You knew about the formal dinner with Queen Hong before the day came. Such events required days of preparation. There was the dress, the makeup, the hair, the hours in the shower to get your skin clean and nice smelling enough to be fit for a meal with the queen. Not to mention the mental preparation it took to get your game face on and rid yourself of any and all emotion that might be misconstrued as weakness or ignorance.

You weren't sure about the details of the dinner, except for the fact that Queen Hong was not going to be alone. Your mind wandered to the possibility and the King himself might make an appearance. Such things weren't unheard of, although you didn’t want to think about it too much, should your nerves decide to act up tonight.

May had been scrolling through her phone with a tense look on her face all afternoon but every time you asked her what was wrong she just shook her head and avoided your eyes. You did hear her mumble something under her breath that sounded like ’stupid viral kiss’ and you were sure you heard a string of profanities that she never meant for you to hear after that.

Viral?
Did someone catch a cold?

A knock on your door told you that the cue you had been awaiting for the last hour had finally come and you rose from the bench you had been seated stiffly on, careful of the pricy dress that seemed to be made of the kind of fabric that instantly wrinkled if you even looked at it the wrong way. It was expensive and beautiful and you hated the way it pinched at your ribs. Or maybe that was the ing corset. Seriously? Was this thing even necessary? You inhaled as best as you could against the confines of your undergarments and ignored the lightheadedness that tickled your senses.

The butler at the door bowed his head deeply and you walked out of your room with May on your heels. You had not yet been to the formal dining hall of this place but it did not disappoint.

The table was larger than back at home, and seated around the table were the faces of the men you had met the first night you arrived, save one. One significant face was missing and you were led to a spot where you sat, hands in your lap, eyes at your fancy place setting and your ears listening for the door.

The next sound you heard from behind you pulled at your attention, but you forced your eyes down on your plate in front of you.

It was a low voice...well a throat clearing sound and it moved just behind where you sat like a statue of self control.

From your peripheral vision you saw the hand that grabbed the chair back and pulled, swatting away the server who tried to do it for him.

“Sir?” The quiet voice of the waiter called out and you saw a tray with a single shot of alcohol presented next to Kyungsoo.

He was quick to throw the shot back and wave the empty glass on the tray away. With a quick, curious glance around the room you saw a few of the other princes doing the same and you wondered what kind of demons they had to chase away if they couldn't even stand a single formal dinner without first medicating like this.

“Your Highness,” a low voice was speaking to you from across the large dining table and you looked up, recognizing Chanyeol from the first day. His booming voice was so familiar to you after that first night that you couldn’t help but recognize him immediately. His smile was wide and genuine and you smiled in return. The tension you felt in your shoulders seemed to be worsening on the side where Kyungsoo sat.

Whose idea was it for you to be seated next to him?

The ice water flowing into your glass looked inviting and you reached for it as soon as it was topped off, hoping to wash away the sudden taste that you had recalled.

A sudden taste that you were certain was a phantom...a memory really. Brought on by the person who sat next to you who was now sitting there, breathing, being alive and being real and pulling at your eyes, begging for your to look at him.

The begging didn't quit and when you finally gave in to it and turned your head enough to see his pretty profile, he had just his lips. You caught the tip of his tongue as it disappeared inside of his mouth and his eyes were focused on the wall opposite of his seat. Only there was no focus in them. He looked blank. Present merely in the physical form, Kyungsoo was not yet in any position to look at you, let alone greet you.

“Been busy have you?” You heard that low voice across from you again and you turned forward to meet Chanyeol’s eyes. And Chanyeol’s smirk that felt strangely uninvited.

You ticked your head, not quite sure what he meant, but unwilling to begin a conversation that would never finish once the queen arrived.

Below the table, you felt a knocking against your chair. You shifted in your seat, giving a bit of distance between yourself and the man at your side and the knocking stopped once you moved. His knee that had been bouncing up and down stilled once you shifted, as if you had somehow called attention to it and you heard him clear his throat once as he moved both of his hands below his table into his lap.

You hadn't known him long, and you definitely didn't know him well, but you felt a sudden calmness overflow your body with the realization that Do Kyungsoo seemed to be more nervous than you were right now.

