The crowd of masked partiers applauded at Suho’s warm welcome. Anything that came out of his mouth were words of gold regardless of what he was actually saying. He thanked the guests for coming, the chefs for cooking, the staff for preparing, and so on as the list continued.  
 

“And I’d like to thank a very special individual with us here tonight,” he concluded. “Someone who made everything successful attainable for us as members of the Vogue family.”
 

While his eyes searched for the person his speech was directed toward, Suho’s eyes lingered on an unmasked figure. Emerging from the crowd, a stout man appeared before him. He bore no mask, as he probably felt the need not to, and stepped forward with a commanding stride, claiming the room as his own territory. The smile on Suho’s face turned into an insincere expression of acknowledgment. Bowing his head, he presented the microphone to the elder man - the man he called his uncle. 
 

The applause of the crowd resonated throughout the hall as cheerful as ever, the crowd recognizing the familiar and former chief of the company. Suho backed away into the crowd and shrunk back behind his guests, not wanting to garner attention from anyone else. He had not expected his uncle to actually show up to the party, that having been the furthest thing from his mind before he had stepped forward.
 

“Thank you for the warm welcome,” his uncle began. “Hasn’t my nephew done a wonderful job with the party? It turned out extravagant and wonderful, don’t you think so?”
 

The guests agreed with another enthusiastic response. Suho half-smiled and shrunk away further into the crowd, letting himself become enveloped in its mixture of silk and satin and feathers. Finally out of sight, he walked to the set of doors and made his swift exit out of them and into the next. He didn’t wish to stay there any longer. 
 

Suho clomped down the steps, following the checkered tiles to the floor below. He decided to have some time to himself. He would find Seohyun later. 
 

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

The two were already far into the gardens, the palace an elaborate ornament sitting upon a hill from a distance. All around them stood walls of hedges while fountain centerpieces decorated their path. Lights trickled down from the foliage, making it seem as if stardust had been sprinkled around the gardens. 
 

“I’ve never been to a place more beautiful than this,” Seohyun said as she let her eyes wander amongst the earthly stars. “Have you?”
 

Luhan thought for a moment and then turned his head to her. She looked like a child, so ingenuous and starstruck, gazing at the sights before her. He smiled at her purity. “No,” he replied. “This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to.”
 

Both of them had forgotten about the party back in the palace. They had a sort of unspoken mutual agreement that to be here was better. The serenity of the gardens, the lack of noise and people, the grace of the night sweeping over the palace grounds - this is what they would prefer any day. And to have it all to themselves, it was truly a fairytale. 
 

Seohyun sat down on a stone bench and watched Luhan examine a fountain in front of him. He was an enigma to her still, but that didn’t keep her from wanting to know more about him. He drew her in for a reason she could not understand, and she wondered if he felt the same way. 
 

“Why haven’t you run away from me?” Luhan asked but didn’t turn to look at her. 
 

“Run away? What do you mean?”
 

The reflection of the water below glistened in his eyes. “I’m sure you’ve heard things about me. Terrible things. Yet, you’re still here with me. Why?”
 

Seohyun knew what he meant. The time at the office, the incident with Suho - she remembered. “Because...because I doubt they’re true.”
 

“Why do you doubt the people who’ve spoken about me?”
 

She got up from the bench and slowly made her way towards him. “You seem different from what people make you out to be. They speak harsh words, but when I meet you, you don’t seem like that man they speak of. That’s why,” she looked at his face, still bearing a mask, “I don’t believe that their words are true.”
 

“But they are,” he said. “They are true. Every word, I bet.”
 

Seohyun was taken aback. “So everything they’ve said...is true? It all happened?”
 

Luhan nodded. He watched her from the corner of his eye look down at the fountain and then up at the stars. Her expression didn’t show disbelief, but rather a look engrossed in thought. 
 

“If you say what you did happened, then I believe it,” she stated simply. “I believe the stories now.”
 

“I’m sorry.”
 

“But I believe that there has to be a good reason for why you did what you did.” She looked at him with unwavering eyes; inside of them crashed waves of overflowing confidence. “Because I still refuse to believe that you had anything but good intentions.”
 

She never failed to surprise him. Even after finding out the truth, Luhan couldn’t believe that she still wanted to be with him. Most people would have already left him by now, but here she was, still willing to be by his side, willing and waiting.
 

“Why are you so persistent in seeing the good in me?” Luhan finally asked.
 

Seohyun reached for his mask, her fingers lingering on the string holding it taut against his head. She wanted to see his face, not just his mouth or his eyes; she wanted to see it undisturbed as a whole, to see every element connect without distraction. He let her fingers brush his hair as she slipped the mask off of his head, revealing the comely face she had longed to see. Seohyun held the mask within her hands and looked him straight in the eyes.
 

“Because,” she said, “I love you.”
 

She had said it boldly, resolutely, and truthfully. Their stares never left each other. Luhan reached for her mask this time, careful not to taint the swirls of gold framing her face, with his unseemly hands. As he untied it from her head, his hands brushed ever so slightly against her cheeks. His hands were gentle and warm, she thought, but at the same time somewhat apprehensive. Seohyun was stripped of the mask, uncovering a face so beautiful and almost celestial to him.
 

