A/N: AAHHHH IM SO SORRY GUYS *SOBS*  Work and school have picked up so much lately that I completely neglected this story!! i'm sorry y'all. :( Hopefully this little double update will help you guys get back into the story. Please, enjoy! xoxo

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Nighttime at the palace was always so quiet, so void of any sound. It was when the citizens lucky enough to live there retired to their rooms, the programmed lights dimming. Though the palace was modeled after the oriental dynasties from the far past, there were still hints of the modern century that had been worked in: what should have been paper screens were actually high tech glass, coded to look in the way of the ancient days. Rather than write on scrolls with true paper, glass tablets were used for communication instead. And of course, there was always the domed ceiling around the whole palace, encasing the place away from the dangers of the toxic world outside.

When you were younger, the dome hadn’t been there. You ran under a true blue sky with Seokjin, with a real breeze and actual butterflies fluttering about. But when you got older, and the Earth began to deteriorate from the inside out, the dome became something necessary to make sure the citizens of the palace were safe.

And so, it was built.

You headed back to your room later in the evening, knowing that your mother was no doubt with the emperor. Now that you were more mature, you were allowed to have your own corridors, and you secretly loved it. No longer did you have to be under the watchful eye of your mother constantly, making sure that you didn’t get yourself into trouble. You could spend your days as you wished, writing or dancing or doing embroidery, always keeping your eyes out for a chance that Seokjin was alone.

You quickly dismissed your handmaidens, telling them that you would unrobe yourself for tonight. After the automatic glass doors shut, you flopped onto your bed, smiling yourself silly.

Oh, Prince Seokjin.

You loved your room, of course. It was adorned with the latest technology, from glass tablets to viewing screens and all sorts of the like. Coupled with beautiful woods and silks that had been preserved since centuries before, you knew that you were quite a spoiled girl. Your bed itself had its very own canopy, where sheets of chiffon hung down. The threads had been enchanted with a magical science of some sort, showing faint images of grasslands and meadows. Wonderful sceneries and sounds were what lulled you to sleep, and they were what you woke up to, as well.

But the one thing that you loved the most about your room, was that it was a place where you could freely be with Seokjin. Away from your mother. Away from the Emperor.

A place where it could just be you two, without the titles. No “royal court girl” and no “prince”.

Sooner than you realized, you were being shaken awake.

“Princess? Wake up, beautiful.”

Groggy and not quite sure what was happening, you rubbed your eyes, turning over in your bed.

Seokjin?

You sat up stark straight. Your hair had come undone from its updo, your skirts all a mess. You pulled the covers up to your chest and you wondered if you were somehow dreaming.

But no—Seokjin was right there, his face softly lit from the colors of the chiffon drapery. You glanced at the fabric, which was glowing with images of mountains overlooking the tops of a lake. You could hear the swish swash of water flowing back and forth, into rivers and out to the ocean.

“S-Seokjin?”

As if to make you even more scared than you already were, you suddenly remembered the rules of housing a prince after curfew.

And the punishments.

“Seokjin—”

He pressed a finger to your lips, gently pulling the drapery aside.

“Keep your voice low, please.”

You nodded.   

When he was sure that you understood his message, Seokjin retracted his hand, returning it behind his back. Noticing how conservative he was being, you were slightly confused. Seokjin wasn’t usually like this. Most of the time when he was here in your room, he freely caressed your cheek and petted your hair. But going so far as to put his hand behind his back? It wasn’t as if you were some sort of King’s daughter—

And then it clicked.

Prince Seokjin, who was years older than you were, was in a girl’s bedroom.

At night.

With not a single light on.

Oh.

You brushed the hair out of your eyes and was about to speak when Seokjin beat you to it.

“Why haven’t you changed out of your day clothes, princess?” He was so genuinely worried, seeing the same white silken top and red skirt. Though his voice was low, it failed to conceal his concern. “Have your handmaidens been slacking off?”

“No, no,” you said. You shook your head. Let your hands fall into your lap. “I sent them off early. It was me who forgot to change—I guess I just fell asleep right after dinner.”

Seokjin sighed exasperatedly.

“I was tired, okay?” you mumbled. But a part of you felt almost shameful—here Prince Seokjin was, looking more than glorious in his prince’s robes, and you were like some sort of slob with your hair half done, sleep still in your eyes, and still dressed in your now-wrinkled daywear.

