Prince and the Pauper: Chapter 5
Title: The Prince and the Pauper: Chapter 5
Author: Aznmen
Pairings: JaeMin, JaeSu, YooSu, YunChun (Note: These pairings are in no specific order)
Words: 2013
Summary: When Prince Changmin falls off a balcony and the pauper, Jaejoong, saves him, it's the start of their own story. The kingdom is at war and an alliance marriage is necessary... what will happen of the Prince and the Pauper?
Jaejoong sat on the garden bench, half watching Junsu play among the flowers and attempting to catch butterflies, and thinking about what happened. That night was constantly played back in his mind. Bo Mi’s arms holding him close, Changmin’s eyes glaring at him as if he was some sort of monster… and the harsh tone of voice that he heard.
A feeling of repulsion for himself and for what he supposedly did caused his gut to clench up and he gagged in his mouth.
‘I’m returning you, Jaejoong, the pauper, to your rightful place.’
That’s all he was after all. Some lowly servant that couldn’t possibly be any sort of family or friend. He was lower than dirt… isn’t that right? He was someone poor and girly and horrible with no money or belongings except for what was given to him. He was despicable.
"Jaejoong?" A voice barely reached through his conscious and he continued to see the images flashing in his head in bright colours and pictures and everything was spinning and he was going to fall and he just - "Jaejoong!"
Junsu’s arms were around him holding him tight, and only then did he realize that he was completely limp. A foul taste was in his mouth and he swallowed in a hurried attempt to make it go away. Gasps were coming from his lungs and sobs caught in his throat. He was crying?
Junsu’s hands clutched at Jaejoong’s shoulders worriedly, an instinctual urge causing him to rock the crying boy in his arms. Jaejoong finally gave up trying to figure out what happened and simply cried hard sobs that hurt his chest but felt good in that odd sort of way. He had never been a loud crier, or a crier at all, but somehow letting out all his pent up frustrations in angry tears felt good. He gripped onto Junsu as hard as he could, almost as if he was his saviour and this was his catharsis.
Slowly, like a wave that ebbs as the tide flows out, his tears stopped their torrential flood. Small heaves of his chest and heavy laboured breaths passed through his lungs, but still Jaejoong held Junsu close to him. "… thanks."
It was a soft appreciation, almost like a whisper, but Junsu heard it.
They stayed in each other’s arms for a little bit longer, until Jaejoong heaved up his manly pride from where it had crouched down and untangled himself from Junsu. Standing a little awkwardly, swaying his arms and blowing out little gusts of air in an attempt to look cool, Jaejoong smiled slightly.
Junsu stood up too, looking at him with a look that made Jaejoong want to take back the breakdown and wish it had never happened. "Emm… thanks … for being here, but let’s… pretend this never happened?"
Junsu nodded, face still serious, and touched Jaejoong’s shoulder lightly, "But if this happens again… I’m here for you, okay? You don’t have to cry alone. I can always lend a shoulder."
An embarrassed smile flitted across Jaejoong’s face, and he nodded, clapping his hand on Junsu’s shoulder and abruptly laying back on the garden bench. "Okay then… let’s pretend this never happened… keep … playing in the garden. And… I’ll keep being the cool person I am by … laying here and doing nothing."
"Father. Look what came in here today!" Donghae sat up in his lavish bed beside the window, a small bird cradled in his hands. It was scraggly and somehow lived through the desert and random bursts of oasises. The bird’s song twittered softly, comfortable in the warmth of Donghae’s grip.
Sungmin sat beside his son, his hand brushing over the bird’s feathers softly so as not to scare it. "It’s a pretty bird. Do you want to keep it? You can keep it alive that way…"
Donghae’s smile faltered, thinking about the possibility that the bird might die if he didn’t take care of it properly… and it would be caged. Not unlike him… "No Father, I think it would be better to let him go free… let him find his own way in the world, whether he die trying or live happily."
"But wouldn’t it be better to keep him safe? Safe in this palace where he can be fed and not have to worry about anything?"
"The palace would still be a cage… he wouldn’t be allowed to see the sun again."
They both knew that they were no longer talking about the bird, but they continued on even so, Donghae’s fingers softly playing with bird’s feathers and touching it’s hard beak.
Sungmin continued on, "Of course it would still see the sun! There are windows!"
"But it can’t leave through them. It’s a cage."
"It’s a cage where it would be safe. It’s a cage where it doesn’t have to worry about anything. It’s a cage only if it chooses that word for it. It could also be a haven."
