Suits (2/3)
"So let me get this straight," Sehun says the next morning. "You want me to take girl advice...from the two of you?"
"Just a suggestion, Your Highness," Luhan chirps.
"But...no offense, hyung." His eyes flick over to Minseok. "And you, too, hyung. I've just never seen either of you with a date."
"That's because we're always with you." Luhan doesn't skip a beat. "But surely you don't think we haven't had our own relationships."
"I know, that's not what I'm saying," Sehun huffs. "I guess I just never thought it would come to this."
"Come to what, Your Highness?
The prince's sigh is as deep as a well. "That I'd have to ask my gay hyungs to help me sort out my love life."
"Right," Luhan says on auto-pilot, before it fully sinks in. His eyes bug out. "I'm sorry...what was that, Your Highness?"
"Luhan-hyung, you told me yourself..."
"Yes, yes, I know I did," Luhan cuts in, his eyes ping-ponging between the prince and his partner. "But what about--"
"Minseok-hyung? He's the one who taught me the correct way to say 'gay' and the way to never say it. Remember that time, hyung? Just after you started?" Sehun giggles. "I keep trying to set him up, but he rejects every dude I recommend." His glance in Minseok's direction is cheeky. "You've got high standards, huh, hyung? Should we look for an actor next time?"
"That's enough, Your Highness," is Minseok's toothless response.
The surprise is wearing off, but Luhan is still looking at Minseok, and it's starting to make him nervous.
"What?" The Korean bodyguard cocks an eyebrow.
"I thought it was a secret," Luhan says simply, with one of his many smiles attached. There's a vulnerable quality to this one that Minseok doesn't like. He doesn't know when that started to matter.
It's food for thought, but for another time--because Sehun is slinging his arms over their shoulders and drawing all three of their heads together. "All right," he says into the huddle, more excited than he'd been earlier. "Let's get me my girl."
Phase 1 in Operation Aki is How to Attract Your Love Interest.
"Yesterday," Luhan starts, "what you were doing was...not great."
"Okay," Sehun says. "What should I do today?"
"Just let her be," Luhan tells him. "We'll make an appointment with the teahouse this time and go to one of her classes tomorrow."
"Okay, let's do that."
"Also, Your Highness," and Luhan seems a little edgy saying this, "you need a makeover."
"Me?" Sehun is aghast. "A makeover?"
"Your hair, specifically, Your Highness."
"What's wrong with my hair, hyung?!"
"There's nothing wrong with your hair," Minseok tells him. "It's just that it makes you look like a bad boy--"
"Which is cool," Sehun cuts in.
"Which would be cool," Minseok corrects him, "if the girl you liked was into bad boys. Aki is clearly not."
That gives Sehun pause. "You can tell that about her?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"That," Luhan points out, "and your roots are showing."
In the afternoon, Sehun gets his hair dyed black at a salon downtown, known for its A-list clientele and discreet staff.
"What else?" he asks afterwards, examining his short, sharp cut in the mirror and finding it to his liking.
Luhan smiles at the prince's newfound openness. "Tomorrow, Your Highness, just be yourself. She hasn't seen you in--what?" He consults Minseok.
"Six years," Minseok supplies.
"Six years," Luhan continues. "That's a long time to be apart. And people change. You can't expect it to be just the way it was when you were fifteen, especially since neither of you have kept in touch."
Sehun nods, listening carefully.
"So don't force it, Your Highness. Just act the way you do when you're around me and Kim--natural, you know, minus all the vulgarity--and you'll win her over." Luhan's eyes soften. "You won me over in half an hour, and you weren't even trying."
Sehun's face scrunches into something adorable. "Mushy," he tells Luhan.
"It's true," Luhan teases.
"Should I take my earrings out?" Sehun asks, twirling the one in his right lobe.
"Hmm." Luhan turns to his partner. "What do you think?"
"Keep them in," Minseok says. "I know you love them. And you can't change everything about yourself to fit the other person. There should be a balance."
