“Why are you laughing?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just really funny.  You actually thought I didn’t know?”

Mark was expecting yelling, horror, shock.  What he wasn’t expecting was Jaebum busting into the room, staring at them for a second, and then bursting out laughing.

Jinyoung was lying down in his bed, suffering from what he called ‘the worst headache of his life’ and he couldn’t even bother to deal with the situation.  “How did you find out?”

“It was kind of obvious.  Jackson mentioned he suspected something between you two at first, and he also said Mark definitely had a crush on you,” Mark made a mental note to add another nail into Jackson’s coffin.  “You guys were always together as well.  It was the only the logical conclusion that you guys were more than friends.”

“And you’re okay with that?”  Mark asked.

“Me?  I don’t really care about you guys being together, I just think it’s a really stupid idea considering the circumstances.  You both are just setting yourselves up to get hurt.”  Mark didn’t need Jaebum to once again remind them of reality. 

Jinyoung must’ve felt the same because he just rolled over his stomach and buried his face in his pillow.  “I know that, what do you suppose we do?  It’s a bit too late to undo the feelings we have for each other, I’ve realized,” Jinyoung’s voice was muffled by the pillow.  “Shall we hop in a device that lets us skip over to a generation that allows us to be together?  If only it were that simple.”  Hung-over Jinyoung was rather brazen, Mark noticed.

“I don’t have a perfect solution for you, but I think Sooyoung deserves to know the truth.”  Jaebum was leaning up against Jinyoung’s door, his face completely serious.

“You want us to tell her that we’re dating?  We’ve already decided that most people can’t be trusted with this information.  If the wrong person finds out…”  Mark started, as Jinyoung seemed unwilling to speak anymore.

“You don’t need to tell her that specifically, but I think she should know that you don’t want to go through with the marriage.  I know it’s impossible to withdraw at this point but you can’t lie and continue to say you like her.  I’m sure she knows the truth partially, it’s wrong to keep lying to her like this.”

He hated to admit that Jaebum was right.  The thought of shooting Sooyoung down just like that scared him, but he knew his web of lies was only going to get larger if he didn’t tell the truth.  “Alright, I’ll talk with her…”  Mark groaned inwardly, this was going to be rough.

Jaebum smiled at them, Mark decided that he understood why Jackson said he wasn’t as cold as he seemed.  He was always a realist but his personality was surprisingly warm once you got to know him.  “I’ll be leaving now, Jinyoung you need to go down for breakfast soon, and Mark you need to go down for brunch later with Sooyoung.”  Mark nodded, knowing that Jaebum meant he had to use that time to talk with her.  “I’ll be leaving now.” 

As soon as Jaebum Mark lay back on the bed and turned to Jinyoung.  “Can you breathe when your face is buried in the pillow like that?  Don’t suffocate.” 

Jinyoung rolled on his side so that they were face to face.  “Sorry, I drank my feelings away last night.  I should’ve just come to you first to apologize sober.”

“It’s alright, I’m just thankful you actually remember the whole ordeal.  I was worried you’d wake up still angry at me.”

“Don’t worry; I don’t think I’m going to blackout on just a bottle of wine.”  Jinyoung inched in closer so that he could throw an arm around Mark and pull him into a hug.

“So you also remember sticking your hand up my shirt last night?”  Mark smiled teasingly and Jinyoung flushed.  “Care to explain that?”

“I don’t remember that.”  Jinyoung tried to hide his face by burying it in Mark’s chest.

“You just said you remembered last night.”

“I have… selective memory I guess?  I only remember the important parts.”  It was obvious Jinyoung was lying but Mark thought it was cute that he was trying to maintain his innocence.

“Alright, whatever you say.”  Mark pulled his head up for a kiss but Jinyoung pulled back.

“Don’t, I probably taste like alcohol and death.”

“It’s okay.”  Mark pressed his lips to Jinyoung’s eagerly, putting a hand on the back of Jinyoung’s head and pulling him closer.  It wasn’t long until his tongue slipped past Jinyoung’s lips and he felt himself getting lost in the moment.

Jinyoung’s hand his thigh softly and Mark wasn’t sure if Jinyoung was doing it on purpose or not, but it felt so intimate and satisfying that Mark whimpered when Jinyoung pulled away and his hand left his leg.  “I can’t waste any more time, I need to go down for breakfast.” 

No matter how much Mark pouted he knew he couldn’t keep him.

“Don’t worry, we can continue later if you’d like.”  Jinyoung smiled and his eyes crinkled up and Mark was one hundred percent sure there was no way he’d ever have the heart to leave him.

An uneventful brunch went by with Sooyoung but he made sure she didn’t leave when it was over.  He grabbed her arm and said, “We need to talk.” In a serious enough tone that she knew it was important.  She gestured for him to follow her as she walked away.

Sooyoung looked more worried than she had ever been before.  Mark waited until she pulled them into a room with no servants buzzing around.  He gathered it was a large closet of sorts.  “Okay, we can talk here and nobody is going to overhear.”

