It was a rough day for Guanlin. He found out that he was following the prince from a newspaper! The guard was so embarrassed. He was expected to know what the royal family looked like, for Pete's sake! The thing that made Guanlin most ashamed was losing the prince in the town.

What was he supposed to do when King Seungcheol discovered this incident? Guanlin's feet sped up as he raced through the snow covered town, searching for Prince Samuel and his companion. Come to think of it, Guanlin didn't know the name of the prince's shadow. He had also never seen the shadow never left Prince Samuel's side. 

"Yah! Stop!" A voice broke Guanlin out of his thoughts.

Guanlin skidded to a stop, almost falling over because of the slick ice. He breathed a sigh of relief when he miraculously stopped upright and then realized he was standing in the middle of a huge ice patch. He took a tentative step and fell onto his bottom. The impact was great, and pain instantly erupted from his rear. It was definitely not his day. The guard hesitantly and slowly got up from the cold, hard ground.

"Are you ok?" Concerned eyes met Guanlin's thin figure. "Let's go inside. I'll get you something to help with the aches." The stranger beckoned Guanlin into a building.

Usually Guanlin was wary of strangers, but the sore spot in his bottom was not feeling great at the moment. So he followed the stranger inside as best as he could.

"Here take this," instructed the man. He handed Guanlin a fluffy blanket, a medium sized pillow, and a drink. "Seonho! We might need some bandages. They're in the third cabinet, please fetch them for me!" The stranger made Guanlin sit on a well maintained couch.

Guanlin found his voice when he sat. "I do not think that I am very injured sir. Please let me go, I have some people I need to find." He disregarded the agony he was feeling.

The stranger shook his head. "First, call me Jisung. Second, I'm studying to become a doctor, so I know what I'm doing. Third, you need your injury treated. You will not be getting out of here until I know you aren't feeling any pain," the doctor in training said assertively. "Seonho, where's the bandages?"

"They're getting there!" Scurrying into the warm room, a black haired boy carried an armful of medical bandages. The said Seonho handed the items to Jisung.

"Let's make sure that no bones are broken," Jisung said. He inspected Guanlin's bones and happily declared nothing was in pieces a few minutes later. 

While Jisung continued with the examination, this gave Guanlin the time to collect his thoughts. He considered giving up hope and telling the king what had happened. A split second later, Guanlin was scolding himself internally. He didn't leave his family to give up on his job. The guard gritted his teeth to endure the injury the ice had given him. This seemed like a cruel way the world was punishing him for losing Prince Samuel. Guanlin thought he deserved it too.

"I deeply apologize, by the way," Jisung said.

The patient blinked. "For what?"

"Causing you to get hurt."

"So, why did you call out to me to stop?"

"Because I was worried you were going to hurt yourself."

"I hurt myself anyway," Guanlin deadpanned.

Jisung winced and Seonho smothered a snicker. Seonho earned himself the chore of cleaning the room after Guanlin left.

…

"YOU LITTLE PIECE OF POOP, I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Daehwi snarled.

Samuel casually looked up at Daehwi. "Oh, hi Daehwi, I didn't see you there." He motioned to Seongwoo. "I was just eating a quick meal with my new friend."

"I can see that," Daehwi retorted

"I'll have you know that Seongwoo hyung here was just going to take me to the Winter Festival. Provided the weather cooperates, of course." Samuel flashed his best friend a smile.

Daehwi inwardly scowled at the honorific. It was like Samuel took all the respect out of his name and transferred it to this Seongwoo guy. 

"He is?" Daehwi glared at Seongwoo for a confirmation.

"I am?" Seongwoo gaped at Samuel. It was a question, not an answer.

"You are," the prince said firmly. 

Seongwoo looked at Daehwi, who was just as shocked as he was. "Excuse us for a moment," he said and dragged Samuel to the bathroom.

"What in the world are you doing?" Seongwoo cried. "That crazy dude out there looks like he's out for blood!"

Samuel shrugged. "He's mostly harmless." 

"MOSTLY?" Seongwoo anxiously ran his hand through his hair. "I still have to unpack into my new apartment! How am I going to do that now?"

