Rumor has it, Kang Seulgi had her heart completely shattered by her first love which can explain why she now avoids it like the plague. There’s also a rumor that he might’ve left her to become an idol because she did happen to attend the prestigious Seoul School of Performing arts alongside very famous idols but whenever Seulgi is asked, she just laughs it off before walking away. Wendy’s back at it with her matchmaking service after running into a cutie in the hallway and with her eyes set on Park PD, she decided he would be perfect for Seulgi instead.

“You can’t be alone forever!” Wendy exclaims as Hera exits her room into the living room. In the kitchen, Seulgi sighs with a cream cheese spread in her hand.

“You can’t also try to set me up with every single guy you think is cute either,” Seulgi retorts. “If you think he’s so cute, why don’t you go on the date.”

Hera shakes her head. “Yeah, she’s trying to get with Park PD.” She quickly swivels back to Wendy to stop whatever she was going to say next. “And no, you’re not getting his information until I am done with this internship.”

“That’s two more months I have to wait!” Wendy gasps with Seulgi snickering in the kitchen.

“Well,” Hera shrugs as she slips on her sneakers. “That’s too bad.”

“Where are you going so early in the morning?” Seulgi asks with an arm leaning against the wall and a bagel in her hand.

“I have to attend a meeting at the company,” Hera explains before slyly stealing the bagel out of Seulgi’s hands. “I’ll be back later!”

***

It’s been two weeks since the release of TaeTiSeo’s album and as expected, it immediately shot to number one and has stayed on top since. Since the release, Hera’s been flooded with praises from everyone around her including friends, families, professors and especially the staff at SM but even with all their praises, Hera’s been waiting to hear from one person. She’s a little disappointed that he hasn’t said anything and it’s almost like he’s avoiding her because ever since returning from LA, he’s been at the Ingrid studio instead of the company studio but Hera doesn’t know why he would want or need to avoid her. Did she do something wrong? The last time they spoke was at the MV shoot and it was strictly professional like how all their conversations are so why would he avoid her?

Hera knew her fate would be decided upon again after the release of TaeTiSeo’s album so after attending the meeting, it seemed like the company liked her work enough to let her stay in the advertising/marketing department, meaning she would also be working on NCT’s new subunit album with the team. Johnny is beaming from ear to ear as he jogs out of the conference room to catch up with Hera in the hall.

“Seems like we’ll be seeing lots of each other,” Johnny says with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his expensive jeans.

Hera matches his grin. “I guess so. I just hope you don’t get too annoyed of me.”

Johnny snickers. “I should be the one saying that.”

“Ah, just the person I was looking for.”

Both Hera and Johnny turn to the voice to find Chanyeol approaching them with a smile on his face and eyes set on Hera.

Hera points to herself. “Me?”

Chanyeol nods. “Mhm. I need you to clear your Saturday night schedule.”

Hera’s eyes widen at the odd request. “Why?”

“You’re one of the main art directors for TaeTiSeo’s album, you have to be at the celebratory party.” He gives her a small shrug. “Duh, Hera.”

“I’m not invited?” Johnny quickly chirps and Chanyeol turns to him with his finger wagging side to side. “Why? This seems fun!”

“Don’t you have to be in Thailand on saturday for a fanmeet?” Chanyeol reminds which sends Johnny into a pout. “Also, you can’t be seen in a club, boy. You’re NCT.”

Hera shrugs as Johnny turns to her with pleading eyes. “Sorry, Park PD is right.”

“Youngho-ah.”

All three pairs of eyes dart to the corner where Taeyong had his head popping out. “We gotta go.”

Johnny nods and quickly mutters a goodbye before reluctantly darting away with Taeyong to the van waiting outside.

“Also, bring your friend,” Chanyeol suddenly spurts as he speed walks away and if Hera wasn’t paying attention, she might’ve missed it. “Yes, Byun PD will be there!” He quickly adds over his shoulders before vanishing behind a corner.

***

The leaves outside have begun to fall and the wind has turned a lot colder with the weather transitioning so Eun doesn’t understand why it’s so darn hot underneath the covers. He grunts as he kicks off his corner of the blanket for a nice cold breeze before squirming to realize his wife was still asleep. Eun takes notice of the light outside and finds it odd that Soondeok isn’t up already to bug him awake like she usually does every morning. After getting a closer look, Eun notices the sweat beads across her forehead and how her usually rosy lips are suddenly so pale. He inches closer and realizes the heat he was complaining about was radiating off of his wife and instantly, Eun places a hand on her burning forehead to confirm his assumptions.

“D-Deok-ah,” he shakes her gently and her eyelids flutter lightly as she comes to her senses. “Are you okay?”

Her brows furrow and her dry lips smack for some water before Soondeok realizes how weak and cold her body is despite how hot her skin is to the touch. She tries to reply but nothing but a hoarse cough erupts from .

“This can’t be,” Eun heaves a worried sigh as he wipes away the damp pieces of hair stuck on her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”

Quickly, Eun hops off the bed and heads straight towards the cabinet where the extra blankets were kept and gently piles them on top of Soondeok. After making sure she’s tucked in, Eun pours out a cup of water from the tea set on the table and as carefully as he can, he holds it up to her lips and slowly tilts it until she’s finished drinking before setting her down again.

