“You were great!” Zi-yu pulled you from behind the curtains, she was last as the order of performance was youngest first and eldest last – in the assumption that the eldest would provide for the best performance. She was singing while playing the erhu – apparently she wasn’t the dancing type; any type of co-ordination completely aded her being, only so that she’d stumble and trip inelegantly, ultimately embarrassing herself and all the people watching. As graceless as she was in movement, she made up for it in her music.

“Thanks,” you wiped your brow, pulling up your collar to cover more of your neck in embarrassment. She flashed you a nervous smile, “just hope I’m as good as you were and don’t stuff up my notes.” She then pouted cutely, holding up her instrument in defeat. “You’ll do just fine, don’t worry,” You mustered up a sweet smile, not because you were unwilling, but because you were just so exhausted – dancing really made you out of breath sometimes and she grinned back at you cheekily, the both of you sharing in a little secret. One of the maids then hushed the two of you and pulled her back ‘stage’ with the excuse of wanting to reapply her lip rouge with the hidden motive of just wanting to halt conversation so that you wouldn’t make a ruckus. She gave you a disapproving look and brought her fingers to her lips. You nodded sheepishly in response.

“I see you did a fine job there,” a sultry voice spoke up behind you. Swivelling swiftly on your feet, you turned around to stare right into the eyes of the head concubine, Lady Jun-Fei. She held a bottle of wine in her arms, it was obviously empty because those things when full, weighed a tonne and ladies usually couldn’t withstand it. A servant was scurrying past her and she roughly pushed the bottle into his arms. He nearly tripped at the force since he was obviously just walking past but the look she shot him when he didn’t catch the bottle properly silenced his protests. He bowed deeply, muttered a sorry and almost sprinted off the scene, not wanting to be involved any longer.

“My greatest thanks, m’lady.” You curtsied to her and her cold expression only hardened in distaste.

“You must’ve practiced hard for that performance.” She paused but it wasn’t one of those silences where she expected you to respond, so you took the cue and didn’t say anything. “Keep that up and the next thing you’ll be practising is how to spread those pretty legs… in a different way,” she smirked indifferently. You had to practically bite down on your tongue to hold it down from shooting an insult back at her.

“Duly noted m’lady.” She scoffed at your answer before she her heels. “Enjoy the night while you can,” she murmured as she sauntered off. In analysing her character you weren’t as much angry at her as you pitied her; all the comments she made, although rude had no real element of attack in them. You guessed that she would’ve been a nice person, but the air in the palace stifled her heart and only made her bitter and senile. It wasn’t that she truly disliked you personally or anything but it made sense that she’d be antagonistic to you and the new harem as you were essentially ‘replacing’ her. She probably reciprocated the pity you felt for her, because all of the girls here are up for the same fate – being trapped like caged birds and put up on display, being loved but never having any idea of what true love and romance was. It was pretty sad actually. It was getting late and you were already tired from the night; now was really not the time to be thinking about this stuff. You sighed deeply, now to return to the common room to rest while the rest of the performances continued.

Outside, beyond the stage the Princes were getting restless. Whether it be excitement to finally see the performances or exhaustion from seeing so many – maybe even anxious impatience to get the night over and done with, the 6 Princes were all agitated in one form or another. They had waited long enough and the food kept continuing to pile up further and further.  Sure there were some performances that made their hearts skip a beat, but some were unoriginal and mediocre. They had endured flying balls, fluttering fans and flourishing fabric dances and waited for the final performance to be showed. A girl walked out dressed in brilliant emerald green, she held an erhu in her hands and sat down on a stool prepared front and centre and began to play.

  <-- looks something like this, but robes are green 

The melody was mesmerising and reminded the boys of the past, the old court and sweeter times. Each note brought back memories of the first times each Prince officially met, the painful separation of the queens from their sons and rigid and somewhat lonely lifestyle lead by men born in a bloodline of such nobility. However, the abrupt playing of a wrong note jarred the boys out of their sentiments and Kris grimaced upon instinct as the memoirs that had only blazed like a haze in front of their visions was completely cut through, like a sword on soft flesh. The poor girl looked up in shock, her cheeks immediately flushing in humiliation, but in the next second, she regained herself and continued playing where she left off. The governors in the audience muttered among themselves at the mistake: some shaking their heads in disapproval that someone of such calibre would make an error in their performance, others applauding her saying that it was a great save from embarrassment to continue. Either way, the first impression of the girl had been tainted. Whether for better or worse, no one was really too sure.

“I can’t believe I stuffed up!” sobbing into her sleeve, Zi-Yu kneeled in a corner whilst the younger girls comforted her. “I was the only one that made a stupid mistake,” she cried, her make-up flowing from her face so that her cheeks were tear-stained and lips ruined. One of the girls that she was particularly close to, Chiao-Han, her hair, “It’s alright sister, not the end of the world.” She continued crying, even louder this time and younger girls became more distressed. Nudging the little ones aside you pried Zi-Yu’s arm away from her face, “Hey,” you whispered, “Don’t worry about it. Like Chiao-Han said, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll always be here for you, so now to get back on your feet. The night’s not over yet, we know you’re better than this.” She stopped crying a little and looked up at all of you.

“You’re all so sweet.” She cried, hugging all the girls in her delirium. “Now to clean you up,” Chiao-Han mumbled to the side and the rest of you laughed.

“Don’t you think that girl was peculiar?” Chen inquired, sipping at his tea. Although the food was overflowing, the table kept lacking its liquids. Luhan and Lay downed the alcohol like water whilst Xiumin, Kris and Chen savoured their tea. Tao didn’t quench his dry mouth because he just didn’t have the spirit.

“Yeah, Poor girl, she must be so embarrassed about that mistake.” Xiumin was genuinely sympathetic for the girl.

“No, no, brother. I wasn’t talking about her.” Chen trailed off, not too sure how to continue for fear of making the conversation awkward.

“They’re all beauties but none enough to tempt me. I wish to be excused early, I have more important matters to attend to.” Kris sighed, rubbing his temples as if the mere thought gave him a headache.

“You should indulge once in a while, Old man Sun-ye put on this show for us, at least have the respect and sensibility to enjoy it.” Luhan did not once take his eyes of the empty stage, his mind still playing the previous acts in a loop. Kris furrowed his brow in chagrin.

“’Indulge’ is such a dirty word.” Tao grumbled from his head of the table.

Lay smiled into his twenty-fourth cup of wine. “Tao, you’re still too young to understand.”   

   (couldn't decide between the three >.

~

 Look at the time fly~ Yeah, looking for the photos actually took longer than writing the fic TT^TT 

 But readers, I still love you~ Fighting!

 GOOD NIGHT!!!