Not Your Typical Fairy Tale Part 2
Donghae couldn’t get the memory of Hyukjae’s emerald heart out of his mind. He had almost stuck chicken pieces on his face because he was aiming his fork at his cheek instead of his mouth. Hyukjae wasn’t sitting at the dining table like he usually did, but Donghae knew that revealing what was probably a huge part of Hyukjae to him took its mental toll on the wizard.
Donghae didn’t get why Hyukjae chose him to show his actual heart to him. As he wandered around the castle, for once not trying to find the Princess, he found himself lost in thought. Donghae dropped his head down in tiredness (he had been walking around the castle like some kind of creepy ghost), and leaned against the wall.
He was, all of a sudden, disoriented as the wall he was leaning on gave way. Donghae let out a startled cry and found himself on his back. He slowly got up, wincing from the stinging pain of hitting the floor like that, and brushed himself off. The part of the wall that he had leaned on turned out to be a separate section from the rest of the wall.
“A secret door?” Donghae asked himself. It wasn’t like anyone was going to respond to him, but it was a bad habit.
The corridor before him was smooth and painted in a pale lilac color. Donghae found himself walking in before he could even think about it. He emerged into a rectangular room full of hanging chandeliers. The crystals on them shimmered and reflected light everywhere. There was someone sitting in one of the cushions on a really comfortable looking couch.
“Is that you, Hyukjae?” The person on the couch, a girl apparently, looked up from reading a magazine. She was quite pretty, with long wavy hair. The girl blinked in surprise when Donghae awkwardly shuffled on the carpet of the room. He felt like an intruder (which he very much was). After glancing around the luxurious room and then staring at the girl on the couch, Donghae came to the conclusion that she was probably the Princess he was searching for. Still, it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Are you… Erm, the Princess?” Donghae asked. He sounded so much like a gangly teenage boy that still hasn’t hit puberty yet that he cringed on the inside.
“You must be Lee Donghae.” The girl laughed; it sounded like spring and fairy bells combined together. “Yep, I’m Princess Sunny.”
Donghae kind of just stood there rooted in shock (he was doing that an awful lot recently). He couldn’t believe that he had finally found the Princess. Now he had to… What was the next step again? Oh yeah, he had to rescue her so that they could ride off into the sunset together. Right. Before, that thought had made him feel tingly and excited because he had always aspired to be a Princess’ Prince Charming. Now, Hyukjae’s face and fiery hair was all that popped into his mind.
Sunny was patiently waiting for the prince in front of her to regain his senses. Various emotions were flashing through his face, and she tried to restrain herself from chuckling in amusement at how confused the young prince looked. Donghae was really a real cutie, and she was happy to finally meet the man who brought out so many emotions from Hyukjae. Whenever Hyukjae dropped by for their daily tea ritual, he would start ranting about how annoying his new guest at the castle was. Sunny just listened to him with a soft smile. Before Donghae had come along (and tripped on thin air, Hyukjae always reminded her), Hyukjae’s smile were obviously forced and faked. Now his eyes would light up and his lips would curve up without him realizing it as he launched into a story about something crazy that Donghae did again.
“You must be here to rescue me.” Sunny felt enough pity on Donghae and started to talk. Donghae just nodded dumbly.
“I’m honored that you came this far, but I regret to tell you that I don’t need to be rescued,” Sunny said, setting the magazine on her lap aside. She sighed at the look on Donghae’s face and patted the spot in front of her. “Sit. I’ll tell you everything.”
It turned out that Sunny was living at the castle of her own free will. She had met Hyukjae in her city, and knowing of Hyukjae’s magical prowess, she asked him to ‘kidnap’ her away. Her parents were forcing a marriage on her that she didn’t want, so it had been an impulsive decision on her part to ask for Hyukjae’s help. Donghae absorbed all this with wide eyes. It turned out that he had done all of the traveling and searching for nothing.
Sunny watched Donghae’s reaction as she finished her story. Telling all this Donghae was risky, because he would probably leave now. She didn’t want that to happen, because Hyukjae looked so happy with Donghae around. Unless…
“I’ll let you take me back to my kingdom in two weeks. I know that my parents are probably worried sick, seeing as they sent so many random princes (Donghae winced a little) after me. I’m going to tell them the truth, and then threaten to be ‘kidnapped’ again if they still force me into random marriages I don’t want,” Sunny said. She was confident of this plan, as it was already formed in her head. This would also keep Donghae here for another two weeks. Two birds with one stone.
A bright smile formed on her face as Donghae nodded.
“I found the Princess,” Donghae said in the library. Hyukjae dropped the book he was holding, and didn’t even cry out in pain as it thumped on his foot. Donghae advanced closer in worry.