The fidgeting didn't quite stop, but it definitely grew less obvious. You knew by the flexing of the muscles in his wrist that he was doing something with his hands below the table. When you heard the booming voice behind you, announcing the queen’s arrival you were quick to rise with the rest of the attendees for her entrance.

She entered, greetings were made to her two sons who barely held eye contact with her and time and your awareness of reality seemed to enter an alternate state.

You were on autopilot. Nodding and smiling when required and you kept a watch out of the corner of your eye on the man who moved his fidgeting fingers above his lap now as he picked with non-existent fingernails at his cuticles.

Dinner courses were served. Fancy expensive food that was meant to be picked at and tasted, but never finished. Soups that you were to have four spoons of, at the most, as not to scrape the bottom of the bowl. A few swipes of a knife against a filet mignon to cut a tiny piece that would not come close to messing up your makeup as you ate it.

You watched the untouched courses leave Kyungsoo’s place and you figured he didn’t have the nerve to attempt to eat right now.

Your curiosity burned. And your annoyance burned even hotter for having so much weakness when it came to him.

Queen Hong had been discussing something with Jongin, her oldest son and his answers were short and polite. As if one might respond to a well respected elder of the family instead of to their mother. But May had said she hadn't even seen him in the last five years while he had been away at school. The second her attention left her eldest and moved on to the youngest you saw the physical manifestation of relief take over Jongin’s face. His eyes dropped to his plate and he stabbed at his food, eating a few bites before he turned to the wine and drank nearly half of the glass.

“Now, Prince Kyungsoo,” Queen Hong’s voice spoke up, having moved on from Sehun to the next in line at the table and you heard the shift as he sat up straighter in his seat, his eyes glancing up briefly as she addressed him, “I trust the preparations for the wedding are going well?”

It wasn't a question at all. And although you were definitely a vital part of said wedding, you weren't taking any part of this conversation.

“Your Majesty, if I may,” Kyungsoo suddenly spoke up and the queen lowered the fork she had lifted to her lips. The silence that settled over the room was as asive as a drug coursing through your veins and you held your breath along with nearly every other person in that room except for the two who were doing the actual talking.

“Go ahead,” she said with a tense smile on her lips. Your mouth was dry and your ice water sat just out of your reach. You could feel the stem of it with your fingertips but you didn't dare move enough to grab it. Such movement like that might call attention to you right now and that was the last thing you wanted.

“I have had my card returned to me,” he said quietly and your ears burned with the memory of the kiss.

Queen Hong tilted her head and her tense smile widened a bit as her eyes burned holes into his face.

“I have heard. Clearly the public is expecting the wedding to happen soon,” she said as she took the steak on the end of her fork into and continued to eat despite the stifling stillness around the room.

“The stocks are up because of what I did,” he said and she stopped chewing and narrowed her eyes.

“It’s a bit distasteful to discuss money over dinner.” She waved off a refill on her wine and something shifted in the posture of the man next to you. He turned to face her in his seat and you saw a deep inhale into his chest that perhaps was an involuntary reaction to the courage he was pulling from.

“About what we discussed last year, Your Majesty, France...I’ve been--” His voice was louder now, bolder and more direct as he spoke and you were having trouble following, being new to this family you weren't sure they had any holdings in France, but anything was possible really.

“My answer was no a year ago, and it is still no.”

“You said if I could get the stocks up by half, you might reconsider. Your Majesty, if you just check the numbers you will see--” His voice was louder now and you felt it coming, as did everyone in the room. To your benefit you didn't even jump when you heard the fork drop to her plate.

“I think I’ve been more than accommodating of your little hobbies. But abandoning your country for one of them is where I draw the line. Leave the cooking to the servants and do not bring this up again.”

Hobbies? Cooking? Maybe May could find out what this was about because you couldn't deny any longer how little you knew about what you had just heard. Nor could you deny how much you wanted to know.

“Yes Your Majesty.” His response was quiet, his shoulders slumped and his eyes and ego well deflated.

Below the table the shaking in his knee had stopped and the picked skin around his thumb nail was red with dried blood.

The queen dismissed herself, citing a sudden and very pointed lack of appetite.

