off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ three

As she munched on a canapé, Vicky couldn’t stop herself from stealing glances at her brother every five seconds or so. He'd been looking strangely distracted for half an hour now. All she could hear was the frenzied tapping of his foot against the marble floor, and his never ending sighs. What was he so nervous about? Jiwoong was always a confident man, who only succumbed to stress when his family was in trouble. But she was doing just fine, eating snacks in a corner of the room. So something else had to be happening...

"Are you okay?," she finally asked, gently putting her hand on his arm.

He turned to her, forcing a smile. "Yeah, of course."

It was an obvious lie, but she knew no amount of prying would get any information out of him. "If you say so..."

"Actually, I need to go to the bathroom," he suddenly said, running a hand through his previously neatly pinned hair. "Is that okay?"

She would've loved to say yes immediately, but her socially recluse side took over. "You're going to leave me alone?" she murmured, more to herself than to him.

Still, Jiwoong had heard her, judging by the confliction that flashed across his face. He sighed yet again, and turned to look around their corner of the room. Then he took a few steps to his right, to tap a man on the shoulder.

"Hey, Keita."

Keita turned around, his mouth obviously full of snacks, and his eyes wide. "Yesh?"

"Can you stay with Vicky for a bit? I need to, um, go to the bathroom," he added hurriedly, a tremble in his voice.

"Oh, sure," Keita replied after he swallowed the food he had in his mouth.

Jiwoong turned to Vicky and placed his hand on the top of her head before giving her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll be quick."

And with that, he walked away, disappearing through the crowd. Vicky bit her lip as she watched her surroundings. He obviously wasn’t going to the bathroom. Whenever they were out in public, he would never leave her side, always making sure he was there to protect her, or at least make her comfortable. So this had to be important. But what in the world could be more important than his little sister?

"Want some cola?" Keita said, as he handed her a glass filled to the brim with soda.

"Ah, thank you." She took it with two hands, carefully bringing it to her mouth so she wouldn’t spill its contents on the floor. "I see you're enjoying the food."

Keita chuckled in response. "You bet I am! It's not every day I'm invited to a party with food that good. They have cheesecake bites over there, did you see?"

"Oh, I'll have to try those then."

Without wasting a second, Keita went back to his degustation. She couldn’t blame him, those snacks were indeed really good. She would have eaten more of them if she wasn’t already feeling queasy from the stress of being around so many people.

So many people, so different from each other. From the old ladies who enjoyed the compliments they would get from the younger folk, to serious looking middle-aged men discussing business, without forgetting a bunch of teens obviously getting bored in their respective corners of the room. Well, she was one of those too.

It would have been much more entertaining if this had been a beautiful royal ball straight out of a fairytale. Everyone would be waltzing around the room, wearing extravagant gowns, and she would find her prince charming, subtly illuminated by the warm light of the chandelier. Vicky sighed. Nope, it was just a party.

Still, as she looked around the room, one person caught her eye. For a second, she'd thought she'd daydreamed too hard and was imagining him, but even as she rubbed her eyes, he remained there. Though he was surrounded by dozens of people, he stood out as if there was a spotlight right on him. From the way he stood, to the way he moved, everything about him seemed...Princely. His blond hair delicately fell over his eyes, brushing against the frame of glasses he wore low on his nose. Her eyes drifted down his jaw, to his neck, where a tattoo she could not decipher from where she was, laid. Wearing full black, he seemed so mysterious, like a black hole attracting the attention of everyone in the room. Or maybe it was just her who couldn’t take her eyes off him.