"he's so handsome!"
"no guards?"
"we should invite him!"
clearing his throat, soonyoung nodded slightly before turning back around. "wait!" another one called out, "please excuse my rudeness but i was wondering if you would like to come to our party! it's starts in 30 minutes in that bar over there!" the girl pointed way down the street to an illuminated building.
"u-um.." he's never been invited to a party like this before. the only "parties" he's been to were the grand balls in the palace. before he could respond the group dashed away giggling things like "he's so cute!" "do you think he'll actually come?"
staring at the darkening sky, soonyoung thought two things. how did the girls recognize his face? he was wearing a cloak over his head this entire time... and maybe he should've waited for tomorrow because it was getting dark fast and soonyoung had no idea where to stay or what to do.
"your entire attire doesn't exactly scream 'i'm a regular person, not a royal!' " soonyoung jumped when he heard a voice by his ear. he pulled back his fist and punched the cloaked person.
the person calmly caught soonyoung's fist with one hand and pulled back his hood with the other revealing a familiar blond haired boy. "jisoo!" he hissed, pulling back his fist, "what are you doing here? how did you get out?"
"i have my ways," he replied back cryptically. "anyways, your cloak isn't super shabby and obviously looks expensive... and your hair.."
"hold up, hold up. how did you know my thoughts?"
jisoo ignored his question and tousled soonyoung's silver hair. "...you look the same.." soonyoung sighed and pulled jisoo's hand away from his head.
"i told you not to follow me!" he whined.
"you think i'm going to listen to that?" jisoo said, "it's getting dark soonyoung, what were you planning to do?"
the prince was at loss of words. "i.."
"see? just let me stick around to make sure you won't die." soonyoung gave up.
"fine."
jisoo smiled his signature charming smile and looked happily at soonyoung. "now let's go find a place to stay." soonyoung grabbed jisoo's arm, halting him.
"actually... let's go to that bar over there." why not right?
messing his hair up a little bit more, buying a new set of "regular" clothing and switching cloaks with jisoo, soonyoung finally deemed himself "normal" looking enough to go inside. jisoo did want to remind soonyoung what his goal was but decided to stay silent. why not let the prince have some fun every once in a while?
the bar was larger on the inside than it looked. it was filled with wooden tables and loud , boisterous laughter. soonyoung blinked taking in his surroundings and all the people. there were already some drunk people dancing around and spilling drinks, music flowed from a small stage on the side with people singing and playing all sorts of instruments.
"i've never seen anything like this!" soonyoung said excitedly to jisoo. pulling the blond boy, he walked up to the bartender. a tough looking old lady stood behind the desk and nodded in soonyoung's direction. soonyoung stood there, not knowing what to do.
"one beer please," jisoo said from beside, saving soonyoung. the old lady squinted at soonyoung.
"you look familiar.. i feel like i've seen your face before." she placed a glass full of amber liquid in front of the boys and soonyoung laughed lightly and pulled out a coin.
"don't worry about it."
grabbing the drink he and jisoo sat down on some spare seats near the end of the counter beside some burly men. looking at the drink, he took a gulp and scrunched his nose. "this stuff is.. interesting." jisoo smiles at his reaction.
"where do you plan on going?"
soonyoung continued drinking his drink, "wherever my feet lead me. preferably not nytis or bodira.. what other kingdoms are there?" maybe it was the alcohol getting to his head or maybe he really didn't know, he never paid much attention to class anyways.
"how about we get a map tomorrow and actually do some planning?"
"planning?" soonyoung whined, "that's boring..." he stretched his arms out on the counter accidentally knocking over someone's drink in the process. "oops." the liquid spilled off the wooden counter and onto the lap of a grumpy looking man. the red faced man looked at soonyoung with a scowl.
jisoo could sense something bad coming. "come on youngie, let's get out of here. it's best if we don't mess with muscled drunk guys."
"sorry," the prince said awkwardly, his brain buzzing with alcohol. the man stood up from this chair, towering over the two boys. "hehe, gotta go now! see you around!" soonyoung turned to follow jisoo but was held back by someone holding onto the edge of his cloak.
"you think you can get away with a 'sorry' after spilling a drink on me?" the man said drunkenly. four other men stood up behind him. "why don't my friends and i teach you a lesson?"
"no thanks." soonyoung said cheerily before yanking his cloak and rushing out the door with jisoo. he heard the man yell something and heavy footsteps followed him out the door into the night. jisoo sighed, soonyoung getting into trouble again. "oh shit, what do we do now?" soonyoung asked.
"go find somewhere to hide. i'll be calling for you later."
"gotcha." soonyoung's drunk mind hadn't processed the fact that he was leaving jisoo to deal with five angry, drunk men and headed off with a smile. he spotted a cart full of hay down the road and buried himself in the golden straws. the last thing he remembered thinking was hay makes a decent bed.
jisoo stared at the five burly men in front of him. "where did your little friend run off to?" one of them snarled. "we wouldn't mind beating you up first though." the others howled and laughed.
the blond haired boy may not be as good of a sword fighter as soonyoung but he did train for years to protect the prince in times like these. in other words, jisoo was not as weak as he looked.
smiling angelically, he cracked his knuckles with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "okay then, shall we begin?"
