#does this appear in your algorithm staff ?

[melamemea]

Honey , wake up , @staff made a mess again !

[timeflow]

good evening reddit users, welcome to the website. not seen one of these that tells you how to make this website bearable so here goes

starting off with dashboard settings you want to turn off endless scrolling (it slows down the website after a while of scrolling), turn off shorten long posts because one of the main things about this website is the total lack of a character limit (as an alternative to this setting, you can press j to skip to the next post on the dashboard if the current one is kind of long). turning on timestamps is convenient because it allows you to check when a post was made (don't get me wrong: this website absolutely LOVES reblogging old posts, but there are times when it's worth checking if a post has very old news in it)

turn off best stuff first right away. one of the main reasons cited for joining tumblr is because "there is no algorithm". this is not entirely true, we have one but we routinely turn off anything algorithmic that staff adds. turning off best stuff first means your dashboard will be reverse chronological no matter what, and turning off based on your likes and stuff in your orbit will get rid of the rest of the algorithmically-recommended content that appears on your dashboard

following tags is nice because you will occasionally see posts with tags you follow sprinkled into your dashboard. this is considered good because it's almost always recent, I personally recommend turning on include followed tag posts and just following a bunch of random tags that you think could be interesting (characters, media, topics, whatever)

this one's a more personal thing but I would absolutely turn off any community labels because tumblr staff has recently been just putting a bunch of random posts under this despite being entirely sfw. if you ACTUALLY want to filter content, then go to filtered tags:

unlike the community labels which are put arbitrarily by staff, tags are put on by the actual users and so you can MUCH more reliably filter out content you don't want to see by putting filtered tags. this also works for any kind of content unlike the community labels, meaning you can just filter out stuff that you don't want to see (a particular character, a particular piece of media, a certain topic, anything you want really)

turn on custom theme immediately. the standard view of tumblr.com/url will give people who are not logged in a forced login wall, meanwhile url.tumblr.com will not. by doing this you also get access to your post archive at url.tumblr.com/archive, which lets you look through your posts more easily (the search function is awful). the main benefit of this, however, is that you get to have a custom look to your blog: going to edit theme brings up a menu that allows you to customize your css, add pages to your tumblr blog, etc. all very useful stuff

it's also worth taking the time to consider whether or not you leave your liked posts and list of blogs you follow public (most people have likes turned off, following is also commonly turned off but I personally don't care about others seeing who I follow)

turn off the let people blaze your posts. blaze basically allows you to pay money to show a post to a random group of people by paying money, suffices to say that allowing others to blaze your posts without your consent will inevitably lead to one of your personal posts getting blazed by some prick and now hundreds of people have seen it

asks are one of the main ways of interacting with blogs so absolutely turn them on. whether you allow anons is your choice, anonymity allows people to say nice things without feeling embarrassed about how everyone knows who said that, but it also allows people to send hateful stuff with no consequence.

submissions are like whatever. I personally leave them on but in my 5 years of having this blog I've been submitted to twice.

to close off this post I'll leave my personal thoughts on reblog etiquette:

reblogging is great. reblog the fuck out of anything. does the post amuse you slightly? reblog it. go wild

that being said please don't put anything in your reblogs unless it's like a really important comment. your comment will be immortalized forever if someone reblogs the post from you and on popular posts I have to constantly go back a couple years to get rid of an annoying comment like "LOL THIS IS SO FUNNY" because that person didn't realize that their addition was wholly unnecessary

if you DO want to add something to say your thoughts on the post in a quiet voice that doesn't get permanently added onto the original, consider talking in the tags of your reblog. this is considered nicer since when the post is reblogged from you your tags are not going to stick around. there is also this process known as "peer review" in which if your tags are sufficiently funny one of your followers (or sometimes a random person browsing the notes of the post) will screenshot/copy and paste your tags into a reblog, which is a much more natural way of having your comment added into the post

tags are also nice to use or organizational purposes. clicking on a post with a certain tag on your blog will show you every post with that tag on your blog allowing you to find posts later, alternatively you can go to url.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/[insert tag here] to a similar effect.

that's all I have to say on this subject. have fun on our glorious website

edit: oh yeah also unfollow staff. it will make you look normal 👍

[olivegardenfurryaccount]

Saw someone earlier say that Tumblr keeps putting new features in places where people's muscle memory will make them click it by mistake to drive up metrics and make the site more marketable, then fake apologizing and rolling it back when people are understandably upset and this whole 1999 thing they're doing is the perfect proof

On mobile it's right where your feed used to be so folks who got used to swiping to get to the feed are now faced with one specific tag that they can't block (that isn't even that good, you can find better tags with tumblr's shitty "algorithm" or nonexistent search feature)

On the site it's maybe better? Maybe worse?

The 1999 tag is in the same place on the site, but now there's a randomly pulsating thing referencing Y2K for some reason that does not and will not leave

They're pushing on the fucking limits of their users trust once every month or so, without acknowledging that doing that makes all of their users, and I do mean ALL of them, trust them less and less every single time

Partly because every time they try some new shifty marketing scheme a new essay (like this) appears to let people know what staff is trying to pull and just how obvious and underhanded it is

[koiqiss]

Immediate Apex AI Guide

Immediate Apex AI trading platform provides many advantages for investors. For example, it can help mitigate emotional decision-making by automating trades based on math and probability; and provides tools to manage and diversify investments. Note, however, that the cryptocurrency market can be highly unstable and risky; hence it is essential to conduct thorough research and read reviews in order to ascertain legitimacy of any trading platforms before proceeding with trading activities.

User-friendly interface

Immediate Apex AI platform is an automated trading software which leverages cutting-edge technologies and innovations to trade on behalf of its users. This platform aims to make cryptocurrency trading as user-friendly as possible for beginners as well as experienced traders; its free use does not incur fees or commissions and it supports multiple payment methods, including credit and debit cards.

The platform claims to quickly and effectively process data. Its algorithms reportedly are comprised of complex mathematical calculations which utilize market trends and patterns for an in-depth analysis; using this knowledge to execute profitable trades on behalf of its user. To get started, register with the website and provide basic details, including your real name, phone number, and email address. Secondly, deposit at least 250 EUR as initial capital to allow for initial trades. Finally, download your account statements regularly as the IRS requires this documentation of profits earned.

Automated trading

Trading settings can be tailored to match individual goals and abilities, while automated trading features enable traders to take advantage of market opportunities. Furthermore, there is also a demo mode so traders can experience this platform before risking real money on it. Some users have voiced concerns over hidden fees and charges on this platform.

Assimilate market news may be easy, but turning that data into actionable insights takes skill. Immediate Apex AI offers several advanced tools designed to analyze price patterns and generate accurate signals that can assist traders.

While crypto currency trading can be risky, trading platforms that prioritize user security are essential. Determining legitimacy depends on several factors - such as its security measures, customer support services and user feedback - but Immediate Apex AI stands out due to its outstanding security practices and customer support offered via email or phone call.

Multiple trading options

Immediate Apex AI users can trade with various crypto currencies and assets. Furthermore, they can select from an assortment of trading strategies based on market analysis and trend detection; make use of automation tools for efficient trade execution; customize account settings according to individual trading styles and risk profiles; as well as use customization features that allow them to keep trading profitable over time.

To get trading on Immediate Apex, users must first register and provide personal details, including name and email address. They then must deposit at least a minimum amount in order to begin trading, after which they can monitor profits live while downloading statements for their trades.

While Immediate Apex AI platform reviews may appear positive, these should not be taken as definitive proof of legitimacy. Care should be taken when reading reviews and evaluating security measures provided by any platform before making their investment decisions. Likewise, investors must seek proof that it is regulated by an official body before investing their funds therein.

Customer support

Immediate Apex AI's customer support team is available 24x7 to assist users with any inquiries they have about the platform, while working diligently to meet user satisfaction. While some have reported concerns over additional fees, this issue has been addressed quickly by their dedicated support staff.

Immediate Apex AI withdrawls are processed within 24 hours, and accept various payment methods. Before using any payment method on this platform, users should carefully research its terms and conditions as well as read user reviews in order to make an informed decision.

Although Immediate Apex AI platform may have its flaws, it remains an authentic cryptocurrency trading tool for anyone aiming to increase the value of their investments. Its secure measures and extensive features make it an excellent option for newcomers in this market.

[damn360llp]

Increase Your Online Visibility with DAMN360LLP: The Best SEO Services in Mohali are Revealed

A good online presence is essential for any organization to succeed in the modern digital era. In the congested digital market, where millions of websites compete for visitors, it is critical to put into practice efficient SEO methods to make sure your company stands out. Go no farther than DAMN360LLP if you're looking for unmatched SEO services and you're headquartered in Mohali. We'll dive into SEO in this article and examine how DAMN360LLP's excellent services may improve your online presence and propel long-term business success.

Understanding The Importance of SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of making changes to a website to boost its visibility on search engine result pages (SERP). By ensuring that your website appears at the top of search results when prospective customers research for products or services related to your business, a solid SEO strategy raises the likelihood of receiving organic traffic.

Well-known Mohali SEO Services provider DAMN360LLP offers comprehensive solutions that are tailored to meet the unique needs of businesses across a variety of industries. Let's look at some of the key characteristics that distinguish DAMN360LLP in the SEO industry from its rivals.

1. Tailored Search Engine Optimization Techniques

When it comes to SEO, one size does not fit all. Understanding this basic idea, DAMN360LLP goes above and above to create unique SEO plans for every customer. The team finds possibilities and challenges unique to your organization through thorough audits and research. This customized approach guarantees that every facet of your SEO campaign maximizes results and is in line with your company's objectives.

2. Excellence in On-Page Optimization

Effective SEO relies heavily on on-page optimization. DAMN360LLP specializes in search engine algorithm alignment of your website's content, meta tags, photos, and overall structure. By paying close attention to every little detail, you can be sure that search engines will find your material to be relevant and of high quality, which will raise the rating of your website.

3. Technical SEO Expertise

Technical SEO is a crucial factor that influences a website's search engine ranking in the background. With a focus on technical SEO, DAMN360LLP can handle problems with crawlability, mobile friendliness, and website speed. The team makes sure that your website offers a smooth user experience and ranks higher by optimizing these technical features.

4. Establishing High-Quality Links

Success with SEO requires creating a strong network of backlinks that are of good quality. DAMN360LLP uses purposeful and moral link-building strategies to increase the legitimacy and authority of your website. The group concentrates on obtaining pertinent, industry-specific links that raise organic traffic and search engine rankings.

5. Open Analytics and Reporting

DAMN360LLP is a proponent of responsibility and openness. Regular reports that include important indicators like keyword rankings, website traffic, and conversion rates are sent to clients, outlining the effectiveness of their SEO strategies. Because to DAMN360LLP's dedication to open communication, clients are better equipped to make decisions and monitor the real effects of their SEO services on their company.

Conclusion

DAMN360LLP is a standout in the very competitive Mohali business scene for its exceptional SEO Services. With a staff of committed experts, a dedication to customized plans, and an emphasis on open communication, DAMN360LLP enables companies to prosper in the digital sphere. Consider working with DAMN360LLP if you're prepared to expand your online presence and realize the full potential of your company in the digital age.

[onlinefrontservices]

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The Complete Guide for 2023

In 2023, search engine optimization (SEO) will still be a crucial digital marketing tactic. To maintain and enhance your website's search exposure, it is crucial to keep up with the changes being made by search engines like Google and user behavior. We'll go over important tactics and trends in this comprehensive guide to SEO for 2023 to assist you in navigating the always evolving SEO environment. The majority of businesses today ignore the ongoing changes in SEO as though their businesses are not progressing normally, but our company, onlinefront, and our skilled staff develop strategies for you while taking into account the changes in SEO that occur over time. Is

More than ever, user experience is important.

Google's algorithms will prioritize user experience even more in 2023. The importance of website usability, mobile friendliness, and page speed cannot be overstated. Make sure your website runs quickly, is responsive to mobile devices, and offers a seamless, simple user experience. And for this, you'll need a really robust website, which our talented team can create for you, including with the aid of our WordPress development in Delhi.

High-quality content cannot be compromised.

In SEO, content is king. Quality is more important than quantity, though. Create material that is relevant, interesting, and actually satisfies the requirements and inquiries of your audience. Content that is lengthy and covers a subject in depth does well in search results. There's no need to be perplexed if you're considering SEO for your business because Onlinefront's SEO packages in Delhi will work for both your budget and your establishment.

E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness

Google still gives authoritative sources' content priority. By delivering accurate, thoroughly researched, and properly attributed content, you may demonstrate your subject-matter knowledge. Gaining your audience's trust is crucial for long-term SEO success.

optimization for voice searches

Optimizing for voice search is becoming more crucial as voice-activated devices like smart speakers and virtual assistants proliferate. Put an emphasis on using conversational language, conversational buzzwords, and giving succinct responses to typical queries.

Updates to Page Experience and Core Web Vitals

The improvements to Google's Core Web Vitals and Page Experience have been fully incorporated. Pay attention to measures like Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), First Contentful Paint (FCP), and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Your website's rating may benefit from improving these metrics.

indexing for mobile first

Google now primarily indexes and ranks websites using their mobile versions. Make sure the content, structured data, and meta tags on your mobile site are just as powerful as those on the desktop version.

YouTube SEO

Video content is becoming more and more popular. By include comprehensive descriptions, pertinent tags, and transcripts, you may optimize your video material. Click-through rates can be greatly increased by including video snippets in search results.

local seo

For businesses with physical locations, local SEO is important. Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing, encourage reviews, and ensure accurate NAP (name, address, phone number) information across the web. For you, we collect all the data related to local market and use it for the benefit of your business. You must check this once for our local SEO services in Delhi.

  Featured snippets and structured data

Earning featured snippets can increase your website's visibility. Use structured data markup to help search engines better understand your content and increase your chances of appearing in position zero.

 Backlink quality over quantity

High quality backlinks from authoritative sources are essential for SEO success. Focus on building natural, relevant links through content marketing, outreach, and relationship building.

  Secure your website with HTTPS

Security is a ranking factor. Make sure your website uses HTTPS to protect user data and gain the trust of both visitors and search engines.

 Regular SEO audit and monitoring

Regularly audit your website for technical SEO issues, broken links, and content gaps. Monitor your rankings, organic traffic, and user engagement to track the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.

In conclusion, SEO in 2023 requires a comprehensive strategy that takes into account user experience, content quality, technological optimization, and trend adaptation. You can set up your website for success in the always changing realm of search engine optimization by remaining informed and continually putting best practices into effect. Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term plan, and success and high results require patience and perseverance.

Website URL:https://www.onlinefront.in/

Business Email : Contact@onlinefront.in

Phone no : 8181816266

ALT Phone no : 9599287405

OUR SERVICES

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[cafeadvice]

Tumblr Basics for Cafe Dot

Please keep in mind that just like any social media site Tumblr will change and in consequence this advice is ever evolving.

What is Tumblr?

To put it simply Tumblr is a microblogging site that leans toward image sharing, but is also very generous to music & video links as well as text posts. The site itself has been around since 2007 and since then has had it's ups and downs but for the most part it has remained steady and boasts around 50 million visitors a month. As of March 2023 Tumblr hosts more than 572 million blogs. Tumblr does not lean hard into any algorithm and there is no verification process, if a celebrity is on Tumblr they're using the same tools you are. Some quick facts about the site:

48% of Tumblr users are Gen Z

It is the third most popular blogging platform on the internet

70% of users are satisfied with Tumblr's functionality - this puts them only below Pinterest and Youtube for customer satisfaction

The majority of Tumblr users are US based followed by Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The user base is nearly split 50/50 for identifying male (58%) or female (41%)

How do you set up a Tumblr blog?

First and foremost I recommend reading Tumblr's own guide for using their site here: TUMBLR GUIDE

This question is relatively loaded because Tumblr, unlike other social media sites, allows you to highly customize your profile/blog. To some this is fantastic, especially those that have a grasp of basic html editing. To others this task alone can seem daunting and an astronomical height to traverse over. Thankfully Tumblr provides some premade themes that you can lightly customize if spending hours on your blog theme isn't in the stars for you. If you'd like to learn how to create a custom HTML theme click here. You can also find plenty of free premade themes by other blog enthusiasts, they all tend to have set up instructions. Just google it :) After you create an account if you click on your profile picture it will take you to a quickview of your "blog" that most people will see if they hover over your icon. You can edit this minimally. If you click on "Blog Settings" It will navigate you to a page that allows you to edit your Username, Address (your tumblr blog address), Description, PFP, etc. If you'd like to use a custom theme please be sure to enable custom themes on this page, doing so enables you to have a full tumblr page and edit your theme. If you enable this - the edits you make on your main theme will reflect in your quickview.

Basics of Tumblr

Tumblr like Twitter keeps track of your likes, has a Following tab, and a For You tab. Unlike Twitter it defaults to your Following tab on the dashboard. It also has a Your Tags tab which are hashtags you have decided to follow and a Management Tab which gives you access to something called Tumblr Labs. Tumblr Labs has to be enabled as it's just experimental features that you can try out: Popular Reblogs Tab, Trending Tab, Favs Tab, etc.  You can at any time toggle these on and off and each provide a description of what they are and do. If you do decide to turn on Tumblr Labs the staff wants you to provide feedback, so please do!

Dashboard: This is your Tumblr landing zone - from here you can view your feed (you will only see posts from blogs you follow, no one else, unless they appear on radar), settings, overall account management, and create posts.

Tumblr Feed: this is the live feed of the most recent posts or reblogs from the users you follow.

Reblog: Effectively the same thing as a Retweet on Twitter, the difference is you can Reblog your own post infinite times and no algorithm is going to knock it out visually from your followers. They WILL see it. Keep that in mind and don't overuse it too frequently.

Tumblr Radar: this is a spotlight section that is curated by Tumblr staff and boosts artwork (4 different pieces per day). You can be randomly chosen if a staff comes across your piece or you can also submit your original work and it will go through a submission process and potentially be spotlighted. Read more about Tumblr Radar and how it works here.

Queues: In my opinion queues on Tumblr are probably the single most utilized version of queues on any social media site. A LOT of users queue their posts to spread them out over several hours or days, it's just something that has always been ingrained in the community to do. You can easily set up a draft to queue from the same area you would create the draft.

Hashtags: These are the bread and butter of Tumblr, ranging from categorizing to telling entire life stories in them (not a joke). Tags are highly visible and can even be seen in notifications of reblogs, they are sometimes used as ways for the reblogger to communicate with the OP, whether they ask a question or give you a compliment, if you filter through your reblog notifications you're bound to see some interesting ones. When it comes to using hashtags for searchability make sure they're relevant to your art/music/story etc. i.e Pixelart, Painting, Digital Art, Sky, Trees, Fantasy, Fantasy Art, Blue Art, Pastel, Pastel Aesthetic, and so on. It's also worth noting that categorizing via hashtags is very powerful on Tumblr, you can utilize your own hashtags to create pages or portfolios on your blog that can be easily navigated to. Example, I've posted 3 images to this blog tagged #matchaexample and created a link to the tagged page connected to this blog called "Example Gallery" if you click it you will notice that the only posts the page shows are the 3 images sans this text post. You can do this with any tag to highlight specific things about your blog. If you want an FAQ section create a post, tag it FAQ or whatever you'd like and create a page to link to from the main page of your blog. This is super handy for creating your own versions of a master link post to your shops, other websites etc. You'll notice the discord link does in fact take you to the invite for the cafe dot server :)

Asks: On Tumblr people are able to send you messages via asks that can be anonymous or attached to their own accounts (you can toggle the settings for asks by clicking your pfp and scrolling down to the Asks section). You can choose to answer these privately or answer them publicly which posts the asks in a format to your blog. You can add tags to asks and like mentioned above create an entire page dedicated to them if you so choose.

FAQs

When is the right time to post on Tumblr for visibility? Since the majority of Tumblr users are based in the US the best time to post is between 5pm and 1am (EST or Eastern Standard Time). Convert your timezone here. This is not an exact science, there's plenty of examples of people posting outside of what is perceived as the peak time for visibility and doing just fine. Also keep in mind you can reblog your post if you feel you missed a prime time in posting! What is the daily post limit? 250

Where can I find premade themes that are easy to install? Here :) How do I edit my theme? This depends on how you've set up your blog. You can either do minimal editing by clicking on your pfp or you can enable custom themes which allows you more customizations from your main blog page. This is the page that is [yourusername].tumblr.com. On there you'll notice 4 symbols in the top right hand corner. From left to right these are quick links to your dashboard (house), blog quickview (eye), theme edit appearance (paint palette), and settings (cog). Click the paint palette symbol to open more customizations for your theme.

How do I block Tumblrs? Click on your pfp navigate down to the Blocked Tumblrs section, from here you can add whoever you choose.

Can I pin a post? Yes! You can pin a post to your blog by clicking on the 3 dots in the top right corner of it and selecting the pin option

THIS IS A WIP POST- things will be added

[socialstardom666]

How to find the best SEO service provider

The difference between an increase in organic traffic, better ranking, and higher conversions and a drop in organic search ranking could be determined by how you choose an seo company in pune. Even clients who had their website removed from Google search results due to the employment of black hat SEO techniques have turned to us.

Any business that wants to be successful in marketing must have a strong search engine optimization plan. Unfortunately, it's difficult to break into the search engine market because every business wants to rank highly for its keywords. A business must use an effective internet marketing plan with a business that can produce results in order to create an online presence.

Especially with so many brand-new SEO businesses appearing on the market, selecting the finest could be challenging. When choosing an SEO business, keep the following factors in mind.

1. Examine the Portfolio of an Agency

Review their output, starting with their website. Has the website of this business been properly optimized for search engines? Do they show up when people search for their keywords? It's likely they won't be able to help you if they themselves haven't been successful in building a solid online presence. Look at a few of the other firms they have promoted and their Google rankings.

2. Pick an ethical business

Any business owner should become familiar with the foundations of SEO before looking into SEO firms. When determining which SEO tactics are ethical and which are dubious, it's essential to understand how everything operates, what they are, and how genuinely feasible results might be.

Make sure an SEO company complies with search engine requirements before signing a deal with them. Black Hat SEO, or unethical optimisation techniques, may result in high traffic, but they will ultimately prevent you from having any sort of online presence. Does the agency carry out the work internally, or is it contracted out to foreign parties?

3. Nobody can promise results

Pay special attention to the ethics-related promises made by a company. Be skeptical if a company promises to "guarantee" a specific Google ranking or a certain number of website traffic. Because Google won't pay for priority submissions or higher rankings, no one can guarantee a specific rank; the assurance you want is that they will adhere to the search engine guidelines for content quality and the seo pune.

Google's search algorithm is always being changed and improved. It's crucial to choose an agency that keeps up with these upgrades and is knowledgeable about the most recent advances.

4. Check reviews of SEO companies

Check out the endorsements and testimonials for the SEO expert in Pune you are thinking of hiring. Along with the reviews on their website, there are other comments online. If they have a lot of negative reviews, you are more likely to find them. To observe how they interact online and get a feel for their work environment, look at their BBB profile and social networking sites.

5. Expect Openness

A company that is willing to address all of your questions and fully allay any worries by presenting SEO facts is a good sign. Be aware of companies that conceal their staff, procedures, or processes. If they are hiding anything, there is a good chance that they are adopting unethical business practices and black hat SEO. There is no magic formula for SEO, nor is it a complex subject. A professional SEO firm will explain their methodology, give reasons for their decisions, and give you more information about SEO's workings.

6. The concepts of cheap, quick, and easy do not exist.

Although internet marketing is the most affordable type of advertising, effective SEO requires time and resources. Any company that charges a one-time fee typically isn't worthwhile because it takes time and cannot be finished immediately. The algorithms of search engines are constantly changing, therefore internet marketing should be a consistent, ongoing effort to get the best results over time. The best way to manage SEO is with a monthly or annual contract, which will guarantee that the SEO company keeps up the results and regularly promotes your website.

7. They provide more than just a report.

Before you sign on with a company, find out how they report results. Although Google Analytics is great, it's also important to analyze the direction the site is taking and what is or is not functioning. The best seo services in pune customize your marketing plan based on last month's results. Make sure they're not only giving you statistics, but also analyzing and comprehending the data to support the expansion of your company.

[decaffeinatedblizzardartisan]

How to select the Right SEO Agency

Search engine optimization is a complicated process that takes a long-term view. It's also costly so be sure to select a company that will help your business achieve its goals. Here are some tips when choosing an SEO agency. Look for one who is familiar with your industry.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a complex process.

There are many ways to improve your website's visibility on the SERP. Search engine rankings are determined by many factors including age, competition, and changes made to search engines' algorithms. A website that is more visible will appear in more searches, and therefore generate more traffic. It can also increase conversion rates.

