ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
─◌✰್ 𝖼𝗁𝗂𝗅𝖽
❝𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆? 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁.❞

"King Lee will draw for the Moonstone kingdom. We hope this will prove to all citizens that there was no tampering of the names, as King Lee gains nothing based on who gets picked from Moonstone. And I have no stock in who gets chosen from Obsidian," your dad continued, before gesturing to King Lee.

The stout king reached his grubby hand into the side closest to him. "The first female of Moonstone, who will be participating in our new cross-kingdom dating show is..."

As he grabbed a slip of paper, the entire nation held their breath.

"Guo Lanhua."

The king held up the slip of paper, and the camera crew practically trampled a few people in the crowd to get video of the first name chosen.

Everyone in the hall clapped politely.

Two screens, which you hadn't even noticed until now, flashed to life. One showed live footage of the slip of paper, while the other was trained on your best friend's face. She looked stunning, as always, but her face was drained of all color. She looked like a literal doll.

"Holy shit!" You gasped, clapping a billion times louder than everyone else. Was this real?? Was one of your closest friends really going to be on this crazy television show?? What were the odds?

You had to admit, she would look great on tv. She was famous around the kingdom for her stunning, yet athletic look, and the graceful way she held herself. Plus, she was already comfortable with the screen, having to make constant speeches about her family to the press.

"Hua, get up there!" JJ whispered, nudging your friend when the clapping finally died down. "You're supposed to go onstage!"

Lanhua snapped out of her daze and nodded, instantly stepping forward and making her way up the stairs and onto the stage. One of the guards scurried over and showed her to one of the sixteen seats behind both kings. She sat on the side where your father stood. Even amongst all this craziness, she looked poised.

Changbin frowned, his hands balled into fists, like he wanted to punch something. You wondered why he looked so upset. Maybe he wasn't sure if he was supposed to follow his countess up there, for her safety. Either way, he stayed put. It wasn't like she was leaving, not yet at least.

"Now, we will not give an introduction to each lucky participant. You will all get to hear from them during their individual interviews, which will air tomorrow," your dad said. "I'm sure you're all looking forward to hearing from Miss Guo, but that will have to wait. Now, for the first participant from Obsidian."

Your dad reached into his side of the bowl and drew out a name.

"Hwang Hyunjin."

Whispers instantly broke out at that name. Hyunjin was known as one of the most prominent, handsome dukes in Obsidian. On top of that, his family was incredibly successful, and Hyunjin was set to be heir. Of course, you knew him as none other than Hwang Alaska's dramatic, slightly overprotective, older brother. You remembered a time, way back in middle school, that Hyunjin had asked you to be his girlfriend. You'd rejected him, because he was like your brother, and that grossed you out. But you knew countless girls who would die to date him.

JJ watched him with cool interest from her place next to you.

"He's not bad looking, is he?" She said with a laugh. "I bet he's a player."

You snorted. "He does have his pick of royal women, that's for sure."

Hyunjin made his way to the front of the stage, the cameras following his every move. His face was flushed, but overall unbothered by the screen time. He came across as a bit of a cocky fucker, didn't he? You chuckled to yourself. He would probably be the dating show's prince, based off how well he was known to work the camera whenever he had to make speeches.

He sat on the other side of the stage near King Lee, nodding at Lanhua respectfully. He was quite like your younger brother, and Minho (as much as you hated to say it) in that way. He always knew how to fulfill his role as a royal. That was something you definitely didn't have in common with them.

You knotted your hands together in a silent prayer. Even though you weren't religious, you hoped that it wouldn't matter today, and the world would bless you. You weren't even sure if you wanted to be on the show or not, but you hoped for the right thing to happen.

As the clapping died down, King Lee reached in a second time, drawing a paper out.

"Moonstone's second participant is Choi Robin."

