"Morning, Sean." James, a middle-aged man in dark hair, oblong face-shaped, thin lips, and narrow eyes set, greeted the young guy who just walked inside.

"Good morning, boss," replied Sean with a polite smile. He headed to the employee's room and got changed before returning to begin his usual duties. He was so deep in thought while setting up the tables that he didn't even notice when his boss came to stand beside him.

"Hey, Sean. Are you feeling okay?" asked James worriedly.

"Oh, I'm okay. Why are you asking?"

"I can clearly see black circles on your eyes. Did you not sleep well last night?"

What do you expect, boss? I couldn't even have a peaceful sleep last night because some elf king came to my house and claimed my bed. I had to sleep on the small sofa even when it was MY OWN house. If that wasn't enough, he even woke me up early to make breakfast for him.

These were what processed inside Sean's head, but he knew better than to say them out loud. First, James would think he was crazy. After all, no one had ever seen an elf nowadays. Never even mind the king. Second, it'd be a long story to explain. He was exhausted to narrate everything.

"I'm fine, boss. Nothing to worry about." Sean plastered his usual cheerful smile upon his face as he replied, hoping it would convince his boss to drop the subject.

"Are you sure?" asked James skeptically.

The older man had known Sean for years, and could easily see through him. His face, while asking, depicted genuine care for the younger man, for he had always considered Sean as his own kin ever since the first year the boy worked for him.

"Yes. Everything is alright." Sean maintained his smile as he answered,

"Okay. If you say so." Though unconvinced, James decided to stop digging. He stepped closer and patted Sean on the shoulder.

"Remember, you can always come to me anytime if you have any problem."

"Thank you, boss," said Sean, bowing his head with full respect.

James smiled before returning to the kitchen to resume his duty. Sean's eyes followed his boss' back and watched until the kitchen wall completely hid the middle-aged man from him before he murmured to himself. "Everything is alright, right?"

*******

Meanwhile, at Sean's house, a tall figure with long, blonde hair was found holding and staring at a slim, eight-inches rectangular object.

"What is this strange thing? Why doesn't the whole Aldous Kingdom have it? Not even my castle." Oswin turned the remote control in his palms and looked at it in bewilderment. Suddenly, his finger pressed the 'on' button unknowingly, making a black tv screen filled with moving pictures.

It was a movie in an ancient theme where ministers were having a meeting with their king.

"Finally, something I'm familiar with," uttered Oswin as he stared at the screen.

The setting in the movie was the interior of an ancient castle. It had a similar style to that of his in Aldous. Oswin didn't even wonder why he saw things from a small box, for he was too engaged in seeing something that didn't look out of place to him.

In a jiffy, a scene from the tv switched from peace to chaos. The actors started shouting at one another, causing the uproar to arise.

"You incompetent king, you deserve to die! I'll be the one to put an end to it," echoed a man's voice from the movie.

"What?!" Oswin watched in horror as the sword pierced the king's heart, soaking the golden robe with crimson hue.

"How dare you rebels assassinate the king in the presence of me? I'll teach you a lesson myself," growled Oswin with his brows furrowed.

No one had to guess what happened next, for the sound of smashing and glass shattering reverberated throughout the whole house.

After Oswin took care of the noisy tv, the whole house dropped dead silent. However, it didn't take more than ten minutes before another voice cut off the soundlessness.

"The rice is cooked! The rice is cooked!" a cute voice echoed from a rice cooker.

"There's an intruder? Where are you? Show yourself!" Oswin cautiously walked around the house, in search of the source of the voice.

"The rice is cooked. The ri一"

"Found you." Oswin picked up the rice cooker from the counter, and threw it to the floor, silencing the cute voice from making any more announcements.

"Now, is there any more intruder?" he muttered to himself as he roamed off from one room to another.

During the twelve-hour wait for Sean to come back from work, Oswin found himself bustling within the small house.

*******

When Sean returned home from work, he almost couldn't believe his eyes when he opened the door and saw the state of his house was completely different from what he remembered this morning.

"Dear angels and all good deeds in this world, please give me the strength to continue my kindness. Or else I'll kick this so-called elf king out in the street to starve," recited Sean as he stomped off in a rage, carefully stepping over the scattered and broken things on the floor in search of the one responsible for it.

"Oswin Alvingham!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs and stormed from one room to another simultaneously until he came across Oswin, who emerged from the bedroom.

"How dare you call the king by his name? You一"

"Oh yeah, I DO DARE!" Sean cut Owin off as he lifted his hand and pointed his finger at the tall figure. "And not just addressing you by the name, I even dare to hit you right now." He jumped on Oswin with the urge to strangle him.

Being the king of the elf was no joke. Apart from wielding magic, Oswin had undergone strict martial arts training since he was a child. It took him only one graceful step to move to the side and avoid Sean's attack. The latter was caught by surprise at the sudden movement, causing him to lose balance and tumbled on the ground.

"Ow..." Sean stroked his red-tinged nose as he lay prone on the floor.

"Pathetic." A smirk was visibly shown on Oswin's face. "Don't ever dare to dream of touching even a single strand of my hair, mortal."

"Oh yeah?!" Sean got up and brushed the dirt away from his clothes. "Then somebody has a bad memory."

"What?"

This time, it was Sean's turn to smirk.

"Well, you said no one was able to lay a hand on you. Have you forgotten that this mortal has touched you twice?"