SEO is complex. It involves many decisions, both technical as well as business. It is important for websites to remain relevant, even though it may seem difficult at the beginning. It builds brand recognition and strengthens relationships with prospects.

Bots allow search engines to crawl websites to collect information about their content. These algorithms look at hundreds of factors to identify the pages that are most relevant to the search query. This means that the more content a website contains, the more likely it will appear in a search.

It requires a long-term strategy

It is crucial to determine the type of SEO service you need before choosing a Brisbane SEO company. SEO is a digital strategy for promoting a website's ranking on search engines. Optimizing each page for specific keywords is essential to get the best search engine rankings. This can improve your online presence, and help to generate a steady stream of new customers.

SEO can take months. It can take a while to reach the right place, but once it does, your online business will begin to see a positive change. Search engines love websites that are simple to use and feature great design. The amount of organic traffic your website receives will soar once it hits this sweet spot. LeMans Motors opened two additional locations in Brisbane and continues to serve the greater region.

It's very expensive

There are many factors that will affect the cost of hiring an SEO agency in Brisbane. These include your website's rank, the work the agency is expected to do, your business goals, and the price of the SEO services. A high quality SEO campaign will cost you between $500 and $5000 per monthly. If you are looking for a simple local SEO strategy, an agency can be hired for less than 1,000 dollars per month.

An SEO agency Brisbane can increase your SEO traffic and improve your visibility. This takes effort and time. Do not be discouraged by the high price. Good SEO is worth it. An inexpensive SEO agency might not be as effective, and can actually hinder your business.

A comprehensive service is offered by the best SEO companies in Brisbane. Their experts will assess your website's weaknesses, and then fix them. Their specialists will help you to keep digital marketing services near me up with Google's stringent algorithm updates. If you want to grow your business and generate revenue, it is crucial that you get your website found on Google.

It is not easy to find.

SEO is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy. This involves optimizing your website for search engines. Google and other search engines want to provide the best results for users. To increase organic traffic, the right SEO agency Brisbane can help improve your website's rankings.

You should do your homework before hiring an SEO agency. You can also check for reviews and references. You can also search online directories that list digital agencies. Ask the agency for references. A good agency should be able provide a list containing previous clients. This will allow you to check whether they have provided satisfactory results for any of their clients.

Different SEO agencies have different sizes, staff experiences and the number they have completed projects in different industries. A larger agency will generally have more experience with certain industries and a better grasp of the best techniques. It is not a guarantee of success to hire an agency that has a long history. SEO agencies must stay current with digital trends to remain relevant.

[r0hitdhiman]

Why hiring a content writing company in Delhi benefits your business

One of the most important ways to improve the quality and strategy of your content without having to hire a content writer is to outsource a content writing company. These factors will leave you speechless

1. Professional author helps increase readership

You don't have to worry about content engagement or readership when you hire a skilled content writer. These professional website content writing services know how to maintain readable content. These writers are constantly monitoring Google's algorithms as well as the hottest writing trends. According to the most recent changes in Google's algorithm, companies are ready to generate a piece of information. With the help of professional content writing services, your business can never be in jeopardy. Plus, spending money on skilled writers will yield high-quality content. These authors are great at adding a variety of flavors to your site.

2. Better brand image and online visibility

If you're ready to establish yourself as a trusted brand in the market, then hiring an experienced content writing service just makes sense. Valuable information relevant to your target audience can be generated for you by a team of highly skilled marketers, curators and content writers. With this helpful and relevant material, your brand will get the greatest exposure possible and you will ultimately attract more qualified leads.

3. Post new content regularly.

Documentation that needs to be created and released regularly is the main hurdle to overcome if one wants to adopt a robust content marketing strategy. When you entrust this task to the experts, you can be sure that you will regularly receive reliable, interesting and engaging information.

4. Get higher search engine rankings

The ability to get keyword-focused material without going overboard is one of the benefits of using a professional content writing service. It has an important meaning. While it improves your search engine results, just using keywords in your content does not guarantee a high conversion rate. To appear credible and persuasive, every content writer must be able to use keywords in a natural context without overwhelming them.

5. Profitable

The first step in building an individual-focused content team is to select authors from the marketplace, evaluate them, hire the best, and negotiate deals with them. The company will then have to notify the team about the service or product and collaborate periodically to make operations run more smoothly.

But when you choose a professional content writing agency, the services they provide are based on the concept of price per word, and otherwise, price per transfer. So, technically, the cost will be a lot less than the cost of activating an entire dedicated content staff for the business.

6. Access to approved writers

The content writing company will always appoint qualified and vetted writers for the task. Hiring inexperienced or questionable writers removes any risk. The annoyance of a writer being ghosted by the organization while working on a project or missing a deadline has been eliminated. Thus, customers are relieved of this concern. After thorough and rigorous research into their previous work and talents, agencies often select authors. Before hiring writers, they go through rounds of interviews to ensure that clients select only the best writers to work on their projects.

7. Increase Conversion Rate

You get a higher conversion rate when your content is engaging. Unless you have magnetic material on your website created by a professional content writing company, you won't have a higher conversion rate. No matter how great your search engine rankings are or how effectively you can increase engagement on social media sites.

8. Send your promotional strategies regularly via email.

Email marketing information has become even more important than websites or blogs in many cases. Customers visit your homepage with a specific purpose each time they receive their email, read the details and then select the links provided in the email. You can be sure that they are ready to work and trade with you. Email marketing information has become even more important than websites or blogs in many cases. Customers visit your homepage with a specific purpose each time they receive their email, read the details and then select the links provided in the email. They are ready to deal with you. You can ensure that professional email marketing campaigns always have access to high-quality material by hiring an experienced content writing company.

9. Take on more responsibility

Hiring a professional writing service has several benefits, including increased liability. They must be trustworthy and worthy of the trust of others. You can be sure that the website content writing services you have chosen for your business will be liable to you if other businesses are currently using them.

10. Create a trustworthy authority figure

If you are an entrepreneur, you need to prove that you are an authority in your field or industry. This can be done if you regularly communicate to your target audience the lessons you have learned from your personal experiences. Content is the foundation of establishing an ant business. Hiring a content writing company is the way to go when you want to establish your personality online. They will provide you with unique content that covers lesser-known aspects of your market, such as misconceptions, facts, and market knowledge. Give them relevant information, such as your lessons and life experiences, and they will provide material that will help you establish yourself in a position of authority in the eyes of your target audience.

If you are looking for a content writing agency Delhi then visit Agency network. Agency network is providing services in the IT related field and more than 5 countries including UAE, UK, US, India and many more.

[nummero123]

Tips for Selecting the Most Trustworthy SEO Agency for Your Business

Congratulations if you're reading this blog! You've just started your SEO adventure.

Knowing what advantages a successful SEO strategy may provide is the first step toward success.

That implies you've done your research.

And by the looks of it, you've done an excellent job.

How do I know?

Simply because you are looking for suggestions on how to pick an SEO agency, it demonstrates that you realize that SEO is a full-time job.

To guarantee that efforts produce top-tier outcomes, it takes attention, commitment, resources, and continual modifications. 

And all of these obligations might distract you from doing what you enjoy most: operating your business.

Leaving SEO to specialists may help your company reach new heights.

Furthermore, they are specialists in this digital marketing. As a result, they are up to speed on the most recent trends.

This guarantees that an effective plan gets created to provide the most appropriate outcomes for your brand.

How to Choose The Right SEO Agency for your Business?

As a result, you cannot just choose a name that appears to be suitable.

You must conduct the study and have an open mind.

Here are suggestions to help you get started.

1. Define your SEO goals

Examine the services provided by each agency. Which of these corresponds to your objectives?

This will aid in narrowing your search and identifying the top SEO Agency for your requirements.

Determine which aspects of your internet presence require improvement.

Begin by doing a digital marketing competition study.

2. Gather all the relevant information

You will need unbiased comments on the SEO agency for this.

There is a wealth of information available to you, such as internet reviews, case studies, and client testimonials.

And you should read them all, beginning with the most current.

This is an important sign of how well the firm understands current SEO trends.

Begin by looking them up on Google and Yelp. And, because each sector has its own set of modules as well as varied consumer expectations, you need to conduct an extensive study.

A respectable firm will gladly provide you with all of the information you want.

3 Visit the SEO Agency 

As previously stated, this is a relationship.

So get to know the folks who will be participating.

It's one thing to chat to them over the phone, but it's quite another to meet the staff in person.

You'll get a sense of the individuals engaged this way.

This is your chance to interact with the entire crew.

You must be able to relate to and comprehend one another from the start.

Getting all members on the same page from the start saves time and money.

Furthermore, here is the section where the agency will guide you through some of its strategies.

It does not only demonstrate their enthusiasm and inventiveness, but it also demonstrates their attitude toward you and your company.

4 Watch out for SEO guarantees

It's one thing to demonstrate favourable results; it's quite another to promise precise outcomes.

If an SEO Agency  assures them, be wary because it is impossible to forecast website SERPs accurately.

While SEO firms have a decent concept of how to achieve the best results, Google algorithms are continuously evolving.

As a result, an agency's expertise and the number of years in operation are determining factors in how effective its methods are.

Wrapping up

SEO is a large investment that should not dismiss as simple technical jargon.

Instead, you should begin as soon as feasible.

Consider this a fantastic opportunity to increase brand recognition and equity.

With the right promotion, your website may attract both quantitative and qualitative visitors.

If your marketing budget permits, hiring an SEO Agency  is a fantastic way to grow your business.

The most challenging element, on the other hand, is undoubtedly finding the perfect one. You want to work with a group of experts that are as involved in your company's success as you are. For the best SEO services, contact Nummero Digital Agency Bangalore.

[handsomeamoeba]

A Tumblr Guide for Newbies

Also available as a Google Doc to print or share with people who are not on Tumblr yet.

Wondering how to get started on Tumblr, what Tumblr culture is like, and who some of the big names are? Read on! It's a bit long, but hopefully it's approachable!

Starting Out

Welcome to Tumblr! To Twitter refugees, the morbidly curious, and everyone in between, welcome!

The first thing you want to do before you do anything on Tumblr is add an icon. You can do this by clicking the person-shaped Account icon, going to Settings, then clicking on your blog in the sidebar. You may also optionally wish to customize your blog’s colors and banner here, but you can come back to that later. 

The reason it is important to add an icon right away is because a default icon makes veteran Tumblr users suspicious that you may be a bot, and they may block you. Your icon can be anything you wish, but Picrews are sometimes looked down on (though not always), and if you are a pretty female-appearing individual you may not wish to use a photo of yourself (this is another sign of a possible bot).

Next, before you interact with too many blogs on Tumblr, you will also want to add a post or two. You can just start reblogging right away if you wish, or you can type up a quick intro post. An empty blog is another warning sign of a bot account.

An important aspect of Tumblr is that there is no real algorithm to speak of. There’s a “For You” page but it doesn’t work very well. Tumblr users love the lack of an algorithm, because it means that there’s a lack of predatory data tracking, the website will never deliberately funnel you into rage clicks and radicalization, and the things you want to see will always be the things shown to you. However it does mean that it can be difficult to start out, because you are starting from nothing.

You’re going to want to find some blogs to follow! It helps if you already know a Tumblr user or two– you can follow them, and they can suggest some more blogs to you. If you’re starting from scratch, try searching the tags for subjects or fandoms you’re interested in, and following a few blogs from there. If you don’t enjoy them, you can always unfollow later. Remember that Tumblr’s search function is generally unreliable, won’t always show you everything under a certain tag, and is nearly impossible to use to find specific posts. It’s good enough for getting a start in browsing, though.

You may also wish to follow a few tags for subjects you are interested in. Not everyone does this, but it can be useful when just starting out to find more content. To do this, go to the Your Tags tab and click Manage.

There is also a function on the site called Tumblr Live. Please be advised that no Tumblr regulars like, want, or use Tumblr Live, despite the fact that the website keeps pushing the feature. We’re pretty sure that Tumblr staff brought in people specifically to use Tumblr Live, because none of the people on it seem like our… type, so to speak. They’re just trying to attract the TikTok crowd. You can “Snooze” Tumblr Live for 7 days by going to Settings, then Dashboard, then scrolling to the bottom to toggle the option. There is no setting to turn it off completely despite vocal demand for it. Be advised that if you use Tumblr Live, this will probably alienate you from Tumblr veterans. I have been informed that the above does not currently apply to EU nationals, who are not subjected to Tumblr Live.

Going forward, you may choose to either Like or Reblog posts as they appear on your Dashboard. Keep in mind that unlike some other social media sites, your Likes are not public (or at least, you should toggle this option off– see below), and serve only as either a bookmark for yourself, or a small kudos to the OP. If you want to share the post with your own followers, or show major appreciation to the OP, you should Reblog it. This is especially appreciated by artists! Some people will tell you that “Likes Do Nothing”, but they can still be useful to track posts you have already seen or just give a little nod and a wave to the OP or the person who reblogged it. The more you reblog, the more likely your blog is to gain traction. It is difficult for someone who mostly makes original posts to get a foot in the door, especially in light of the previously mentioned unreliable Search feature.

If you would like to comment on a post, there are three ways to do this, and each has different use cases. If you want to say something to the OP directly, you may use the comment function. 

Most commonly, people put their commentary in the tags of the post. This allows you to make a remark or humorous aside without cluttering the post for others. If someone likes your tags enough, they may screencap or copy your tags and add them to the post themselves in a process sometimes called Peer Review. Sometimes people will also tag a post “#prev” or “#prev tags” to agree with the tags of someone they reblogged from, but older Tumblr users do not tend to prefer this, as reblog chains can get messy, and blogs often rename or deactivate. It can sometimes still be used just as a nod to the person you follow.

It is possible to add your commentary directly to the post, but this is not recommended unless you strongly feel that what you have to say is important or very funny. The difference between using tags or adding to the text post has been likened to the difference between whispering to your friends versus getting up on stage. 

There are two settings that Tumblr makes available that most Tumblr users turn off: Best Stuff First and Based On Your Likes. These can be toggled off under Settings, then Dashboard, then Preferences. You will also want to go to your own Blog settings and make sure that sharing for Likes and Follows is toggled off (no one likes this). 

Tumblr Culture & Politics

Tumblr users have a love-hate relationship with Staff. Of course we love our Hellsite, and we want it to remain as is– free of algorithms, aggressive marketing, and the other features that make other social media sites unlivable. As such, Staff generally has a lighthearted and casual way of addressing the userbase, and there is often mutual ribbing. However, Staff have made a number of controversial moves in the past (the porn ban, adding Tumblr Live, inconsistent moderation choices, etc) that have given the users some skepticism towards them. Financially supporting Tumblr can be sometimes controversial; some will cite Tumblr’s past transgressions as a reason not to support them while others will point out that Tumblr needs our support to keep running as it does specifically because they don’t sell our data like other websites.

On a related note, Tumblr users are notoriously difficult to market to and tend to resent marketing and advertisement. Brands and celebrities (with a couple notable exceptions, see Famous Tumblr Users) are widely shunned, most use ad block (few pay for ad free), and it can be difficult for even independent artists and small stores to promote their work. Some Tumblr users see any attempt to make money outside of charitable fundraising and crowdfunding to be bad, although this is a particularly extreme view not held by all.

Politically, a majority of Tumblr is left leaning, often queer, and leftist infighting is common. It is best not to get involved for the sake of your sanity. Regrettably there is a small and stubborn foothold of TERFs and other such bigots. Block, do not engage. You may report if you wish, but as mentioned above, moderation on Tumblr can be inconsistent. If you are very worried about encountering TERFs, many use an app known as Shinigami Eyes, which highlights transphobic social network pages in red.

Tumblr was once infamous for particularly insane hot takes, and while this still happens, the general consensus is most of the worst users left when the porn ban took effect and went to places like Twitter and TikTok. Tumblr is protective of its current cultural ethos and users do not want to see a return to the likes of early 2010s culture. Outside of Tumblr it is common for people to either perceive the website as dead, or as full of insane people. We like to keep it that way. A certain style of aggressively weird or cringe blogging, known as Rent Lowering Gunshots, is sometimes employed to dissuade users of a more delicate sensibility from joining. 

It helps to already be kind of a weirdo to enjoy it here.

Fandom culture is pervasive on Tumblr, and promoted even by Staff. While not everyone is a fandom blogger, it is likely that most are to some extent. Some people choose to have separate blogs, or Sideblogs, for some or all of their specific interests and fandoms in order to keep content consistent. Other people prefer to dump all of their posts onto their Main and let god sort it out! This is entirely up to you.

Tags are not only used to find content, but also to filter it! You may easily block tags you do not want to see by going to your Settings. This will block anything your followed blogs tag with these tags, as well as any posts tagged by the OP as such even if the reblogger did not use them. As such it is advised that you do NOT censor any tags so that people’s block lists will catch them. If you wish to provide content warnings, please tag with “#[warning] cw” or “#[warning] tw”. Tagging with cw or tw first may mess with some people’s block lists, and tagging with the warning ONLY but without cw or tw may put the post in discussion tags for those triggers. 

Speaking of censorship, since, again, there is no algorithm, there is no need to censor curses, reclaimed slurs, words like “kill” or “death”, etc. Doing so will generally get you made fun of. The only time you may need to censor words in your post is if you are making a post critical of a subject or fandom and you don’t want to risk it coming up in their search results. In that case it’s considered polite to censor the name of the fandom, character, or other subject (or, in the case of H*rry P*tter, just a good way to avoid TERFs). 

In recent times, the infamous porn ban has been lightened somewhat. Artistic and educational nudity and sexuality, and really anything short of full-on pornography, is now generally allowed under the Mature Audiences community label. If your post needs a Mature label, click on the button that says “For Everyone” and change it to “Mature”.

On most social media websites there is an unspoken time limit to interact with a post before it becomes weird to do so. This is not the case on Tumblr. We still have posts circulating from 2011 and no one cares.

Tumblr Memes

Tumblr is rife with memes and shitposts (short, weird text posts). The landscape of Tumblr memes is always changing, but to get you up and running, here’s a few common ones to get you started (in no particular order).

DESTIEL CONFESSION: ever since the 2020 Elections, when Supernatural ship Destiel went canon in the weirdest possible way at the same time Trump was being defeated, a screencap of Castiel confessing his feelings to Dean has been the most common way for Tumblr users to share breaking news.

CRAB RAVE: similar to Destiel Confession, gifs from the music video for Crab Rave are often used to celebrate breaking news stories. This is most commonly the spiteful celebration of the death or downfall of terrible people.

THE TUMBLR CALENDAR: Tumblr users love any excuse to celebrate something and have a great number of weekly and annual observances. Weekly observances include Tuesday No Problem, Out of Touch Thursday, Flat Fuck Friday, and others. Annual observances include the Ides of March, Halloween (celebrated throughout October and also whenever you feel like it), November 5th (the anniversary of the 2020 Elections & Destiel Confession), and others.

DRACULA DAILY: A service that has chapters of “Dracula” by Bram Stoker sent directly to your email inbox, on the date the events happened in the story. Starts every year on May 3rd, currently in its second year running. Frequently memed on. Users will often reference emails from Our Good Friend Jonathan. There are other literary substacks but this one is by far the most popular.

DO YOU LOVE THE COLOR OF THE SKY?: A notorious, extremely long post mostly consisting of a color gradient. No one likes this post. Sometimes people will reblog it just to troll others. Other times people will reblog fakeout posts that seem like they’re going to be Do You Love The Color of the Sky, but turn out to be something else.

COLOR THEORY: An oft-referenced post in which a Tumblr user aggressively defended a hospital’s use of a streak of red painted on their floor, with seemingly no self awareness that the streak looked like a long trail of blood. Now pictures of apparent or obvious blood stains may contain jokes about color theory to explain why they’re perfectly innocent, actually.

GONCHAROV: A months long ruse conducted by many Tumblr users to make a completely fake Scorsese film seem like it was real. While anyone with any decency will admit to the farce when asked directly, most people still jokingly talk about Goncharov like it’s a real thing. Sometimes a new fake media will come along and be referred to as “the new Goncharov.”

HORSE PLINKO: A gif of a horse falling down a plinko machine, usually into a fire. That’s it.

THE TUMBLR CODE: A very old post from the early 2010s proposed a code for Tumblr users to identify each other in public. The call and response is “I like your shoelaces.” “Thanks, I stole them from the president.” Originally posted as silly but completely sincere, it is now embraced begrudgingly and ironically. Tumblr sells officially branded shoelaces as a reference to this post. It is considered embarrassing to buy them.

JOHN GREEN COCK MONOLOGUE: Once upon a time, it was possible for Tumblr users to edit the content of a post when reblogging it. In retrospect, this was always a terrible idea. It was made clear how terrible an idea this was when a post by author John Green was famously edited to be a long rant about how “Cock is my favorite taste”. This spread like wildfire, and was used as part of a larger harassment campaign that drove Green off the site completely. While still frequently joked about, the John Green Cock Monologue is more controversial than it once was, with many now citing it in retrospect as sexual harassment. In the wake of the Cock Monologue, Tumblr finally made reblogs uneditable. 

THEN PERISH: A menacing close-up screenshot of Obama’s squinting eyes. Originating from an absurd roleplay thread in which President Obama allowed a small monkey-like creature to drown, including an exchange frequently paraphrased as “I’ll do anything you want” “Then perish”. Frequently the image of Obama’s eyes alone are posted and understood to mean this phrase.

CONNECTICUT CLARK: Originating from Twitter and Reddit and spreading to Tumblr from there, Connecticut Clark was a character from the webcomics by Flork of Cows, originating an OC with absolutely no interesting powers, backstory, or particularly good looks. In fact he looks like a weird little lump. Tumblr users love Connecticut Clark and his romance with the demon witch Malfina. 

GIFS: Gifsets are a popular aspect of Tumblr fandom culture. Reaction gifs, however, are no longer preferred and often considered obnoxious, thanks to their overuse in the early days of Tumblr. Sometimes long chains of gifs are used as Rent Lowering Gunshots (see Tumblr Culture). 

THREE WEED SMOKING GIRLFRIENDS: A post by now defunct Tumblr user thejorie vehemently insisting that he had three girlfriends who smoked weed, and getting into aggressive arguments with most of the people who responded to the thread in any way.

BONEGHAZI: An infamous drama in which a Tumblr user openly admitted to stealing human bones from a nearby cemetery to use in witchcraft and/or sell to others. If you ever hear anyone talking about The Tumblr Bone-Stealing Witch, just know that that’s a real thing that really happened.

MIKU BINDER THOMAS JEFFERSON: Of all of the bizarre things to come out of the Hamilton fandom (besides the Cannibal Mermaid Fanfic and the person who faked AIDS for clout, two controversies I am NOT going to get into here and that you can look up on your own), one famous fanart depicted Hamilton’s version of Thomas Jefferson as a trans man wearing a binder emblazoned with virtual musician Hatsune Miku. Widely mocked.

Famous (and Infamous) Tumblr Users

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses: AKA Gaud. Controversial but very pervasive shitposter. I tend to avoid them, lots of people consider them annoying, but I don’t think they did anything specific? Someone correct me if I’m wrong. In spite of the name I don’t think they’re a H*rry P*tter blogger.

bunjywunjy: Animal blogger known for their #Cursed Biology animal facts series. Very informative!

chongoblog: Mashup musician and streamer. Also memes a lot. His longest work to date is Mad Rat Monday, a mashup album based around the soundtrack to Mad Rat Dead.

communismkills: Thankfully no longer active, famous for harassing and doxxing trans people, as well as a frequently mocked post where they tried to get people to pay them $8000 to stop posting.

cryptotheism: Occultist and author, one of the most famous of the oft-referenced Tumblr Wizards. Posts frequently about occult history and practice.

dingdongyouarewrong: Youtube video essayist Sarah Z. Shitposts more than she posts about her YouTube channel. Has a vocal group of detractors but I’ve never figured out why. Tbf I am a fan of her channel.

doubleca5t: Well-liked trans woman shitposter and former YouTuber, though she quit her YouTube channel to focus on her career.

evilwizard: Another popular Tumblr Wizard. Unlike cryptotheism, whose “wizardry” is rooted in a sincere interest in alchemy and occultism, evilwizard’s wizardry is a schtick. Funny, though.

gallusrostromegalus: Artist and author known for their extremely long but very funny story posts.

iguanamouth: Artist and meme blogger. Many of their artworks have become memes in their own right. 

neil-gaiman: Yes, that Neil Gaiman. The popular fantasy author is also a popular Tumblr blogger and one of the few celebrities Tumblr users will tolerate (although some resent even him).

nyancrimew: AKA maia arson crimew. The internationally wanted hacktivist who released the no-fly list is also a beloved fixture on Tumblr. 

pangur-and-grim: AKA Greer Stothers. Illustrator, author, and pet blogger. Their oriental longhair cat Pangur is particularly beloved.

pizza: A once well liked blogger who fell into infamy for being a huge racist, and was ultimately banned, not for the racism, but for promoting diet pills on their blog.

prokopetz: Tabletop game designer and prolific blogger. Has a pinned post with all his game designs, if you are interested.

punkitt-is-here: One of the most well known My Little Pony bloggers on the site today. Known for their silly comics, liked even by people who do not watch MLP.

reallyndacarter: Actress Lynda Carter is fairly new to Tumblr, a recent Twitter refugee, but Tumblr has embraced her for her earnestness and willingness to play along with the website’s weirdness.

sixpenceee: Bafflingly still active despite the well-known controversy where they straight up admitted their family owns a child slave. Not recommended.

straycatj: Well liked Japanese cat blog, written (usually) from the perspective of the cats. Extremely cute and wholesome.

were–ralph: Beloved furry and werewolf fucker. Blog tends to trend very NSFW so follow at your own risk. Also he keeps getting banned and has to keep remaking, either because of the spicy content or because Staff is racist.

