Time travel || Wonhyuk

11: Morning

Yesterday, right after they arrived, the prince avoided all sorts of contact with Wonho, and marched into his room in a facade of anger. How did he know it was purely a guise? Well, he groaned and pretended to be in pain and before he knew it, the prince was in front of him in a split second, glancing at him with concern. He laughed, which earned him a punched to his right shoulder.

"Yah! Next time I'll let you die from the pain!"

The prince stormed off again, same loud footsteps, but this time with a shy smile plastered on his face. That night, the prince sent Jooheon to bring Wonho to his new accommodation within the living space of the crown prince. The layout was similar to that of imperial palaces in Chinese movies. Wonho was made to settle in a shed behind the prince's main building; even though it's called a shed, it was much better than the cramped up conditions within the knight quarters. Each hut housed a minimum of 25 knights, and a whole bunch of such huts where constructed close to each other, with only a one metre wide walkway in between. Damn, this shed was downright luxurious, even prepped with a thin cotton mattress. An opening in the wall acted as a window, which faced the prince's room directly, allowing the occupant to watch over the prince with much ease. Wonho peered out the window, effortlessly spotting the figure of the prince sitting stock-still at the table working on some papers. Even from his back view, one could clearly tell the prince was tired, perhaps even suffering from back pains due to the way he was sitting. Way too straight. Way too motionless.

Sighing with relief, Wonho stretched out onto the mattress as his joints produced satisfying cracks. The night guard had already arrived and Wonho couldn't have been more grateful for his early arrival. In case the situation seems a little complicated to you, let's just explain it this way. A personal bodyguard has duties in the morning. A night guard will take over at night, as long as the person in protection is in their living quarters.

Closing his eyes, Wonho was about to drift away into dreamland when the image of the prince crossed his mind. The innocent, carefree prince, dark brown eyes reflecting his very image with an unspoken emotion, with tears threatening to fall as he spoke with a shaky voice. God, he looked so vulnerable then. A nagging pain found its way onto his chest. He wanted to protect. Protect? What did he want to protect? If his heart had meant to protect the prince's life, but of course, since he was now his bodyguard. But the most frustrating thing was, he didn't even know what he wanted. Just then, the memory of the voice in his head came back to him. Right, it was the same voice that beckoned him when he was involved in the car crash. It was a soft, smooth voice, most certainly a male, from the gentle roughness round the edges. It puzzled Wonho. He'd definitely heard that same voice somewhere, just with a lot less resonance. Well who knows, maybe Jesus was speaking to him. There was a low murmur about overloaded work and stuff by the same voice but it wasn't very loud, so Wonho disregarded it as a sign of missing his former job.

"Oh dear Sir you have awoken! The prince is still asleep, sorry in advance..."

Jooheon stood in front of the two closed wooden panels, smiling apologetically at the approaching male. His brown hair appeared slightly dishevelled, having most probably just woken up.

"What did you two do last night?"

"Prince Minhyuk was just writing some documents for the assembly two days later."

"Two days later? Why didn't you get him to sleep instead?"

Jooheon could only let out a long, deep sigh and shake his head in response.

"I've always been trying to do that. He never listens. Always insisting on finishing work days prior... I've been with him for so long, yet he keeps making me worried with these minor things."

Jooheon looked so beat. Wonho smiled inwardly before stroking the other man's back as a gesture of comforting him. For a moment, none of them said anything, but Jooheon suddenly jumped with a huge grin playing on his lips.

"Oh right Sir, you have no idea... Remember the match yesterday? Oh the prince was so worried about you; he was gripping onto my hand so tightly as if he was going to die. And would you believe, he actually stopped talking when you fought! That chatterbox...!"

Oh, exposed.

As soon as he finished, creeking of wooden furnitures could be heard coming from the prince's room, followed by a loud whine by the very man himself.

"Joooooooheon!"

The other two burst out in laughter.