Cursed - Enhypen FF

Games

Jake was listening attentively. Sunoo and Heeseung were back from their walk and had reunited all of the Princes to talk privately.

Sunoo's plan was quite simple, and it could work. If they did everything perfectly and she responded well, it could work.

"Cause let's face it" added Sunoo, with a spark in his eyes. "We all here have someone we would choose to marry if we could."

Jake noticed how Niki smiled at these words, and how Jay and Jungwon exchanged a little glance.

He, on the other hand, felt trapped. What his heart wanted didn't make any sense.
To be honest, it never had made any sense and Jake hated to be in this situation.

"So I truly think that if we become real friends with her, we could just explain our situation to her" finally added Sunoo.
"Do you honestly think that she'd agree not to marry us?" asked Jay.

"Well, I'm the one whose closer to her and I truly think that she could understand. She's very sensitive and she wouldn't stand in our way, I'm sure of it" affirmed Sunoo. "Plus, she did say that this marriage stuff sucked, right?"

Jake liked this plan. It sounded genuine. Mostly, he did want to be friends with her even before Sunoo had exposed his plan. She was very smart and the few talks the two of them had shared had been extremely instructive and interesting.

"I like it" he said. "Telling the truth is the best we could do in my opinion."

Sunoo smiled, happy to see that Jake agreed with him. It didn't take long for the rest of the group to agree as well.
After all, Jayoung had done nothing wrong. She deserved the truth.

~

The following days, Jake did his best to get closer to Jayoung. At first he was scared it would be obvious that he was trying to be his friend, but it turned out that the Princess was simply amazing.

It seemed that people in the castle had noticed how the Princes had grown closer to her. In fact, after one week, King Sim took some time to talk with his son, and congratulated him.

Of course, Jake hid the truth from his father. He had become Jayoung's friend, yes, but it wasn't to marry her. It was to avoid doing so.

After escaping his father, Jake ran to the game room in which he would be meeting her next. One thing that they liked doing together was playing chess. She had incredible strategies and Jake lost almost every time, but that's what made all of their games interesting.

"And sorry again, Jakey" she said with a smug smile as she trapped his king once again.
"You got me" he said, with a chuckle. "I had never seen anyone using their queen like that."
"If you have it, you should use it!" she explained.
"Do you have time for one more?" asked Jake, who wanted to keep playing.

The other princes didn't like chess, so he rarely had an opportunity to play.

"Unfortunately no, I'm having tea with Jungwon" she said.

Jake noticed a slight blush on her cheek, but it was probably the thrill of having won the game, right?

Jake nodded, happy to have played nonetheless.

"Let me accompany you at least" said Jake.
"Very well" she agreed with a smile.

They got up and left the room.

"May I ask you something?" she asked.
"Of course" replied Jake as they got in the staircase. 
"If you liked someone, would you confess?" she asked, looking into his eyes mysteriously.

Instantly, Jake got nervous and blushed, which made her laugh. That question had come from nowhere and Jake wasn't ready to answer that at all.
Ever since Sunoo had talked about them wanting to marry someone they would choose, his heart had been lost.
He had always felt trapped in his doubts, now now it was worse. It was constant.
How could he choose?

"Nevermind" she added in a chuckle.

Wait... Did she mean that she likes me?
What if she does?
Oh boy, it's already so complicated with Hee and Hoon. Can't possibly throw a fourth person in the equation.

~

As he left Princess Jayoung in the tea room, Jake met Sunoo in the corridors, which worked out perfectly, as he needed to speak with the later.

"We're running out of time" he whispered.

Sunoo nodded, he agreed.

"I'll be talking with her tonight" he announced.
"Good" agreed Jake. "We need to get things moving. I'm not going to marry anyone this soon."
"Not even He-" started Sunoo before his eyes landed on someone down the hall. "Heeseung, hi!"
"Hey" replied the oldest from afar.

"Sunoo, what were you thinking" whispered Jake, as he almost fell from the heart attack.

The latter simply looked back and winked at Jake, before running to Heeseung.

~

Jake was in his room, waiting.
They would be telling the princess the truth tonight, but all he could think about was the scare Sunoo had given him before.

Was it true? Would he want to marry Heeseung?

But what about Hoonie..

Knocks on his door cut his thinking process neatly.

"Let's go" announced Jungwon from the otherside.

Jake sighed and stood up.
They had planned on meeting in the garden again. It was the safest place to speak without fearing being heard.
Jake still couldn't believe how free they had been ever since they started pretending to be on board with the wedding. Their parents had seen them befriending the princess and as implicit reward, they had loosened up their schedules, giving them more free time.

The garden patio was crowded. Jungwon and Jake arrived last and Jake saw the princess blushing as she saw him.

Shit.

"Alright, well, everyone is here" announced Sunoo.

Jake could hear he was nervous.

"Jayoung, we asked you here cause we need to talk to you" continued Sunoo.
"You are kind of scaring me" she commented in a chuckle. "Why do you look so serious Shine?"

"Well, hum, we need to talk about this wedding" said Sunoo.
"As you know, our parents arranged it" continued Niki, who saw Sunoo struggling.
"Yes" she ageeed.
"But we don't want to go through it" whispered Sunoo. "See, we all have someone we already love."

Jayoung looked genuinely shocked.
Jake saw her eyes go from Jungwon to Jay before loosing their spark.

"Oh yes, I understand" she said.

A minute of silence spread between them all.
Jake was uncomfortable and he mostly looked down. He felt eyes on him but didn't dare check to whom they belonged.

"To be honest with you all, I think I have a solution that would permanently free all of us from this marriage" Jake heard Jayoung saying. "Plus, you could even help in the war if you wanted."

Jake looked up. All eyes were on the Princess.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"What if you could all be turned into vampires?" she asked.