I hope this has been helpful! If you are a Tumblr newbie, again, welcome, and don't be shy to reach out and ask other Tumblr users about anything you need to know!

And if you are a Tumblr veteran who has read all this way and you think something in this guide needs to be changed, added, or removed, let me know!

[full-hd-sun]

Instagram algorithms

Pairing:

Johnny/Ten

Warnings and genres:

Romantic Fluff, Happy Ending, Strangers to Lovers, Idols, Attempt at Humor, Dancer Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten

Summary:

They say, "Never say never." In an instant - you don't even think about dancing and it's annoys you, but in another moment - you are ready to make a room with a pole in your future apartment, so that "he" dances only for you.

     - By today, the shooting of the video is over! Thank you all for the work done, everyone is free! - said the director, and the guys could finally exhale. The staff collected the decorations, and the guys went to the dressing rooms. They had ten minutes to change - a car was already waiting for them on the street to take them to the dorm.

Johnny was sorry to part with his clothes for filming, because he really loved the style that the stylists chose for him. When he went to the store himself, he could choose clothes like a bum-style type, which upset him. While Johnny was changing, he had the thought that now he would have to return to his empty dorm room, where no one was waiting for him, and the second part of the bed was cold and not warmed by anyone’s body.

He had a neighbor named Taeyong, but the next week he is going to move to his boyfriend Jaehyun’s, so they would leave him all alone in the room. Sometimes he was so jealous of them. Johnny also wanted to have someone who could lie on top, and he would bury his fingers in the hair of this “someone”, which are still a little damp after a shower, and would exchange soft kisses with him, talking about something of theirs, secret.

And so the group was standing by the car. While the guys getting into the car, Johnny tried to order food delivery, because he is exhausted. He take a seat next to Mark, and they started discussing the filming and remembered how Jaehyun blushed when they forced him to shoot a video with the tackle phrase “Jeogiyo nuna hokshi namjachingu isseoyo”. After hearing it, Yoonoh blushed again and hid behind Taeyong’s back, who responded by gently stroking his head.

While they had such conversations, they quickly got to dorm, and fled to their rooms, because everyone wanted to wash finally off the makeup that irritated the skin. Taeyong took the bathroom, and Johnny cheered himself up and go to Instagram, while waiting for a friend to free room. Since he is a great connoisseur of high-quality photos, he follows many photographers and on average he spent four hours a day on Instagram.

      - This is outstanding ... Taeyong, come here! Look what a gorgeous shot! I’m crazy about this photographer! - Johnny yelled while lifting his phone into the air.

      - You say that about every photographer you follow, - Tae replied trying not to move his facial muscles to keep the mask from slipping. - And if it’s an animal on the photo ... - he did not have time to finish the sentence, because Johnny poked him with his phone almost in the face.

      - Just look! What color correction, what kind of exposure, and how well the background is visible, which does not distract from the foreground. Everything is harmonious as hell! - Suh shakes his phone. - I won’t find content on Instagram better than animals or professional photography, - Johnny switched to the recommendations feed.

      - I wouldn’t be so sure. I also thought so before, but you know, Instagram recommendations can throw something interesting. I’ve found so many edits made by our fans. When I’m not in the mood, they amuse me, - replied Lee, removing the mask and smearing the remnants of it on his neck with thin fingers.

      - Well, yes, artificial intelligence does not stand still, but it will definitely not be cooler than well-taken photographs or animals. - said Johnny, accidentally clicking on the first post in the recommendations.

The video showed a guy was on his knees and pressed his buttocks to the pole. When the calm music began, he threw one hand on the pole, and the other temptingly ran over the body. Then he spread his knees to the sides, grabbed the pole with both hands and turned over in the air, as if this did not require special strength, standing on his right leg, and wrapping his left leg around the pole. All his movements were smooth and calm, like a surface of a sea on an early sunny morning. The video was short, but Johnny seems to have spent a lot more watching, and Taeyong pulled him out of the trance by snapping his fingers to his ear.

      - Hey, I told you here how the guys and I spent the weekend, and you didn’t even hummed. You seem to have seen a new photo there that fascinated you? - said Lee and tried to look at the elder’s phone, but last quickly blocked it.

      - No, I thought about the upcoming photo sessions. Again, so many things will have to be applied, the hair will be torment ... - Johnny tried to redirect topic in another side, because he knew that Lee was a fan of crying about transformations during each comeback and how he fed up with everything.

      - Oh yes, this is awfull. They will paint me in long-ass colour again and dress something on me, like in Fire Truck’s era ... - Taeyong complained.

_-_-_-_ -_-_-_-_ -_-_-_-_ -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ -_- _-_- _-_- _-_- _-_- _-_- _-_- _-_- 

Several weeks after that video, Johnny followed actively that dancer. His name was Ten, and it turned out that he danced not only on the pole but also hip-hop, traditional Chinese dances, and even ballet ... Of course, pole dancing received the most views and admired comments. Suh watched and commented on all Ten’s videos, were on all the lives and tried to memorize every guy’s emotion.

- So, we have everybody here broken down by parts, so while the rap-line is being recorded, the vocals can have some rest. You can go take a coffee, - said the record director and disappeared into the studio with Mark and Taeyong.

Jungwoo promised that he would stay at the studio and write to the American in case of anything, so Johnny went to the cafe downstairs for calm breakfast with meringues and coffee.

He felt like a teenager when he thought about how to get attention from this handsome guy dancer. At first Johnny thought about writing Ten in direct, but he probably already has a lot of fans, so Johnny’s message will just get lost among a bunch of others. Then he thought to invite Ten as a backing dancer to their video, but they already had enough people, and then Suh thought if he received such an offer, he would definitely block this person. Therefore, Johnny was waiting for an opportunity to drive up to the guy as invisibly as possible.

Suddenly, a notification came that Ten had a new post. Opening it, Johnny flew out of this world altogether: in the video, Ten, slightly sag in the back, leaning on the pole only with his shoulder blades, but what Suh paid all his attention to was that the dancer was on high heels. Rather rhythmic music played, but Ten hit the beat with every particle of his body, captivating the American’s mind. He arching as if his bones were made from gelatin. Ten playfully shot his eyes into the lens, and Johnny felt like these eyes were hitting into his heart. Eagerly absorbing every movement, repeating Ten’s emotions on his face. When the dance ended, Ten found himself in the same position as in the beginning.

Johnny really regretted that he didn’t smoke, otherwise he would have smoked a whole pack. So he took a cup of Americano brought by the server and drank it all in a few sips. Johnny just forgot how to breathe. Previously, he did not notice a special love for dancing, especially the pole, he just did not understand the meaning. And now he is ready to find out the address of the studio where Ten dances, and even if this is some god-choked club somewhere on the edge of the city - Johnny is ready to come there and watch the guy dances, and then come to the hostel and will fantasize, remembering his cunning, fox gaze and light movements. Although somewhere deep in his soul he wanted Ten to dance only for him. Johnny was even ready to give him a room in his future apartment where Ten would dance only for him.

From such thoughts the blood rushed to the right place, but Johnny had no time to go to relax - he saw a message from Jungwoo: he wrote that it was time for them to go recording. So he quickly finished eating the meringue and having paid, ran up the stairs.

-_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- - -

The guys were exhausted: they had a promotion for the “Cherry Bomb” tour, and the last city they sang was Seoul. Before the concert there were three days off, the group divided into units: one unit slept all day, got up to eat in the evening, and went to bed again, and the second unit just played games all day, ate a lot and lay in bed, conducting live.

The time was approaching midnight, when Johnny tired of watching YouTube, so he remembered about Ten’s Instagram. When he opened the application, he immediately saw a post about Lulu, a cute short-legged cat, very popular on YouTube, who also had a “brother”. It was a short video of Lulu trying to steal a piece of cake from the hostess. This made Johnny uwu-face and flipped down the page, bumping into Ten’s post. It said that they were recruiting for a pole dancing group.

At first Johnny lit up with joy, as this is a great opportunity to roll up to the guy and pull him into his net. But he is an idol, the day after tomorrow is a concert, he needs to rest ... He weighed the pros and cons for a very long time and finally went to Taeyong, who probably did not sleep because he is working on the lyrics of a new song.

Johnny tapped his knuckles gently on the wooden door. After a couple of seconds, he heard Tae’s stomping outside the door and a tousled head appeared from there with glasses slipping to the tip of his nose.

- Oh Johnny, it’s you. Come in, just try as quietly as possible - Jae-na fall asleep, he was spinning for a long time and could not sleep, - Lee whispered, opening the door wider and letting in the guest.

Suh sat down on Taeyong’s bed and wondered how to tell properly his friend about the situation, and decided that it would be better to dump everything on a clean one.

- Taeyong, I just decided ... I want to go pole dancing. What do you think about it? Johnny asked, looking up hesitantly at Lee, who was intently crossing out individual lines of the song in his notebook. He was not even surprised at this question and just asked.

-And who is this lucky guy that you want to attract? - with a slight grin on his face.

Johnny at first did not understand what the guy was driving at, and told that he had read somewhere there that it is useful for physical fitness, like you won’t be a jerk, but your hands will be strong. And then he realized, so he ran his eyes around the room, trying not to show it.

- In what sense of “lucky-guy”? I just decided for myself. I saw one guy dancing ... - Suh started talking, but was interrupted by Lee, who finished the sentence in his place.

- And you conquered him with your skills, am I right? Taeyong finally raised his head and turned sideways to his friend.

Johnny’s face was full of emotion, but the first thing Taeyong saw was embarrassment. He hit the mark.

- But how did you guess? - the American rubbed the tips of his ears.

- Well, first - you were never very interested in dancing at rehearsals, I never saw yours much zeal to dancing. Second, - Tae bent his second finger, turning his back to Johnny and recording something, - everyone has noticed for a long time that you spend a lot of time on the phone watching videos of some dancer on repeat. And our Doyoung, like a bloodhound dog, found him in your subscriptions and we also watched all of his videos. You have a good taste for guys, Johnny-hyung, - said Taeyong mockingly, making the elder blush even more and stare at the floor, - Well, third, even though you wear oversized clothes, yours “daddy” is all it is equally visible and he gives you up with giblets.

Johnny reflexively grabbed onto the aforementioned spot, covering it up, making Taeyong burst out laughing.

- But how did you all know? Johnny asked to deflect the subject from such an awkward moment.

- Well at least that you look hilarious when you watch him dancing and try to copy his facial expressions. And also, when you were dancing in the training hall with headphones on, I could admire how you tried to sit on the splits and your pants were torn right in the middle. - Lee could no longer restrain himself and burst into soundless laughter.

Johnny would fall through the floor if he found out that this shame was seen by someone else, but he can trust Lee, so they laughed, but not loudly, as Yoonoh tossed and turn in his sleep and Taeyong left to calm him down and sang him a song.

Johnny continued to sit on the edge of the bed, face propped in his hands, and watched about the couple. They were insanely cute: Jaehyun would often massage Taeyong’s back and legs on set because the latter was training too hard and was exhausted, and Yoonoh also brought food for Lee because Taeyong usually forgot to eat during day and then ate so much before going to bed and half of the night turning from side to side. Taeyong always asked everyone to be quiet in the car when Jaehyun fell asleep on his shoulder or lap; they were at the gunpoint of the cameras and behaved cautiously, no one could say that they were meeting, but the tenderness that they gave to each other was in the air and encouraged others to meet the soul mate, for whom they would want to move mountains. If they fought, then at most they could not talk for half an hour, one of them always came to another and childishly held out his little finger with the words “Make friends, make friends, Never, never break friends, if you do - You’ll catch the flu, And that will be the end of you”, and in the morning Mark and Donghyuck, who live next door, complained of banging on the wall and low sighs.

Johnny took a deep breath because he wasn’t sure guys like Ten needed a relationship. He seems to be married to the gym and pole. Meanwhile, Lee calmed Jung down and returned to the chair. Johnny looked up and asked hesitantly.

      - Well, since you already know everything about this, then ... Should I try?

Taeyong was silent for a minute, and then he spoke.

      - I think yes. It will be very difficult for you, but I am confident in you like in no one else.

      - To be honest, I’m terrified. I’ll be like a cow on ice ...

      - Love overpowers fear, - Taeyong whispered mysteriously and returned to his notes.

But really, what would he lose if he just tried? Yes, he will look ridiculous trying to climb the pole, but isn’t it worth it to make Ten laugh and cheer him up? When Doyoung was sad before the vlive, Johnny made him laugh in more ridiculous ways, and nothing, no one stopped loving him less because of this. Johnny decided that he should justify the feelings that arose in him six months ago, and he would rather get a refusal now than continue to sigh mindlessly for this guy.

      - You’re right, - Johnny whispered sharply and frightened Taeyong, who had already forgotten that Suh is still here, - I’ll take this first step towards winning the dancer’s heart, and either I’ll be refused, or I can bathe in his love.

＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／ ＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／ ＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／

After speaking a little more with Tae and finally dispelling his indecision, Johnny returned to his room. Now he had to write to Ten about his desire to dance, but it was not as easy as he imagined. He could only hope that his message would not get lost among others. He opened a direct with Ten.

Hello! Saw yours last post about recruiting a pole dance group. Are there still free positions?

He wrote this with shaking hands, but was very glad that he dared to take such a step. Deciding to distract himself from waiting of the dancers answer, Suh turned on video. It was fourteen minutes to three o’clock in the morning when Johnny received an Instagram alert on his phone.

Hi Hi. Just in time for the last. When will it be convenient for you to come?

The American was as delighted with the message as the schoolgirl to whom her love was answered. He wanted to squeak, but remembered in time that it was now like night. So Johnny buried himself in the pillow and muttered something joyful in his own way and then exhaled deeply. For a long time he could not leave the message read.

I don’t know yet, because I have a work, but I would like to get to your group.

Johnny wrote to Ten, hit the send button and immediately fall asleep.

In the morning his message was read, but with no response. Johnny imagined thousand and one reasons of his stupidness and was already ready to cry in Taeyong’s shoulder but he was stopped by Mark, who pleased the older one to reconcile him with Donghyuck, because he accidentally deleted a game from theirs computer because of lack of memory, and now the youngest was mortally offended by him. During lunch and Johnny did not touch the phone again. And only when they went to their rooms, Johnny finally remembered the correspondence.

He had never run to the phone so quickly. Grabbing it, Johnny sighed with relief: Ten answered. He did not dare to open the message for a long time, fearing rejection, but then he remembered Taeyong’s words and said “Well, no matter what, i open” and read the message.

If you want, you can come to the introductory lesson tomorrow at twenty minutes to three in the afternoon.

Johnny could not believe his happiness: tomorrow he will see this charm boy live and that is why he became strange, because after that he happily jogged in the room and shouted - Who is sexy Frau? I am sexy Frau!!, without even thinking - Frau is a woman, but he can say so, he has such an event. He picked up the phone and wrote a message:

Oh, sure. What should I take with me?

The answer came quickly, as if Ten were expecting his message:

Yourself.

Johnny wondered if either Ten was as weird as he was, or that the message was not meant for him. But he decided not to upset himself and just hugged the phone, imagining tomorrow.

＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／ ＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／ ＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／

Arriving at the address showed by Ten, Johnny doubted for a very long time: was this message really was intended for him? Maybe Ten is expecting to see someone another. In moments like this, Suh forgets that he is an idol. He sat down on the sofa in the hall and waited.

Johnny was drawn from his thoughts by a human shadow blocking the light in front of him. He looked up and gasped - it was Ten who smiled to him. Johnny sat with his mouth open, and Ten realized how much he impressed Suh - he silently pulled Johnny with him. As the man stood up and followed the dancer, he noticed his height advantage and noted the strength with which Ten was pulling him forward.

They didn’t walk long, but during that time Johnny had time to study him: he had beautifully tousled silver hair, he was wearing a big loose T-shirt and sweatpants, and he smelled a mix of a little sweat and fresh mint. Johnny was so shocked to be so close to Ten that he didn’t even notice bringing him to the training room: it looked much smaller than theirs room, but it was just as cozy here, and Johnny thought the soundproofing was better here than in theirs company’s gym.

- So what dance would you like to dance? - asked Ten with honey voice, closing the door behind him. Johnny became very uncomfortable, because they were together there, and then his “daddy” made itself felt, showing through the fabric of tight jeans. I thought about wearing something loose,- he thoughts, and then looked up and caught the curious gaze of a dancer who was grinning and looking as sly as in his video.

- I would like to.. With you in ... I mean, dance on the pylon, you do it so wonderful and easily, it’s incredible ... - Johnny explained, looking at the floor like a child guilty of something. Ten only nodded in response to his praise.

- Well, since you are so amazed, would you like to see one of my best dances? - asked Ten after a pause and, without waiting for an answer, turned to the speakers behind him to find the music. - You can sit there - Ten pointed on the rugs.

Johnny decided that sitting down would be the best decision he made today. He sat down on the mat and, as it seemed to him, imperceptibly corrected his disgrace in his pants, but Ten saw everything watching the American in the mirror. Dancer just grinned at this maneuver.

Ten finally found the song, turned it on and ran briskly to the pole. He shook his head, stretched, and the song “Baby Don’t Like It “played. Johnny didn’t even immediately realize that it was a song from his group, he just thought he had already heard it somewhere.

Ten’s shoulders were wider than the guys his height, but he was very slim and flexible. Every movement of his hips made Johnny squeal inside, his arms were thin and even seemed a little feminine, but when he grabbed the pole, Suh opened his mouth in surprise and wondering where so much power in such a body. The song was alluring, and the atmosphere which Ten created with his dance was such that you can cut the air with a knife. At first, Johnny was controlling himself, but then he gazed at the guy. He even rarely blinked so as not to miss a single movement. There was nothing vulgar in dancer’s movements, but the way he presented the dance left nothing in his thoughts, except sexual fantasies. The guy glides along the pylon like a snake, and that sly look pins to Suh. Ten definitely understood his sexuality and knew what to press on. From time to time Johnny pinched his own hand to calm down a little.

Alas, Ten’s dance came to the end, and Johnny again did not even notice. His throat was dry, he wanted to drink even more than then in the cafe. With this dance, Ten finally won Suh’s heart.

- What do you think about it? - asked Ten. He slid down the pylon and sat on the floor opposite Johnny.

- You’re just like God, - croaked American. The dancer only smiled at this.

- You can just call me Ten.

Johnny didn’t know what to say to that and just hummed. He thought it would be much easier in live communication. Ten seemed not even tense. But he apparently felt that the tension was still there and emanated from Johnny.

- Well, will you sit and be silent, or will you offer to go on a date? - Ten interrupted the silence, getting closer to Johnny. Suh did not expect such a turn.

- Sorry, what?

- Come on, they’ve already told me everything about your love for me. I am the best friend of one of your group mate, and he told me about your feelings, - the dancer laughed, standing up from the floor and sitting down next to Suh, who was crazy about the situation. - At first I didn’t believe it either, because I have been a fan of yours group for a long time, and my bias is a fan of my dances, - Ten continued to twitter while Johnny was digesting the information. He could just use one of his morons - classmates, but he sat for six months like an idiot and suffered?

Did it suddenly happen that the person he loved was also a fan? Well, it flabbergasted me. Johnny just couldn’t help but smile with happiness.

Interrupting Ten’s speech, Suh pulled him into a gentle kiss, gently hugging the guy by the shoulders, because he was afraid of breaking Ten’s back with his strength. As expected, this guy is wonderful in everything, even in the kiss he brought his individuality. When they pulled away from each other, Ten chuckled.

- Well, actually, at first I would prefer to go on a date, but I also like your version. But wait a minute.

Ten got to his feet and turned the key in the lock, and then came back, knelt down directly to Suh and crawled on top of him like a cat.

- So where did we stop?

＼ （Ｔ∇Ｔ） ／ ＼ （Ｔ∇Ｔ） ／ ＼ （Ｔ∇Ｔ） ／

After a hot relaxation in the training room, Ten and Johnny took a shower separately, and Suh, like a gentleman, invited the guy to dinner. They went to the ramen cafe, where they ordered a few servings of noodles because they lost a lot of calories. It turned out they were like two pears in a pod: Ten argued with Johnny, who would eat two portions of ramen faster. Suh would win, but so as not to upset Ten, he patiently waited for him to eat his portions first, and then, like a child, rejoiced for him, clutching his cheeks.

Until recently, Johnny did not even know how to talk to a guy, but now they tried the forbidden fruit, albeit in the hall, but they will definitely repeat this in all places, because the elder now knows how much Ten fell in love with him during this time. Johnny could not want more, but fate rewarded him for restraint with a gift in the form of this adorable kitten.

[lideria]

Lost in Yesterday. | Jeno | Backstory.

➥ pairing(s): jeno x gender-neutral!reader, kind of haechan x gender-neutral!reader

➥ genre: lots of angst, also fluff, somewhat suggestive, royal!au, rivalkingdoms!au, loverstoenemies!au

➥ warnings: swear words, mentions of suggestive themes, themes and mentions of war, themes of heartbreak, themes and mentions of family distress/unhealthy relationship, themes of manipulation, themes of psychological abuse, themes of confusion, drinking, mentions of injuries, mentions of gun use, mentions of disassociation. english is my second language so there might be errors.

➥ word count: 25.6k

➥ summary: the firsts and lasts of a forbidden relationship between two heirs.

➥ songs that have inspired this piece/i recommend readers to listen: lost in yesterday - tame impala, low - lenny kravitz, strangers in the night - frank sinatra, six days - dj shadow, next to me - imagine dragons, don’t you cry for me - cobi, to be alone - hozier, c’mon - panic! at the disco ft. fun, morph - twenty one pilots, moon river - frank ocean, sinking man - of monsters and men

➥ author’s note: THIS IS A REPOST, because tumblr’s algorithm did me dirty and took this off the tags. i dearly hope this does not flop heheh please like/reblog if you enjoy this! because i just about lost my mind while writing! also, a big thank you to my beta readers @shimmershimmernct and @neocity-sarai, you guys are awesome!

➥ sequels: reader’s pov // jeno’s pov

i hope everyone enjoys this, have a great morning/day/evening/night!

The Last Ball

The orchestra remains playing songs in the background even after all the past hours they have done so. Hallways are empty and partially dark if it was not for the moonlight. Most of the staff is occupied with serving the hundreds of guests in the middle wing of the palace— working in the kitchen, in the ballroom and outside stood the guards. The left wing of the palace, the one that is supposedly closed to the guests for the night, is only alive because of the two people running through its moonlit halls.

Jeno is holding your hand as he leads the way, excited giggles making their way out without much effort to stop them. The both of you run up the last set of grand stairs and Jeno runs to the end of the wide corridor. He pushes the doors of the library open rather harshly, making you both stumble your way in. His hands wrap around your waist as he pushes you to the nearest set of shelves. It does not take much time for your lips to meet.

The prince, dressed in a pure, blinding white suit with his jet black hair takes your breath away in the best way possible. He pecks you on the lips so many times it makes you dizzy, steadying you with his hands placed delicately on either sides of your jaw as lingers out some of the pecks into longer lasting, tender kisses.

As always it feels rushed and desperate. Yet so, so precious.

It does not feel like you had enough of him when he places his forehead on yours, looking into your eyes while his thumbs caress your jaw. You can hardly see him in the dark, save for his eyes that are sparkling with the weak and pretty rays of moonlight hitting them. He audibly gulps.

