It was several days later that Jackson had stormed into the waiting room with the silliest look on his face. His face look smug yet it was smugness that was horribly attempting to hide behind a wide grin.
He took a seat on the couch, well, more like threw himself on it and spread himself across it as if he were some sort of king.
"What's up with you?" Kim Jun-myeon asks curiously, turning away from the rest of the candidates who were also questioning the man's actions.
"Had my date with the king yesterday," he responds, humming to himself.
"So?" Jun-myeon presses on, "A lot of us have had our date with the king already."
"Yeah, but none of you got what I got?"
Jimin caught himself looking at Seokjin and wondering what could Jackson have possibily gotten, hoping it was nothing that would upset his friend.
"Hurry up and spill," Kim Mingyu says, walking over, several other doing the same and crowding around the couch.
"You'll see everything when the episode airs tonight, but since I can't keep you all waiting. Since you're all dying to know-"
"Get to the point, Jackson," BM ordered.
"Fine, fine." He sat up, leaning in as if to whisper some amazing secret. Everyone involuntarily leaned in to listen. "The King and I kissed."
From his spot, Jimin saw Seokjin freeze and grip his tea cup handle tightly, his fingers going white.
"No way," someone protested.
"Yes way," Jackson said. "It was super romantic."
Some of the candidates cooed, others looked furious, others seemed a bit suspicious and Jimin knew why. Everyone knew that the person that person that the king paid the most attention to was Seokjin, why would he suddenly kiss Jackson? Did they have a new candidate to keep their eyes on? Was someone else hiding the fact that the King also kissed them?
Had the King kissed anyone else? Jimin glanced at Jin, surely yes, but he was not one to ask.
"Whoa now, that's too personal," Jackson laughed when someone asked him if it had been an intimate kiss, he brushed his hair back and smirked, "No details needed. All you guys need to know is that I have now surpassed all of you. The crown is mine."
Jimin couldn't help to notice how Jackson expressed himself. The crown was his. Not once did he mention the King being his. It went to show his true intentions.
The others kept pressing Jackson on, asking for more details. The smug candidate wouldn't have it, saying that it was a sweet secret between him and the King.
It made Jimin feel sick and he could tell that it was bothering Seokjin as well. His friend's face was pale, he wasn't drinking his tea and he hadn't moved since the announcement.
There was a certain level of sentiments that Seokjin was feeling. It took him a while to identify the feeling. He knew he was jealous, that was evident, he always got jealous when it came to Namjoon. But this new feeling, yeah, he had never felt it before.
Rage, absolute rage.
He stood from his seat, excusing himself from the room, washing his cup before leaving. Jimin watched him go, debating whether or not to follow him.
Seokjin walked out too fast for anyone to be able to follow him.
Oh yeah, he was angry.
A kiss, really? The absolute nerve of him. Curse Namjoon if such a thing was true. Was he really forgetting about him so easily? Was he just playing along with the whole act? Did he enjoy the kiss? Did he ever really enjoy the kisses they shared between them?
His heart wasn't sad like previous times that he heard such news. If anything he felt a strong desire to win Namjoon back, he was just suddenly doubting if he had the ability to do such a thing. He also had the profound desire to punch Jackson, but that would earn him an instant elimination, and he couldn't have that.
Taehyung was in their room, reading a manga that Seokjin had no idea where he was getting them from. His brother looked up from it as Seokjin shut the door behind him, he raised a brow.
"You okay?"
Seokjin threw himself back first onto the bed, "Namjoon and Jackson kissed during their date."
Tae put his book away, "Need me to leave so you can empty your tear sockets for a bit?" He was used to this by now. Knowing that when his hyung was sad the best thing to do was to leave him alone for a while. Seokjin didn't like anyone seeing him cry. He still felt he always had to be the 'strong hyung' that everyone could rely on.
But Taehyung knew his hyung was absolutely weak when it came to Namjoon. The King tore through Jin's defenses as if they were nothing, as if all those years of building them didn't exist. This made Taehyung himself fear love. Was it possible for him to break down like that over some guy in the name of love?
A certain person came to his mind but he instantly shook that off.
Seokjin glared at him, "I'm not going to cry. I'm just...mad? Why did he kiss him?"
"Knowing Jackson, he probably threw himself on the King."
"Can he do that?"
Tae shrugged.
Seokjin sighed and covered his eyes with his arm. In a competition where the King was courting 30 different men you couldn't help but doubt a man's loyalty. He at least knew that Taehyung was on his side and it seemed that Jimin was also rooting for him.
Everyone else was a menace. If it were someone genuinely nice and caring then Seokjin could possibly let go easily, knowing that Namjoon could be happy despite Seokjin's heart being crushed.
However, he knew that most of them were after the crown.
You could easily spot those contestants. They were the ones who would order expensive suits and accessories because they never knew when they would get it wear it again. The ones who kept talking about them being King instead of them being married to the King. The ones who's eyes didn't light up when they spoke about the King. The ones who tried to impress instead of wanting simply to be loved as they are.
