reinwa
it's late at night but soonyoung isn't sleeping. unable to sleep due to the argument from earlier the prince headed down to the kitchen where, for the first time in weeks, did he finally feel a little at home.
heating up the oven, soonyoung rummaged through the drawers in the kitchen finding all the tools he needed and started baking. he closed his eyes and mindlessly kneaded the dough under his hands.
soonyoung could almost, just almost hear cluttering coming from jeonghan in the storage room looking for a specific piping tip and jihoon's sweet humming. he could almost hear the ugly clanging coming from the bells hung by the door and jihoon complaining about how horrible it sounded.
whenever soonyoung dropped a spoon or got egg shells into a bowl, the prince
couldn't help but expect to see jihoon standing behind his shaking his head. it was hard to believe that he was saying this but soonyoung missed cleaning up the shop, he missed jihoon's scolding and even jeonghan's teasing.
"never once in my life did i expect to find kwon soonyoung in the kitchen. and even making food. not starting a fire." the prince jumped when hearing a voice, almost knocking over his pot.
"jisoo.. i swear you're gonna give me a heart attack one day."
the man threw back his head and laughed, his eyes quickly scanning over soonyoung's cheek. jisoo has been checking his injury subtly for the past week now. most people wouldn't notice but soonyoung has been with jisoo long enough to see.
"my cheek is fine. it's basically back to normal now." soonyoung patted it to show that touching it didn't even hurt anymore (this left a flour handprint on his cheek which jisoo said nothing about).
jisoo hummed and looked around the slightly messy kitchen. "are you.. baking something?" the man picked up a lemon from the counter and tossed it lightly in the air like a ball. "and it actually smells.. edible," he said teasingly.
soonyoung grabbed a small pinch of flour and flung it in jisoo's direction in hopes of hitting him but jisoo being jisoo... dodged every bit of white powder easily which earned a grumble from the prince. "of course it smells edible, i'm not that bad of a baker, okay?"
"i can't say i agree with you," jisoo said, "the last time you tried to bake something for her majesty, she got food poisoning." soonyoung sighed, of course jisoo would bring that one incident up.
"well.. you know while i was in nytis, i actually became a.. baker." the blonde haired servant muffled a snicker.
"if you were working there, then clearly they weren't selling anything edible."
at this point, the prince was getting a little tired of jisoo. rolling his eyes, soonyoung took the pot off the stove, "me poisoning my mom happened when i was like seven, why do you think i still can't bake? plus that bakery had two other really talented bakers."
soonyoung opened the oven door and slid on some oven mitts before pulling out a try of lemon pastries. very proud of them, soonyoung flashed jisoo a smug smile and showed them off, "not bad right?"
"i guess you learned a thing or two while you were gone." the servant admired the little pale lemon pastries sitting on the tray. "those two bakers must be really talented if they could turn you into a baker."
too tired to bite back, soonyoung proceeded to drizzle on the glaze he was working on earlier, "yeah., they are really talented. to be honest they make better deserts than the baker that works here." the prince handed jisoo one of his completed treats which the man gladly took.
"you've changed soonyoung," he said looking at the pastry, "you give me free food, i think i like this new you more." jisoo was evidently just teasing around but he truly did believe that soonyoung has changed and he really did like the new soonyoung.
he noticed that the boy suddenly was much more aware of the people living in the outermost ring of the kingdom, remembering that as soon as the prince got back he said he wanted money to go to the orphanages. the prince even made a trip down to the outer ring with blankets and dried food for the poorer people.
soonyoung only smiled. "jisoo. i haven't told you yet but i'm sure you've heard already that i found someone in nytis."
"i really happy for you," he said, a smile forming on his face. "tell me about this mysterious person you've found."
"are you sure? we might be here for the whole night," soonyoung warned.
the servant chuckled, "of course i'm sure, it's my job to serve you after all."
"his name is lee jihoon and he's just a few months younger than me," soonyoung began as he slowly started cleaning the kitchen, "he got black hair which looks especially good when it's slightly wavy. he has the cutest, prettiest, hottest face out there and no one can tell me otherwise.. and in terms of height, he's comes up to approximately my chin! but don't call him short because he will end your life..."
jisoo watched as soonyoung talked animatedly about jihoon and he couldn't help but smile along. he's talking with so much passion about this boy. soonyoung must be really, really in love with this person.
the two boys stayed in the kitchen for hours before finally putting out the lights and headed back to soonyoung's room, of course the prince was still talking nonstop about jihoon.
it wasn't until weak rays of sunlight started shining through his window did the silver haired boy finally start wrapping up his hours and hours of talking. "and that's when i realized, it's not a princess that i want, it's jihoon."
throughout the night the servant didn't leave soonyoung's side once and listened attentively the whole time. if he was tired, it didn't show on his face or actions.
"soo, i love it here. i really, really do like reinwa. i think it's a great place but i'm not happy. i can't be, at least not when jihoon is still back in nytis. i miss him, i want to be with him. whether it be here, there, some random place, i seriously don't care."
"what are you going to do?" jisoo asked.
"what day is it?"
"today's the eighth of august. it's been a week since you came back."
soonyoung's eyes locked with jisoo's, "i'm leaving. i'll spend this week creating a plan and gathering supplies. next week i'm out of here. you're the only one i trust. can you help me with the supplies and planning jisoo?"
the servant paused before smiling, "of course. of course, soonyoung."
