Dongwoo and I pranced down the hallway with our arms still interlocked. I didn’t know where we were headed but I didn’t care. His presence in itself  was enough to uplift any mood I was in. Our footsteps echoed down the hallway, like the ticking of a clock. My eyes observed every inch of our surroundings; it was just us. That’s when his words echoed in my mind.

“Dongwoo…” I stopped in my tracks. “There’s no one else here. As I recall, everyone is on vacation. Why did you say that maids were swooning over Sunggyu’s voice?”

The redhaired Prince started to laugh and scratch the back of his head. “You are extremely observant; I can’t seem to get anything past you! Well… to be honest, I needed an excuse to steal you from Sir Chinks-a-lot.”

“You could have just asked, you know?”

“That would be an extremely boring way to do it,” he grabbed a hold of my hand before dragging me into the kitchen. “It’s not my style to just ask. I could have easily kidnapped you, true; doubt Sunggyu would have been able to see with those tiny eyes.”

I tried not to laugh. His words about his older brother were clearly fighting words. He did not spare any love for him. “You are so mean to him!”

“He’s as equally harsh to me!” Dongwoo defended himself. “You have never experienced that side of him because he’s smart and chooses his words when you’re around. Sunggyu calls me firecracker and dinosaur. I’ve labeled him chink and squints. That’s just the way we are. Keep in mind that since the two of us are oldest, we only had each other before the five other demons came along, so our relationship is a bit different. It’s full of insults and annoyance, with a hint of aggravation and slurs.”

“But he seems so gentle and nice, I doubt he’d call you such dreadful words,” I pretended not to believe him.

“Don’t believe his lies Soph! It’s all a trick, a rouse, a fake façade to impress you!”

“And he has impressed me by using those tactics,” I smiled.

“Well, my tactics are much more original and beneficial for my grumbling tummy,” he pulled out an apron to wear. It was green with a red dinosaur, as if it was made just for him. “Like my outfit of choice? Mrs. Moon made it for my when I was younger, since I used to run around the palace pretending I was an animal.”

“It’s cute,” I put on my own apron. “And you used to roam around the palace like that?”

“I was going through this phase, alright. Anyway, why use the word cute? A dinosaur is cute?” he stared at it.

“That one is,” I lightly giggled.

“So that means I’m cute, since you know, dinosaur equals me,” he grinned slyly.

“Now, aren’t you just clever?”

“I can be even more clever watch,” Dongwoo flashed his famous smile. “Now, what to make first… what’s most satisfying for my appetite… hmmmm…”

He poked his head into the pantry and pulled out flour, eggs, milk, and chocolate. I assumed he didn’t know what he was doing because he just stared at them for a while. It was adorable; he had no clue what to make.

“How about chocolate pancakes?”

“What’s a pan-cake?” he asked me.

“You’ve never had a pancake?” I was surprised. It’s one of the simplest things to make, yet he’d never had one.

“Nope,” he reached in a cupboard and pulled out a bowl. “Time to teach me how to make some!”

“It’s like flattened cake, basically,” I told him. “How come you’ve never had one…”

“Chef what’s-his-name-something-foreign-sounding didn’t make the simpler things for us,” Dongwoo told me as he placed everything in neat orders. “He kept making the tiniest deserts you could have ever imagined! Completely and utterly useless! How does he expect someone like me to be satisfied with a shot of whipped sugar the size of my pinky. Ridiculous!”

“I hate that!” I agreed with him. “Well you’re lucky, Prince; today is the day you get to stuff your stomach with no regret!”

For the next hour or two, I didn’t really keep track, we mixed and mixed ingredients. We had so many trial and error moments, since I wanted him to learn for himself how to make them. Dongwoo was surprised that I didn’t tell him precisely how much of each ingredients to use. But this way, he got to learn and can make them any time he wants. He insisted that it was part of his plan to spend more time with me. It was as if everything was perfectly planned out; but I knew he was just going with the flow. That’s the way he is. At about six batches later, he had created the perfect recipe for double chocolate pancakes.

We were both covered in a mixture of some sort, from our hair to our feet. The aprons did no good in protecting our clothes, but it was alright. The Prince himself chewed down everything, even the blander and oversweetened creations. His stomach could take anything. I was incredibly surprised that it wasn’t aching. Then I remembered, vampire.

“This is really good,” he munched down the last batch. “Really really really good.”