"I love him," Seokjin admits, his voice a soft whisper, more to himself than to Tae. "It hurts thinking that there's always the possibility that it can't be me."
"It will be you," Tae assures, running his fingers through his Hyung's blond locks, "I've seen the way he looks at you, Hyung. He can't look at anyone else like he does you."
Every time they're together, Seokjin notices how Namjoon's eyes light up at the sight of him. How quick he is to pull him into a tight embrace, how his voice softens when he speaks to him and how he shows that words can't describe how he feels and simply kisses him and makes him feel irreplaceable.
That wasn't an act, was it?
He's not secretly doing this with anyone else, is he?
There was a knock at the door, Taehyung hops off the bed to open it. After a few seconds, Taehyung calls him over. Seokjin sighs and pushes himself off the bed and walks over, stopping as soon as he sees who was at the door.
Namjoon had this big grin on his face. Seokjin didn't know why that grin was irking him today.
"Yes, Your Highness?" he says as he composes himself and meets him at the door. Tae simply whistles at the sudden tension and mumbles something about going to meet Jimin before slipping away.
Namjoon doesn't seem to catch the venom in the elder's voice, he lets himself in and shuts the door behind him. "You're not getting ready?"
Seokjin blinks and furrows his brows. "Ready for what?"
The King stares at him for a bit as if to see if he's joking. "Our date?" he reminds him, "It's your turn."
Oh.
Amidst his anger and jealousy, Seokjin had completely forgotten that he was on the list after Jackson, despite him counting the days till it was his turn.
"You forgot." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Namjoon sounded a bit disappointed and that for some reason tugged at Seokjin's heart.
"I'm sorry," he said softly.
Namjoon waved his hands around in front of him. "No, no. It's not a problem, its just...I thought you were looking forward to it."
"I was," he admits.
"Was?" the King asks. He purses his lips together, thinks for a moment, the few seconds of silence tense. "Seokjin," he reaches out, grabs the older males's hand gently, rubs the back of his hand with his thumb, "Have I done something to anger you?"
Seokjin doesn't answer. Namjoon is looking at him straight in the eyes, he couldn't think with those beautiful eyes looking at him like he mattered. He feels his eyes start burning. He's angry. Angry at himself, angry at Namjoon, angry at stupid Jackson.
"You kissed Jackson," he blurts out.
Namjoon's brows come together, "What?"
He couldn't hold back, he started rambling. "Jackson was bragging this morning about how you kissed him. He said it was nice and romantic and it made me mad because you're not supposed to kiss anyone other than me. Then I thought about it and realized that there's a possibility that all of this is just for show and that you probably do this with all the other candidates and there's probably a camera recording right now and-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Namjoon said, his hands flying up to cup his face, "Seokjin," he rubbed his thumbs against his cheeks, Seokjin didn't realize that a few tears had escaped his eyes, "baby, why on earth would you think like this?"
"Because you kissed Jackson."
"I didn't kiss Jackson!" Namjoon says, "He just pecked me on the lips and ran away when I dropped him off in his room. It was completely involuntary on my part!"
Seokjin was going to kill Jackson.
Sighing, Namjoon looked at him again, "I only want to kiss you," he whispers, pressing their foreheads together, "I love you."
Is it the first time he ever said that to a person romantically? Seokjin guesses by the red stain on his cheeks that that was a yes.
"Say that again," he orders.
Namjoon blushes harder, yet he obliges. "I love you."
"Really?"
"Are you doubting me?" The King laughs.
Seokjin looks down, embarrassed, "I just can't believe you're really saying that to me."
Namjoon gently pushes his chin up, making their eyes meet, his face still red. "I love you," he says again, "I'll say it all the times you need me to."
The elder male felt his heart swell, he couldn't help but to smile. The words were on his lips, he was ready to say them back, letting him know that he felt the same way.
Then someone knocked on the door.
"Joon-ah, I know you're in there," General Min calls from the other side, "Get out, the camera crew is here."
Sighing, both males reluctantly pull away from each other. "Is our date still on?" Namjoon asks hopefully.
Seokjin nods.
"I need to get everything ready," Namjoon says walking over to the door, "What type of date do you have in mind?"
He thinks on that for a moment. Seokjin had always wanted a date on the country side, something simple. Yet from the very beginning he had something planned. "It's a surprise," he says with a smile on his face.
Namjoon stops, his hand on the door knob. "A surprise? But, I have to get everything ready."
With a smile still on his face, Seokjin walks over to him and reaches for the door knob, opening the door to see an impatient Min Yoongi on the other side. Seokjin gently pushes Namjoon out.
"The whole country will move rapidly by just receiving one call from you," Seokjin says, "Don't worry about it and just trust me."
His face seemed uncertain but yet he couldn't necessarily say that Seokjin's words were untrue. "Okay," he gave in, "I trust you."
Seokjin gave him a wide grin, "Good. I'll see you a bit."
And he shut the door before he leaned against it and pressed both his hands to cover his mouth, trying to hold back a squeal.
Namjoon said he loved him.