Mixed Blood

10: Side by Side

Due to their Literature project, Section Rose Quartz had been very busy even during their free time. If one roamed around the campus and saw a student reading a novel of some sort, then most probably that student was from Rose Quartz. But in hindsight, Rose Quartz students were actually enjoying the project more than they think they would. Even the thirteen friends were taking the project seriously. Each pair – or group in Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Joshua's case – had their own methods on how to work with the project.

Soonyoung and Jihoon decided to split the work between them; Jihoon was going to do the reading, watching and the comparison while Soonyoung was assigned to report everything. Jun and Minghao read and watched everything together during school free time. This was similar to what Seokmin and Chan, and Wonwoo and Mingyu did. On the other hand, the trio and the pair of Vernon and Seungkwan approached the project in a completely different way.

After Vernon had fixed the schedule for Seungkwan to come over, Vernon decided to notify his father about the plan. Similarly, Seungcheol also asked his father permission to have a sleep-over at a friend's place in order to finish the project. Thankfully, he gave permission to both of them. He was glad the princes were starting to socialize with other people.

Thus, the day for Seungkwan's visit and Seungcheol's sleepover arrived. Seungcheol left by noon since he and Jeonghan wasn't done reading the book. Fortunately, they only had a couple of more pages to read that is why Seungcheol had to come over early to finish the book and start watching the movie adaptation by evening. Meanwhile, Seungkwan was extremely nervous while riding the royal limousine. It was his first time visiting the palace. Honestly, Seungkwan only knew a few occasions when an outsider was permitted inside the palace; but he decided to go through with it for things to be done and over with. After what seemed like centuries to Seungkwan, the limousine stopped and the chauffeur opened the door for him.

"Seungkwan-hyung, you came!" Vernon enthusiastically greeted him.

"Hi, Vernon. Nice to see you," Seungkwan nervously answered.

"Something wrong, hyung?" Vernon noticed Seungkwan's jitters

"Are you sure I'm allowed to go inside? I am just a human after all," Seungkwan said.

"Nonsense. It's okay, hyung. Even my father gave his permission," Vernon reassured.

Vernon led Seungkwan to his room. Seungkwan was amazed with what he saw. Let's just say the room was huge but was filled with all things "Vernon-y" in Seungkwan's opinion. However, Seungkwan's amazement was broken by the sound of the door being closed. Seungkwan realized he was here in Vernon's room, alone... with Vernon. He blushed at his lewd thoughts but then, casted them away.

"Get a grip, Boo. You're here for a project," Seungkwan internally slapped himself.

"So, hyung, have you finished the book?" Vernon asked.

"Uhm, yeah," Seungkwan responded.

"How was it?"

"It was quite nice actually. I never knew 'Harry Potter' was this interesting. I am actually planning to read or watch the entire series once the project is over."

"If you want to borrow my books, just tell me," Vernon smiled. "For starters, let us write what we observed for the books so that we have benchmarks. Afterwards, we will take our dinner and start watching the movie."

"Sounds like a great pla-"– Seungkwan gasped – "Are we going to have dinner with the King?"

"Of course," Vernon simply replied. "Don't worry, my brothers will be there, too. Seungcheol-hyung though is over Jeonghan-hyung's house for the project."