Oswin went quiet for several seconds as if to bring back those not so old memories. Once he regained them, a murderous intent emitted from his eyes as he landed his gaze at Sean.

"What. Did. You. Just. Say?"

The question was asked threateningly, sending chills to the receiving end. Not to mention that with each word enunciated, it brought the towering figure closer to the smaller one.

Gulping, Sean subconsciously backs away, each step at the time, while questioning why he had to dig his own grave just now.

Just like the mirror image of a game of a chase, but in slow motion, Sean was stepping back, whereas Oswin was advancing. Each of them took one careful step at a time while maintaining eye contact. Not long after, Sean found himself bumping into something hard and cold that he registered as the wall. For the first time in forever, he blamed his house for being small.

Without delay, when Oswin saw the dilemma of his prey, he cut off all possible escape routes by blocking the small figure with his built body. Placing both his hands on either side of his prey's head, he trapped Sean within his deliberately made compact space, inside the circle of his arms.

"Y-your m-majesty?" asked Sean, gulping, and looking up at the bad mood elf king. His voice was slightly shaking.

"I remember."

Sean pretended to have no clue when in fact, he knew so well what Oswin referred to. "O-okay, remember what?"

The elf king saw through the human's act as if Sean's brain was made of transparent shell. He gave Sean a flinty stare and said, "You know what."

Oswin's stern voice was even scarier than his cold face that remained solemn.

"Forgive this human for having a poor memory, but I don't even remember what I said a few minutes ago. Haha." Sean faked a laugh.

Oswin leaned down until their noses lightly touched before he tilted his head to the side and whispered in Sean's ear with a voice that sent the latter weak in the knees from a mixture of unknown feelings.

"You said that you, a mortal, have touched me, the elf king, twice. Ring any bell yet?"

"Haha..really? Did I say that? Come on, your majesty. I ranted a lot of words back then. I can't recall any of them at all."

"It's okay. Let me clarify."

No, no need! Sean begged inside his head as if his silence plea could make Oswin drop the topic.

"I recalled my memories just now. You know, the two times that you had touched me."

"H-haha... It's alright to not recall them, you know."

Ignoring Sean's word, Oswin continued. "The wrist, and of course, the slap."

"I did that to save you!" said Sean in a hurry.

"I didn't see how a slap was going to save me."

"It was! You would have been called in for interrogation if I let you kill the big guy. I tried shouting at you to stop, but you didn't hear me. I had no other choice. I don't want you to become a criminal. A murder on top of that."

"That guy deserved worse than death. Consider me kind enough to grant him quick suffering. If he were in Aldous, my guards would be happy taking time to play with him in the torturing room."

"It doesn't work that way in here, okay? This is not Aldous. This is Earth! Here on Earth, we left those bad people to the police."

"Police?"

"Yeah. Police are the civil force of a state, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order. In short, they deal with criminals."

"Em," said Oswin. He nodded slightly in understanding, satisfied with learning the new word.

Sean breathed a sigh of relief after seeing a relaxed expression on Oswin's face. Nevertheless, it was short-lived.

Instead of forgetting the situation, Oswin kept stepping closer, making Sean's body stiffened, especially when the taller's nose leaned way too close till its tip brushed the side of his neck, sending a tickling feeling down his spine.

"Err...what're you doing?" asked Sean with his voice trembling.

*sniffing*

"You smell...nice. I like it. I want to smell more," replied Oswin as he continued sniffing Sean.

"Oy, you perv. Get away from me!" Sean tried to shove the towering figure off him with both his hands only to get backfired. His wrists were wrapped in one big palm and being pinned to the wall above his head. The action gave him an uneasy feeling of what to come. "Oy, let me go." Sean tried to pull back his hands, but without a doubt, his strength was no match to Oswin's.

"Stop squirming. Do you even know how lucky you are?"

I only know how UNLUCKY I am to get stuck with you! Sean screamed inside his head.

"Many elf women try so hard to get my attention."

"Well, sorry to break it to you that I AM A MAN! Also, don't worry. I won't try to get your attention," complained Sean, rolling his eyes at the narcissistic elf king.

"Yeah, that's strange."

"Strange what?"

"I've never had this kind of feeling with any of the elf men before."

"Oswin! Stop saying weird things. You're creeping me out!" Sean wiggled, trying his luck again to escape Oswin's firm grip, but to no avail.

"Your smell seems to awaken something in me." Oswin's voice sounded weaker than before.

As soon the phrase escaped the chic king's mouth, Sean felt something poking this lower abdomen. He already had a bad feeling of what it might be, but he couldn't resist the urge to look down and confirm.

"Oswin, are you...HARD?!"

"Don't look," commanded Oswin in a hoarse voice. The tips of his ears were turning red, and his once domineering bluish-grey irises turned doe-eyed. He had a childish and funny countenance that Sean had never seen before, which led him to laugh so hard that tears pricked the corner of his eyes. "Don't laugh!"

Instead of feeling intimidated, the cute sight set Sean's laughter out of control.

"You! I told you to stop laughing!" commanded Oswin again.

Sean tried to stop but found himself unable to. Seeing this, Oswin decided to come up with a helping plan.

In a blink of an eye, Sean found himself lying on the cold floor with Oswin on top of him. Tellingly, his laughter stopped, followed by a question full of puzzlement.

"W-what are you doing?" asked Sean alarmingly.

"Punishment."

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