Everyone cheered once more, and the young countess marched up onto the stage, waving at everyone as she went. A few people shot her distrusting looks as she went, but she ignored them. The Choi family was known to make and sell potent love potions to people in both kingdoms. There was the potential people wouldn't believe that she was truly falling in love with anyone, but rather bewitching them.

Hyunjin waved at her politely. You weren't sure what their relationship was. Changbin whistled from his spot, causing Robin to smirk at him. Even though they hadn't gone to the same school, they had become friends through Felix, the third in their trio.

The next person chosen from Obsidian was Han Jisung. He came from a rich weapons-making family, much like JJ. You assumed his family wasn't quite so corrupt as hers, though. He was very physically strong, and from what you knew about him and his family, they played a large part in the Obsidian vs. Moonstone war, spanning over many generations. His family was very close to Minho's, and they were good friends.

Then, Kim Seungmin of Moonstone was selected. You cheered extra loud for him. Although you weren't as close to him, he was one of JJ's best friends. He came from one of the most politically influential families in the kingdom, and his parents were very close with JJ's. He was often over at her house, just to hang out. JJ loved him, but she always complained about him being a complete mess. Apparently, he was constantly driving her maid, Renee, crazy.

"Go Seungmin!" JJ called to her friend, not caring about the stares she got from other people. Seungmin grinned and waved at her as he took a seat next to Robin, who smiled at him.

"Next from Obsidian is Nakano Riley," your dad showed the slip of paper to the cameras.

One tv showed a panning image of a girl in a midnight blue dress, standing near the back of the room. She looked confused, but defiant as she headed up to the stage and sat down next to Jisung. You remembered her from your time in middle school when you shared classes with Obsidian kids. She was always in the back of the room, just like you. You wondered why you'd never really talked to her. You mostly just knew her as one of Alaska's best friends.

The last name Nakano was certainly Japanese. You thought you remembered an important Japanese family who was in charge of much of the culinary innovation of Obsidian, but you weren't sure if that was her.

"Go Riley!" Alaska whooped from her spot a few rows back, pumping her fist in the air.

"Woo Riley!" Mya clapped her hands long after everyone else had quieted. No one stopped either of them, because it was clear they didn't care if people were watching their antics.

"Our next candidate from Moonstone is Jang Jiah!"

You turned on your other best friend, stunned. How the hell had both of your best friends been picked for this show? Now if you weren't picked, you'd feel totally left out. You decided to pray to whatever gods might be there to let you join. No way would they get to go off and live in a mansion with a bunch of hot guys without you! That seemed totally unfair.

"What the fuck??" JJ groaned, her face falling. But as the cameras turned on her, she quickly painted a cool smile on her face. "I was hoping that I would just get to watch this shitshow from my couch with a bowl of chocolate chip cookies. This isn't a vibe."

"Get up there, girl!" You practically shoved her towards the stage, just like she'd done with Lanhua.

JJ shot you a desperate look, like she hoped you'd volunteer to go in her place like this was the Hunger Games or something. Finally, when you didn't budge, she reluctantly slunk up to the stage before sitting next to Seungmin. Seungmin shot her a cheeky grin, and she rolled her eyes at him, grabbing his hand and shaking it like they'd just met. The crowd chuckled at their interaction. Everyone already loved her.

Then, Christopher Bahng from Obsidian and Felix from Moonstone's names were picked. You had never met Christopher before, but there was clear tension between him and Riley as he went to sit next to her. She barely forced a stiff nod in his direction, averting her eyes from his kind gaze. But even he had something in his expression that you wanted to know about. You knew of the Bahng family as being the innovators of wind power, that was used all throughout the country. They also worked closely with Minho's father, and subsequently Christopher was one of Minho's friends too.

When Felix - yes, Alaska's Felix - walked onto the stage, you turned around, searching for her in the crowd. You finally spotted her, standing next to another short brunette. Her face was uncharacteristically stoic. But her eyes were shimmery, betraying that she was trying not to cry. You felt even worse for her now. Not only was she forbidden to be with him because of these new laws, but she might have to watch him from home as he was forced to court someone else.

