The rules and safety meeting with the dormitory RA was mind-numbingly boring, but it did at least give Yi En the chance to assess the rest of his classmates. The Union was the world’s melting pot, so there was someone from almost every country there, though Yi En noted he was the only Imperial around. This made perfect sense given how much the Empire prided itself on its own national universities; there was nothing in particular the Union could offer that the Empire couldn’t. In any case, it was the best-case scenario for him, since it meant he and Jiaer didn’t have to suss any countrymen out as potential spies working for his stepmother.

Junior apparently didn’t have it so easy in his own asylum situation. Almost as soon as he made it to the meeting room, a cheery fellow Solitudanese named Youngjae bounded right up to Junior and his very militant childhood friend JB wanting to be friends until JB quietly flashed his gun holsters and Youngjae squeaked and backed off. Maybe Junior wasn’t the kid of a rebel after all, Yi En thought. Maybe he was an upper-class royalist, and that explained why JB was acting so much like a bodyguard rather than a regular friend. Yi En hoped not, though. Junior being a royalist would be just as bad as him being a Bride of God as far as unobtainability went.

Not that he should be thinking so much about obtaining him. Yi En may have been a little (a lot) ually repressed thanks to his very caged-in upbringing, but he didn’t want to be that guy who threw himself on the first attractive option just to get it out of his system. He wanted to experience the whole process he’d only seen before in dramas and movies—the chemistry, the connection, the butterflies. And he definitely didn’t want to latch onto Junior just because the fresh out of the shower version of him had looked a little bit like his childhood crush.

He wanted to get to know him properly, though, which was easier said than done given that Junior was in a situation where he apparently needed to lie about himself constantly and was shadowed by a gun-toting ‘friend’ who was highly suspicious of everyone. Not to mention that Yi En also had to lie about himself constantly and was also shadowed by a gun-toting, highly suspicious ‘friend.’ Being roommates might make it easier, but Junior seemed incredibly nervous around him for the most part, and it definitely didn’t help that JB seemed to phone in every hour to check on him.

At the end of the rules and safety meeting, the RA passed out forms so that everyone could sign off that they understood the rules and would follow them. Yi En quickly dashed off his fake signature and shoved the form back into the RA’s hands. “Hey,” he said in an undertone to Junior, glancing at where Jiaer and JB were hunting through their pockets for a pen to sign with and only turning up ammo. “Let’s get out of here. We can shake off our goons and go shopping for our dorm together.”

Junior looked surprised. “Wouldn’t you rather go out with Jackson?”

“Seriously, no. I’ve been stuck hanging out with that guy way too much recently. I’d definitely rather go with you.”

Junior smiled a little, but kept casting nervous glances towards JB, who was now asking the RA if he could sign his form in gunpowder since he didn’t have a pen. “JB’s going to be furious.”

“Let him be furious. I’m sure Jackson will keep him company.”

Junior thought about it for a few more seconds, then blessedly nodded. “We’d better get out of here before they realize.”

“I second that. Come on!” Yi En grabbed Junior’s hand, and the two of them slipped out of the room as quietly as they could. When they were out safely, they shared a conspiratorial smile. Yi En’s heart pounded when he saw that Junior had eye-whiskers just like Prince Jinyoung. It had always been one of the things Yi En had been most attracted to about him, and he’d also fantasized about tracing his fingers along those cute crinkles. It was up there on his “What I Would Do If I Ever Became Prince Jinyoung’s Boyfriend” list, along with ‘play with his ears,’ ‘kiss his cheeks,’ ‘tweak his bum,’ ‘bite his neck,’ and ‘liberate him from Solitude.’

“So, we’re going to one of the superstores?” Junior asked, dropping Yi En’s hand. “How are we going to get there? Is there one in walking distance?”

“No, but we could drive. You’re from the Union, so you must have a license, right?”

“Uh…no.” Junior flushed a little—literally everyone drove in the Union, but for reasons that were beyond Yi En, driving was banned in Solitude. “Wait…can’t we take the train? I remember there was a train station entrance just a block away from here.”

“Oh yeah, let’s do that!” Yi En had never been on a train before, even though there were train lines weaving across the entire Empire. They always looked cool in videos, but Yi En had been forbidden to leave the cabin where he’d been safely hidden for all of his childhood, and had never really traveled anywhere up until his very bullet-riddled journey to the Union.

