scarlet heart | exo

Parties and Confessions

"Cheers!"

The night was lively. Even though it was only the three of them and there wasn't alcohol available, they had one hell of a good time drinking strong tea and getting high on jokes and laughter.

As it turned out, the former-head-tea-lady had been bethrothed to the Crown Prince, Jongin. Jongin was known to be a playboy (he had the most concubines despite only being the second oldest), but hey, rumours had been flying that she had the hots for him... Or more like the hots for his wealth, status and power.

Knowing history, Xuefeng knew that it was a matter of time before Jongin met a sticky end, stripped of his position and placed under house arrest. He would live out the rest of his life in that sorry state, neither royalty nor a free commoner. She could not remember how or why it happened, but she had carefully curated her social circle to avoid any connections with Jongin— just in case.

She felt a pang of sympathy for the former-head-tea-lady, despite having nicknamed her the lady-of-terror for her strict and scary dictatorship-like rule. She was mean, but no one deserved the fate that was waiting for her. Nonetheless, it was a path of her own choosing, and Xuefeng was not going to interfere.

"Guys, let's play a game!" Xuefeng suddenly remembered a game that she had played with her fellow athletes once before a gymnastics training session, as they were all sprawled out on the mat with nothing but a plastic bottle.

"Let's play Truth or Dare!"

"What's that?"

Xuefeng smirked. "It's a simple game, really. You just take something long and with a pointy end, like a chopstick, for example, and spin it. When the sharp end lands on someone, the others would either dare her to do something or ask a question. No lies!"

"This sounds so cool, why haven't you played it with me and Xiumin?" Huixin clasped her hands together, excited. She had never heard of such a game before. Natural teenage girl instincts were starting to kick in. "No question is prohibited?"

"Nope!" Xuefeng grinned.

Somehow, the jokes had unknowingly turned to boys. None of them knew how it happened... Though perhaps it started when Huixin joked to Zhiyu, "If you were a guy, I'd marry you!"

That turned their conversation to boys. Princes, in fact.

"Right. Zhiyu! Truth or Dare?"

"Truth." Said girl flashed her teeth. The look in her eyes was warning, but Huixin took no notice of that and kept prodding her. "Tell me about your relationship with the 9th Prince~" She sang, making Xuefeng clap her hands in delight and burst into a series of short chortles which she tried desperately to hide after Zhiyu shot her a murderous glare.

"I should've seen that coming... Um. He's handsome...?"

The other two blinked at her, obviously wanting more than just a grunt and two words.

"Fine! He's attractive, he's charming, he's handsome and his voice just makes me melt..." She blurted out, blushing like mad. "Not to mention that he's unbelievably polite although he has an arrogant and cocky side, but hey, a guy's gotta have confidence right?" She was downright rambling by now and Huixin and Xuefeng gave each other a high-five before listening attentively again.

"So if he proposed to you, would you say yes?"

"That's two questions."

"Oh for GOD's sake, let's stop this game. Would you say yes?" Xuefeng bombarded her with questions.

Zhiyu flushed crimson.

"I'LL TAKE THAT AS A YES!!!" Huixin screeched, hugging Zhiyu.

"Hey. Hey!" Zhiyu was miserably trying to push the human koala off her.