Once she was gone the oxygen seemed to return to the room and quiet conversations resumed around the room as the brothers talked and laughed with each other.

All except Kyungsoo who ignored everyone at the table, including you as he finished his food and drinks in silence.

“So when can we expect the next episode of this whirlwind romance?” Chanyeol was speaking to you over his mousse and you caught the quick glance in Kyungsoo’s direction as he spoke to you.

“I’m sorry?” You said, remembering his crypticism before the dinner started and slowly coming to the conclusion that he knew something you didn’t.

“Shut up Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo muttered in a low voice next to you and you noticed the way he stared down at his coffee instead of up into the now laughing eyes of his brother.

“Oh haven't you seen it yet? Your video has gone viral.” Sehun was speaking now, and he held up his cell phone up for you to see. You had to squint to see across the table but you recognized the dress you were wearing that day.

The day he kissed you outside of the ice cream shop and the screaming voice of the young woman recording the video made it impossible to actually hear anything that was said.

“It went viral because you reposted it on your Instagram, Sehun,” Chanyeol laughed as he pushed the dessert away from him and reached for his wine.

“It was funny...and I can't t help that I’m popular,” the youngest prince whined and you felt your pulse pushing blood up to the surface of your skin.

Your kiss replayed again and again on the screen and your eyes narrowed on the video as it played.

You saw his body lean in before his lips connected with yours and you saw the stupid way you closed your eyes the second he touched you.

You also saw the stiffness that overcame you with his kiss and that screamed out at you, broadcasting your inexperience in such things. Telling the whole world what they probably already suspected.

It was your first kiss.
It was the first time another human being had touched you in such a way as to cause nervous butterflies in your stomach and a burning desire inside that you didn't quite understand.

And they had all seen it. Not just the present company of s, but the whole country.

All so he could get his card back and get a chance to beg a favor of the queen.

Stocks he said. The stocks had risen after the kiss and you knew that this country and your country would see incredible economic gains from this union, from this wedding...you still felt more than just a little bitter about having your first kiss used in such a manner.

The bite of chocolate mousse that sat on the back of your tongue tasted bitter too and you reached for your water glass.

Halfway to the glass your hand took on a route of it’s own and you reached just to the side of where your ice water sat, grabbing the glass of wine instead.

You’d half drained it before you remembered that you had waved away the waiter who poured the wine for this dinner.

“Aww, they're already sharing drinks. I can feel the love, can't you Sehun?”

You had gone this far already. Might as well commit to it, right? You drained the rest of Kyungsoo’s wine glass and swallowed hard. Resisting the sour face you wanted to make at the taste of the strong alcohol.

The stares from around the room as you replaced his, now empty glass in front of his cup of coffee burned against your already burning face and you risked a look at his profile.

His jaw was set in a tense knot just below his ear and you knew he was biting down hard. His eyes focused ahead of himself, at that same spot on the wall he had been staring at before the dinner started and you noticed the red tint to the tips of his ears.

“M-Maybe if you release a tape next time...s-she’ll let you go to culinary school Kyungsoo.” Chanyeol was almost laughing too much for the words to be audible but the people around the room heard enough to laugh along with the noisy prince and you felt your annoyance flare up strong.

Aside from the blush on Kyungsoo’s neck that was creeping up his cheeks, you felt your own humiliation flooding through your body.

What the was he blushing for? He had done this himself. He was the one who kissed you in public, making sure that he had the attention of the huge crowd of onlookers and not even pretending to want privacy for it.

You were the one who had your first kiss stolen and used in a plot for a stupid favor from the queen and for what? For culinary school? He wanted to go to school to be a ing cook?

Why he couldn't just hire his own private teacher in that fancy kitchen he spent hours and hours tinkering around in? What kind of permission would he need for that? He was already in there all day long, surely he could satisfy whatever need for knowledge without involving you in his schemes.

Maybe it was the wine in your belly mingling with the scraps of the fancy dinner you choked down, but you suddenly felt a fire burning inside you that didn’t at all calm down with the water you swallowed.

Perhaps the bitterness at the back of your throat had nothing to do with the chocolate, or the wine. Perhaps your real problem was this stubborn, megalomaniac who had not only humiliated you in front of all of his brothers, but who had now made it that the rest of the country saw just how powerless, weak, and ignorant you really were with that public stunt.

