. Nothing happened. So your friend ate with us and played games with us? You arranged it. I didn’t invite him—you did. You can’t get mad at me for asking the person hired to take care of us to join us for a meal. Hansol deserves it.”

Hyungwon forked his hands angrily through his hair as his long legs once again ate up the room. “Naran, it’s not about— Why do you insist on misunderstanding?”

“Why then do you never speak plainly? You know I’m weak in Goryeon, so let me make myself perfectly clear in English as that was the language in which we made our contract. Equal freedom in our marriage was a part of it, was it not? And I didn’t even act on it!”

“Yes, but I was right there! I am still prince of this empire or has Her Ladyship forgotten?”

“I have not,” said Naran through gritted teeth.

“How then do you think that makes me look to the servants?”

The princess rolled her eyes. “No one else was there. It was just Hansol.”

“Stop saying his name!”

Hyungwon’s voice boomed. Naran had never heard him so loud—until that second, she wasn’t even sure he was capable of it—but now, her ears were ringing and her throat was dry. The prince looked frayed, and his ever-soft eyes were shimmering with an emotion she had never seen from him.

Stunned, Naran bowed her head and mumbled, “You’re right. I’m sorry, my lord.”

“Why do you never say my name? How has my servant earned it but I have not? You won’t even let me win my bet.”

Hyungwon’s indignation had waned, and what was left in his voice was brittle. In so many ways, it was louder than his shouting.

Steeling herself, Naran pushed up onto her toes and risked a kiss at the very corner of her husband’s lips because it was the only way she could think of to get out of a question she wasn’t prepared to answer. Hyungwon turned immediately toward her mouth, but she darted down to his jaw and then his neck.

In between kisses, she said, “I am sorry about today. You’ve been nothing but fair to me. Let me be fair to you, my prince.”

Hyungwon pushed her back to look at her questioningly, but Naran just grinned as she sank to her knees before him. She tried to look fierce and beautiful as he had between her legs, but her heart was shaking. She shifted her weight and bunched her skirt beneath her knees to dull the pressure of the floor, but it also gave her an excuse to fidget out all of her gathering anxieties.

“What are you doing?” the prince asked suspiciously.

Naran brought her fingers to the knot of his robe, and, quaking, they fought to undo it. The room was painfully quiet, save for her hard breaths. She was spotlighted by the silence and even more exposed than she’d been on his desk mere weeks ago.

“I have never done this,” the princess admitted, “so you may need to guide me.”

“Only me?” he said hopefully.

“Only you.”

Hyungwon’s fingers curled under his wife’s chin as he lifted her face, one finger tenderly stroking the shadows there. He looked at Naran with such fondness that she almost forgot that she had used this as a tool to get out of something.

Instead, it felt like falling into something completely different.

“I know how I sounded just now, but you must know that you don't have to do anything beyond what our roles may have asked of us,” he reminded. “I have no expectations on that front.”

“I know, just as I didn’t ask you to make me feel better the night my family left. So, why did you?”

Hyungwon brushed her unbound hair back from her face, his chest heaving now as he stared at her. “Because I wanted to.”

Naran dragged her hands up his thighs until her thumb grazed the growing hardness there. He sighed at the contact, and his hips pushed not-so-subtly into her hand.

“And now I want to do this with you,” she assured. “Just tell me what feels good, yes?”

“Mm-hm,” was all Hyungwon could muster as he stared at her, transfixed.

Mercifully, the knot in his belt came undone at last, and as it fell away, the prince’s robe parted to reveal his thin white dressing gown. Naran brought her hands back to his thighs and kneaded the hidden muscle there. A little wet patch stained the fabric at the tent, and Naran licked her lips. With each sweep of her hands, the garment rose higher and higher until it was above his knees.

The princess sucked in a breath as she gripped the hem and pushed it up to bare his rigid length. It was pointed directly at her mouth in anticipation of her promise. Awkwardly, Naran shuffled a bit closer, the tip almost brushing her cheek as she gathered the loose fabric in one hand at his waist while the other encircled his base.

Both of them gasped.

It was different, being this kind of intimate with her husband. This close, everything about him was huge and overwhelming. His manhood strained for her, dripping milk-white from its pink tip, but beyond that, his taut stomach flared up into wide wings of chest and shoulder broadened even further by the curtains of his robe. How she longed to see him totally naked above her, but perhaps it was for the best that she didn’t ask. Naran had never intended to go this far as it was.

Hyungwon was always hard for their encounters, but there was something different about the scalding iron beneath her fingers now. She could feel him pulsing with excitement. She could smell his heady musk. There was something primal in it, something obscene—the smell of raw, aching need.

“I shouldn’t be this hard when I’m this cross with you,” he murmured.

“Let me make it better,” she assured.

“You’d better.”

There was darkness in his tone but admiration in his eyes. It aroused something in Naran, something that made her want to listen—to please. Even if he’d done this a hundred times with a hundred different women, she was determined to be the best for him. It was a foolish thing to think, she realized, but it didn’t matter. What she wanted, more than anything, was to be his favorite.

Naran tipped forward, unsure of what to really do, so she went with instinct. She kissed the length of his shaft first, and beneath her lips, she could feel him throb. Hyungwon’s eyes fluttered closed as his hand stroked her hair, so she repeated her kisses on the other side of his member, too. Each time she neared his tip, he would suck in a breath, but if this was her apology, she was going to make it a good one. On her last pass, she angled him upward to pepper the underside of his manhood with more attention, and this time, when she tasted the satiny skin beneath its head, Hyungwon yanked back on her hair to her little yelp.

“Not yet,” he said darkly. “There’s something I need first.”

Over the course of their exchanges, the power had shifted many times between them, but looking up at her husband slack-jawed and no doubt rather stupidly, without question, tonight, it had shifted firmly to his favor.

Naran tried to nod, but Hyungwon held her hair too firmly, so she whispered, “Anything.”

He wrenched the hem of his shirt from her other hand and ordered, “I’ve got it. You, my darling, are to put your hand between your thighs and touch yourself the way I like to touch you.”

“This is about you, my lord,” she protested shakily.

“It is, but I need you in this moment with me. I need to pretend those are my fingers. I need you purring around me. I want to feel that you need me, too.”

She bit her lip as she considered the meaning behind his words, but not for long before Hyungwon tugged roughly on her hair again to tilt her eyes up to his.

“Naran,” he commanded. “Just do it.”

Slowly, the princess brought her free hand to the inside of her thigh while her other remained gripping his base. With Hyungwon’s hand still holding her head back, she was forced to train her eyes on his while her fingertips brushed her folds. Her gaze darted to his chest in hopes of shielding her from all this exposure, but his grip tightened, and she knew she wouldn’t get away so easily.

“Are you wet?” Hyungwon asked.

She felt like she was bathed in fire at this point.

“Yes, my prince.”

“Show me.”

Naran couldn’t breathe from the embarrassment, but she also couldn’t find it in her to say no. She swiped her two fingers up her seam and then, quivering, raised them for his approval. The candlelight emblazoned the indecent sheen enameling her fingertips.

Hyungwon didn't say anything, but his smug grin spoke volumes. He grabbed her damp hand and guided her to smear her arousal over his tip and then along his length. He appraised his artwork with a dark chuckle.

“Pretty,” he remarked.

Naran looked questioningly up at him, and for a second, a tender smile flashed across his face.

“You can put those back now, princess.”

She dropped her hand to his thigh, but Hyungwon shook his head. “No, no. Where I told you to put them.”

Slowly, her hand disappeared back under her gown only to find she was exponentially more soaked. Naran stroked her swollen lips idly, just enough to tease a whimper from her and perk her husband’s ears.

“Very good, my darling. Now, we can proceed.”

She opened her mouth and leaned forward, but Hyungwon pulled back on her hair.

“Not with that yet,” Hyungwon said, his voice enflamed with lust. “First, tell me how my fingers feel.”

Naran was panting now, not from her touch but from her husband’s unexpected command over her. Her head was spinning, and if he hadn’t been anchoring her by her hair, she might have collapsed on all fours and just begged for relief.

“My lord, please—”

“They’re not inside you yet, are they?”

It was difficult to shake her head, but she tried.

“You can’t have my cock until you take my fingers, understand?”

“Yes…”

“Good. Now, slide them in while I watch.”

With her thighs already shaking, Naran slipped one finger along her slit to coat it in her ample arousal, and easily enough, she parted her lips and found her entrance. She winced as she pushed inside herself, not because it hurt but because she’d never done it before. She had experimented with her own body, of course, but something about doing that herself it had seemed… taboo. It was even more intense now under her husband’s scrutiny.

“How does it feel?” Hyungwon asked. His voice betrayed him, less confident now and higher-pitched as his breath ramped up.

“Warm,” she confessed. “Wet.”

“Tight?”

“Y-yes.”

“Does it feel good?” he murmured, entranced.

“Yours are better.”

“Of course they are, but you can’t have them.”

There it was, the true reason behind this little show. Naran understood everything now. Hyungwon wanted to remind her of how good he could make her feel. He was showing her once and for all that she would never please herself again the way he could. The cruel bastard…

As if he could hear her thoughts, he smirked. “Open, princess.”

Through tremulous breaths, her lips parted.

“Mm,” Hyungwon purred. “So nice. Now, take me in your mouth. Go slowly since you’ve never done this before.”

At last, the grip on her hair released, and he pet the top of her head in soothing strokes. As her nerves mounted, her thighs squeezed her hand, but her determination did not wane.

Tentatively, her tongue peeked out for an experimental taste. She tasted clean skin at first, fresh from his bath, and she wondered who’d drawn it for him. Did he wash alone or had someone helped him? Was someone there when he’d stepped out? Was it Hayun?

“So pretty,” Hyungwon murmured, shaking her from whatever nonsense had tried to cloud the immediacy of this moment. Naran offered another lick, this one flicking against the skin under the flare of his tip, and he sucked in a sharp gasp. “Feels too good already, princess. When you’re ready, I want you to close your mouth around me and move as much as you’re comfortable. Don’t be afraid. Just mind your teeth, and don’t stop moving those fingers inside you, understood?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Go ahead now.”

Naran swallowed roughly as she sized up Hyungwon’s manhood. She pulled back on the skin there and delighted in the way his breaths tattered. Wide as she could, she opened for him, being careful to watch her teeth as instructed, and then she placed his head inside. His thickness pressed heavy on her tongue, and it made her fingers twitch inside her walls.

Saliva rushed to her mouth as she closed her lips and sucked gently. Hyungwon groaned, his hand fisting his nightshirt aggressively. Naran tried to remember his words, but the newness of the experience was already intimidating, so stimulating herself was downright overwhelming. Until she could find her balance, she gripped his base tighter as an anchor while she bobbed a little deeper down his shaft.

The bloom of his cockhead filled her mouth, and for her first full taste, she pushed him inside just to the back of her tongue before she felt a new pressure, one that threatened to gag her. Hyungwon must have felt her muscles spasming against the intrusion, so he caressed her cheek and said, “Easy, my darling. Not too much so soon. You’ll get there.”

With his reassurance, Naran eased back and kept her pace slow and shallow at first. It took her a bit to relax her jaw enough to fit his girth comfortably, but as she found a rhythm, she sucked a little fiercer and a little deeper. It was easy to get lost in the moment then, finding satisfaction in the way her husband hummed and moaned and panted, especially when she’d risk taking him to the edge of her throat again.

“It’s okay to move your tongue, princess. I want you to.”

Hyungwon’s husky voice shook her from her trance and brought back with embarrassing clarity that she was on her knees with her husband’s manhood in her mouth. Naran looked up at him with wide eyes, and the hand that had found a comfortable home on the back of her head cinched in her hair. His lids hooded his gaze even further as his ears reddened.

“The way you look right now… You can’t imagine,” he whispered. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

Naran couldn’t answer. Her head was swimming with thoughts of her husband. This was only about pleasure, she had to remind herself. This was about staying the course.

This was about pleasure.

