Taemin brushed his fingers over his own tingling lips. His knees felt shaky, and his head was still spinning. His heart clenched painfully in his chest and a tear finally trailed down his cheek. He quickly brushed it away. He thought he was done crying, after he had done so much of it when he arrived here.

The fact that he had feelings for Minho was finally starting to sink in. He had known that he had grown closer to the Prince in the last few weeks, but the realization that he had romantic feelings toward Minho shocked him. What was he supposed to do now? Minho had made it clear that he was only attracted women. And Taemin may look like a woman sometimes, but he definitely had the male anatomy to prove he wasn’t.

That was it, wasn’t it? Minho had only kissed him, because he looked like a girl.

The thought made Taemin sick to his stomach. The idea of Minho taking advantage of him like that pained him, especially now that Taemin was aware of his growing feeling toward the older boy.

Taemin finally moved from the spot he had be frozen at in the middle of the room and made his way to the bed.

He settled on the soft blankets and resisted the urge to cry.

Minho didn’t come back to their room that night.

~~~~~

Minho avoided him for the next few days, and it only deepened Taemin’s growing depression.

“Is something wrong, Princess?” IU asked as she brushed the back of his hair. It was beginning to grow out even more, already passed his shoulders. He imagined how much his mother would nag him about it if she were there.

He had spent much of the last few days with IU, seeing as Key was spending most of his time with Jonghyun. He had grown fond of her in the short amount of time, and she helped fill the loneliness Minho’s absence had created.

He sighed deeply before answering. “It’s just…nevermind…”

“You can tell me anything, Princess. I swear, I won’t tell a soul.” She stopped to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. “And I don’t like seeing you so sad.”

He smiled at her words and turned around to face her. “Alright, but I’ll only tell you on one condition.”

“What is it?”

“Please stop calling me Princess. Just ‘Taemin’ is fine.” He had told her to call him by his name many times already, but she couldn’t seem to break the habit of calling him ‘Princess’.

She laughed lightly. “I’ll try. Now, please tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Well, I…I’m just not sure about Minho’s feelings toward me. We had a bit of a misunderstanding a few days ago, and now he’s avoiding me. I just…don’t know what to do.”

IU stared at him with a blank expression. “Well…you should speak with him,” she said bluntly, as though it were the most obvious thing.

“B-But…”

“Avoiding each other isn’t going to do any good. If he said anything hurtful during your argument, I’m sure he didn’t mean it. People say things they don’t mean when they’re upset.”

Taemin chuckled at her logic. It was simple and obvious, but she was completely right. The only thing he could really do was confront Minho, and ask him directly. Even if he didn’t like the answer Minho gave, he would have to accept it. He couldn’t leave this situation alone any longer.

“I suppose you’re right.”

~~~~~

OK, so wondering around the palace to look for Minho may not have been a brilliant idea, but after talking to IU he was eager to talk to the older boy.

He walked through the halls carelessly, searching left and right for the Prince. He gave up trying to recognize where he was and just wandered around aimlessly.

As he hurried around a corner, he ran into a solid surface and lost his balance, falling back onto the hard floor. “Oww…” He looked up to see that he had run into the muscled chest of Byungchol.

The older boy scowled, not bothering to offer a hand to help Taemin up. “Watch where you’re going little girl.”

 Taemin scoffed as he stood up. “It was an accident.”

“You should have more respect and apologize!” Byungchol took his arm in a bruising grip. Taemin winced but his expression remained calm. “I did nothing wrong, you’re the one who’s being rude.”

Byungchol tightened his grip. “Don’t talk back to me you stupid little girl. You think you’re so high and mighty as Minho’s Princess, but let me tell you something: You’re nothing.” The Prince leaned forward, his disgusting breath invading Taemin’s smell. “I will crush you.”

Taemin tried to pull his arm from the man’s grip but he held tight. “Let. Go.” He growled.

Both of them turned their heads at the sound of footsteps, and Byungchol quickly released Taemin’s arm.

“Oh…What’s going on?” Jaejoong stared at them with wide, curious eyes.

“Nothing,” Byungchol answered curtly. “She bumped into me and didn’t bother to apologize. Such a rude, ignorant commoner…”

“Byungchol! Don’t speak that way about her; she’s going to be your sister soon!” Jaejoong rushed to Taemin’s side and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Much to Taemin’s surprise, he felt immediate comfort in her embrace.

“Tch…Don’t try to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do. You’re not my mother, you’re nothing but a my father uses.” Byungchol scowled and turned around to walk away, leaving Taemin with his mouth agape. He looked to Jaejoong to see the hurt evident in her eyes.

“Jaejoong, I’m so sorry. You didn’t have to-“

“No, no, it’s quite alright,” she shook her head, chuckling hollowly. “He’s always been that way towards me, it’s nothing new.”

“Oh…that’s terrible,” Taemin gave her a sympathetic glance.