Donghae’s fingers slowly tightened on the bird, squeezing it slightly, the song in its throat caught. "The walls would slowly cave in… it may start out as a haven, but eventually you want to be thrusting your claws out in any way to escape. Eventually you want to get up on your own two feet and walk right out. But if your feathers are cut and wings are bound, there’s no way you can do that, is there?" Donghae’s hand finally closed into a fist, the bird still caught and a small squawk before the crush of bones could be heard.
Sungmin flinched, but Donghae merely smiled, opening up his hand to show the crushed bird. "Eventually… eventually you’ll end up suffocated in this haven." He dropped the bird to the ground, and looked back out towards the window, an angelic smile on his face, "It’s a beautiful day out there, isn’t it, Father?"
HeeSeong trudged over to the bed, officially and totally tired. Ryeowook was already laid out on the bed, and beckoned her to him with open arms. She immediately went into them, snuggling her back into his stomach and making her self comfortable. She smiled at the warmth of her husband and made sure her long hair was out of his face and hers.
They stayed like that for a few moments, a tender and sweet moment in their bedroom, "I was thinking of Junki…" Ryeowook starts, he let his fingers dance on her arm, lightly touching her and making goose bumps jump to the surface.
"Junki?" She cocked her head slightly to show that she was listening but nestled in closer. It was a cold night today; that was plenty of excuse.
Smiling as he put a leg over both of hers and brought her in closer, Ryeowook went on, "It’s his anniversary today. We didn’t really do anything."
HeeSeong grinned at how easy it was to be lovey-dovey with Ryeowook and entwined her fingers with his, keeping him from touching her arms. "It’s been ten years, Wookie."
"I know, but that doesn’t mean that we should forget, right?"
"No, we shouldn’t…" HeeSeong pouted, but Ryeowook nuzzled his nose on her cheek.
"Do you remember his son?"
"His son?" HeeSeong extracted herself from his grasp only to flip around playfully and latch onto him once more. "The little one?"
Smiling at his wife’s antics, Ryeowook nodded, "He only had one, dear."
She pouted, and touched his chest softly, "What ever happened to him?"
"He died too… leaving no heir to the throne but Junki’s brother, my cousin… that bastard."
HeeSeong smacked Ryeowook lightly on the shoulder, "Wookieeee~ I’m trying to get your attention, but you’re speaking only of the past!"
Ryeowook smirked, "I know perfectly well what you’re doing."
"So you’re only ignoring me for the fun of it?"
"Of course."
HeeSeong sat up from his warm hold and sat on the corner, huddled with her small pillow. "Well, then you can sleep on that side of the bed tonight."
Sigh. Crawling over with a wonderfully innocent pout, Ryeowook sat himself in front of her and stared. She hid her face behind the pillow, but looked out every now and then, only to see his big eyes still staring at her. After the fifth time peeking out, HeeSeong finally gave up and looked away, pillow on lap.
With a kiss on the cheek, and a whispered, "I love you," Ryeowook was back on his side of the bed.
"Wookieeee… you don’t play fair."
Yunho didn’t know how it happened, but they were back in the Shim kingdom. Somehow. Maybe he fell asleep on YooChun’s shoulder much more often than he thought he did. … maybe…
Their carriage was unloaded quickly, and as soon as the three disembarked, the driver went off to stable the horses and leave the carriage somewhere. Bo Mi almost immediately knew that they were there - servants are amazing - and tackled Changmin in a hug.
Yunho was happy to see that Changmin was stiff while Bo Mi hardly even noticed. "I thought you weren’t coming back! I was so worried!"
Rather than deal with formalities, and maybe add the impatience factor in a bit, Yunho immediately strode up between the hugging ‘couple’ and tore the two apart. "Bo Mi, tell Changmin that you lied to send Jaejoong away."
Her eyes grew wide at what Yunho had done, and her cheeks blushed even more than the rouge she had on. "B-brother? What are you saying?"
"You know perfectly well what I’m saying. I know everything that happened, down to your stupid little plan, and it would probably go better on the record for our kingdom that you tell the truth right now. I don’t want your stupid jealousy games to make us lose an alliance against the LEE kingdom!"
"B-but I don’t p-p-possibly know what you’re saying. It’s pr-preposterous!"
"What’s ‘preposterous’ is the fact that you were jealous of a friendship between two males! You know perfectly well that males can’t get in relationships with each other! Why would you ever think that you had the right to destroy a friendship that had lasted years? Who gave you that right?"
"I-I didn’t!" Bo Mi was down to a stuttering mess, and each time Yunho spoke he grew closer to her.