She closed her eyes and focused on the way her mouth stretched to accommodate him. Her jaw was beginning to ache now, as were her lips since they were pulled taut around his shaft, but she liked it. She liked the way Hyungwon hummed and hissed and sometimes, when she’d suck with just the right pressure on just the right place, he’d mewl sweetly, and it would stir her fingers in her core without conscious thought.

The deeper the couple delved into their little depravity, the quieter he got even as his member grew stiffer. But Naran wanted him louder. She wanted to hear him tell her how good of a job she was doing, though she knew if she asked it of him, he would deny her all together.

This time when she pushed down on his length, Hyungwon hit the back of her throat, and she pulled back gasping for breath, tears in her eyes.

“Shh,” the prince soothed. “I told you not to rush it. Are you okay?”

“Mm-hm,” said Naran, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“You can do a little more, right? I’m getting close.”

She nodded, and Hyungwon smiled.

“Use your hand, too. Like this.” The prince placed her hand at his hilt and squeezed until he got the pressure just the way he liked. “Little tighter, princess. Get everything your mouth can’t reach and move them up and down together.”

He did a pass with her, his hand over hers as she swallowed him as far as was comfortable, and this time he groaned.

“No wonder you miss my fingers so much. Look at these tiny hands,” he murmured. “So soft and small. They feel so good. Naran, darling, you feel so good.”

Things were getting blurry again. The praise hadn’t just swelled her head or her sex this time. It had lodged in her chest, puffing out her breasts and tightening her lungs as her heart stuttered behind it all.

“Just a little more…” said Hyungwon, this time a borderline whine.

The more she sucked, the more she noticed a strange taste at the back of her throat, a little salty and maybe musky, too. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, as unexpected as it was, nor was it delicious, yet something about it was addictive. The more determinedly she savored him, the more of that taste there was and the more she found him meeting her strokes with needy thrusts of his hips.

“Faster,” he urged.

Naran obliged and picked up the pace. Between sloppy slurps and heavy breaths and whimpers from the couple, it was noisier now. Her knees were throbbing as was her core since she couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than following her husband’s most basic instruction of keeping her fingers firmly lodged in her walls.

On her last pass, Hyungwon’s breath hitched frantically, and he held the back of her head as this time as his cock drilled urgently between her lips. He kept the depth shallow for her, but with the speed came a mess of drool and erratic breaths as she tried to maintain a seal around his shaft.

A string of Goryeon curses tumbled out of his mouth before he called, “Here it comes. Swallow it. Swallow it all! I know you can!”

With a thrust of his hips, Hyungwon stretched her lips around his thickness, cupped the back of her head with both hands, and emptied his salty load onto the flat of her tongue and down her throat. Even with his warning, Naran almost choked. There was so much, and it just kept coming so she kept swallowing, taking deep breaths through her nose in between her desperate gulps.

Suddenly, Hyungwon pulled out with another curse. His face twisted with the intensity of his release as he stumbled back against the wall, hand over his heart.

“Oh, Naran,” he gasped. “Naran, Naran, Naran…”

His eyes were wide but vacant as he shivered and squeezed the base of his manhood. A few pearls beaded at his fiery tip, but when she moved to clean them up, he shook his head.

“Too much, too much,” he warned. “Need a minute.”

The princess gave her husband his moment to compose himself though it was just as much of an excuse for her to take in the sight of him completely unwound. He was so elegant, rosy-skinned and fat-lipped, his long legs sagging as he slumped to the side like a reed in the wind. His nightshirt caught at the base of his softening manhood in a way that was more appetizing than it should have been considering the pain in her jaw. At last, Hyungwon’s bleary eyes focused on her as he struggled to regulate his breath again.

“Naran…” said the prince, though the misty way he said it felt like a thought he was not ready to voice.

Eventually, he rose and the princess figured she was expected to do the same. Taking his proffered hand, she stood up on shaky legs. Drool coated her chin, arousal soaked her fingers, and tears streaked her cheeks, but she felt beautiful. The way he looked at her now made her feel beautiful.

“How was—”

She didn’t even get out the question before Hyungwon grabbed her wrist and dragged her back to his bed to toss her on it.

“What’s—”

Again, he cut her off as he scrambled through her nightgown to bare her legs and finally her soaked core. Hyungwon’s fingers stroked her engorged folds, gathering up her mess while Naran’s foggy head sank into the comforter.

“You don’t have to do anything, my prince,” she managed to squeak out despite her thick tongue. “This was my apology.”

“Don’t tell me how to forgive you,” he commanded in the deepest, darkest voice she’d ever heard in her life, and she gave in immediately.

Hyungwon exposed her entrance, and only a second later, his middle finger was buried inside her while Naran choked on her gasp. This time, he was not gentle. He plunged in and out of her hole quickly and roughly, his palm slapping against her wet sex every time, and when he wanted, he added a second finger. The stretch made her arch, and unlike her husband, the princess could not keep her keening locked away. Her fingers gripped his biceps as she cried and begged for more.

“How do they feel?” Hyungwon demanded. “Tell me how they feel.”

A juddering moan poured from Naran’s lips as she tried to find words, but it was impossible. Her writhing was getting in the way of his rhythm, so the prince clamped a hand on her thigh to keep her defenseless against his onslaught. His fingers were so long and so unfairly talented that the slow burn in her walls was stoked into a bonfire in just a few thrusts.

Dimly, Naran knew she was out of her mind with lust. Her hips bucked in desperation. Her eyes squeezed until she saw stars. The voice that poured feverishly from her lips was no longer hers.

“More, more, more! Please!”

Her need was more animal than human now. She was so close to the precipice. She had to fall. She needed to fall. Release was the only possibility to her simple mind.

But then Hyungwon withdrew his fingers, and Naran wailed in horror. She shot up, a madness burning like wildfire in her eyes as she snarled at her husband. A river of arousal gushed between her legs, and there was no stopping it from pooling on the bedspread or the hem of her nightgown.

She thought maybe he was done, that his anger had waned with her apology, but he shoved her back to the bed so those slick digits could find a new home on her hard button where her neediest desire had gathered. Hyungwon rubbed slowly there—soft, deliberate circles around her little hill that emptied her head of all thought. Here, the intensity was different, not deep in her belly but simmering across the entire surface of her skin.

Unlike the night Naran had passed on his desk, the prince wasn’t attentive and endearing and eager to please as he’d been with his mouth on her heat. Tonight, at full height, he loomed over her. Were it not for the way his black eyes focused with cold attention on her every twitch, it almost looked as though he cared nothing about the way his wife suffered at his fingertips.

Her heels scrambled against the edge of the mattress as the intensity reached its frenzy point. Her hands fisted the sheets. Breath heaved into her lungs as her every muscle constricted. Her thighs tightened around his forearm as her hips began to rise.

And just like that, his finger stilled over the pulsing fury at her core. Hyungwon dropped his lips to her cheek and kissed her softly before he whispered, “You’re forgiven, my darling, but I haven’t forgotten just yet. This is what today felt like for me. Remember it the next time you think of flaunting your conquests in front of me.”

He kissed her once more there, this time at the corner of her eye, and then Hyungwon stood up and opened the door for her.

“Goodnight, Princess,” he said as he waited there.

Bewildered, Naran sat up on her elbows, tears in her eyes from back-to-back ruined releases, as she pulled down her gown. She didn’t know what to say; she wasn’t even sure she could speak. She thought maybe if she refused to move, Hyungwon might come back, but he didn’t. He waited at the door more like the immovable Head of the Royal Guard than her husband.

“I—” she stammered, but the prince did not bother to look her way. He just waited at his post.

Naran stood on wobbly legs and stared helplessly at the expressionless man before her. Her sex pulsated in despair, her mouth tasted of her husband’s cock, and her thighs rubbed noisily with the embarrassing grease of lust at every step.

At the door, Hyungwon bowed, and when he rose, he was smiling.

Confused and hot and stinging with what felt keenly of rejection, Naran bowed back awkwardly.

“Goodnight, my lord.”

As soon as she crossed the threshold, Hyungwon closed the door, and a second later, the candlelight snuffed beneath it.

The princess felt strangely like crying though she swallowed it down hard and fast. Her thoughts amplified as she stood in the stark silence of the sitting room, caught between two universes as though by a string around each wrist. Naran had never fought the one that always pulled her back to her own. It was familiar. It was safe. But tonight, here in the gulf between them, for the first time, she felt the other string tugging and, more importantly, she felt the urge to follow it.

With perfect, nauseating clarity, the princess understood.

She cared deeply for her husband.

#monsta x smut #multichapter #hyungwon smut #royal au #arranged marriage #romance #slow burn #prisoner to temptation #bodice ripper #third person

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checkers-dance · 1 year

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checkers im so fucking sorry for coming here with my bullshit again but i have a rlly dumb question. if mx were characters in the hit show mlp:fim. what would their cutie marks be. you're so much smarter than me.

Ok so I had to do some RESEARCH into this (reading the wiki to get an idea of how cutie marks work + browsing images of ponies for examples). I'm still not sure abt the answers but anyway. I would say drums for jooheon (bc he plays the drums but there's also that association w music in general + they're p loud but it still takes skill to play them). For shownu I would say a teddy bear (obvs reasoning). For minhyuk I would say a speech bubble or mic bc he's a good speaker. For changkyun I would say chains bc of the crescendo mv but also bc I feel like chains represent the aesthetic changkyun wants to embody well (seemingly mysterious and restrained. And horny). For kihyun I would say a coin bc of the young flexer meme + bc coins have 2 sides (the evil side that comes out w hyungwon and the nice side that comes out w other ppl). For hyungwon I would say a horse bc of the lone ranger song + horses just give off mischievous energy. I think for wonho it should be like a lollipop or smth. Both sweet and sexy (if u apply innuendo)

#asks #mx au hell (affectionate)

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ebatothemoon · 1 year

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Since couple of comebacks and a chance to see them live @ K-pop Flex, Monsta X has been giving me the comfort of enjoying a veteran K-pop group and just putting good music out there. Their standard is themselves and "Bautiful Liar" is just another proof of that.

Overall thoughts:

The clean roughness of rap parts and the sinister vocals were so tasteful.

The overall feeling of it was like a mixture of old and new Monsta X sound with their own taste of crafting.

Each verse was truly dedicated to the given member and their own taste.

The structure felt a bit surprising and condensed

MV had some really delicate and cool camerawork and editing (ex: the quick-slow shot of the horse, the vertigo shot of I.M, the iconic transition from Joohoney to Minhyuk) except the fire VFX.

Favorite part(s): I.M's starting to the song and Hyungwon's bridge part. Because I.M vocals. periodt. And mixing Hyungwon's airy voice with synth. Yes.

Highlight member: Minhyuk. And yes it was obvious throughout the whole MV and YES I'm a basic bitch but this shot has just its own statement guys. I guess they made a good job with that 👉👈

#monsta x #beautiful liar #comeback review #you give me I.M vocals and I'm suddenly on my knees #minhyuk bro calm down

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minhyukie · 4 years

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im challenging ur list bc hyungwon rich boy who owns horses

hyungwon rich boy who owns horses but has stable boys to do all the dirty work🤑🤑🤑

#ur just being influenced by the two(2) pictures of hyungwon looking at a horse #kihyuns

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bearseokie · 4 years

Text

Dry Humping (M) | Monsta X Reaction

request: Happy Birthday, my love! Thank you for writing for us! To commemorate, may I request a Monsta X reaction to dry humping them?

[warnings]: mature content, detailed sexual content, cursing, dry humping, some sub/dom undertones, mentions of edging

monsta x m.list | navi.

Shownu:

Pressed into the mattress with the intent of not moving, Shownu's body suddenly laying on you wasn't a surprise. Tired from the long workday, the second he crawled above you to lay between your legs, he was whining and groaning. Pushing his body against yours to gain more body heat, his lower body was on yours, the friction making him let out a separate groan.

"Fuck, that feels good," he said, your moan from the friction leading him on.

Rising above you, he set himself in a more useful place, body connected to yours through the fabrics of your clothing. With slow, broad strokes against you, your nails dug crescents into his arms. Overborne by the friction, his movements were speeding up, hot breaths against your neck. He rocked up into you, stiff muscles under your hands. Groans and pants echoing in the room, his orgasm hit first as he rushed to help you to yours. Keeping his hips moving, your body hugged tightly around him. With a firm hold, he placed kisses on your neck as you hit your high.

