long live the king - nct, markhyuck

♕ 10 ♕

the tanned male glanced to his side as he rinsed the last pan, removing any trace of food from the dinner he had prepared at the restaurant he worked at.

it was getting late, and despite how tired donghyuck was, he could only hope it wasn't the end of the night yet and that the moment he would need to ask for a leave the next day wasn't so close.

but well, it was impossible for him to turn back time, and the village didn't have enough water for him to pretend like he was washing that last pan for hours.

"donghyuck, are you done with the dishes?" the voice of one the ladies he worked with rang across the kitchen, startling the brunette slightly.

"h-huh, almost!" he replied, rubbing the inside of the pan harder.

"hurry up, your father is waiting for you."

the boy could only sigh at those words.

he wasn't exactly in the mood to talk with his father when he had spent the whole afternoon at the royal palace and when he had been invited by the queen of aes herself to have dinner the next day.

if his father ever came to learn about such a thing, he would definitely be disinherited and seen as a traitor. he was supposed to be an anti-royalist, after all. but how could he accept such a belief that royals were awful without just because his ancestors had said so? why couldn't he go see by himself and make his own opinion of it? because from what he was seeing, there was no reason to hate royals, mark was everything but hostile with him when he was aware donghyuck was nothing but a peasant.

"i think that pan has never been this clean." the voice of one of donghyuck's co-workers declared, bringing the tanned male back to reality for the second time.

"o-oh..." donghyuck blinked, staring at the pan in his hands before placing it on the side with the other utensils that needed to dry.

"is there something bothering you?" the lady then asked worriedly.

"yeah." a few other workers approached them, all worried about donghyuck's odd behaviour. "you've been spacing out a lot tonight..."

"is there anything we can do to help?" another asked with a small smile.

donghyuck gulped, swallowing his fear as he decided that this would be the best moment for him to ask the question he dreaded to voice out in fear of receiving a negative answer.

"i-it's just that..." the boy paused for a second, lowering his head. "i-i was invited to a dinner tomorrow, and... and i couldn't refuse..."

the tanned male waited for a few seconds, hoping that one of the ladies would understand where the conversation was going. but unfortunately, after a long silence, none of the ladies had spoken a word, making donghyuck lift his head up to look at them. and well, he definitely didn't expect them to be all looking at him with wide grins on their faces.

"h-huh...?" the young chef blinked in confusion.

"is the person who invited you the reason of your bright smiles for the past weeks?" one of them finally spoke, questioning donghyuck with a brow raised.

the tanned male could only blink again, his mouth falling open at those words. "s-sorry?"

"we've been working with you for years, donghyuck. don't think we didn't notice you being all happy these past weeks." another lady replied, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

"oh..."

"so, who is that person?" one of the workers asked, causing all of the ladies to nod, all of them being equally eager to learn about donghyuck's life.