"Did you think about anything before you acted? Or were you too caught up in your games to think that maybe what you were doing was wrong? Immoral? Downright cruel?"
Changmin stepped forward, putting a soft touch onto Yunho’s arm, "Yunho, you’re being a little mean…"
"You think I’m being mean?!" Yunho whipped his arm out from underneath Changmin’s touch, "You think what I’m doing is mean? What do you think she did to Jaejoong? What do you think YOU did to Jaejoong? Did you see how much you hurt him? You weren’t there to see how he looked DAYS after what you did to him! You don’t deserve his forgiveness if you don’t even understand that."
YooChun, although standing there quietly until now, finally uttered a phrase, "Yunho, you’re going too far."
And then it was YooChun whom he was yelling at, "What are you talking about? You don’t know anything! You can’t say anything!"
"I know when someone needs to calm down and look what he’s doing to the people he’s speaking to." YooChun’s voice was strong although slightly quivering, and his chin was held high.
Yunho almost raised his voice once more but as he looked at Changmin and then to Bo Mi, his mouth closed and he nodded slightly.
Bo Mi had gone down to her knees, quivering lightly, her hands held up to her chest in a pose of worry and agony. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and all anyone could understand of her mumblings was, "I’m sorry… I didn’t want to do that to everyone… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…"
Changmin was standing, but his eyes almost looked glazed over as if he was living through what he had done to Jaejoong over and over again. His expression was wracked with worry and anxiety.
YooChun watched as Yunho realized how what he had said had made the others feel, and finally put a hand on his shoulder, "I think we should go up to the room… rest a little bit, okay?"
Fatigue swept through his body and Yunho simply nodded, going up the steps one by one with YooChun.
A/N: Hey everyone! See~ No more hiatus! ^^ Btw- if you think the story is going slow... I'm sorry, I'm trying to make the relationships and everything more realistic in the fact that it slowly builds? I don't want to do all of a sudden things ^^; Also! Do you like HeeSeong? She's not going to play much of a role (just letting you guy's know) but I needed a wife for Wookie xD And... Donghae is kinda creepy xP I'm just saying that now~
There's a couple more characters to introduce, and I'm sorry if I don't use all the rest of the Suju members... I only had plans for a few of them so... >.< I'll try to give the other's cameo appearances or something, k? ^^
Also! I have a request page for anyone wanting a drabble or something written for them! ^^
Author: Aznmen
Pairings: JaeMin, JaeSu, YooSu, YunChun (Note: These pairings are in no specific order)
Words: 2013
Summary: When Prince Changmin falls off a balcony and the pauper, Jaejoong, saves him, it's the start of their own story. The kingdom is at war and an alliance marriage is necessary... what will happen of the Prince and the Pauper?
Jaejoong sat on the garden bench, half watching Junsu play among the flowers and attempting to catch butterflies, and thinking about what happened. That night was constantly played back in his mind. Bo Mi’s arms holding him close, Changmin’s eyes glaring at him as if he was some sort of monster… and the harsh tone of voice that he heard.
A feeling of repulsion for himself and for what he supposedly did caused his gut to clench up and he gagged in his mouth.
‘I’m returning you, Jaejoong, the pauper, to your rightful place.’
That’s all he was after all. Some lowly servant that couldn’t possibly be any sort of family or friend. He was lower than dirt… isn’t that right? He was someone poor and girly and horrible with no money or belongings except for what was given to him. He was despicable.
"Jaejoong?" A voice barely reached through his conscious and he continued to see the images flashing in his head in bright colours and pictures and everything was spinning and he was going to fall and he just - "Jaejoong!"
Junsu’s arms were around him holding him tight, and only then did he realize that he was completely limp. A foul taste was in his mouth and he swallowed in a hurried attempt to make it go away. Gasps were coming from his lungs and sobs caught in his throat. He was crying?
Junsu’s hands clutched at Jaejoong’s shoulders worriedly, an instinctual urge causing him to rock the crying boy in his arms. Jaejoong finally gave up trying to figure out what happened and simply cried hard sobs that hurt his chest but felt good in that odd sort of way. He had never been a loud crier, or a crier at all, but somehow letting out all his pent up frustrations in angry tears felt good. He gripped onto Junsu as hard as he could, almost as if he was his saviour and this was his catharsis.
Slowly, like a wave that ebbs as the tide flows out, his tears stopped their torrential flood. Small heaves of his chest and heavy laboured breaths passed through his lungs, but still Jaejoong held Junsu close to him. "… thanks."
It was a soft appreciation, almost like a whisper, but Junsu heard it.