"We should do that more often." he grinned, kissing your forehead.

Wonho:

After a lovely dinner, both of you were eager to retrieve back into your comfortable home. With kisses placed along your neck, you walked down the long hallway towards your shared apartment's front door. Even in seductive silence, you could tell Wonho was losing his patience.

"Quicker," he whined at himself, pulling you along with fits of laughter when he attempted to unlock the door with his car key.

Rushing into the warm apartment, he had you locked between him and the door in seconds. With your body pressed against his, he lifted you up, legs wrapping around his waist. Sliding you from the door over to the smooth wall, the bumps made your muscles hurt, but his entrapped kisses on your lips made the pain subside. Holding your thighs against his hipbones, your body slid down, his crotch meeting your own in a fleet of passion. Taken back by the way he was aroused from just a few kisses and his own imagination, the rough movements had you moaning like he was already inside of you. With grunts and pleas from him wanting more friction, he turned your body to allow you to connect with him better. More resistance, you could tell it took all his strength to hold himself back. Your body catching up to his as you climaxed against him, fingers clamped behind his neck. Thrusting against you harder, a loud groan escaped him, releasing you to stand against the wall.

"Let's go have more fun in bed." he laughed, taking your hand to lead you into your bedroom.

Minhyuk:

A storm scattering the mood for the night, you were trapped within Minhyuk's arms. Your entire body on top of his, legs on either side of his waist, the sudden friction wasn't planned. With your lower-half placed above his crotch, the thin fabrics of what you both wore to sleep in couldn't hide the arousal he nonchalantly pulled from you, nor his own. Gently moving both of his arms - which were previously wrapped around your torso - down to your hips, your body ground against his.

Deep growls coming from him, his hips rose to meet yours. With pants filling the air, the once cool room was rising in temperature from the way your bodies rocked against one another.

"What are you doing to me?" he whined into the air, out of breath as he pushed against you faster to reach his climax.

Body growing stiff, a groan bolted from in his throat, hot fluids leaking through his boxers as he came. Rushing your body against his, feeling his muscles contort in pleasure and his sounds play in your ears was enough to send you other the edge yourself. Moaning against him, his heavy breaths calmed you.

"You've got a way with me, you know." he chuckled. "I could do that again."

Kihyun:

Stuck in the studio working, you had taken more of Kihyun's attention than you intended to when you asked to hang out on the couch. Raising a finger for you to join him in the chair, your body was sitting above his in a position you didn't imagine to be as uncomfortable as it was. Placed perfectly over his lower-half, your small adjustment to find a better position caused friction. Catching him off guard, his fingers moving across the equipment halted. Head moving back, your eyes met his gaze, the look you knew all too well. Taking his glazed eyes as a warning, you tried to settle in his lap once again, failing to do it without brushing against him. His hand moving to the small of your back made you arch, the contact reoccurring as he let out a groan.

"Can't stay still?" he asked, the rhetorical question making a smirk appear on his lips.

Pressing you down into him, the swiveled motions took their toll, both of you rushing against each other in a haze of stimulation. With his hands firm on your ass, you followed his touch to help him get off below you. Knowing your body too well, he was moving you in ways that you would catch the edge of pleasure every few seconds until he finally thrust against you with such a force that it had you falling over him, your orgasm racing through you.

"Now, are you going to behave in my lap, or do you need to go back to the couch?" he asked, kissing your lips waiting for you to decide.

Hyungwon:

With the car already steamed from hot kisses passed between you and Hyungwon, the sexual tension was thick. Able to finally catch him on a break, you both slipped into the backseat of his car with the intent of getting one another off. Immediately latched together, your body sitting above his was already turned on when he connected his body against yours. The traction he used unfamiliar to you, making you moan out his name. He was pleased. Merely distracted by his lips capturing yours in another passionate kiss, his pants felt tight as he bucked up into you.

"I know you hate being quick." he sighed against your mouth, your movements only speeding up at how deep his voice had fallen from the seduction.

He complied with your silence, pulling your body closer to his. Hands moving about on your exposed skin, the pressure he applied to your body was enough to make you whine against his neck. Holding onto one of the seatbelt straps for support, your bare legs began to hold the pattern of the seat below you from how hard he pressed you against him. Loosening and tightening his grip, both of you finally reached your peak as you fell against him.

"I bet I can make you finish faster next time," he smirked when you moved to exit the car.

Joohoney:

Settled on the couch in the living room, the movie playing on the screen was far from being entertaining. With your fingers tangled into Joohoney's hair, he moaned against your lips. Straddling him, the blanket once over both of your laps was now wrapped around your body. Tucked between him and the couch, it was slowly draping down from the continuous movements. Lowering yourself against him, you heard his breath hitch as you ground down on him. Not slowing your motions, the sudden friction made you both release sounds.

Voice turning horse as he groaned, Joohoney's sentences became incoherent when your body met his in such a tender area. "You are," he stuttered. "This is,"

He couldn't talk, the ends of either sentence swept away by quick pants and thrusts up against you. With his hands held so tightly on your hips, your body jolted from the sexual actions. Holding yourself up using the back of the couch, the fast pace was beginning to move the entire piece of furniture, rocking it up against the wall. Caught in the moment, his pace got sloppier, the dent forming in the sheetrock unnoticed as he came underneath you. Holding you against him, the outline of his still hardened self was enough to relieve you, shivering against him while he placed kisses in the nape of your neck.

"That was insane." he finally managed to get out, a grin on his face.

I.M:

Your day was long with Changkyun, his off day making it impossible for you to escape his grasp. Having taken you multiple times already, you had grown sore while he still held enough stamina to run a marathon. Getting up to get a glass of water, the second you made it back through the doorway, he had the glass on the nightstand and you pinned against the mattress.

"Can you go one more time for me, baby?" he said, your body immediately relaxing under him as his lips captured yours.

Wearing less clothing than you started the day off in, his hips pressed against your thin underwear made you moan and rise up for more. In a congruent state, he pressed you into the mattress harder, his pace deep and loving. Without direct intercourse, your body was able to regain arousal easily, nails scraping against his exposed skin. Moans and whines in your ears, his pace grew faster, racing for both of your highs. Finally finding a spot that had both of you holding on to each other, breaths held in your lungs, the release was sweet. Lips pressed against yours to bring you out of the euphoric state, the smoothness of his voice helped you through the aftershocks of the orgasm.

"How about a nice hot shower?" he said, kisses trailing across your shoulder.

#monsta x #monsta x smut #monsta x scenarios #monsta x imagine #shownu #wonho #minhyuk #kihyun #hyungwon #joohoney #jooheon #changkyun #i.m #monsta x scenario #kpop reactions #monsta x reactions #mature #monstax.headcanon

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mama-ghostie-61542 · 3 years

Text

A Thousand Lifetimes

Rated M++ for language and themes

If you recognize it--IT AIN'T MINE

Sorry for the OOC-ness

Chapter 7

Kihyun

The next day, after two fittings with costumes, two phone interviews, a shoot for an ad, and a tv spot; I finally got back to the dorms, and back to that story.

Bryn PoV--

As if today wasn't bad enough, I walked into the house to find it completely empty. The kids wandered around and I tried to field a million questions about where they were gonna sleep and what we were gonna eat. That and the meltdowns every five minutes led me to try to call my little brother. I really just needed to talk to another grown-up. As soon as I had supper figured out, I called Joey.

"Hello," said a voice on the other end of the phone.

"Ummm. Hi?"

"Oh. Hello," The voice was familiar, but it wasn't Joey.

"Is Joey close?"

"Sorry. Who?"

"Sorry. Jooheon. Kids call him 'Uncle Joey'. Guess it stuck."

"Hmm. No. You just missed him."

"Dern. Can you pass on a message?"

"Sure."

"Can you tell him to call Bryn when he gets back?"

"Oh! I didn't recognize your voice, Bryn. How are you? It's Kihyun. Joey is in the shower. Can I help you with whatever you need," I asked, biting my lip and praying she would say yes. Just the sound of her voice was both soothing and somehow able to tie me up in knots.

"Actually, I was calling to vent. I've had a particularly terrible day today. Joey is my sobriety sponsor."

"He is? Wow," I said before Honey came charging at me, his hair still wet. "I would still LOVE to talk to YOU," I shouted.

"Gimmie my phone, Kihyun."

I handed him back the phone and heard him say

"What's up, Sis?"

Though I couldn't hear exactly what was said, I could tell by the look on his face, it wasn't good.

"Really?"

Then, Honey sighed. "Lemme see what I can do from here."

"Please, let me help."

If it were possible for him to get any more pissed off, he did. "HE WHAT," he yelled. Then, he pulled the phone from his ear and said, "I need a one way ticket to Peoria International!! I'm gonna kill him. I am gonna fuckin' kill him." Next, he put the phone back to his ear, "Lemme see what I can do here, Sis," he growled as he demanded numbers and wrote them down, and then hung up.

As he started digging on the internet to find the cheapest fare, HyunWoo said, "Hold it, Hot Shot. What happened?"

"That douchbag finally left. He took everything! Even the kids stuff. He left them with NOTHING! That is why Sis was calling. He cleaned out their account and took everything. Damn lucky he couldn't touch the shop accounts or he would have cleaned them out too. Literally everything. She needs a little cash to feed the kids til Friday."

"Thank God it is Wednesday," said CK. from the far side of the room. If anyone had bothered to look, the reflection on his glasses was an Amazon cart with 37 things in it. The only time ANYONE has that many things in an Amazon cart is when they are buying groceries. However, most of those were chips or snack cakes.

Honey, Min, and HyungWon all sat down to iron out how much and what they were gonna contribute.

Silently, I picked up my bank book and palmed the slip of paper with her info on it. Only HyunWoo saw me slip out the door. He stopped me as I waited for the elevator and handed me a few bills from his own wallet before turning back towards the room.

"What," was all I could get out before he interrupted, cutting me off mid-question.

"We look out for our own," He answered before he opened the door to the dorm.

After heading to the nearest Western Union, I called the number on the slip from Honey. When she picked up, I smiled.

"Hey, Bryn, it's Kihyun. I wired you some money. Should be about $100, if everything gets exchanged right."

"Kihyun, you guys didn't have to do that. My dad was already gonna feed the kids. I just needed to talk to someone. This has got me so shaken up, I want a drink really bad. Guess I wasn't too clear with Joey."

"Really? Then why was he," I stopped as a shadow fell over me. "Well, shit. Guess who is now standing right behind me."

"Tell him to calm down."

"Bryn says to calm down. She told me to sit on you if I have to."

"Kihyun! I did not."

"I paraphrased," I laughed. "Besides, Sweets, if looks could kill, I'd be dead right about now."

"Really," she chuckled.

"Oh yeah. He is probably gonna follow me all the way to the dorm. I guess I am not allowed out on my own," I laughed.

"Why," She asked.

"I tend to do dumb things, according to others. Though they may be a little impulsive, they always work out in the end. So don't look the horse in the mouth."

"I won't."

"Good girl," I laughed, "So why did you call him, anyway?"

"I needed someone I could yell at that would not take it personal."

"I am always here. Though, I may occasionally yell back."

She laughed. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Making me laugh. I needed that. "

"Damn. I was looking forward to the screaming match. C'mon, get it started, Angelface," I said as I stopped at the stoplight and waited for the crosswalk. "Do you want me to start," I asked, then pulled the phone away and yelled.

Bringing the phone back to my face, I asked as the crosswalk lit up and I crossed the street, "How was that," I grinned.

"A 10. A fuckin' 10. Have you thought of being a Rockstar," she laughed.

I could almost hear the smile on her face, which made me laugh. Even if my throat killed me in the morning it was worth it.

"Hey, hang on a second. I want to send you something," I said as I put my phone on speaker and started the camera.

"Oh dear God, what now," she asked.

I took a short video of me sending her a kiss and sent it off. "Nothing bad."

"Ok, if you say so. Just not cool with unsolicited dick pics from strange men."

