SPOILT ROYALS | JAEYONG NCT

14: The Morning After

Taeyong couldn't sleep a wink that night no matter how much he had wound his eyes shut and tried to succumb to the darkness. His mind was plagued with the never ending reel of Jaehyun leaning in so close, so goddamn close, that all Taeyong had to do was 'accidentally' move forward and they would've kissed. What made it worse was that Taeyong already had a taste, he'd already felt Jaehyun lips on his even though it was just a mere brush.

And fuck, because if this was Jaehyun's way of teasing him again, if this was part of some sick and twisted game of his, Taeyong would fume. It annoyed him largely to know that Jaehyun was genuine with his actions for once by putting his older brother first, but honestly, Taeyong wished he'd act as selfish as he'd always been. Had he not made it obvious enough, was Jaehyun just oblivious, or was Taeyong plain undesirable?

Taeyong groaned and rolled over on his pillow-less bed. It had to be early morning by now.

The other reason he couldn't sleep was because of Donghyuck. He had seen him one more time the night before as people were leaving but then he had disappeared again before Taeyong could get a word in. Of course Taeyong truly believed that Donghyuck could take care of himself but a not-so-small part of him was still worried. Everyone in the palace may have seemed nice but people could always be ill intentioned. He and Haein were unfortunately living proof of that.

And it was a good thing that he had given up on sleep when he did because on the very, very, very slim chance that he would have fallen asleep, he would've missed the door creaking and one of his named worries try to not-so-subtly sneak their way into the room.

Taeyong shot up from bed at the sound of a creak to see Donghyuck closing the door behind him quietly before turning to see Taeyong up in bed and pausing for a moment. His lips then spread into a broad, shameless grin and even though the room was quite dim, Taeyong could see Donghuck's cheeks were darker than usual.

"Where have you been?"

Taeyong narrowed his eyes at him warily, to which Donghyuck shushed him with a finger, glancing over at their other roommate who was all deadweight and loud snores. The guy was nice, didn't talk to Taeyong nor Donghyuck much but he never caused any trouble. Taeyong usually wasn't one to mind snoring, especially after sharing a room with his younger brother, but right now he was irritable from the lack of sleep and if Donghyuck hadn't stolen his pillows, he may well have just suffocated him. Or just threw it at him really, he wasn't some sort of evil villain, gosh.

"I was out," Donghyuck whispered, shuffling over to him, making a lot more noise than Taeyong had with his actual voice.

The edge of his bed squeaked as Donghyuck sat down on it, dipping at his foot. Taeyong could tell that the boy was excited by the way he drummed his fingers over the sheets and bounced his legs. Well, if his painfully wide looking smile wasn't enough of a giveaway.

"I saw you talking to Prince Mark," Taeyong said casually, trying to hide his bubbling curiousity. "Do you like him?"

And It was a valid question because as some of the Royals had left the evening prior, Taeyong and Donghyuck, along with other workers, escorted them out. Donghyuck had lingered around Prince Mark Lee, conversing for a few minutes with body language that looked a bit too informal to be considered polite. So, naturally he was one of the few options, Taeyong had concluded.

Donghyuck made an immediate over exaggerated gagging noise to which their other roommate definitely should've woken up from (he didn't and Taeyong briefly wondered if he was dead). "Don't be so fucking gross. We're like, literal cousins. Second cousins. That's disgusting."

All remnants of drowsiness cleared from his eyes and Taeyong's jaw dropped in sheer disbelief. "You're royalty?"

Donghyuck only nodded in response, his face still slightly contorted because of Taeyong's earlier repulsive insinuations.