SPOILT ROYALS | JAEYONG NCT

3: Losses And Gains

Taeyong didn't know when he fell asleep after forcing his eyes to stay open for so long, but when he awoke it wasn't any darker than when he had fallen asleep - the only difference was the figure of a person standing outside his cell door with their arms crossed.

"What the fu-" he backed up in his corner, startled and hit his head off the wall. His sentence was cut off by a groan. In hindsight, it was probably a good thing that it got cut off, the person at the other side of the bars was none other than Crown Prince Sangyeong.

"I'm sorry for waking you up." The prince leaned in to look at Taeyong cowering in the corner. Taeyong stood up sheepishly. "It's just me," he cleared his throat, "Prince Sangyeong."

No shit sherlock, Taeyong could recognise that voice anywhere, everyone was supposed to. "Are you okay? Wait, bad question. I'm sorry that this happened to you, it's my fault," the Prince said solemnly. Taeyong trudged over to the cell's bars, rubbing at his cold arms. "I got the key off one of the guards." Sangyeong jingled a set of keys in his hands lightly.

The prince tried the locks with one of the keys and it didn't unlock. "Sorry," he mumbled, taking out another key from the bunch.

Taeyong laughed, the prince was endearing in an awkward sort of way. Plus, this was a clear way to get a head start in his mission. He'd have to try and put on a class act.

"Thank you." Taeyong fluttered his eyelashes and prayed to God it worked. It seemed somewhat effective as a light blush coated the prince's cheeks. Then Taeyong started to blush because he was blushing and because he was totally out of his element with this. Then they were both fully blushing as Taeyong stepped out. "Thank you," he whispered shyly to his feet.

Sangyeong cleared his throat, "You're welcome." There was a brief, awkward pause for a moment before the Prince spoke up again. "I'm guessing you want to go bathe."

Taeyong scrunched his nose as he took in the smell. Staying in that cell made him smell awful and he couldn't understand how the Prince could stand to be around him right now. "Not that you smell or anything," Sangyeong added quickly.

"Don't lie to me, I smell like shit." As soon as Taeyong said it, he covered his mouth with his hands, eyes wide. His habit of cursing was genuinely going to get him killed, either that or chase away the prince, but to his surprise Sangyeong only laughed loudly.

That was all it took for the awkward tension in the air to evaporate and Taeyong joined him in a fit of giggles. "I suppose you do smell like a donkey's ass," Sangyeong said amusedly as they made their way up the stairs unto the main level of the castle, away from those wretched dungeons Taeyong would pay not to return to. Well, it wasn't all that bad. Sir Doyoung had visited him at one point to say hi.

As soon as they reached the top, the Prince's rigid and polite demeanour returned and they parted ways with a bow. Taeyong sped walked to his chambers and on his way saw Donghyuck and groaned. He tried to avoid him by going a different route but Donghyuck had already spotted him and was bounding towards him.

"Sorry about that.... again." Donghyuck scratched his neck and Taeyong rolled his eyes. This kid wasn't sorry at all.

"You know you're not sorry. It's fine." Taeyong sighed and continued the walk to his room but to his dismay, Donghyuck followed.

"You know me so well." Donghyuck smiled at him, walking backwards. Taeyong cast an irritated glance at him but he wasn't mad. Not truly.