pillar of life | sunsun

7

song: love dive   –IVE

7| gaeul the matchmaker

after the breakfast, jungwon and sunoo walked side by side around the palace with jay and jake following them not too far from them.

jake was assigned to protect sunoo until the kims departed from aspen and well jay, sunoo had an idea why he was following them around.

"so, do you like jay hyung?" sunoo questioned his courtier and best friend.

jungwon's eyes widened by a fraction before he realised he took it the wrong way.

"prince jay is really nice sunoo hyung. i think he'd be a really good partner for you," jungwon chuckled.

sunoo rolled his eyes. jungwon was his best friend and could read him very well.

"yah, jay and i are not like that. we formally rejected each other already, we are just keeping up the charade for now. so, you and jay huh," sunoo whistled.

jungwon blushed while scratching his neck. he nervously looked behind and made eye contact with jay who just smiled and waved at them.

sunoo sighed, god those two were pining for each other.

"i'll keep it a secret but you better be together by the time we leave. at least one of us should have a successful love life. see you later!" sunoo laughed before running away at the next turn of the hallway.

"i lost him again. again! he's going to get me kicked out of aspen guards!" jake whined before running off to find sunoo. jay and jungwon awkwardly continued walking around with shy smiles and red faces.

sunoo ran until he was sure he lost jake before aimlessly roaming around the palace grounds.

"gaeul-ah~" he heard someone call sweetly, soft barks and the tinkling of the collar pendant.

sunoo slowly peaked out of the wall to see sunghoon on the ground with a white poodle, gently carding his fingers through the dog's fur.

"you're so sweet to animals so why can't you be that way to humans?" sunoo asked as he stepped away from the wall revealing his presence to sunghoon.

sunghoon was speechless when sunoo had spoken to him on his own accord given that the boy had been intentionally avoiding him for a few days now.

"can i pet him?" sunoo asked as he sat down beside sunghoon.

silently, sunghoon gently placed his dog, gaeul, on sunoo's lap as he watched the boy coo and coddle his dog.

he's spoiling her.

suddenly, gaeul jumped on sunoo's lap, jolting the boy making him fall on his back. instinctively, sunghoon caught sunoo, the latter's back laying on sunghoon's lap instead of the grassy floor.

sunoo's breath hitched as his eyes fluttered up to look at sunghoon, just to find his eyes already staring at him. his heart accelerated slightly as his teeth harshly tugged at his bottom lip withering under sunghoon's intense gaze.

gaeul's barks brought them out of their daze and they jumped apart. sunoo wanted to run. he quickly stood up and brushed his pants free of any dirt.

"have a good day prince sunghoon." sunoo mumbled.

i have to do this before i lose my chance. sunghoon cleared his throat, "i'm sorry. i'm sorry for that day. it was wrong of me to act as such and it was rude of me to do so. i know better than to discriminate because of titles. i just...don't know what happened. though that is no excuse for me to act that way..."

sunoo beamed, his eyes crinkling. "it's alright. thank you for apologising. do you want to maybe join us for breakfast tomorrow?"

what was i thinking? he doesn't like to socialise, god i'm such an idiot!

"it's okay if you don't want to though!" sunoo quickly reassured the older.

sunghoon watched the light in sunoo's eyes dim slightly with every passing second.

i don't want them to dim.

"okay."

"okay?" sunoo tried to confirm if he agreed, hopefully.

"i said okay." sunghoon smiled. 

– 

L