A Starlit Kiss (Taekook au)

5

The second time they come closer, Taehyung asks Jeongguk about himself. What Jeongguk does not tell him is how hearing his name still shakes him up from the inside.

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When Jeongguk walks inside the dining hall, everyone else is already seated. The maids are carrying inside trays and dishes with food. Sunlight from the clerestory windows reflects on the polished plates and other utensils. It falls on the people sitting around the table- his elder brother Jeongin and Prince Taehyung, mirrors on the rings the Prince is wearing and Jeongguk looks. Gazes the propriety with which the other Prince engrosses himself in a conversation with the King. The Queen talks gently with a smile on her face, directing the maids to place the dishes on the table.

The room smells delicious, looks beautiful, but the young Prince cannot seem to take his eyes away from the light that falls on Taehyung’s hair, face, and his eyes, dances across him, illuminates his features like it did some the day before. The sunlight looks as if it is spilling out of Taehyung- golden, makes him look ethereal and Jeongguk just can not take his eyes off of him.

He moves to walk towards Taehyung, just as the Queen had told him the night before, knows he has to sit on the chair placed on his right. Taehyung catches his eye. For a moment, the flitting thought of Taehyung smiling at him goes to cross his mind. Then he does- the corners of Taehyung’s lips tug upwards kindly. Jeongguk finds himself stopping his movements altogether. Steps faltering, he wishes that the Prince that sits across from him would not stop.

The Queen clears her throat and makes Jeongguk start. Shy at getting caught staring, he goes to sit beside Taehyung with red cheeks. When the dishes have stopped coming out of the kitchen, Taehyng asks quietly about the ones he prefers. Jeongguk feasts his eyes on the deft movements of Taehyung’s hands as they put together portions of the dishes that he has listed. Whispers a quiet thank you when Taehyung places the plate in front of him, taking the empty one from his side and making one for himself.

Taehyung converses quietly with him. “You cut your hair,” and Jeongguk almost tells him how he did it so Taehyung could have all the more reason to tuck it behind Jeongguk’s hair, maybe trace his fingertips on Jeongguk’s skin again, but instead bodes on saying, “You noticed.”

Taehyung smiles at him, tells him that he likes the way his hair frames around his face, asks him if he cut it himself, and Jeongguk smiles when he says his thank you, and yes, he had indeed given himself the haircut.

Jeongguk smiles, not because the Queen had advised him to, but because it comes without trying. Like Jeongguk had not had to align the fates and stars and planets to have Taehyung looking at him.

Jeongguk is aware of the Queen’s gaze on him. When he raises his own to meet it, he finds her trying to hold her smile back, and feels warm. The four of them eat quietly, with occasional talks about their kingdom and Taehyung’s upcoming coronation. It is in three months. Which makes the event of their wedding to be just a little farther.

Three months, two weeks, and three days. Jeongguk counts inside his head.

When King Jeongin had talked about Jeongguk’s engagement with Taehyung, he had said that he wished for them to be married before Taehyung's coronation. The Queen had refused. Taehyung was one of her closest childhood friends, and she wanted to respect his wish; to be married after his coronation. Jeongguk had conceded with it, even though he was eager for the wedding himself. If he got through with the wedding, it would seem too real to step back out of it, and he wanted to ground himself to something.

When they are done with their meals, the King tells Jeongguk that they had received a letter from his elder sister, that she would be visiting. Jeongguk registers the words ‘letter’ from his brother’s mouth, remembers the ones he had sent, remembers the kind smiles that Taehyung had sent them whenever they met eyes, and proceeds to ask his brother about the details of his sister’s sojourn; the ones left unanswered tucked in a quiet black corner of his mind.

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soooo ,, thoughts ??