"Bloody hell!" Traze curses in a low voice after seeing the lockscreen wallpaper on her phone, which Taeyong gave her. "What was he thinking? He's mad. Definitely!"

"Hey, what are you mumbling about there?" Izzy questions her.

She shakes her head, hiding her phone in her pocket. "Nothing."

Izzy arches a brow at her. "I know you, Traze. And I'm not stupid. I've been watching that mingebag and he's been acting like he's concerned over you when you passed out. Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Iz, there's nothing going on, alright?" She tries to assure her bestfriend.

"Then why do you have his phone?" Izzy asks, still piercing her a glare.

She pauses, automatically thinking of an excuse in her mind. "Uh... he broke my phone so he gave his to me."

"Is that really it?" Izzy crosses her arms over her chest. "I mean, if he's into you, I don't really care as long as he treats you well."

"I..." She chokes in the air, trying to formulate words in her mind. "Even if he is, I won't like him back. He's nothing compared to Jaehyun." But after saying that, a heavy feeling rises up in her chest.

Izzy nods. "That's true. I've seen you obsess over the prince for years. I can't even see you liking anyone except for the prince now, to be honest."

She gulps down, standing up from her seat. "Right. I better head off. I still need to study for my entrance exam to Eton."

"I'm sure the prince will let you in even if you fail so don't stress too much about it." Izzy waves at her.

She shakes her head, opening the door. "Well thanks, Iz. That's really reassuring. See you later."

****

Traze has been at the library for only half an hour and she feels as if her brain is going to explode already. She just can't stand the silence. She doesn't even know what to study first. Chelsie told her to start with the subject which she's not confident in. But in her case, she's not confident in everything.

Just when she's about to stand up, her phone beeps, revealing a message from Taeyong. "Where are you?"

She ignores it and proceeds to an aisle to get a book. Her phone beeps again. "Where the hell are you?" She groans inwardly. She doesn't want to be distracted at that moment. She's already too distracted to begin with.

When her phone starts to ring, she hears someone telling her to be quiet so she quickly steps out of the library to answer the phone. "What do you want?" She asks in an infuriated tone.

"What are you so furious for?" Taeyong answers.

She lets out a sigh. "I'm busy right now, alright?"

"Is this how you're going to treat me after giving you a phone and saving you several times?" He points out.

She can't believe he's actually shoving it to her face right now. "Look Taeyong, I appreciate you giving me a phone and I know I owe you one or maybe three meals, but I'm serious when I say I'm busy right now."

"Not even an hour? I just want us to eat together." She hears him sigh at the other end of the line. "Mark is still not speaking to me."

If he didn't say that, she's probably hang up on him already. She gives up and finally says, "Fine. Just an hour."

****

She buries her face on the food infront of her. She doesn't dare look up to face him. She just continues to fill herself up with the cheesecake she ordered. It's her first time to eat in a fancy dessert shop. She told him that they can just eat somewhere cheap but he insisted. He said he's been craving for something sweet so she just lets him take her there.

"You seem to really like that," Taeyong comments, sipping on his Oreo milkshake.

She nods, still not looking at him. "It's really good."

"Can I have a taste?" He suddenly asks so she slowly looks up to see if he's kidding, but he's not. He's looking at her as if waiting for her to offer him a spoonful of her cake.

She's still debating on what to say, when she sees his lips suddenly curve into a smile. "You finally looked at me," he says, smirking.

She sends him a glare and just continues to eat again. "Are you not going to eat anything? You're the one who wants to eat."

"I'm not really hungry. If it's not that obvious yet, that's just an excuse for me to see you," he answers her.

At an instant, she feels tensed again. She doesn't know how to stop the fluttering feeling she gets everytime she's with him. It's a different kind of feeling unlike when she's with the prince. She just can't explain it in words.

"But if you offer me your food, I'll gladly eat it," he speaks again, causing her to almost cough out the cake in her mouth. Luckily, she's able to hold it in. "You alright? Here." He hands her a bottle of water, but she's hesitant because he might have already drank from it already. "If you don't drink, you might die and I can't let that happen."

She takes the bottle from him and drinks from it, making sure that her lips don't touch the opening of the bottle. "Thanks."

Taeyong chuckles. "You're that anxious that you're getting an indirect kiss from me when you've done it before?"

She furrows her brows at him in confusion. "What?"