They found the steps leading underground to the train station and climbed down. Right away, Yi En could tell that the Union, despite being the world’s most affluent country, did a crappy job of maintaining their train lines. While train stations in the Empire were clean and orderly (at least in the pictures Yi En had seen), this station looked like a trash heap, and smelled like one, too.

“I’ll let you take care of getting us tickets,” Junior said. He probably didn’t know how, but the problem was that Yi En didn’t know how either. He went up to the ticket machine and tried to follow the instructions, but it all sounded like gibberish to him. Eventually, the woman behind him in line at the machine took pity on him and told him how to buy a 3-month unlimited pass that he could continually refill after it expired.

“Look!” Junior said, excitedly pointing upwards towards the ceiling when Yi En returned with their passes. “The marquee tells you exactly when the train is coming and how crowded it is!”

“Cool!” Yi En noticed a few people nearby who’d overheard Junior say this were giving them weird looks—digital marquees were old technology. “I wonder if there will be any performers on the train while we’re on.”

“People perform on the train?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s apparently a big thing in the Union. It ticks a lot of people off since it’s a noise disturbance, but I kind of want to see it.”

“Me too!”

Right on time, a downtown-bound train rattled down the tracks and came to a stop, the metal doors popping open. Luckily, it wasn’t too crowded and there were open seats, but unluckily the open seats didn’t look very clean. Yi En pulled off his black leather jacket and placed it over the seat. “Your seat, my prince,” he said to Junior jokingly. Junior was wearing white jeans, and he didn’t want them to get stained by the train seat grime.

“Don’t call me a prince,” Junior said a bit waspishly. A moment later, he turned bright red. “I mean…I…I don’t really like nicknames.”

“Oh? Sorry. I thought Junior was a nickname.”

“It isn’t.”

“I see. Got it. No more nicknames.”

Still, Junior looked a little rattled and wasn’t smiling anymore. Yi En sighed. How were they ever going to get close if they were always walking on eggshells around each other? “Hey, Junior,” he said suddenly. “Hypothetical situation time.”

“Yeah?”

“So, you know how the Union is a neutral country these days, after all their war-mongering in the past? A place with secure borders where refugees and people who need political protection can go to be safe?”

Junior shot him a nervous look. “…yes?”

“If, hypothetically, I was someone who escaped my country due to safety reasons and you were someone who also escaped your country due to safety reasons, it would be reasonable if we were a bit nervous about sharing certain details that might expose us to the danger we’re running from. However—hypothetically—if we were both constantly worried about that, we’ll never be able to talk to each other like normal people and will constantly be jumpy about revealing too much. So…once again, this is all hypothetical…if we happened to be in that situation, wouldn’t it be better just to agree right now that I won’t turn you in or put you in danger, and you won’t turn me in and put me in danger so that we can interact without having a mini heart attack each time?”

Junior looked shell-shocked for a moment, which Yi En couldn’t really blame him for. BamBam and Jiaer would probably have an aneurysm if they knew Yi En had even hinted to someone he was an asylum-seeker, especially since he’d been pretty convincing with his cover story, or at least more so than Junior. But all the same, he didn’t want lies and being cautious to define everything they ever said to each other. He wanted something genuine to exist underneath all the secrecy.

“Hypothetically speaking,” Junior said at length, “if we were to do this, would that mean you’d stop asking deliberate questions to trip me up and just take my answers for what they are?”

“I would,” Yi En said, smiling guiltily. “Sorry.”

“And you won’t demand me to tell you something I can’t?”

“I won’t.”

“Then we have a deal.”

“How do you seal a deal in Solitude?”

“I told you, I’m not from Solitude.” This time, Junior seemed to lie much more naturally, which oddly made Yi En smile.

“Still, I’m guessing you know how, right?”

“You take the deal to an Enforcer, and they’ll make sure the terms are seen through on the threat of violent punishment if one person or both break their word.”

“Uh…yeah…let’s not do that.”

“What do they do in the Empire?”

“We pinkie swear.” Yi En lifted his pinkie and wrapped it around Junior’s. “Just like this.”

“And this means you’re not going to break your word?”

“It means both of us aren’t.”

Junior smiled faintly before untwining their pinkies. “Got it. Now if you don’t mind, I want to focus on the train now. I’ve never been on one before.”

Yi En found the whole train ride a little bit underwhelming, but Junior seemed excited by it, and Yi En enjoyed watching his excitement. There was just something so refreshing about him that you couldn’t help feeling drawn in by. He was like a beautiful songbird set free from a cage, one still nervously testing the air but in its heart preparing itself to embrace its newfound freedom. Yi En could relate to that feeling deeper than anything.