“Well, he’s cruel to almost everyone, really. I’m no exception,” Jaejoong brushed the hair from Taemin’s eyes and scanned his face. “He didn’t harm you, did he?”

Taemin shook his head, “No, he was just being an .”

Jaejoong laughed loudly, “Little Princess’ shouldn’t curse, Taemin.”

“This little Princess does whatever the hell she wants.” At that, Jaejoong laughed even louder and Taemin couldn’t help but laugh along with her.

“Alright little rebel Princess,” Jaejoong said, trying to catch her breath, “Let’s get you to Minho.”

Taemin sobered almost immediately at the Princes name. After his encounter with Byungchol and Jaejoong, he had almost forgotten the reason he had even been in the halls.

Jaejoong led him through the palace, and it took them quite a while to reach Minho. When they arrived in front of tall double doors, Jaejoong knocked softly. A deep ‘come in’ followed quickly after and Jaejoong pushed the door open slowly, leading Taemin inside.

Almost a dozen men were gathered around a circular table in the middle of the room. They all glanced up curiously as Taemin and Jaejoong slipped in the room.

Taemin’s eyes finally met Minho’s widened ones, and he averted his gaze quickly. He already felt nervous just getting a look at the older boy.

“Prince Minho, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Jaejoong bowed. “Your Princess got a little lost in the halls and ran into a bit of trouble. I thought I should bring her too you.”

Minho’s brow furrowed at the word ‘trouble’ and he gave Taemin a questioning glance. “Oh, well, thank you Jaejoong. You two can take a seat somewhere if you’d like.”

“Thank you, but I was just showing Taemin where you were. I’ll be taking my leave.” Jaejoong gave a brief smile and a bow before walking out the door.

Taemin shuffled awkwardly to a chair and did everything he could to avoid Minho’s eyes as he took a seat. The men slowly averted their gazes from Taemin and returned to their conversation.

“I say we attack, there’s nothing to lose,” Taemin glanced over to see that an older man, a bit plump and short, had spoken as he looked around the table with a hard gaze.

“You’re wrong, there is far too much to lose. It is foolish to start a pointless war over something we can settle peacefully,” Minho challenged. “My father would never approve of it anyways.”

“But Prince, we need those supplies, and we gave many attempts to speak to them peacefully, but they refuse. They are demanding more supplies from us or they will stop trading with us,” another argued.

“It’s that brat of a King. Ever since his father died and he took over, everything had gone downhill. There is no negotiating with him.”

“Alright, I acknowledge that we have tried peaceful methods, but we cannot resort to war so quickly. We shouldn’t rush into this foolishly, we can settle this another way,” Minho was becoming irritated quickly.

“E-Excuse me,” Taemin couldn’t believe he had the courage to join the conversation, but after listening to them, he had to at least try to put in his input. “I-I um I have an idea.” Every man in the room looked at him as though he had said something outrageous, even Minho seemed shocked. Taemin stood up and slowly made his way over to the table. “The King obviously needs your supplies more than you need theirs. He is only doing this because he expects you to back down and give in; he thinks he will win easily in the end. To me, it doesn’t sound much like he cares for the supplies, but more for control over you.” Taemin shocked himself with his own words, but he felt confident in his opinion.

The room was silent for a moment, all of the men staring at Taemin with mouths slightly agape. He could see Minho from the corner of his eye, a small smile gracing his lips.

“That-well, she-she makes a good point,” One of the men finally sputtered out.

“Thank you,” Taemin smiled. “Now, you obviously can’t listen to his demands and allow him to have control over this country, but you also need to avoid war. I say you cut off your supplies to him completely. He obviously needs it desperately if he is demanding more of it, so I suspect that he will be the one to give in first.”

All of the men glanced around at each other, baffled by Taemin’s words. “That’s…actually a decent plan,” one of them finally spoke, giving Taemin a small smile.

“This is ridiculous! Are we really going to listen to woman’s opinion onaffairs of the kingdom!?” Taemin wasn’t even a woman, and he felt strangely offended by the comment.

“Well, her opinion is obviously more intelligent than any of ours on this situation, so yes,” Taemin gave the man a grateful smile.

“Let us take a vote,” Minho said. “I will present the plan to my father if a majority of us agree.”

Taemin try to contain his excitement as seven of the nine men voted in his favor.  He felt…proud.

He just hoped Minho was proud of him too.

When the meeting was adjourned, Taemin stayed behind as Minho chatted with a few of them before they left.

The thud of the doors closing echoed throughout the room, both of them completely silent. Taemin wasn’t sure how to begin, so he waited for Minho to speak first.

Minho slowly made his way to the bookshelf, fingers brushing along the spines, when he finally spoke, “That was great, Taemin, brilliant really.”

So he was going to play this game, huh? Just pretend like nothing happened? “Minho-“

“It was risky; many men don’t believe it’s right for women to be involved in these kind of affairs. But I’m glad you did it.”

“Minho-“

“I was a bit surprised, honestly. I didn’t expect you to jump in and say something so tactful, but you’re always surprising me. You-“

“Minho!”