“One more,” Jeno whispers before kissing you again. You feel so lost in him that you have to steady yourself to know you still have the strength to stay on your feet. Your hands that had been resting against his chest come up to pull him closer to you, now stationed at his nape. His teeth ever so slightly graze down on your bottom lip, eliciting a breathy hum from both of you at the tension that seems to radiate from where your lips meet— and it clicks in him. That this is not the time or the place.

When he pulls away he takes a couple steps back, and then he smiles. Moonlight barely hits him but your eyes are, at this point, somewhat adjusted to the dark from running through dark halls and semi making out in the dark library. Both of you know why he stops and pulls away too soon before it can go any further. He cannot even kiss you for as long or as hard as him and you would like to, because people would notice from your appearances and the duration of your absence. And gossip was a deadly thing within the royal class.

It was okay. As long as you could escape with him for some time, it would be okay. You two were too used to it at this point.

“You look blinding tonight, your Majesty,” He teases, his eyes curved into the crescents they are. The nickname hitches your heart instantly, triggering all the dreams you know could not come to be. All you can do is press them down in your heart until they become so compact that you feel back in control. Him being there right beside you does not help with the situation in your heart, but the least you can do is to touch him in some way because you missed him.

Hell, you missed him even when he was right there, stood before your eyes.

So you opt to run a careful hand through his soft and silky hair, tidying the mess it had come while running. Realization hits you suddenly then, and your heart picks up again though of causes less pleasurable. “Is Jaemin out? We left so quickly.”

Jeno leaving without his guard would surely create chaos. With the tension the regional monarchies and the state kingdoms were in, and the unspoken arguments and arrogance hanging in the air, any heir even daring to breathe without their personal guards would mean letting them out into the wild with all the dangers and possibilities awaiting. Alone.

And that is a risk none of the kingdoms are willing to take.

The Prince’s eyes flutter a bit, but he sounds somewhat confident. “I was making hand gestures all the time, there’s no way he didn’t pick them up.”

As if on cue, there are loud knocks at the door when you nod. Both of your heads snap at the source of the noise— the doors are then opened even harsher than how Jeno had done some moments ago, and two figures rush in, clearly out of breath.

For a second you dare to think that you have another forbidden couple in the library, but the voice that speaks debunks your theory. “They’re here,” Jaemin breathes out in what could best be called relief. He kneels to his knees and takes a few moments to gulp and recollect himself. His silence is instantly filled, however, with another voice you know all too well.

“Excuse me for dropping the honorifics but for the sake of my poor mother stop doing this to us,” Donghyuck, your guard, complains. Jaemin lets out a laugh and nods appreciatively at his words. The guard carries on with his complaint but not without sucking in a big breath first. “At least inform us of where you’re going so we don’t have to lie through our teeth to the kings and queens while also worrying about your safety. A generation earlier and we would be beheaded if they found out what we’re doing.” Donghyuck kneels to grab at his legs as well, looking at the ground. Jaemin pats his back once in support. “The things I do for this relationship. Really, I would’ve gotten married already if I paid this much attention to my own relationships. I don’t know about Jaemin.”

The guard beside him chuckles. “You and me both at that one.”

Both Jeno and you laugh at their words, too stunned to move from your place. You both give your guards a good few seconds to catch their breaths but Jeno moves towards his guard and best friend before you can even move, waiting for him to groom his outfit and straighten up first. “Did anybody see you?”

The cautious words leaving Jeno catches Jaemin off guard, but he still answers the question rather quickly. “We kept some distance between us until we were out of the middle wing. No one was around after that as far as I could tell.” Upon his words he pats Jaemin on the shoulder as if to say good job, and he mumbles his thanks to both of the guards in gratitude— even though the two of you did not necessarily need them to find you, as in them walking in on you.

Jeno turns to you when Jaemin is done, a warm smile on his face again, probably sharing the same feelings but also knowing the consequences of not being down at the hall for longer than expected. “I will see you in the ballroom, my love.” Affection beams from his words and it makes you incredibly happy, even though you have heard the nickname countless times before.

“Hurry up already, I can hear your father scolding you.” He chuckles a breath and nods at Donghyuck, giving him his recognition and respect, before making his way out of the door with Jaemin trailing next to him.

You sigh when the door closes behind him and his company, knowing this would be the only time you could get to yourselves with him tonight. Just like that, the prince was gone.

Relationships between royals were heavily looked down upon unless they were arranged marriages, because they could bring unexpected feuds, wars, or peace. No royals wanted their love life to affect their politics unless they could impose full control over them. Considering the state the nations are in— with all kinds of political feuds and tight anger in between that waited patiently until it was the time to blow up— your relationship between two heirs of monarchies that have never necessarily gotten along feels all the more forbidden. Even after three years of being steady and having things under control.

Loving him would not be this difficult if it was your ideal world.

“Your Highness,” Donghyuck starts, looking at you with some level of concern. “You should be looking happy. Not like this.”

There is something weird about the way Donghyuck speaks to you. Most probably because of the fact that you have known each other since childhood, there is still a sense of warm and homely friendliness and informality in his words, despite the title he has to call you by. The two of you had met at eight years of age, when his mother who works in the kitchen brought him into the palace that time when his father was sick and she could not take the risk of leaving him alone with an ill man. He had been the first child that you actually made friends with outside the heir community— if it was even one.

Fourteen years of friendship. One of which was spent apart as he was sent away to train to become your guard by your father’s order, and three of which was spent with him as your guard. Mostly with laughs, sometimes with tears, lots of kept secrets, shared feelings and struggles, and helping each other with anything and everything. Donghyuck was your one loyal friend, and perhaps, the only friend you truly had.

Honestly, you could not have asked for a better primary guard. “I am happy,” The words prompt an automatic smile on your lips, albeit one of longing. “I just would’ve loved to dance with him again.”

The First Dance

The first time you had danced together was three years ago, it had also been the day  where  you had completely fallen for him. Years of silently crushing had been leading up to it— momentary glances at the dinner table when his family or yours were doing their yearly rounds of visits followed by shy smiles, playing in the snow when they visited your kingdom of mountains, exploring the beautiful forests of his kingdom of what felt like a sea of green, helping each other with duties that required a second thought, late night talks in the gardens and balconies, watching the night sky with the astronomy-lover prince. Sometimes he would tell you all about it, sometimes the both of you would lounge around and sketch architectural pieces and compete on insults and comebacks, sometimes you would ride horses together— basically, you would share what you loved doing with one another.

For years it felt like a snowball rolling down the edge of a mountain, starting off small but swiftly tumbling and getting bigger and bigger as it made its way down. Surely it would end in an avalanche where the neatly formed snowball would disintegrate into a new spread of snow that would cover every inch of the surface.

The first dance was the scream that caused the avalanche.

Jeno had come to your side in the ballroom full of royal members and the elite class, roaming through an ocean of people just to find you. He had sensed the stress around the hall— the unhappiness that swarmed within the people spread around, and he thought— you were young. In fact, most people in that very room were young except for the rulers. It should feel energetic and fresh for everyone to take a short break from duties and responsibilities. It was a ball, after all. Not a conference. Nor a summit. Nothing political, so why was everyone making it feel like it was? Why would he not ask someone he liked to a dance?

Because that person was you, and your parents’ views did not go hand in hand? Because it was basic and proper political etiquette for him to not ask you to a dance?

Well, that would have just been plain stupid and a shame in his opinion.

“Hey,” He had leant over to your ear while you were looking at some group of people who were dancing away, prompting a little jerk of your shoulders in surprise. It makes him chuckle. “Hello, and excuse you, I don’t think I heard the ‘your Highness’ part,” You had said in return. “I could start some drama with the way you are disrespecting me right now.” He saw your eyes point at a particular group of teenagers your age, ones that were heirs of ‘lesser’ kingdoms— whatever that meant. Just because they did not have much land to rule over. The heirs, though, were known to be quite the chitter-chatters. They were the ones to have a word with if you ever needed some catching up with the society.

Your eyebrows had lifted a bit then in an effort to point them out further, and your finger had slightly pointed at them as stealthily as you could muster. “All it would take is a few words with them and I swear within the next hour everyone would know how you don’t even have the manners to address people correctly.”

That made Jeno start laughing silly, but you protested further. “You should have been at the last Unity Ball. They made sure everyone knew Doyoung and, you know, his now-wife-and-the-queen were a deal. I don’t even know where they spotted them doing what because I sure didn’t see them.”

You chuckled after your words as well, and Jeno could not take his eyes off of you. He smiled fondly, relaxing his linked hands placed at his back. “I was thinking…” He held out a hand, palm looking upwards at the ceiling, relaxed enough that his fingers were not fully straight. “Maybe we could give them something to talk about.”

With a smile, you rolled your eyes. “Jeno, this will give everybody something to talk about.”

Jeno shrugged carelessly with pursed lips. “I know and frankly I do not care. I just want to dance with you.”

It made your heart skip a beat— a couple, actually. He felt the same way in his chest.

And he knew his father would be watching over him somewhere, muttering to his mother about what was he doing and why would he even do that and this is going to raise so many questions but he had meant it. He simply did not care. Jeno also did not care about what your father must think of him. If it was as he expected it to be, it was somewhere between neutral and he is tolerable. Not he is as bad as his father. Plus, if the two of you got into trouble, just how hard could it be when the two of you were the only heirs for your parents’ thrones and had your own duties every living day?

Yes. It would not be much trouble at all.

Perhaps you also had a similar thought process, because you willingly put your hand in his. The two of you walked to the floor and felt gazes shift towards your direction along the way. And then, you placed your hand on him and let him place his hand at the small of your back, linking your other half of hands together.

And you started dancing. In the same way you would have danced with anyone that was not him. As more gazes landed upon the two of you and people watched you dance instead of only seeing you, understanding and observing first hand that being rivals is not applicable to situations like these and that your parents’ disagreement do not have to be yours, you swayed and you smiled and you looked into Jeno’s eyes.

But something was different.

You got lost in his eyes. You felt your breath escape free from your chest at the feeling of his hands holding you, and your heart started beating at a much faster, hypnotic rhythm— like that of a horse’s trots when it is set free to run around. And honestly, you got lost in the feeling. The feeling of being able to say so much when none of you are speaking. It was comfortable. It was strengthening. It was freeing. Fresh, warm, calm yet exciting.

Maybe he had felt the same, because you could feel his hold getting tighter and his gaze fonder by the second as you danced.

Jeno and you colored your way through that year’s annual visit, the usual black-and-whiteness of it nowhere to be seen.

The Last Official Visit

“Mere years ago I thought it couldn’t get any worse,” You mumble quietly as Jeno and you walk your way to the dining hall. You are making sure you keep your voice down so as to prevent the staff— especially the educational staff— from hearing your complaints. Both of your hands are at your sides lightly brushing against each other’s. That is the most affectionate thing you could do when everyone is around, really. “Having too many lessons on too many subjects in one day and somehow trying to keep all of them in my mind so I can have a shot at being a decent ruler,” Jeno hums in agreement and nods a little, waiting for the actual complaint to come. “But now that I’m actually getting closer to the being a monarch, everything’s just.. I think my head will crack open if I need to memorize anything more about law. Do you ever feel the same?”

From the corner of your eye, you can feel a staff looking at you with judging eyes, so you feel inclined to add the honorific. “Your Highness?”

Jeno chuckles as you turn around the corner and nods enthusiastically, when both of you notice one of the head guards and all three of you bow a bit in greetings as you pass by each other. “I can relate to that. For me having to deal with and participating in the military is draining as I get older. A lot of the time I just want to be able to learn things I want to learn. Astronomy, music theory, science…”

“Nothing to do with politics, I know.” The two of you snicker at his words and yours. You really knew. Jeno, if there were any other heir, would give up his place on the throne immediately— because he hated politics. Not the study or the theme itself as he knew its importance because of his first-hand experience, but he rather hated the reality of being a politician. Every word he says, every action he does, and every step he takes is closely monitored and very likely to cause major changes. And he hates that. Jeno is the type of person that is more reserved, dependent on his privacy, someone who wants to engage in his own interests as he thinks it is the major way to preserve inner peace throughout his life. He wants to live an enjoyable life, understandably.

“How are things going with your father?” You ask him upon the topic with a hopeful tone, knowing it is a bitter one, and thinking that maybe asking about it while you are moving and loaded with sensory surroundings could give him the benefit of swiftly giving the answer without much occupation in his mind. “Not great. I cannot seem to make him happy, ever.”

The answer hurts your heart because it is true. Jeno’s father is never happy with him, as he is a man washed over with his own ideals and denies any alternatives. In his views, it is almost like Jeno has to be exactly like him to be a good king. Ever since you met Jeno around twelve years ago now, his father has bothered you and not only because he is the King of a rival monarchy.

The worst part is that his mother never raised her voice about it. Even though she is much more affectionate towards Jeno and  seems to approach him with love unlike the King.

“He was really upset with my performance in the military last time. Said I had to work harder if I wanted to be a lieutenant.” He adds with a barely audible huff, the two of you slowing down as you spot the doors to the dining hall. You frown, and it is audible when you speak. “We have to endure it just a bit more. It will all work out in the end— we always make things work, right?”

With that Jeno smiles assuringly. You feel his finger caress the back of your hand a couple of times as his eyes point downwards with the force of his smile. “Yes, my love. We do.”

Just out of the doorkeepers’ reach, you whisper to him. To reassure him, and to give him strength, and perhaps to apologize to him about nagging him on a topic he does not like to mention. “I love you.”

He whispers back. “I love you too.”

The two of you share a fond smile that lasts a couple of seconds before taking the last few steps to the entrance and the doorkeepers open the doors for you.

Both of your parents are seated at the table, with yours at the opposite ends of the table and his on the left side. Your parents look delighted to see you both, and his mother does look content too, but his father not as much. It is less than surprising to you at this point, but you still want to be naive enough to believe his face looks so down because of the political tension  he had with your parents and not because he genuinely disliked his son and you.

Bowing your heads slightly in greetings at the Kings and the Queens, both of you start making your way to your seats.

“Father,” Jeno greets him with a smile of his face that is rather mocking, as he walks over to them to sit at the assigned chair between his parents.

“Son,” His father greets back, watching Jeno’s movements. The King sounds stern and less than moderately content which makes you furrow your brows as a staff pulls the chair for you to sit down on the right side of the table. You realize how your chair is the only one on the right side even though the table is big enough to host grand meals and it makes you wish that the seating plan could be in a way that could have both Jeno and you sitting at the same side. Because you do not want his father to converse with him and be in close proximity to him, where he can bother him all he pleases.

Contrary to all your thoughts, though, Jeno looks okay. He places his hand on his father’s shoulder as he sits down, and turns to his mother to take her hand in his before placing a kiss at the back of it. Jeno whispers something to her that makes her smile bright, her eyes sparkling at her son, and then she brushes some of his hair that has fallen behind his ears. You can hear her asking Jeno about how his studies have gone, along with the duties he had to take care of that day that were just some document work.

Jeno tells her it has gone well, that he has taken care of everything and even has gotten a head-start on his work for the next day. She praises him in return and cups his cheek, turning back around to the table thereafter.

When the attention is at the table and the first course is served, your father takes his glass of fine champagne and lifts it up slightly with a smile on his face that you know is only professional. Him and your mother dislike Jeno’s father just as much as you do if not more for his political stances. “I’m happy we can all gather here annually and share food, thoughts and words with each other in peace even though we are not necessarily on the same side of ideas, and I’m raising a toast for everything to stay this way— in peace— for the eternity to come.”

Me too, you think. Both Jeno’s parents and your mother raise their glasses to meet your father’s with two genuine smiles and one quarter-meant. You raise your glasses as well with Jeno and say your cheers after they do so.

Jeno winks at you before taking a sip when he lifts his glass up to his lips, and you know that it is the two of you that wants your father’s wishes to come true probably the most as you smile.

The First (and Only) Time You Got Caught

It had happened on one of your yearly rounds barely a full year after the annual Unity Ball, in which he had finally collected the courage to tell you about his feelings and asked if you felt the same as you two danced with a beautiful smile on his face— presumably because it was the only time the two of you could truly be alone without your primary guards on your tails.

“Can I tell you something, in all my seriousness, your Highness?” He had asked with his hidden smile on his face, the one where the corners of his mouth were not pointed upwards but there was still a very noticeable amusement on his face. Teasing a bit, if you will. “I have a feeling that you will even if I tell you you can’t.”

Jeno had tilted his head at your words. “You are right, but only because of the heaviness of my words. I really would not tell you otherwise.”

He took a breath, and when he spoke again, it was with a much lower tone. A tone where people dancing near you would not have been able to hear it but only you would, as his voice got drowned out by the sounds of the piano and the violins and the cellos and every other instrument. “I think a lot whenever I see you and spend time with you,” Then, ever so slightly he leaned in a bit closer. “And what I think is always good and relieving. You make me feel like I can drop my mask off with you: the mask I keep on my face at all times. It is incredibly easy for me to be myself around you because of the way you are, and I appreciate you for that. But for a long time now I’ve been feeling like this appreciation and awe I have for you,”

Your brows furrowed a bit at his words as confusion took over you, and he let out an airy laugh at that before picking his words back up. “Has evolved into something much more. Something much bigger and stronger. Something that tells me it is you, and I am okay with that. I can and I do accept that, and I just wanted to tell you because it is so hard not to anymore.” Another breath. This time he leans back again to regain his composure. “But you should know that I will understand if you do not feel the same way about me, or do not want to have what I would like for us to have.”

The two of you continued to dance, making sure your waltz steps were matching both to each other’s and to the music playing in the background. Shocked would have been an understatement for what you felt— not because it was a surprise that he felt that way about you as you were sure the mutual attraction was real before, but because he actually told you. Moreover, because he wanted something with you in the same way you did with him. It was only when you could wrap your head around it that you let out a bright smile with a squeeze on his shoulder. “This is so hysteric.”

Jeno had shook his head in a questioning manner upon your words, but had immediately relaxed upon the ones that followed soon after. “I do. I do want to have that very same thing, because it is you for me, too.”

Needless to say it had been a tad bit difficult after that.

As it was with all new lovers, keeping your hands or eyes off from each other was quite frustrating and a demanding task. You could really only love each other physically when you were completely alone; could hug when you were alone, could kiss when you were alone, could hold hands when you were alone— being alone was a treasure. And for the communication bit.. well. Communication outside of blatantly seeing each other and talking was a non-existent concept.

But you made it work. Even at its first stages, your love had proved to be stronger than the obstacles. The two of you would find a way, eventually.

Perhaps, the one time you were not alone while you displayed your affection was the door opening to communication outside of seeing each other and between the distanced kingdoms.

The two of you were on your way to the greenhouse outside in their garden to have tea with your families, the sun shining through the big windows— not a sight you could always have in your palace as the country was usually covered in snow whether it be a light cover or a heavier one. You loved how green their palace was. It felt like an explosion of colors after staying months on end in your palace until you started your yearly rounds, visiting every single kingdom over the course of several weeks.

Maybe it was what made you more lively, too. More loving, because you do not think there could be any explanation as to why the Prince’s speech on the whole history of the foreseeable future in space sounded so charming to you. “Kiss me.”

Jeno stopped dead in his tracks at the sudden demand. You did too, and could not help but snicker at his widened eyes. “Pardon me? We’re literally in the middle of the hall, dove.” Which was true, but the hall was empty. Completely empty, as the transition halls were some of the most unoccupied during the daytime. Had it been nighttime, it would have been a completely different story. “Where’s the beautiful and bold boy that did not care when he was asking me to a dance in front of everyone in the royal and elite class?”

He chuckled at that, amused and somewhat bothered, but lighthearted. “We’re too out in the open. It would be a disaster if anyone wanted to change wings and walked in on us.” At that you let out a frustrated sigh, laughing a little at him with a slight roll of your eyes. “Just kiss me, Jeno. There is no one around.”

Maybe it is the fact that you asked him for the second time, or that he felt the sudden bravery rush over him, but he did kiss you then. With an amused smile spread over his lips he had leant over with his hands still placed on his back— presumably because it would have made pulling back easier had it come to that. It was a sweet kiss despite the frustration the two of you had in store just seconds before he did so, his lips soft yet firmly on yours as he started kissing your demand and his worries away in a careless moment.

It felt good to be careless for once. To melt into the environment, to feel one and to feel whole by taking only one risk.

Until the sound of laughter echoed through the hall, that is, and the faint footsteps grew louder in sound as the people they belonged to got closer. The footsteps were approaching rather quickly, and Jeno tried to pull away from you muttering something along the lines of see, someone has to come here just to ruin everything but you did not let him. Instead, you pulled him in closer with hands placed on the other’s jaws.

Honestly, you two really could not care. Especially after the laughs got recognizable to you long before they did to him.

And as one would have expected the steps came to a halt once they entered the hall, however as one would not have expected while you were just pulling away from each other.

If you had to stay positive about it, it was an immense embarrassment for both of you. Them possibly seeing you in that state was not something the two of you would have wanted nor planned; the plan was to pull away just before they came in, and you had failed miserably.

It would be fine, though. They were your primary guards. One of whom looked shocked beyond belief, and the other looked a bit uncomfortable. Nonetheless, they were your primary guards and your own closest friends. If anybody could be trusted, it would be them.

“Oh my god. Oh, my god.” Donghyuck rambled, mostly in disbelief and possibly a bit nervously as they kept on walking over to where you and the Prince were standing. “I can’t believe I just witnessed that, you were kissing, weren’t you?” The last part of the question had come out in the lowest whisper he could muster, and Jeno only nodded. It was not his proudest moment for sure if you took the slight blush on his cheek to account.

Mentioning what had been going on between you to them had been out of the question for so long in a dire attempt to protect yourselves from any and all eyes— even theirs, that are supposed to watch over you. Maybe if it was not for this moment you never would have told them as the nature you two held had been too cautious to do anything up until now.

The guards seemed to get even more distressed at that, especially your friend of eleven years. He turned to Jaemin with his hand in his hair, eyes closed, and his face genuinely upset. “It’s too early for this. I’m on my first year of primary duty and this is what you do to me?”

At his words, the Prince beside you cleared his throat, and everyone turned their gazes towards him. “I know this must have come as a shock to you, but we are still two heirs you are talking about.”

Donghyuck tilted his head then, and pushed his tongue against his cheek at the comment, chuckling a little as he placed his hands on his hips. “Well, your Highness, one of them happens to be my best friend of years— and for the record, I think we have well given up on the professional distance protocol at this point.”

That made Jaemin bust out an actual laugh, prompting Jeno to glare at him and the guard to simply shrug before apologizing. “Donghyuck,” You snapped at him with a warning tone. “Keep your composure.” The only voices inside the hall or at the close distance around the hall still happened to be the four of yours, which was rather fortunate considering the last few moments.

“Just let us forget about this, your Highness,” Jaemin suggested to you with a calm manner. “Both of us have vowed to be loyal to you two. Not a single word would leave from our mouths regarding this.”

And that happened to be the best thing Jaemin had ever said to you. For him, and the stressed guard beside him, it was probably the most unfortunate thing that ever did leave his mouth. A smile spread on your face as the idea hit, and Jeno must have thought the same because you saw him jerk a little in his place in a moment of eureka. The guards knew something (or anything, for that matter) would not be going their way as the same kind of knowing smile spread across your faces simultaneously.

“Vowed to be loyal, you say?” Both guards nodded when you asked, and Jeno followed suit with his own question. “And what if we asked you to help us with finding places for us two to meet at?”

The Last Promise

It is a pretty night.

The nights at your palace are always breezy and cold at the right amount: bearable with the right attires, and the type that is a dry cold where the humid cold that might stick on you is never a problem that passes through your mind. Moonlight is bright in the open sky. The stars are visible and scattered across the night like wild flowers scattered across a field. The snow is a thick blanket on top of the ground and under your feet as you sit at the entrance of the abandoned and long-out-of-use tunnel.

Jeno looks pretty, too. Despite traveling for a long time and having to cover everything up at such a time where having this relationship is even harder than it has ever been, he is glowing with pleasure. His eyes constantly seem to smile, and his skin glistens under the shifting rays of the moonlight as he speaks to you. You both were catching up on the last few weeks where you have not been able to see each other and only could deal letters to one another through selected staff that were being paid in exchange of keeping your long-going secret. A lot of it was through affection.

Jaemin and Donghyuck are guarding far in front of you— Donghyuck farther than Jaemin, keeping an eye out for the rest of the palace that was surely asleep and in the distance as the other watched out with binoculars for royal photographers. They seemed to be everywhere after noticing the drama and feud-filled relationships of the recent royal class, and they were insatiable.

“I feel so on the edge whenever I have to talk to anyone lately,” You confess to Jeno as he looks deep into your eyes. “Even on phone calls, and even though I am not my father but just a representative, everyone treats me like I am some manure sticking to their shoes.”