After three stops, they reached the one they wanted and left the train. Above ground, it was just a two block walk to the superstore, which loomed on the street like a friendly giant.

“It’s huge,” Junior said, staring at it with wide eyes.

“I wonder how much crap they have in there,” Yi En said, also impressed. The Empire was known for sprawling open air markets, but not much in the way of all-encompassing superstores.

“Let’s go find out!”

As it turned out, the superstore literally had everything. Food, clothes, home goods, pet supplies, furniture, toys, electronics, appliances, ATMs, and even a dry-cleaning service.

“How does a country get to be this rich?” Junior asked longingly. He was completely giving away that he wasn’t from the Union, but Yi En didn’t call him out on it as promised.

“Mainly by being dastardly while at the same time acting like the good guy. That’s Union history for you.”

“And now they are actually the good guys compared to a lot of the world.”

“Hey, the Empire didn’t used to be bad, at least not since ancient times.” Yi En’s foster mother always told him stories of how it had been before Blue Rose had come. His father and mother had been good and loving people who had done everything for the citizens of the Empire, and the land had prospered under their reign. But then Blue Rose, a foreign princess from Void, had arrived at court and she had used a potion to disrupt the Empress’s pregnancy to kill both her and the heir to the Empire. The Empress had died, but the midwife had just barely been able to save Yi En, though he had been born too early and was small and sickly. The midwife had hidden him away and used the body of the stillborn baby of one of her other clients to show Blue Rose and prove that the heir was dead. Satisfied, Blue Rose had put a spell on the weak and grieving Emperor, married him to become the new Empress, and seized power in the Empire. She had intended to provide a new heir to the throne, but when she was unable to get pregnant by the Emperor after eighteen years, she had him killed and disguised it as a natural death.

Ever since she’d become Empress, the once glorious kingdom had darkened. Crime ran rampant, and people would disappear under strange circumstances, never to be seen again. Everyone mistrusted everyone else, and their unity fractured until there was barely a sense of community and family left within the Empire. Empress Blue Rose used that division to build a sense of fear and despair in her people, driving them to rely on her as a defender and protector, an object of love and worship to fill the absence in their lives.

“The Empire’s bad now,” Junior said darkly, “but at least you can’t just go around forcing people to get married and justifying bigotry in the name of tradition there like you can in Solitude.”

“If it struck the Empress’s fancy, she might give it a try. But I can’t imagine a day when that would ever fly with the Imperials. That’s not who we are.”

“It doesn’t fly with me either,” Junior said softly. He then suddenly grabbed a long and tall box made of cloth from one of the racks. “What is this?”

“I don’t know,” Yi En admitted. “I’ve seen it in dramas before, in people’s bedrooms.” He looked at the price label. “It says it’s called a hamper.”

“What does it do?”

“I don’t know.” Yi En checked his phone. “You throw your clothes in it.”

“Why?”

“Um…it looks like people do that so their clothes are kept out of the way until laundry day.”

“I see.” Junior studied the hamper. “The RA mentioned that there were laundry machines in our building. I think that means we’re doing our own laundry.”

“I think so.” Yi En had never done laundry before. His foster mother had washed their clothes in a nearby stream, since their isolated cabin wasn't big enough to fit much in the way of appliances.

“Can you teach me how?" Junior asked quietly, looking a little embarrassed.

“Sure,” Yi En said. He made a mental note to watch instructional videos when Junior wasn’t around.

They wound up grabbing two hampers for their room, along with some throw rugs, a reading lamp for Junior, two small trash cans, a sneaker rack for Yi En, and a massive collection of necessities like shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and soap. They also both got comforter sets out of the sale bin, Junior’s a blue and white plaid, and Yi En’s plain black.

When they were finished shopping, they took a break at the mini-food court at the front of the store which sold cheap hot dogs and sloppy joes. Yi En felt tuckered out, but still somehow electric with energy thanks to Junior being there with him. He’d been a blast to shop with, at first very earnestly evaluating each item they looked at, but then loosening up and playing along with Yi En, who was pretending to be an HGTV host with an over-enthusiasm for rustic home design. Yi En was currently in the midst of writing a very long internal list of things he liked about Junior, to which he had just added ‘how his lips look on a straw’—a very pure, not dirty at all observation, of course.

“Who knew putting together a dorm room took so much work?” Junior said. “I wonder if JB and Jackson were able to find all these things without us.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Yi En said. He’d put his phone on ‘do not disturb’ and had ignored it ever since. “Hey, let’s play a game.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Let’s tell each other as much as we can about each other without telling a lie. We’ll ask each other questions, and every time it’s a question we can’t answer, we say ‘pass.’ Whoever passes the most loses.”