“Well, now you can make it any time you want,” I took a little slice from a pancake. “It’s not that hard to whip up, see? My mom showed me how to make them a long time ago, when we had to feed all of my siblings quickly and fully for breakfast.”

Dongwoo picked up a pan and threw it into the sink. “It’s a flattened cake heated up on a pan.”

“Hence the name ‘pancake’,” I smiled. “This was fun! We should make something for your siblings!”

“No!” he pouted. “This is supposed to be our special thing.”

“Dongwoo Woo!” I threw a pancake at him. But he was incredibly swift and caught it mid air. He proceeded to chew on it. “We don’t want your siblings to starve.”

I was just playing around though. This was our special place. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else with him. With him around, I felt at ease. I felt secure and happy. There wasn’t a single second where my smile disappeared, but rather was replaced with a laugh.

“They’ll do fine without our food,” he whined. “Now that you mention them, it’s quite surprising that not a single one has interrupted our little fiasco.”

“How is that surprising?” I tried to lift myself up to sit on the counter, but was too short. Dongwoo came up behind me and gave me a boost easily. He was extremely strong, I had to admit.

“I’m not the one with the most control,” he admitted. “When I was younger, the smell of blood within the kingdom walls drove me insane. So, it’s rare for me to be left alone with anyone other than my family.”

“So when the others kept mentioning an accident…?”

“Yeah, it was three years ago? Maybe four? A maid was cleaning in the hallway, and the mirror she was wiping fell off of the wall. She tried to catch it, but she was too weak, and so her entire hand got cut due to the frame scratching against it. My brothers and I reacted quicker then she did. But before any of them could hold me down, I was out the door about to launch myself towards dinner,” he climbed up right beside me with a plate of our pancakes. “Let’s just say I’m lucky that she wasn’t looking around, but at her wound instead. Or else she would’ve seen a very scary Prince. My Mother was by her side the next second, with wrappings and some antiseptics. My brothers grabbed a hold of me and dragged me back into one of the bedrooms. All of them covered an exit and remained frozen in place for at least an hour as I cooled down.”

“Well, that’s good,” I nodded. “You didn’t attack her at least.” The image of him being hostile and virulent flashed into my mind. I couldn’t imagine him being as frightening as those assassins who were sent to kill me. It just… It just doesn’t seem of his nature to be that way. How could that joking man transform into an animal? I wasn’t afraid of him; in all honesty, I couldn’t. No matter how much any of them tried, there was not a possibility of him frightening me in any way.

“Yeah but my stupid cravings are the reason why maids aren’t allowed on the second floor anymore,” he sighed. “Which is also why a whole new set of rules like the ‘buddy system’ and ‘lights out’ were implemented.”

“I always thought it was because your family didn’t want anything precious or expensive to go missing,” I started laughing.

“We could care less about the meaningless—“

“Stuff,” I interrupted him before he could say a curse word.

“Right, stuff,” he realized why I caught him midsentence. “We don’t need it anyway. As long as I have my brothers, my parents, and you by my side; my life is complete. I don’t care what kind of home I live in, where I live, all that matters to me is who I’m surrounded by.”

I instantly blushed as he mentioned me in that equation. I really held a significant place in his heart. There was no denying it.

“Then let me ask you something, Prince,” I took the second to last pancake piece. “If you could change one thing, what would it be?”

“I would change a lot. My brothers and I have a plan,” he grinned slyly. “It’s one that you will never find out about until it actually is in commencement.”

I was surprised. Okay. I hate secrets. We agreed no more secrets. “Dongwoo! What are you talking about?”

“Nothing! Nothing!” he jumped off the counter and ran to the opposite side.

“Dongwoo!” I followed him while taking a hold of a bucket filled with water at the sink.

“That’s my name!” the redhaired Prince smirked.

“Tell me right now Dongwoo! What are the seven of you planning? If you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to hurl this bucket at you!”

“If you can hit me Sophia!” he started laughing haughtily.

As he swayed back and forth, I threw the water in the bucket in his direction. He took a few seconds to process what I just did before I threw the bucket itself at his head. But, by then, he swiftly moved to my side so I missed.

“You. Just. Threw. Water. At. Me,” he whispered into my ear. I tried to turn around before he could disappear once more, but failed. In another blink, he was behind me once more. “Tsk tsk. You are really one feisty girl.”

“I apologize for not being a proper Princess,” I slightly turned my head.