"I would not send you unsolicited dick pics, nor am I a stranger. Now, if you asked for them...Like a good girl," I started and looked over at Honey, who was looking at me with the 'better never do that' face. "Uh-oh."

"What?"

"I'm getting side eye."

She laughed and said, "I know just the look. It screams, 'You'd better not be sending photos of ANY part of your anatomy to my sister'."

"Yes," I laughed. "So how are you feeling? Better?"

"Much. Thank you."

"No problem. I'm here all week. Try the veal," I laughed. "Still want a drink," I asked.

"No. The laughs did it for me. Thank you."

"You are very welcome, Darling. So did you get the video I sent?"

"I did. That was very sweet. Thanks."

"You are very welcome, Pretty Lady. Well, we are back at the dorms."

"I should probably go then," she sighed.

"Just remember I am also available for Mitzvahs," I chuckled, which made her laugh. "Seriously, Sweetie, anytime you need a sounding board or a laugh fest, a screaming match or some naughty-Ow, Mother fucker!-I got smacked on my arm for that last bit. I am always here,"

"Thanks again. Until next time."

I paused and came VERY close to telling her how I felt but said, instead, "Again, you are welcome."

"Bye, Kihyun."

"Bye, Bryn," I breathed, then hung up.

Honey looked at me as he crossed his arms over his chest, "It took everything you had to not tell her 'I love you' didn't it?"

All I could do was nod and hope that my dreams tonight would be better than they had been.

As we got into the elevator, He said, "It was good hearing that you made her laugh."

"I love the sound of her laughter. Once I got her started, I didn't want her to stop. I think that she is just as funny as she is sweet."

"You do know that she will do one of two things, right?"

"What two things?"

"Either immediately send the money right back, or hang on to it and physically give you back every bit. She hates asking for help...of any kind," he said as he opened the door to our dorm.

"Yeah? Wonder why."

He just laughed, "Her ex-fiancée, ex-husband, and her father."

"What happened," I asked as I made us a pot of coffee.

"They all held every penny over her head. Her dad decided he wanted her out the minute she turned 18 and to do it, he threw her out the boat, so to speak. Said if she floated, she never needed help anyway; and if she sank, well, it was her own fault."

"That's abuse. Financial abuse."

"Yep. He was the kind to tell her everything she had was his, that she owned nothing; not even the clothes on her back. He comes from the 'I Own You' school of parenting. Her ex-fiancée would demand she work, then make her late, so she would lose any job she got. Then, he'd take any money she got paid and use it for crap he wanted rather than the bills she had it ear-marked for."

"Oh, tell me he didn't."

"Oh he did. Spent it on girls at the local under 21."

"Shit. He screwed around on her, didn't he?"

"Yep. Which is why if you ever think about cheating, I will castrate you myself," he growled.

Somehow I knew he would do it, and I would let him. "Don't have to worry about that. Can you tell me about her ex-husband?"

"That asshole was a piece of work. Emotionally, Mentally, and Fiscally abusive. The entire time they were together, he would pinch a penny until it died if it was something she needed, but she was expected to turn over her things and cash to him. She worked second shift in a factory; out of the house from half 1 to almost 1 am. He was in semi driver school at the time, racked up a HUGE amount of debt; I'm talking almost 40K. Constantly accused her of cheating when he had a different lot lizard every night. It's a miracle he never gave her anything."

I was disgusted by this guys behavior. To have a woman like her waiting at home and trying his best to break her.

"And that isn't even the worst of his offenses. He screamed at her one night while he was over the road, on training. She was at work, and he called her on her lunch break. The entire time, he screamed at her for having a cold sore and yelled about her cheating loud enough for her co-workers to hear. Her boss to tell her to turn off her phone; that he was tired of hearing that jerk yell at her. The guy he was learning with, told him that 'If I were her, I would be calling the lawyer first thing in the morning, after that shit.' He 'apologized' pretty quickly after that."

"Icky. I hope she ended it there."

"No. That girl has a ton of stay and No show. He ended up deployed to Egypt and told his brother about the girls there. Never thought his brother would run and tell her. She still didn't leave. You left a blister on her cheek one night and he threw her out in the snow."

"Stay and no show? I'm not sure I understand."

"Horse terms," came a voice from the doorway. I had forgotten Hoseok was staying with us while his apartment was getting the pipes fixed. "When a filly is learning to ride, it's said she is full of Show and no Stay. Meaning she looks good, but is too skittish to stand still. Sis--Well Sis may not look like much, but she has tons of loyalty to those who show her the same. She has the patience to play a 30 year long game, and the courage to weather ANY storm. But she has a problem knowing when to leave, and so she gets hurt."

"Hold up! He threw her out in the snow?!"

As Hoseok filled his own mug, he answered, "Yeah, he threw her out of the apartment in the middle of a snowstorm. Lucky her parents were in town. So if you start this with her, and you ever want out; you are gonna have to straight up tell her to go. She won't understand otherwise. She doesn't play games and has a tough time with subtly. So always be direct and honest with her."

I nodded taking it in. There was something I thought I wanted, so I asked, "How is her aegyo"

"If you are looking for overt aegyo, don't. Hers is subtle but she has got it in spades, and she doesn't even know it. It's in the way she plays, either with her guy or her kids," he said as he leaned against the counter, "It's in the subtle blush when you say or do something for her without her asking. It's in a compliment and the smiling eyes that comes with it. She has never had some of the things other girls take for granted, like a stolen kiss or flowers on her birthday. Other things, like those romantic gestures, she has only had once or twice. If I remember right, the last guy to 'play' was an FWB years and years ago, and that guy only stole one kiss, once," Honey replied.

"Don't expect her to run with girls. Most girls find her too harsh, too rough. She doesn't appreciate girls and their whiney, gossipy ways. She never wears makeup, and I have never once seen her with her nails painted. She is a guys-girl, a tom-boy through and through; wasn't made delicate. She is stronger than most people will ever know. However, her heart is extremely delicate, it's been broken and bruised so bad, even I wonder how she is still alive. So, let me tell you, right now," Hoseok said as he sat down his mug and leaned over the counter in my direction, "She may not be blood, but she is my sister."

"Hmm," I nodded. "You really don't have to worry about that," I replied. "How are you related to her again," I asked.

"Distant cousin. Her auntie married my mothers little brother, for all of five minutes. I am only gonna tell you this once, if you hurt that filly in ANY way; you wont walk again."

"Got it," I replied, cringing.

"You know that she won't ask for what she wants or needs. You are gonna need to be damned good at reading between the lines, cause she is so afraid that if she tells you what she needs, what she wants, you will do the same thing every one else has done," Honey said after a minute.

"Run," I answered nodding.

"Yep. Most men can't handle her intensity so they either run or try to turn her down to levels that they can handle without realizing that her fire isn't meant to be dimmed, but fed. She is gonna need you to be just as emotional as her, to show her that it is ok to feel again. She is very touch oriented, very tactile. So a lot of her feelings are touch related."

"I understand, Joey."

"You had better. The only reason I didn't beat the shit out of the other assholes, is that I wasn't there. If I had been, I would have had no problems with a few months in the county lock-up. And if Clark had tried that shit while I was there..."

"Really?"

"Yeah. See, the shit of it is, she fades into the background. She doesn't want all those things that other girls want. She isn't the kind to run or chase. She doesn't play games. She is also emotional. Ease into it. Don't try to love bomb her, she went through that shit with Clark and won't put up with it from you," Hoseok said, then turned to Joey, "Speaking of, did you hear what Lone Elm called him?"

Joey shook his head.

Hoseok grinned. "Elm called him a fuckin fishstick."

Joey started laughing, "Elm called him 'Fishstick'."

I looked back and forth between the two men who were holding themselves up on the counter while they laughed. "I don't get it. What-What's a fishstick?"

A hand landed on my shoulder from behind. I turned to see Changkhyun standing there, an amused look on his face.

"Fishsticks are only available in the States. They are mashed-up fish paste, about an inch wide by around six inches long, which is then breaded. Then, they are to be baked in an oven. Either they turn out soggy or they are hard as a rock; inedible either way. Which is good, because they are fuckin' gross. Nasty little things."

"Are they like the fish at Mickey's?"

"No," CK stated. "The fish there is actually decent. Fishsticks are generally served in school hot lunches on Fridays due either to religious reasons, or because they are cheap and can be purchased by the gross. At any rate, they are still inedible."

"Icky. How in the hell can people do that to their kids?"

"Not a clue. That was why I always took my lunch on Friday. Every Friday, the hot lunch was always the same thing; rock hard fishsticks, soggy tater tots, dehydrated-rehydrated mixed vegetables, and golden glow salad with mayonnaise on the top. It was the grossest meal I have ever seen in my entire life."

I shuddered to think of those poor kids. Forced to eat that nasty stuff.

After reading that, I was glad her kids never had to eat that. She fixed boxes for them. School lunches in the States sounded gross.

'Some things were ok.'

'I thought you took your lunch, Mami?'

'I did. My dad said cold lunch was cheaper. But, there was one day, once or twice a month, that I would get school lunch. They called it pork pattie day, but it was a breaded pork tenderloin on a bun. It was pretty decent. It was pretty gross the rest of the time, but that day wasn't too bad.'

'Have I watched you fix those before?'

'Not sure.'

'Are those the sandwiches where you beat the pork chops to nothing and then bread and fry them?'

'Yes.'

'Those do look pretty tasty,' I said as I dug around for what to fix the next day, so I could write it on the board. 'Hmm. Help, please. Can't figure out supper.'

'Whatcha got?'

'Hmmm. Some sausages, some tiny shrimp, and a package of chicken,' I said as I dug around in the freezer.

"You can use the shrimp and chicken in Gumbo.'

'It has been quite a while since I've had Gumbo. I've never made it before though.'

'Look it up. There are a million Gumbo recipes out there.'

'I think I will do that. Thanks, Baby. Have I told you, today, how awesome you are??'

'Yes, but I can always stand to hear it again,' she laughed.

A/N)--The above abuses......actually happened. First hand experience.

#original writing #my writing #original story #twin flames #twin souls #soulmates #soul mates #soulmate #soul mate #past life #astral travel #spirit projection #fanfic #fan fiction #monsta x fic #kihyun fic

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theinvitation-bot · 8 months

Text

muse statuses

⚔️ Hyungwon is currently helping Riyu @writingstuffandmore with dress shopping.

(Hyungwon is currently unavailable)

🏹 Junhui is just leaving dance rehearsal with Katia @honey-beaut and is (possibly) washing up with her.

(Junhui has one spot left but also has one other candidate)

☕️ Jaehyun is not in a good state, he is a mixture of angry and hurt because he can’t find his love Junghyun @halloween-idols.

(Jaehyun has one spot left but has one other application)

⛓️ Seonghwa is currently helping Luna @lunaaofthemoon on a adventure with his horse Shadow.

(Seonghwa is single, has one application)

🕯️Yeonjun is curious about a new girl he met a few months back, and where she left to.

(Yeonjun is single, has one application)

🦇 Hyunjin is worried about Jay @tinystarstay and is trying to save her from an evil ghost

(Hyunjin is not currently available)

🔪 Yangyang is currently on his honeymoon with Ace @livealittleoc-cb

(Yangyang is not available)

(Hello! It’s a while I’m so so sorry for not being active, I just want to thank you all for your patience and for still participating in my blog. I’ve been more active on my other accs but I’m currently trying to brain storm ideas for updates on this blog.)