"Good guys wear studs, too, don't they, hyung?"
Minseok smiles at the artlessness of the question. "Sure they do."
A little later, when Sehun has gone back to his room to Google proper tea ceremony etiquette, Luhan comes up to Minseok with a curious expression.
"I thought you were going to tell him to lose the bling," the Chinese bodyguard says, hands curved around a mug. "That's what I would have said, until you gave him the moral of the story."
There's a grin on Minseok's face, and he finds himself thinking that this--whatever it is--is getting much easier. "I like his earrings. Nothing wrong with them."
"Do you..." Luhan licks his lips into a rephrase. "Are you an earrings kind of guy?"
"My ears aren't pierced," Minseok answers. "But I like how they look on other people. Like, I dunno," he laughs shakily. "Like Gong Yoo."
"Gong Yoo." Luhan looks curiouser and curiouser. "Is he your ideal type?"
Minseok laughs again. "Maybe. Yeah, I guess you could say that. I've seen Coffee Prince five times."
"I love that drama," Luhan says.
When they leave the ryokan in the evening for dinner, the Chinese bodyguard is wearing one small black stud in each ear. Minseok, on the other hand, has his chin buried deep in the plaid muffler. If either of them notice, neither of them say so.
The prince and Aki's second meeting goes much better than the first, although Sehun has to wait to make his move until after the tea ceremony.
Aki is professional and perfectly distant during the ritual. She's gifted, too, the minute movements she makes to lift, pour, whisk, serve, and sip blending together in an exquisite dance. The hour passes too quickly for Minseok, who relishes the ambient sounds--the hiss of boiling water when Aki coaxes the lid off an iron pot, the click of a bamboo ladle when she sets it down. She speaks of the history of Japanese tea ceremonies, her voice like water, and the prince watches the shape of her mouth and stays absolutely still.
Minseok mouths a fighting when her back is turned, while Luhan raises a supportive fist to match.
Towards the end, when Sehun has sipped the last drop of strong, delicious green tea from a painted bowl, he smiles at her openly. "That was amazing, Aki," he says, and her eyes blink a little faster. "Now I understand how you could never get bored."
She dips her head, manners unbroken. "Thank you for the compliment. Do you have any questions?" She also looks at Minseok and Luhan when she asks, being a gracious host.
"I do," the prince says, and her gaze is back on him. "Why do we turn the bowls before we drink from them?"
"Ah," she starts, a little surprised. "I'm sorry for not explaining this earlier. Each of our tea bowls has a discerning mark or design on one side, do you see?" She points out the spidery paint strokes of a crane on hers; the small, colorful bamboo forest on Sehun's. Minseok's and Luhan's each bear a constellation of ink dots.
"What does it mean?" the prince asks.
"That is the best part of the bowl," Aki tells him. "And we turn the bowl before we drink from it to ensure that the best part is facing the other person."
"I see." Sehun's tone is ruminative. "It's like showing your best side to others."
"Yes," Aki agrees. "And giving your best, too. Don't you think that's a beautiful practice?"
"Beautiful," Sehun murmurs, his eyes fixed on her face.
Minseok knows she discerns his meaning, because Aki drops her eyes to her knees. He nudges Luhan on the shoulder and they bow to her in unison, profuse in their compliments, before heading to the foyer.
Of course, they don't stop listening as they pull on their shoes.
"I'm sorry for the other day," Sehun is saying back in the room. "I'm sorry about the tea whisks and for being rude. I didn't mean it."
Minseok can't hear anything in reply.
"I wish we could see if she was smiling," Luhan whispers.
Minseok puts a finger to his own lips, and Luhan is nodding obligingly.
Sehun is talking again. "I like your kimono. I've never seen you wear one before. I mean, not back in Seoul--I just saw you wearing one two days ago. But yeah, I like this, too." The prince clears his throat. "It's a nice...purply...color."