“What? How?” Hyukjae asked. He had set up a hidden door that was not easily found, even if a professional door-finder (yes, this was an occupation) had scoured the whole castle. Donghae scratched the back of his neck a little bashfully.
“Err, I was leaning against the wall and it just kind of opened,” Donghae said, complete with hand gestures. Hyukjae just groaned. Of course, anything was possible with Donghae. Donghae bent down to pick up the book that was still on Hyukjae’s foot.
“Well?” Hyukjae asked. Donghae blinked up at him and straightened up.
“What?”
“Why aren’t you out of the door with her on your horse? I thought you came here to rescue her. Why? Were you waiting for my permission or something?” Hyukjae felt bile rise up in him as he lashed out.
“Sunny said she doesn’t want to go yet.”
Hyukjae turned so that he wasn’t looking directly at Donghae, feeling unreasonably hurt, weak, and everything else he had never felt before. Donghae clutched his arm and Hyukjae flinched at the blazing trail Donghae’s touch had ignited on his skin.
“Why did you agree to help her?” Donghae asked. Hyukjae could’ve lied, but it was hard to lie to Donghae, for some reason.
“I was hoping that she could melt my heart,” Hyukjae finally said.
“Oh.”
“When are you leaving then?” Hyukjae’s voice turned subdued, and he turned his head to look at Donghae, sorely regretting that action as Donghae’s gaze made him feel hot and cold at the same time.
“Two weeks,” Donghae said lowly. Hyukjae’s inner voice cried out that that was too little time, that no, Donghae would leave him in two weeks, he couldn’t allow that -
“Alright.” Hyukjae kept his voice from shaking, even though he felt like his whole self was collapsing right now. Something ached inside, and he didn’t understand why or how. All he knew that it was kind of hard to breathe right now, so he just took in shallow, silent gasps. Donghae’s gaze skittered away from him, and he left the library quietly after setting Hyukjae’s book on a nearby table.
Hyukjae’s legs stopped supporting him, and he sat on the floor.
“Tell me,” Donghae said. “Tell me how you feel.”
Hyukjae gasped as Donghae’s tongue left a trail of burning saliva on his neck. He wrapped his arms around Donghae’s body, trying to press them together until they were one breathing being.
“Donghae, Donghae, Donghaedonghaedonghae,” Hyukjae said.
“Tell me,” Donghae insisted and pressed a kiss on Hyukjae’s collarbone that made him practically shake in need. Hyukjae inhaled and opened his mouth.
“I love you.”
Hyukjae jerked out of his dream, blankets twisted around his legs. A lone tear had snuck out of the corner of his eye and traveled in a salty path down his cheek. Every part of his body was trembling, and all his mind did was to replay that dream in a never ending loop. He hadn’t dreamt in years, much less a dream this intense. Hyukjae dropped his head onto his palms and silently wished with every fiber of his body for that dream to become real.
As he struggled to step out of the bed and readied himself for the day, he laughed bitterly at himself. Who was he kidding? There was no way that his dream would ever become real. It was a purely delusional thought. Hyukjae looked at his tear-stained face in the mirror. The villains never get a happy ending, and he was the Wicked Wizard. Donghae deserved to marry a beautiful Princess, and live happily ever after with her. Plus, he would never ever fall in love with Hyukjae. When Hyukjae thought that, it hurt so much on the inside that he felt like he was in actual pain.
Donghae felt guilty as he descended down the steps that led to the cave. He found out that Hyukjae had not locked the door after he had showed him his heart the other day. Donghae didn’t know why, though. Was Hyukjae shaken or distracted by something he found the other day?
Donghae still couldn’t fight the growing curiosity in him this morning and so, with a makeshift lantern, he had snuck into the stairwell. He had an irresistible urge to see Hyukjae’s beautiful heart again.
He almost dropped the lantern when he saw the heart. Part of the emerald was peeking out of the ice, and it shone brighter than he saw last time. The ice was slowly being converted into a puddle of water.
“I was hoping that she could melt my heart,” Hyukjae had said.
Donghae felt something stuck in his throat as he stared incredulously at the bright emerald in front of him. Had Sunny, with her bright and cute smiles, caused this?
It felt like there were tiny knives twisting into his heart. All he could think about was how amazingly gorgeous Hyukjae looked when he smiled that smile that showed his gums. Donghae felt sick when he thought about Hyukjae showing that smile to Sunny.
Donghae didn’t talk about Hyukjae’s melting heart when they were eating dinner. Sunny apparently enjoyed eating alone, although occasionally she would join them. Not this time, though. There was an undeniable tension in the room, as Hyukjae tried to ignore Donghae’s pointed eye contact attempts.
“Why aren’t you talking to me?” Donghae lost his patience and demanded.
“Does it matter?” Hyukjae shrugged. “You’re leaving in a week anyway.”
“That doesn’t give you an excuse to be a mean, horrible host.”