(I made this post just as to let everyone know who is available and who is not. I will be back soon with updates and hopefully more exciting post so pls wait for me 🥺🫶🏻 if you have questions don’t be afraid to ask! )

tags🫶🏻: @clubwnderland (🏹) @lunaaofthemoon (⛓️) @zzzhoonie (🕯️) @wiickedxgood @bunnybubchan @lowblotrp @badbf-cb @luxora @urbtsboys @nana-n-nono @angelxdevil-bot @moonlightchn @monsterhigh-cb @domxbot @welcome-to-maniac @dia-oc @blueberrybaki @monstax-cb @evicted-oc @yanderexmuses

#hyungwon ⚔️#junhui 🏹#jaehyun ☕️#seonghwa ⛓️#yeonjun 🕯️#hyunjin 🦇#yangyang 🔪

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biffhofosho · 1 year

Text

Prisoner to Temptation | Chapter Two

Word Count: 7.8k

A/N: Rough, rough, rough week last week, so I didn’t get this out as planned. Needless to say, I was more than happy to teleport to another universe with Prince Chae Hyungwon tonight. *sob*

Cvr | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12

Most of the royals who had attended the ill-fated ball had stayed at the khan’s palace for a week after, which meant a tedious amount of handshaking and bowing and simpering, which had drained Naran of most of her spirit. Prince Hyungwon had been by her side through much of it, and he seemed to wear far better than she—not that she’d asked—but even his shoulders had slumped by the end of the week.

Though obligation now bound them, the couple did not converse with each other as they had to with others. It wasn’t for the prince’s lack of trying, but Naran had no heart for anything but the bare minimum of politeness no matter how relentlessly handsome he was, especially after spending hours sitting between the Empress of Goryeo and her own mother as they talked wedding plans over her head. To be fair, the ladies tried to include the princess, but she just waved them off with as pleasant a “as Your Highnesses wish since you know best” as she could manage.

Her dowry had to be negotiated, too, which felt much more like haggling with the town grocer over the price of a sack of potatoes. For that, Naran chose to leave the palace entirely and breathe the fresh air in the palace gardens. Under the open sky and before the might of the mountains, she forgot everything that was and tried to imagine what could once have been. Maybe she could steal a horse from the stable tonight and go for a ride before she had to return to her palace in Urga to collect her things. Just the thought of packing up her life brought a fresh wave of nausea.

She took a deep breath. Morning was giving way to the day, and the damp fog had burned away before the yellow sun. The world smelled of greenery and faintly of the horses across the grounds.

“I thought I might find you here.”

Naran swiveled and found her betrothed approaching. Her exhale came out in a choked cough.

“What are you doing here, my lord?”

“Queen Jigme sent me to find you.”

Naran narrowed her eyes, but it was for her mother this time. “Of course she did. Have I finally been weighed and measured?”

“I have no idea. I stay as far away from those discussions as I can.”

“You're as shrewd as your father then, I think.”

“And you're as tenacious as that weed,” observed Hyungwon is he nodded toward a small bundle of feathery-headed flowers clustered beneath one of the hedgerows.

Naran shot him a withering look. “The prince is off to a terrific start with his future wife by comparing her to a nuisance.”

“Hey,” he said. Hyungwon reached for her but stopped just before he touched her. His ears were pink, and his expression was strained. “My apologies, my lady. That's not what I meant at all. I meant you are the kind who thrives in places no one expects you to. You can withstand anything. Besides, it is a pretty flower.”

“It’s covered in thorns,” Naran quipped. “I thought you were supposed to be good at talking to women.”

The prince sighed. “Actually, my kingdom, my rank, and my looks do most of the talking for me. Often, I say very little, so in the interest of being a little less awkward, I’ll just say you're very beautiful today, my lady.”

“Yes, well, I think my mother is afraid you'll rescind your proposal, so she has subjected me to an hour’s worth of preparation every morning since.”

“That’s not it,” Hyungwon insisted with a gentle shake of his head before his fingers gripped a lock of loose black hair along her jaw. “It's the way the wind frames your face. The wildness suits you.”

In that moment, Naran swore the wind stopped just to spite her. She took a step back and cleared her throat. “You do not need to flatter me, my prince. It’s not necessary because I can’t go anywhere. Our fate is already bound.”

“As you wish,” he said, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught him studying her.

Naran had told Hyungwon her vanity didn’t need to be fed, but with the side of her skin still burning at the mere proximity of his touch, she could admit to herself that his words had swelled a certain pride in her chest. Then she remembered he had compared her to a weed and it tempered. Instead, she plucked the nuisance plant herself only to get jabbed by its prickly stem as its last protest. Reluctantly, she had to concede that maybe his metaphor wasn't as far off base as she'd like to believe.

“Are you all right?” he asked as he craned his head to inspect her finger, but Naran clutched the injured digit to her chest. He was far too close as it was.

“It's nothing, your grace. We have these back home, too. I’ve pricked my fingers on them hundreds of times. I guess I never learned my lesson.”

“Too busy trying to make a point?” the prince suggested with a raise of an eyebrow.

Through gritted teeth, she replied, “I suppose.”

“Shall I see you back inside then?”

Naran shook her head. “I’m not ready to go back in there. The air is so much easier to breathe out here.”

“Then I shall wait out here with you.”

“That’s not necessary, Prince Hyungwon—”

“Of course not, but you’re right. The air is sweeter here.”

The princess resigned herself to the company. She would have to get used to it soon enough anyway, but she was hoping for a bit more time to herself before all of it was stolen from her. Even though the prince made no further attempts at conversation, he also showed no signs of leaving, and while the silence wasn’t awkward, Naran felt obligated to say something.

“I take it it’s rather crowded in Goryeo.”

Hyungwon shrugged a shoulder as he surveyed the countless steeples and spires that pierced the skyline beyond the palace walls. “The cities are, especially Namgyeong, but we have a home in the country, too. It’s smaller and much more secluded. It’s my favorite. Sometimes it feels like the only place I can think.”

At this, Naran’s interest reluctantly piqued. “Are there mountains?”

“Many, and a river that, in the summer, sometimes turns the exact color of the sunset so you cannot tell where earth and sky exist apart from each other.”

“Really?”

The prince nodded, a slight smile on his face. “It’s as though it’s been painted that way. Other times, there are rivers of clouds swirling between the mountains instead of the water below.”

Swaths of emerald and pearl unfurled in her mind as Naran drifted with the vision Hyungwon had conjured. Beside her, his gaze trained on her misty-eyed profile.

“There are hot springs nearby, too,” he added.

“Hot springs? I’ve only ever heard of those. They sound…”

“Healing?” he suggested.

“Magical.”

Hyungwon outright grinned now, and it transformed his face into that of a boy’s. “I'll take you to them, Princess. One day soon.”

That was Naran’s ice-cold reminder of their contract, and as gentle as the prince’s words sounded, they were mere obligations that came with fulfilling their terms.

“As you desire, my lord.”

His smile vanished with her intrigue, and idly, they strolled around the palace gardens, the prince always a step or two behind her, which only managed to provoke the princess. Men always wanted to set the pace as well as the route. With his long legs, Hyungwon should have been eating up the pathways. What was he doing back there?

Eager to end what was becoming an increasingly uncomfortable walk, Naran rounded a corner back to the palace proper, and just as the doors came into view, the prince spoke: “Do you know any Goryeon?”

“I’m afraid not, my lord.”

Hyungwon hummed. “Shall I get you a tutor then? Perhaps it will make you a little more comfortable. And you will need to speak the language of our people, of course.”

“Of course,” Naran said though she resented it to her core. They weren’t her people. Her people lived unmoored in the grasslands as far as the sky stretched or in sturdy tents around the palace walls. They certainly did not live in Goryeo.

“And on our ride there,” he continued, “I could help prepare you for our Court customs to make things a little less overwhelming once we arrive.”

“How thoughtful, your highness.”

At last, Hyungwon pulled up alongside her with a side-eye at the ready. “You know, Princess, I’m not going to rescind my proposal, I swear to it.”

It was all Naran could do to keep her composure now that the doors were nearly in reach. “I’m sure not.”

He sighed. “If that’s not it, then did I do something wrong?”

“Sire?”

This time, Hyungwon outright grunted. “Can we please go back to the way we were speaking a bit ago? You're talking to me like you're putting on a show for your mother. It's just us out here.”

That was the problem. There were no other distractions. Playing formal was easier than admitting that she felt the tug of superficial attraction to the man who had shackled her by force to him for the rest of her life. It was terribly unfair that he could be so handsome and yet also so casual about upending her whole world.

“I thought you might like the change of pace,” Naran said, and Hyungwon vehemently shook his head.

“I hate it. We swore we would be our true selves with each other, did we not? With you is the only place I can receive such equality. Please don't take it away.”

The princess swallowed hard. “Very well, my lord, but remember that I tried to spare you once. If you want openness from me, you shall have it—all of it. I hate that I have to move to the other end of the Earth to accommodate you and your family, I hate that I have to speak a language I have no desire to learn, and I hate that I’m not allowed to hate any of that.”

Stunned, Hyungwon stared until she sighed and stomped at last to the doors. The moment her hand fell to the handle, he asked, “Feel better?”

“Hardly, but I did enjoy the awkward look on your face for a change,” Naran replied. “Doesn’t any of that bother you?”

“Yes, all of it.”

“Are you sure you’re not going to rescind your proposal now?”

“Do you want me to?”

Naran exhaled long and low. “No. I don’t trust much of anything out of a royal’s mouth, but I do believe without our alliance, your father will have my homeland, and I cannot bear the thought of my grasslands being trampled for pointless war. No, I will marry you as planned, but don’t presume for a second that I will ever accept it as anything other than a business contract.”

“As we agreed then,” he said with another nod.

“And since we have not had time to expound upon terms, I should like to add one other.”

“Okay?”

Naran tugged at the collar of her deel as she drew herself up as tall as she could be. “I shall bring my own servant with me to Goryeo.”

“We have more than enough skilled servants at our palace, my lady, I promise you.”

“I don’t doubt it, my prince,” she echoed, “but Magda has been with me since I was born. In many ways, she raised me, and I trust her with my life. It’s the only way I will be comfortable in a palace that has been plotting to invade my country for who knows how long.”

Hyungwon hummed. “I suppose that’s fair. You may bring her.”

“Well, I wasn’t asking, but thank you all the same.”

“Is there anything else I can do to make you more comfortable?”

Naran cocked her head to the side as though she hadn’t heard him right. “Why do you care so much?”

“Should I care less?” he retorted.

“I mean it. You have all the power here, my lord.”

Hyungwon shoved his hands into his pockets. His head dropped low, and for the first time, he didn’t look at her as he spoke. “Power isn’t something I desire.”

“What do you desire then?”

Naran hadn’t meant to let her voice plummet, too, but she wished harder than she ever had that she could bring those words back into her mouth because the way his head raised so hesitantly, with his dark eyes peeking up at her under a darker brow, made her throat go bone dry.

“I desire peace,” he said simply. “I am not a great leader, Princess, nor am I a great man, but I will always try to be fair to you. I wish I could give you more, but I do swear to try my best to give you a good life, even if it isn’t the one you desire.”

Naran stared at him, numb from the inside out. She wasn’t even sure she could move her limbs if she tried. She was cold and hot at all once and somehow so sad she could burst into tears.

Maybe Hyungwon saw it, for he tilted his head and said softly, “Princess Narangerel?”

Her name was like icy water dumped over her head, and she shook to life with the urge to run far and fast from it.

“Yes?” was all she could muster.

“Do you hate me?”

With a deep breath and a trembling heart, Naran opened the door and let it slam behind her.

I should, she thought. I really should.

The rest of the week passed in a purgatory of tense politeness. Queen Jigme surveilled the empress through a veil of hospitality while Naran’s grandfather schmoozed the emperor with the finesse of a man thirty years younger. If the princess didn't hate the whole spectacle, she would have been impressed.

Meanwhile, Prince Hyungwon easily curried favor with his future in-laws with every flash of his round-cheeked smiles. No one was immune to the prince’s charms. Her grandfather's servants doted on him as though it were his palace instead of the khan’s. Once, Naran had run face-first into her betrothed in the hallway, and when she turned the corner to gripe to herself about how absent-minded he was, one of the passing maids remarked, “Perhaps Her Ladyship might mind where she is going.”

How was it possible that in a mere fortnight’s time, the prince had won over the entire khanate? The world had descended into madness around Naran without her ever realizing. To cope, every morning, she took to the country, riding as fast and as far as her horse could carry her, and only when the fish ceased their morning leaping in the river did she return to the palace to hide out in her room for as long as her mother would allow (which was never long enough).

