Beautifully Untamed

Chapter Eleven

The theatre was full of eager actors that afternoon. 

Gaho whined softly from his hiding place within Ji Yong’s hoodie. Last night, after he had ran off, Ji Yong had just gone back to his room and forced himself to sleep. Gaho wanted to talk, but he couldn’t get Ji Yong to even utter a word. Then this morning, Ji Yong was acting like nothing had happened the night before. He didn’t even remember what had happened, and Gaho didn’t know if it was an act, or if Ji Yong was telling the truth.

Did it escape him? Did sleep make the memories get buried again and go away? He could have sworn something was bothering him.

“Quit squirming so much, you want me to leave you outside?” Ji Yong softly asked as he watched two actors fumble about in stage, while Hyori directed them. It seemed like nothing was yet properly set, so for now blocking would be a huge part of learning their lines. They were then going to have to see if the way they blocked would really set into the stage and look good to the audience.

“No, I’m just…” Gaho sighed. Ji Yong nodded once and started to walk again. He knew Gaho was worried about him, but right now, there was no time to be worried. They had to focus.

“Ji Yong!” The blond turned his head to where his name was called. Seungri was rushing his way over to him, and then took a deep breath. “I’m glad you were able to make it. My sister and I wanted to give you a lift but you didn’t answer your door when we knocked, so we thought perhaps you had left earlier in the day,”

“Yeah,” Ji Yong mumbled. He heard the knocks and the yells at his door. That is why he knew he had to be here, at this time. Gaho wasn’t about to let him miss as well. They both needed the money and needed to focus on their search.

“You want to practice your part?” Seungri asked, lifting a few scripts up for Ji Yong to see.

“Sure,” Ji Yong mumbled again. Seungri grinned, handing Ji Yong a script from the top. Ji Yong took it with a slight grunt of thanks as he flipped it open.

“Hyori has been shifting the part again, it seems you will play a bigger part than expected,” Seungri said as he placed the other scripts down, but kept one to open it to the first act that would hold Ji Yong in it. It was the scene where the prince would sneak out of the palace. He would meet with Ji Yong then. And then as the conversation went, they would be revealed to be lovers.

“Who is playing the role of the prince?” Ji Yong asked, his eyes reading through the scene with frantic speed. They share a kiss at the end of the scene!

“Hm,” Seungri frowned, “I told you its Seung Hyun,”

“Oh.” Ji Yong felt his cheeks heat up slightly, and looked away from the script. His eyes scanned the area, noting that Seung Hyun wasn’t around. “Where is he?” he asked. He was really hoping to get to see him. It was a new feeling for him all together, and he could not yet understand what it meant.

Seungri looked up after finding the scene, and looked around as well. “Probably at work, Hyori just told me to help everyone practice until their partners appeared, so far everyone seems to be here, except for Seung Hyun.” Seungri looked back at Ji Yong with a grin, “Well, let’s practice.”

Ji Yong made a face. There was no way he was kissing anyone. But these were rehearsals; he doubted that it was required. “Alright,”

Seungri took a deep breath and made dashing motions. “Ah! Am I late?” he asked himself, pretending to look around. “I must be too late,” he added.

Ji Yong stepped forward, “I am here, and you are not too late. Silly,” Ji Yong offered a small smile, and Seungri found himself starring before he remembered that he had a line to deliver.

“You are too kind, offering that I wasn’t late when I clearly was. And I know that we have to be careful, I feared that you had to leave,” Seungri looked down. “I’m glad that you came.” He added. Ji Yong nodded his head, his eyes on the script.

“I wouldn’t miss the chance to see you even if it is forbidden.” He grimaced at the line.

“I wish we could share the rest of forever together, and we didn’t have to hide from the rest of the world,” Seungri said with so much earnest. His eyes looked at him so hopeful. 

“We might, someday,” Ji Yong agreed.