“If you’ve forgotten,” Hyukjae said as his voice and demeanor turned frigid, “I am the Wicked Wizard. I can treat you in any way I want to.”
Donghae had never heard Hyukjae refer to himself as the Wicked Wizard before. He frowned.
“You and I both know perfectly well that you are a warm, caring person. I don’t get why you always put on such an icy mask,” Donghae said.
Hyukjae didn’t understand why Donghae would always make him lose his composure like this. He hated it. He wanted to yell out that his icy mask was a defense that distanced himself from others, and that he was trying to hide behind it so that Donghae wouldn’t make his heart melt even more than he already had. Instead Hyukjae tried to ignore Donghae while steadily finishing his dinner.
Three more days. Three more days until Donghae rides out of Hyukjae’s life forever. Hyukjae traced the cracks in the emerald in front of him. The ice around his heart was now completely melted, but cracks have invaded its way onto the surface of the emerald.
His heart was breaking. Literally.
Hyukjae’s mind wondered if he would die if his heart disintegrated into pieces, which he knew would probably happen soon.
“So that’s where you were,” Donghae said. His sudden presence made Hyukjae whip his head around so quickly that he almost gave himself whiplash.
“Donghae.” Hyukjae saw the emerald pulsing at a faster rate and tried to use his body to hide his cracked heart. It was a futile attempt, since Donghae rushed to his side and caught a glimpse of the jewel.
“It’s cracked!” Donghae’s voice, ironically, cracked as he exclaimed that. “Why is your heart cracked? And it’s fully melted.”
“Shouldn’t that be obvious?” Hyukjae tried to not let the pain show through his face.
“It’s because you’ve fallen in love with Sunny, isn’t it?”
“WHAT?” Hyukjae looked so surprised at that question that Donghae widened his eyes, but he continued on anyways.
“Since she’s leaving soon, that must be why your heart is… Cracking. But you should tell her, and then she’ll stay for you. She likes you a lot.” Donghae felt his heart clench as he suggested this.
Hyukjae was still staring at Donghae in a dumbstruck manner. Then he finally opened his mouth.
“You’re an idiot.”
Then he left, leaving a very confused and befuddled Donghae behind him.
“An idiot,” Donghae mused to himself. “An idiot.”
He grabbed Yesung as he was walking by him in the kitchen and asked, “How am I an idiot?”
Yesung considered the question quite seriously. “It must be the expressions you make with your face.”
“I make idiotic expressions?” Donghae yelped, offended.
“No, you don’t!” Ryeowook jumped into the conversation, pinching Yesung for being rude. “They’re very cute expressions. Anyway, why are you asking this? Did someone call you an idiot?”
“Hyukjae did.”
“Oh.” Ryeowook blinked. “Why?”
“I don’t know! That’s what I’m wondering!”
“He must’ve had a legitimate reason for saying so,” Yesung said, with Ryeowook nodding along. “Think about it more. Come on, Wookie, I can help you with cooking that lasagna today.”
Ryeowook, distracted by the thought of cooking, beamed and started chattering about what kind of ingredients he needed. Donghae let himself out of the kitchen. He went into his room and belly-flopped on the bed.
Donghae tried to think of the legitimate reason why Hyukjae called him an idiot. He groaned, turned over, and rolled around on his bed. He couldn’t think of any reason. Hyukjae hadn’t told him whether or not he was going to confess to Sunny any time soon either. Donghae knew that he didn’t want to marry Sunny, even though her parents would probably insist on that (as that was one of the rewards for rescuing their lost daughter). Sunny and Hyukjae would look good together, Donghae thought sadly, a sour undertone underlining his thought.
It was when he was pulling his pants down to pee in his personal bathroom that all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly came together. Donghae pulled his pants up, mind racing and heart thumping with the revelation he just had. The hints and clues which had been right in front of Donghae’s face: Hyukjae’s cracked heart, his surprised face when Donghae had suggested that he was in love with Sunny, the many bright smiles on Hyukjae’s face directed at Donghae, the strange mood swings of Hyukjae… The list went on and on. Donghae hoped that he wasn’t wrong, because it was almost too cruel to get his hopes up like this, but he had to confirm it, he had to know.
Donghae was gasping like a fish when he had finally found Hyukjae in one of the many rooms in the castle. Hyukjae was gazing up at the night sky through a huge window in a dusty room that would’ve been perfect for hosting a dance ball. He turned around, staring in confusion at Donghae’s exhausted figure leaning against the doorway.
Donghae knew that maybe he should’ve planned some kind of speech to say to confront Hyukjae, but all he could think about was that maybe Hyukjae liked him, loved him even. He took long, striding steps forward until he was standing in front of the adorably confused wizard. The next thing he knew, he had captured Hyukjae’s lips with his.