Minho whipped around, eyes finally falling on Taemin. The boy looked at him desperately, frustration evident in his features. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and his eyes sparkled with angry tears. The site of him in that state made Minho’s chest constrict painfully. “Don’t…don’t do this to me. Just stop, alright? Stop ignoring me, stop avoiding me, stop acting like nothing happened!”

“Taemin, you-you have to understand. What we did was wrong and-“

“No! You kissed me!” He yelled, coming closer and jabbing a finger in Minho’s chest. “And then you left me standing there feeling like an idiot for thinking it meant something to you!”

“I-I-“ Minho didn’t know what to say to the angry boy in front of him. He didn’t know how explain that it did mean something to. And that’s what scared him the most.

“Am I just some pretty little toy you can show off to people and play around with? Is that what I am to you? After everything I’ve done for you; pretending to be a woman, putting up with your psychotic brother, and lying to everyone, you’re just going to toy with me like this?”

“No! Taemin, I care about you, I do! In the beginning, I may have just needed you so I could become king, and yes, I still need you for that now, but I truly do care for you. Kissing you…it was a mistake, it was wrong, it was disgusting-“ As soon as those last words slipped out of his mouth, he knew how wrong they sounded.

Taemin stepped back, hurt marring his features. “You…you think I’m disgusting?” He whispered.

“T-Taemin, I didn’t mean it like that, I just-“ Kissing Taemin was far from disgusting. It was the best feeling in the world, Taemin’s soft pink lips against his own. It was the emotions he felt towards Taemin that disgusted him, they were so unnatural to him. He was taught that men were supposed to be attracted to women, plain and simple. The feelings he had scared him.

Taemin let out a pained laugh. “No, no, I get it. I just- I thought I wasn’t the only one with these feelings, but I guess since I disgust you, there’s no way you could ever feel-“

“You don’t disgust me, Taemin, I promise you that. I- I disgust myself, I disgust the feelings I have for you, because they just aren’t right. There’s just no way we could have anything together, it’s unnatural-“

“Minho, do you have feelings for me?”

“That’s not the-“

“Do you have feelings for me?” Taemin asked a little louder, stepping closer to the Prince.

“Yes! I do, alright!” Minho yelled in the younger boy’s face, eyes wide and teeth clenched. Taemin was unfazed by his anger. “I do, and I hate it that I do,” Minho pulled at his own hair, feeling as though he were going insane with the conflict in himself.

He expected Taemin to yell at him again, but the boy simply placed a soft hand on his cheek, gazing at him sympathetically. “It’s alright if you do, Minho. I know how much you think it’s wrong, but it’s not, it’s-“

Minho pulled him closer, one hand on his hip and the other tangled in his hair “But I can’t love you,” he whispered, leaning his forehead on the younger boy’s. “It’s so...unnatural.”

“Love is a natural thing, Minho,” Taemin’s lips were dangerously close to his own, but he didn’t pull away. He enjoyed the hot, sweet breath on his lips. “So if we love each other, what is so ‘unnatural’ about us being together?”

“I-I don’t-“ Minho had no reply to that, he didn’t want to admit that what Taemin said sounded so right. So he stopped trying to fight it, and smashed his lips onto Taemin’s in a desperate kiss.  It was intense, tongues dancing and teeth clashing, as Minho pulled Taemin’s thin body as close as possible.

“I love you,” Taemin mumbled between kisses. He clawed desperately at Minho’s hair, breathing heavy and cheeks flushed. Minho didn’t reply, but he didn’t care. The fact that Minho was finally accepting it was enough.

“I love you too…I love you, so much…even if I’m scared to.”

~~~~~

Byungchol pushed the doors open, not bothering to knock, and they smashed against the wall. He charged in fiercely, taking large strides toward the woman in the room.

“Why haven’t you done anything yet, Mother? No one will shut up about that stupid little ! At this rate, Minho will win!”

Sujung stood up gracefully, staying calm despite her son’s hostility. “Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you honestly think I have nothing planned?”

Byungchol faltered,” Well, I- you haven’t done anything yet. And she is slowly gaining fame here. Did you hear that she was discussing military strategies with the council!? And they acknowledged her ideas, they think she’s just brilliant. I don’t know what has come over these idiots on the council!”

“Byungchol, calm down.” The man stopped his ranting, sobering at his mother’s words. “You think I don’t know this already? You think I don’t know how the little has charmed them all?” She growled. “Do you really think I wouldn’t have a plan by now?”

“I’m sorry, Mother,” Byungchol bowed his head. “I trust you, I do. I’m just frustrated.”

Sujung approached her son, petting his hair softly. “Don’t worry, honey. I’m going to make her suffer.”

~~~~~

A/N:

OMG I'M SO SORRY FOR TAKING FOREVER TO UPDATE ;~;

I'm such a bad author!

I hope you all haven't forgotten about this fic...

Forgive me?