Time freezes.

Jongin sits up, triggered. 

D.O., facing away, ponders Jongin's real name. "I knew my suspicions were correct." He looks over his shoulder. "It's a handsome name, if that's even possible."

Jongin cages his face with his hands. The thing that truly disturbed him about this was the fact that he never mentioned any 'Kyungsoo' in his story. How could D.O. possibly know the name of the man he was inspired by? If this was a coincidence, that would be ing incredible as well. 

"No," Jongin says.

D.O. is confused. "No?"

"You are D.O! That is your name!" Jongin shouts.

"...I don't understand. Kyungsoo is the name my parents gave me, and D.O. is what I decided on the spot when we met for the first time. Those are irrefuttable facts. What do you mean, 'no'?"

"I...!" Jongin sputters.

I did not write you this way, is what he wants to say so badly.

And he indeed did not. But...realistically, no one's walking around with 'D.O.' as their legal name. Jongin only wrote this as a side hobby, meaning he didn't bother putting in much detail in his characters. Is this universe just filling in his plotholes?

"Get some rest," D.O. says, getting back into sleeping position. 

"...Okay," Jongin says pathetically. He slowly lies back down.

It truly dawns on him that he is fully concious in a completely different world when just yesterday, he was in his car on the way home from his workplace. He was on the phone with the real Chanyeol, chatting about the real Kyungsoo, and then...

Then his last thoughts were, "Jesus, I'm dying."

What happened to that? There was never a conclusion, was there?

Jongin burrows under the blanket. I died, didn't I? If I had survived that, I'd be awake and in the hospital or something. Maybe the real Chanyeol would've gotten to me in time and pulled me out of that horrible situation, and I would've lived. 

Jongin peeks above the blanket and scans the room before diving back under. If I would've survived, I'd be lying in a hospital bed, not in this...fictional castle that I made up!

That night, he barely crept in a few hours of sleep.

When Jongin wakes up, he turns over expecting to see a sleeping D.O. 

There was no sleeping D.O. Not even an awake D.O. In fact, there was no D.O. anywhere. 

What the...? 

He rushes to the window across the room and looks onto the land outside. 

It wasn't morning, but rather well into the afternoon. Where did the protagonist go?

"Maybe he's having lunch," he mumbles to himself as he makes his way out of the bedroom and towards the dining hall.

At one end of the abnormally long dining table, he finds D.O., the prince, and the other prince. Prince Baekhyun is facing the door, so he notices Jongin first. At his arrival, the prince perks up with a welcoming grin. "Kai, my friend! We were just discussing you, buddy."

Jongin gets skeptical. "You were?"

"Yes, sir!" Prince Baekhyun puts his palms together in delight. He turns to D.O. "You can tell him if you want to."

D.O. avoids eye contact with Jongin and raises a glass of water up to his mouth, shaking his head no.

"Alright," Prince Baekhyun rises from his seat to approach Jongin. "How would you like to work for me, Kai?"

Jongin's eyebrows do a pull-up. "Me? Work for you?"

"Yes! In exchange for gold, of course. And do not worry about becoming lonely, because you will have a fellow worker," Prince Baekhyun gestures over to D.O. Then he raises a hand up to cover one side of his mouth as if to whisper, but still speaks normally. "I'm asking of you want to join. If you say no, your friend will still work, just without you."

Is this the part of the story where the main character gets hired to do stuff for the prince? Jongin looks at D.O, who was focused on pushing a cherry tomato around on a plate with his fork. "Well," Jongin itches the back of his neck, "I don't wanna leave him all alone..."

Those words earn him a quick glance-over from D.O.

"Did I understand that correctly, Chanyeol?" Prince Baekhyun asks the other prince behind him.

"I think that was a 'yes'!" Prince Chanyeol chimes, sticking his own fork up in the air.

"But," Jongin interjects. "Aren't you already losing a lot of money paying for all the workers you already have?"

Prince Baekhyun smiles sheepishly. "Well, you see, uh...I've been pretty low on them. I'm the only son of King Baek that actually lives here and we don't especially host many parties these days, so...my housekeeping and guard units have been at a minimum."

"Huh," Jongin nods. "So what do you suddenly need us for?"

"Jongin, my friend, do not take offense to this, but," the prince takes a quick look at D.O. "I've taken pity on the you two ever since I noticed that your friend did not have enough to pay for a night at that inn, so...it's not that I need you, exactly..."

It's that you feel bad. Jongin holds up a hand. "You know what, don't finish that sentence."

Prince Baekhyun's smile starts to slip. "I sincerely do not mean any offense-"

"No, no, no offense was taken, Your Highness," Jongin reassures. "We actually could benefit a lot from this."

But if he was honest, this was a bit embarrassing. Jongin was always a prideful man. He was never one to accept help, let alone ask for it. As a consequ