SPOILT ROYALS | JAEYONG NCT

22: Letters And Stables

If Taeyong could consider himself anything at all, it would be lucky. This was because he was granted time, not by Haein, not by himself, but indirectly but the Crown Prince for he had made another mistake. It was unlike him, Sangyeong much too poised and refined to do such a thing repeatedly, and suspicious if Taeyong were to really look into it further, but all that he could feel was plain relief. It meant that Prince Jaehyun was busy, both a blessing and a curse. A curse because Haein had switched his orders from Sangyeong to Jaehyun based on Taeyong's letter's revelation, and a blessing because if Jaehyun was busy, he'd have a reason not to fulfil that.

Taeyong's leg bounced nervously, sitting on the edge of the bed in the Prince's chambers, waiting semi-patiently for Jaehyun to arrive. There was no use in running away from his problems, he was in far too deep for that, and Jaehyun didn't deserve being left alone without warning like that. He'd come to terms with it oddly, Haein's slap to his face still stung on his cheek but maybe that was what he needed - it grounded him, a pull back into reality and out of the bubble he had created for himself and the Prince pretending that everything was perfect when it was not.

Jaehyun trusted him, that he knew all too well, becoming vulnerable before they were even together, revealing that he was a bastard, something that could get more than him in trouble with the King. Jaehyun was his comfort, his solace, his safe place, so his actions deserved to be reciprocated with just as much vulnerability as he had shown. It was unfair, Taeyong knew, leading him on like this. And it would never end well as much as he his self aware delusions would like him to believe.

Jaehyun deserved better.

Taeyong was ready because there was no point in pulling it off. His procrastination had caused him too many problems thus far. His body was fidgety with the waiting though, and even though the rational part of him was trying to remain calm, he opted to walking around Jaehyun's large room because he'd never really taken a look at it before. Now, in Taeyong's honest to God opinion, he wasn't snooping. He seriously wasn't (he was not!), because he'd come across it a hundred percent on accident. Yes, it was an accident that he had stepped on the letter left on the floor but perhaps it was a not-so-much-of-an-accident when he picked it up.

(He was nervous, okay! Taeyong needed to busy his hands!)

The letter was relatively as innocuous as they came, fallen from a shelf of old books, (Taeyong was sure those were just for decoration), and wrinkled out on the floor from when his shoes his stepped on it. He smoothed out the paper once he had picked it up and he was about to put it back on the table when he noticed who had signed the letter on the bottom. Pretty, swirling handwriting, a perfectly curved N and A intertwining together along with the rest of the letters of her name, and of course accompanied by a small heart at the end that made him grimace.

He wasn't nosy, you see, nor was he jealous, the best word to use would maybe have been curious as his eyes scanned over the body of the letter. Her writing was consistent, unlike his; no spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and her handwriting was better than some of the ones he'd seen in the palace. With a once over, the letter seemed harmless, digging deeper though, made Taeyong worry.

She was delusional, Taeyong decided. She must have been or else why was she writing the Prince letters? Letters which entailed detailed plans of their future marriage - their future marriage, as in Jaehyun and Naeun. That was wrong, Taeyong frowned, and that would never ever happen. He wouldn't let it happen, and if Jaehyun loved him as much as he claimed, he wouldn't either.

Another thing that had caught his eye were two words she'd written when referring to the Prince - my king. She'd said it to Taeyong before and that's why it stood out to him, referring to Jaehyun as her king. Perhaps it was a term of endearment to fulfil her fantasy but it made his skin prick and his tongue feel sharp in his mouth, a draw of air with his lips parted to cool it down. Jaehyun couldn't otherwise be her king in any sense of the word, not in the Jung kingdom as Sangyeong was Crown Prince, and not in the Seo kingdom either as her brother was next in line. The comment unsettled him but he wrote it off as part of her twisted fantasies because that's all it could ever be.