"Orchid," they hear Aki say, quiet as a drop in a pool. "That's what it's called."
"Orchid," the prince repeats. "It's pretty. On you. Um."
"Thank you, Sehun," the girl replies, and that gets both bodyguards beaming. "I like your hair this way. It suits you much better."
Luhan flips his palm for a low-five, and Minseok meets it, very softly, with his own. He doesn't want to break the spell.
Luhan's fingers curl over the back of his hand, and he squeezes once. The look he gives Minseok is a little giddy. It lingers, then shifts into something gentler.
"Did you like that thing with the bowls?" Luhan asks in an undertone. "The part about showing your best to others?" His face contains a secret. "The nicest part about that," Luhan says, "is when they start to see it."
There is giggling in the tea room, and Luhan's fingers are gone in a flash, stuffed into the front pocket of his coat with the rest of his hand. Minseok shuts his eyes and reopens them, and the Chinese bodyguard is cocking his head in the direction of the door. "Come on, Kim," he says, in no particular tone of voice. "Let's give him a few more minutes."
Minseok's palm is still warm from the contact. He nods, and his face feels a little warm, too, right under the skin.
Phase 2 in Operation Aki is How to Romance Your Love Interest.
"Great job, Your Highness," Luhan says after two weeks in Kyoto and ten appointments at the teahouse.
"Really great job," Minseok affirms. "She likes you."
"I hope so." Sehun shrugs noncommittally, but the glow in his face betrays his delight.
Luhan rubs his hands together. "Now we have to get you two out on a real date."
That makes Sehun pout. "We've been going on real dates..."
"No, Your Highness," Luhan says expertly. "You've been paying the teahouse to watch her perform a Japanese tradition. By appointment."
"The tea ceremony is a fine art, hyung."
"Yes, it is, Your Highness. But it doesn't count as a date."
"All right." The prince sounds resigned, and Minseok stifles a grin. His charge has never been good with change. "I just don't know how to work up to it. I might mess it up."
"You won't, Your Highness," Minseok pacifies him, as Luhan shakes his head in reassurance.
"What do I say?"
Luhan answers that one. "Well, we've been here two weeks, and you haven't done any proper exploring--which is unlike you." There's amusement in his eyes. "We've seen Nijo Castle through the window when we take the bus, and we walk by Yasaka Shrine and Chionin Temple every time we go to the teahouse. That's pretty much it."
"So I should ask her to be my tour guide?"
"You should ask her," Luhan says, "to show you her city." He slides his hands into his pockets. "And when she does, you should make her feel like she's seeing everything for the first time."
Sehun looks thoughtful when he turns to Minseok. "What do you think, hyung?"
"It's a good idea, Your Highness." the bodyguard replies. Then he winks; a rare act of familiarity. "We'll make ourselves scarce."
Minseok is sitting in the ryokan's spotless living area when Luhan finds him. One of the staff has presented Minseok with a tray of coffee and Japanese sweets before, once again, disappearing into thin air. It is their specialty, he has decided.
"Hey," Luhan says, sitting next to him and pouring himself a mug. "How do you think we'll do today?"
It's been a week and five tea ceremonies since their last pow-wow with Sehun. Yesterday, he'd finally plucked up the courage to ask Aki on a proper date. She'd smiled, peered into her tea bowl, and said, "Okay, Sehun-ah."
"The prince will be fine," Minseok replies, fondness creeping into his tone. "And I'm kind of excited to see more of Kyoto."
"Me, too," Luhan says. "I came here, you know, when I was a kid. My parents took a little trip one weekend to get away from the city."
"Oh, really?" Minseok didn't know that. "You must be familiar with the sights then."
"Nah, I don't remember much. I've seen pictures of me with the castle and the pavilions, but I guess I was too young." Luhan strokes a finger behind his ear. "I'll remember it now, though."
"Yeah," Minseok says lightly, looking out into the garden. There's just a light dusting of snow left; white on the low bushes, damp on the stone sculptures. He thinks of how much it will change in the spring, when the cherry blossoms weigh heavy in the trees. "It's harder to forget things when you get older."
"Things," Luhan repeats. "Places." Softer now. "People."
Minseok pulls his gaze back into the room--and Luhan is blushing.
"Kim," he ventures. "Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure," Minseok replies, feeling a new heat in his chest.
"The prince said he's been trying to get you to date. Why don't you?"
If Minseok had been looking--he isn't--he would have seen the pink in Luhan's cheeks darken to burgundy. Instead, Minseok is chuckling self-consciously and avoiding all eye contact that isn't with his coffee mug.
"No reason. I just never felt the need to, I guess. No time either. And Prince Sehun is not the ideal matchmaker." He says this all very quickly, like he's in a hurry to get it out and explained away.
"You haven't ruled it out yet, though."
"Um. No." Minseok is a little...disoriented. "Why do you ask?" He laughs loudly just then, an awkward attempt at nonchalance. "Do you know anyone interesting?"
"I don't know about interesting," Luhan murmurs, and Minseok thinks he's going to say something else. But Sehun is dashing down the stairs and babbling about being late and all three of them are tumbling out the door, and those last few words, whatever they might have been, pool at the bottom of Luhan's mug.
The prince's date takes place at Ryoan-ji. The temple's zen garden is the finest in the world, according to Aki. They take off their shoes as instructed by the temple staff, and they sit on the steps that face the rock formations.
"It looks a little plain now," Aki tells the prince. "But when it's spring, the cherry blossoms hang over that wall and all around this area, and it feels like you're in an oasis."
"Let's come back and you can show me," Sehun says. He has the mask on, but his eyes are warm on her face. The girl rewards him with the shyest of smiles, which Minseok observes from two rows back.
Luhan presses their arms together in triumph. They're squeezed between a small group of Japanese schoolgirls and a large group of Vietnamese tourists. Minseok can feel the outline of Luhan's bicep through the sleeve of his jacket.
"Dating's not so bad, is it?" Luhan whispers.
Minseok doesn't say anything, but he keeps his arm where it is for the rest of the time.
The kids, as Minseok and Luhan call them, go on more dates.
They visit Nijo Castle and wander through its hallowed halls, their hands swinging between them, almost touching.
The bodyguards keep a distance of five paces. Luhan translates for Minseok when the Japanese audio guide plays in each room. Minseok tries not to react when Luhan's lips brush the shell of his ear by accident.
They walk deep into Gion to see the old houses, and a school of geishas flutter past in pale kimonos. "In Kyoto, we use the term geiko," Aki tells the prince. "It means 'a woman of art.'"
"That's like you," Sehun replies. "Except you'll never need all that makeup."
Aki stares at him from under her eyelashes.
"Look at that," Luhan mutters, impressed. "He's so smooth."
Minseok only hums in response, because Luhan has placed his hand on the small of his back.
They take the train to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the ancient shrine at the base of a mountain. Sehun asks Luhan to take a photo of him and Aki in the tunnel path leading to the inner sanctuary. It's lined with thousands of torii painted orange and black, and Minseok thinks he's never seen anything so incredible.
"I'll take one of you two," Sehun says, waggling a finger between his guardians.
Minseok plans to decline. "No, thank you, Your Highness," is already at the tip of his tongue.
But Luhan is smoothing down his coat in the spot with good light and saying, "Come here, Kim," in the pitch of a question, a request. His eyes are dappled in the light, and the way it hits his face gives him a peculiar glow, like it's late summer by the Han River and not early spring in a mountain hundreds of miles away. For some reason, Minseok remembers how the prince had looked at Aki in the zen garden, and something inside him caves all the way through.
They take the picture, with Sehun's phone and then with Luhan's, and the kids start walking ahead of them again.
"Nice day, huh, Kim? So bright." Luhan points out where patches of sun are filtering through the gaps between the torii.
Up ahead, Aki slips her hand into Sehun's.