He shakes his head, brushing it off. "Never mind."

"You're talking non-sense." She checks her phone for the time and it's almost 6 pm. When she turns to him again, he suddenly takes her phone and checks something. "What is it now?" She asks him. "You wanna take your phone back?"

He doesn't say a thing at once and just continues to fiddle on the phone. Few seconds later, he holds the phone up to his face and snaps a photo of himself. "Don't change your wallpaper," he says, sliding the phone back to her side.

She frowns, looking at the wallpaper. He really put his face as her lockscreen. "Hey, I don't want your face as my wallpaper!"

He ignores her, bringing out his phone this time and snapping a photo of her. "I gave that phone to you so it's only right that my face is your wallpaper. That way, everyone will know that I'm yours."

She scoffs, rolling her eyes at him. "Are you hearing yourself now? I never said I'm yours."

He shrugs, sipping his milkshake again. "You didn't have to. I'm already claiming you as mine."

****

The day of Traze's exam has finally come. She spent almost a week trying to study for it. Chelsie gave her some tips since her sister has always been the smarter one. But she can say that she has done her best studying so she can only rely on her memory now.

When she reaches a building in Eton, she quickly recognizes two guys standing infront of an office. She marches her way towards it and as she gets nearer, the second prince finally notices her presence. She quickly greets him with a smile when she reaches them. "Your Highness." She turns to the eldest prince first then to the second one.

Jaehyun narrows his eyes at her. "You don't have to be formal around us here, Patricia."

"Sorry. I just...." She slowly glances at the eldest prince, gauging his reaction.

"Don't worry. I don't really care about formalities." The eldest prince extends his hand at her. "Just call me Johnny. It's nice to finally meet you, Patricia."

She takes his hand and shakes it. "Likewise, Your Hi-" She shakes her head, correcting herself. "Johnny."

"That's better," Johnny says, smiling.

She inhales and exhales, trying to calm herself. It might not be obvious but she's really anxious at that moment.

"You can do it, Patricia," Jaehyun cheers for her.

She turns to them with a smile, but she just really can't help but sweat. When a lady finally calls her in, she looks over her shoulder for the last time and sees Jaehyun smiling at her and mouthing, "Goodluck!"

She doesn't know how she was able to survive that almost half day of an exam. All she knows is that when she walks out of the office, her stomach is already rumbling and ready to eat anything. Fishing her phone out, she sends a message to Chelsie and asks if she's on her lunch break already. She doesn't want to call her because she might still be in class.

She wanders around the building until she ends up in the field. There are some students running around, some are players practicing football. She continues to walk around while waiting for Chelsie's message.

Just then, her phone starts to ring so she hurriedly answers it. "Chelsie, are you in class-"

"It's me," Taeyong's voice startles her.

She groans, cursing at herself for not checking the caller id. "What do you want?"

"Did you come here to see me?" He suddenly asks, catching her off guard. She scans around her to see if he's somewhere in the field. "You could've just told me. You didn't have to come here all the way to Eton." He continues to speak and when she spins around, she sees him already making his way towards her direction.

She hangs up the call as Taeyong finally reaches her. "I didn't come here to see you."

He slowly nods and that's when she notices a bruise under his right eye. "Let's go eat," he says, reaching for her hand but she stops him.

"What happened to your eye?" She's tempted to touch his face but she clenches her fist instead, controlling herself not to.

He tilts his head to the opposite side to avoid her stare. "It's nothing."

She continues to stare at him and notices that it's still reddish so it must be fresh. "Taeyong, did someone hit you?"

He lets out a chuckle. "Are you worried about me now?"

She sighs, rolling her eyes at him. "If I say I am, will you tell me the truth how you got it?"

He takes a step closer to her, reaching for her hand. "If I tell you the truth, will you let me hug you?"

She doesn't answer him back. Instead, she moves closer to him and lets him hug her like what he asked. "Now tell me," she mumbles as she feels his breath on her side.

"It's my stepdad. I argued with him and he hit me. But I'm fine now because you're here." She feels her heart beating like crazy at that instant that she can't even answer him. "Thank you for letting me be with you like this, Traze. That's more than enough for me."

A/N: I'm not supposed to update today but it's bubu's birthday! Hope you enjoyed TraeYong's *coughs* date. 😂

#HappyTaeyongDay #OurRoseTaeyongDay

~neozone