Luhan held her mask within his hands and looked at her with sad eyes. “You shouldn’t try to love a person like me.”
 

“And why not?”
 

“I’ll only cause you trouble.”
 

Seohyun smiled and looked away. She started to walk around the fountain, leaving Luhan to follow her from behind. As she played with her cuffs, she looked down at the water below.
 

“I haven’t told Suho yet, but I plan on leaving soon.”
 

Luhan looked up but couldn’t see the expression on her face. The back of her head stayed steady as her hair subtly swung from side to side with each step she took.
 

“My job...it’s the kind of career that requires one to travel around constantly. I can’t just stay put here in Paris,” she continued. “If I want to be successful as a model, I need to step out of my boundaries and pursue it. I need to leave.”
 

“Why are you telling me this and not Suho?” Luhan’s voice wavered. 
 

“I’ll tell him soon,” she clarified. “But I don’t have to. I can stay, but only if...only if you want me to.”
 

She stopped walking and turned around abruptly, her dress swaying as she looked to him again. Her demeanor had changed. She had just been so sure of herself only moments ago, so confident, but now her words lingered in the air with uncertainty.
 

“If you want me to, if you love me - I’ll stay.”
 

Luhan wanted her to stay as much as anything else in the world. He wanted to be with her and have her to hold, to call each other their own.
 

“Seohyun, you shouldn’t love me.”
 

“But I do!” Her frustration was starting to seep out of her composure. 
 

Luhan wanted her to stay, but he didn’t want her to end up being with the likes of him. “Seohyun, not me.”
 

“Yes, you!”
 

He couldn’t. “Seohyun, please.”
 

“Luhan, but-” 
 

He shouldn’t. “I can’t.”
 

“Luhan, I-”
 

He can’t love her. “No-”
 

“Luhan!”
 

“I don’t love you.”
 

The silence stabbed her from every direction. The harsh reality had come in a sudden downpour. Seohyun wanted to shrink away to nothing, to disappear without a trace. After trying so hard to know him, after all the times she had made him smile, after all the moments she had felt a tinge of hope in being with him - they were all wasted. Maybe it was her fault. Maybe she had pried too hard. Maybe she was looking for a love that was never there in the first place.
 

Neither said a word or looked at each other. They stood there, holding the other’s mask anxiously in their hands, waiting for the stars above to sweep down and devour them in a streak of flames. 
 

“I’m sorry to not have considered your feelings.”
 

Luhan looked up, distraught by what he had done. “What?”
 

“I shouldn’t have assumed...that you even liked me,” she smiled with melancholy staining her lips. Her eyes watered but faced downward in an effort to be unseen. “I won’t bother you again.”
 

With those words, she walked towards him and handed him his mask. He took it with reluctance, with eyes widening as he began to realize what he had just done. The power of his false words struck him as he watched her walk away.
 

Seohyun didn’t turn to say goodbye nor did she utter another word. He couldn’t hear the sounds of her crying, but he knew that it was so. She turned around the corner and disappeared behind the hedges, leaving him by himself to bask in his own guilt. He waited for the sounds of crunching grass to fade to ensure that she had truly left for sure.
 

Luhan stood next to the fountain, now all alone. In one hand he held her golden mask, and in the other he could still feel the warmth her hands had emitted onto his own mask. He didn’t know if he regretted lying about not loving her or if he had done what was truly right.
 

He trudged to the stone bench she had been sitting on only minutes ago. The moon and the stars mocked him as they shone brightly overhead, so brilliant and dazzling. Why did they ? Had he done the right thing? Was lying truly the right thing to have done? In the long run, she would be happy, he thought.
 

He lied to protect her. If she spent her life with him, it would only be wasted. She had a whole life ahead of her: a successful career, a family, friends, happiness. She could have all of that if he didn’t have to drag her behind. That’s why she couldn’t be with him. He would only bring her down, would only hurt her in the long run. She had much to live for - just not with him.
 

Luhan set down the masks on top of the stone bench and laid them down side by side. One was so brilliant, and the other was so plain, so pitiful. A mask such as that didn’t deserve the other that glistened so beautifully. It would be best if she found someone else to love. It would be best if he had never existed in her life.
 

Luhan stood up and frowned at the beauty all around him. He left the secluded place and walked into the gardens. He would go home now. He would pretend that he didn’t love her for her sake - just for her sake. The wind blew against him, its chill twisting and turning, constricting his body.
 

The two masks were left alone with no one to catch them if they would fall. 

A/N:

Now, now don't be sad! I know how frustrating it is. Trust me. I'm writing the story.

Hopefully this was a satisfying fill to your crave for this chapter. It was difficult for me to get the dialogue just right.
 

If you guys want something to look forward to, well, Sehun is going to be in the next chapter yay!
We haven't seen him in awhile, huh? That's the only preview I can give. Sorry~

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please comment down below! I love reading the comments so much! ^^