 “How has your day been so far, hopefully not too stressed?” Seungri asked, his eyes flashing with worry. Ji Yong wondered how Seungri was displaying so much emotion. But his focus was more on the words. There was a resounding echo to each.

“Nothing too stressful, everything has been just as normal today,” Ji Yong said. “Although, I heard that soon we will be having company,” his gaze turned questioning. Seungri nodded his head as if he knew what he was talking about.

“Mother and father invited someone from the next kingdom; I haven’t paid much attention to that. I just wanted to come and see you,”

At this part the prince failed to notice the worry and distress that the other character was having. It was yet to be revealed why they were even there. The two of them could just be friends that couldn’t hang out together because of the different social standing in their lives. “You should try and be a little bit more aware,” Ji Yong murmured meaningfully. 

Seungri walked a bit closer, pretending to lean in. It was brief, and then he pulled back. He grinned widely. Ji Yong blinked; confused at first until he realized that was the pretend start of the kiss. He quickly read his next line, “What was that, my prince?” he asked, trying to  make the tone sound teasing and amused.

Seungri acted sheepish and then curtly said “A kiss,”

Ji Yong scoffed, and rushed a bit forward to gently take the prince’s hand in his, and pulled him in, and pretended to really kiss him. “That’s a kiss, my prince,” Ji Yong said, and then took the few steps back. Seungri stared a bit, feeling a bit of nerve at this point. He had not expected that swoop for a pretend  kiss.

“Really,” Seungri muttered, “can you show me again?” he said suggestively.

“No more my prince, we could get caught,” Ji Yong pretended to start walking away. “I shall see you in the castle then,” and waved goodbye.

“Fine,” Seungri called. But he stayed rooted in his spot for a moment longer, before taking his own leave. 

“Maybe in a better time, we could share more,” Ji Yong murmured as he was supposed to walk back into the scene, momentarily to check that the prince was truly gone. “Someday, you and I will be able to hold hands in public, kiss, and get married to each other. Maybe when we’re older, we will get to be happy like that,” he said. “Maybe.”

And that was where the scene ended. 

Seungri clapped his hands and then said, “Let’s try that again, but you use some emotion or something. You were kind of stiffed.”

Ji Yong scowled. He was not unhappy about the criticism as much as he was about the echo of the words that he felt. It was difficult for him to focus when it felt like he was having Déjà vu. He quickly tried to shake the feeling off and nodded his head about running through the lines again. This time, Seungri had ran across the theatre, before he sprinted back down, and acted extremely frantic, making Ji Yong look at him oddly.

“Ah! Am I late?” he panted, and then dropped to his knees looking devastated, “I must be too late.”

Ji Yong groaned, and trudged over to him, muttering his line with disdain. , “I am here, and you are not too late. Silly,”

Seungri ended up grinning.

They ran through the script about twenty times before Seungri asked for a water break and Ji Yong had already memorized his lines by heart. “We should probably practice your other scenes,” Seungri offered. Ji Yong looked towards him and nodded his head. Seungri was jumping again, excited about what other scenes he was going to get to act with Ji Yong.

At that moment, Hyori walked over to them with a slight apologetic smile, “how are we doing over here?” she asked.

“Alright,” Ji Yong muttered.

“Better than alright, we got this scene down,” Seungri pumped his fist before noticing his sisters glare. “Well, Ji Yong nearly has this scene down, do you know when Seung Hyun is going to get here?”

Hyori nodded her head. “He should be here in about thirty minutes, with his luck he will be here by the second rundown, so let’s break for lunch.” She said, and motion to everyone whom was walking towards the end of the theatre. There was a table being set there, and fancy looking waiters soon walked out, and placed large casseroles of food out.

“I am starving,” Seungri murmured, making his way to the table. Hyori smiled at her brother, before turning to look at Ji Yong whom didn’t seem eager to budge from his seat. “Don’t you want to join everyone at lunch?” she asked.