The Prince laughs at that, holding your hand in his and lacing your fingers without taking his eyes off of yours. “You could not be farther off than manure, my love. These are trying times for everybody is all.”

“Which is exactly why I think they should be more compassionate,” You add with a huff of frustration, a pout on your lips. Jeno lets out a breathy chuckle as he leans over and places a chaste kiss on them, before turning back to his seat. “Are you cold?”

“Not really, why?” You ask. “The tip of your nose felt really cold.” With that, he looks down at your linked hands and shrugs a little. “You could go inside. I don’t want you to be cold because of me. I got to see you, and that is what matters.”

“I am not cold. I want to stay here longer.” He smiles at the attempt to reassure him, starting to play with the tips of your fingers. Squeezing them, touching them with his own, fiddling them mindlessly. “Good.” There is a slight relief at the way his word sounds, but it is nowhere to be found with the words that follow. “Listen,”

You know what that tone means, and it means that he is being dead serious. “I don’t know if you have noticed anything about it, but there is a big likelihood that a war is coming. Some areas are already in conflict,” You had known about it a little, as the military paperwork seemed to mount up on your table about the raise of the aids and what-not— but you had not seen or heard any plans of an attack. Jeno gulps as he picks his head up to look into your eyes again. “My father just assigned me to the troops located nearest to the conflict zones as a lieutenant today and I have to be there in the morning,” A breath before he concludes his words. “I will have to fight at the warfront when it breaks out.”

His words struck you harder than you would expect it. Jeno does not say if the war breaks out, no, he says when the war breaks out. And you know he is more invested in the military than you ever will be, so his words hold an impeccable reality to them. It gets you feeling terrified because a war is a war and there is no sense of security in it, and he will have to be in the midst of that chaos fighting; and it gets you feeling angry, because how could his father do this to him? “Aren’t you his only child?” Your breath hitches as you ask, and you feel the warmness at your eyes. “Why is he sending you?”

“Because I have been training my entire life and he said he trusts me now.” Somehow, you think, and a good part of you believes that his father is only doing this because he is too much of an arrogant himself to go fight. That his father is doing this only because he wants to keep his place on the throne as long as he can. Because he is the type of person who makes you really believe that he could have been the best alchemist considering he is so selfishly determined to stay on the throne that he would have probably found elixir of life.

And you see the ugly reality that his father does not care if something happens to Jeno during the war. It breaks you that Jeno sounds so hopeful when he says his father trusts him.

So in a moment of selfishness, you ask him. “Jeno, what if you die?”

He seems to get alarmed at the point where your voice gets shaky, and he tightens his hand around yours, leaning in and placing his other hand on your cheek as he stares deep into you, trying to reach your heart. “I won’t.” He shakes his head to further emphasize. “I won’t die. I have so much to do— we have so much to do still. I will come back,” Jeno’s thumb on your cheek rubs the surface firmly, his palm growing warm now. “I promise, my love. We must hold on for a little while longer.”

A part of you thinks why can you not see it? Do you really not see how your father is using you at a matter like this? How he is using you as a pawn and as a puppet, a mere imitation to his presence at the warfront?

But the other part of you says that what is done is done. That there is no way to hold him back from going after being assigned. And that very same part also notices how confident Jeno is being about this, and yearns to believe that his father had told him truthfully that he trusts him now.

So you give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

You nod at the Prince with a tight smile. The tears had not even arrived at your eyes because you wanted to keep him from getting upset because of your reaction, especially when he would be the one rushing to his destination to arrive by the morning and would involve himself in something way beyond training. With a turn of your head, you kiss his palm and nuzzle further into it, and he lifts your hand in his to kiss it. He does not pull your hand away from his lips and lets you recollect yourself with your eyes closed for a few moments.

“Love,” He whispers after some while. You open your eyes to meet with his fond ones that are looking at you, adoring you. “I need to ask you something before I go.”

You nod once again as he pulls his hand away from your cheek, and you start following the movement of his hand. It goes to his chest pocket on his jacket and digs something up into his palm before holding it in between the two of you.

Then he opens his palm with a smile on his face.

You notice the bunched up chain before you notice the sparkles that reflect the moonlight. And when your eyes fall onto them, there is a ring. A ring. With many small crystals all over it instead of a single or a few big ones. It looks delicate and easy to hide, with a simple knot to its shape and nothing else.

It means the world to you.

“This is not much of a surprise considering the amount of times we have spoken about the future, but,” He squeezes your hand. “Every time I look at you, I do not even dream about it anymore. I see it. And I want it. Because my heart says that it will always be you. Every day, every time. No matter what. Because I love you that much, and I want to go away this time knowing that when I come back to you, you will be my future and I will be yours.”

A bright smile that is a contrast to the dead of the night, yet one that matches his spreads across your face and he knows the answer then. But he asks the question anyway. “Would you do the honor of taking my hand in yours for the rest of eternity?”

The tears rush to your eyes and break free in a matter of maybe a couple of seconds if not within the same second and you nod. A tsunami-worth wave of emotions hit you; sadness at still not being over the fact of the war that was surely coming, happiness at the reality that you will get to keep your love for the rest of your life, nervousness at the uncertainty of it all, him going away and his father, but mostly— finally. Finally, finally.

Not finally, he asked me to marry him but finally, we are moving to the last stage of everything. We have fought for so long, and we have endured so much, and we now finally get to move onto the time where we get to be us without the obstacles. Everything is finally truly paying off.

With a smile on his face and his own unspilled tears in his eyes, he reaches over and puts the necklace on you and tucks it in to your night attire, patting the place the ring extends to. And he lets you kiss him afterwards.

He pulls away, though, before any of you can open your mouths and before the kiss can turn into anything less gentle. “I found a place. The registrar agreed to wed us in impartiality, and told me we could have a small and serene ceremony.” You listen to him with a newfound spark in your eyes that make Jeno fall for you all over again, your hands on his jaws. “You will love it there. It is deep in the forest and the road is really worn, but it only secures us further. No photographer would be able to follow us. There is a lake and lots of different trees varying from the rest of the forest at the ceremony area, and the place is so pretty at night with dim lights everywhere. It is really quiet, and the staff are very kind.”

Your lips land on his again with a quick and messy smooch, and he can feel you giggle into him. When you pull back you bite down at your lip in a smile washed over with excitement. “That sounds like a dream, Jeno.”

“I’m afraid it will all come true, your Majesty.”

Jeno laughs against your lips when you crash them onto his again, and lets you climb into his lap when you make the move.

The First Escapade

Your heart, for the lack of a better word, was racing.

Donghyuck was leading you somewhere. Neither of you were talking much, even the steps you were taking had to be calculated and soft so as not to alert any other guards that were on watch that night. Moving through the halls was a scary, almost foreign feeling— you would usually breeze through them. But not this once.

He had woken you up with a knock at your door, telling the doorkeeper that there was a minor problem with your belongings being sorted for the upcoming tour through the country that had to be sorted immediately according to your liking, and had taken you through the halls and down the many stairs. Most of which you had not once used in your life, and were widely used by the staff only.

He was good at distracting people, you had come to learn. The amount of people he had lied to and distracted by saying there was a problem with power shortage (which there was, and it was him that caused the shortage in the first place) and it had to be repaired but there were parts that had to be bought from the town (with all the businesses listed), and that the other group of guards would be coming to replace them would have been impressive even for politicians. And that was only the first of the lies he had told people that night.

Through the countless halls and stairways you passed through, you finally arrived at the basement. You had never been in there before, and it was a basement for basically just about anything— cars, old furniture, old belongings, a lot of scraps and some things covered with big, beige and gray drapes.

“We’re almost there, don’t worry.” Donghyuck had told your sleepy yet very much amazed self, bothering to turn around and laughing at whatever your expression was. You trailed behind him to the deeper corners of the basement, letting him lead you until he stopped in front of a group of furniture and what looked like instruments all bunched together.

“Is this it? They are surely not coming from the big entrance, and I would like to think you are not talented enough to smuggle them all the way inside here.”

There was a chuckle that echoed after that. “I don’t know whether you complimented or insulted me,” He was holding off on the honorifics seeing they could give everything away if someone had been watching, or were on your tails, or simply heard you. “But for the record, no they’re not.” And with that, he starts moving the old piano and the bigger pieces of furniture like a wardrobe and bookshelf— moving the rugs away and pushing the boxes with his feet until the metal square made itself apparent.

Donghyuck put the furniture he had pulled away in a way that would cover the two of you, a furniture wall if you will, and set the boxes on top of each other inside the wall as well as planting the rugs upright to imitate a cramped space behind the belongings.

It was kind of terrifying how good he was, and you could only hope he had learned such things in training.

Once he was done, he put a hand on his hip and pointed at the trapdoor. “We’ll be going in through there. It opens to the tunnels.”

The tunnels? They were more than a couple hundred years old, and supposedly in unusable condition, completely blocked. “I thought the palace was built on top of them to cover them up.”

“It was, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opening to it. Only the King and the architect personnel know about this I think, someone I know mentioned that he wanted to rebuild the collapsed part back up once.” He shrugs. “But he apparently gave up on it after noticing it had gotten visible to the surface after the heavy snowfall made the dirt on it collapse. We’re going to that end now, and trust me when I say no one ever goes there.”

Going through an old trapdoor proved to be harder than you initially thought. The old ladder was slippery with whatever it was, most definitely not fit for two people, and a bit shorter than the drop down.

It took quite a bit of speed walking to get to the end Donghyuck was talking about, and it was mesmerizing to you how there was this complex system of tunnels with brick walls and cracked stone with small hints of life whether it be plants that made their way in through the cracks or bugs, or the occasional stray cats.

But when you reached the end, there they were. The two silhouettes at the opening of the tunnel system and the collapsed remainder of it behind them. Moonlight was shining through in between and around them as they chatted, both of their shoulders shaking with slight laughter. Although you could not see them, you knew which silhouette belonged to the Prince. Maybe because of the way his shoulders shook, or rather because you had known him for so long already that you could basically find him with your eyes closed if you had to.

The silhouettes turned towards you at the sound of your footsteps when they were audible to them, and you could see the smile on Jeno’s face even in the shade of the tunnels. Automatically you smiled back at him and hurried into his arms that welcomed you, hugging into his chest with a happy chuckle. He kissed your cheek, breathing in your scent, and nuzzled his forehead against the side of your face and neck much like a cat as he cozied against the crook of your neck for a brief moment.

He had his hands on your shoulders when he pulled back and took a look at you. “How are you, dove?”

You smile. “Sleepy, but otherwise well. You look far better than I do.” Jeno tilted his head with his eyes squinted. “I’m sleepy as well but the cold has a way of waking people up.” Not to you, after so many years of living here.

When he noticed Donghyuck who had been standing next to you for a few seconds at that point, he asked him about his well being and inevitably cut through his conversation with Jaemin with an apology to be polite. The two guards had been standing at a bit of a distance in order to give you some personal space, you noticed.

Then, he addressed them both in his gratitude. “Thank you for taking the time out of your sleep to make this possible for us,” When he said it, he meant it. You got two bright smiles in return, and words followed those of two of your favorite people in the world.

“We vowed to be loyal to you, to protect you no matter the circumstances and to keep you in safety, your Highness,” Donghyuck quoted the same way once how Jaemin had done. But his smile spread a bit further across his face as he looked at the two of you— with you leaning into Jeno’s side and his hand placed at your waist, almost back-hugging you as he tried to warm you up with his body heat, both of you oblivious to your states.

“And beyond that, we just want to see our best friends happy.”

The Last Wound

To say that the war had broken out would be a severe understatement.

As if on cue, mere weeks after Jeno’s words governments and monarchies around the world had started declaring war against nations upon nations, showing their feuds and unmet requests as the reasons. There were sides that were established; sides that your father refused to be a part of, hiding in the safety of neutrality for the time being. That being said, the military was still getting aided economically and personnel-wise, guards being transferred into several military branches they could serve in without much training and folk (usually the ones that were severely affected by the financial hardships of the war) taken into the accelerated guard training. There were many faces all around.

The land, thankfully, had been secure so far except for the economical burdens. People were still reliable. The monarchy and your family continued to be respected, presumably because of the immense effort your parents and you put into making feel everything as normal as you possibly could.

But news came in every single day, sometimes more times than you could count, and they were scary nonetheless.

Some nations were fighting on land, some at sea, some in the air. There were too many people that had lost their lives for absolutely no reason that should concern them and their words and actions. Too many had been left in poverty, in famine, in conditions that no human should be left in. Too many homes destroyed, too many businesses left unrecognizable.

Theoretically you had known it all. All your life you had been educated on the possibility of this exact situation. War and its consequences were something you knew too well already, but it was much different to experience it first-hand. And you were not even experiencing it truly first-hand, the people were.

Your routine had changed for the past few months as well. Everything was fast paced. You would be woken up in the mornings either by Donghyuck or your doorkeepers, and would immediately go to have breakfast, checking several newspapers in the process while listening to your father’s senior advisor read out the papers that had arrived that day and summarize the reports of the past days. Then you would move to your office to deal with all the paperwork that were unnecessary burdens on your parents’ shoulders. They would be taking care of calls and meetings while you dealt with the maths and the written bureaucracy. That would go on until it was late in the night and you had to go to sleep to start all over again the next day.

One of the most concerning facts was that you had not heard from Jeno in months, aside from the rare shared secret phone calls between your primary guards and the one letter he was able to send at the very start of things. All you knew was that he was not dead, according to the countless newspapers you had read so far.

And that was all that mattered.

Surely there were days where you were more concerned about him and his well being, but you tried to keep your attention on your work and your people. The distraction, and the fruits of your hard work helped to keep you in line.

It is on one night where you are lounging around with your family in the library to read and forget about the problems a little that Donghyuck barges in, but with a few knocks beforehand in proper etiquette.

He bows his head in greetings when your heads turn at him, and when he picks it up, you can see the slight panic on his face. “Good evening your Excellence. Your Majesty,” Then, he physically turns to you, pointing his feet at your direction where you  stood, picking out another book. “Your Highness, I have the car ready.”

You furrow your brows. “For what reason?”

“There is a tree selection going on to be distributed to people in need,” Your father says without glancing up from his book. “You have been working so hard lately and you hardly even go out to the garden. You deserve to take a breather. Go and take your coat.”

So you do.

Hurrying to your room, you ask for a staff to give you your coat and gratefully receive the help that they offer when they dress you. Donghyuck walks after you, waiting for you just outside of your door. When you come out you realize the restless look he has to his body. Especially when he starts speed walking right after you come out of your room.

He does not say a single word until you are out of the building and walking through the garden, he only encourages you to hurry up. But when you are close to the gates opening up to the road of the palace, he speaks up. “You aren’t selecting trees, I’ve got that covered.”

Your response is immediate. “Where are we going then? Did something happen?” The snow crunches below your feet and it is growing harder to keep up with Donghyuck’s pace as he keeps his eyes nowhere but forwards. “He’s here. I’m taking you to him.”

Donghyuck’s words make your heart jump in your chest half in excitement and half in worry. “How is he—?”

“They were moving bases. Jaemin said the Prince told him to make a stop at the forest,” He smiles slightly then, as you can see from the side. “He needs to see you, apparently.”

A warm feeling spreads over your chest, and excitement finally takes over, as well as happiness. “That is fortunate, because I need to see him as well.”

The car ride to the forest closer to the top of the mountains was a bumpy and somewhat long ride in the black car that melted into the dark go the night. Towns all around were strictly following a dark-out rule each night after a certain hour— to make the areas undetectable from the air and hard to detect even in person in case of an attack. Therefore the ride is definitely dark except for the shining lights of the car, the snowfall growing faster as it climbs up.

Donghyuck sits beside you instead of at the front seat and keeps his eyes narrow and focused on the road. At some point he leans forward and tells the driver that they can drop you two off at this point, and that they should be back here to pick you up in a couple hours sharp.

And then, you two leave the car.

He helps you with walking uphill in the thick snow. The snowfall, although fast paced, is with big and fluffy flakes. Nonetheless, when the slightest wind makes the flakes hit your face, it hurts.

The two of you walk deep into the forest, deeper than you would have expected, and you have a good feeling that you would not have trusted with the process if it was not Donghyuck walking beside you with a lantern in his hand. Another lantern gets visible after a while.

And you get happy, so happy like a child, slipping a bit on the snow when you try to pick your pace up.

But when you see their faces, your heart drops.

You notice Jaemin’s face first, as he is the one holding the lantern, and you notice the big healing slash on the side of his face. It is the initial alarm for you that immediately makes your gaze turn to Jeno who is standing beside him.

And surely enough, he looks horrible. There are several cuts on his face that are not as big as the slash on Jaemin’s cheek but still quite fresh, his lip has long busted before and is now almost healed, there are stitches near his hairline on the left side, and his under-eyes are almost a plum-colored purple from how dark they are. You can almost feel his hurt.

“Oh my god,” Is the first thing that leaves your mouth when you hurry towards him. “What happened to you?”

You try to hug him but he hisses, prompting you to lean back and take his face into your hands instead, inspecting the injuries. This is exactly what I was talking about, you think, I knew something like this would happen. I knew you and the people around you would get hurt somehow, so why did you have to go and fight?

“My love,” Jeno greets you by nuzzling deep into your hands, his head dropping a little, but you do not listen to him. “Are you two okay? What happened?”

“The base got raided, your Highness.” Jaemin responds, and you notice he sounds almost too good for a person that has such a wound on his face. “Hence the change of bases.”

“I am healthy. Just sore.” Jeno adds, and chuckles drily once. “Turns out I am not all too good at one-on-one combat.” He tries to be funny despite themselves, but the state they are in is too bad for it to work. Making light of whatever had happened seemed like a far stretch.

Naturally, you cannot bring yourself to laugh at his joke. “I am thankful for that,” But you smile to comfort you both despite the situation. “Not that you got your bums handed to you, but that you are healthy.”

Jeno giggles with his mouth closed at that, and lets you pull him to a kiss when you tug at his face. His face feels really cold, more so than yours, and you wonder just how long they had been standing outside deep in the forest. “You are cold,” You breathe onto his lips.

“Mhm,” He mumbles. “But I want to stay for longer.” He joins in on it when a smile spreads pulls at the corners of your lips.

Getting a move on, you both sit on the snow under a tree not wanting to stand up for longer because in all honesty, Jeno looks nothing but exhausted. Donghyuck hands his lantern to you so you could have a light source before walking away with Jaemin— not too far as it is easier than ever to get lost in the forest with the dark night and the heavy snow.

“How have you been?” You ask Jeno once you are both comfortably seated, holding his hands in yours in an attempt to warm them up even though he seems to be in some of his warmest clothes. There was no guide on how to approach someone who has been through things he had been through, so you did not know how to and the best you could do was being careful about it. “How are things out there?”

“Like hell,” His answer is immediate. “People invade anywhere and everywhere, making decisions is so difficult, sometimes everything is so loud and mostly unnecessary and—“ He takes a breath. “A lot of them die. From both sides.”

Your heart drops further. “Do the decisions you make, do you think they—?”

Jeno shrugs and shakes his head. “I do not know. I try not to think about it.” His answer is spit out quickly. He takes a hand out of your hold, shaking with stress and probably exhaustion. His fingers rub his temple and his thumb rubs the middle of his forehead to try and ease the tension. “They are not even my decisions,” He speaks with pent up frustration and anger. “What goes in the end is my father’s word and demand.”

“He makes the decisions for you?” You ask with brows furrowed further. “When you are the lieutenant in the field?” A ridiculed chuckle leaves your mouth. “Why is he not there then?”

“I try to deal with everything as peacefully as I can, I plan all these negotiations and I mean, I use the advice that the counselors and other senior military personnel give me,” Jeno rambles. “But when I tell him about it he says that it does not work out for the plan according to the policies we have when in fact they do. Then why did he let me train in the military for so long?”

His chest moves up and down quickly and deeply when he is done with his words. You can see his eyes glistening, which is why you approach him lighter with your next words. “You do not have to inform your father beforehand,” At that, he turns his face to you. “If people agree with you, the heir and the lieutenant, you do not have to get your father’s permission. Let him know afterwards instead.”

“That is ridiculous.” An airy laugh comes out of Jeno. It irks you, how his first move is to shut you out. “He is the King. He has done this for years, and even after this all ends it is his word that counts. And he is my father, I do not want to disappoint him. One wrong thing I make, and all he ever did goes to trash.”

“I am sorry to say this, but in my eyes your father is someone with dead straight views. You could prove yourself to him by showing him it could all work out if your word went instead of his around the field— you could get away with less harm as well,” You try to reach him with your words, your voice soft in an attempt to not agitate him further. “You really do not have to follow your father’s guidance.”

“I do!” You know that it is the pure frustration speaking. “You don’t! Didn’t your father send you there because he trusted you? You are a man fully grown and capable of making your decisions— you will be the ruler sooner than later. Doing what your father tells you to do, constantly, is not going to help with anything especially in the future when it will be you who has the call on everything.”

There is a silence where the two of you do nothing but look at each other. His eyes shift continuously and very slightly as if they are trembling. His jaw clenches and he lets a loaded breath out that comes from deep within his chest, letting his head turn forward again and his back hit the tree. He furrows his brows and a couple of his shaky fingers come up to squeeze the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know,” Another burdened breath. “He has been saying he is proud of me.”

And you understand what it is about.

Nevertheless you hate that he lets his father’s pride do this to him; getting him hurt both mentally and physically. Like before the war, you act in a moment of selfishness as you take his hand in yours again and give it a squeeze. “Let’s run away.” Your voice sounds firm and confident. “Get married at that place deep in the forest, and go to some other place. Run from this madness wherever it follows us and come back when everything is over with,” The smile on your face is audible in your words. “We would be so free, Jeno.”

But Jeno breaks your heart into pieces when a sad chuckle leaves his lips and a heavy whine follows. “I wish we could.”

Without another word, you lean towards him and kiss his neck, his jaw, his cheek and temple. Pulling his hand away from the side of his nose on his cheek, which became its resting place after squeezing the bridge of his nose, you place his arms around you and pull him down to your shoulder by his hair for him to rest. He kisses the side of your neck as well, smiling at the feeling of the slinging chain around it, and slides his head back down.

Your hand still in his hair playing with it, you whisper your last sense to him. “It is your pride in yourself that matters. Not his.”

Jeno only nods. And within a few minutes of his steady breathing, he is fast asleep on your shoulder.

When the guards come back after so long a while you spent playing with his hair mindlessly, you have one request from Jaemin. “Make sure he sleeps on the way, will you?”

The First Breakdown

The first time he had cried to you had happened at a surprise visit.

In fact, he had visited you because of it. Had taken more than several hours of his time and more than several lies through his mouth just to get to you and to be vulnerable. In his defense, it was because he could be so vulnerable only with you.

Even so, you had never seen him cry before.

It was in the middle of the night again when Donghyuck had knocked on the door of your office, where you were catching up on some of your studies. He had told you that you had a visitor, and that they were waiting for you, and it had been all that it took for you to stand up from your chair and start walking with him. Following him, you had gone to the basement again, moved the furniture again, went down the trapdoor again, walked a lot again, and had seen the two silhouettes at the end of the tunnel again.

Only this time, only one of the silhouettes’ shoulders were shaking. And not because of laughter.

Jeno had started crying the moment he had spotted you. Jaemin tried to talk to him, but Donghyuck only pulled him away to go away for keeping watch; gave the two of you the privacy you needed.

It came as a shock at first. Jeno never cried— not once, you think, in the entire time you had known him starting from your childhood years. Even when people cried around him. Even when he was at a funeral. Even when he was too happy. Even when he got hurt and was in physical pain. The only exception would be the times you saw him angry where his eyes would tear up, but never did they spill before.

After they left you—  without wasting any time— pulled Jeno to you, letting him hug you however and wherever he needed. He made himself comfortable with his face in your shoulder, close to your neck, and his arms around your waist with hands spread across your back. You ran your fingers through his hair as he sobbed. Violently so. You could tell whatever he was crying about was not a one-time thing. It had been bottled inside and pent up for too long.

He held you that way and cried maybe for an hour straight for all you knew. But when his tears died down and all that was left were sniffles, you had finally asked him. “What is the matter, sweetheart?”

There was a content sniffle at the choice of your rare use of a nickname, if that could even be a thing. But a few heavy breaths followed after that, like he wanted to say the things on his mind but could not bear to. You only pulled your chest away from his to be able to look into his eyes, and shook your head. “You do not have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Jeno placed his forehead on yours and stood in place, breathing with his eyes shut. You shut your eyes too, trying to connect with him at a level that is beyond words because that was what he seemed to need.

