The 7 Princes - His POV - Hoseok

Ch 13 - Falling

Yoongi ran off again. He had been doing so well the past few months, but for some reason, for the last few weeks he had been his old self, running off and causing mischief. He was throwing away all my hard work.

I was going to track him down and mess him up for it.

There was a large crowd huddled down in the gardens, preparing for Nara's party. I figured Yoongi would be with them. After all, he was the main pianist for the evening. Maybe someone would have seen him.

As I stepped into the chaos, a girl with pigtails and an annoyingly optimistic smile approached me.

"Excuse me! Have you been given an assignment yet?"

I frowned at her. "Me? No. I'm not -"

"Great! We can use extra help with the lanterns! Appreciate it!"

She shoved a lantern into my hands and bounded off.

"Wait! I never said --"

Ugh. Didn't she know who I was?

I looked at the lantern in my hand, then at the pile of lanterns to the side of me, raising an eyebrow. Where were these supposed to go?

Then I saw the ladders.

Oh, hell no.

Someone else was going to do this for me.

But who could I --

That's when I saw Y/N.

She may have been a princess, but she owed me.

"You there!" I called.

She turned towards me and I waved her over. She didn't look happy to see me. I wasn't thrilled to see her myself.

"Did you just say, 'you there?'" she asked. "You should know my name."

"I have a lot of students. It's impossible for me to remember all their names."

"That's interesting, considering for the past two weeks I've been your only student."

I waved my hand. "Ugh. Details. Listen, I need your help with something."

I handed her the lantern and pointed at the ladder. "I need you to hang this at the top of that pole for me."

"Why can't you do it?"

"I don't do heights."

She raised her eyebrow. "Are you... scared?"

Pfft. Scared. Scared? Me? No, I wasn't scared. But the last time I was on a ladder, I got dizzy at the top and fell off.

I just... didn't want to fall again.

"I... Could you... Just do it, please." I said.

She hesitated, but eventually nodded. She went straight to the top, not looking back.

Huh. Brave little thing, wasn't she?

"Now," I yelled, "come down before you hurt yourself."

I could just imagine the hell I'd get from Jin if she fell off and broke something.

"I don't want anyone blaming me for your clumsiness." I added.

She grunted as she started back down the ladder. "I'm not --"

Then she slipped.

I darted under the ladder, holding my arms out to catch her. Instead, she slammed into me, sending us both toppling to the ground.