Diamante | SVT

L

•••

It was odd.

The silence he had awoken to was deafening. No usual clamoring from his siblings, bouncing on the bed, messing with the sheets. He'd wake up to Seungkwan and Minghao dissing each other, Jihoon cheering them from the sidelines, Jisoo making sure they don't curse in his presence and Wonwoo doesn't give a fuck, laying sideways as he reads.
A pillow would fly to his face, stirring him up. They would shriek in delight at his lack of sleep state rather than helping, yelling then will ensue.

Yet, when he opened his eyes, the usual scenario wasn't there.

He gets up slowly, blinking in confusion at the immaculate state the room is in. They must be playing tricks on him again. Narrowing his gaze, he grabs the nearest pillow as a shield, moving quietly on his knees to pull the sheets at the end of the bed, peering upside down and sees there was nothing. He looks at the window and the sun wasn't shining above the horizon, rather the skies were getting grey, a bit of wind howling outside, the telltale signs of rain will come.

He stretches for a bit, walking around their room. Everything is the same as it was last night. Touching the sheets on Wonwoo's bed and realizes it was cold, they might have been up too early for whatever reason and they didn't even wake him. Jeonghan goes back to his bed, waiting.

Waiting for his attendant to come by, to prepare for his daily routine. He taps his fingers on his stomach, counting the minutes that's passing by.

5 minutes.

It doesn't even take a minute before he comes in, Taeyong would usually barge in when he notices his presence missing among his siblings and scold him for sleeping too much when he must be up for his duties or the queen will be mad.

7 minutes.

No sign of Taeyong coming to his aid.

Jeonghan huffs, getting impatient. So he stands up again and walks out of the door wearing his clothes the night before.

The corridor was dark and empty.

There would be servants passing by at this hour, he could tell it was already near midmorning, a busy hour at the castle, but it was too silent.

Walking down the hallway, that's where he noticed the thick curtains were drawn close over the windows, making his path dim, luckily he knows the way with his eyes shut.

His footsteps echo as he walks, the sound reverberating made him uncomfortable. There was this unpleasant coiling in his stomach and is about to drop any minute. It was too silent, no signs of other human life. Like he was alone in this four walls, scared that something might jump on him.

Jeonghan runs.

Of all things he'd be doing in the morning is that one thing he hates– running.
His intuition is screaming at him to do so, he can't shake the feeling of someone watching him with keen eyes, the hairs on the back of his nape standing.

Finally reaching the bottom floor, he almost falls on the last step, staring dumbly at the deserted entrance hall.

Am I still dreaming?

He pinches his cheeks, hard.

The stinging made him yelp. The pain telling him he was wide awake.

But where is everyone?

Did they go somewhere and left him alone?
Are they playing hide and seek and its his turn to look for them? Is there an important event that he forgotten?