plummeting

;

 

Sehun woke up with a start, glancing around him at the high ceiling, patterns on the wall and the comfy bed he was in. So it wasn't a dream after all. He did somehow get himself into the situation of posing as the prince.

 

"Your Highness," called a voice, coupled with a few knocks. Sehun rubbed his temples and fell back onto the bed, sighing loudly. How he wished that he could just stay like that forever without facing anybody who might see through his disguise. But he couldn't, so with his heart thumping wildly in his chest, he took a deep breath and said "Come in" in his best Important Voice, trying to sound like a prince. 

 

A servant came in, carrying a bucket of warm water and a face towel. "Your Highness, it's time to wash your face," he said, bowing low and placing the bucket of water on a table.

 

"Oh, er, thanks," Sehun stammered. The servant just stared at him like he'd grown an extra head, and Sehun wondered why. Was it unprincely to even thank the servants?

 

He got out of bed and washed his face, taking care not to splash water onto the floor. Feeling much more refreshed, Sehun smiled at the servant and the servant bowed and left the room, carrying the bucket of water and face towel with him.

 

After he left, in popped Baekhyun, a cheery smile on his face.

 

"Hey!" he shouted playfully, giving Sehun a light punch on the shoulder.

 

"Hi Baekhyun," Sehun greeted politely.

 

"I really can't get used to you being so polite," mused the elder, "Luhan's always like 'Yo, loser!' or something."

 

Sehun laughed. He could imagine Luhan doing that only too well.

 

"Anyway, I'm here to pick an outfit for you today, as usual," hummed Baekhyun as he made his way to a corner of the room, where there was a door that Sehun never really noticed before. Baekhyun opened it and revealed a walk-in closet, decked with nice clothes. Rows of shirts, tunics, pants and shoes lined the place. Sehun's jaw dropped; he couldn't help it, never had he seen so many beautiful clothes before, nor a closet so grand.

 

"Wow," Sehun breathed, jaw slack. "It's really huge."

 

Baekhyun twittered. "Look at your reaction, dude. It's refreshing. But anyway I need to style you extra well today so you can leave a good impression."

 

Sehun blinked. "Good impression?" he asked blankly.

 

"Yup," Baekhyun hummed noncommitally, voice muffled as he rummaged inside the closet. "Prince Jongin is coming over later, you know."

 

Sehun was promptly stuck to the ground, unable to move. "Wha—what did you say? Jongin is coming over?" he squeaked. 

 

"Yeah," Baekhyun replied, tossing out a few pairs of pants. "Why don't you try these on?"

 

No response.

 

Baekhyun sighed, walking out of the closet to face Sehun. "Sehun-ah, I can't—" he paused, staring incredulously at the other male whose face had now turned completely white. Sehun was sitting tensely on the edge of the bed, gripping the sheets so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.

 

"Sehun? You okay?" asked Baekhyun, passing his hand in front of his eyes. When Sehun didn't respond, Baekhyun took a deep breath and slapped him hard on the back.

 

"Ow!" yelled Sehun, flinching. "What was that for?"

 

"Sorry," Baekhyun shrugged, "you looked really scary just now. I mean, your face was white as a sheet!"

 

"It's just," Sehun cried as he flopped face down onto the bed, squeezing his eyes shut, "what if I mess up? Then I might cause the engagement to be cancelled!"

 

Baekhyun sat down beside Sehun, still holding a purple tunic in his hands. "You'll do fine. Anyway Jongin doesn't even know Luhan so it's okay."

 

"But—but—" his eyes flew open. "What if I don't act like a prince at all? Then he'd find out—they'd all find out—and my time would be up." Sehun shivered at the thought.

 

A few loud raps on the door and Sehun rolled around, alarmed. "Who's that?"

 

"It's Junmyeon, Your Highness." Sehun heaved a sigh of relief.

 

"Come in."

 

"Good afternoon, Your Highness. Hey, Baekhyun," Junmyeon greeted cheerfully, eyes roaming around the room. His face visibly fell for a second when he realised that Kyungsoo wasn't there, but then he quickly composed himself and a beaming smile returned to his face. 

 

"Your Highness, just briefing you on the agenda for today," Junmyeon said, and Sehun who had been lying sprawled on the bed quickly sat up and straightened his shirt.