The rest of every day was spent being scrubbed and painted and groomed and finally paraded around the grounds in the orbit of the queen and the empress. Unless coerced, Naran rarely had anything to contribute to the conversations about caravans and wedding plans and court customs. Instead, she imagined herself high above them, soaring away like her eagle in search of something that could catch her interest, and the only thing to send her crashing back down was the inevitable run-in with her fiancé.

Prince Hyungwon, like the princess, was always in the presence of the emperor and the khan, only he looked far more natural than she did. He always had a smile at the ready for the ladies and a bow that could only be described as gentlemanly. Once, Naran had made the mistake of looking at his fine face, and she remembered their last conversation in the courtyard.

Do you hate me?

For some reason, it drew heat up her chest and made her shift in her skirt. For that, she supposed, she should hate him.

Other than that, though, the princess had done a respectable job of avoiding the prince, his husky voice, and his piercing questions, and it gave her hope that maybe she might actually be able to artfully dodge him for much of their married life. Perhaps she would still be able to sneak away for rides or hunker down in her chambers in peace. Of course, the long, quiet ride back to Moghulikhan would be her last chance to be single and free.

Except it was never to be.

Queen Jigme had insisted Naran ride back to the capital with her in-laws. It was truly draining, and from the looks in her mother-in-law’s face, the princess knew she’d likely been labeled as “taciturn” or “surly,” though she couldn’t fault the empress for either description. Naran was. There were only so many times she could discuss the climate or the rugged state of the roads or the thinness of the air before the princess could manage only grunts in reply.

At least dinners were a welcome respite. As the servants set up the gers for the evening, Naran could escape to her mother’s side and relax. Every night, when she curled alongside the queen in their tent, the princess was so exhausted by pretense that she would pass out immediately. But the very next morning, everything would be packed up, and she was once again stuffed into her gilded cage.

It was easy to lose track of time when every day passed exactly the same way. Naran had no idea how long they’d been traveling nor how far until the moment she caught sight of the first homespun ger. She pressed so hard against the glass that the carriage rocked and the empress let out a little cry.

“What is it?” asked Hyungwon, leaning a bit too closely over the princess’s shoulder though Naran was too excited to care.

“I’m home!”

The empress squinted out the window as another ger and then another and another tightened ranks. With a scowl, she asked, “Your whole country lives in tents? Is the palace just a bunch of tents strung together?”

“Mother!” Hyungwon scolded. His ears turned red in an instant as he glanced apologetically at Naran.

“It’s better than those mud huts in Sygnak…” mumbled the emperor.

“Father,” the prince snapped now, but Gongmin waved him off.

“No, Your Highness,” Naran interrupted through gritted teeth, “our palace is not a ger. While it is quite permanent—and grand in its own right, despite what you may be used to—many of our people live in gers because the ground here is as hard as the weather. This way we can move with the seasons and thrive anywhere. Very few cultures can say the same, I think. They must take to conquering their neighbors to thrive as we have, wouldn’t you say, my liege?”

The emperor narrowed his eyes while tightening his lips before he returned his gaze out the window.

It wasn't long after that that they entered Urga’s city limits through one of the two main gates, and with no more walls impeding their views, the palace appeared as a crown on the skyline. Since most everyone outside the palace wall lived in a ger, it was easy for the center of their kingdom to dominate the eye. With the rolling emerald mountains as a backdrop, the sharp-tipped wings of the palace proper flared upward while the central tower thrust its patinaed, three-story crown even higher. It was surely nothing compared to the wealth and majesty of Goryeo, but its green tiled roof shone in the late afternoon sun and loomed over the spiderweb of white-skinned tents.

The closer they drew to the city center, the more crowded the streets were. Eyes bugged beneath sheepskin hats as citizens took in the gold leaf and vibrant paints of the Goryeon carriages. People were quick to bow as the caravan trundled down the hard-packed streets, and Naran’s heart lifted at words once again in her mother-tongue. She felt like crying—at first from the end of her homesickness and then immediately again from the fact that she might never see or hear this ever again.

At last, they pulled in through the gates to the palace and stopped at the foot of a wide flight of stairs leading up to a mammoth terrace on which the palace proper sat. Torches had been lit along the length of the footing and stacked up toward the grand entrance to dispel the shadows under the carved overhangs.

When she set foot once again on Moghul soil, Naran felt at last like she could stand at her true height. There was already a long procession of palace staff waiting to receive the royal family and their guests, chief among them her father.

The khan was stocky, ruddy-cheeked and well-weathered, with sunken eyes framed by small glasses and lifted by his wide smile. Though he relied upon his cane to stand, he moved surprisingly fast to grip his daughter warmly by her shoulders.

“Narangerel, my dearest, welcome home! I have missed you nearly more than I could bear.”

“Father,” she said with a bow he quickly interrupted with a hand under her chin.

In a whisper, he continued in Moghul, “I have heard the news, my child. I am so very proud of you. You could not have made a more suitable match if you tried.”

“Fa—”

But before Naran could say another word, the khan drew alongside her and faced the growing party of strangers lined up with faces of exemplary apathy. It was almost as though someone had forgotten to teach the foreign family how to emote.

“Esteemed guests,” boomed her father in the customary English of travelers, “welcome to the Kingdom of Moghulikhan. We could not be happier to have you here, and on such an auspicious occasion! I am Delger Khan, who is proud to call you family now.”

The might of his voice contradicted his withered limbs, and Naran felt comfort for the first time in weeks. The khan bowed as deeply as his body would allow, an introduction that was followed by the emperor as well as the rest of his family. Just as they were finishing up their greetings, Queen Jigme’s carriage pulled up, and she hurried out faster than Naran had ever seen her mother move.

Not a moment later, a spritely, effervescent child with glossy cinnamon hair and freckles to match Naran’s own, stepped forward. She was dressed in a lavish deel of gold and crimson Naran had never seen before, fresh and bright to match her complexion, which was festooned with a painted smile. “Pleased to meet your graces. I am Princess Sarangerel of the Kingdom of Moghulikhan.”

A second round of bows were traded, with Prince Hyungwon rising with a sweet smile of his own. “I can see the resemblance between the princesses. How pretty you are, young lady.”

Saran’s blush was instantaneous and fierce, lighting up her neck with little red firecrackers. With an awkward mumble, she said, “Thank you, Your Grace.”

“Please, come inside,” said Delger Khan. “You must be exhausted after such a long journey. What Moghulikhan may lack in splendor, we make up for in comforts. I think you’ll find our beds warm and our food sumptuous. We shall feast tonight as Urga has not seen in a generation!”

The emperor and empress exchanged perfunctory smiles with their hosts and followed them into the palace while Naran and Hyungwon trailed behind, with Saran wheedling her way between the two betrotheds.

“I can’t believe I’m going to have a brother at last!” proclaimed the little princess softly as she looked up with moon eyes at the prince.

“And I have never had a sister,” he returned with cheeks as puffy as clouds. “Maybe now I can have an ally at last.”

“What do you mean? Narangerel is the greatest ally a person could have. She’s fiercer than all the golden eagles in the land.”

“Is that so?” Hyungwon said, amused. He glanced at his fiancée, who was doing her very best to keep her eyes on the parents ahead of them even as she burned under the weight of the otherwise lighthearted conversation beside her. “I’m afraid I haven’t had that privilege yet. To tell you the truth, dear sister, I have a feeling she doesn’t like me very much.”

Saran gasped. “How could you say that? She’s marrying you! I know my sister. She would never marry for anything but the deepest love.”

Naran jammed her eyes shut to tamp down the rage bubbling inside her, so she misjudged her step and tripped over her slipper along the flagstone. Just in time, the prince grabbed her forearm with both hands to steady her, but the commotion caused the entire parade to stop and stare at the crown princess now supported by the prince and the little princess.

“Are you all right?” whispered Hyungwon.

“Fine, my lord,” Naran insisted and shook her arm free of him. “Thank you.”

“Sister?” asked the small, sweet voice beside her.

Naran soothed her sister’s braid and thumbed at the girl’s freckled cheek. “You know me. Just clumsy.”

Saran raised an eyebrow. “You’re never clumsy. You’re the most careful person I know.”

The crown princess huffed lightly and nodded ahead. “We’re falling behind, you know. Mother will be cross.”

The trio picked up speed, with Naran leading the charge, and they rejoined the party in time for a stop in the back of the Great Hall to view the mammoth white and gold stupa, the cultural centerpiece around which the whole palace revolved. Even the emperor seemed impressed with its magnificence, and, satisfied, the royal families convened in the palace dining room.

The room itself was large, with the 20-person table swimming in the center of the red and green walls. Long tapestries counteracted the stone floors while dozens of candles warmed the shadows. Windows high up in an inset in the ceiling let the sunset shine like a chandelier down upon them, but since it was fading fast, servants rushed in from every corner with more candelabras to conquer the oncoming evening.

The khan left the head of the table empty to sit across from the emperor and his wife did the same with the empress, and while Naran was glad she didn’t have to sit next to the prince, she was seated across from him, the expectation of conversation clear. Luckily, Saran was to her right, and she reached under the table to squeeze her sister’s hand.

“Seriously, are you okay?” Saran whispered.

She patted the back of Saran’s hand and replied, “I just missed you so much. Did you miss me?”

“If I had known you would actually come back engaged, I would have stowed away in your trunk! I can’t believe you.”

“Oh hush, it wasn’t at all like you’re thinking. The whole trip was extremely tedious, and the actual proposal happened so fast, I don’t even really remember accepting. You didn’t miss much.”

“Liar,” hissed Saran. “If you’re trying to make me feel better, it’s not working. I know you, Naran. You’re harder to move than Mother. You never do anything you don’t want to do.”

“I went to the silly party, didn’t I? I didn’t want to do that either, but sometimes life doesn’t give you a choice.”

Saran put her glass down and stared hard at her big sister. “Are you telling me you’re being forced to marry the prince?”

There was so much concern—no, outright fear—in the little princess’s face that Naran immediately backpedaled. The last thing in the world she wanted was her innocent sister fearing her own fate when Saran was a huge part of why the crown princess took the deal with Hyungwon in the first place.

“Don’t trouble yourself, my little fox,” Naran said with a genuine smile. She tugged Saran’s braid again and returned her attention to her wine. “Our future is safe and secure, and that makes me happy.”

At this, the girl beamed. “And you’re in love and will make the prettiest babies! You have to let me hold them all.”

Instead of screaming, Naran downed her goblet of wine.

“He’s so handsome,” continued her sister as she stared with her cheek in her hand across the table.

Naran scoffed. “Oh, you just like him because he complimented you.”

“He complimented you, too!” the girl reminded.

“Exactly. Shouldn’t that tell you something about him?”

Saran sneered at her sister, and Naran returned it as though she didn’t have a decade of maturity on the girl.

The next thing she knew, there was an elbow in her side as Queen Jigme hissed, “Quit prattling on with your sister. You’re neglecting your husband.”

With none of her own wine left to drown out her next scream, Naran swiped her sister’s and drained it.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

“Sorry, I got our glasses confused,” lied the crown princess.

Thankfully, the first course was served before conversation with the prince became unavoidable, and with most everyone travel-weary, the party was only too eager to eat in happy silence. With so many choice distractions available, Naran kept her focus low, but she was lying if she said her ears didn’t perk every time the prince offered a kindness to her family or a witty remark. No matter how much nudging her mother did, she could not steer her daughter into lively conversation. The only thing Naran wanted to do was lie in her room and stare out the window at the stars she knew she’d never see the same way again.

Instead, after dinner, the group continued their palace tour, and with good food in their bellies, the emperor and empress seemed more engaged than the princess had ever seen them. They complimented every room and much of the art, which the queen was only too happy to offer up as wedding presents as well. Surprisingly, the khan set a lively pace through each wing, and Naran wondered where the man found the reserves considering he’d been mostly confined to the palace for the last two years. He looked every bit the lord who controlled one of the largest empires in the realms despite the cane and wrinkles like drapes.

When at last they’d finished touring the palace, the Goryeons were shown to their rooms, which, happily, were far enough away from Naran’s own that she felt like she was free again. Even when Saran came bounding into her sister’s room unannounced, it seemed, for a moment, that nothing at all had changed.