“And is there a penalty?”

“Yup. Whoever loses has to take responsibility with Jackson and JB when they flip out on us.”

“Declined. We might get shot.”

“Ah…good point.” Yi En bit his lip. “How about the loser has to go with the winner to an event of the winner’s choice?”

“What’s so great about that?”

“I’m planning to win, and you seem like the kind of person who will never leave the room for the entire year if I let you.”

Junior opened his mouth then shut it, making a face. “Fine,” he said. “But I’m going to win.”

“You’re on. Hit me with a question.”

“What’s your natural hair color?”

“Easy. Dark brown. What’s yours?”

“Same. I’m ethnically Solitudanese, what else would it be? Do you have any siblings?”

“No. Do you?”

“Yes, a brother. Stop stealing my questions!” Junior paused. “What is your relationship with Jackson?”

“Pass,” Yi En said immediately, since he couldn't just announce he had a bodyguard. Junior’s eyes narrowed. Yi En wanted to ask him the same about JB, but that would again be stealing a question. “What’s your hobby?”

“Collecting old books. What are you afraid of?”

“Irrelevance. Who would your family side with in the rebellion in Solitude?”

“Pass,” Junior said with a grimace. Clearly this was a sore subject—Yi En was still 100% sure it was the reason behind him taking political asylum. “How many languages can you speak?”

“Just Imperial and Common. What’s your uality?”

Junior froze. “Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious. I’m already out to you, so I thought we should be on even ground.” Also, I want to know if you’re an option because you’re really checking off all my boxes.

“Well…I was ‘questioning’ at first, but after some self-reflection, I determined I lean the same way you lean.”

“We’re in the Union, Junior. You don’t have to speak about it in euphemisms.” Still Yi En couldn’t help but grin. Yay!

“Whatever. Are you happy to be in the Union, or would you rather be home?”

“I would definitely not want to be home right now. And the Union has its charms. What’s your favorite TV show?”

“I don’t watch TV. Are you actually interested in Arts Administration?”

“I actually am. What’s your family’s actual business?”

Junior shook his head. “Pass. Have you been to any other countries besides the Empire and the Union?”

“Nope. How many Solitudanese laws have you broken?”

“Pass! Stop asking questions about Solitude, you know that I’m not from there.” Junior put this last bit into scare quotes. He already knew that Yi En knew it was a lie. “Have you ever dated someone?”

Yi En debated saying ‘pass’ to make himself look a bit more experienced, but decided against it. “No. You? And yeah, I’m stealing your question.”

“No…you know I can’t.”

“That doesn’t mean you didn’t. You didn’t answer my question on how many laws you’ve broken, so I didn’t know if you broke that one or not.”

“I didn’t break that one, all right?” He took a breath. “Who was your first crush?”

Yi En was in a comfortable lead and didn’t want to waste a pass on this, since he technically had an answer. “All right, this is going to sound stupid, but remember the old reality show Real Royals of the Minor Realms? Well, I had a crush on Prince Jinyoung from Solitude. I thought he was really cute and my perfect ideal, and in spite of being, like, the most unobtainable person on the planet, I used to fantasize about going out with him.” He paused. “You actually reminded me of him a bit at first, but I think Prince Jinyoung would never dress like you in a million years. If he ever ended up in the Union, he’d 100% dress like a conservative grandpa, and he 1000% wouldn’t have abs.” Yi En laughed a little. Junior had a somewhat horrified expression on his face; Yi En was probably crossing some kind of line of irreverence and respect by talking about the prince like that to someone from Solitude. “I think you're even cuter than Prince Jinyoung, you know.”

Junior opened and shut his mouth several times before saying anything again, but he was back to looking incredibly twitchy, much to Yi En’s confusion. He’d thought this confession would make him laugh, if anything. “I look nothing like Prince Jinyoung,” Junior finally said with a hard tone.

Yi En shrugged. “Well, you’ve got the eyes and the ears, but like I said, the overall atmosphere and presentation is completely different. Am I being rude? Do you think Prince Jinyoung is ugly and it’s an insult to compare the two of you?”

“Prince Jinyoung isn’t ugly!” Junior sputtered. “He’s just…not like me at all. So don’t try to confuse the two of us just because you watched that stupid show. Your crush on the prince was probably just a delusion, anyways. He’s nothing like who he tried to make himself out to be in front of the cameras.”