"Yang Jeongin from Obsidian!"

A young man with a sly, yet winning smile stepped onto the stage. You didn't recognize him at all. You couldn't remember ever seeing him, even back in middle school, and you liked to think you could remember people pretty well. You wondered where he might have been, if not there. Every royal child was required to at least attend through high school. There weren't many people you had never met.

But the man locked eyes with someone in the audience. You weren't sure who it was, but there was a desperation in that gaze you had never seen before. You wished someone would look at you like that, because wow.

"Seo Changbin!"

The only one left out of your group of four shifted next to you, his huge arms flexing as he scowled into the camera. Damn, he wasn't even trying to play nice. You supposed, since he wasn't royalty, it didn't matter as much.

A few interested murmurs floated through the crowd as the hunky guard took his seat next to Felix. Felix put an arm around his friends shoulders in celebration of both of his friends being picked. They were so lucky to all be on the stage together.

Changbin nodded at Lanhua as he sat down, like he was debating sitting next to her instead, but Felix pulled him down before he could decide.

You glanced at the stage, where Lanhua sat. Her face was a bright red, mouth parted slightly. Ever since Changbin had become your friend's bodyguard five years ago, you had become suspicious about the two of them. But even when you asked her about it, she never admitted anything, either to you or JJ. Of course, now that royals weren't allowed to court outside of their social class, they couldn't be together anyway. You wondered how that had affected her, if at all. If it did, she was good at hiding.

"Wang Mya of Obsidian!"

The brunette girl who stood next to Alaska grabbed her friends hand when her name was called. At first, she tried to hide herself by covering her face halfway with her hair as she scurried up to the stage. But by the time she got up there, she had her shoulders pushed back, with a determined look on her face. Based off her last name, she must be the daughter of Duke Wang you had talked about earlier. That must be unfortunate to be raised by a prickly guy like him.

Riley clapped when her friend came to sit on the stage with her, and they all waved at Alaska, like they were hoping she would join them too.

"Hong Renee of Moonstone!"

Was that JJ's maid?? You stared at the girl. How had she been chosen? And how did you somehow know a majority of these people? She was wearing an apron with her hair up in a messy bun. Her hand covered her mouth as she appeared on the screen. JJ stood up to give her a hug as she sat down in her seat. Seungmin winked at her, but she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. How was she so cool??

"Hwang Alaska!"

You clapped loudly for your Obsidian friend, cheering raucously along with Riley and Mya. How had she gotten so lucky as to appear on the same tv show with the man she wanted to marry? You wondered how that would turn out. Were the new laws still in place for those on the tv show? That seemed confusing to say the least.

Riley stood up and waved at her friend from over Christoper, not giving a shit about protocol. That was also something you remembered about her from school. She didn't mind breaking the royal rules, even if it got her in trouble.

Mya jumped up and down, grabbing her hands as they both sat down next to each other. So many groups of friends had been chosen, it was bound to be a fun show.

That was fourteen of the sixteen contestants chosen. Basically all of the people that you considered to be close friends were going to be there. It felt like someone had rigged the drawing to pick all of the people you cared about, except you. And it sucked.

"And now, for our last two choices," your dad started. "King Lee and I have already decided who they will be."

The hall broke out into loud muttering, and the kings motioned for everyone to quiet down again. What did your dad mean by that? How could the last two members already be chosen? They hadn't mentioned that yesterday.

"We have decided that, in commemoration of our two kingdoms uniting for the first time in centuries, we will be adding the very first official couple to this dating show. They will also be our very first arranged marriage, and will thus be off-limits to anyone else romantically. They are only there to grow and bond with the rest of the contestants, and each other. You will all see that anyone can be together, if they have open minds. And of course, this couple will be two of you standing in this room right now," King Lee smiled in what was supposed to be a warm expression, but it came across as more of a grimace.

You held your breath. Oh god, they were already starting to arrange marriages? And across kingdom, no less? