𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇. enhypen

twenty-four

Sunoo brought his head close, resting his forehead on hers. Dark strands of his hair fell across Jihye's face as his chest rose and fell with each breath he drew in. "Did you just light the fireplace with Magic?"

"Too much?" Jihye asked in a murmur, gently twirling different locks of Sunoo's hair with her fingers.

The fire's blaze brightens his dark eyes with warm drops of honey. "Just a bit unsettling." Sunoo admits.

They both laugh lightly, and once their giggles die down, Jihye gazes over him with a loving and earnest stare. "Hi." Jihye whispered, unable to keep from smiling.

Sunoo's hand comes up to her hair and gently brushes it back, his content eyes meeting her with an undefeatable feeling of bliss. "Hello." Sunoo whispered back with crescent eyes.

Before Jihye can stop herself, her mouth autonomously opens to confess. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to kiss you."

"Maybe if you said that sooner, we could have been doing this for a while now." Sunoo clutches her arms delicately as he gazes into her eyes, the only constellations he has ever had interest to see.

His heart beats profusely fast just as Jihye's does, ardently pounding, too passionate to withhold. Without missing a beat, Jihye supplies. "Why didn't you say it then?"

"I think the reasons are quite obvious." Sunoo hums, and with how close she is, Jihye can practically feel the vibrations of his chest.

Jihye furrows her eyebrows, one of her hands sliding from his hair to his face with delicacy. "Would you mind elaborating?"

Head tilting to the side, Sunoo's gaze roves over Jihye. "Need I remind you why there are three Princes staying in the castle?"

Those sad words plummets Jihye's heart to the ground, and Sunoo can see it at the slight twitch of her lips. "What a way to kill the ambience." She grumbles as she dropped her arms to her sides.

Sunoo laughed quietly, the sound causing a flutter in Jihye's chest. "You're the one who asked for elaboration."

"Yes, but you could have said something much more sugar coated." Jihye's words fade, her vision falling to the ground.

"Like what?" Sunoo counters, becoming eye-level with her as a fondness weighs over his features. "That every time I look into your eyes I become so bewitched that I forget how to declare my adoration for you?"

"That would've been a good start." A sheepish smile crept onto her lips, and Sunoo amusedly rolled his eyes.

"I thought my feelings were obvious and you were very aware of them but didn't want to address it." With each word, the distance between them grows shorter. As Sunoo nears her, Jihye draws back stunned at his revelation.

All this time Jihye had doubted Sunoo's feelings towards her. She believed herself to be observant- but apparently not observant enough.

Jihye plops down onto her lavish bed and lounges her back against her plush headboard to regard Sunoo.

The muscles of her throat dry and so she swallows thickly in a bid to lubricate them. Mouth parting, Jihye says. "You're very hard to read at times. There are moments when I can't tell what you're thinking." Sunoo's actions simply struck her as a friendly regard. Despite her gift of observance, Jihye could not accurately discern anything concerning his romantic feelings, especially towards her.

"Perhaps reading too many books made you oblivious then." The instant Jihye feels the weight of him lay on the silk sheets, her spine shudders.
"Even my father was able to tell." He informs her, attempting to change topics in order to ease the frustrated look on Jihye's face.