They stayed in each other’s arms for a little bit longer, until Jaejoong heaved up his manly pride from where it had crouched down and untangled himself from Junsu. Standing a little awkwardly, swaying his arms and blowing out little gusts of air in an attempt to look cool, Jaejoong smiled slightly.
Junsu stood up too, looking at him with a look that made Jaejoong want to take back the breakdown and wish it had never happened. "Emm… thanks … for being here, but let’s… pretend this never happened?"
Junsu nodded, face still serious, and touched Jaejoong’s shoulder lightly, "But if this happens again… I’m here for you, okay? You don’t have to cry alone. I can always lend a shoulder."
An embarrassed smile flitted across Jaejoong’s face, and he nodded, clapping his hand on Junsu’s shoulder and abruptly laying back on the garden bench. "Okay then… let’s pretend this never happened… keep … playing in the garden. And… I’ll keep being the cool person I am by … laying here and doing nothing."
"Father. Look what came in here today!" Donghae sat up in his lavish bed beside the window, a small bird cradled in his hands. It was scraggly and somehow lived through the desert and random bursts of oasises. The bird’s song twittered softly, comfortable in the warmth of Donghae’s grip.
Sungmin sat beside his son, his hand brushing over the bird’s feathers softly so as not to scare it. "It’s a pretty bird. Do you want to keep it? You can keep it alive that way…"
Donghae’s smile faltered, thinking about the possibility that the bird might die if he didn’t take care of it properly… and it would be caged. Not unlike him… "No Father, I think it would be better to let him go free… let him find his own way in the world, whether he die trying or live happily."
"But wouldn’t it be better to keep him safe? Safe in this palace where he can be fed and not have to worry about anything?"
"The palace would still be a cage… he wouldn’t be allowed to see the sun again."
They both knew that they were no longer talking about the bird, but they continued on even so, Donghae’s fingers softly playing with bird’s feathers and touching it’s hard beak.
Sungmin continued on, "Of course it would still see the sun! There are windows!"
"But it can’t leave through them. It’s a cage."
"It’s a cage where it would be safe. It’s a cage where it doesn’t have to worry about anything. It’s a cage only if it chooses that word for it. It could also be a haven."
Donghae’s fingers slowly tightened on the bird, squeezing it slightly, the song in its throat caught. "The walls would slowly cave in… it may start out as a haven, but eventually you want to be thrusting your claws out in any way to escape. Eventually you want to get up on your own two feet and walk right out. But if your feathers are cut and wings are bound, there’s no way you can do that, is there?" Donghae’s hand finally closed into a fist, the bird still caught and a small squawk before the crush of bones could be heard.
Sungmin flinched, but Donghae merely smiled, opening up his hand to show the crushed bird. "Eventually… eventually you’ll end up suffocated in this haven." He dropped the bird to the ground, and looked back out towards the window, an angelic smile on his face, "It’s a beautiful day out there, isn’t it, Father?"
HeeSeong trudged over to the bed, officially and totally tired. Ryeowook was already laid out on the bed, and beckoned her to him with open arms. She immediately went into them, snuggling her back into his stomach and making her self comfortable. She smiled at the warmth of her husband and made sure her long hair was out of his face and hers.
They stayed like that for a few moments, a tender and sweet moment in their bedroom, "I was thinking of Junki…" Ryeowook starts, he let his fingers dance on her arm, lightly touching her and making goose bumps jump to the surface.
"Junki?" She cocked her head slightly to show that she was listening but nestled in closer. It was a cold night today; that was plenty of excuse.
Smiling as he put a leg over both of hers and brought her in closer, Ryeowook went on, "It’s his anniversary today. We didn’t really do anything."
HeeSeong grinned at how easy it was to be lovey-dovey with Ryeowook and entwined her fingers with his, keeping him from touching her arms. "It’s been ten years, Wookie."
"I know, but that doesn’t mean that we should forget, right?"
"No, we shouldn’t…" HeeSeong pouted, but Ryeowook nuzzled his nose on her cheek.
"Do you remember his son?"
"His son?" HeeSeong extracted herself from his grasp only to flip around playfully and latch onto him once more. "The little one?"
Smiling at his wife’s antics, Ryeowook nodded, "He only had one, dear."
She pouted, and touched his chest softly, "What ever happened to him?"
"He died too… leaving no heir to the throne but Junki’s brother, my cousin… that bastard."
HeeSeong smacked Ryeowook lightly on the shoulder, "Wookieeee~ I’m trying to get your attention, but you’re speaking only of the past!"
Ryeowook smirked, "I know perfectly well what you’re doing."