"That's fine, we'll do that after we finish eating here."

"No, not with you!" 

Samuel cocked his head to the side. "Why should I not go with you? There'd be more hands to help you with your new apartment. The sooner you unpack, the sooner you get to take me to the festival. After the festival, you'll be relived of the pretending to like me charade. I'll be out of your hair. It's simple."

Seongwoo did understand Samuel's point. "Ok, but please make sure that Daehwi doesn't murder me."

Samuel gave Seongwoo a toothy grin. "I make no guarantees."

"I want to know why you insist on me taking you to the festival."

Samuel's eyes grew dull for a moment, but the light returned as quickly as it left. Seongwoo couldn't tell if it was actually there. 

"I want someone to take me to the festival."

"That Daehwi guy looked pretty put off when you said I was taking you. Maybe he wanted to take you," offered Seongwoo.

"That's only because he has to maintain his image. He probably doesn't want to anyway. He's always complaining about how I'm a royal pain."

"Did you ask him?"

"Nope, and honestly I do not want to. He'll be uncomfortable because he doesn't want to be rude to me."

"Why? Are you some kind of prince or something?"

Samuel didn't answer, but Seongwoo didn't pay attention to that tiny detail.

"Anyway, the real question is, why do you want to continue the charade if you got back what you already wanted?"

Samuel held up the bill. "I paid a lot of money for your meal, Seongwoo hyung. I would like to get something interesting out of it."

…

"Those two servants looked strange," remarked Jihoon. "Maybe it was because of their clothes."

Jinyoung looked at his coworker. "Don't judge them because of their looks! Not everyone can be as good looking as me!" He put his hands under his face and made a cute face at Jihoon.

"Do you WANT to become fired?" Jihoon asked. He dismissed the internal agreement about not everyone being as good looking as Jinyoung. Turning away, he organized the display of pastries in the shop to distract himself. They were the only two working at the bakery at the moment, business was slow during the winter season.

Jinyoung's hands dropped to his sides and he carried on with cleaning the table. He began humming a cheerful tune while working. 

"Ok I finished cleaning!" Jinyoung announced happily. "Let's make some more baked goods!"

Jihoon sighed and complied to Jinyoung's wishes. "Ok, there might be some extra ingredients in the back room. But we are not going to sell it. Your baking skills are a little…"

Jihoon's coworker prompted him, "A little…?"

"A little less than mine."

Jinyoung shrugged. "Ok, I was planning to eat it anyway."

Jihoon followed Jinyoung to the back room. It was Jihoon's favorite place in the entire bakery. You could explore the various ingredients all day if you had the time. Sadly, Jihoon didn't have that precious time.

"Let's make a lemon meringue pie! They're fun to make right?" Jinyoung picked out some eggs from the fridge, sugar, and the rest of the ingredients.

"Jihoonie, can you get the mixing tools out? I have a lot of things I'm holding right now," Jinyoung requested.

"Yeah, yeah."

The pair worked for a while, making the lemon meringue pie. Mixing the egg whites was the hardest part for Jinyoung. They didn't have an electronic beater, causing Jinyoung to use a whisk. He beat the egg whites too slowly so Jihoon had to help. 

"You're supposed to do it like this," Jihoon instructed. He put his hand over Jinyoung's and demonstrated how to beat the egg quickly. "Hold the bowl like this." Jihoon guided Jinyoung's other hand to the edge of the bowl. They were now in a weird back hug position, but they were still whisking. Jihoon hoped Jinyoung couldn't hear how fast his heart was beating and vice versa. Jihoon propped his head on Jinyoung's shoulder to observe the egg whites. It was a little awkward because Jinyoung was taller despite being the younger one.

Jihoon released Jinyoung's hands. "Ok, now you've got the hang of it." He gave Jinyoung a small smile and turned away.

Jinyoung sort of wished Jihoon would have never let go.

A/N: ANNOUNCEMENT: I'll be out of town, so that'll wreck my updating schedule. Please be patient for the next chapter. Spoiler hint: Winkdeep and assuming things~ -Veil