Prince's Choice - Zhong Chenle

Thirty-Seven

Ms. Choi returns home with her medication, unaware to Chenle's visit because he'd left two minutes before she got there.

She opens the front door and drags herself inside, feeling weak due to her sick state.

"I'm home." She announces, coughing a few times after her words. No response.

Ms. Choi lifts her head, only to find her daughter sprawled out across the couch.

"Hello?" She snaps her fingers in front of the youngers face.

Youngie didn't react however, still oblivious to her mothers presence. She just sways back and forth while smiling and humming an upbeat tune.

"What put you in such a good mood?" Ms. Choi chuckles, finally gaining Youngie's attention.

"O- Oh! Hi mom, I- I, are you feeling any better?"

"I still need sometime to heal but, why didn't you answer my question, hm?"

Youngie nervously giggles. "Well, um... Chenle, he came over earlier and... "

Ms. Choi suddenly felt as if all her sickness had gone away in seconds, every symptom melting into nothing more than the feeling of a pit in her stomach. Her smile slowly fades into a frown as she tries to avoid eye contact with her daughter.

"Youngie, I really hope you haven't fallen for him."

"Mooom, we're just friends!"

Ms. Choi sighs in relief. "My apologies, I was just making sure you-"

"And so what if I have? Of course he can't be with me, he's just gonna go off and marry some beautiful princess." Youngie says through clenched teeth, almost failing to keep her smile.

The room goes silent.

Ms. Choi notices as Youngie's lip begins to quiver and her eyes rapidly blink. "...Sweetie, do you-"

"It doesn't matter!" And with that, she storms away, hot tears running down her face. After a few seconds Ms. Choi hears a door slam.

Youngie locks herself in her room and throws her face into a pillow.

"Feelings are stupid. I'm so stupid." She mutters into the cushion. She takes awhile to sit up but when she does, she runs a hand through her hair, sniffing a few times. "I don't want to ruin our friendship, so I'll just stop liking him... Yeah, it can't be that hard."

.

At the exact same time in a castle not to far away...

.

"Chenle there you are! Where have you been, the ball is just about to end!" Lily scolds, running into her fiancé's little brother.

Chenle snuck back into the castle, planning to head straight to his room, but before he could get there he decided to stand outside the ballroom and take one last peek in. Just to see what's currently happening. Unfortunately for him, Lily had just come back from the restroom and caught him in the act.

"Hehe, oops. What'd I miss?"

"Well, some people were about to go out after you, but King Peng angerly told them to leave it alone since you 'do stuff like this all the time'. They gave in and everyone chose to just focus on the princesses, who'd all made pretty good first impressions. Well all except Jiyun... Also, there was A BUNCH of people talking bad about you behind your back." Lily rants. "Now, answer my question, where'd you go?"

"Jeez, thanks for that last bit." Chenle replies with hints of sarcasm in his tone. "If you must know, I was talking with my best friend."

"Jisung is here?"

"No not him, the other one."

"You mean the girl? She looked so pretty tonight. She resembled a princess more than me!"

"Yeah, she's really beautiful... Anywho, speaking of princesses, if I go back into that room tonight," Chenle references to the ballroom in front of them. "I'll really need your help."

"Of course, what can I do?"

"So these 'princess disqualification thingies' are coming to an end and I still don't know who I should settle with. They all seem pretty cool, but I've yet to LIKE like any of them. You know, like what you and Guang have."

"Firstly, it doesn't matter what 'me and Guang' have, this is going to be 'Chenle and future girlfriend's' story. Secondly, didn't you say awhile ago that one of them reminds you of Jisung? You should choose her. I think it's best to date a person similar to your best friend, because you're only close friends with someone if your chemistry matches well. The same should go for your partner." Lily explains with a wide grin.

"Oh I wasn't talking about any of the princesses back then, I was talking about... " Chenle pauses once the realization hits him. "About Youngie."