Hyukjae tasted amazingly delicious. Donghae was pressing his lips insistently onto Hyukjae’s, afraid that this would be the first and last kiss they would ever have. He swore that he could almost feel tendrils of heat crawling from his lips down his neck to his whole body.
Hyukjae’s mind had shut down completely. He was kissing back with everything he had, a part of him wondering if this was a dream that he might wake up from soon. His eyelashes fluttered as his whole body sang with the feel of Donghae’s lips sliding wetly against his.
“What - What was that?” Hyukjae shakily breathed in and out when they (sadly) pulled apart.
“I believe that was what people call a kiss,” Donghae said, a teasing smirk on the corners of his mouth. Hyukjae still looked lost and out of his element. Donghae tenderly brushed Hyukjae’s cheek with his thumb and leaned in so that his mouth was next to Hyukjae’s ear.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m very much in love with you,” Donghae said. Hyukjae’s spine went rigid in shock and he clutched onto Donghae’s shoulders because his legs had just turned into noodles.
“Huh?” Hyukjae said eloquently.
Donghae felt anxiety attack his system. Maybe he had assumed wrong. Maybe he was an idiot for thinking that maybe Hyukjae could even like him like that -
All semblance of thought was lost when Hyukjae had apparently recovered himself and smashed his mouth onto Donghae again. They got lost in each other, gasps and silent moans ringing through the room.
“Am I dreaming? Donghae, am I dreaming?” Hyukjae kept repeating. Donghae replied no, this is real, believe me, my love, before kissing Hyukjae again.
Later, when they had entered the underground cave hand in hand, Hyukjae was telling Donghae about all of his insecurities.
“I thought I was the bad guy. I thought you would find a princess to marry and live happily ever after with. I thought it wasn’t fair that you were the one who made the ice around my heart melt when I thought you wouldn’t ever love me,” Hyukjae said, gazing in wonder at his emerald heart which was no longer cracked. It looked as good as new and shone with a brilliance he had never witnessed before.
“I would only want to live happily ever after with you,” Donghae said. He, too, was admiring Hyukjae’s healed heart. Hyukjae felt the emerald calling out to him, and he hesitantly reached his hand out to touch it. As soon as he made contact with it, it glowed brightly and levitated off the ice stand it was on. Donghae gaped as Hyukjae’s heart floated its way into Hyukjae’s chest, finally returning back to where it belonged.
Hyukjae gasped, feeling the warmth spread through his whole body as his heart restored itself back to him. He felt the steady thrum of his heart finally beating in his own chest.
“Thank you,” Hyukjae said while smiling shakily, embracing Donghae tightly.
Hyukjae shaded his eye from the blazing sun outside of the castle. He was helping Donghae and Sunny gather travel essentials for their journey back to Sunny’s kingdom. It was perfect weather outside for their trip.
“Stay safe,” Hyukjae murmured as he pecked Donghae’s mouth.
“I’ll be back,” Donghae said, smiling softly.
“I know,” Hyukjae said. “I’ll be waiting.”
“You guys are so cavity-inducing, I can’t even,” Sunny said, rolling her eyes with affection. With one last goodbye and hug with Sunny, Hyukjae watched as his lover escorted the princess back to her home.
Donghae immediately swept Hyukjae into a hug and kiss when he came back to Hyukjae’s castle, which he was already referring to as their home inside his head. Flowers, like blooming hyacinths and beautiful lilies, flourished in previously impossible places around the ice castle. Hyukjae had said that his magic reflected his emotions. Since the castle was being supported by his magic, gardens and greeneries have sprouted out ever since Donghae and Hyukjae have been together. The ice around the castle still remained, due to the climate of the land they were in.
After a few months of living together (and getting used to each other’s strange quirks and annoying habits), Donghae decided to take Hyukjae to his parents’ kingdom. Everyone at the palace was struck speechless at the fact that their prince had brought the Wicked Wizard back, as his lover no less. His parents had gaped for a full minute or two, before finally recovering and welcoming Donghae home. They took a few days to get accustomed to the fact that Donghae loved Hyukjae very much, but once they accepted Hyukjae, they took a strong liking to Hyukjae (“So adorable!” Donghae’s mom had squealed like a teenage girl). Hyukjae also charmed them with stories of how Donghae had tripped and fell (“Because you were just too beautiful,” Donghae joked.) on their first meeting. Donghae’s parents had insisted on planning a spectacular wedding for them, but Donghae and Hyukjae had refused, since they weren’t exactly ready for marriage yet. And they didn’t really want to have a huge wedding in their favor.
So yeah.
They lived pretty happy together in their ice castle, with a few visitors dropping in once in a while (Sunny was doing well, having met the love of her life in some foreign land on one of her travels). They didn’t live happily ever after, since every couple fought once in a while, but what really counted was that they were happy together.