halcyon || seungjin

12: Soft

The guest list is long. Hyunjin doesn't know anyone he's meeting, nor will he remember them, but he just shakes hands and keeps his chin up as the guests arrive. He thinks he should feel more panicked right now, but the sheer amount of people in the venue overwhelms him, and his nerves are replaced with something closer to claustrophobia as more people flood into the ballroom.

The night before was a blur. All Hyunjin remembers is being woken up by Changbin, who became frantic upon finding Seungmin in his sheets next to the prince and being ushered to a room of stylists by Chan while Changbin 'dealt with Seungmin'.

Now, Hyunjin can see Seungmin on the other side of the ballroom, sitting with Felix as the two of them talk to an attendant, likely finalising details of the flora and food for the event. Seungmin looks excellent, his hair brushed back from his forehead in a way Hyunjin's never seen it styled before- but he wouldn't mind seeing it like that more often- and he's in a dark grey suit with purple accents and a boutonniere. A moonflower.

The two make eye contact briefly and Seungmin gives him what can only be described as a pained smile, one that Hyunjin reflects back at him. Felix waves too, his bright smile washing some sort of ease over Hyunjin.

Hyunjin's parents, the King and Queen, stand by his side, Jeongin on the other end of them, all greeting guests too, until Hyunjin feels a hand grasp his shoulder.

"The ceremony is starting shortly," the King says, "let's go to the altar."

Jeongin offers Hyunjin a pitiful look and mouths a "good luck" to him. Hyunjin feels his viscera slowly sinking the entire walk across the room to the altar, the weight of his heart becoming difficult to bear. Electrical shocks course through his veins, and he shoves his hands in his pockets to stop them from shaking.

The altar is on a slightly raised platform and the flower arch above it is gorgeous, mostly made of full white gardenias, but Hyunjin can identify the few morning glories weaved into the bunches of petals. Seungmin's personal touch. When he thinks no one is looking, Hyunjin plucks one out of the arch and shoves it into his pocket, hoping it may bring a tiny bit of comfort to his mind. To make him feel like he has a part of Seungmin with him even though in reality, they're about to become worlds apart.

Maybe that's the way it's always been, though. They've always been different- a gardener and a prince. A commoner and a royal. A morning glory and a moonflower.

...✦

Seungmin is seated in the second row, behind the royal family, a few high-up attendants and the princes' personal guards. Felix is next to him, massaging the knots in Seungmin's neck with one hand as if he could see the gardener become physically tense the moment Hyunjin stepped up to the altar. People start to settle down quickly, more quickly than Seungmin appreciates, for that matter. Hyunjin fiddles with something in his pocket, staring down at his feet with a slightly creased forehead. His gaze only snaps up when the music starts playing, the sound of chords on an organ reverberating through the entire room.

Then the ballroom doors swing open and Yeji appears through them, a chorus of gasps from the whole room as she looks stunning but stone-faced in her magnificent dress. She slowly walks down the aisle, her eyes almost unnoticeably rimmed with red, Seungmin sees, as she passes by him. She makes it to the altar after what feels like eternities, and stands across from Hyunjin.

The entire room then becomes overtaken by pin-drop silence, and Seungmin has to will himself not to look down into his lap as the officiant starts droning on about endless devotion and peace between kingdoms, an eternal alliance forged with the power of love and so on and so forth. Hyunjin's hands loosely grasp Yeji's as the two of them frown at each other, which apparently the King notices as he makes a grunting noise like he's clearing his throat, and Hyunjin's mouth turns to a shaky, flat line.