HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY MONSTA X <3 I never thought I'd fall this hard for you seven beautiful boys when we first got acquainted but I'm glad I got to know you. I love you guys more and more with each passing day. Here's to many, many more years together <3

Hyungwon was seriously considering having Changkyun seal up the door to his room.

The amount of times the palace staff shuffled in and out of Changkyun’s room that morning was ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was the armful of gifts they brought in with them.  

Hyungwon could no longer see past the shelves as a mountain of books, cards, and flowers now filled most of Changkyun’s room. Thankfully, the boy’s workspace remained clear of any unnecessary junk. But there was hardly anymore room for gifts and the servants kept pestering Changkyun.

It got to the point where doctors had banned entry to Changkyun’s room just so he could get some rest without being disturbed.

Despite the fact that Changkyun was now peacefully resting, the frog hopped out of his jar and made his way over to Changkyun’s now occupied bedside table. He watched the way the boy pretended to sleep for a few moments before he asked, “Are you dying?”

The wizard-in-training snapped his eyes open to look over at Hyungwon. His lips curled downwards as he sharply breathed, “What?”

The frog gestured to the room. “It hasn’t even been a full day since you broke your leg, and now your room is so full it might explode.”

Changkyun laughed softly and gave a small shrug as he boasted, “What can I say? I have people who care about me.”

“But so much? And in such a short amount of time?” The frog prince pressed the apprentice for any form of clarification.

However, the boy didn’t speak. He wore a smug smirk, looking down at Hyungwon as if the answer was obvious.

It didn’t take too long for the frog prince to deduce that there could only be one thing which allowed weird and bizarre things to occur. “Magic? Seriously?”

“It’s the reason that our postage system is top notch,” Changkyun boasted with a smile. His face returned shifted to something more contemplative as he noted, “Something’s bothering you, isn’t it?”

Hyungwon didn’t hesitate to voice his concerns. “The staff keeps coming into your room and I’m pretty sure you’re the only person who would react well to a talking frog.”

Changkyun gave him a reassuring nod. “I’ll tell them to stop coming.”

They were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Kkukkungie~,” Wonho’s voice rang through the door.

Hyungwon gave Changkyun a judging look, knowing that the boy wasn’t going to bar Wonho from entry.

“He’s a friend,” Changkyun justified as Wonho knocked on the door again.

The frog prince rolled his eyes. “Hide me before you let him in. There’s no way I’ll make it back to my jar in time for you to answer.”

Changkyun picked him up and put him on the unoccupied side of his bed. He hurriedly reshuffled his bed before calling out, “Come in!”

Hyungwon was tucked to where he could see most of everything, though he doubted Wonho could see him.

He watched the beautiful bastard stroll into the room as if it was his, like he had done many times before. “I have some mail for you,” he stated as he got closer to Changkyun.

“There’s more?” the wizard groaned.

Wonho gave a half smile which faltered as he spoke, “It’s not exactly a gift.” The guard pulled out a pastel pink envelope from his back pocket, and Changkyun paled.

Changkyun cursed. “He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?”

“The letter won’t kill you… I think,” the man failed to reassure the panicking wizard, who only clutched the letter even tighter.

Changkyun’s hands shook as he looked down at the neatly penned cursive which spelled out his name. “Hyung… it’s probably best if I open this alone…”

“Right, ah, well.” Wonho, who had been about to burn a hole into the paper with his glare, returned to reality. “I just dropped it off ‘cause no one else really wanted to. Rest well, Kkukkungie. I’ll come back later.”

He patted the boy’s head, giving him one last weak smile before heading out.

Changkyun sighed after Wonho shut the door.

“What’s that?” Hyungwon inquired, willingly ruining the silent moment Changkyun was having as he flipped the envelope in his hands over and over.

“Just a letter,” Changkyun explained weakly.

“Just a letter wouldn’t make you look like you’re going to throw up. Why aren’t you opening it?” Hyungwon sneered.

Changkyun sighed before he professed, “You’ll see once I open it… For now let’s just cover our ears.”

Hyungwon didn’t have time to ask what Changkyun meant. The wizard-in-training snapped his fingers and Hyungwon suddenly felt something fluffy cover his tympanum.

The frog could only see Changkyun mouth the words ‘Can you hear me?’