Minseok exhales. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath.
"Hey," he says, and Luhan gives him his full attention, like always. "You can call me Minseok."
Phase 3 in Operation Aki is How to Confess to Your Love Interest--with Success.
It's the first week of April, and clouds of sakura have set Kyoto abloom.
"Hyung," Sehun mumbles through a mouthful of pillow. "This is going to be the worst day of my life."
Luhan hovers over him, tutting. "That's a little melodramatic, Your Highness."
"Besides," Minseok quips from the opposite side of the bed, "you've already confessed to her once. I was there."
The three of them are in Sehun's room at the ryokan, where the prince is lying face down on his mattress. "I'm having a meltdown," is what he'd said half an hour earlier, when Minseok had rapped on his door with Luhan in tow.
The Chinese bodyguard pats the prince on the back. "Come on, Your Highness. Do you want to talk it through with us one more time?"
Sehun rolls himself over and into an upright position. There are lines on his forehead from the wrinkles in the pillowcase. "So, we'll go to Kiyomizu-dera Temple."
"Right," Luhan says.
"And on the way up, I'll hold her hand."
"Right," Minseok says. "Easy."
"Right. And then when we get up there, we'll look at all the cherry blossoms, take a few pictures, talk about our usual stuff. It'll be romantic."
"Right," Luhan says. "Keep going."
"And then, at the right moment, I'll say...I'll say..." Sehun trails off. He grimaces, turns a violent shade of red, and covers his face with both hands. "What do I say? I don't know what to say! I don't know what to do! I'm gonna choke, and it's all gonna be over."
Luhan plants his hands on the prince's shoulders. "The first thing to remember in any operation, Your Highness, is the importance of keeping calm."
Minseok locks a laugh behind his teeth and just nods, nods, nods when Sehun shoots him a plaintive look.
After a few more technical rehearsals, each one peppered with an outburst from the prince, Minseok retreats to his own room to get ready.
There's a rap on his door a few minutes later. Luhan's face greets him when he slides it open.
"Minseok."
It's been almost a month since he made the concession, but he hasn't quite gotten used to hearing his name yet.
"What's up?" Minseok bounces back, remembering the importance of keeping calm. It's hit or miss when he's around Luhan, who dispenses his touch like he does his smiles.
There's another one, lighting up on the dot. "The prince wants to pick up some flowers. I could just take him myself, but I wanted to run it by you first?" Luhan's got these crinkles on the corners of his eyes. "We always go as a team."
"Go ahead," Minseok says. He doesn't even think about it. "I know he's safe with you."
It's nothing, really--a tiny allowance in the big scheme of things. But the significance of the gesture comes to Minseok belatedly, and he feels a little exposed standing there in its aftermath. Because the moment has not escaped Luhan. Not with that look on his face.
"Thanks," Luhan says quietly, tender-eyed and not quite smiling. "Thanks."
He makes like he's going to go, but his feet shuffle. "Do you have a little time tomorrow?"
Aki has a full day of academics at Doshisha University, so the prince will be spending his day at the ryokan. So will his bodyguards. "Yeah, why?" Minseok's heart rate speeds up without warning.
"There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about," Luhan tells him. "But it can wait until then."
"All right," Minseok says, because it's the only thing to say. Luhan's not-quite-smile is soft as a petal.
Then he's walking away, and Minseok is suddenly thinking about Li Na and being fourteen years old and getting the first kiss of his life from someone he'd really liked.
It scares the shit out of him.
Objectively speaking, the plan is a complete and total bust.
Kiyomizu-dera's main hall, the one in all the postcards, the one with the breathtaking view of the city beyond and the pale pink lushness of the cherry blossoms beneath--that's closed for renovation.
"It's okay," Aki says, when the kindly man at the ticket booth apologizes for the inconvenience. "We should have checked ahead of time."
She suggests they explore the rest of the temple complex, which is just as breathtaking and affords an even closer look at the sakura.