"So you’re only ignoring me for the fun of it?"
"Of course."
HeeSeong sat up from his warm hold and sat on the corner, huddled with her small pillow. "Well, then you can sleep on that side of the bed tonight."
Sigh. Crawling over with a wonderfully innocent pout, Ryeowook sat himself in front of her and stared. She hid her face behind the pillow, but looked out every now and then, only to see his big eyes still staring at her. After the fifth time peeking out, HeeSeong finally gave up and looked away, pillow on lap.
With a kiss on the cheek, and a whispered, "I love you," Ryeowook was back on his side of the bed.
"Wookieeee… you don’t play fair."
Yunho didn’t know how it happened, but they were back in the Shim kingdom. Somehow. Maybe he fell asleep on YooChun’s shoulder much more often than he thought he did. … maybe…
Their carriage was unloaded quickly, and as soon as the three disembarked, the driver went off to stable the horses and leave the carriage somewhere. Bo Mi almost immediately knew that they were there - servants are amazing - and tackled Changmin in a hug.
Yunho was happy to see that Changmin was stiff while Bo Mi hardly even noticed. "I thought you weren’t coming back! I was so worried!"
Rather than deal with formalities, and maybe add the impatience factor in a bit, Yunho immediately strode up between the hugging ‘couple’ and tore the two apart. "Bo Mi, tell Changmin that you lied to send Jaejoong away."
Her eyes grew wide at what Yunho had done, and her cheeks blushed even more than the rouge she had on. "B-brother? What are you saying?"
"You know perfectly well what I’m saying. I know everything that happened, down to your stupid little plan, and it would probably go better on the record for our kingdom that you tell the truth right now. I don’t want your stupid jealousy games to make us lose an alliance against the LEE kingdom!"
"B-but I don’t p-p-possibly know what you’re saying. It’s pr-preposterous!"
"What’s ‘preposterous’ is the fact that you were jealous of a friendship between two males! You know perfectly well that males can’t get in relationships with each other! Why would you ever think that you had the right to destroy a friendship that had lasted years? Who gave you that right?"
"I-I didn’t!" Bo Mi was down to a stuttering mess, and each time Yunho spoke he grew closer to her.
"Did you think about anything before you acted? Or were you too caught up in your games to think that maybe what you were doing was wrong? Immoral? Downright cruel?"
Changmin stepped forward, putting a soft touch onto Yunho’s arm, "Yunho, you’re being a little mean…"
"You think I’m being mean?!" Yunho whipped his arm out from underneath Changmin’s touch, "You think what I’m doing is mean? What do you think she did to Jaejoong? What do you think YOU did to Jaejoong? Did you see how much you hurt him? You weren’t there to see how he looked DAYS after what you did to him! You don’t deserve his forgiveness if you don’t even understand that."
YooChun, although standing there quietly until now, finally uttered a phrase, "Yunho, you’re going too far."
And then it was YooChun whom he was yelling at, "What are you talking about? You don’t know anything! You can’t say anything!"
"I know when someone needs to calm down and look what he’s doing to the people he’s speaking to." YooChun’s voice was strong although slightly quivering, and his chin was held high.
Yunho almost raised his voice once more but as he looked at Changmin and then to Bo Mi, his mouth closed and he nodded slightly.
Bo Mi had gone down to her knees, quivering lightly, her hands held up to her chest in a pose of worry and agony. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and all anyone could understand of her mumblings was, "I’m sorry… I didn’t want to do that to everyone… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…"
Changmin was standing, but his eyes almost looked glazed over as if he was living through what he had done to Jaejoong over and over again. His expression was wracked with worry and anxiety.
YooChun watched as Yunho realized how what he had said had made the others feel, and finally put a hand on his shoulder, "I think we should go up to the room… rest a little bit, okay?"
Fatigue swept through his body and Yunho simply nodded, going up the steps one by one with YooChun.
A/N: Hey everyone! See~ No more hiatus! ^^ Btw- if you think the story is going slow... I'm sorry, I'm trying to make the relationships and everything more realistic in the fact that it slowly builds? I don't want to do all of a sudden things ^^; Also! Do you like HeeSeong? She's not going to play much of a role (just letting you guy's know) but I needed a wife for Wookie xD And... Donghae is kinda creepy xP I'm just saying that now~
There's a couple more characters to introduce, and I'm sorry if I don't use all the rest of the Suju members... I only had plans for a few of them so... >.< I'll try to give the other's cameo appearances or something, k? ^^
Also! I have a request page for anyone wanting a drabble or something written for them! ^^