Mark wished he had planned this out more beforehand, but he didn’t know how she would’ve reacted to him pulling out a piece of paper and reading it to her.  “It’s about the wedding… and the marriage in general.”

Sooyoung’s gaze darted around and Mark was still trying to think of a way to say this without crushing her completely.  “Yes, the wedding.”  Her voice sounded timid, different from her usual confident persona.

“Listen, I don’t think… I mean… It’s not… the wedding.  I… I…”

“I can’t do it!”

It took Mark a second to realize it wasn’t him who finally said that.  “Huh?”

Sooyoung looked up at him and broke down in tears.  “I really can’t do this… the wedding.  I’m… so sorry.” 

Mark was still trying to catch up with what was happening.  His first plan was to try and comfort Sooyoung who was trying to wipe away the tears that kept falling.  “Wait, don’t cry.”  Mark tried to take her into his arms but it ended up being really awkward.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way!  All this time I just thought I would get married and move out and live my life, but my father knows.  He has to know, he keeps questioning me and keeping tabs on me, even if I do manage to get out of here there’s no way he’d let me bring him like I planned.”

“Uh.  Sorry.  I’m really not sure what you’re talking about.”  Mark didn’t know what exactly was happening.

“Wait, weren’t you trying to call me out because you knew about my relationship?”  Sooyoung’s tears stopped for a moment.

“You’re in a relationship?”  Mark looked at her quizzically.

“Oh… so you didn’t find out.”  Sooyoung put her hands on .  “Oh no.”

The irony of the situation left Mark stunned.  “Are you telling me that this whole time, you were with someone?  Romantically?  Who’s not me?”

Sooyoung seemed to have realized there was no getting out of this one anymore, so she just nodded slowly.

“And, you were planning to marry me in hopes of moving out and eventually running away with this guy instead?”

“It’s a stupid idea; I should’ve known it would’ve never worked.  I was so silly… I just don’t know what to do.  I’m sorry I’ve been lying to you… there’s nothing I can say to redeem myself.  Feel free to tell my father I have wronged you, I deserve to be punished greatly.”

Mark didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.  “So, who’s the lucky guy?”

Sooyoung just looked up at him with confusion on her face.  “Excuse me?”

“Who are you dating?”  He asked sincerely.

Sooyoung, still dazes, decided to answer.  “Um, Sungjae.  You know him… I mean he’s kind of annoying but in an annoyingly cute way… and… wait a second.  If you didn’t ask me here to expose my relationship, what did you want to say?”

“Well since we’re sharing secrets, I was going to tell you that I have someone I like as well.  It didn’t feel proper to go through with this marriage without you knowing the truth.”  Sooyoung pushed him away from her and looked up at him in awe.

“You…. I have no right to say anything, do I?”  Sooyoung smiled her herself sadly.

“Since we’re in the same position, isn’t there a way we can fix this?”  Mark eyes lit up.  If they both wanted out of the marriage, there might be a way to stop this.

“I’m afraid there isn’t.  I’ve been looking into everything, but there’s a lot riding on this marriage, more than I knew about at least.  They’re treating this as sort of an alliance between our two nations; if anything were to happen to our bond it would affect the peace between our kingdoms.”  Mark’s eyes dimmed again at the realization. “My father has acted weird recently.  I think he knows about my relationship.  He even mentioned that he wants to push the wedding date up earlier…”

“What, earlier?”  This is the first Mark has heard this.

“He didn’t mention anything specific, but I’d stay on your toes.  He really wants to be alliances with all the kingdoms for some reason.  He even mentioned that he’s in the final stages of setting my brother up with a princess from the western kingdom to form an alliance there as well.”

Mark felt his gut twist and his chest clench.  “W-what, Jinyoung?  He’s said he doesn’t want to be arranged.”

“I doubt my father cares what he wants, he’s acting like he has some sort of bargaining chip to make sure he doesn’t decline.  I don’t know why he’s so sure he’ll agree, my brother and I are both as stubborn as he is.”

So many thoughts were coursing through Mark’s mind and every single one of them frightened him.

“Don’t worry about it too much, we still have time,” Sooyoung assured, although there was no way she could be sure about that.  “There has to be a way out of this… I’ll figure it out.”

Mark held out his hand for her to shake as if they were now partners in crime.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”

“You know, your sister is dating her personal servant.”

If Jinyoung was drinking something at that moment he would’ve spat it out.  “What?  Sungjae?  The annoying childish kid?”

“The one and only.”  Mark said calmly from the armchair he was sitting in the library.

“No!  Not him!  How dare he date my sister, he… wait.  My sister is dating someone that’s not you?”  Jinyoung finally realized what Mark was trying to tell him.

Mark gave him a look indicating he was telling the truth and Jinyoung looked at him shocked.  “I didn’t tell her we were together, though, I just told her I was in the same situation.”

