pick me, 1 0 1

23. Park Woojin | The Secret Between Us

https://prettywordsyouleft.tumblr.com/

Summary: The two princes had done everything together. Now it was time to choose a bride, and your intertwined position in their lives would challenge everything.

Characters: Park Woojin x reader, ft. Park Jihoon

Genre: Royal AU, angst, fluff, romance, love triangle

Word count: 3643

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Prince Jihoon sat at the large dinner table, laughing with his cousin and best friend, Woojin. The pair were the same age, having grown up closely – playing, studying, arguing, laughing – everything had been done together.

And now that they were of marrying age, they would be sharing that experience as well. Neither prince had an active interest in the royal politics of their kingdom, opting to spend their days living out all there was to youth, having fun, and being carefree.

But this didn't mean that Jihoon hadn't thought about who he would marry. When both his father and Woojin's father, the King, had mentioned earlier in the month that it would be time to start discussing their marriages, Jihoon had only one girl in mind to ask.

Y/N.

You were beautiful and kind, and had always been in his world, almost as long as Woojin had. You had met as children at the annual banquet for the families that supported the royal family within the kingdom. At five years old, all three of you were attending for the first time, your eyes wide at all the flashy colours, fabrics, textures, noises, lights and smells. It was natural for you to migrate together, your senses overloaded, and wanting to find familiarity.

After that evening, you were invited to more events that involved them, birthday parties, children days, study sessions and astrology evenings. It wasn't uncommon for you to turn up at their secret hideout in an abandoned observatory either, and Jihoon would find these moments, when most alone from the outside pressures of their status, to be the most comfortable in his life.

And in that observatory he had learned a lot about you, from what you talked of, or from his own observations. It didn't take him long to realise he had feelings for you, and when you were sixteen he had acted upon them once, your juvenile lips meeting for the first time. It had happened when Woojin had been sick and couldn't make it to the weekly meet up, and Jihoon had never been happier to have his cousin sick before in life. Neither of you had spoken of that fateful day again however, but he was certain you still thought of it, as it had never left his own mind.

Woojin was oblivious to your connection, his mind always on the next game he would play, or reading the next comic book that he could get his hands on. Jihoon was thankful that his cousin had never shown any real interest in you, the pair of you butting heads constantly whenever around each other for too long. It made him feel confident knowing you weren't in Woojin's head any further than how much he could torment you with, Jihoon always feeling he was the insignificant one compared to the future king out of the two of them. Although so many exclaimed he had a more prince like appearance, and was regarded by many in the kingdom at the perfect wink prince, it was Woojin with his darker skin, snaggletoothed grin, and better credentials who was always regarded as the most successful prince, and over time Jihoon had come to view himself under the shadow of his best friend unintentionally.

Seeing you at Woojin's side would only crush him further, and he would always squish down the insecurities of that ever happening before he put too much weight into them.

"Boys, have you thought about your choices at all for your marriages?" the King enquired and they both stopped discussing what they were going to do the next day, their boyish mannerisms disappearing as they regarded the house of power in front of them. The older man smiled warmly and gestured to his son first.