Yi En frowned. “Did you know him?”

“Is that your next question?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s a hard pass from me.”

Yi En tilted his head, puzzled at how this reaction played into the growing mystery of who Junior was. He seemed to know the prince personally, which would most likely make him a royalist, but what kind of royalist would seemingly dislike a member of the royal family? Nevermind the fact that anyone who identified as LGBTQA would have to be out of their mind to be a royalist when the current monarchs weren’t planning on changing the super restrictive marriage rules. Maybe his parents were royalists, and he was a rebel sympathizer. Was that why he was here—had his family exiled him?

The silence between them was getting a little awkward, so Yi En cleared his throat. “That’s fine, if you want to pass on telling me more. But don’t call my crush delusional, OK? I know they were just fantasies, but they got me through some rough and lonely times. Maybe the prince was just behaving for the cameras, but everything he did and showed was exactly what I needed to see at that time in my life. It helped me feel like…a real person.” He cleared his throat, getting the feeling he’d said way too much. “Anyways, I’m not planning on confusing the two of you. You’re just as interesting, but for different reasons, and the atmosphere around you is maybe what I’m looking to be around at this time in my life. So, let’s keep playing this game, all right? Ask me a question.”

“What are you hoping to get out of this?”

“Is that your question?”

“Yes.”

Yi En thought about it for a moment. “An experience.”

“What?”

“You already asked your question.”

“No, seriously. What?”

“All right, like the train this morning. We’ve both never ridden one before. It was exciting. We’re probably always going to remember it. It was an experience. I want that. I want more of that.”

“From me.” Junior deliberately left out the questioning inflection so Yi En wouldn’t call him out on asking three questions in a row, but it was quite clearly a question all the same.

“With you,” Yi En said. He could see the unspoken ‘why?’ in Junior’s eyes. “Because. You make me feel like I’m a real person again.”

“Is your reality in doubt?”

“This is like your fourth question, Junior.”

“And the fact that you’re not skipping them puts you in a comfortable lead. You should be thanking me.”

Yi En snorted. “OK. I’ll tell you the truth. Sometimes I feel like I’m a plot device. Like I exist just because…I don’t know…just because the lead character of the story needed someone to serve as their opposite. Because every villain needs a good guy, and vice versa. That sort of thing.”

Yi En thought Junior would laugh, but again he didn’t. “I feel like that sometimes, too,” Junior said frankly. “Like I’m a side character in someone else’s story. Like I’m the throw away character they send out because it doesn’t matter what happens to me.”

“Yeah.”

“So how do we know that it’ll be any different? That I won’t just end up a side character in your story, or that you won’t end up as nothing more than a plot device in mine?”

“I don’t know,” Yi En said honestly.

“Is that a pass?”

“No. Saying ‘I don’t know’ is completely different from declining to answer. I want an answer, but I don’t have it.”

“All right.” Junior rose to his feet, wadding up the foil his hot dog had been wrapped in. “You won the game. Congrats.”

Yi En rose to his feet. “Are we done here?”

“Done eating and being serious, yeah. But if you’re going to be dragging me along to an event I probably won’t want to go to, I should probably get to know you a little more so I’ll have someone to talk to during the whole thing.” Junior smiled a little, his eye whiskers emerging. “For now, I think we have some dorm set up to do. You want a new experience? Let’s use our new hamper. I’ve never tried it before.”

When Jaebum finished signing his rules and safety sheet with the pen the RA had hastily shoved into his hand when he’d brought up gunpowder as an alternative, he looked up to find Jinyoung so they could proceed with the day’s shopping plans.

To his horror, Jinyoung was gone.

“CODE RED!” he thundered, whipping out his shotgun. “The crown jewel is cracked!”

Beside him, Jackson was also leaping to his feet, revolver out. “Where in tarnation is YiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMARK?”

Jaebum pointed his shotgun at the Solitudanese student that had been sitting near Jinyoung. What was his name again? Youngjae? Was he a royalist who had been hired by Jinyoung’s parents to track him down? Was he one of Empress Blue Rose’s spies? Either way, if he’d touched Jinyoung, he was dead meat.

“Unhand him, criminal!” Jaebum yelled. For once in his life, he did feel momentarily guilty at the look of utter terror that flashed through Youngjae’s eyes. Could someone that naturally innocent looking actually be evil?

“I didn’t do anything!” Youngjae whimpered. “They left on their own! I overheard them, and they said they wanted to sneak away to go shopping together.”

