Kyungsoo couldn't stop staring at the lush walls decorated with antiques and furniture surrounding the room. As the tour guide proceeded ahead, he made little effort to follow him. He was mesmerized by the beauty surrounding him, and the smell of all the lovely antiques was enthralling his senses. Too absorbed in his own world, he failed to notice his guide moving ahead with the group in the other direction. His legs moved on their own accord and he quickly found himself in a room full of paintings. The room was glowing from the muted light of the chandelier that perfectly complimented the allure of the paintings. Kyungsoo, himself being an artist, couldn't resist the magnetic attraction from the paintings. He moved around the room, studying the royal subjects in all their glory, encased and immortalized inside the paintings forever.

He moved around the room, examining each piece, taking steady steps closer to the paintings that caught his eye, never too close or too far from the paintings, studying them and making notes. By the time he came to the line of portraits showcasing the present generation of the royal family, Kyungsoo became completely engrossed into studying the paintings and lost track of time. His breath hitched as he came to stand in front of the painting of the Crown Prince. The man staring at him from the framed cloth was hypnotizingly beautiful. As he stared at the painting, his heart constricted. He was assailed with a myriad of emotions, tears streaming from his eyes, fingers itching to bring out his sketchbook and draw out the lines to construct this transfixing face. He was so out of sorts, he didn't realize someone coming into the room or standing beside him, trying to get his attention.

Jolted out of his reverie by a touch on his shoulder, he looked at the person beside him. It took a moment to sink in. The Crown Prince was standing in the same room with him, looking at him with an amused expression on his face. 

"Do you like it that much?"

"I, uhh... Umm.. Yes, I like the painting."

Kyungsoo finished his sentence and turned to look back to the painting in front of him. They stood in silence, each comfortable in the quietude enveloping them; Kyungsoo looking at the painting and the Crown Prince looking at the boy in front of him. The artist in front of him looked ethereal, shining pale white skin, jet black hair with fluffy bangs falling on his face.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"You don't look so."

Kyungsoo smiled shyly, saying, “I get that always. I just graduated from art school."

"Graduated art school at twenty?"

Kyungsoo swept his hand through his hair, slightly messing up the perfectly made hair, before sighing.

"I have been in the art school for the last eight years, they called me a protégé at school," he shrugged.

"Will you be interested in doing a portrait for me?"

Kyungsoo's throat clogged. He didn't know what to say. For a second, he might even have panicked, thinking the subject might be someone other than the Prince.

"Who will be the subject?"

The Crown Prince chuckled. And, Kyungsoo stood transfixed, looking at the beauty in front of him, barely believing his eyes. The smooth contours of his face, along with his golden skin made him handsome, but it was the honey gold colour of his eyes and his captivating smile that made him look truly beautiful.

"Of course, the subject will be me , Mr…?"

"You can call me Soo, your highness," the later added as an afterthought.

"Please drop the formalities.

When do you think you'll be ready to start?"

"From tomorrow? I'll bring in the materials."

The Crown Prince waved him off with his hand. "Not needed Soo-ssi, give me a list now and I'll arrange for it."

"Thank you."

"Come to the palace tomorrow at eight in the morning."

Kyungsoo nodded his head.

The Crown Prince smiled and bowed, "Kim Kai, please take care of me."

 ---

The next morning, Kyungsoo was admiring the room he was asked to wait in, when the sound of shoes alerted him to the incoming presence. He turned and faced the Crown Prince, entering the room. As overwhelming as their first meeting was, it was only today when Kyungsoo got a chance to truly examine the Crown Prince that he could appreciate all of his suaveness.He was dressed in a simple collared white shirt with indigo blue slacks, ending above his captivating ankles. He was built lithely, broad shoulders forming a V at his waist, followed by long endless legs. The sight of no socks, made him chuckle, but he quickly masked it with a cough.

“Admiring your subject, I see.”

Kyungsoo turned red and did a full bow to the Prince.

“Please drop the formalities Soo, when we are alone.”

The young man smiled shyly at this.

“Let’s move to the studio I have prepared for your use.”

The room that the Prince took him to was of a medium size and devoid of any furniture except for a chair designed like a throne. A wall painting of the Palace was the only adornment, along with the easel which was located in the brightest corner of the room, at a measurable length from the chair. The room was brightly lit with sunlight, and was perfect for a studio. Kyungsoo gave a brief nod to the Prince and moved to one of the many windows of the room. Designed in an unorthodox way, he could look at the rest of the palace from the window he was at, reveling in the beauty of architecture in front of him. He turned to see the Prince already in his chair, eyes following Kyungsoo’s every move. He gave the other a small smile and moved to the easel, and ran his fingers on the supplies laid out there.

