Seventeen Preferences & Scenarios

Crown Prince Seungkwan

this chapter contains one (1) minor curse word and a copious amount of angst.

• crown prince of an island kingdom, Seungkwan spent his life surrounded by the open sea, white marble and light sandstone halls, and the billowing gauzy fabrics his kingdom can weave like no other

• he spent his childhood scampering through the rigging of docked ships, running across wide white beaches, and clambering up and down the trees of the islands

• learning to swim and to dive for pearls and to wade across to the next island in the chain when the tide is low

• his studies are conducted with the ocean breeze blowing through the hall

• his three tutors are all of very different teaching styles but that's taught him more than having only one tutor ever will

• the only problems Seungkwan's idyllic kingdom ever faces is the ever-looming threat of pirates

• there's one ship especially that threatens them

• her name is the Pearl Rose and she's captained by a mysterious person no one except her own crew has ever laid eyes on

• Seungkwan's bodyguard Seokmin, a boy only a year older than him, assures the prince that they're in no danger from the Pearl Rose

• their most trusted captain in the whole Royal Navy patrols their waters, after all, and he's caught more than twenty pirates in his three years of captaincy

• so it comes as a surprise when Seungkwan's ship is attacked by a pirate vessel

• Seungkwan feels bile rising in his throat as he watches a tall, lean naval officer put himself between Seokmin and a pirate's cutlass, falling with blood spurting from his side

• and turns around to vomit out the window when Seokmin falls, bleeding freely from his face

• he sobs violently as his hands are bound with thick, rough rope, and he's hustled past too many fallen and bloody bodies

• his bodyguard, blood staining his whole face and darkest around his right eye, fully unconscious if not dead

• the officer — his name was Minghao and he was a good friend — blood still running from the ghastly wound in his right side, still stirring faintly

• and Seungkwan retches again, blinded by tears, as he's shoved roughly onto the pirates' boat

• he's pushed into a spacious cabin with stained-glass and glazed windows and tied to a chair, his hands still behind his back, his ankles and calves bound to the legs of the chair

• a black handkerchief is tied around his jaw, and through his haze of terror and grief, Seungkwan notices that it's made of a particular muslin his kingdom is famous for

• the sun sets and Seungkwan falls asleep with tears still staining his face

• he wakes up to sunlight glaring in his face through the windows

• red light filters through and he gets a good look at the design for the first time

• a red rose on a white circle adorns the window, surrounded by gold and sapphire-coloured glass

• and even the leading of the stained glass is gold

• Seungkwan's breath hitches

• he is on the Pearl Rose, the infamous pirate ship, and in the captain's cabin, no less

• the door crashes open

• and an imposing figure comes in

• dressed in a royal purple coat with gold trimming, white pants, high black boots, a scarlet waistcoat, a creamy white cravat, and with white gloves, a black hat with scarlet and white and golden plumes obscures their face