But then his voice cut through the night. “I just want him to love me.”

It angered you to no extent that you knew who he was talking about. “What did he do?”

He chuckled bitterly. “Humiliated me in front of my mother’s family and the whole staff at my early birthday celebration in the morning.” There was a gulp as he weighed the words that were told to him once again, as if they would have been lighter that time. “Said he could not believe I was his only son and only child. That a peasant would have done a better job at being a king if he placed one on the throne right then and there. That I am lost in useless studies. That whatever I do is still clumsy as if I am a kid.”

You let him rant on because whatever this was, it seemed to work. “I try so hard to meet his every demand. His dreams for me are so challenging to keep up with but I honestly try, I do.”

“I know,” But he was not done. “I try to be a good son for him and my mother and I work really hard and I train really hard and—“

“I know, sweetheart.” You pulled slightly away again, and hated that you saw tears flowing down his face once more. “What did your mother do? Did she do something?”

“She told me to go to my room and that she would come to get me,” The smile on his face was tight. “But I couldn’t.” A single sob left his mouth, defeated. “So I asked Jaemin to sneak me out.”

“You did the right thing,” Jeno shook his head and tried to turn it away from you, but your hands took a hold of it from the back. “Hey,” You forced him into eye contact, and saw that his tear-invaded eyes looked almost drunk. Empty and sluggish. Nothing like his usual sparkling, poem-worthy orbs. “You did the right thing by getting out and away from there.” But he shook his head, so you shook yours in a questioning manner, prodding him to tell you why. “When we get back they will ask him about everything first and then they will ask me. I am just troubling him.”

“Believe me when I say you are not. He is your best friend before he is your guard. He cares about you, sweetheart.”

It took awhile for that to sink in, but it did in the end and he nodded, which was what mattered. And you succeeded at making him smile genuinely when you kissed the tip of his nose.

What truly sucked then was the fact that you could not tell him that his father would love him someday. Because you did not believe in it, and you would not tell him what was a blatant lie to you. And despite it all, your beliefs, you could see how much he wanted to be loved by him. How much he wanted to be recognized by him.

So what could you have told him? ‘You do not need his love.’? That did not sound right. That felt like it was the opposite of what he should have heard. ‘Our love for you is stronger than your father’s lack thereof.’? That simply was not true for him even if it was for you and for Jaemin and for his mother, because there was a hole punched in his heart and he wanted it to be filled. Rightfully so.

In the end, you did not tell him anything related to his father. You just told him what was true to you. “Happy birthday, sweetheart. I am so grateful you are here, with me.”

The Last Breakdown

The two of you had not talked to each other in months, let alone see each other.

The war had been going on for too long at that point. It was a wake up call that showed you just how insatiable rulers were. If it was not land they were looking for, it was people that they could exploit in labor, or valuable reserves like mines or things like historical monuments that could be stolen. People were dying still. Even more so than the beginning, in fact. Some places were left in famine, a lot of places were taken over by other rules. Any war crime you could think of was most likely happening just outside the borders of your family’s rule.

Since day one of your education you had learnt about law and order, and ethics, and just like that they were all thrown out of the window in this chaos.

Standing in neutrality had proved to be harder and harder day by day as well. The economic conditions were not getting any better, trade was almost impossible because of the disassociation the other powers and partners who had declared their sides were putting you through, and the damage was big even though your family’s rule was one of the most powerful. Unemployment rates had risen despite your immense efforts to keep it stable, and in turn, healthcare had become a problem, hunger— especially throughout the population who had already been struggling with making a living below the hunger threshold— had become a problem, crime rates were on the rise.

Which was why your father, by the obligation the sociopolitical states provided him, declared sides one morning. Thinking it would be the best thing to do.

Of course it was opposite to the side where Jeno and his family’s rule had sided with. Your families’ stances had never been the same, so there was absolutely no way they could be now. And frankly, you did not care about that even though you recognized how big of an ordeal it was. All you could care about was the safety of your people and your loved ones in these cruel conditions.

Scratch that. You wanted innocent people to stay out of harm’s way. That was all.

War, in your opinion, was cowardice. You still could not wrap your head around the fact that people were mostly doing this just because they had feuds within themselves and the circle of their class. Hundreds of thousands, even millions of innocent lives were destroyed both literally and figuratively over some disagreements between only several rulers that were their ‘representatives’. Which was in fact the biggest lie you could have ever heard of, because they were just hungry for their exclusive benefits. There was nothing in this war’s roots where the actual folk were represented. Just elite individuals and their selfish problems.

Just because the said elite individuals did not want to make sacrifices.

The biggest cowardice.

After the declaration, the hard work you had to put yourself through was at least doubled if not tripled or quadrupled. You could barely get sleep anymore, and would count yourself lucky if you managed to get some shut-eye for a few hours seeing that even when you did get to lie down on your bed it would be restless with thoughts racing through your head. Most of your responsibilities still revolved around document work but at this point the document work had gotten more important and heavier in and of itself, to the point where your eyes burned and your brain screamed at you to give up reading the papers. The maths of it all had gotten a lot worse as well because now there were so many spontaneous expenses paid that sometimes there would be problems with communicating on time between bureaus and people, which would in turn lead to wrong calculations and wrong reports— which would in turn cause you to do everything from scratch again. Sometimes a single, seemingly minor error would take days to make right again.

The Prince came to visit you on one of those restless nights where you were rolling around in your bed with the discomfort weighing on your mind.

Donghyuck came to your door again and requested the doorkeepers to alert you that he was there. They did, and something in your heart immediately knew what was happening, so you only took your coat and bolted out the door.

And now he is rushing through the halls beside you, with you following him. “Where even are they?” You whisper as you pick your pace up, not even in the condition to feel excited about it.

“There is this abandoned farmhouse in the fields across the town.” He responds back, and your eyes widen. “How are they so close?”

“They are both in the military, your Highness.” His voice is serious as he speaks. “I would expect their stealth to be outstanding.”

Donghyuck leads you outside to the back road of the palace and it is raining outside, definitely with an intention to completely pour down within the hours that would follow. He covers your head as best he can with his jacket and places his hand at the top of the car when he opens the door for you, before hopping in himself.

Which is the exact point that you realize there is no driver, and that he hops into the driver’s seat.

“Donghyuck?” You lean forward with a frown on your face, placing your hand on top of the headrest-less seat which has its quality so that guards and whoever is inside can see the people sitting at the back (usually royals or their guests) better to ensure their safety. “What are you doing?”

“This is not a matter we can bring more people into at this point,” He says as he starts the car. “I basically bribed the guards to shut up about taking you outside the palace. If I brought a driver, I would have had to explain the situation.”

The frown deepens on your face just as he presses the gas and the car starts moving. “With what money?” You ask him, and you genuinely fear his answer at that moment.

He carefully drives his way out, even the guards at the gates not stopping the car to question his antics. It really was a wonder how much money he could have offered to them for their silence at only you leaving the palace with him, at an ungodly hour, in a car, and no other information given. It felt extremely suspicious even for an heir and their primary guard.

You could not help but also notice his silence after starting to drive, so you pushed your question. “Donghyuck, with what money?”

The guards tilts his head and licks his lips before making eye contact with you through the rear mirror for a split second. “I had been saving some from the allowance my mother sends me and from my paychecks for some time,” His eyes turn back to the road as your mouth falls open and your brows furrow, about to protest. But he beats you to it. “It doesn’t matter, really,” He says, and you know he means it, because you can hear the genuineness. “It doesn’t matter if it’s for the relief and happiness of my best friend and the person I’ve vowed to protect.”

At his words, you slump back against the seats. There is a lump in your throat that makes it hard to speak, so you do not. You only turn your gaze to the scenery outside your window and take out your necklace through the collar of your coat, holding your engagement ring in shame. It does give you comfort, but you still find yourself wanting to cry.

The ride does not take too long despite the rain, as there are no people outside and on the roads because of the dark-out policy, and since it is a fairly straight drive with no hills to drive up.

The two of you reach the farmhouse without a hassle. Donghyuck puts the car somewhere less visible (even though it is nighttime and the car’s exterior matches the dark) before he allows you to get out. He then guides you to the barn where the Prince and his guard must be and opens the doors.

Again, there are a couple of lanterns around that provide dim and unnoticeable light. The heir and his guard are standing apart, and you can see your love walking up and down with his hands linked at his back. He halts, however, when he sees you.

You waste no time in running into his arms, and the ugly sob that leaves your body is loud enough for everybody to hear when you tackle him with your arms around his neck and shoulders. The tears break free when you nuzzle yourself into him everywhere, squeezing him tight for numerous reasons. Because you missed him so incredibly much, because everything was going bad, because you were tired and you knew he was also tired, because he is looking better than last time where he almost gave you a heart attack, because you love him, and because it hurts that everything has come to a point where two of the people that care about both of you the most, and two of whom you care about the most, has to put themselves in danger and through many sacrifices. Because you feel ashamed for what you are causing. Because somehow everyone standing in that barn is hurt someway or another, even if they are things that all of you can make right whether it be by yourselves or with help.

“I have you, sweetheart,” Jeno whispers as he kisses your cheek, catching a tear that was trailing its way down. You smile at your shared and reserved nickname for the times where one of you had to console the other while they cried, but it is still a bitter one, because you can hear his choked voice as well. “I have you. It is alright.”

But you can see Jaemin behind him and Donghyuck, who is looking down at the ground. Jaemin looks at you with pity and genuine sadness, so much of those that you cannot give them a meaning. Yet it fires something in you when he looks at you like that. The best you can do is to cover your eyes with your hand. “Jeno, we—“

“I know. I know, my love.” He kisses you once more, this time from the top of your head. He rubs your back and holds you tight in his arms as you cry in your shame and emotional overload.

Why does it have to be this way? You think. Why is it so hard to make things work? Why is abhorrence at the base of everything, even love? I love you and you love me, so why do others have to be involved? Why do other factors have to be involved? And even if they have to be involved, why do others have to get hurt because of our love? Why does everything need to be so precise in order to have a chance for this to work? Why can’t this be happy and like a game again, where our excitement is caused by the fluttering of our hearts and not because of the dread that makes our heart race? Why do you have to do what you have to do, and why do I have to do what I have to do?  Outside of our love, why do people have to suffer? Why are people so selfish and filled with so much hatred that there is no place in their hearts for negotiation nor empathy? Why does everything link back to those people in the first place? Why are those people in charge of everything in life?

You weep, and Jeno holds you. He sits you down, and pulls you close to his lap, and he holds you. He asks the guards to please wait somewhere else, and he holds you. Your weeping subsides, and he holds you.

And you remember, when all that is left is your sniffling, that his voice was choked too. That he was about to cry too, when you first walked in.

So you ask him with your hoarse voice. “Why were you upset before, when I first saw you?”

His hand that holds you pulls you close a little tighter. “I wanted to tell you something, but I don’t think I can.”

Your eyes furrow again, but you nod once. “Why?”

He chuckles this deep, airy, thick huff that is full to the brim with emotions you cannot quite decipher, and then says what is on his mind. And his voice is so sad, so loaded and tired that you tear up again at his hopeless words. “I suppose you would not love me the same.”

A tear falls onto his hand resting on his lap with that.

The First ‘I Love You’

Dreamy, was all you could say about it.

It was the fruit of most probably the stupidest thing you two had ever done in your relationship. On one summer night where Jeno and his family were hosting a dance for his cousin’s engagement, he had stood beside you and leant into your ear to tell you that you should meet with him at the vineyard in their garden in half an hour, and excuse yourself saying you are going to your room. He seemed to be playful that night, conversing with anyone and everyone that stood in his way and entertaining them; genuinely happy for his cousin and his fiancé. On top of being entertaining, he looked like he was entertained as well. Aside from the happiness he felt for the couple, there was this whole-hearted, content smile on his face. Even when nobody was conversing with him, or looking at him.

You had gone there as a representative with only Donghyuck accompanying you. The King and the Queen were too busy with duties revolving around politics— and in all honesty, they did not want to be too involved with his family in the first place. So they had sent you as a solution.

It was a good solution for them and you. You could not protest such a plan.

Half an hour seemed to not pass at first. You were eager to be with him, as you did not have the time to meet beforehand, and to be close to him. There was something about the way he made you feel when he smiled around and beamed like a sun under the moonlight with his happiness like that.

To make the time pass, you did everything you could possibly think of. You conversed with people you do not have the slightest connections to, barely knowing who they were. Congratulated the engaged couple with a polite manner and got surprised by the same politeness they seemed to showcase. In return delivered a short speech to them about how lucky they were to find each other and to be with the person they loved and be open and celebrated about it in a world like yours where relationships like theirs between a royal and a commoner were hard to come by.

As if on cue, Donghyuck who must have been informed about the meeting beforehand called for you from just behind you, prompting you to excuse yourself by saying you had already had quite the travel, and that you would be leaving early tomorrow morning. That you had to catch some rest before you left for duty. They nodded in understanding and thanked you for coming, sending their best wishes to your family.

They were almost too good for the royal family they belonged to, but all of it was genuine.

Donghyuck walked you to the front yard then, taking you to the small vineyard area where Jeno was standing. Jaemin was at a distance as far as you could tell, conversing with other staff that seemed to not be guards. Soon enough, though, the staff he had talked to would leave and go to the backyard where the celebration was, leaving the four of you alone in the visible distance.

Jeno met you halfway, greeting you with a sweet peck on your lips. “Welcome, dove,” From the side of your eyes you saw Donghyuck leaving after seeing you two meet to greet Jaemin in the distance.

You giggled at Jeno’s words then, looking at his eyes that bore the rather occasional glasses that night. “I have been here for quite a while now.” He tilted his head and nodded, squinting his eyes, silently saying you are right but not spot on. “But you haven’t been here when it is completely empty. An immensely different version of this place.”

Furrowing your brows, you smiled at him mischievously. “What are you trying to imply?”

And he played along. “The guards are changing shifts,” With a hand, he moved his jacket’s sleeve to look at his watch with slightly furrowed brows. “We still have around five minutes, and I was thinking we could go to my room.”

He beat you to it to understand the rather shocking and awkward way his words sounded. “Only if you would like to.” Even under the weak light of the stars, you could see the embarrassment flushed over his face. The boldness he held had almost dissipated.

All honesty due, you wanted to go to his room. It sounded amazing, getting to spend time with him one-on-one completely alone for the first time outside of a library, where even guards would not enter to leave you unbothered while doing your studies. You wanted to have him to yourself truly, without guards or anybody else for once. So you nodded. “I would like that.”

The smile was back on his face. “Then we should hurry up.”

Taking your hand in his, he hurried you inside. Their palace was just as grand as yours. It was dizzying with the halls and the open plan, grand staircases, and it held a lot of colors to it presumably because of the warm climate. Paintings on the walls, lots of feature walls with art painted onto them, gold linings and marble floors. Nothing like yours, which is older than theirs so a bit grimmer with the colors. The cold climate had its effects on it too. Mostly everything was either dark in color like deep blues and greens or extremely light like almost-white grey, with old wood on the rooms’ floors and stone in the halls.

When you entered Jeno’s room, it felt weirdly familiar. Both of you had balconies, for instance. His balcony doors were right beside his bed, and his room was cluttered with bookshelves just like yours, blueprints and pencils lying around on his desk and his paintings of planets and constellations leaning against the wall under his desk, some of his favorite research papers and scientific articles messily pinned on a big cork board.

His room felt a lot like him to you. It looked all about his interests, anything other than politics which seemed to drain both of your personalities out slowly but surely.

It looked like a safe space.

He showed you his paintings and told you all about them. His love for Neptune for example, how he liked its color and its personation in mythology. How he loved sketching stars the way he understood them from the books he read, transitioning through their seven stages of life, growing bigger and stronger until they expand into a Red Giant where it is its biggest at a diameter up to a hundred times of its original diameter to then transform into a White Dwarf where everything is dense and quickly growing cold, losing all of its personality, and finally the Black Dwarves where they were so old and so cold. Jeno went on to talk to you about how in way too far into the future eventually all the stars would be Black Dwarves and the universe would be even colder than it was then, but that there would be a second explosion where something new started.

He showed you his blueprints, skimming through the lines with his fingers, and told you how he dreamt of renovating the palace with his own prints someday. And he told you about the scientists that would inspire him to not give up on learning about space no matter what.

Jeno did talk about his interests, but usually they were confined to conversations in the library. Never had you once seen him talk about it so passionately before, the kind of passion where it added new sparks to his eyes, and something about it made you extremely happy to see.

At some point he realized he had been rambling about all these things in his room and the stories behind them, and had apologized. “Ah,” He rubbed his nape as it hit him with a chuckle. “Sorry. I get excited when people pay attention to these.”

“No, don’t,” You shrugged with your own smile. “You should not be sorry. It is very refreshing to see someone be so passionate about something.”

There is the start of a silence, but you cut through it before it can take over, pointing to the board. “And I agree with those scientists. Keep learning about the universe in your free time. It would be a shame if you got shackled to the small ground underneath.”

Jeno laughed at that, his shoulders shaking with the airy release. When it died down he looked around his room, his bookcases and desk, and the door that led to his bathroom, the documents he had taken care of that day before the event had started placed on the armchair next to the bookshelf, several notes set on them reminding him to do the things he had to take care of the next day.

And then he huffed, walking over to his bed and sitting down. He fiddled with his fingers a little. Looked up at the ceiling. Another lonely chuckle left him as he contemplated on what he wanted to say. “Can you.. Do you think—?“ One more fierce huff through his nose, but then he looked at you. “Can you not go to your room tonight?”

He saw that you were about to protest on auto-control, so he stopped it before it could happen, and made it a silent promise to himself that it would be okay if you wanted to leave. Even if it happened to be right then. “We do not have doorkeepers at night. No offense to how your family does things, but it feels creepy for me to have it, so we just do not have them. You would not be stuck or anything.” He shrugged, smiling but pouting at the same time, if it could even be a thing. “It is just really nice to have you in here.”

With the comfort of what he had just told you, you smiled and hoped Donghyuck would not lose his mind until the morning. “I think I can stay.”

Walking over to him on his bed, you stood in front of him and let him hug your middle with his head on your stomach. You ran your fingers through his hair repeatedly knowing he liked the combing feeling on his scalp. At some point while you played with his hair and scalp he tilted his head, placing his chin on your stomach instead and looking up at you with a smile on his face. The genuine, happy and content smile you had seen on his face throughout the night before you fled to his room. “I think I am in love with you and I don’t know what to do.”

Your fingers faltered with the smile that spread on your face, and the warmth that spread through your chest surely reached everywhere at the spoken knowledge of being loved. Truly and utterly loved.

You had your suspicions of it before with the way his words sounded and the way he acted. But to hear them being confirmed, so casually and bold and with confidence, made you feel like the most important person alive. In a different way than how it had felt all your life. Like it was only the two of you that mattered on the face of the Earth. Hell, like it was only the two of you that existed on the face of the Earth.

Then your hands retracted from his hair to carefully take his glasses off, putting them on the side table closest to you. Slowly you knelt down until you were face to face with him, and told your love your only request from him. “Kiss me and promise me a forever.”

So he did. Jeno gulped a little at first, keeping his eye contact with an intense gaze, one that mirrored everything in and around him. But then he crashed your lips with his, bringing a hand up to your neck and tugging at it gently in hopes of bringing you down onto the bed with him, which ended up being a wish that you granted. You let him pull you down and lay you down on the bed underneath him as he kissed you, not only on your lips anymore but anywhere he could find exposed. “I don’t want to call you dove anymore, as pretty as it is.”

“Hm?” Was all you could respond with as he kissed your neck. “I want to call you my love.”

At that did something burn and tumble inside you, and you found yourself talking before you could hold it back. “Say that again.”

He laughed out a huff. “My love,” He kissed your collarbone, nibbling only a little, driving you two to the edge with the frustration of what did not come after. “My love,” The nook between your jaw and your neck. “My love.” And your lips, sinking down with all he could offer you. It sounded better— more right in his ears to call you that, and you had to admit that the feeling of being treated exactly like what he called you was otherworldly.

When he pulled away from you, his lips puffy and his gaze still intense yet somewhat softer with the adoration that made itself more apparent, he gave his promise. “I love you my love, and I will for an eternity.”

With a laugh, you gave him your own promise right then and there too. “I promise to love you until the end of time.”

He found it appropriate to meet his lips with yours again, and this time, it was with a newfound hunger you had for each other, filled with the wish to know one another on a level you could not know otherwise had you not loved each other, intimate and private and special. The kind that made your heart race and your stomach twist in the best way possible. The kind that did not feel rushed, but instead gave you relief in knowing yes, it had not been wrong all this time. It was him for you, and for him it was you; the one.

Jeno made love to you that night when he asked you if he could and you gave him the permission, wanting to lose yourself in him and his love and yours. For once you got to spend a whole night with him, making love and talking and showing your love to each other.

And after that, the memory of him under his white sheets kissing you and laughing with the light blue of the lifting night, and the weak but golden-white rays of the early morning sun became the dearest thing to your heart and mind.

Jeno and white, and Jeno in white reminded you of that night.

The Last Goodbye

Everything starts at the dead of the night.

You do not know what was more alarming to you. The crashing sounds of windows that woke you up from your light sleep? The hurried steps that turned into running outside your room, breaking into an unsettling rhythm in the pure silence? The sound of crashing doors and harshly turned locks? The sounds of metal clanking? The occasional firing of the guns and the couple of groans and shouts that follow them? The shouted codes between the guards right outside your room? The surprised curses that leave whoever’s mouths? The unsettling feeling of not knowing who is who outside, perhaps?

Or the fact that you are completely alone for a few minutes, not knowing where to hide because of the shock?

More, the fact that Donghyuck takes longer than you would expect him to come get you, pushing you into thinking did they get to him? Did something happen to him?

There is not a single question in your mind about what this is. The palace is getting raided with soldiers— not that many like a whole army, considering the somewhat inactive nature the commotion seemed to have while you listened to it from your room. Never did you ever feel grateful that your room was placed in a deep and unsophisticated hall away from the library and the archives and the throne room, but you felt so grateful for it as you could do nothing but hide yourself away, locking the balcony doors and covering the doors with your curtains— completely blacking your room out.

You hurry over to the bathroom then, waiting next to the wardrobe sunken into the wall, knowing the far right compartment of it has an opening to a pathway between the walls of the rooms in between the halls that is otherwise inaccessible except from the way down.

The commotion grows more aggressive as you wait. Gunshots grew more frequent yet did not fail to make you jump in your place, and it is when you hear an order of search around that you lock yourself further in your room, locking the bathroom doors as well. You could not see anything, so there was nothing to do but wait for Donghyuck until he came to get you. Just opening the compartment and walking into it was not a possibility as well, since you had no idea what was and was not going on down under the palace.

You lose sense of time as you sit on the cold, stone floor of your bathroom. You lose a big chunk of your sense of self as well. That big chunk of your self melts into the sense you lost, vision, and doubles your attention on hearing. Everything sounds more clear, more violent, and more scary, as you hear bodies falling onto the ground and punches and kicks if it was not guns and daggers. You did not even know such sounds could leave from people’s mouths when they shouted orders and codes and warnings.

Maybe you wait for an hour. Maybe for a few. Or only a few minutes. But in the end someone opens the compartment open silently, filling the bathroom with the artificial light coming from the lantern in their hand, and you only hope that it is Donghyuck.

Thankfully, it is.

His head peeks out from the door and he searches for you, rushing over when he spots you. He kneels down on his feet to level with you and holds his arm out. “Are you okay?”

“I am,” You say, but truthfully, you do not know how you are. You are okay in the sense that you do not have any wounds or injuries, but experiencing something so violent you had only known in theory before? Could anybody be okay when they experience such things, and are separated from the people they care about, completely isolated even though it is in an effort to keep them safe?

Donghyuck links his arm in yours and pulls you off the floor and bolts the two of you out of the compartment door. He locks it behind him, and takes his belt off of his pants, rounding it around the top of the door hinge and securing it by tying— trying to push the door forwards and back, satisfied when it does not budge the slightest bit.

He then picks the lantern he had placed on the ground and rushes over to you, leading you to the narrow stone stairway and taking you down.

The way down is far deep. You pass through rooms you had not known existed, open and close countless doors at the top of the stairways, and you have a good feeling that you go way down under the ground floor of the palace. But you arrive at the destination within a few minutes of basically running down the stairs nonetheless, and you know it is the lair under the palace that you had never been in before.

It is almost a smaller version of the palace. There is a lounging area, a very compact library and office separated in a small room, a kitchen and a bathroom all the same. The place has its own landline— though you hardly expect it to be available to anyone outside of staff.