“Thank you for believing in me, Your Highness.”

“It’s Kai. I have already told you this.”

“Right.”

“Where do you want me?”

“Ahh, this is okay, Yo… Kai. I will just do some expression sketches today.”

As the natural light wore off, Kyungsoo had filled more than half of his sketchbook with different expressions and angles of the Prince. No matter how flawless each one was, his heart wouldn’t agree. The ethereal beauty of the Prince was hard to capture and the searing glances the Prince sent in his direction didn’t help the matter. To Kyungsoo, the Prince was very much an enigma. He had no idea how and why the crowned head decided that he could do a portrait of him. Also the connection he already felt with the other was another thing going on and on in his mind. Every time he saw the Prince, even the first time when he had only seen the portrait, it had done things to him. A part of his heart was already claimed and he was struggling to hold on to the other. As the sun set, it took with with it the brightness of the room, leaving the two of them alone in their own thoughts, about the other.

---

 The following days passed in a similar manner, with them observing each other. Kyungsoo etched each and every line of the beautiful man in front of him into his memory while the said man drank in the pure innocence of the radiating from the other. After a week, Kyungsoo was ready to start work on the portrait. It was already decided that the portrait would be of the Crown Prince sitting on his throne, looking every bit as regal as he was in real life. For the first time since they met, Kyungsoo stayed back at the Palace to complete his painting as fast as he could. On the third day of staying in the Palace, the portrait started to come to life, the initial lines were drawn and the first set of color was done. Prince Kai would come every day to check the progress, now that he was not really needed to sit as a subject, his features and body lines immortalized in the small painter’s memory. By working on it day and night, Kyungsoo was finally able to complete it in a further few days. He was tired yet refreshed, with all the work done, and the portrait in front of him, in all its glory. His heartstrings were definitely attached to the person staring back at him from the painting in front of him. He unconsciously rubbed the insides if his neck, different from his otherwise creamy shining skin, always hidden under his preferred collared shirts or turtlenecks.

The next morning Prince Kai sent it to get framed without even seeing it. A part of Kyungsoo was worried if the Prince will like it or not, and considering his reaction he would bring out the parting gift he had prepared for the other. The day was spent with another tour around the Palace, Kyungsoo following Prince Kai closely at his heels. Walking through the enormous gardens, as enthralling as the Palace itself, they were standing unconsciously very close to each other looking at the body of water gracing the middle of the garden; Kyungsoo’s shoulders loosely touching the taller man’s arms. His heart was beating strangely, close to making him sweat with the tension surrounding them, when he realized his small hands was being encased in the other’s. He slowly looked at his side, watching a smile fleeting at the otherwise detached face. The fingers tightened around him, as the Prince felt his gaze on him.

A servant informing them about the portrait brought them back to the palace.

The Prince gave Kyungsoo no indication that he liked the portrait other than looking at it pensively for a good fifteen minutes and then hanging it himself in the royal gallery. When he was done, he looked back at  Kyungsoo with a strange shine in his eyes.

Kyungsoo smiled at him and brought out the gift he had prepared for the Prince.

Prince Kai led Kyungsoo to his bed that night. There was fervent kissing, with tugging at each other’s clothes. The intensity with which they craved each other surpassed all other notions and they fell to the bed in a heap, panting, as they rushed to feel each other.

Kyungsoo daringly started opening the other’s clothes and running his hand on the smooth planes of the worked out chest. Prince Kai, on the other hand, didn’t have the patience of the other and ripped the smaller man’s clothes off him. They buried their faces in each other’s neck and hugged tightly, Kyungsoo almost on Prince Kai’s lap, while the other lay back against his bed.

They felt each other and their lips were at the insides of each other’s neck, when they froze together.

They slowly drew apart, only to look at the irregularity of their necks, the characters marring their otherwise smooth and sinful skin. The hangeul characters in red, etched on their skin could be read, even in the dimly lit room.

Do Kyungsoo. Kim Jongin.

Each stared at their own name in the frozen silence.

---

Kyungsoo’s gift to Prince Jongin, a painting of the Crown Prince smiling and looking outside the window of the studio room, with a small man by his side, very similar to the painter himself, hung from the wall across the bed.

---

[A/N: I hope all my readers enjoy this. Do leave comments if you love this story. Love, lostinthedragon.]