“That lily-livered punk!” Jackson grumbled. He holstered his revolver. “Should have known he’d try to pull this on me. I know better to take my eyes off him for a second.”

Jaebum was feeling much less resigned. Jinyoung was always so careful and vigilant—how could he have possibly just thrown caution to the wind and run off with someone in the middle of being in hiding? Jinyoung was supposed to be smarter than that, someone who wouldn’t step on a minefield unless he knew without question exactly where the danger was buried.

But at the same time, Jinyoung was still so young, he reminded himself with a pang. He hadn’t gotten to live his life freely, the way most people would be able to. He’d grown up as an unneeded second prince that his parents had thrown away to be the husband of a power-hungry and murderous Empress in exchange for her bringing a small measure of wealth back into their impoverished palace. Who could blame him for wanting to have a few moments to himself with the roommate he was apparently ually attracted to?

Still, he wasn’t happy about it. Jinyoung’s safety was not only his job, but pretty much his life’s purpose. If he couldn’t take care of Jinyoung properly, what was the point of anything?

“Don’t look so blue, partner,” Jackson said, elbowing him in the waist. “You so happen to be in the presence of the greatest tracker this world has seen. I’ll find them in no time.”

“Oh really?”

“Yessiree. Mark told me just the other day that he wanted to go to the mega superstore downtown.”

“So that’s where they are?”

“Naw. You can’t walk there. You need to take a train or drive, and Mark doesn’t know how to use a train, and he can’t drive.”

“What do you mean he doesn’t know how to use a train?” Jaebum asked. “He’s from the Empire.”

“Yeah, but we’re from the countryside. We don’t use trains. We ride horses. Ain’t seen any horses to ride around here, so he’s stuck walking, unless Junior can drive or knows the train lines.”

It was a no on both. “So where would they go, then?”

“If I check this here global positioning device, there’s a place called The Outdoorsman Superstore just a few blocks from here.”

“Huh…but they’re shopping for their dorms, and dorms are indoors and not outdoors.”

“Yeah, but there’s ‘superstore’ in the name. Superstores have everything. I’m sure it has dorm stuff, too.”

Jaebum nodded. Stores that sold everything were the Union’s favorite thing, so he was probably right. “All right, then. We should give it a look.” He turned back to Youngjae. “Hey. You.”

“Yes?” Youngjae squeaked.

“Unless you want to get a gun pulled on you every time you arouse my suspicions, you should identify yourself. Rebel or loyalist?”

“I support Prince Junho,” Youngjae said nervously. “So I guess that would make me a rebel?”

“Good answer,” Jaebum said, finally holstering his shotgun. “Stay safe, brother.”

“You were the one who pulled a gun on me!” Youngjae protested. But Jaebum just waved his hand dismissively. Pulling a gun out was as much his thing as superstores were the Union’s.

He and Jackson made the short walk to the Outdoorsman’s Superstore, and as soon as he walked inside, he was in heaven. Guns! There was a whole wall of guns! He and Jackson exchanged a quick beam, and then immediately charged up to examine the store’s collection. They mostly seemed to be for hunting, which was an unfortunate Union pastime Jaebum didn't approve of since there were so many evil people worthy of being on the receiving end of a bullet that it didn't necessitate shooting innocent animals just for sport or the thrill of shooting. Still, he admired the guns for their craftsmanship and the smarter uses they could be put to in more intelligent hands. Jaebum picked up every one he could get his hands on and listed off their specs like an encyclopedia. Jackson nodded along and threw in his own comments about what the advantages and shortcomings of each were.

“Look here!” Jackson said suddenly. He pointed to a gun rack. “This is perfect for displaying our beauties in the dorm. Let’s get it for decorating.”

“They’ve also got special plaques for wall mounting!” Jaebum said eagerly. “We can use that for our more historic guns, the ones we shouldn’t waste on actual combat.”

“And see, they do have dorm stuff. Camouflage pillows!”

“And camo rugs!”

“And a camo hamper!"

“I have no idea what a hamper is, but get it anyways.” Jaebum couldn’t hold back a smile. He still had Jackson filed as a potential threat, but even as such, he was a kindred spirit. It was nice to finally meet one after all this time. There were other bodyguards in Solitude, of course—the King’s, the Queen’s, Prince Junho’s—but the King and Queen’s enjoyed violence for the sake of violence, and Junho’s didn’t particularly enjoy handling guns. None of them felt about it the way Jaebum did, in harmony with his firearms, united in a sacred duty to protect what must be protected and to serve as an end to those who would harm what good remained in the world.