You can see the council members, some of the military officials, and their personal guards, along with some staff from the kitchen who had most probably been doing early preparation for the next day. There are documents of all kinds sprawled across the lounge table and some across the floor, and you see the military officials jotting down their notes, as well as the heads of the council. All eyes land on you when you walk down the last step and hear Donghyuck close the door from behind.

Your parents are nowhere to be seen.

With your hands sweating immediately and clammy, you ask. “Where are my parents?”

Your father’s senior advisor stands up and walks over to you as a few others look down. There is nothing good that could come out of that, and you feared the answer, to the point where you do not know if you want to hear it. The advisor lands his hands at the sides of your arms, a touch you do not mind and find rather comfortable, considering you had known him your entire life and would trust him with everything. “Your Highness,” He starts. Donghyuck comes to stand just a step behind you before he can continue. “The King has gotten severely injured, but he is stable and soon he will hopefully be in good health.” His wrinkled, bright eyes look at you behind his glasses reassuringly and calmly. You wonder how he actually feels. “We are taking him and the Queen away to a safer place away from here. With some of our best doctors at their company.”

Worried, you feel your heart skip a beat. You can feel the sadness running to your head and chest like a wild horse, but the confusion that hits you presses it back down. “How will we deal with this if he is not here?”

The old advisor glances behind over his shoulder, and at the agreeing nods, he turns back to face you. He clears his throat. “The King is unable to attend to his duties presumably for a much longer time than the matter at hand, and the Queen is royal by crown and not by blood. Therefore, she cannot be the next ruler.”

Opening his mouth, he takes a big breath, and gives you the news with a full chest. “Hence why we need you, as our new monarch.”

A wave of high voltage electric rushes over you then within less than a second. His voice being calm, and him speaking the words out trying to ease you into them does not help at all. You feel like your knees will give out but you do not let them, because there is this part in your brain that has somehow already accepted this and is screaming at you to keep your composure. What leaves your mouth, though, is not much the same. “I can- I cannot do that, my education—“

You get cut off with reassuring words. “Your education would have continued until the day you had no chance but to become the monarch, no matter how long it took,” And then with some of encouragement. “Most fruitful practice comes out of the ruling process, and it is very unfortunate that you are in this situation your Highness, but you have trained for this all your life. There is not a person in this room who can do this better than you.”

And you can feel all eyes on you, pitying you and worried for you. Although pitiful, their eyes do have good meanings behind them for the most part, wishing you good luck for both their sake and yours. It is understandable even though it hurts to see it.

Taking another breath, the advisor speaks, holding you tighter between his hands and rubbing them a little to ground you. “I will bring the book now, okay?”

Without a single thought, you nod.

It happens in a blink of your eyes. The advisor moves to the library and everybody stands up from their seats, and those who're standing away come just a bit closer. They still give you the space you need, and Donghyuck pats your shoulder lightly, giving you the most genuine smile he could muster at that moment. And when the senior advisor comes back he holds out the book of constitutional law upright, looks into your eyes seriously, tells you to put a hand on the book and the other in the air, and asks you to repeat the Oath after him. “You can take your time,”

But you do not. You repeat the words after him at the same pace. I vow to protect my people and love them as my own family. I vow to work towards my people’s best interests. I vow to see and listen to them. I vow to see them as my equals no matter the situation and the differences. I vow to never stop working for the betterment of my own, until the day I pass, or until the day I have to step down. I vow to see my place on the throne sacred and important, and I vow to recognize my power and its consequences. And I take the oath, right now and in the witness of my aiders and the people, to serve them as their monarch for the days to come.

Everyone in the room bows and kneels around you, and you take your hand off the book. Just like that you become the monarch and nothing about it is as you imagined, even though you have never imagined it before.

“Your Excellence,” The advisor smiles a soothing smile. The change of honorifics feel unnatural immediately. “I sincerely hope better days are destined for your rule.”

You hope so, too.

There is no time for anything to sink in as the seniors all take you into the small library to have a meeting. They tell you all they know, that a remote number of soldiers still roaming around at least a couple thousand have broken into the palace and the nearby town mostly in civilian outfits, and that there is a number of people that has been taken hostage. Not much damage was done according to them, as in there was not an expectedly big number of people who had lost their lives as these some thousands of soldiers broke their way in. The towns were left in relatively good shape. “I suspect they are here for the palace and your father, your Excellence.” One of the military personnel says, and adds. “Our troops are after the soldiers with all their equipment to take the hostages back. They will be severely outnumbered, so I am positive we will succeed.”

And then, they talk about national security following this night, and the guards who have lost a significant amount of staff. They talk about the upcoming days where you would have to appear in front of your people to address these events and to give your condolences, describing in detail what is being done in the aftermaths of this first-hand attack your people and you have experienced, and what will be done to ensure the security’s, the justice’s, the politics’ and the legislation’s wellbeing, as well as addressing your efforts of the sociopolitical betterment that will inevitably see positive progress if you do the right things.

That is exactly what scares you to no extent. The possibility of not doing the right things at a time like this.

So when they leave, you stay in the library, digging into your most trusted sources of law, security and sociology. You take notes, and read, and take more notes, and think of how you might apply these theoretical things practically, and take notes when the ideas come to discuss with the advisor later, and read— and it becomes a cycle. At one point the landline in the library that you had not noticed its existence of rings, and you get the news that around a dozen of soldiers have gotten captured across the land, one close to the palace who was being interrogated. You work on the documents given to you by the seniors, sometimes calling them in and asking them questions and advice on your notes as they have been specifically at these things for years. You do not recall ever working harder before in so many areas at the same time, and you hate that it is such a thin ice you are walking on. One wrong step and you fall in the icy water, bringing the people you have vowed to protect along with you.

Some things go well. The hostages got released suspiciously early on, before the troops in your rule could get to them. They took the hundreds of hostages back with them for interrogation and to provide them food and water, and if needed, healthcare. Which only meant one thing, really.

This was a dirty work. An attempt at an assassination, most likely targeting specifically your father, and espionage. A wide network of an espionage, and thousands of soldiers had left with whatever information they had. Their targets were you and your family, not the people, even though a good part of them got affected.

It felt incredibly wrong for you to admit it, but you were almost grateful that the palace was the target instead of the people. You would have rather lost information than people, because you were strong, and you knew you could tackle whatever problem was thrown at your way once you got the hang of things.

And since you do not have the luxury of time, you were already getting the hang of things slowly but surely.

After a couple of hours, while you are tackling everything related to law and law in war as they are most important to you for the night, Donghyuck excuses himself in with a knock at the door.

By the way his face looked, you could tell you were going to get bad news.

“Your Majesty,” He starts. But you notice that he cannot find it in himself to look into your eyes. “I have the reports back from the interrogation of one of the captured soldiers.”

He hands you the papers, and you gladly take them. Name, Huang Renjun. Position, Private. Why did they raid? To get information from the archives. For what reason? For the use of the King. Was he involved in the assassination attempt? No, he was not appointed to that purpose. Did he hate your land? No, he did what he had to do. Why did he have to do it? Because he has a mother to look after, and the military pays well enough. Why was he involved in espionage? Because he had done it before. Why was he dressed in uniform? Because he wanted to get back to his mother if he ever got caught and had to serve time in jail, he did not want to take the right away from her— the right to visit him. Why was he shaking? They would not do anything to his mother, right? No, they would not. They are not that type of people. He has been providing useful information and been hopefully truthful until now, could he tell his lieutenant’s name?

Lee Jeno.

Surely it cannot be real.

You look at Donghyuck, and see him looking at you now. “I’m sorry.” Is all he can say.

It is as if someone pours a bucket of boiling hot water down your head, and another bucket of ice cold right after. You feel your heart sink. Disappointed, sad, let down, but what hurts the most is that you do not feel like it does not make sense.

Your hand tightens, squeezing the pen in your hold as the other lifts to rub your temple, both elbows placed on the table for support. Although you want to cry and scream, what leaves your mouth instead is an airy, unhumorous chuckle.

It takes a few seconds for it to kick in. “Take me to him.”

The guard opens his mouth, but you shut him up. “I do not care where and how. Just take me to him.”

Donghyuck comes back to get you in what feels like less than an hour.

When you get out of the small office you had been stuck in for hours, most of the military and security advisors and seniors are nowhere to be seen. They were most probably dealing with the finalization of the reports of the captured soldiers, transferring them to the hands of the judiciary system. The lair, at that point, was more of a place used simply because the palace could not be used still. Duties were still duties and not all of them could be delivered to a few floors underground.

The senior advisor— your senior advisor was about to protest when he saw you walk away with Donghyuck alone, but you simply told him you had to see it for yourself as the reason for your outing. You decline when he offers you more company, saying he could provide you with more guards.

Then, you were out.

But you do not make your way through the palace. It hurts when you notice Donghyuck is taking you through the basement again, even though it makes sense. Nobody knew about the tunnel system still.

You make a note in your mind to change that after today.

Feeling numb in the eerie quiet of the palace, you let Donghyuck lead the way, helping him with the furniture, dropping down the trapdoor, and walking beside him. Neither of you talk. What could he possibly say? What Jeno had done was beyond words.

When you arrive at the end of the tunnels him and his guard are there. Standing in silence. You pick your pace up, unlike the excited and hurried steps you used to take, but angry, disappointed and confronting. Jaemin looks at you before he does, and you see his pitiful look. He does not greet you with the usual nod he does. Jeno looks at you only when you are a couple of big strides away from him, his eyes bright at first, but dimming slowly.

This is the first time you meet him ‘alone’ in early daylight. And frankly, you do not care if somebody finds this place and discovers him at that point.

Taking the last couple of strides, you come to a halt in front of him with a considerable distance between you two. Your chest rises up and down with all the emotions you are feeling and all the thoughts that are racing through your head. With one particularly angry breath, you speak. “Jeno, I have one request from you, and that is for you to tell me my best friend and primary guard is lying and mean it.” At the mention of your guard you had pointed at him with your finger, looking into Jeno’s eyes to find something.

But he does not speak. Because he cannot lie. Because your best friend and guard was, in fact, not lying to you. Because he really was at the lead of all of this. And the guilt, you could see in his eyes that did everything to avoid your intense gaze.

Figures you were not the only one who noticed that, because you hear the sound of Donghyuck’s pistol behind you. You look back at him to see his gun pointed at Jeno, and you hear another one drawn behind you. Namely Jaemin’s, pointed at Donghyuck.

Everything really kicks in then.

Alarmed, you raise your voice. “Nobody is shooting anyone.”

Jeno does nothing. Does not back you up, nor say his independent thought. He just watches, frozen in place, looking at you and yet not looking at you. “Donghyuck, lower your gun down.”

“But—“ You shut him up for the second time within a few hours. “I said, lower your gun down.”

He does, and Jaemin follows suit. You turn back to look at the person standing in front of you.

You do not know who this person is, you cannot tell. Because the Jeno who stands before you is not the one you know. He is not the one you love as well. Because the Jeno you love is someone who has his own pride, feelings, dreams and conscience. Someone who has his own passions. Someone who stands against all the bad and all the evil. He is someone who loves people and who loves you, who is truthful to the people he loves and cares about. And he cares about a lot of people.

But this person in front of you, this Jeno, is not him. This is someone who wanted his father’s acceptance so much that he let it swallow him whole. When, even though he protested he was not, he was someone fully capable of making his own decisions. This is someone who is alright with being used as a puppet for the foreseeable future. This is someone that gave up his personality and dreams just to go with someone else’s. This is someone that did not care if others got hurt because of him. This is someone who is selfish, willfully blind and deaf.

The Jeno standing in front of you was someone you would pity at best. The Jeno that stood in front of you was someone that would be much like his father. Not respected and looked down upon. Oblivious to his doings.

There was so much you wanted for the person that stood in front of you. You desperately wanted him to have a part of himself that recognized the things he had done until this point, whatever he did to you and long before that. You wanted him to experience the aftermath for years to come. To hear the consequences was one thing— they could enter through one ear and immediately come out of the other, as fast as if he had not even heard it. But seeing the consequences would be different. Turning a blind eye every single day would be impossible. You want him to live in the reality of what has happened, and you want some part of him to recognize everything from today on as well.

Looking at his empty eyes, you furrow your brows and sigh. “Most of the soldiers will be handed over once their judiciary process is done. They were caught in uniform.”

You do not even feel like talking to him. It is so disappointing, he is so disappointing; you had such hopes both for the two of you and him. He had his dreams and this person he wanted to grow to be. And nothing about this was what hope entailed for you two. Individually and as a pair, and as people who had huge populations of people dependent on you and following you.

Instead of saying all the things you would like to say to him, you reach for your necklace with a shaky sigh. You take it off, and hold the ring out for him to take.

Jeno obediently opens his hand under yours, and you drop the ring into his palm. You cannot even find it in yourself to close his hand when he fails to do it promptly. Partly because you are scared you are doing the wrong thing and that there is hope for him still, and partly because you knew you would break if you did.

“Leave, Jeno. Take your hand off my rule, my people and my family. Take your men, too.” You take a deep breath and straighten up, looking deep into his eyes that still have sparks somehow.

Not being strong was not an option. “And never come back.”

Jeno nods only once ever so slightly, gulping and closing his palm, putting the necklace into his chest pocket before turning back on his heel and walking out into the bright and silver snowy morning light that surely consumes him whole with his guard on his trail.

It is extremely difficult to watch him walk away. Because the bottled up emotions rush to your chest and the memories rush to your mind, and it hurts when the acknowledgement of the past few years of your life is being thrown into the trash dawns on you. The past genuinely beautiful and happy years of your life where the two of you had taken so many risks, so many things to account, had told so many lies to make everything work. Where you had shared so many laughs, some tears, a lot of secrets- the biggest secret the two of you could possibly ever share, so many kisses and fond words and physical affection. Where you had shared your true love at the expense of living it undercover. Because you had loved each other so purely and so intensely that you could do anything for each other. Still, you believed that what you two had was such an incredible, true, and big thing.

Which was exactly why your heart physically hurt when he disappeared from your sight.

Because you knew who did this was not him, and that the person who disappeared from your personal life for good was not him. The ‘him’ you loved was nowhere to be found in whoever this was; someone who lived according to the strings that were being pulled. Who this person once was, would only live in your memories. And even those, with the start of your healing process, would slowly but surely die down.

So much for an eternity.

The First Vow

After the war everything turned back to normal slowly but surely.

You were becoming better and better at this ruling business you had to attend to, keeping in touch with the communities more in the aftermaths, occupied with duties of all kinds from any branch, meeting people, going on travels for said meetings, seeing beautiful sceneries. There would be new faces at the palace to get acquainted with every once in a while. You would get to go to trips in your own land, visiting farmers and asking about how harvest season was treating them, visiting businesses to see if they could hold up in the fragility of post-war days, visiting families in need to have a chat with them and hear them out, to see if you could do anything for them. More often than not you would be able to provide them care and whatever else it was that they needed. Sometimes you would visit schools and the neighborhoods no one dared to go into, and you would try to help them, too.

Sometimes you would check on the prisons and courts to see how the atmosphere was, and sometimes you would have a brief chat with Renjun on visiting days, updating him on his judiciary situation yourself.

Did the anxiety completely dissipate after what happened? No. Definitely not. The fact that you had gone through espionage on a very big scale was a fact that still stood strong.

But your father was there to aid you with his wisdom. Back on his feet and retired, living at a house far from the palace, your mother and him kept the doors open for you for whenever you had the time or the wish to pay a visit. Him and your mother’s experiences as well as their advice helped you so much during the beginning of your rule where everything felt like you had to learn how to walk again. You were grateful for them and your advisor, who would not comply with your words and just retire because he wanted to help you out as long as he possibly could.

Some things were nice. You were adored by the people, because you had been loyal to the oath you had taken so far. Your full days and duties were keeping your mind off of most things that could bring you down. The palace staff and you seemed to have a close relationship as well, genuinely having fun in your daily life because of your young aura that beamed with energy. Truthfully you were energetic. There was no way you could do what you did if you were not as energetic. You pushed yourself to be happy too, reminded yourself of these things to keep you going.

Yet, some things were bad. There were a lot of things that you could not get no matter how hard you tried, but that was okay, because you were trying no matter what too. The fact that your parents had moved out left you with the reality of living alone in an utterly gigantic space. You would have to eat breakfasts and dinners alone, reading a book while you ate because no one would agree to have a meal with you even though you told them it was okay— except for Donghyuck who would agree to have lunch with you most days. Going to your room would leave a bitter taste inside your mouth. And when you laid down on your bed, sometimes the daydreams of what you could have been come up.

You try to push them away, but sometimes you find yourself breaking down over them anyway.

And then, there are some realities. Like the fact that all these duties, although incredibly helpful at distracting, were growing to be a bit too much for you. The fact that you really needed to share these duties with someone to get some workload off your shoulders. The fact that although wise and helpful, your advisor is growing older and older, and you want him to have a retirement.

The fact that you need another monarch.

It is ridiculous how you deal with it. On one restless night where your mind is flooded with things you need to take care of and the things that are yet to come, you find yourself leaving your bed and your room. Without a drop of sleep in your eyes you walk down the halls and greet the guards silently with a smile on your face, changing the wings of the palace twice to go to the far left end and walking down numerous sets of stairs to get to the room you were looking for.

When you do get to it, you knock only once and excuse yourself in not caring if the guards were staring, finding your guard and best friend on his bed about to pass out. “Why is there such a thing where royals can walk into places without any alert beforehand?”

“I knocked.” He hums at that, and you move to take the seat in the chair at his desk across from his side of the bed. You look at him, who has his arms under his pillow, and think that it is better to pull the bandaid quickly rather than easing it. “Donghyuck.”

“Hm?” You love how he has given up on the honorific in this setting. Usually he would call you by your rather new honorific to get his mouth used to it. “Will you marry me?”

He snickers. “Isn’t that a rather important question to ask me at this hour?” You only smile, so he questions further with his squinted eyes. “Why?”

You shrug. “I need someone to share duties with, and I need someone who will understand me. The only person I can trust is you.”

That makes him smile sleepily, a soft huff of breath leaving his nose, causing his chest to jolt a bit forward. “Well I think I will have to take you up on that.”

“You do not have to,” You whine, a bit annoyed at yourself. “I can hold on for longer. Assign another senior advisor, I don’t know.” But it would not be the same as having someone you could constantly trust. And you needed that, someone who can be there for you whenever you needed them to, as much as you needed another monarch.

You also needed a partner if you were to commit to something so big.

“No, really,” He assures. “I feel honored. I don’t have much of a life outside of my life as your guard already. Which is okay, because I love it. I love that I get to spend so much time with my closest friend despite what they have to do, so when you ask that from me, it feels as something I would only benefit from,” There is a silence before he picks his words back up again, realizing they do not sound the greatest when they are left there. “As a person.”

“It is not that simple,” You warn him as you feel he leaves out some important points. “You will be the King. That is going to take a lot of work, at least a couple of years’ intense education. And all this time you have gotten used to shadowing people. It is a completely different thing to have countless shadows following you with every step you take.”

In all honesty you expect for him to consider it. To retract from his words, and to say that he is in fact not fit to that role because he wants to live a life more free. But he does not. Donghyuck just smiles and buries his face deeper into the pillow, and holds out a hand to you. “I was serious when I said I’ll have to take you up on that. I am willing to do whatever it takes.”

Relief washes over you then. It feels as if almost a big, heavy weight has been lifted from your shoulders at the knowledge that you will get to have someone to really help you out with everything and be there for you; someone who you will be willing to do all the same for them. And how fortunate it was that your closest friend would be that someone, because you think you lacked the energy to look out for new people at this point.

You sigh as you place your hand in his, holding onto his fingers when his curl into yours. “Thank you.” You whisper, and feel your hand get tugged towards him before you can feel his lips on your knuckles. “Let’s give these people the most flamboyant royal wedding they will ever witness.”

The two of you share a light laugh that would have surely been louder if it was not for the stupidly late hour this conversation took place in.

And that was it.

You had to remove Donghyuck from his position as your guard when you announced your engagement, getting rings the day after the conversation and breaking the news to the council at an emergency meeting. Thankfully they seemed to be on board with that, and teased the two of you for all the times you disappeared together without much explanation.

It made your heart pang that no, although you had disappeared together you two had not been the lovers. It was for and with someone else. Nonetheless, you were glad that they felt that way, so you made light of the situation by joining in on their laughs.

Donghyuck starts his education immediately after the announcement. It is a nightmarish process almost, seeing him so deep into studies you are far too acquainted with at that point, being reminded of your own struggles trying to learn. Sometimes you would meet him at the library if you had piled up document work to meet and work with him, which would result in him asking you questions about stuff he did not understand when the tutor was not around. Some other times he would nervously laugh at the dinner table (that he could finally join you at) when you would quiz him on things he should have learned, but he would do a great job at that as well, even with his occasional slip-ups.

Donghyuck would make public appearances with you from time to time, and the people would be loving the idea of you and him together. They would tell you how you went so well with each other and how you were so powerful together and they were great compliments, they were, but sometimes they would hurt you deep down even though you had a smile on your face.

In the first year of his education, you get a letter inviting you to a conference held in impartial land. A conference where safety measures and war prevention will be the focus, and one that will be held annually. You agree to it, go alone, see faces (one face in particular) that you do not want to see, and come back.

At a grand meal close to the end of the year with your family and the staff and the council and their own families, someone asks about the wedding plans. That happens to be the exact moment when you realize you do not have plans for your own wedding, and they tell you it is okay before drunkenly jumping from idea to idea on the colors and the venue and whatever else they had to talk about.

Mid-year after that, you slowly start letting Donghyuck in your business. You give him first-hand education, saying these documents should be handled like that and these types of documents should be taken into meetings instead of those ones even though they are basically the same thing, and these reports come from here to go to there, and they go there when you hand them to someone (which sometimes happened to be him in the past) but when you are the one sitting down while doing all your work you call people over like this when you want something to be delivered. And when you file them you can have your own way but one that is preferably neat, I like to do it this way, for example. It becomes an occurrence that grows more and more frequent as time goes by.

Around the cold fall of that year, Donghyuck almost gets done with his education. He had known quite a lot in theory having been with you for a long time and that was probably what helped with him and his pace, and since it came to that, the wedding planning started. Your parents joined in at that as well, and you got to see Donghyuck’s mother and siblings for the first time in years. Which was why you proposed to him the possibility of moving them into a house closer to the palace, or even into the palace that night. Because you knew his relationship with his family was close and sacred to him, and you knew that it had been interrupted by his heavy shifts as a guard and his obligation to stay in the palace. So, you thought it would be convenient for both sides if they lived closer.

Attire fittings for the wedding are always eventful with chitter chatter, some dramatic emotional response from both mothers and fathers as you two stood on platforms with your arms wide open to the sides, the tradition about to-be spouses not seeing each other’s attires until the wedding inapplicable simply because everything has to be perfect at a royal wedding.

Throughout everything, choosing outfits, choosing themes and colors, choosing the venue and sending the invitations, there is always a slight pull at your heart’s strings. The kind of pull where it feels a bit pitiful and hard to breathe. Sometimes your hand lands itself around the area on your chest where your first engagement ring would fall onto, and most times you can stop yourself by saying it is completely unneeded but sometimes you cannot stop it— and sometimes you can see Donghyuck realizing it.

But the hardest is when the wedding day finally comes right after the new year’s, on a bright sunny day without snowfall, which was extremely rare for where you lived. Everything was still and calm outside but not inside, neither inside the venue nor inside your heart and mind.

The reality of getting married gains another dimension when you walk into the venue. At the heart of a town rather far from the palace, the venue does not have the feeling of being far from home with its stone structure, greenery that surrounds it, and its grand scheme. Decorated in royal blue and a bright red that matches the liveliness of the blue, everything looks like how a royal wedding should look. There are golden lights on the walls and dropping from the ceiling that bring the power of the decorations down with their warmness yet somehow also emphasize the importance of everything. The old structure has cracks in which various plants and ivies have made their way in, the sole reason you and Donghyuck had chosen this place. Because you both believed that they symbolized second chances and faith, seeing as these plants had somehow survived the cold and the stones placed on top of the earth, and had been strong enough to crack through and claim this place as their home.

Overall, everything is bright, red and blue and green and golden, and it looks like this is your destiny. And everything including Donghyuck welcomes you, even though there is a road of hurt and imperfection that you still have to walk on.

You are grateful for that feeling.

Yet, suddenly everything feels wrong and out of place when you start the process of getting ready. Not because of Donghyuck and his dear soul that was trying his hardest, but because of yourself. Because your past self that was once in love with a person that did not exist anymore was still looking for a way and time to throw a tantrum about it all. It made sense, somehow, that it was at the most inappropriate moment that it would decide to act up.