 

"As you probably know, the king and queen won't be around because they've gone to another kingdom for a meeting. So now technically you're the one with highest authority. Baekhyun will be accompanying you for the first meeting with Prince Jongin."

 

"Oh... so I don't need to be all alone with him?"

 

"Well, for the first part, no. Jongin will probably have one of his advisors with him as well. You have to officially get introduced to each other first before you can get to... know each other better."

 

Sehun rolled his eyes. 

 

"That's all, Your Highness. Prince Jongin will be arriving in less than an hour so you better get ready fast." And with that last ominous statement, Junmyeon left the room.

 

Baekhyun watched Junmyeon leave, then turned his head around to look at Sehun.

 

"Now what do you say you try on those pants for me?"

 

-

 

After Baekhyun had worked his magic with Sehun, it was already 11 in the morning. Which meant time to meet Prince Jongin.

 

"No, you can't do this," sighed Baekhyun exasperatedly, as he tried for the umpteenth time to make Sehun straighten his back. "You're a prince, for goodness' sake! Didn't Lu teach you how to walk?" Sehun forced himself to look up, and puffed out his chest. 

 

"Is that better?"

 

"No! You look like a bird puffing out its chest feathers to court a mate," and Sehun promptly deflated. Baekhyun pushed his back straight, and made sure to tuck his stomach in.

 

"Now that's better." One glance at the clock on the wall and Baekhyun was pushing Sehun out the door. "We should go, it isn't good to keep your fiancé waiting."

 

Sehun winced. "He's not my fiancé, he's Luhan's."

 

"But you're Luhan now, aren't you?" Baekhyun winked.

 

"You ready?" he asked, after they reached the drawing room and were standing outside the door.

 

Sehun took a deep breath to steady the erratic beating of his heart, and said, "I'm ready."

 

One turn of the doorknob and Sehun found himself in a richly furnished room, with two sofas and a table in between. A vase of fresh lilacs was on the table, fragrance diffusing throughout the room.

 

"Ah, there he is," remarked Baekhyun. Sehun saw a man with dark brown hair that fell over his eyes, bent over and absorbed in something. Beside him was another man with a scarily wide grin on his face, and Sehun shuddered, hoping against hope that Jongin would be the other guy.

 

Turned out he was right.

 

Both males looked up upon hearing them enter. "Hey," said the attractive male as he rose, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. 

 

"Uh... hey," Sehun parroted eloquently. He had no idea why he suddenly felt incapable of speech. Was it because Jongin had the most attractive smile he'd ever seen?

 

"I'm Jongin," he greeted pleasantly, extending a hand.

 

"I'm Luhan, haha," Sehun his lips nervously as he reached out to shake Jongin's hand, which was surprisingly warm. "That's my name, don't wear it out." 

 

If Jongin thought Sehun was weird, he did an excellent job of concealing it.

 

"This is Park Chanyeol, my advisor." The guy beside Jongin stood up, same scary grin still on his face.

 

"Byun Baekhyun, my stylist," Sehun introduced, gesturing at the stylist. 

 

"Also his best friend," added Baekhyun as he stood up. Sehun swore he saw Chanyeol's grin grow even wider (though he wondered how it was even possible, considering that he looked like his face was about to split into half.)

 

They shook hands between each other, and sat down.

 

Well, this is kind of awkward, Sehun thought.

 

"Yeah," agreed Jongin.

 

Wait, did he just verbalise that thought? Sehun looked up from staring at his thighs and found himself looking into a pair of warm brown eyes. He tore his line of vision away, embarrassed, only to spot Chanyeol in a daze, staring at Baekhyun, who was smiling shyly back.

 

Um.

 

"We-ell," commented Sehun, "why don't we go to the Royal Gardens? Jongin, I'm sure you'd like it a lot." Jongin nodded in assent. After they left the room, both of them heaved a collective sigh of relief. Their eyes met at the same time, and both of them broke out into a series of chuckles. 

 

"This way," Sehun gestured, and they made their way through the winding steps and corridors. Sehun didn't know why, but his heart rate sped up whenever Jongin came a little too near, their skin brushed against each other, or if their gazes happened to meet. He vaguely wondered if Jongin felt the same way he did.

 

The variety of flowers and plants in the gardens made Jongin's eyes widen in wonder. Splashes of red, pink, yellow and purple made the garden extremely pleasing to the eye.