But he could tell that Jackson knew, outlaw though he was. He was trouble, there was no doubt about that, but he believed strongly in his own definition of goodness.

“Some tracker you are,” Jaebum said as they steered their cart towards the checkout. “I don’t see Junior or Mark anywhere here.”

“You know, some people think it’s a happy misfortune to go looking for one good thing and to find another good thing in its place.”

“I’m not saying I don’t like our new stuff, but we should still keep looking for them. They could get into trouble.”

“I know, and I’m with you, partner. We’ll find them.”

“When you call me ‘partner,’ are you doing it sarcastically?” Jaebum asked.

“What do you mean?”

“We established yesterday that ‘partner’ means friend, but if I’m remembering my Westerns, cowboys would also sometimes use it for enemies. Kind of like how girls sometimes call other girls they hate ‘sweetie.’” Jaebum squared his shoulders. “I’m not your friend, so you must be insulting me.”

“Not at all, partner. Cowboys also used it with their fellows. You are most certainly a fellow.”

“I’m no cowboy. Or outlaw.”

“But you’re a gunslinger. You’ve got a quick draw. Not as quick as me, but…”

Jaebum scowled. “Who says I’m not as quick as you?”

“I drew my gun on you quicker than you did when we first met.”

“That was a fluke! Plus, my gun was bigger and heavier.”

“Excuses are the weapons of cowards.”

“Fine! Give me one of your revolvers and we’ll see who can draw it faster!”

Jackson passed one over, and Jaebum holstered it. “On your count, partner.”

“All right, then. 3…2…1”

Jaebum’s hand flew to his holster, but before he could even fully pull out the revolver, he heard a shot and felt a bullet whizzing right past his neck. He instinctively whipped his head around, and saw the bullet embedded in the wall behind him, just inches away from where he'd been.

"It's called precision," Jackson said. Jaebum turned back to look at him. Jackson puffed across the muzzle of his revolver as if he were a cartoon character smugly blowing away gun smoke. Jaebum should have been annoyed at this bit of arrogance, but instead he felt the odd sensation he had when he'd compared biceps with Jackson—as if someone was squeezing down on his trigger.

Before he knew what he was doing, he was storming towards Jackson, forcing the annoyance he should be feeling up so the other feeling would go away. “Hey,” he snarled, pulling out a pistol and pushing Jackson up against the wall. “Don’t you dare get cocky on me, outlaw. I’ll have you at my mercy one of these days.”

Jackson’s eyes flashed at this, not with reciprocal annoyance but with something like excitement. It was almost as if he wanted Jaebum to outshoot him…or something along those lines.

“I’d like to see that, partner,” Jackson said, his lips curled upwards. “You’ve seen what I can do. I’m wondering how good of a shot you are, now.”

Jaebum was feeling incredibly provoked by all this, but before he could respond, a store employee cleared from nearby.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she said.

“The gun shot was the result of an official shoot out challenge,” Jackson said innocently. “My abilities were mocked, so I defended my honor.”

“Not that,” the employee said. “We don’t allow PDA at this store. Take it outside.”

“Can we at least buy our stuff?” Jackson asked.

She sighed tragically, but she was a Unionite, and in the Union, the demands of capitalism outranked everything. “One of you can complete the transaction. The other will have to remain outside.”

“I’ll do it,” Jackson said. “You wait outside, partner.”

“What the heck is PDA?” Jaebum asked once the employee was out of earshot.

“I don’t rightly know. Uhhh ‘Publicly Discharging Ammo’?”

“This is ridiculous! I have a license!”

“Whatever. You got kicked out, partner. Go outside. No more PDA.”

“I’ll PDA whenever I want to,” Jaebum grumbled. “And next time, I’m going to PDA the heck out of you.”

They never wound up finding Jinyoung and Mark. They went to a few more promising stores in the area, but just ended up buying more things for themselves, including more clothes. Jaebum found himself gravitating towards more futuristic sci-fi bodyguard fashion, while Jackson, naturally, kept buying an excessive amount of cowboy hats.

Eventually, they wound up returning to the dorm, and when they went up to their room, they could clearly hear music playing from behind Jinyoung and Mark’s door, accompanied by the faint sound of laughter. Jaebum pounded on the door, demanding for Jinyoung (“Junior”) to come out and account for himself, but Jinyoung just sent a text message that said “Go away” in response. It seemed that his rebellion sympathies were contributing to an all-out rebellion phase against Jaebum as well.