When he shook his head, Changkyun gave a small nod and peeled back the cards seal.

Though Hyungwon had guessed the letter wasn’t normal, he didn’t expect it to flutter into the shape of a mouth and start yelling at Changkyun. The earmuffs blocked out the sound of card but Hyungwon could definitely still the vibrations.  

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he watched Changkyun’s face contort with shame. The boy had never looked so small and helpless before – not even when he’d had a bookcase fall on him. Just knowing that made Hyungwon angry at the sender. It made him wonder what kind of jerk would yell at someone who’d just gotten injured instead of sending a get well soon card. Though the card wasn’t done yelling, the frog prince flung his tongue and smacked it back to its lifeless form.

The apprentice gazed down at him and blinked with surprise.

“Sorry. My tongue slipped,” Hyungwon said as he yanked off his earmuffs.

Changkyun gave him a confused smile before he started laughing. “Thanks… My master isn’t too happy about the fact that I hurt myself…”

Hyungwon cleared his throat, trying to wave off the heavy atmosphere, “You’re allowed to screw up. You’re only twenty-one,”

“Thanks, Hyungwon,” Changkyun smiled down at him, showing off his dimples yet again.

Hyungwon felt his throat constrict as his heartbeat increased. Those dimples were too dangerous and if Hyungwon looked at them any longer he feared he’d do something embarrassing.

To keep that from happening Hyungwon tucked himself into the opposite side of Changkyun’s bed.

“Enough thanking me. Go to sleep. If the doctors walk in here and check on you, they’re going to yell at you for not sleeping and I don’t think I can shut them up as easily as the card,” Hyungwon lectured.

“Goodnight, Hyungwon,” Changkyun greeted, though the sun still peeked through the curtains.

Choking back a laugh, Hyungwon only hummed in reply as he curled into the blankets.

Hyungwon had only experienced deserts through books and paintings but his dream felt eerily real. The heat and dryness ate at his skin while he trudged through a sea of endless sand. His mind was determined to reach the oasis a short distance away but his body was giving up on him. The stale air picked at the moisture in his lungs and throat drying them to the point he felt like he couldn’t breathe. His whole body shook as he rasped to take a breath. His tried to picture what it might feel like to jump in the cool oasis.

Suddenly he was doused in cold water, being pulled from the dream back to reality where a frightened looking Changkyun was holding a now empty glass.

“Why did you splash me?” Hyungwon asked, trying not to sound too annoyed that he’d been woken up.

Changkyun’s voice was like a low whisper, carefully layered with worry. “I woke up to the sound of you rasping. Your skin looked so dry. This,” he gestured to the glass, “was the first thing I thought of.”

“Why couldn’t you just magic me all the way to my jar?” Hyungwon asked, moving towards Changkyun, trying to ignore the now soggy pillow.

The apprentice took a breath and pointed in the direction of his workspace, where Hyungwon’s jar would have been.

However, the frog was greeted by what he thought was a barricade of books and boxes. The sheer size of it was so intimidating that the frog prince knew there was no way he was getting back to his jar.

He looked back at Changkyun and questioned, “I thought you said you would tell them to stop coming.”

“I was asleep,” Changkyun stated, sounding slightly apologetic.

Normally, Hyungwon might have gotten angry for not getting things to be his way, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be mad at Changkyun.

But even if he had forgiven him, that didn’t erase the fact that beyond that wall of books was Hyungwon’s jar. The one that sustained his life as a frog.

The frog prince felt the water which had slash on himself start to dry.  “I’m going to shrivel up and die, aren’t I?”

The apprentice clicked his tongue. He reached out to pat Hyungwon on the head with his pointer finger. “Don’t be so dramatic. I’ll think of something.”

Hyungwon didn’t know how Changkyun could possibly think up a solution. For a while Hyungwon thought the boy had fallen asleep with his eyes closed, but suddenly Changkyun pulled out a pen and paper from his drawer. He began hastily writing out a letter to someone named Jihoon when a knock sounded at the door.

The frog quickly hid under the covers, which were thankfully still cool and wet. He peeked out through the shadows of the fabric to where he could still see Changkyun.

“Knock, knock, I’m coming in now,” a familiar voice sounded muffled by the thick door.