“So,” asked the teenage princess, who was draped across the furs on her sister’s bed, “have you two kissed yet?”

“Sarangerel!”

“You can tell me! Who will I tell?”

“I know your mouth, little fox. Any news I had for you would reach the other side of Urga within the hour.”

Saran rolled her eyes. “If you’re engaged, you must have though, right?”

The crown princess tossed a pillow on top of her sister and sighed. “It’s really not like that.”

“I don’t believe it. Prince Hyungwon is far too handsome not to kiss.”

“You marry him then!” said Naran with a laugh, and her sister flopped onto her back with a groan, clutching the pillow to her chest.

“If only I were a few years older... But, sister, I’m very serious about this. What if he’s not a good kisser? What if the rest of your life is just filled with bad, wet kisses that leave you all slobbery?”

“I’m going to throw you out, you know,” Naran warned.

“I worry about that kind of thing though,” her sister admitted. At first, Naran thought she’d misheard her because Saran’s face was buried in the pillow, but as soon as she put it together, she joined her sister on the bed and rubbed her arm as the girl continued, “If I don’t know what I’m doing, how could I expect my husband? What if we’re both terrible at everything so we stay terrible at it because we don’t know better? Will we be doomed forever to a miserable, boring, slobbery life?”

Always a romantic, Saran’s fantasies were evidently catching up to the more adult parts of love and relationships, and it gutted her big sister to know she would be abandoning her to society without a guide. It made Naran more determined than ever to give every bit of what was left of her heart to her sister.

She propped herself up on her arm and stared down fondly at Saran. “Nobody said your husband has to be your first kiss…”

Saran bolted up on the bed, criss-crossing her legs and leaning forward so hard she almost tumbled into her sister. “Are you saying Prince Hyungwon won’t be yours?”

Naran simply shook her head lightly, and when Saran’s eyes continued to widen, she raised a finger and jabbed it at her little sister’s puffy cheek. “I mean it, this better never leave the room. Swear it.”

“I swear it,” said the girl. “But don’t you think Prince Hyungwon will be mad about that?”

“It’s really none of his business, but I dare say I wouldn’t be his first kiss either. Not with a face like his…”

“I knew it! You are in love with him.”

“Psh! I may have some appreciation for his natural… endowments… But that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him. I’m realistic, Saran. And either way, it’s not something I have to worry about particularly with him.”

Saran raised her eyebrows again. “Why’s that?”

The crown princess worried she might betray something, and that was the absolute last memory she wanted to make with her sister with such little time left for them to be their simplest selves, so Naran sneered and lobbed another pillow at the girl. “Because I’m too busy chaining you up in the dungeon to keep you from blabbing all my secrets to the whole palace!”

And just like that, the natural order of things was righted. After a good tussle and more than enough laughter, Saran sat back, and through gulps for air, she asked, “Can I sleep in here with you tonight? I mean, since we’re not really going to have a chance to do that anymore…”

Naran grinned from ear to ear. “I would love that.”

Once tucked in, Saran quickly fell into her soft little snores, but as tired as the crown princess was, sleep eluded her. Naran thought about how few days she had left in her homeland and more importantly, how few she had left of her freedom. She thought of her sister alone in this palace without a bed she could dive into and confess all her fears for her future. She thought of her eagle soaring over the steppe searching for its companion and finding only ghosts. She thought of how happy everyone was to watch her leave all of that behind her.

Eventually, there was no point in the pretense of staying in bed any longer. Her limbs were as restless as her mind, so Naran took to prowling the halls. The few servants who were still awake checked relentlessly on her at first, but after she rebuffed them enough times, they let her wander in peace.

Midnight turned into morning though the sun was still hours from rising. Instead, as she leaned against the terrace railing overlooking the sleepy tent city, the only thing that rose was the princess’s anger. She had no power over anyone in the palace anymore, so with no other options, she planned to take it out on the one person who was as trapped as she was.

It was in the heaviest part of the night when Naran broke into the prince’s chambers without heed for decorum. Though the servants had done their jobs, stoking the fire in his hearth throughout the night, a chill still bit her skin upon entry. Hyungwon was adrift in a sea of quilts and furs, everything but the moon-white of his face swallowed up in coziness. His thick lips were parted for his shallow breaths, and his long black hair fringed across his eyes.

His nose was no doubt ice-cold, and Naran had the strangest flash of it pressed against the back of her neck as he curled into her from behind, a surreal reminder of the inescapable future that loomed mere days ahead of her.

With a little indignation and maybe more anxiety than she cared to admit, the princess tossed a pillow onto Hyungwon’s bed and said, “Wake up, my lord.”

The prince barely stirred but for a drowsy, dismissive wave.

“I said wake up,” Naran demanded louder, this time shucking the fur coverlet off the bed.

Hyungwon growled, his lips pulling into a snarl as he tugged the rest of the blankets up to his neck.

“If you don’t get up this instant, I’ll let my eagle into your chamber.”

He sat up at that, rubbing his eye with the back of his hand. His hair fuzzed upward from the electricity lingering in the blankets from the cold, dry night air. It would have been cute like a boy’s were it not for the way his robe split open across his toned chest. They might have been betrothed, but, at this, Naran felt like she was prying, so she turned toward the fire.

“What’s so urgent?” Hyungwon mumbled. “Am I sleep-blind or is it still dark outside?”

“It is dark, my lord.”

“Then why on earth am I awake at this ungodly hour?”

“Because I wish you to be,” Naran said.

The prince let out a frustrated sigh that morphed almost instantly into a yawn. “Couldn’t you just wait to be mad at me until after breakfast?”

“No. Now, get up. We’re going to look at the stars.”

“I don’t know what you’ve heard,” Hyungwon grumbled as he collapsed petulantly onto the bed with his back now to her, “but we have stars in Goryeo, too, Princess.”

“Not like this you don’t, and you’re going to see them before we can’t again.”

Groaning all the way, the prince rolled out of bed, wrapped himself in a blanket, and shuffled down the hall with his fiancée at his side. They garnered a few looks from the servants again, and Naran was certain the gossip would make its way to her mother by daybreak, but for now, she didn’t care.

She led Hyungwon to the same patio she’d been to earlier. They lingered under the overhang for a moment as the princess gathered her many thoughts. She had spent hours trying to cobble together exactly what she wanted to say to the man exactly the way in which she wanted to say it, but now that he was beside her, she’d forgotten damn near everything but the raw emotions.

“You’re right,” he said after a minute of peering at the horizon, “the stars are beautiful.”

His words jarred Naran awake. She gestured to the wide-open terrace beyond them, and again with a sigh, Hyungwon followed her onto it. The princess looked up while, beside her, she heard a gentle gasp.

“Oh.”

Beyond the palace walls, there wasn’t a candle to be seen, only the vast canvas of heaven and flickering starlight. It was a moonless night, and a pennant of peach and vanilla arced above the kingdom from one end of the mountains ringing the city to the other. There were as many stars dappling it as there were grains of sand in the Gobi, each one twinkling impishly at the unexpected couple.

“Mm. Okay, yes,” the prince continued, “this is better. I’ve never seen such an enormous sky.”

“Sometimes, it feels like you’re the only one looking at it,” Naran confessed, “like it’s all yours and no one else could ever possibly understand its beauty.”

Hyungwon opened his mouth but stopped himself before any words came out. Instead, they stared upward for a long while as the occasional flare of light streaked beyond the mountains.

“It is rather romantic,” he conceded.

At this, Naran scowled. “If you try to make this something it isn’t, I swear, I shall call for my eagle.”

Hyungwon laughed, dispelling any ambiance she thought he might be building. “Why do you keep threatening me with a bird?”

Naran stifled her own reluctant laugh as she answered, “I take it you’ve never seen a golden eagle in action?”

“I haven’t. Are they scary?”

This time, the princess had no hope of keeping in her laughter. “There’s not much they can’t kill. They have claws like razors and beaks like scythes, and they always have the advantage, flying down like a falling star and with just as much force.”

Hyungwon’s eyes bugged. “And you have one as a pet?”

“Not as a pet,” she corrected. “As an ally. My grandfather’s people use them to hunt in the mountains. My father never cared to learn, nor did he have the time, but I loved my grandfather’s stories of his own eagle, and I begged him to teach me. Girls aren’t supposed to hunt with them, but he taught me anyway. I raised her and rode with her every day for six years. This trip was my first time away from her. My mother said now is as good a time as any to break the bond between us seeing as she is due to be released back to the wild anyway. We do not tame these creatures so much as befriend them for a while.”

Just as I am to be tamed, Naran added bitterly to herself.

“I’m sorry. That must be very hard,” said Hyungwon.

“At least I always anticipated that part. She will be happier with no restrictions and no master. She will be where she belongs.”

Their eyes met and a beat passed before he added, “But she will miss you just as you miss her.”

Don’t cry, Naran, she warned. Not in front of him.

“Will you be the one to set her free?” asked the prince.

“It’s only right. Then we can part with clear hearts.”

“Would you—” Hyungwon stopped himself and rephrased, “Could I meet her before you do?”

The princess closed her eyes. Waves of unfamiliar emotion crashed over her in ways she couldn’t have fathomed, and they threatened to suck her down if she didn’t pull away quickly.

“I can have one of the servants take you to the falconry room if you’d like to see them, but I think it’s best if we keep certain boundaries up between us.”

It was clear from the fall at the corner of Prince Hyungwon’s full lips that he was disappointed with her answer, but he nodded like he understood. “As my lady wishes. You may name them.”

Naran wasn’t ready for him to be so agreeable, and it made it very hard to guard against him. “We’ll leave it at that for now, I think.”

Time passed in silence with just the thrum of the wind across the plains between them. If the prince was uncomfortable, he certainly didn’t show it. Only the princess shifted and twitched and gnawed on her lip. She had brought the man out here to gain some control, but instead, she felt… Well, she wasn’t sure what it was because she hadn’t really felt it before, but she didn’t know what to do or what to say, and her head was preoccupied solely with the fact that her future husband was standing right beside her under the same stars, ones he had just named as romantic. That, more than anything, didn’t sit well.

Eyes still on the sky, Hyungwon asked, “Have you lived in Urga your whole life?”

“Except for our winter travels, yes, as did my father, though my grandfather was born in Kipchak. My mother was born in Ladakh. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Though I hear it’s called something else now.”

Naran felt the prince’s gaze slide from the sky to her profile, and she felt the smallest blip of triumph.

“I have,” Hyungwon said carefully.

“I guess that is the way with empires, isn’t it?” she continued. “What you are one moment, you might not be the next. Maybe it wouldn’t matter if I married you or not. I might have become Goryeon either way.”

The prince faced her fully now. Only the torchlight at the base of the palace brought warmth to his features. “We’ve talked about this, Princess Narangerel. It is not my intent to change who you are.”

“I’m not trying to start a fight,” she insisted, but he squinted and she flashed another brief grin. “Well, maybe a little, but really, I’m just thinking out loud. Even this city has grown up from nothing. It wasn’t here two generations ago, but what was once tufts of grass now serves as the capital of one of the largest kingdoms in the realms. The world is always changing. I just never thought I’d be at the center of that change.”

“For me, that has always been inescapable.”

“So here we are. A woman who always expected to fade into obscurity and a man who has only ever lived in the spotlight. How did we end up here?”

“A twist of Fate?” the prince suggested.

“A test,” Naran added solemnly.

Hyungwon gripped the railing and squeezed.

“Failure isn’t an option anymore,” she continued. “I’ve disappointed everyone my whole life, but it was okay—it was even expected. The moment you emerge into the world a female, it’s a letdown. I learned how to use those low expectations to my advantage. I learned how to get out of things, how to slip under noses, and how to disappear in a crowded room.”

The prince turned then, his hip leaning on the railing as he faced her.

“I saw you,” he said.

The princess stared back.

“I wish you hadn’t. Your pretty promises aside, we share the spotlight now, and obscurity will never be an option for me ever again, nor will it be for our children.”

“Are you telling me this to make me feel guiltier?” Hyungwon asked.

“I’m telling you this so you understand.”

“Understand what?”