The bigger problem is that a lot of people can see how you feel, presumably because you get quieter and inactive. You are extremely distracted from everything that you get so clumsy, tripping all over the place in the old, stone building that had greenery cracking through its a few centuries old material. The people who dress you might as well have been dressing a toy with how nonchalant and flappy your body was.

Despite the obstacles, they get you dressed and taken care of at your room, where you can hear people starting to walk into the venue. At first it is a few greetings between some handfuls of families and people, but it so quickly turns into a sea of undetectable voices that it is almost scary. Everyone sounds excited and happy outside in the hall, and you can hear them dining and conversing on topics that were mostly around you. That was nice after having your name in gossip for quite a long time regarding the espionage and your seemingly amateur ways of ruling, and the ones that suspected a relationship between you and the person you used to love.

Neither side shut the gossips down, but they died down anyways. You had gotten engaged shortly after their surfacing.

At some point people’s voices start to dim down. The wavy ocean turns into a much more still sea with hushed conversations, and it is then that you are able to hear the chants outside.

The happy chants of your people, who had come there to celebrate.

Donghyuck walks in when you get frozen in place, looking at the big, frosted and stained windows as if you could hear the chanting clearer if you did so. From the corner of your eye you see him nod his head slightly to the side and smile, silently ordering people to leave the room to only the two of you.

The ceremony would start soon.

He comes to stand in front of you, and he opens both of his hands, palms looking upright. You look down at them when you notice his moves and let your eyes linger there, not knowing if confidence or hesitance would take over you first.

Not being strong was never an option.

You place your hand in his with a deep exhale, and meet his eyes. Donghyuck smiles at you, as if to say it is alright. It will be okay.

And then he speaks.

“I know I am not the one you would have liked to have here today,” He starts, and that hurts you perhaps with the truth but also with your newfound care for him upon getting engaged, but he does not let you protest. “But I have once sworn to protect you with my life, and I just want you to know that I will continue on with it. And I swear to you— forget the Oath I will take in a matter of minutes now, I swear to you that I will try to be the best I can be for you, for us, for whatever that means from now on, and for our people.”

You smile at him with your first genuine smile of the day when a fresh comfort washes over your heart the same way an angry and fizzy ocean wave washes over the shore, and give his hands a squeeze, holding onto the hopeful future they offer. Thank you.

[morneboshoff]

When is it Time for a Website Refresh?

You’ve heard the old adage… You have 6 seconds to convince a website visitor that your website is the website they’ve been searching for – before they hit that back button.

So keeping your website up-to-date is no longer a matter of preference, it’s a matter of survival.

If it’s been a while since you’ve updated your website, it might be a good idea to consider updating the elements on your website like the content, the design, adding new content or completely overhauling your website as part of a major redesign.

Does your website need a refresh?

So What’s a Refresh?

A business changes as it grows. The same is true with your website. As you create your website, make sure it reflects the business it represents.

Your website’s design will become outdated over time, that’s just how it goes. What was popular 2 or 3 years ago, can feel painfully outdated now (remember keyword clouds?) So refreshing the design is necessary to remain competitive.

Does Your Website Need a Refresh?

If your website has been up for a while, it may be a challenge to know when it’s time to update it. But here are some signs it’s time.

The design of your site is not appealing anymore

Conversions are low

Nothing is interesting or exciting on your website

Ineffective communication with website visitors

Leads aren’t coming in like they did before

Bounce rates are high

Recognize any of these? If so it may be time to make some minor updates or revamp your entire website. It just depends on your situation.

Here are 7 ways you can refresh your website

1. The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. The look and feel of your website can be dramatically updated simply by choosing a more modern fonts set to revamp its overall look. Even small changes can significantly impact transforming an old site into something new and impressive. Google fonts is free, and offers many great options.

2. Consider a redesign – when you need more than the basics

Your website plays a big part in the identity of your business. The way your website looks will have a big impact on the way your visitors feel when they land on your website. What will their first impression be? Are they going to want to do business with you? You are not doing yourself any favors by still using outdated stock graphics and imagery.

Your brand’s identity is shaped by elements like layout, fonts, colors, etc. To keep your website looking crisp, determine which sections have aged gracefully and which areas need improvement.

Replace your outdated images & graphics with a mix professionally taken photos of your staff and business along with some carefully curated high end stock images.

Choose a simple, clean font will make your site look sleek and modern. For example, Google Fonts offers many free typefaces.

An updated color palette can also improve the experience of your visitors.

3. Improve Your Communication

We’ve talked about the 6 seconds you have to grab your visitors attention and keep them on your website so it’s not a surprise that there’s little time for you to get your message across.

Regardless of what you sell, the customer is primarily interested in how you will help them solve their problem. It’s always about them, whatever you say. So make sure visitors can find the content they are looking for without a lot of clicking around.

Speaking of communication it’s a good idea to sprinkle in a variety of compelling and relevant CTAs on your site. Believe it or not, your visitors aren’t mind readers so you need to tell them how they take the next step. CTAs provide various options for the visitor to take action, such as:

“Call Now”

“Book Your Appointment Today”

“Join Now by clicking here,”

“Get started Today”

“Connect with us Today”

“Get your free ______ today”

“Signup today and get ________ “

And don’t forget about social sharing buttons.

The most important thing is that your CTA’s should be well-designed and strategically placed in areas where clients can easily see them.

Pro tip: Make sure that your CTA’s contrast well with the rest of your design but don’t get blend into the rest of your content. CTA’s are most effective when they look like buttons.

4. Improve Your User Experience

You must design your website so that the customer can navigate through it quickly. Your site will attract more visitors if it is easy to navigate. Just a few changes to your menu and checking that every link works can make a massive difference in the over all user experience.

Your navigation consists of links connecting your website’s pages. Carefully examine all your website pages and make sure they are still relevant and organized.

Test your links. Make sure that they don’t lead to 404 Error (Page Not Found). This makes your website appear not maintained and sloppy. Take a look at all the links on your site, including internal and external, and ensure they’re taking your visitors where you want them to go.

5. Analyze Your Website Content – And See Where You Stand

It’s not only about looks when it comes to refreshing a website. Your site must be considered current. Ensuring that what you are saying is valid, helpful, and readable to your visitors. So how can you determine whether your content is new, high-quality, and up-to-date?

By conducting a content audit.

A content audit is intended to assess which links get indexed by search engines, which need to be refreshed and no longer exist. Here are some basic steps you need to follow:

Compile all your databases and sitemaps. The sitemap is a document that lists your site’s pages, videos, and other files along with their relationships. Data from your website is organized into your website’s internal database.

Your site’s URLs are indexed by web crawlers who collect content throughout the Internet. An algorithm can be applied to web crawler data to find relevant links in response to specific search terms and keywords. We recommend using Google Analytic, Google Webmaster Tools, and Screaming Frog for crawling website content.

Content auditing can go beyond essentials: You can use titles, descriptions, and word count as primary criteria for content auditing. All of your content entries should contain these elements.

Check organic search, conversions, publish date, time-on-site, page views, load speed, and mobile-responsiveness, too.

The number of conversions divided by unique visits is the conversion rate. By measuring this metric, you can determine if your website traffic is profitable.

Time-on-site is pretty self-explanatory: it’s the amount of time your visitors spend on each of your pages. Content audits can benefit from this metric since you get a clear idea of the performance of your online content.

A page-per-visit measurement indicates how much content is viewed per visit. In most cases, it is presented as an average, which is calculated by dividing the total number of visitors by the total number of page views.

The slower your page loads, the fewer pages search engines can crawl, affecting your search engine rankings.

Take a good thorough look at your content: Identity what content no longer reflects your current business and goals and delete it. Do you need to rewrite or update anything? Is there anything that needs some attention?

Note: It is essential to perform two separate content audits if your website has Desktop and Mobile versions as their codebases are different.

6. Competitor Analysis

You should also examine how your competitors’ sites can be improved while evaluating the same areas where yours could be better. Are they doing anything new on their website that is working? Is their website more responsive than yours? Have they made updates to their website recently?

Aside from seeing what your competitors’ websites look like, it would help if you also figured out which websites link to them. Is it possible to obtain links from these same websites, or can you get links from other high-ranking websites? This is authority backlinking 101 & makes a huge impact on your rankings.

7. Make Sure Applications Are Maintained

Now that you have updated your contact information, added some fresh content, and checked for broken links, make sure that all of your web apps are functioning properly. For your tech to keep pace with your business growth, it must adapt and grow along with it.

App management practices include testing and debugging software, enhancing technology and site functionality, updating and maintaining existing security protocols, maintaining new browser versions, creating and maintaining 3rd party integrations, and more. It is very important to maintain your website’s modules, code, plugins and integrations to avoid various issues.

Honorary Mention: A Mobile-Responsive Website

This one is obvious and goes without saying. But nobody is surprised when I say smartphones are the most popular way people access the web. And a lot of them never use anything other than their phone so to say mobile responsiveness is important would be an understatement.

Plus Google favors mobile web-optimized websites in its search rankings and penalizes those that aren’t.

In conclusion, keep it simple. Think marathon, not a race.

A website refresh can be as extensive as you want to make it… Just like any renovation. Although we’ve covered many small changes you can make to your website some will make a much bigger impact than others. But do not under-estimate the end result.

So what now? evaluate your needs and make a plan of attack – and then get started on it. There’s no time like right now.

DOWNLOAD YOUR DIGITAL STRATEGY PLANNING TEMPLATE

[agentblyeanddeeks]

Chapter 1

Finally happy enough with chapter 1 to share it with you all. Still deciding on a title, then I will post to ff.net. A HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to @mashmaiden​ for listening to my indecisiveness until I finally got to where I wanted. And for the constant motivation to keep going.

AU of the team first meeting Deeks. What happens when Kensi gets caught up in one of Deeks undercovers. Will contain flashbacks.

August 17, 2010

“Mr. Callen. Nice of you to decide to finally come into work this morning.” Hetty stood in the archway of the mission entrance as the senior agent arrived.

“We live in LA. You know the traffic is always unpredictable.” Callen responded.

Hetty folded her arms, “Mr. Hanna and Mr. Beale don’t seem to have any trouble being on time. Might I suggest an earlier departure from now on?”

“I will do my best, Hetty.”

“That you will, Mr. Callen. That you will. Now, up to Ops you go. There’s a case to be solved” Hetty shooed him towards the stairs.

————-

“Well, well, well. Third time this month, G. Let me guess, you were busy switching apartments because this one was too relaxing.”

“Too relaxing? What does that even mean?”

“It means you need to stop making excuses and just settle down in one place. It will be good for you.”

“Or I could just stay with you, Michelle, and the kids.”

“We tried that once before, remember? By the way, you still owe me a toaster.”

“Hey, that was not my fault.” 

Um, guy. We have a case.” Eric interrupted the partners bickering.

“Sorry, Eric.” Callen noticed the room was still one Agent short, “Where’s Kensi?”

The automated doors opened again revealing their operations manager, “It seems your tardiness is beginning to rub off on your teammates. Rest assured I will have a talk with her later. Now let’s not waste anymore time. Eric.”

Eric swiveled his chair around towards his computer. After a few clicks on the keyboard, an image appeared on the main screen. “Meet Petty Officer 3rd Class Evan Wade. He was stationed at Point Loma until a year ago when he received an other than honorary discharge.”

“What was his offense?” questioned Sam.

“Multiple failed drug tests. His CO said he had been to rehab twice but only stayed clean for about a month before relapsing.”

“Did he have drugs in his system when he died?” Callen asked.

“Yes. The coroner found traces of heroin. She also said the body had been there at least three days before hikers discovered it.”

“I’m guessing from the amount of blood on his body, the cause of death wasn’t an overdose.” Callen concluded.

“That would correct.” Eric grabbed his tablet and zoomed in on the picture, “Wade was killed by multiple gunshots to the torso.”

Sam took a minute to study the image, “Looks like they could be from a 9mm.”

Callen shook his head, “Pretty common caliber. Doesn’t really narrow it down.”

“This might.” the tech operator chimed in. “After the petty officer was discharged, he began working at Crescent Creek. They are a beer distributor that have been on the LAPD watch list for a while now. Most of their employees have pretty impressive rap sheets. B & E’s, assault, you name it.”

Sam scanned the employee photos on the screen, “Are any of the other employees former military?” 

Eric nodded, “Two. But no connection so far to Wade.”

“Ok, keep digging. See if anything sticks out.” instructed Sam.

“On it.” Eric returned to his computer desk and began a new search algorithm.

“What about a few days before he died? Anything out of the ordinary?” asked Callen.

Another file appeared on the screen, “Let’s see. The last credit card transaction was at Mariasol’s on the Santa Monica Pier the day he died. Pulling up the pier security cameras now.”

The video of the pier began to play. Eric increased the speed until it was close to the time of the transaction.

Callen pointed to the screen, “There’s Wade.”

“What’s he doing?” Eric asked, curiously.

“Probably nothing good. He keeps watching over his shoulder. He’s nervous about something.” Sam observed.

While Eric and Sam were focused on their victim, Callen was more interested in the other guy in the frame, “Eric, can you get a better angle of the guy he’s with?”

Eric pulled up a second camera from the pier as Callen stepped forward to get a better look at the blonde gentleman. “I know that guy.”

“From a previous case?” Sam asked.

Callen shook his head, “No. It’s the owner of the bar that Kensi took us to a couple months ago.” He snapped his fingers a few times til the name came to him, “Squid & Dagger.”

Eric types the name that Callen gave him, hoping it would provide them with a lead. “The owner of Squid & Dagger is listed as Max Gentry. He’s owned the bar for six months. Single. Address is listed in Culver City. No military background. No criminal records.”

“We need to find Kensi now and see what she knows about him.” Hetty suddenly spoke up.

“I’ll call her.” offered Eric.

“Ok, Sam and I will head to Max’s place and find out what his connection to Wade is.”

They two agents turned to leave but stopped when they heard a familiar warning beep coming from the main screen. 

“Kensi’s cell is offline.” Eric announced as he began to worry.

“Well, turn it back on!” Sam ordered.

“I can’t. Either the battery has been taken or the phone has been severely damaged.”

The scenario playing out in front of them reminded Sam of what the team had gone through earlier in the year with Dom. “What about her car?”

Eric brought up a map of Los Angeles on the screen. After a few seconds, a blinking icon appeared. “GPS location has it at Pico and Sixth since midnight.” He paused when the realization hit him, “Guy, that’s Max’s bar.”

Hetty moved to the front of the room to face her staff. “Eric, find out everything you can on Max. Gentleman, go to Santa Monica and figure out what the hell is going on.”

——————-

As the Challenger turned onto Sixth Street, Sam and Callen were met with red and blue flashing lights. An officer walked around the building, dragging yellow caution tape behind him

“This is not good.” Callen said as the car came to a stop. Their arrival didn’t go unnoticed by the man in a suit by the bar entrance. He made his way up to the yellow tape, meeting the agents halfway.

“Can I help you gentleman?”

“NCIS. I’m Special Agent Hanna. This is Special Agent Callen. What happened here?”

“Detective Danny Hall. Neighboring business called it in this morning. The door was kicked in and the inside shows definite signs of a struggle. One victim.”

Callen pulled out his phone and clicked on the DMV photo of Max Gentry, “This him?”

“No.” The detective shook his head then reached down for the caution tape, raising it up, “Follow me.”

The three men walk into the bar and take in the chaos in front of them. The front door laid to their right, no longer on the hinges. Multiple tables were upturned and the chairs were scattered and broken throughout the business.

“Woah, you weren’t kidding about the struggle. It’s a wreck in here,” Callen said. While he assessed the furniture damage, Sam made his way to the body laying near the bar, covered by a sheet.

“Looks like blunt force trauma to the head. Probably from being slammed into the bar.”

Detective Hall took a small notebook from his pocket, “According to the tattoo on his arm, he is a member of the Sanguine street gang.”

“Guns for hire.” Callen assumed.

“Can I ask why this interests NCIS?” the detective asked.

“The dead body of a marine was found this morning. Gunshot wounds to the chest. He might have had a connection with the owner. Plus we have an agent that we have lost contact with that frequented this bar.” he told the detective.

“My guys didn’t find any shell casings. They most likely kept it hand to hand. A gun fight in this area would have caused attention right away. They wouldn’t have been able to make a clean getaway.”

Sam rejoined the others, “I wouldn’t exactly call leaving a man behind a clean getaway.”

“We also found blood on a pool stick and some leading out the back door to the alley.” Hall informed them. Another officer appeared in the doorway and signaled him over. 

“Excuse me for a moment, Gentleman. Forensics is done here. Feel free to look around. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you.” Sam shook his hand.

“So is Max still a suspect or is he our next victim?” Callen began to theorize.

“He could be both. Max kills Wade, then bad guy send the gang after Max. Or Max could be innocent and our suspect is tying up loose ends.”

“For Kensi’s sake, I hope it’s the second one.”

“Me too.” Sam thought for a moment, “If they wanted to kill Max, they wouldn’t have ambushed him here. Like Hall said, attracts too much attention.”

“They obviously wanted him alive for a reason. But for what?”

Sam looked around the room, trying to envision what might have gone down. “Ok, so the gang members come through the entrance. Chaos ensues. Max shoves the dead guy into the bar.”

Callen removed the black gloves from his pocket and put them on his hand. He then grabbed the broken pool stick the detective had mentioned. “Someone defended themselves with the pool stick. Whoever it was, was bleeding,” noting the bloody fingerprints.

“G, over here.” Sam crouched down near the back exit. “There is blood smear leading to the door. It’s probably Max’s. They hit him from behind, knocking him out and they take him out the alley door.”

Following Sam’s hunch, the men go out the backdoor. “Easy get away. Especially in the middle of the night.”

“It still doesn’t explain where Kensi is. Or what she was even doing here. The bar is closed on Monday nights.” Callen said, bringing the focus back to their missing colleague.

“We need to look in her car.”

The car was parked in a community lot outside of the crime scene. Thankfully the other detectives hadn’t known it was related to the crime at the bar. Callen pulled out the spare key and unlocked her car. Sam opened the driver side door and began searching for clues. Callen did the same from the passenger side.

“Nothing seems out of the ordinary.” Callen said, looking in the glove compartment. He leaned forward to feel between the seat and console and  pulled out something mushy and brown, slightly disgusted, “Looks like I found Kensi’s stash of Reese Cups.” 

Sam shook his head, “When we find her, she is getting an intervention about her refined sugar addiction.”

Callen removed his chocolate filled glove and searched through the center console with his other hand. 

“Her badge and wallet are both still here.”

Sam straightened up after checking under the driver seat. “Her gun is not.”

“Agent Callen! Agent Hanna!” Detective Hall yelled as he approached. “Does this vehicle have to do with the investigation?”

“It’s our missing agent’s cars. She left her badge but took her gun.” Sam explained

“And you think she’s got something to do with this?”

“I hope not but I’ve got a bad feeling about it.” Callen noticed the surveillance photos in the detectives hand. “Can I see those?”

“Oh yeah. That’s why I came over here. One of the officers found these in the office. Anyone look familiar?”

Callen took the photos and started flipping through them.“That’s Petty Officer Wade and our bar owner Max Gentry. Someone was definitely watching them.”

Sam moved beside Callen to have a better look at the photos. “They're not the only ones they were watching.”

The next photo in the pile was that of Kensi and Max. It was taken at night and they appeared to be on a rooftop. As they flipped through more photos, they became more concerned. Whoever took these photos had continued to follow Kensi without Max. Some were even taken near her house.

“We’ve got to find her now. She might be compromised.” Callen said.

“Which means so are we.”

Sam took the photos and laid them out of the car hood. He took out his phone and took pictures of them to send to Ops.

“Call us if you find anything else.” Callen asked of Hall as he handed him his card.

“Same to you.”

Sam handed back the photos and they headed to the Challenger. “Eric, pull the security camera from the Squid & Dagger and surrounding areas. We need to see where Kensi went. We’re headed to her house to see if there are any clues.”

“I’ll pull the feeds but Hetty wants you guys at the boat shed.”

“We don’t have time, Eric. We need to find Kensi before it’s too late.” Callen spoke into the earwig.

Hetty’s voice interrupted, “Gentleman. Please redirect yourselves to the boat shed immediately. There is someone here that might be able to help.”

———-

Callen and Sam arrived at the boat shed to find an older, grey haired man standing next to Hetty.

“Agent Hanna, Agent Callen. Meet LAPD Lieutenant Roger Bates.”

“To what do we owe the pleasure, Lieutenant Bates?” Sam greeted him.

“I got a call from Detective Hall saying NCIS had taken an interest in his crime scene this morning. I put a call into my old friend Henrietta and thought I would brief you all myself.”

“Oh, Roger. I’d say old foes was more like it.”

“Eh, bygones.” Bates shook her off. “Six months ago we began an undercover operation to get close to the people inside Crescent Creek. The business had been around since the early 90s. Very reputable and what you would expect from a beer distributor. Until two years ago, when they started distributing things of illegal proportions.”

“Drugs.” Callen guessed

“Bingo. Specifically heroin, ecstasy, cocaine.”

“Petty officer Wade had heroin in his system when he died,” added Callen.

“When he was murdered.” Sam corrected.

“That’s unfortunate to hear. I had thought we really broke through to him this time. Our man inside quickly bonded with Evan. They both came from broken homes, abusive dads, and a no good childhood. It wasn’t too hard to convince him to become our informant.”

“Do you know who killed him?” Callen asked

Bates grabbed the remote from the table, hitting the center blue button. A picture of a Hispanic man appeared on the screen.

“Ramon Murillo. He took over the company in 2007 when his father Arturo passed away. The problem is Ramon has his finger in just about every gang in West LA. They do his dirty work so we can never get anything to pin on him.”

“So why did he kill Wade?” Sam questioned.

“Evan wanted out. He said he was finally ready to turn his life around. But he was worried that Ramon wouldn’t let him go that easy. And he was right. Three days ago he met with our undercover in Santa Monica and …..”

Callen interrupted the Lieutenant “Wait. Max Gentry is one of yours?”

Bates hit the remote again. A picture of Max filled the screen. Only this time it was a photo of him with his hair kept and wearing a suit and tie. Much different from the DMV photo they were given.

“One of the best. His real name is Martin Deeks. We backstopped him as the owner of the Squid & Dagger. He was oddly proud of the name he created for the bar. Anyways, Deeks met with him on the pier that morning to give him the address to one of our safe houses. The investigation was coming to a head so Evan was to stay there until we arrested Ramon and then he would be put in WITSEC. Deeks said when they met Evan seemed really jumpy and paranoid, like someone was watching him.”

“That’s because someone was.” Sam added.

“Right. Evan never made it to the safe house and until this morning, we had no idea where he was. Yesterday, Deeks found an envelope slid under the door at the bar. Written on the front was Detective Deeks. Inside were the surveillance  photos Detective Hall and his team came across this morning.”

“But Hall saw Deeks in those photos but didn’t say he knew him.” Callen questioned.

“That’s because he wouldn’t know him from Adam. Deeks was a loner. He never played well with the other cops. Always preferred to work alone. That’s why deep undercover was perfect for him. He didn’t have anyone else to worry about.”

“Until Kensi.” Hetty added.

Until Kensi.” Bates repeated “Deeks was freaked out enough that his cover was blown and his informant was missing but when he saw those photos of Kensi, he was furious. He called me to ask if I could help him track her down. She wasn’t answering her phone so he left her voicemails saying she was in danger and needed to leave town. He told me her name was McKensi Cole. But the name lead nowhere. I didn’t hear from him after that. I had hoped he had found her and went into hiding but unfortunately that wasn’t the case when Detective Hall called me this morning.”

After working with Kensi for over a year, Sam was getting familiar with how she operated “That explains how she ended up at the bar last night. If Kensi heard those voicemails from someone she cared about, she wouldn’t have run the other way.” 

Hetty nodded, “She would have stood and fought. That’s who she is.”

“And now Kensi and Deeks are both missing.” Callen concludes.

The images on the screen suddenly disappeared and were replaced by a video feed of Eric from Ops. 

“I might have a lead on that. Now the security cameras at the bars had been disabled but I was able to pull a traffic cam from the north east corner that shows the alley behind the building.”

The feed from Ops shrunk to the top corner of the screen as the traffic cam feed filled the rest.  Just as they feared the team saw an unconscious Deeks being dragged out the back exit and into a van. Movement at the bottom right of the screen caught their eye. Kensi was watching from around the side of the building, both hands on her gun at her side. They watched in horror as the shadow behind Kensi grew closer and then grabbed her, placing a white cloth over her mouth. After a moment of struggle, Kensi’s body went limp and she too was thrown into the back of the van. Landing right next to Deeks.