"But I wanted to show you the ones up there." Sehun swings out an arm in the direction of the main hall.
"I've already been up there, Sehun-ah." Aki's voice is sweet and sunny.
"Not with me."
"You can take me another time," she says to appease him, slipping her little hand into the crook of his elbow.
"But..." Sehun glances back at his bodyguards as she leads him down a flight of stone steps. Luhan rotates his pointers to tell the prince, Just go with it.
Aki is right. There's an abundance of cherry blossoms surrounding the temple--lanes upon lanes of them. From afar, they seem light and insubstantial, like tufts of cotton candy. Up close, they are decadent and textured, something Minseok wants to run his hands over. The prince takes a lot of pictures.
When he finds the perfect spot to shoot a selfie with Aki, his phone runs out of juice.
It's almost like a cartoon, the speed at which his face drops.
"Here, Your Highness." Minseok quickly produces his own unit. "Use mine."
"But I wanted one in my phone," Sehun mumbles, looking defeated.
"Oppa can just send it to you after," Aki reasons. She shoots Minseok a smile loaded with an inside joke. "Right?"
"Of course, Aki-sshi."
Sehun's mask is hanging off his ear, the way he'd left it before his phone died. It's totally endearing. "It's not the same though..."
Aki pokes him on the cheek. "Do you want to use my phone, then?"
Luhan presses fingers into Minseok's side. They're both holding back their giggles.
The prince nods like a mollified child.
"Bet you he wanted to set it as the background photo in his phone," Luhan says into Minseok's ear.
His breath is hot, like the current of electricity it sends up Minseok's spine. Suddenly Minseok isn't giggling anymore.
By far, the biggest wrench thrown into Sehun's plan comes by way of a fangirl.
They are making their way back down from the temple, weaving through the crowds in the narrow Higashiyama District. Aki has stopped to try a cream puff--a taster offered by a vendor. She takes a bite and holds it out for Sehun. He drags down the front of his mask, tucks it under his chin, and lets Aki feed him the rest of the pastry. Then he licks his lips and stares at her, so, so smitten.
"Is that--oh, my god," someone stammers in Korean. It's a girl's voice, raised somewhere by Minseok's shoulder. "That's Prince Sehun!"
A murmur races through the crowd and swells like a song, and Minseok's training is kicking in by pure instinct. He grabs the prince, Luhan grabs Aki, and they push through the wall of screaming girls who've suddenly made the street seem two inches wide.
There are smartphones and cameras in their faces, wails of oppa and prince and who's that girl, more wails on top of those in languages Minseok doesn't understand. He doesn't know when it speedballs into a chase, but suddenly they're running--it's ridiculous--but they're running down the last stretch of street until the main road. Sehun and Aki have linked hands, and Minseok and Luhan are on either side of them, hoping to God nobody trips.
In the end, Luhan flags down a taxi and all four of them are clambering in and telling the driver to step on it.
"Are you all right?" Sehun's in the backseat with Minseok, Aki between them. The prince is holding her by the arm. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine," Aki answers, looking him over with the same amount of concern. "Are you all right?"
He nods, a little shaken. Minseok suspects the mob of fangirls is only partially to blame.
"Minseok-oppa? Luhan-oppa?" Aki is touching them both on the shoulder.
"We're good, Aki-sshi," Luhan assures her. Minseok aims for comfort when he replies, "Don't worry."
"Thanks, guys." Sehun looks so tired. Anxious, too, when he speaks to Aki. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's all my fault."
"No, it's not," she refutes him. "Why are you apologizing?"
"I just..." Sehun jiggles his knee, clamps teeth over his lip. "I..."
"What is it, Sehun-ah?"
"I like you," the prince blurts out.
Very slowly, leading by his eyeballs, Minseok angles his head to look out the window. He catches Luhan doing the same thing.
"I like you a lot," Sehun whispers. "I like you so much. And I don't want to scare you off."