“Whoever said I wanted one of those… lied,” he appeared right in front of me in a split second. “And for the record…” I shouldn’t have let my guard down. It was foolish of me. He had grabbed another bucket and completely drenched me in water for payback. “I am just as lively as you.”

I looked down at my feet, as drops of water trickled down my face and hair, then turned back to look at the Prince. He had taken off his apron at that moment, for the chocolate trails were further seeping into his clothes. I noticed how the water followed the path of his muscles. They dripped from his chin, to his chest, and down to wherever else was hidden in his shirt. The sleeves of his shirt hugged every contour of his biceps.

“You’re… perfect,” the redhaired Prince smiled sweetly at me. “It’s incredible.”

I was about to say something in reply before sneezing. “I don’t think I’m all that.”

“You’re human. You’ll always pinpoint and nitpick at your flaws. In my eyes, just so we are clear, you are a beautiful gleam of perfection and excellence.”

“Why overlook my huge defects?” I asked him.

“Huge? You call your beating heart and blushing cheeks defects?”

“You don’t think so?”

“No. Like I said. You are flawless.”

Another sneeze. And another. Followed by one more.

“And you’re sick,” he patted me on the head. “Come on, I’ll you back to your room.”

“We have to clean up still,” I insisted. “It would be rude to leave the kitchen in this condition.”

“I’ll come back to clean it up,” he took a hold of my hand. “Remember, vampires don’t get sick.”

“I refuse to leave this kitchen without something being cleaned!”

He proceeded to the rest of his shirt and took it off right in front of me. I took a step back as he leaned over the counter and wiped away a fraction of the chocolate mixture. His muscles were so much more defined then the last time I had seen them.

“There, a part of the counter is clean,” he took hold of my hand once more and pulled.

“That is not what I meant!” I tried to hide my red cheeks. No staring. Do not stare. I tried not to stare. He just loved showing off his physique.

“Hey you said something had to be cleaned.”

“I did not,” I sighed. I didn’t mean to sigh. I shouldn’t have sighed. Stupid. “I did not mean that way.”

“It was still done. Isn’t that what counts?”

“Aish Dongwoo; you are so hard to understand I swear!”

We stopped before stepping foot out of the kitchen. He suddenly turned around, his bare chest facing me. In a moment, his strong arms were wrapped around me and my head rested on his shoulders. I kept my arms by my sides. I felt his muscles contract against my own body, as he breathed in and out.

“You sighed, didn’t you?” he noticed. He noticed. Dammit. “Does that mean I’m winning some points?” Why did he have to notice?

I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t find the right words. Why couldn’t I tell him how I felt?

“I’m not going to kiss you when you don’t want me to,” he pulled away. “It’s not our moment for that. But I will leave you with this…”  He leaned in ever so slightly to place a little peck on my nose. “You had a chocolate dot on your nose.”

I will never forget this, Dongwoo. You are such a fun person to be around and it’s never a dull moment with him. I enjoyed every second of our time together. I couldn’t be anything but happy while in his presence. It wasn’t a physical attraction. It wasn’t. He. He had this sort of strong magnetic field around him that just pulled me in.

Everything about him was perfect, just as perfect as I was in his eyes. That was when I realized how much he meant to me. His love transformed mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dongwoo's chapter! It was hard to think of a specific and special place for him, but I thought of one lol. This has got to be one of the more difficult chapters for me to write. Dongwoo is such a special person and character to begin with, so pinpointing a special trait of his and utilizing it was difficult. And to top it all off, I needed to incorporate his feelings and true thoughts into the story. 

Plus I finally mentioned that little incident that I've continuously hinted at. :3 hehe!

time to answer some questions!

Only one member left! Can you guys recall who it is? :D Then the epicness begins. Trust me guys. The next chapter is going to be the last of the 'boring' ones. After that... a whole lot of action happens. A WHOLE LOT. hint hint hint hint hint. 

@mischievouskiss~lol hehe~ i'm glad the chapter made you love him! and I had to mention his chinky eyes! he has the smallest in the group i can't ahjkfdhakjsdf

@coala17~i'm glad you noticed :3 I'm updating as much as I can :D

@parktaemi~i'm happy you decided to click and read my story! Dongwoo did treat her right lol 

@oknamstar~And the hoaring does continue! hahahaha. awee thanks~ :3

@shirokuro~ one of my faves gifs of him hehe~ thank youuuu :D