“You must learn to take care of yourself,” Seokjin said, ever the admonisher. “Come on, get up.”

“What are you talking about?” You pressed a hand to your temple. You still weren’t quite awake yet. “What time is it?”

“It’s midnight. I did say that I would train you, didn’t I?”

“In the middle of the night?”

Seokjin’s lips pursed.

Ah, you thought to yourself. Of course it had to be in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t want somebody to accidently catch you mastering your Element, after all.

“Right. I’m being dumb.”

Seokjin just cracked a half grin. He pulled aside the drapery, a hand outstretched in a gesture for you to hop out of bed.

“Don’t worry, princess. I’ll fix you up in no time.”

//

“Sh—come here. Follow me.”

You were more than anxious as Seokjin led you out of your room, the artificial moon high in the sky and bathing everything in an odd blue-white light. Though the encoders and carpenters had did their best to simulate the real moon, the real sun, the real stars, something about it just still wasn’t quite right.

The two of you stepped into the main plaza at which both of you stayed. This was the central living area for those were considered among the royal court: the emperor, his queens, along with his sons and daughters. This also included other members of high nobility such as the royal astrologer, as well as royal concubines.

The plaza was a huge square, decorated with large buildings to house multiple families. The emperor, obviously, had his own private quarters to dwell in, as did the princes, the queens and other kings as well, but everything was all smoothly connected to one another in the forms of additional mini walkways and halls. That was the far side of the square, opposite yours.

Your side, on the other hand, was for the royal concubines—the women and men who were used for pleasure by the king, but still held to a high standard. Most emperors had a huge array of concubines in their court, but your emperor—Seokjin’s father, had only one.

Though he might be married to various queens and kings, he was truly devoted to only one royal concubine in particular.

And this—this was your mom.

You were not a child of the emperor. Your mother had told you already many times before—she had originally been from another land, a different kingdom. There, she had served as a royal concubine as well. This is where you came from. And after many visits from the emperor, your mother, as well as you, had been gifted to him.

Though you knew that you were technically another king’s daughter, you were so young when you had come to live with the emperor that you barely even remembered him. Instead, you took your fatherly love from the emperor, who treated you as his own and tried to raise you to the best of his ability without looking like he was biased amongst his various other true sons and daughters.

The royal concubines quarters were meant to fit a total of ten men or women, but it was more than obvious that your mother was the only one who was deemed fit for the role. Therefore, you and your mom had so much extra space that the emperor decided to go ahead and renovate it for you to have your own separate space.

The emperor was good to you and your family, and so was his son.

Pressed up against the walls, Seokjin kept you behind him in the shadows. He knew that if the two of you were caught, you would be the one getting in trouble—not him. Though rank and status were not as important outside in the more modern world, here, in the palace, it still meant so much. It gave order to the whole system, a pocket of land that proved that authority was still meant to be respected no matter what. And though Seokjin could understand this point, sometimes, he felt that the palace took it a bit too far.

“Seokjin! Where are we going?”

“Keep your voice down,” he whispered behind him. “Just don’t let go of my hand, okay?”

In broad daylight, you would have laughed at his cheesy drama-like line. But in the middle of the night, with eyes all around, you could never be too sure.

The nighttime was just cool enough to be soothing from the heat of the day. As you followed Seokjin to wherever he was leading you, you settled your breathing. Inhaled the crisp midnight air. Focused on him in front of you—his huge shoulders, his hand over yours.

You didn’t even notice which way you had been going until Seokjin stopped, and the two of you reached your destination.   

The flower garden.

In the middle of the night, the flower garden seemed like a completely different place. Whereas in the day the flowers seemed to be glowing with a warmth, now they radiated an ethereal blue mist, like fairies or pixie dust. Everything was tinged a cool white from the artificial moon’s light. Petals bloomed and inside, it was if you could see the depths of a deep, deep ocean that you had yet to ever see.

Seokjin led you to a corner. There were no steps into the flower garden—it was not meant to be walked among, it was meant to be observed only—but you were surprised to see rungs attached against the pit’s walls, tucked behind several stalks of bamboo.

Once Seokjin had reached the bottom, he gestured for you to come down. You could read his lips, half in shadow:

It’s safe.

And so quickly, before anybody could catch you frolicking around with the beloved prince of the Fire Kind, you started down the rungs. Feet steady and the metal sturdy, it wasn’t one of the hardest things for you to do.

