SPOILT ROYALS | JAEYONG NCT

15: Just Another Day In The Palace

Warning: This chapter is like, excessively long. Sorry!!

They had come full circle, completely back to the beginning, but things had changed.. for Taeyong, at least. It was completely the same in the way that they would go back and forth with arguments, Taeyong saying things he shouldn't as a proper, prim, and well trained maid (he wasn't prim or proper, hardly trained if he was being honest, but he did serve breakfast pretty well and in his opinion, made for really good company). And Jaehyun let him get away with it because that was their dynamic, their little push and pull, that teasing back and forth. Yes, it was completely the same as when it had started.

But at the same time, it wholly different because their meaningless bickering wasn't so meaningless anymore and Jaehyun's 'mean' actions didn't quite hold the same weight. Now his sharp words weren't so piercing, more of a prod to get a bit of a rise out of him and in the end, they'd both laugh. And his harsh glares weren't so hard either, they were soft and if Taeyong ever looked hard enough, he would've see a twinge of fondness. He never did though, he couldn't hold eye contact for that long.

So they were entirely different, but something had changed. Something Taeyong couldn't exactly put his finger on, something he didn't think too much about either in fear of getting his hopes up.

It was that thought he was actively trying to avoid on his way to Haein's room. Usually Haein would be the one to find him and Taeyong would muster up the courage to ask him then if he'd gotten any letters back from his family. Even a sentence each from his mother and brother in their handwriting would have put him at ease and fuck because if this was the Lee's version of torture, it was damn effective.

Haein had quickly moved up the ranks in the few months that they'd be there, no longer a lowly worker but a 'master of the household' (which Taeyong wasn't sure what that was but he did see Haein order around a head maid once so there was that). His chambers weren't with the other maids and servants either and there weren't many people in that hallway, Taeyong noted, as he walked through it in the evening.

It was the second time that Taeyong had came there, the first time he had chickened out when he got too close to the door, his anxiety spiking at an alarming rate, and he found it partially funny looking back on it because Haein was the only one who ever made him feel that way. He hadn't even felt that anxious when he was about to get fired his second day in, which he should've been but maybe it was because he didn't fear the Jung's as much as the Lee's. Haein though, Haein was a different case altogether.

Taeyong took steady breaths through his mouth as he approached the door, in for two beats, out for one. He hesitated at the door too, who knew if Haein was even in. What if he got mad at Taeyong for coming unannounced -which in that case would make him a big fat hypocrite because he did it to Taeyong all the time, almost giving him a heart attack once (okay, maybe an exaggeration but it did skip a few beats) - but still, what if? And what if when Taeyong knocked it was someone else at the door and he'd completely embarrass himself and maybe get in trouble with a higher ranking worker which Jaehyun wasn't there to save him then.

He was only half right with his last guess though.

"I didn't expect you to be this sloppy with your work," a voice came from the other side of the door and Taeyong's breath hitched in surprise.
There was a still moment and Taeyong wondered if they had heard his not so quiet breathing but then that moment passed and the voice continued. "If he wasn't so mad, the court would have listened to his whinings. And if they had investigated?"

There was a snort and Taeyong immediately recognised it to be from Haein, it was the noise he made whenever he thought Taeyong did something stupid. So, a lot. It was kind of hurtful when he thought about it like that.