Naran steadied her expression until it was as cold as the night air and as resolute as the darkness.

“Why I can never forgive you.”

With that, the princess turned back into the palace, the bewildered prince trudging behind on her heels.

#monsta x smut #multichapter #prisoner to temptation #hyungwon smut #royal au #romance #slow burn #bodice ripper #third person #arranged marriage

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checkers-dance · 1 year

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I FORGOT TO TELL YOU. a little bit ago me and kira were chatting abt the last mx release and i'm not sure how but we got to talking about the cowboy thing and she said "i just need to know who in monsta x has a cowboy hyperfixation" 😭

Listen to me, Ik it's either jooheon or hyungwon. Why else would they produce crescendo and lone ranger and include horse sounds and cowboy film sounds 😭😭. Changkyun's song didn't have cowboy vibes

#asks

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insphoeration · 4 years

Text

Find You ~ Part 3

Fandom: Monsta X; monbebe

Pairing: Prince!I.M x Modernday!Reader (fem)

Summary: Following a lunar eclipse, the reader gets thrust back in time into the body of her ancestor where she must do her best to keep her head down and survive until she can figure out a way home, that is, if she can figure out a way home.

Words: 2.2k

Chapter Warnings: Blood, death etc

This story may have mature themes which may be disturbing to some audiences.

Part 1

“What did you forget?” He chuckled at you.

Could it be this was a past life? Were you sent to relive it as punishment? Changkyun’s face fell.

“You did, didn’t you?” He asked softly, as if you were a spooked horse. You placed a hand on your chest as if it would help you breathe better, but it didn’t, you couldn’t breath. The world was spinning. People called out from behind you, you heard your name but the noise got duller as you fell forward. “Woah, Hey!” Changkyun lunged forward, catching you in his arms just before you hit the floor. Your last thought before you blacked out was, what that it was a shame an asshole like this would have such an incredible face. The gods really were being cruel to you weren't they?

You shivered, flashes of dejavu playing through your mind as you woke up in the same room as before. This time there were two men and a few women in the room as opposed to just the one before. Most of them jumped when they saw you were awake.

“Y/N!” One of the men exclaimed. “Are you okay?” He asked. You hid further under the blanket, hoping this nightmare would just end.

“Lady Y/N,” One of the women said softly, walking forward. “It’s alright, we’re not going to hurt you.” She had a kind smile and motherly aura, which made you feel slightly more at ease, but only slightly. “Do you know where you are?” She asked. You shake your head, not sure if it was a matter of where or when. “You’re in the palace.” She said.

“What palace?” You asked. The people in the room looked around, worried.

“The king's palace.” One of the men came forward.

“What king?” You whispered, racking your brain through thousands of years of history crammed into a few classes in highschool, that you barely paid any attention to because you didn’t think you would need.

“King Si Dae.” The woman answered. You couldn’t remember anyone by the name.

“Do you know what year it is? By chance?” You asked, not even sure if they followed years during this time.

“You don’t know what year it is? Oh dear.” The woman looked around frantically.

“What do you remember?” The other man stepped forward and you recognized him as the same man from before.

“Changkyun please.” The first man hissed. “She’s scared, don’t patronize her.”

Changkyun shrugged, “she doesn’t seem to remember much so wouldn’t it be easier to build off of what she does remember?” He smirked, taking a few steps towards you, behind him you could see the look of disapproval on the other man’s face. “So, Lady Y/N, what do you remember?” He bent over so you were face to face, noses practically touching. The women whispered amongst themselves when you didn’t back down. You knew your hometown but they probably wouldn’t as it wouldn’t exist yet. Your name was definitely yours but what about your family name? Would that stay the same too?

“Nothing.” You whispered, not wanting to cause too much trouble. Changkyun straightened his back before turning around.

“How unfortunate.” He tsked, not sounding at all bothered. He simply shrugged as if there was nothing more that could be done and left the room. The first man came forward, a little awkward.

“Lady Y/N, I’m prince Shownu.”

👑

Prince Shownu tried his best to jog your memory of the palace and your life there, but it was a failed attempt as there was no memory to jog. So you would pretend like you didn’t know anything so he would explain it to you. According to him, his first wife was very sick and asked you to be brought to the palace to take care of her. You were not a maid but instead very close to the crown prince’s first wife, and so she felt that it would be nice to bring you into the palace. Apparently, her dying wish was that Shownu kept you at the palace and looked after you, so he did, making you his personal assistant, or what would have been the old timey equivalent to a personal assistant.

Shownu showed you around the palace, introducing you to people that you were not only already supposed to know but be kind of close too. By the time you got to the kitchens, most of the palace had already heard about your “accident.” Of course they did, what other forms of entertainment did they have?

“Oh, Lady Y/N, sit, I’ll make you some tea that is really good for your head.” Said the head court lady. Shownu chuckled and kindly ask that it be brought to your room.

That was the first thing you noticed about Shownu, other than his cute smile, was his kindness and patience. When you felt like you were asking too many questions, he smiled and encouraged you. He thought about giving you time off to get your strength (and memories) back, but someone told him it would be better to have you dive right in and see if anything comes back to you. He eventually agreed with them but told you to let him know if you weren’t feeling well.

👑

Being Shownu’s personal handmaiden meant you were pretty much by his side 24/7, even if he didn’t need you. So you watched as him and his brothers get ready to practice for the ritual. You didn’t know what it was for, just that it was important and every prince played a special role. They came together at first, Hyungwon and Kihyun shoving each other playfully, so much so that even Changkyun cracked a smile.

From what you could gather, the ritual seemed more like a performance than anything. Either way, it was very entertaining.

“What did you think of the practice?” Shownu asked, walking beside you.

“It was interesting.” You told him honestly. “What is the purpose of it?”

“Honestly,” he chuckled beside you, “I’m not even sure, but the king tells us to do it so, we have to do it.”

“That sounds hard.” You hummed. Shownu chuckled again.

“Everyone has to do it.”

“Yes but getting direct orders from the king, having him watch your every move sounds difficult.” You said.

“It can be, but-”

“But we have no say in the matter, so it’s best to just agree.” A voice said behind you. You both turned around to see the 7th prince in all his glory. He seemed so quiet around others so why was it that he was always so smug around you?

“Changkyun,” Shownu greeted, “what are you doing here?” He asked, aware the younger was following them since they left the practice area.

“I was curious about something.” He said, looking at you. You tilted your head at him wondering if he wanted you to cower under his stare. Prince or not, arrogance was never something you put up with.

“And did you find what you were looking for?” Shownu asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother.

Changkyun shook his head, “if anything, I think I’m even more intrigued than I was before.”

Shownu gave a disapproving look to his brother, who did not see it because as he backed away, he only watched you. Shownu turned as Changkyun did the main difference being, as Shownu approached people bowed to him, as opposed to running the other way when they saw Changkyun. You had to jog to catch up with Shownu.

“My prince, why is it that people avoid Prince Changkyun?” You asked. Shownu sighed.

“They’re scared of him.” He said plainly.

“But why?” You asked.

“He’s a prince, the lives of many people depend on simply the wave of his hand.” Shownu didn’t look at you.

“You’re also a prince, but people don’t run from you.” The two of you entered the library, Shownu closed the door behind him and lowered his voice.

“He’s marked.” He said darkly, you looked at him confused, you didn’t remember seeing any mark on him. “People talk, about how he got his scar. Rumors got out of hand, and now people fear for their life, in his presence.” Shownu’s tone caused a chill to run up your spine, but you kept pressing.

“But if the rumors are all they are, then why are people still scared?” Shownu’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Unless, they’re not rumors?”

“There’s a lot we don’t know about Changkyun.”

👑

You weren’t sure how to get home, or even if you could. Since you weren’t exactly sure how you got there in the first place, it was a little difficult to try and reverse what happened. On top of that, you weren’t sure if you had travelled back in time or to a whole new dimension altogether. Assuming you went back in time about a thousand years, there was no telling what you even being there would do to disrupt the future. Then again, there was a chance you were in a parallel universe considering you had no idea who this king was, although that might have just been your fault for not paying attention in history class.

The night of the ritual felt strange, it wasn’t cold and yet, you had goosebumps on your arms. You watched the princes practice enough to know when something was wrong. It started off peacefully enough but then, more people were added to the mix, seemingly out of nowhere. You didn’t see them practice in their costumes so it was hard to tell who was who, especially with the masks, except for Shownu whose costume was different from the other princes.

“Something’s wrong.” You mumbled more towards yourself than anything. The king’s right hand, Hongsik looked at you as you watched the ritual with worried eyes.

The princes were supposed to be fighting off evil spirits played by other warriors but they were being much more aggressive than they were in practice. The movements were too quick, you looked around to see if anyone else had noticed but they all thought it was part of the ritual and watched in amusement.

One of the masked warriors brought his sword down and pierced it right through Shownu’s shield. The music stopped.

“Protect the king.” Hongsik roared, everyone jumped into action, moving even faster than before. Guards ran forward, standing in front of the king, ready to shield him from any attackers. The other princes ran forward to help their brother but there were too many attackers to get to him. The sound of blades clashing echoed through the courtyard and the princes tried to defend themselves. You weren’t sure what to do, should you run? But there was no one coming towards you. At least you thought.

Shownu jumped over one of the attackers, seemingly flying towards you. He put his arm around you and swung you around, his blade catching that of someone’s behind you. Your jaw dropped, you had no idea there was anyone around you or even that anyone would pay attention to you.

“Run.” He commanded, letting you go. You ran to Hongsik, away from the fight. It seemed like no matter what the princes did, the attackers would not stay down, not unless they were dead. Shownu’s head turned to you to make sure you were okay, so he wasn’t able to see the person coming up behind him. Luckily, one of the other princes did, intervening so the person missed, only cutting Shownu’s arm. You covered your mouth, muffling your gasp as the prince slit his neck with his sword. Shownu was brought to his knees as the attacker fell to the floor.

“Shownu!” you exclaimed, running forward. His hand that was holding the gash on his arm was already covered in blood. You lifted the mask off his face to reveal that it wasn’t even Shownu, but the youngest prince Changkyun.

“What is this?” The king yelled. “Where is the crown prince?”

The other princes had already taken their masks off at this point, except for one.

“Right here your majesty.” Shownu said.

“Are you okay?” The king asked Shownu, his voice softened when he saw the prince was okay.

“Are you okay?” You asked, placing a hand on Changkyuns shoulder lightly. He looked at you with what seemed to be disgust, crouched beside him, a worried look on your face as if you cared what happened to him. You saw him look up at his father who had yet to acknowledge him.

“What is the meaning of this?” The king demanded, looking around but the other princes were just as confused.

“It was my idea, your majesty.” Shownu got on one knee before the king. “I had suspicions about tonight so I asked Changkyun to take my place, I failed in protecting him.” Shownu bowed his head and the king turned to Changkyun who now had his own blood smeared on his face. He was breathing heavily from the battle he just fought, clutching his blood soaked arm.

“Find whoever did this.” The king commanded. “Find who is responsible for an attack on the crown prince!”

“Yes your majesty.” The guards and warriors around him chanted, including the princes.

“Yes your majesty.” Changkyun mumbled through his teeth, trying to get up. The king turned away and retreated back into the castle, when the attention was off them, the other princes came forward to check on their youngest brother.

“Changkyun, are you alright?” Minhyuk was the first to ask.

“I’m sorry.” Shownu bowed, “I said I would have your back, but I didn’t.” Changkyun shrugged.

“What’s one extra scar?” He chuckled dryly.

“You’re bleeding pretty bad.” You said, Changkyun looked at you again. In the past five minutes, you’ve paid more attention to him than in the past two years you’ve been at the palace. He was confused, the mask laid forgotten on the ground where you placed it, you knew he wasn’t Shownu, so why the hell were you still holding his arm? Changkyun didn’t realize how comforting your touch was until he ripped his arm away, and the pain seemed to get much worse.

Part 4

#i.m monsta x fluff #monsta x scenarios #monsta x imagines #monsta x fic #monsta x reactions #im changkyun imagine #im changkyun fluff #im changkyun fic #im changkyun fan fic

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