The prince swallows. Minseok swallows. Minseok thinks he hears Luhan swallow.
"You know," Aki says, in her lovely, quiet voice, "I don't scare off very easily."
"Oh." Sehun contemplates that answer. And then. "Oh. Do you mean--"
Aki pecks him on the cheek.
Minseok hears the light smack of her lips, the gasp it draws out of the prince. The thud of the punch she lands on his chest (or is it his arm?) when Sehun demands, "Again."
Minseok also hears the snort that leaves Luhan's nostrils when Aki whispers, "You're so embarrassing. The oppas can hear you."
"You're beautiful," Sehun tells her in turn, like it's just the two of them in the car. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
There's another light smack of lips--Sehun's, this time, on Aki's hand.
"Yes," Aki whispers, and Minseok can imagine the pretty color of her blush.
He lets his eyes wander to the back of Luhan's head. From this side, he can see a lift in his partner's cheek, like he's smiling. He's always smiling. When Luhan rubs a hand over his nape, Minseok's eyes go straight to the movement, and then to his neck. He wonders how the skin there would feel, warm or cool, under his mouth.
He has to rid himself of the thought physically, with a shake of the head--and Aki, in all her sweetness, asks if he's hurt it somewhere.
"Considering how everything went wrong," Sehun muses when they're back at the ryokan, "I think that went pretty well."
"It all worked out, Your Highness," Minseok says. "We're happy for you."
Luhan agrees. "It was even better than the plan."
The prince is beaming, head in the clouds. "Aki's been telling me about this exchange program her university has with Yonsei. We talked about it a few times, you know, before today. She says she's going to take it, starting in the fall." His face radiates a singular emotion--bliss. "We'll be together in Seoul, hyung. Can you believe it?
"That is great," Minseok tells him. "I didn't know what you were planning to do when we went back to Korea. Long distance, or..."
Sehun pshaws. "I would have stayed here. Transferred out to Doshisha or Kyoto U for my last year. I'd never leave her." Then he grins, tracing a pattern into the edge of the dinner table.
It's youth and a lifetime of privilege that makes him sound so sure. Minseok's smile is fond, only the corners of it betraying his envy. He wishes it were that easy for every other person who found themselves in--
He stops himself right there.
"The exchange program is only a year long," Sehun is saying. "But that gives me just enough time to lock her down." He leans in conspiratorially. "Aki likes me, you know. She told me so, when I walked her to her door. 'I like you, too, Sehun-ah.' That's what she said. Verbatim." The memory of it makes the prince melt into a giggling puddle of goo.
Luhan laughs outright. "We're really happy for you, then, Your Highness." He makes eyes at Minseok over Sehun's head, like he's trying to communicate, Can you believe this kid?
"Happy," Minseok echoes, attempting to break eye contact and failing miserably. He can't stop blinking. It might have something to do with the fact that his partner's irises are a hypnotizing shade of dark brown.
He's almost certain that Luhan has read his mind, because he's doing that thing again where he's smiling but not quite. His mouth looks so damn soft.
"It's funny, isn't it," Luhan says, like he's still talking to the prince. His gaze is pure honey in Minseok's direction. "How things fall into place."
Minseok spends the most part of the next day trying to avoid getting cornered. This involves a lot of interrupted reading, scooping up coffee mugs at the sound of a footstep, and slinking in and out of rooms all over the ryokan. It's really not that big of a place.
By the time he's situated himself on a bench in the garden, it's four in the afternoon, and Minseok feels particularly foolish. Especially when Luhan comes strolling over not ten minutes later.
"Hey, Minseok." He sounds friendly, but guarded. "I've been looking all over for you."
"Oh?" Minseok replies, the most casual man in a world of casual men.
"Yeah." In comparison, there is only honesty in Luhan's voice. "I wanted to talk to you, remember?"
Minseok remembers, all right.
"Are you...avoiding me?" Luhan asks. There's space on the bench next to Minseok, but he doesn't take it. Instead, he crouches in front of him, so they're face to face.