“Deok-ah,” Eun calls as he gently dabs at the sweat beads on her forehead with his sleeve. “Wait right here, I’ll be right back.”

Soondeok doesn’t know how much time passes or what has happened really but when she wakes up, it’s dark outside and it’s completely silent except for the loud chirping of crickets. Her body feels weak and she’s drenched in her sweat but one of the first thing Soondeok notices is the lack of her husband sleeping by her side. The damp towel on her head falls off when she weakly pushes herself up to a sitting position. Her joints ache when she stretches but a wave of relief quickly soothes over her body.

“Where could he be…” Soondeok mumbles before spotting the slightest hint of a foot peeking out from the edge of the bed. When she leans over, she finds Eun sleeping on the floor with his arms and legs sprawled out and mouth wide open. There’s a towel in his hand and instead of grabbing a pillow from the bed, he opted for one of the textbooks she’s been forcing him to read instead.

Soondeok sighs at her silly prince before slowly crawling out of bed to crouch down beside him. She traces the outline of his face and features with her index finger until she’s satisfied and sure she’s memorized every detail of his face.

“The floor is so hard,” Soondeok sighs with a delicate finger sliding his bangs back into place. “Why would you sleep here…” She thinks back to their wedding night when she’d unintentionally spent the night on the floor because Eun was throwing a fit and remembers how much her body ached from the cold hard floor. She’s been a warrior for majority of her life so it wasn’t much to her but for a prince who’s been pampered his entire life, she can already hear his whining that’s to come tomorrow.

“Prince…” she gently shakes his shoulder. “Prince.”

There’s whimpering and squirming before Eun finally opens an eye at Soondeok.

“Why are you sleeping on the cold floor,” Soondeok whispers. “Sleep on the bed.”

Eun scratches his neck as he sits up to face Soondeok. His eyes are so droopy he can barely keep them open. “Why are you out of bed when you have a fever,” he lectures in a throaty, raspy voice.

“I have a fever?” Soondeok asks cluelessly with a hand pressed to her cheek. “I feel fine.”

Eun yawns as he stretches out his arms. “That’s because you’ve slept the entire day away.” He rips out another big yawn. “It’s probably well past midnight now.” After stretching, he turns to Soondeok. “Are you hungry? They brought some soup earlier but you were sleeping so we didn’t wake you up.”

A warm tingling feeling garners in Soondeok’s chest and her cheeks grow hot from seeing such a rare warm side of Eun. When she looks up at him again, he’s still cutely worrying about how to get her food.

“It might be too late to get someone right now,” he mumbles with a frown and Soondeok smiles.

“That’s okay.” Gathering her sleeping robes, Soondeok slowly rises up to grab her outer robe from the rack as Eun looks on cluelessly. “I can figure something out.”

“Looking at you now, people would never suspect you were bedridden all day…” Eun mutters. “Where are you going?”

“To the kitchen,” Soondeok replies with a weak smile.

“At this time?” Eun quickly rises from the ground. “You just got out of bed! Your fever has just gone down!”

Pushing her long black hair out of the way, she shrugs. “I’m okay,” she assures. “If you’re so worried, why don’t you come along.”

Eun huffs and folds his arms across his chest. “Tsh, who said I’m worried about you?”

Soondeok purses her lips. Of course, why did she even expect anything else from him. “Fine,” she shrugs and turns away to leave but Eun quickly darts out behind her after grabbing his outer robe from the rack along with the lantern from the table.

“I-I haven’t eaten today either,” he mumbles when Soondeok shoots him a questioning look. Eun clears his throat and fixes his robe before nodding towards the direction of the kitchen. “Let’s go.”

He quickly marches forward so she won’t see the blood rushing to his face but quickly remembers that she’s still sick and probably can’t catch up to him so Eun instantly stops and slowly turns back to wait for Soondeok. Although the 10th Prince’s residence continues to fall deeper and deeper into the sounds of the night, two shadows continue slowly through the courtyard under the guidance of the moon and stars.

***

“I’m ready!”

Hera instantly jolts awake after falling asleep while waiting for Wendy to get ready. She has been squealing and singing more than usual after Hera told her about Chanyeol’s request to have her present and at one point, Hera was actually beginning to regret telling Wendy.

“How do I look?” Wendy sings as she spins around in her chic all black outfit that accentuates her small waist and elongates her short legs.

Hera yawns. “So good you’re going to upstage the main stars. Let’s go.”

Wendy chuckles and quickly skips ahead to the door. “Seulgi, are you sure you don’t want to go? It’s going to be so fun!”

Seulgi raises her foot into the air from the couch. “Have fun. Bye.”

“Urgh,” Wendy grumbles. “That homebody…”

When they reach the elite club, Wendy instantly gasps in disbelief while two months of being an intern at SM has prepared Hera for such situations already. When they reach the entrance, Hera instantly flashes the bouncers her VIP badge Heejin had given her earlier in the week and immediately, a separate bouncer arrives to lead them to the rooftop where everyone was. Wendy still has her head in the clouds when they arrive but she falls into a bigger shock when she spots celebrities. Wendy isn’t the usual type to be starstrucked but how could she not when they TaeTiSeo looked like they had just descended from the heavens.

“You made it!” Tiffany exclaims with a glass of champagne ready for her. “Oh is this the friend Park PD was talking about?” Tiffany teases before quickly handing Wendy a glass. “Hi, I’m Tiffany!”

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