“Welcome”

The bartender greets a young man wearing an ivy cap, wrapped up in a trench coat and a scarf, who has just entered the pub. He heads straight towards a certain table, where another guy, a younger one with a golden red hair hidden beneath a hood he is wearing, is currently seated.

“You are late, Myungsoo.” The younger man snaps at the ivy capped guy before raising a curious eyebrow at him. “Did something happen?”

“I love you.” The man named Myungsoo suddenly blurts out. The younger man is taken aback and narrowed his eyes at him. “What did you just say?” His tone rather poisonous.

Myungsoo sighs and lowers his ivy cap down, as if hiding his embarrassment from his sudden declaration of love in public. Nevertheless, he still repeats what he has just said.

“I love you. No, I love you very much.” His eyes are now looking at the younger man’s eyes and strides his way across the table, standing right in front of the other. “No, it is more like…” He unexpectedly slams his left hand onto the table and takes the younger’s hand with his other hand. With a blushing face. “I am madly in love with you, Sungjong!”

The younger one named Sungjong just stares at him blankly, trying to register the situation in his mind.

“Yah, yah! Take it somewhere private, you lovebirds!” A customer from the other table cooed while his companion whistles at them. Sungjong snaps out of it and finally understands before he returns Myungsoo’s hold to quickly get the both of them out of that place.

“Why did you not tell me this right way?! We must leave at once!” He screams angrily at Myungsoo as he roughly drags him along to the exit at the back.

“Why are they leaving so quickly all of a sudden? Is it his way of accepting his confession?” A customer seated at the bar asks the bartender who just realized something.

“But you know I feel like I have seen those two somewhere before…”Before the bartender could even try to remember, a group of men barge their way inside.

“Nobody moves! This building has been sealed for investigation!”

Myungsoo and Sungjong, the two of them have their own set of codes.

Danger level 1 is “I love you”. It means to proceed with caution.

Danger level 2 is “I love you very much”, which means duck and take cover.

And lastly, danger level 3, “I am madly in love with you”, means to run. Like right now.

“If you were being chased, then why were you hesitating like that?!” Sungjong scolds Myungsoo as they continue to run away from the men currently chasing them.

“Well, people were watching!” Myungsoo retaliates which makes Sungjong annoyed more than ever.

“What?! Are you dumb or did you just forget?! That’s why we have established codes between the two of us in the first place!”

“That is not what has troubled my mind! People could have misinterpreted it!”

Sungjong rolls his eyes at him. “Whatever. Save your whining for later. We should separate ourselves for now. Where should we meet-up?”

“Two-karat diamond ring.” Myungsoo tells him, meaning that they should meet at the plaza in 2 hours.

Truth be told, the two of them are fugitives.

“Hey, did you find them?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?!”

After 2 hours, Myungsoo and Sungjong did meet at the plaza where they remain anonymous and out of view since a number of guards are currently walking around in search for them.

Sungjong rips off a poster from the wall with their faces printed on it and can’t help but lament in fear. “They have already released warrants for our arrests…”

On the paper, it is written that the both of them have been charged with severe larceny. And the reward is $20,000, for each of them.

However, there are things that ignited a fire inside Sungjong that he begins tearing the paper into shreds. “What the heck is this?! The offenders are Lee Sungjong (23) and Kim Myungsoo (24)… Convicted?! Both are children of minor merchants of the republic of Woollim. MINOR?!”

Not contented with the ripping, he stomps on the ripped pieces with Myungsoo watching him in amusement. An infuriated Sungjong seems to be the only thing that is keeping him sane right now.

A rather big ripped piece has caught Myungsoo’s attention. He carefully scanned it for a moment before he bent to pick it up and hands it to Sungjong. “Only that part is true.”

Sungjong takes the small piece of paper and reads it quietly. He frowns and pouts at what was written. “It is a mystery to us too, no less.”

The Kim and Lee families have been long time trading rivals.

Their animosity for each other is famous throughout the republic of Woollim.

It remains unclear, however, why the two children from each respective families become accomplices.

It all began three days ago at the annual ball held by a neighboring country.

“May I have this dance?” A clueless Myungsoo gracefully holds out his hand to an unsuspecting Sungjong who was busy eating in a corner. Sungjong was quite surprised that someone such as another man would even approach him and heck, even asked him for a dance. He slowly turns around and both becomes speechless when they finally come eye to eye.

“Oh. I uhh…” Myungsoo stutters.

“Eep!” And Sungjong shrieks.

“It was you? You seem to be rather…” Myungsoo checks Sungjong up and down. “Healthy.” Checks him up and down again. “And round.”

Sungjong can’t believe that he just got caught by the man he like to be seen the least in such an unpleasant moment. Because right now, there are used and empty plates piled up on the table beside him, and he is holding a whole round of cake at the moment.

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