“I’m okay,” Ji Yong said. He didn’t want to have to discuss with them his lack of appetite for human cooked food.

“Hm, it’s best that you eat something, we might be here late and not get to eat dinner until perhaps midnight,” she said. “Come on, follow me,”

“No, it’s okay,” Ji Yong insisted. Hyori was not having it. She walked over to him and snatched his arm, pulling him out of his seat. The woman was strong, and very insistent.

“Come now, don’t argue with me,” she pulled him towards the table and offered him a plate that Ji Yong reluctantly took. He looked at the food and felt his stomach churn with distaste for the smells it emitted. Everyone else looked happy to be munching on the food that was set out for them. But Ji Yong decided to pass it up as Hyori went to set her own plate.

He placed the empty plate down and dashed his way outside, glad for the fresh air that met him.

He was starting to feel back to normal now. Whatever was making his head feel odd was now disappearing and Ji Yong had to scowl at that. This morning, he had woken up feeling strange, and having Gaho ask him questions that he didn’t understand was even stranger.

You know the feeling, of having something in mind, but then it gets interrupted and you lose track of your thoughts completely and you wish you could remember what it was that you were thinking—but it’s just gone? Frustrating, that was the words Ji Yong would use to describe this feeling, because for the life of him, he couldn’t quite remember why he had been crying the night before.  He could remember going to the theatre, and he could remember following Seung Hyun around, but other than that his mind drew a blank.

Gaho had told him that he had fainted. He didn’t remember that. He told him he had met someone name Chaerin, and that just brought pain to the back of his head.

“Why can’t I remember anything?” Ji Yong mumbled to himself, rushing his fingers through his hair and gripping it tight as he looked up at the expanses of the blue, deep, sky.

“What about the thing about the necklace, do you remember that?” Gaho asked. Ji Yong shook his head. Had he forgotten something else? Gaho sighed, “It seems things are not going to be easy on you this time around either.”

Ji Yong sighed, somehow accepting that fact. Of course, his life was never meant to be easy. He was tired, and a part of him was scared. It felt like the fire of his soul was wearing thin and soon there would be nothing left of him. Was this what it meant to be vulnerable? For someone whom had always felt like a ball of spit fire and unruly scorn, he was feeling pretty damned low and useless.

This was nothing like himself.

Or perhaps this was an identity crisis; because he didn’t know whom he was he was acting like a complete dunce. “Do you want to go back inside?” Gaho asked. Ji Yong shook his head, and instead walked towards the railings that circled around the entrance. He leaned against it, and decided to watch the sky and the passing clouds.

He could easily tell that it was just three in the afternoon, that high point in the day that marked the downfall of the sun. Soon the sky would start darkening, slowly, shade by shade, until the colors ran in pinks, gold, and purples. That was something that he could be sure had never changed about the world.

Ji Yong wasn’t sure how long he had been staring up at the solace of the sky when he heard footsteps approaching. He didn’t pay much mind to it, thinking that it was perhaps someone coming out to look for him and call him back in for more readings. “Ji Yong?” he heard his name, called in a deep tone that had him catching his breath and dropping his head down so he could see who it was. Not that he needed to see who had called his name, the moment that he had heard the voice his mind had supplied the name without hesitation.

Seung Hyun

Ji Yong’s mind raced with several things, and yet somehow he managed to blurt out in a slight tease, “You managed to make it,” his face threatening to heat up when Seung Hyun chuckled at him.

“Yes, somehow,” Seung Hyun nodded once, “I wasn’t expecting to be called in for work at the time that I was, and had to attend.”

“What’s your job?” Ji Yong asked, nearly cursing himself for even trying to keep a conversation going. But they were outside, and they were alone, and something within him wanted to keep Seung Hyun talking. He didn’t want to go back inside with the other people. Not just yet. A little bit longer.

