The basement was cool naturally, seeing as it was underground and natural hollowed out stone as its walls kept the vast space cool and perfect for the purpose it was being used for – A wine cellar. Taking in the atmosphere around him, he walked to the thermostat, noting that indeed it was not as cool as it should be for the optimum storage temperature needed for wines, especially for the predominantly expensive, rare ones that this Royal Cellar housed.

Hyukjae hummed a little off tune as he adjusted the temperature of the enormous basement, smiling happily when he felt the temperature drop slightly. He made a quick work of wiping the touch screen mounted into the wall, primarily used to locate wine bottles through name or designated code in the maze like rows and columns and made his merry way to the rows and rows of glass bottles, all placed neatly, slightly tilted downwards in its designated resting place and a slot with its name and computerized ID number written in the space beneath it.

Taking a duster and a clean polishing cloth, he started wiping, grinning because Princess Donghae wouldn’t dare to come down into the dark basement since he was afraid and he could do his job without any disturbances or having to look after the mentally five year old squeal-y princess. Donghae seriously liked to play too much sometimes, Hyukjae thought.

Hearing his phone beep, the tiny sound slightly echoing in the basement, Hyukjae took out the device, only to face palm because Mage Siwon had sent him a pouting selca while whiningly asking him where he was hiding.

Seriously…that stupid wizard touched him too much sometimes. He even pinched his once and he still hadn’t apologized for it!

The audacity!

~~~~

He watched him glower adorably at his phone before putting it away, huffing a little before pouting, mumbling underneath his breath as he started dusting the bottles.

Silently.

He didn’t want to scare the boy.

Especially since he was his own personal stalker…even more that that weird Choi Siwon.

Yuck! Even thinking that name made him want to puke!

Anyways, Choi Siwon (hack hack) wasn’t the one of interest…it was Lee Hyukjae.

He would watch him every day as he scurried around, doing this and that at the royal palace. He was a naïve innocent little boy and sometimes he wondered if he was a little blind and perhaps a little dumb too.

Especially when he failed to notice how he was being courted by Princess Donghae. He was by no means subtle about his affection for the boy as Princess Donghae would fling himself time and again into his arms with big watery love struck eyes and wide smiles that honestly looked a little loopy…but we could give that off as being…for the lack of a better word…love struck by the black haired, pretty eyed male.

The boy was beautiful…so much so that he even had the dark wizard Siwon, who claimed to loath any kind of skin ship, yet initiated most of the ones he was subjected to, himself, a little enamored by the friendly warmth the boy radiated every time he smiled.

It made him jealous to no end every time he would see Siwon trying to rub up on him or when Donghae would innocently (but with many not so innocent intentions) peck him on his smooth milky white cheek.

Really that was his place.

~~~~

Hyukjae was almost done with the bottles when he approached the prized collection, housed separately with glass walls surrounding it and Victorian columns placed here and there inside and the rarest of wine concoctions resting on them.