Images of your stiffened, innocent, inexperienced reaction to his lips on yours flashed through your memory again and again as the princes laughed and laughed at whatever add-on jokes they threw out at your expense and there was only so much being laughed at you could take. You needed to leave. You needed the quiet of your room and the maybe even the anger of your best friend to sooth your soul a little bit.

You needed to leave but you also itched for the final word. It must have been the wine that made you turn to him. The rolling eyes and the sarcastic smirk on his face as he tried not to laugh along with the others didn't fool you. You knew he wasn't making fun of you only because he was too embarrassed at being pulled into the jokes.

It must have been the wine that made you move closer to where he sat, the motion of your hands caught his attention from the corner of his eye and he looked at you with his smirk still well on his face.

When you lifted both hands and reached them out, vacillating in your mind between choking the life out of him and longing to feel the smooth warmth of the skin along his cheeks your hands moved to his face and his eyes darted around in mild panic, widening to full blown panic as you leaned in.

It was the wine he must have tasted on your lips as they reached his and the small grunt of surprise was the only sound you focused on. It was the only sound in the room because a heavy silence enveloped every single living breathing being at that table save for one. When you pushed your lips into his you felt him cave. Perhaps his lips were just that soft. Or maybe he was too surprised, either way when he caved, and his lips parted, you reached for him with your teeth, pulling his bottom lip well into your mouth you bit down and the first sound from his throat after the surprise was quiet. It was almost too quiet for your ears to hear but your hand had moved to the back of his neck now and the small vibration below your palm told you he had made it.

Was it a moan?

Whatever it was, it changed something inside of your chest and that fire that you failed to extinguish with ice water, stolen wine and a plethora of fine eats surged up hotter.

Your hand at the back of his neck pulled harder against him and you registered a new sound in the room. Something that sounded like a gasp..shock...surprise..scandal.

His lips were soft and his mouth was wet and a warm hand on your knee flexed soft fingers against your skin but that gasp...was an audience.

You pulled away suddenly, instantly missing the taste of his mouth and the warmth of his skin below your fingers.

Your retreat afforded you a new view of his face. Lips wet and open. Pink from your teeth and stunned into stillness and his eyes.

Those dark, hard, judging eyes that followed you whenever he graced you with a second of his attention, those eyes...were hidden below closed eyelids with dark lashes splayed over his pink cheeks.

You saw movement below his eyelids and you pushed yourself away from the table, lifted onto your wobbly legs and tried your best not to pass out from the deep breath you couldn't quite inhale, yet futilely tried to take in.

“Thanks for the wine,” your own voice sounded a touch too affected, but the message had been well received with your kiss. It was only polite to thank him for his hospitality after all.

His eyes were open now and the hardness was back, though softened just a touch at first you saw his brows furrow as he pulled his bottom lip into his mouth.

“Ohh ! You--” Chanyeol’s boisterous voice erupted like a party popper and you physically jumped from the sudden noise, but you were standing already and you used the distraction as your chance for an exit, “--you...and her….DAMN I can’t wait for the next video!”

You were out the door in a flash and you heard the echo of Kyungsoo's response to the man who didn't know when to quit.

“Shut the up, Chanyeol,” his low rumble felt achingly familiar as it faded into the background noises behind you.

You walked in silence and solitude for a few minutes before you heard the surprised greeting of May, who had been mingling near the dining hall during the meal.

She had been chit-chatting with some other staff members as she waited and she had a look on her face that told you she knew a few things about what had taken place during dinner.

“What happened in there?!” Her hushed whisper was thoroughly scandalized sounding and you shook your head looking back at the various staff members within earshot.

“My room,” you said through gritted teeth and once you were both through the door the floodgates were opened.

You were met with ’oh my gods’ and ’no ways’ once you relayed the events from the moment you sat down at that table.

“So he wants to go to school in France?” Her face had all of the ‘WTF’ emotion you had kept off of yours during the dinner. “And that’s why he kissed you? So the queen would agree?”

You shrugged and nodded your head, wondering how long it would be until May found out about the revenge kiss y