"Um."
"It feels like you are." Luhan's watching him from under his eyelashes now. His Adam's apple bobs. It makes him look vulnerable and desirable at the same time, and Minseok's denial withers in his throat.
You are a grown man, he tells himself. Get it over with.
"Maybe I am."
"Why?" Luhan's eyes don't expand with surprise, like Minseok expects them to. They mellow with longing, like he can't bear them to. "Have I offended you?"
"No," Minseok breathes out. "Nothing like that."
"Then what?"
"You make me nervous sometimes." Minseok is talking faster than he can mentally edit. "The way you look at me, and how it feels when you...touch." Oh, god. "Sometimes it's like we're just partners, but then you'll start speaking to me in code, like you're trying to send me a message, and it's confusing, Luhan. It's really confusing. It almost feels like..."
"Like...?"
"Like I'm being..."
"Go on."
Minseok's bravado fails him at the last minute. "Actually, you know what...forget about it."
So Luhan says it for him. "Like you're being pursued?"
Minseok hears the cherry blossoms rustling above him, a bird trilling far in the distance, and the sound of his heart, hammering against his chest.
"Because I've been trying for a while now," Luhan says. "I'm glad you finally noticed."
He places his hand beside the one Minseok has balled into a fist, and he traces his thumb over Minseok's knuckles.
"I've been doing all those things," Luhan says, "because I want you so bad."
Minseok unclenches.
"We're partners," he mumbles, resolve slipping away with the petals in the breeze. "We need to follow protocol."
"What protocol?" Luhan speaks placidly. Both his hands are on the bench now; one on either side of Minseok's knees. "There's nothing against inter-agent relationships." His tongue slows over that last word. "We just can't bring outsiders into the palace. It's like a country club."
Minseok wants to laugh it off, but Luhan is in the space between his legs, and it's not funny. It's nerve-wracking.
"I know this, because I read the handbook from cover to cover. I bet you did, too." Luhan leans in slowly, and Minseok lets him. "I wanted to impress you, Minseok."
He can smell Luhan's shampoo, mild and melony, irresistible. He shuts his eyes and fights the urge to inhale more deeply.
"What do you think of me?" Luhan whispers, breath ghosting over Minseok's lips. "Am I the only one who..." The tip of his nose skates across the tip of Minseok's.
"S-stop," Minseok tells him, with zero percent conviction. "Stop seducing me."
"Stop resisting," Luhan replies, his words syrupy with heat. And then he's drawing away to look Minseok in the eye, and his expression has a touch more doubt in it than Minseok can stomach.
Minseok doesn't say that he wants him so much it's become a problem, or that he thinks Luhan is fascinating and painfully attractive, or even that he likes him--really, actually likes him. But he does brush his fingers over the swell of Luhan's lip.
It happens so quickly.
Luhan is catching his wrist and pressing his lips against Minseok's fingertips. Luhan is hauling him forward, and his lips are pressing against Minseok's mouth. Then Luhan is leading him back into the ryokan, up the stairs, into his room, and Minseok is sliding the door shut.
All they do, for hours, is kiss.
Their clothes stay on. No furniture is broken. They keep their hands to themselves. Mostly.
Minseok is okay with this, because it's been two years since he's slept with anyone, and he is unprepared. The last time had been quick and unsatisfying in a bathroom stall, with a condom tucked in Minseok's wallet and too much whiskey in his bloodstream. His wallet has never been restocked since, and he's consistently turned down the prospects brought to him by the prince.
Minseok is okay with this, because Luhan is pliant lips and gentle moans and teeth that graze and tongue like liquid. His efforts are soft and worshipping in Minseok's mouth. Against Minseok's neck. On the underside of his jaw, the base of his throat. Over the sensitive curves and tips of his ears. His eyelids, his temples.
Minseok is perfectly sober, but he thinks this might be what true intoxication feels like.
Part 3