The gleaming ballroom is full of people and the sound of them chatting with one another fills the huge room. Foods and drinks are served quite far from the crowd. Many people are coming in after a while, filling the ballroom. King Jungsoo is present, of course, together with Prince Donghae, his eldest son. The middle child is missing, which makes all the guard searches for him inside the castle. Little did they know, prince Kyuhyun is standing on the balcony, feeling the cool air sweeping his face. He have no interest to the whole ball, knowing that the girls will swarm over him as he steps into the ballroom.

"Son, since you are 20 now, why don't you start searching for a partner?"

"For what, father? I have no interest in such thing."

Jungsoo sighs as he reaches for his youngest son's shoulder. He pats it multiple times and made Kyuhyun sighs in disbelief. How many time that Kyuhyun have to say that he is currently have no interest in having a romantic relationship. Platonic ones are enough for him, especially with his brother Donghae and his partner. The King asks one more time, just to make sure that his kid really have no interest in those things.

"Kyuhyun, just try for once. I'm not forcing you-" Here we go again... "-to get a lover so fast. I'm just telling you, so when you reach 25-"

"Alright, father. I will try. But do not blame me if I didn't get anybody until the end of the year."

Kyuhyun sighs as a week old conversation plays inside his head, about Jungsoo telling Kyuhyun to search for a date or something. He looks over to the hall from the balcony, his father's friends are arriving one by one. Including his closest childhood friend from another kingdom, King Heechul. He knows his oldest son, Prince Jongwoon, but not quite sure about the other prince that walks with him. He have a nice styled jet black hair with a red and white outfit, walking beside Jongwoon. Kyuhyun walks away from the balcony, steps inside as one of the guard finds him.

"Your Highness, here you are! The King have been searching for you." The guard gives him a neck bow, which then Kyuhyun returns it quickly to show respect.

"I'm sorry for disappearing since the arrival of the guests earlier, do father wants me to be with him?" 

"His Majesty wants you to meet him, right now. If you need me, I will be near the front door. I'll excuse myself." 

Kyuhyun lets the guard walks by and leave the prince alone. He walks to the stairs and as the sound of his shoes that met the wooden floor echoes throughout the hall, all guests go silent and all eyes are concentrating on him. He smiled and bows in front the guests before gets closer to where Jungsoo is, with his siblings. 

"Father."

"Finally you are here. I have been searching for you." 

"Apologies, father." The middle child looks at his older brother, smiles as he reaches him for a shoulder pat. Donghae pulls him for a tight hug, not surprising, since he is way more clingy than him. They pulled away as Jungsoo's childhood friend are here. The two princes of the Kingdom of Nevaria bows as a sign of respect to King Heechul and his two sons. Heechul smiles and replies them with a slight neck bow.

"Look at you and your gorgeous children, Jungsoo. Good genes you have there." 

"You should tell that to yourself, Chul. Let the boys talk, shall we?" 

The atmosphere became awkward for them. No, not for Donghae and Jongwoon, since they already know each other too well. Kyuhyun and the youngest prince of Raithage Kingdom were left alone here, making Kyuhyun scratches his nape before offering a hand to the unknown man in front of him.

"We haven't met before, yes? I shall introduce myself. I am Prince Kyuhyun of Nevaria."

To his surprise, the latter accepts the offer and shakes his hand. His grip is quite strong, he can sense the confidence and also nervousness from him. Kyuhyun slowly smile to erase the cold expression from his face which doesn't make a good first impression to other people most of the time.

"Nice meeting you, prince Kyuhyun. I'm Prince Ryeowook of Raithage. You know my brother?"

Kyuhyun nods as he took a glass from the servant, mouthing 'thank you' to the man before he walk away. Ryeowook scans the prince in front of him. The black and gold outfit that the 20 year old prince wear suits his calm and elegant aura. "I never met you before, Ryeowook," he sips a little amount of the liquid inside of the transparent  glass. "I probably have met Jongwoon more than 15 times since I was born."

Ryeowook chuckled to that, nodding in agreement that he also never met Kyuhyun ever in his life. Although he is a year older than him. Ryeowook met Donghae once, last year, on the big dinner that contains 10 young representatives from each kingdom to discuss about the political issues of the land. Ryeowook represents the South while Donghae is there to represent the North. Truthfully, Ryeowook didn't like the subject at all and preferably have Jongwoon, who actually like the said matter and even more charismatic to replace him at the dinner night. "Your older brother is great at giving speeches." Kyuhyun looks at the latter, putting the glass on a surface beside him. 

"Really? I mean, surely he will be the one who replaces father later on, not me. He have those great qualities."

"Don't want the throne?"

"I prefer to travel the world and meet new people." Ryeowook's shiny pair of eyes lit up at the mention of the word travel. He is known as the 'prince who is rarely home' to the royal family and the workers of the castle. "Really? I love to travel as well!" Kyuhyun grins as he hears the small man's tone changes. Ah, he finally found someone who have the same interest as him. He rarely goes out, thanks to his father's strict rules that he can't even break for once. He really want to go out, to explore the whole land, to meet new people as he learns something new from them. Kyuhyun looks at the man in front of him and suddenly, an idea came across his mind.