Hyungwon poked his head out further. He’d know that voice anywhere, even if he hadn’t heard it in the palace before. Well… not THIS palace.

“Jooheon~,” Changkyun affectionately called out to the man who’d just entered the room, indicating to Hyungwon this was definitely not the first time he’d met the ambassador.

Jooheon seemed to be equally, if not more familiar with the boy as he rushed over to him. “Changkyunnie,” he spoke tenderly, until the tone shifted. Jooheon sounded almost mocking as he pointed to the boy’s leg, “So, how did you hurt yourself this time?”

Changkyun pushed down on the mattress with the heels of his hands to raise himself to a sitting position, his leg still levitating under some kind of magic. “I thought they told you a bookcase fell on my leg.”

Jooheon’s nose crinkled as he frowned. He sounded unconvinced when he spoke, “As easy as that is to believe, I know you better than that. You’re hiding something from me and I’m going to find out what.”

“I’m not hiding anything!” The defensiveness behind Changkyun’s voice gave him away.

Jooheon just stared at him, pinning the boy with a stern, waiting gaze with a powerful charisma that Hyungwon didn’t know Jooheon was capable of.  

The stare chipped away at the apprentice’s defensive walls and the boy caved.  Changkyun looked down at the fingers he was twiddling in his lap as he answered. “I was trying to talk to Wonho-hyung about something and I may or may not have leaned on that book case…”

“Holy , Changkyun. I thought you were over that dumb crush,” Jooheon nearly yelled as he shot up from the stool he’d pulled up. Both his hands were clapped over his mouth in disbelief as he looked down at the boy whose ears were starting to turn red.

“I am.” Changkyun’s tone rose a little too defensively before he paused. His shoulders hunched as he sighed in defeat. “I might have ed up a little, okay?”

Jooheon sighed before he sat down again. “A little?” He asked, gesturing to all the gifts that were piled across the room. “You realize all these gifts had made you the talk of two nations?”

Changkyun’s jaw went slack, his eyes roved his room before he looked back at the ambassador. “These can’t be all from him…”

“Not everything, but a lot of it is from him,” Jooheon explained before he went further, a dubious smile on his lips. “Your little incident gave Lord Wonwoo quite a fright. So, he sent you a dowry… again.”

“It’s not a dowry!” Changkyun screamed as he threw his hands up in exasperation.

Jooheon shook his head. “I know that and you know that. But to normal people this many gifts seem excessive for a simple get well soon present.”

Changkyun buried his face in his hands and grumbled, “That’s all it really is though. Wonwoo is just too nice…”

“You know, I heard he actually likes you quite a bit,” Jooheon began, and Changkyun looked like he wanted nothing more than to have it end.

Hyungwon wasn’t sure why he felt so proud when the boy gave Jooheon a completely disinterested expression.

“Jooheon, we’ve talked about this. I like Wonwoo, but only as a friend,” Changkyun insisted, putting heavy emphasis on the word friend.

The red-haired ambassador unfolded his crossed legs and leaned over the gap between where he sat and bed-ridden Changkyun.

From this distance, Hyungwon could clearly make out the genuine concern on Jooheon’s face. If the loose way the two had conversed didn’t give it away, Hyungwon could see that Changkyun was a close friend of Jooheon’s, which made the prince wonder why the hell he’d never heard about Jooheon from Changkyun and vice versa.

“Look I get you like Wonho, but Lord Wonwoo really, really likes you. If you considered him, it might be good for you,” Jooheon urged, his eyes watching, and Changkyun gave no sign of wavering.

“No.” Changkyun didn’t even pause as he responded. He returned Jooheon’s waiting gaze with his own determined stare. “I’d be using him if I did that and it would make me feel uncomfortable. Just like all these gifts are uncomfortable. It’s just too much and it makes me feel burdened. Plus, how am I supposed to court someone I don’t love?”

Jooheon sighed then smiled. The ambassador leaned back to rest on the chair as he reached out a hand to ruffle Changkyun’s already messy hair. “Forever the hopeless romantic,” Jooheon cooed and the tone of the conversation immediately switched its beat. “So, I’m guessing you want me to help you send these back?”

“Please? Tell him thank you for all the gifts and well wishes, but it’s just too much for a broken leg.”

“Consider it done,” Jooheon said with a nod. A fres