“I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  Since both of you no longer want to get married, does it still have to happen?” 

“She also mentioned that your father is keeping tabs on her at all times and that if this marriage is unsuccessful it’s going to cause tension between our kingdoms.” 

“Tension? Are you saying that if you guys aren’t to be married we could declare war against them?  That seems a bit farfetched.”

Mark didn’t even want to think about the situation escalating that far.  “I really hope not.  It’s just one marriage.  Since your father doubts if we’re going to go through with it there could be a chance that he’s on to us or your sister.”

“I spoke to him this morning briefly,” Jinyoung’s face tensed. “He told me I will be getting arranged soon but I declined.  I didn’t want to talk to him any further so I left, but I know he’s not going to let it go.”

“So you know about the marriage to a princess from the western kingdom?  Sooyoung also said he’s thinking of pushing our wedding date up.”

Jinyoung got up and slid into the chair next to Mark despite there was only room for one person and he was half sitting right on Mark’s lap.  “No… we have to do something.”

Mark was tired of thinking about the future.  The situation was continuously getting more and more hopeless. 

“Mark,” Jinyoung looked up at him curiously.  “I know you’re a prince, but let’s say you weren’t.  You had to grow up and you weren’t automatically handed the throne when it came time to take over, what would you want to do?”

That was a strange question considering the situation.  “I hadn’t really thought about that.  There’s nothing that really interests me, I’ve always thought I would just grow old and inherit the throne.”

Jinyoung didn’t seem pleased with that answer.  “Is there nothing you’re passionate about?”

“I’m passionate about you.”  Jinyoung hit him lightly on the shoulder and Mark laughed.

“No!  I’m talking about hobbies, not people.”

“Jinyoungie, there has to be a reason you’re asking this, right?”  Mark had started off thinking Jinyoung was hard to read, but now he knew him so well there was nothing that got past him.

“I don’t know… I spend a lot of time thinking about what life would be like if I weren’t a prince.  Is that weird?”

“Not at all,” Mark hated to admit he didn’t have many prospects in life.  “Do you wish you weren’t a prince?  Is there something you’d like to pursue?”

Jinyoung fidgeted with the gold buttons on his shirt.  “You have to promise not to laugh if I tell you.”

“If it’s something you want to do, of course, I wouldn’t laugh.”

Jinyoung took exhaled deeply.  “If I weren’t a prince and I was just a commoner I’d really want to try acting.”

Mar’s first thoughts were maybe scholar or librarian, but actor was new.  “That’s…”

“I know!  It’s ridiculous.”  Jinyoung buried his face in his hands.

Mark understood why Jinyoung thought it was shameful, considering actors were usually among the very poor who worked at run-down halls putting on plays, they existed purely to be entertainment for those who were richer than them.  “If it’s something you’re passionate about it doesn’t make me think of you any lesser if that’s what you want to do.”  Jinyoung head slowly crept back up to face him. “I just didn’t realize you liked to act.”

“It’s something I’ve thought about since I was a child.  My parents made me take my studies very seriously and I knew there was no way it’d ever be able to happen, but still there’s no way I’m ever going to completely forget about it.”

 “I think you’d make an excellent actor, and a handsome one too.  Everyone would fall in love with you if you were to play the lead.”  Jinyoung raised an eyebrow at the comment but Mark just smiled at him.  “It’s true.”

“Don’t flatter me.  It’s never going to happen.”  Jinyoung leaned into mark so that he was fully on his lap, his head resting on Mark’s chest.   “Sometimes I just wish I could leave and live a normal life on my own, without royal titles.  It seems crazy, I know, but maybe we’re not as better off as we think we are.”

“I know what you mean.”  Life was harder in many ways, sure, but to exist without the fact that you weren’t required to marry someone you didn’t love was enough to be envious.

“I just want to start over.  I don’t want to be born Prince Park, I want to be born as Park Jinyoung the lowly boy who pursues his dream on acting and falls in love with Mark Tuan, not Prince Tuan, and they live secretly together, but happily.” 

Mark felt his heart tug as Jinyoung spoke.  “I’m sorry it had to turn out like this.”

“You should stop apologizing.  It’s not your fault this is the life the universe chose for us.  There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“I’ll make sure it happens.” 

“What happens?”  Jinyoung looked up at him.

“Us.  Your dreams.  Everything is going to be okay in the end…” 

Mark knew it was near impossible but maybe there was a way for them to continue on together, an escape, and a path to live a life of freedom.

“I’ll figure out a way to make this all work, no matter what it takes.”

A/N: I guess we can call this... the calm before the storm part 1? I think stuff is going to go down in the chapter after the next one... exciting. Sorry that this is shorter and so dialogue heavy... ALSO do I have any readers that watch sungjoy on we got married?? I just watched the last episode and I cried niagara falls... for a scripted show they were so real... i miss them already... 

Thank you so much for all your positive comments!!  You guys are my biggest motivation. :))