When he and Jackson went into their dorm room, Jaebum immediately locked himself inside the bathroom and called Jinyoung. He thought Jinyoung might ignore him, but after a minute, he accepted the call.

“Am I in trouble?” Jinyoung asked. The music in the background was now muffled—he must have taken the call in the bathroom as well.

“It’s not like I can punish you, but yeah, I’m pissed,” Jaebum snapped. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I can’t have a social life, particularly one with Mark, if you’re around every second.”

“Since when have you wanted a social life? You hate socializing!”

“Since I-Met-Mark-o’clock.” Jinyoung sighed. “He’s…intriguing. I want to get to know him, and I want it to be a me thing. Not a Prince-Jinyoung-and-his-bodyguard thing.”

“Then how am I supposed to be your bodyguard? Just because you’re in the Union doesn’t mean you’re safe!”

“Empress Blue Rose can’t find me here, Jaebum. If she could, she would have already come and dragged me to her palace, kicking and screaming.”

“Just because she hasn’t figured it out yet doesn’t mean she won’t, so-”

“I know,” Jinyoung interrupted gently. “I know. But…this is my one chance to have a normal life, even if it just lasts a few months. Can you please, please, please let me have it?”

Jaebum sighed. He’d never been any good at denying Jinyoung. “Just…use caution, all right? I’ll let you live, but you have to let me live, too. And I live to keep you safe.”

“Hey, maybe you should try a normal life, too. Focus on something else for a while. Make a friend. Get another hobby.” He barreled on before Jaebum could protest. “Actually, I want to ask you something. And this is all very hypothetical, of course. I just need some perspective.”

“Yes?”

“Um…let’s use you for an example. And…Jackson.”

“Why?”

“No reason, you’re just placeholders. Anyways, let’s say Jackson watched you on a televised sharpshooter contest and fell in love with you based on your TV appearance and interviews and what not. Then, let’s say he meets you in person by coincidence, and doesn't know it's you, the guy he’d seen on TV. But he mentions to you how much he loved that sharpshooter guy, and you know it’s you, but you can’t tell him that, and you’re worried he likes a TV-ready version of you and not the real you at all…what would you do?”

“Why should I have to do anything? That sounds like his problem, not mine.”

“Because…” Jinyoung’s voice wavered a little. “Let’s say…you’re kind of attracted to Jackson. You think you might want to be with him in the future. But right at this moment, you can’t tell him the truth about who you are, and you’re worried that this version of you that he thinks he’s in love with will interfere with him being able to love you properly. Or that you’ll succumb to the pressure of trying to live up to that ideal.”

Jaebum tried to think of it for Jinyoung’s sake, but his mind couldn’t get past the hurdle of imagining himself being in love with Jackson. It wasn’t so much that he couldn’t picture it, but that picturing it made him feel so incredibly odd that he couldn’t comfortably hold the thought in his mind. He remembered how Jackson had looked at him when he’d pushed him against the wall, that intense flash of excitement, and it made something inside him squeeze with oppressive tightness. He grit his teeth, imagining instead plugging that thought full of bullet holes. He didn’t want to see it a second longer.

“I don’t know anything about this love stuff,” he said to Jinyoung a bit brusquely. “I’m not the person to ask. But I don’t think anyone owes it to anyone to match their expectations. Just do what you want. Be who you want. If someone can’t accept that compared to who they think you are or should be, that really is their problem and nothing you should feel responsible for. And if they do love you as you are, what do you have to envy about any other version of yourself they loved before?”

“I know that,” Jinyoung said softly. “But how can I be myself properly when all I can do is lie?”

“This isn’t hypothetical, is it?” Jaebum asked.

“It never really is.” Jinyoung sighed. “Anyways, you’re right. I don’t have a plan, and right now I’m engaged. That’s the important thing. Getting out of that without causing some massive international incident.”

“I’m still not sure how we’re going to pull that off.” Empress Blue Rose wasn’t the kind of person Jaebum could simply walk up, shoot, and have done with it. She was far more powerful than that, so powerful that no one even understood the extent of it, not even Jinyoung’s own Fairy Godson.

“Me either. But I guess I’m freshly motivated to, now more than ever.” Jinyoung sighed again. “I bet all of this is going to get harder, though. Before it gets easier.”

“It always does.”

When he dropped the call with Jinyoung, Jaebum stayed a little longer in the bathroom. He didn’t want to step outside again until all thoughts of love had been safely purged from his head and he was back to how he’d been before.​