“I’m a graphic designer,” Seung Hyun answered, surprised that Ji Yong had asked what he did for a living. “I had a few designs I needed to finish since the client was asking for a fast job. I really don’t deal with where the work comes from, just the designing of the message they want to communicate.” He rambled on.

Ji Yong grinned, “That sounds interesting, I don’t have a job,” and then he wondered why he would confess such a thing. It sounded really bad on his part.

“What about the theatre here, I thought you were some pro actor,” Seung Hyun said.

“Nah,” Ji Yong shook his head. “I barely just moved into the city,” Gaho growled inside the hoodie of his sweater. Seung Hyun blinked, and tilted his head a little.

“Is Gaho with you?” he asked, his tone slightly amused now.

“Uh, yeah, he’s being stuffy,” Ji Yong let out a chuckled and then covered his mouth, odd, why would he do that. He bit his lower lip and Seung Hyun took a step back.

“Shall we go inside now, and run some lines? I hope we can get some work done before practice is over,” Seung Hyun said. Ji Yong opened his mouth to protest, that he wanted to stay out but he had blurted out enough. He nodded his head with agreement, and then followed Seung Hyun inside.

Once they were both in, Seungri approached them. “Ah, Seung Hyun you were able to come! You and Ji Yong should start running lines. I can offer my help and opinion of you two!” he eagerly said, practically bouncing, unable to stay still. Seung Hyun smiled at Seungri and nodded his head.

“Sure, that would be great,”

“Do you need a script?” Seungri asked, and rushed to the stack. He ran back with a script for Seung Hyun. Ji Yong walked away from both of them as he went to his seat and got his own script. Most of the scenes that he had with Seung Hyun were mushy, and embarrassing. He was really starting to hate this position that he had set himself in.

Why had he come here?

“I think I need to find a way to stay away from Seung Hyun,” Ji Yong murmured so only Gaho would hear him. Gaho popped his head out of the hoodie, and growled against his ear.

“Deal with it, you are stuck being an actor for this play and that means interacting with Seung Hyun!” Gaho harshly whispered. Ji Yong nodded, rubbing his head. Flashes of voices filling his mind until Seung Hyun’s voice called him back to earth.

“Let’s start,” Seung Hyun smiled. Ji Yong nodded, standing up. Seung Hyun took a few steps away from him, and then started, flawlessly pretending to be worried, and concerned. “Ah! Am I late?” he asked himself. Disappointment, despair, longing, the feelings were clearly seen on his face as he muttered in a very distressed tone, “I must be too late,”

Seungri swallowed, his eyes glued to Seung Hyun and his acting. It made him feel like Seung Hyun was truly alone, and truly regretted being late.

Ji Yong stepped forward, with a bounce to his step like they had practice so it almost seemed like he was ready to surprise his prince. “I am here, and you are not too late. Silly,” He added a bit of a laugh, amusement shinning in his eyes.

Seungri’s jaw dropped, amazed at the change in Ji Yong. That acting had not been there when they had been running lines.

 “You are too kind, offering that I wasn’t late when I clearly was.” Seung Hyun’s tone was relieved, and then it turned soft, warm, and loving, “And I know that we have to be careful, I feared that you had to leave,” Seung Hyun moved closer to Ji Yong, practically invading the blonds space and reached for his face, fingers brushing over the soft arch of Ji Yong’s cheekbone, “I’m glad that you came.”

Seungri wasn’t the only one finding himself out of breath. Ji Yong really did looked like he stopped breathing right then and there before he smiled up softly, warmth also filtering his eyes as he tilted his head into that hand, and softly, yet clearly said. “I wouldn’t miss the chance to see you even if it is forbidden.”

Seung Hyun sighed, wistfully as he used both hands to cradle Ji Yong’s head softly. “I wish we could share the rest of forever together, and we didn’t have to hide from the rest of the world,”

Ji Yong raised his own hands to Seung Hyun’s, but not to pull them away. Instead to hold them himself,  “We might, someday,” Ji Yong agreed.