Yet Seokjin made sure to keep his hands on your waist at all times.

These sort of touches were normal between the two of you. Growing up together, it had became a normal thing, despite the teachers that would always shake their heads.

But as he helped you down, revealing an entrance to a secret room underneath a patch of roses, you couldn’t help but think about just how close the two of you were. You had grown up together, living in the same plaza for years. And now he was more than just your best friend, wasn’t he? Even if both of you never said anything about it.

The room was stone on the sides and the ceiling, but the floor was completely furnished with polish wood, making for smooth steps. On the right, there was an open square room, in the middle was a sort of long rectangular hall to walk up and down on, and right next to that…

“Is that… a real hot spring?”

You looked up at Seokjin, who stood firmly by your side.

He looked down at you, smiled. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

Nearly gasping with delight, you hastily ran over to the hot rocks. And sure enough, water was bubbling inside of it, humid steam rising up into the air. It had been so long since you had seen something like this: natural, normal, untouched by technology nor science. It was a figment of your childhood, before the Earth began to become a toxic wasteland. Nowadays, it was so rare to even see true natural water, or come across an actual leather bound paper book, that the slightest thing made you absolutely, wondrously giddy.

“Seokjin,” you sighed.

You looked over at him with the hugest grin on your face. “How do you know about this place? And how did you even get into my room?”

Now that you could see actually see him, the place softly lit with torches upon the walls, you noticed that he was no longer wearing his traditional robes. Instead, he had swapped them out for something a bit more modern: sweatpants, as well as a muscle tee. On his feet were not cloth shoes, there were sneakers. And his hair, which was usually so exquisitely done up, was in a bun at the top of his head.

You had coordinated with him by accident and you hadn’t even known it.

You too, had changed out of your silk skirt and top. Those were fine during the day, but you had always preferred your loose v-neck tops and Nike shorts. You had slipped on sneakers, too.

Again with the palace double standard. Though regular citizens wore clothes like these every day, the palace wanted to keep order, keep traditions. Hence, the mix of ancient and modern day dresswear.

Seokjin just smiled again, walking over to you. After making sure that you were firmly seated on a stone, his hands raked through your loose hair. He gathered it together as he spoke.

“How I know about this place is for another time. But as for getting into your room—that was easy. You do know that I’ve been learning to code since birth, don’t you?”

His fingertips were so relaxing, you almost wanted to go to bed right then and there.

“I didn’t know coding meant hacking into the palace security system.”

Seokjin scoffed. “Oh, please. You know I’m not like that.”

“But I do know that you’re smarter than you let on.”

You put your wrist up so that Seokjin could pluck off your hair tie. Wrapping it around firmly around the hair he had gathered together at the crown of your head, he tied it around three times before pulling it taut.

“You’re just as smart as I am, beautiful,” he whispered, leaning over to wrap his around around your abdomen, lips murmuring against your ear.

“I highly doubt that,” you responded. “I’m pretty smart, but I don’t have the training that you do.”

“Well, here we are then!” He pecked you quickly on the temple. “Alright you spoiled girl, I’ve done your hair for you. Let’s get started.”

You couldn’t stop the rush of blood to your cheeks and prayed that Seokjin would think it was because of the hot steam from the spring. Your hand went up to feel your ponytail. It was something that Seokjin had always done for you whenever you were alone. Especially when the two of you were younger, you had always loved to match with each other’s hairstyles. And so he would do your hair for you and you would do his, arranging beads and pins and whatever gadgets you decided to wear that day, just for fun.

“Okay,” you said. You pushed yourself off of your seat on the rock and followed Seokjin into the room. It wasn’t overly huge, nor was it small—just enough room for you and Seokjin to freely move around without accidentally hitting one another.  

“Are you ready?” Seokjin took your hands in his. He raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure about this?”

You exhaled lowly. You knew, and he knew, that if anybody were to find out about this, you would be dead.

But then you thought about the Others. You thought about your mom, and you thought about how you would never forgive yourself if something happened to her when you had the capacity to stop it.

You shouldered yourself and pulled your chin up.

Stared at Seokjin straight in the eyes.

“I’m sure.”

//

A/N: Hopefully this is beginning to make some kind of sense. And we're going to continue on with the main story, in present tense, up next!