Ice Prince

Chapter 8

It was already late in the evening and Yunho was laying in his bed, looking up at the ceiling, not sure what to do with himself. He was terribly bored. It had been years since Yunho had nothing to do in the evening, because until now, he had always stood guard outside Hongjoong's room in the evenings until the next guard arrived sometime in the early morning hours to replace him. It was a thing Yunho really liked to do. Keeping his Prince save doing the night hours was a great honour and he felt proud of being appointed this task ever since he became Hongjoongs personal guard, but now... 'You are not needed tonight'. Seonghwas words rang in Yunho's head. What was wrong with a little extra protection?! Whatever Seonghwa had planned for Hongjoong, Yunho would bet that a knight for his protection additional to seonghwas would not hurt. Especially for Hongjoong. Alone with this prince, outside in the cold, with no one to protect him... It just didn't feel right to Yunho and he felt uncomfortable with the thought that Hongjoong and Seonghwa were still not back. Where were they? When he was suddenly torn from his worried thoughts by a knock on his bedroom door, Yunho jumped up and sat upright on the thin straw-filled mattress.

"Who's there?" he said, a little confused that someone was knocking on his door at this time of night. Who could it be? The door slowly opened and then the black-haired fluffy head of Seonghwa's second personal knight peeked through the slot and looked around the room, his eyes narrowed until he finally found Yunho sitting on his bed and grinned amused.

"Why are you sitting here in the dark?" Asked Mingi, who could just make out Yunho through the faint light of the moon shining through the window. Why didn't he at least light a few candles?

"I thought I would go to bed earlier because I'm 'not needed'," Yunho pouted.

"But it didn't work." Mingi giggled amusedly and entered the room, bringing a lantern lit by a candle so he could see Yunho better.

"Has Seonghwa demoted you too?" He asked and sat down on the bed next to Yunho, a quiet curse slipping out of his mouth when he felt straw poking his bottom through the mattress. He shifted slightly so that he was more comfortable and then looked at Yunho, who looked down in frustration.

"He didn't demote me, he just said that I wasn't needed tonight." Yunho said, still with a cute pout on his lips, which made Mingi grin.

"Do you want me to distract you?" He suddenly asked and Yunho looked at him a little suspicious.

"How?" he asked. Mingi thought for a moment.

"I told you about the restaurant in town that I like so much, right?"  Yunho looked at the Mingi hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Mingi blushed a little. He was shy, but he definitely didn't want to let that stop him from asking Yunho what he wanted to ask him. He cleared his throat and looked nervously at Yunho.

"Do you want to go there with me? We'll eat something together and then maybe go for a walk?" He said very hesitantly. Going out to eat together was one thing, knights always did that together, but a walk? That was a step further and Mingi was afraid that Yunho would turn him down now. Yunho, however, smiled at Mingi and nodded.

"Sure, now that you mention it, I'm hungry! Let's go!" He got up from the bed and walked over to the small wooden cupboard in which all his clothes were stored. Mingi watched him in amazement as Yunho opened the cupboard and took out a fresh shirt.  He was just about to take off the old shirt he was wearing when he paused and turned to Mingi. He grinned.

"Do you want to watch me get changed, Mingi?" He asked teasingly. Mingi immediately blushed, stood up and looked away.

"Er- n-no! I'll just wait downstairs!" With that, he quickly left the room and left Yunho alone. The knight had to giggle and took off the dirty shirt, threw it in a basket woven by Wooyoung and then put on the new shirt before putting his belt, to which his sword was attached, around his waist. When he was done, he took a deep breath and then set off to meet Mingi.