Seungri opened and closed his mouth, feeling a little hot under his collar. He felt like he was looking at something truly forbidden. Something that he shouldn’t be watching- but also something that he couldn’t help but want to watch for that very reason. He nearly looked away when the pair stood practically with their hips glued together, hands gripped with each other, and fingers laced. The way they never looked away from each other faces made him want to scream.

Seung Hyun truly was like a lover, interested in knowing about his beloved. “How has your day been so far, hopefully not too stressed?” and the concern, wow, it was to die for.

“Nothing too stressful, everything has been just as normal today,” Ji Yong responded, reassuring to his own beloved as not to worry him. “Although, I heard that soon we will be having company,” his gaze turned questioning.

Seung Hyun sighed, closing his eyes as if he didn’t seem to like the idea of what was soon to happen. “Mother and father invited someone from the next kingdom; I haven’t paid much attention to that. I just wanted to come and see you,” a that despair, that need, it all felt to real and it was becoming too intimate again.

Ji Yong frowned, his face that of a lover that couldn’t believe that the one they loved was being so careless. “You should try and be a little bit more aware,” Ji Yong murmured meaningfully.  Unlike before, here you could already see what these two were here for. There was no awkward distance, and no distaste to the others touches. There was nothing friendly about these two.

Please, kiss, Seungri thought to himself as he his lips and kept rapt attention.

Seung Hyun smiled wickedly, and leaned in. His lips lightly brushing over Ji Yong’s, a barely there kiss that had Ji Yong’s eyes widening- and hitching his breath before the sensation was completely gone- and with hooded eyes, a sweetened look on his face he asked. What was that, my prince?” his tone questioning, and yet not satisfied. A bit amused perhaps, but definitely, there was desire lacing the very words.

“A kiss,” Seung Hyun said, feigning disbelief that Ji Yong would fail to know that he had just been kissed.

Ji Yong scoffed, his hands releasing Seung Hyun’s just so he could grip his cheeks, pulling his face down and planted a deep kiss. A fuller kiss with more insistence, that had them both responding and kissing passionately before he broke away, a tease in his voice as he said. “That’s a kiss, my prince,”

Seungri was gasping now. His breath coming in short and drool slipping past the side of his mouth at how yummy and sinful that kiss had looked. He was so entirely glad that he had not missed a moment of it, because the scene was surely ending now.

“Really?” Seung Hyun’s voice was a husky growl of need, “can you show me again?” damn, it was so tempting, so innocent, but Ji Yong proved to be such a tease as he untangled himself away and shook his head.

“No more my prince, we could get caught,” Ji Yong walked backwards, but kept his eyes on Seung Hyun. You could tell that he wished for there to be more, for them to be able to do more. But he was the one that was also placing a distance between them that was always there no matter what. “I shall see you in the castle then,” and waved goodbye.

“Fine,” Seung Hyun pouted, kicking his feet, before sighing and moving off. He moved to stand beside Seungri whom had composed himself by now. Ji Yong came back to the center of where they had been acting, and looked around, before he said the last of his lines.

“Maybe in a better time, we could share more,” Ji Yong sadly said “Someday, you and I will be able to hold hands in public, kiss, and get married to each other. Maybe when we’re older, we will get to be happy like that,” his tone was heartbreaking. “Maybe.”

Seungri clapped, and then whistled. “You two are perfect! I don’t think that you need any practice!” Seungri cheered. “We should do another scene. Have you practice any of the others?” Seungri asked Seung Hyun as they looked over the script.

Ji Yong turned around, and away from both of them.

His lips were still tingling from where Seung Hyun had kissed him, and his heart was beating so fast he thought it was going to explode. Acting was truly something out of this world because your job was to make the audience believe that you felt for the person, and  that you both were perfect in balanced chemistry and attraction. But this wasn’t part of acting, his heart, his cheeks, the slight tremble of his body--- that was not acting!

What was wrong with him?