blood of royalty • svt

i

"hey, seungcheol! wait up!"

"try catching up for once, slowpoke!"

a man with dark hair dashed past a few people, a blue triangular flag in hand. he dodged a few people with ease and ducked under a person carrying a sack on his shoulder.

"seungcheol! hey! stop!"

seungcheol turned to look behind him and noticed his friend a few feet away from him, his round glasses crooked on his nose. seungcheol grinned and waved him over.

"hurry up, wonwoo! we're gonna be late!"

"wait! seungcheol! you're going to bum—"

but before his friend could finish his sentence, seungcheol was bumping into a person, almost toppling over with the other. he looked down to see a lady younger than him sitting on her butt, looking down on her lap in surprise like she did not expect herself crashing into someone.

"oh, god! i'm really sorry!" he exclaimed, quickly extending his hand to offer help but the lady just swatted it away. seungcheol frowned at the clear rejection but shook it off.

"are you hurt anywhere?" he questioned in concern as the girl stood up in her feet, dusting off her black cloak and sending him a glare.

"i'm fine." seungcheol continued to frown as the girl pulled up her hood, hiding her pretty shiny hair and her fair skin before walking away, disappearing into the sea of people.

seungcheol stared after her, wondering, what's her problem?

"hyung!" seungcheol snapped out of his daze and turned to look at his friend, wonwoo, who finally managed to squeeze his way out of the crowd, his hands resting on his knees while he bent over to catch his breath. seungcheol looked at him in concern.

"are you alright?"

wonwoo looked up and fixed his glasses, patting his clothes clean of dust and shot his hyung a stern look.

"i told you to slow down, hyung."

seungcheol chuckled as he pulled wonwoo into a headlock who yelped in surprise. "it's not my fault that you're too slow, woo-ah! you should've told me earlier that i would bump into someone!"

wonwoo rolled his eyes. "you wouldn't have bumped into someone if you were smart enough to look where you're going."

"are you saying that i'm stupid?" seungcheol gasped dramatically, his mouth agape in mock shock. wonwoo looked away as he whispered, "yes."

"why, you little—! learn to respect your hyung, wonwoo-ah!" seungcheol ruffled wonwoo's dark locks who yelped in response, trying to pull himself away from his hyung's grip, but seungcheol was way stronger for him to break free. so, in the end, he just let the elder do as he pleased.

"we should hurry up already if we want to catch up to that coronation, hyung." seungcheol gasped upon remembering their sole reason for their rush and quickly held wonwoo by the wrist and ran for it, making his way to the crowd of people who have gathered to the front gates of the marvelous castle that's ahead of them. even though they were meters away from the it, seungcheol could already see the clear view of the gigantic palace, standing tall and strong before them.

the gates to the castle were opened to let the people await for the coronation of the prince of septendecim be crowned to become the new ruler of the kingdom. this was gonna be the first time the two best friends were going to witness this kind of event in decades and they were not going to miss it for nothing.

"excuse me. pardon me. oops! sorry! coming through!" seungcheol maneuvered their way through the crowd, holding a death grip on wonwoo's wrist to keep from losing him like before. wonwoo wasn't always great with people and to be in the middle of a bunch of strangers, lost? that was bad news.