 

"Wow," Jongin remarked. "Your gardens are amazing."

 

"All credits go to the gardener," Sehun smiled shyly. Can it be possible that under the sunlight which illuminated his figure, Jongin looked even more attractive?

 

"I really like nature. Don't you think flowers and trees are beautiful, even if they can't move or talk? They still have a life of their own, and when the flowers bloom, it can really beautify the entire space," Jongin commented. "But the garden in my own palace isn't half as pretty as yours," he said regretfully. "The garden itself isn't too big, so I can't grow much variety of plants. Like I've always wanted to have a corner filled with petunia bushes, but that didn't work out." 

 

Sehun's eyes lit up. "Come with me," he urged. "I'll show you something." Sehun practically dragged Jongin over to the entire spread of petunias that lined the west of the garden.

 

An entire spread of purple came into view. Petunias, petunias, and more petunias, as far as the eye could see.

 

"Wow, this..." Jongin could only gape, and no words seemed to come out of his mouth. "It's really amazing. Beautiful." 

 

Sehun chuckled (in a most unprincely manner) and suggested that they continue exploring the garden.

 

Which they did. In fact, they spent an entire hour strolling in the garden, bantering about random topics, ranging from dance to books to music. Sehun found out that Jongin danced and promptly insisted he show him, but Jongin laughingly told him that he would show him next time, when he was more prepared. Sehun pouted, and Jongin chortled. 

 

"You know you remind me..." Jongin's eyes roved around, searching the garden, "of this rose." He pointed to a sole white rose amongst a sea of red, and Sehun could feel his cheeks heating up. 

 

"Why?" he managed to squeak out, because he was genuinely curious.

 

Jongin cocked his head. "Well, you're unlike anybody I've ever met before. You're innocent, and happy, and just really nice to be around. I would pick it and give it to you if I could, but then I don't want to destroy the beauty of your garden."

 

Sehun tried to, but he couldn't help the gigantic grin spreading across his features. He felt special. It was the first time in a long while that anybody paid so much attention to him. When he was a street rat, nobody would even glance his way, and even if they did, the glances were harsh and mocking. Not to be compared to this, with Jongin's warm brown eyes looking down at him.

 

But then again, Sehun reminded himself that it was only because he was Luhan for the moment. Jongin didn't know who he really was; didn't know the real Sehun. If he did, well, Sehun guessed that he probably wouldn't want to have any semblance of a relationship with him.

 

"Are you okay? You look so far away," asked Jongin, breaking Sehun's train of thoughts.

 

"Oh! No, I'm fine." Sehun forced out a smile and tried not to look at Jongin's eyes. 

 

Sehun knew it was wrong of him to like Jongin. He was only a street rat. He wasn't even meant to be there in the first place. When Jongin found out Sehun's real identity, what would he say? He'd probably not even spare Sehun a second glance.

 

"I like you," declared Jongin, "I think we make a not bad pair after all."

 

No, it's Luhan that you like, Sehun thought bitterly. But he hummed in agreement.

 

"It's okay, you don't have to like me just yet," Jongin laughed, "but I'm sure I'll charm my way into your heart."

 

You don't need to, because you already did.

 

Sehun found himself inexplicably drawn towards his tan skin, strong jawline and perfect eyes... He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of such thoughts. He screamed internally that this was wrong, that he shouldn't be harbouring feelings like this because heck, he was only a replacement for the real Luhan. Why was he feeling that way for Jongin, when he knew better than anyone that he would only get heartbroken when Luhan returned? Sehun stole a quick glance at Jongin, then averted his eyes. 

 

No, every fibre of his rational being seemed to be screaming at him, this is wrong. Don't fall for him. He's Luhan's fiancé. 

 

But when Jongin plants a soft kiss to his lips, Sehun can see the last seams holding his sanity together falling apart.

 

---

A/N:

i'M SO SORRY GUYS ;_; Please forgive me. I didn't know I'd be gone for this long, but then I have like 5 exams coming up and I had everything drafted out on my notebook already, just didn't have the time to type it out. 

ty chapter is ty omg T_T I promise subsequent chapters will be better. 

Here's a Kai as apology. Not that good because I don't take art lessons at all. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TIME I USED TO COLOUR EVERYTHING BLACK. And my friend says he looks like Taemin OTL 

Thank you guys for reading! <3 We're one-third of the way there xP