Synopsis: Kyungsoo is the prince of thieves and Jongin is the prince of vendors selling fruit. 

Word Count: ~2.7k

Kyungsoo was seven when he first had to steal food to survive for the day. A drop of sweat rolls down the side of his face from a mix between the sweltering heat and his nerves. His mother nudges him closer to the marketplace, unable to steal food herself after years of tricking the vendors and earning suspicious glares every time she walks near.

Kyungsoo turns back to his mother, eyes wide and fear written across his face. His mother nudges him again with an encouraging smile on her face, motioning with her head towards the marketplace vendors.

“Mom, I can’t do it. What if I get caught?” Kyungsoo stands at the edge of the entrance of the marketplace, pondering over if it’s really worth getting caught and having his hand chopped off for stealing. The vendors took pity on his mother countless times, allowing her to keep her hand. Would they take pity on Kyungsoo because he’s merely the tender age of seven? Kyungsoo isn’t sure he wants to risk it.

“If you don’t get us at least something, we’re both going to starve until we’re able to try again tomorrow,” his mother looks down dejectedly, feeling guilty for bringing her son into this situation.

Kyungsoo juts out his bottom lip, eyeing the vendors animatedly trying to sell their products to the bustling crowd of shoppers. Kyungsoo silently nods and takes shaky steps towards the entrance of the marketplace. He keeps his head down as he maneuvers through the crowd, taking quick glances at the vendors through his peripheral vision and sizing them up to see which one would be the easiest to steal from.

Kyungsoo spots a booth with people circling the front from all directions, looking at the products. He decides he will easily be able to slip between the crowd of people around the booth, grab whatever he can get his hands on, and silently slip away. Surely, the vendor wouldn’t notice. The plan is perfect in his seven year old mind.

Kyungsoo moves closer to the booth, parting the way by lightly shoving away the legs of the much taller adults, trying to greedily bargain the best deals with the vendor. Kyungsoo thinks that this is even more perfect, because the customers are constantly shouting things at the vendor as he scurries to get everything packed up in a small bag as well as take the customer’s money.

Kyungsoo reaches the front, sand scraping against his toughened bare feet, never being able to afford shoes since feeding themselves has almost been the most important. Eyes wide and frightened, he stares up at the vendor, making sure he’s distracted. Money is being shoved in the vendor’s face as bags are exchanged and he tries to not let the wind blow the money away that’s being carelessly placed on the counter. The vendor has more than enough distractions, Kyungsoo thinks.

He gets his ripped and worn bag ready at his side, wanting to quickly shove as much fruit in his bag as he can and get out of the vicinity before someone notices what he’s doing. Kyungsoo checks that no one is watching him one more time before he starts to discreetly shove the nearest fruits into his bag. He manages to get some apples, bunches of bananas, and some dragon fruit.

Kyungsoo is so focused on the man running the booth that he doesn’t notice a boy around his age, sitting behind the vendor, staring at him. Kyungsoo stops shoving fruit into his bag, eyes wide as he stares back at the little boy. He expects the little boy to look angry and ready to tell his dad what he saw, but none of that happens. The sun-kissed boy gets up, standing a little shorter than Kyungsoo’s height, and walks over to where the latter is. Kyungsoo gulps, hands shaking as he puts the dragon fruit that he was holding back down into the box on the booth’s counter.

The shorter boy tilts his head curiously, eyes shining in innocence, and then a smile spreads across his face. Kyungsoo is taken aback. He just got caught stealing from probably his dad’s or relative’s booth and the boy is smiling at him. What the boy does next shocks him even more.

The beautifully tanned boy reaches over to where Kyungsoo put the dragon fruit back, picks it up, and hands it over to Kyungsoo. The latter’s eyebrows knit together in confusion, eyeing the fruit in the boy’s hand like it’s poison; like it’s a trap. The boy urges him to take the fruit, side eyeing the man standing on the other side of the booth, silently letting Kyungsoo know that he better take the fruit before both of them get caught.

Kyungsoo quickly takes it and takes backward steps, becoming lost in the sea of people swarming the booth. Kyungsoo holds his bag close to him as he maneuvers back to where his mother is waiting for him, feeling like every person that looks at him knows what he just did. His mother praises him for successfully stealing his first batch of food. He should feel relief that he got it over with and managed to get food for the rest of the day but all he can think about is the sun-kissed boy’s kind smile and generous act.

Sixteen years later and Kyungsoo is now 23, master of stealing, earning him the title of the prince of thieves. Most people manage to get caught at least once within their first few years of stealing, and then more later on. For Kyungsoo, he has never gotten caught, stealing things smoothly like he was born to do it. Groups of thieves try to recruit him for bigger heists, where they steal money and jewels from affluent households. They know that with Kyungsoo, everything will run smoothly. Of course, Kyungsoo agrees as long as he manages to get at least 70% of what is stolen. Thieves reluctantly agree, realizing they can’t pull off heists this big without Kyungsoo’s help.

Despite his expertise in stealing just about anything his heart desires, he still goes back to that same fruit vendor booth he stole from when he was a child, most of the time not even bothering to be discreet. The beautiful tanned boy has fully