Since he turned 20 last week, his father always asked him to search for a partner. It's an unspoken rule in the kingdom, that the prince must have their romantic partner before they turn 25. Lucky for Donghae, he already find his lover 2 years ago, when he turned 20. As the days gone by, that stupid rule has haunted his peaceful life. Especially when his father is around him! That is a torture for the youngest. But now, he met a person with the same interest as him. A man... that is his type, Kyuhyun have to admit. The man that is as beautiful as a rose, with a fair skin and a gentle smile. The man of his dreams. 

"Ryeowook." "Yes?"

"Do you... have someone as your significant other?" 

The shorter one furrows his eyebrows, shaking his head on the ridiculous question. "I need you to help me."

"Help? How?"

"Have a fake relationship with me."

━ ⚜ ━

"Have a fake relationship with me."

Ryeowook's eyes bugged out, cannot believe how the word 'relationship' can smoothly go out from the taller man's mouth. He never took the matter lightly as for Ryeowook, commitment is a sacred thing, and he has never been in a relationship before. "What benefits that I can get from you, Kyuhyun?"

"You don't have to travel alone. I will be your company."

Kyuhyun sighs as he starts to tell his own story.

"Hear me. I have to get myself a partner before I reach 25 years old. I don't have any interests in romantic relationship," The taller man stares at the smaller one. "From the day I born until today, I don't know where is the border of my kingdom's land. The furthest point that I traveled was a huge grassland to ride my horse freely." Ryeowook now understand why Kyuhyun sounds desperate when he mentioned that he prefers to travel earlier. He finds himself a lucky guy, who got to travel to the centre of the vast land. He didn't know that King Jungsoo is this strict to his sons. 

"Fine. I will help you. With one condition." "What is it?"

"Dance with me tonight?"

Kyuhyun chuckles, nods his head in agreement. As the orchestra are preparing their instruments and all people in the room gathers, Kyuhyun offers one of his hand to Ryeowook, which the smaller man accepts it without saying any word. The couple walks down from the stair with their hands linking. Donghae definitely notice his younger brother who is walking side by side with the prince from the southern kingdom, which is surprising. He decided not to say anything about it nor reporting it to his father. He let his younger brother find his own happiness, like how happy he was when he finally met the love of his life. Donghae decided to stay beside his father and will not join the waltz session. 

The moonlight are creeping inside from the sky by the window and acts as the spotlight for the people inside the ballroom. Kyuhyun and Ryeowook stand together in the middle of the crowd while showered by the natural spotlight from the moon. Kyuhyun thought maybe his ancestors approved of him and Ryeowook being together (for real, no pretending), blessing them from heaven. The orchestra starts the piece for tonight's waltz, Roses from the South by Strauss II, in a slow pace. Kyuhyun initiatively moves first, provoking Ryeowook to move his body to the slow tempo. The tempo become faster which Ryeowook finds it hard to adjust, Kyuhyun is having his time and chuckles softly to a messy move that the shorter one made. The tempo of the piece keeps changing, from slow to fast and to another slow pace. There were a quick before the orchestra plays a soft and medium tempo part that leads to a faster tempo. Ryeowook's hand grips the taller man strongly, preventing his small body to fall to the ground. 

As they entered another slow tempo part, Kyuhyun leans lower and whispered something to the older man. "So, how is my dance, your highness?" Ryeowook smiles as he can feel the warmth of Kyuhyun's hand on his hand, and another one on his waist. "I never danced with someone as good as you, my prince." The taller one can only rolls his eyes and chuckles at the same time. Kyuhyun's eyes avoids the shorter's, as he find the latter very attractive. From the way he speak, the way his eyes wrinkled, the way his clumsy body moves as they dance to the rythm. Where have he been all this time? Why does Kyuhyun only met Ryeowook now? What is it that the universe have been planning for them both? Is it a classic happy ending or a sad tragedy ending?

Forget it, Kyuhyun will enjoy the dance while it last. Having a partner on his hands are more than enough, although it's a fake partner, only for pretending. Ryeowook is getting more used to the beats that changed many times throughout the piece. As the tempo goes faster and faster, the grandiose ending finally erupts and the orchestra stops playing, and all the pairs stops dancing. They all stop and the moonlight highlights the princes couple in the middle, with Ryeowook that fits perfectly on Kyuhyun's embrace. They didn't realize that the ones who didn't joined the waltz watches them, including his father. Kyuhyun can see from the centre of the room that Jungsoo is watching over them, giving an approval smile to both of the princes. Ryeowook just noticed that his father, Heechul, is standing across him with a proud smile on his face.

━ ⚜ ━

"Kyuhyun, seems like our parents approve us. How do we explain?"

"Let's hide the fact that this relationship is fake, okay?" Ryeowook nods as Kyuhyun combs his fluffy hair with his hand. Showing some sweet couple things so their parents will believe all of this sudden news. "Well, we have to play pretend until they caught us faking this couple stuff, eh?"

Ryeowook laughs, as he stares at the taller man's eyes. "See you tomorrow then, my boyfriend? "

"I will see you tomorrow, my little prince." They exchanges smile to each other. A sweet smile.

As a sign to begin this pretending game.