Magical Maidens

Doyoung stood in front of Jaehyun with wide eyes. His heartbeat picked up as his face started turning a little. Never had he noticed Jaehyun earlier when he stood behind the king, but now he understood the beauty that he missed out on. “Would you like to step out to the garden?” He asked Jaehyun, after kissing his hand and calling him beautiful.

Jaehyun was about to respond when Doyoung felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Hansol standing beside a maiden. “Doyoung do you and the beautiful maiden want to come outside with Maiden Yuta and I?”

As Hansol finished speaking to Doyoung, instead of turning to Jaehyun to ask him, he turned to Yuta, the maiden beside Hansol, and gulped. Doyoung took a few steps closer to Yuta and then took his hand, kissing it and then placing it back down. Doyoung was left staring at Yuta, and although he wasn’t sure if he had to kiss Yuta’s hand too, he did. “You’re very beautiful.” That comment took Yuta’s breath away as he stared at the handsome man before him.

Doyoung was suddenly pushed out of his thoughts when the picture of Taeyong’s smile flashed in his red and then Jaehyun’s red face while he kissed his hand. Everything inside of Doyoung was confused as he turned back to look at Jaehyun, standing there waiting for him. An image in the back of head created Taeyong standing behind Jaehyun, still sweetly smiling. Doyoung didn’t know if it was just him mesmerized when seeing so many beautiful maidens, but he didn’t know how to handle himself. Instead, he turned to Hansol who gave him a judging look and nodded. “I’m fine. As long as Maiden Jaehyun is okay with it.” Jaehyun nodded when Hansol turned to him and the three of them made their way out of the room.

Johnny smiled when Winwin talked to him about the painting in front of them. “So, it belongs to Maiden Taeyong’s mother? She painted them?” He turned to Winwin, with a small questioning look.

Winwin nodded, his eyes still on the painting of the palace beside them. “Yes. Maiden Taeyong’s mother passed away when he was fourteen. I heard he was left in quite a misery without his mother, so he worked hard to clean everyone of her old paintings and hung them up himself. Still, till this day he never lets anyone touch the paintings and cleans them every day himself. Surprisingly he doesn’t get tired, there are about three hundred paints on this floor, and even more on the others. From her first painting to her last, Maiden Taeyong treasures them and cleans them all.”

Johnny was a little shocked by the huge amount of information and the story behind even just a small painting. “I understand, he must have loved her a lot. We tend to hold onto things our loved ones leave, as if those tiny things are the most valuable diamond on this planet.” Winwin didn’t reply to Johnny’s words, since he was too lost staring at the painting and wondering how Taeyong kept these clean. Johnny smiled at this. “You seem to really like Maiden Taeyong. Any special reason?”

Winwin nodded once again and placed his hand on the frame of the painting. “I do. I admire how strong he keeps himself in even his most fragile moments. Maiden Taeyong never cries or never lets us cry. I adore that a lot and hope to be him when I grow up. I never thought anyone could fill up the space of my mother when she passed away, but then Maiden Taeyong came along and took my hand, promising to hold onto it forever. And I’m still surprised that he’s still tightly holding on it, as if he became a pillar for all of us.” Winwin smiled just at the thought of Taeyong. “He loves us; and we love him.”

Johnny smiled seeing Winwin so happy just walking about someone he loved. “Well then, I hope he has enough strength to always keep you all happy.” He took Winwin’s hand in his.

Winwin looked down at their hands and then back up at Johnny. Something inside him was started to grow and his heart was starting to beat fast. He took held Johnny’s hand tightly and closed his eyes for a moment, taking in the odd feeling. “I hope we can give him enough strength to keep us happy.”

Johnny nodded once again, he squeezed Winwin’s hand slightly. “Winwin, you know I really like you.”

Winwin opened his eyes, a sweet smile placed on his lips. “I really like you too Johnny.”

Then, as if it came right out of a fairy tale, Johnny and Winwin shared mutual feelings for each other. 

Renjun, Jeno, and Jisung walked beside the maidens with annoyed faces. The three of them didn’t expect such beautiful people to turn out to be like this.

Jeno sighed as he crossed his arms together, seeing the maidens in front of them giggle at something. “I’m done with them. I never signed up for this Renjun.”

Renjun turned his head away, not wanting to look at the maidens in front of them. “I know. What am I supposed to do?”

The six of them ended up walking out of the house, to the back garden where the messengers had first seen the beautiful angel like maidens who seemed to be ignoring them. Jisung was sort of done with staring at the moon and walking in silence. He decided that he wasn’t going to stand around and listen to some maidens demand. Jisung started walking ahead until he reached the maidens and then pulled on one of their wrist, turning the maiden around. He looked down at the maiden in blue, with angered eyes. “Just because you’re pretty doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore us. And you didn’t even give us a chance, I still don’t know your name yet!”

The maiden gave Jisung an innocent look with a small laugh. “Oh sorry. We actually didn’t think the king meant us too. We kind of didn’t notice you. Sorry,” the maiden looked so sincere that Jisung had to eternally forgive him. “My name is Haechan, you and your friends may come with us now. We apologize.”

Jisung’s face started turning a horrible shade of red as Renjun and Jeno came and stood in front of ‘their’ maiden. He felt like a terrible person for yelling at a maiden, not a very good first impression.

Renjun stood in front of Chenle, already knowing his name since Taeil mentioned it before. Renjun took Chenle’s hand in his and gave it a very soft kiss. “It’s nice to meet you Chenle. My name is Huang Renjun, messenger of King Taeil. You look very beautiful today.” Jisung and Jeno were shocked at how great of a improviser Renjun was. He did more than he was told, and even introduced himself properly, leaving Chenle with a slight blush on his face.

Chenle took his hand out of Renjun’s and looked down a little embarrassed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too Renjun. Thank you for the compliment.”

Renjun simply smiled at Chenle and the other two messengers didn’t know how to react. Why did Taeil always get them to do such difficult things?

Jeno looked at Mark who was staring at him, not knowing what to do he grabbed Mark’s hand in his, and planted a soft kiss on it. Mark’s face was supposed to be the one turning red, but no, Jeno was the flustered one right now. He placed Mark’s hand beside the maidens side and then let go of it, still flustered. Jeno then looked down at his feet with that look of embarrassment on his face, he just couldn’t be as smooth as Renjun.

“I-It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is,” Jeno then just shook there, blank, without anything to say next. Mark looked confused as Jeno noticed that he forgot his own name. “My name is, he tried again but his own name didn’t come to his senses, out of nervousness. He finally remembered his name again when Renjun, who stood besi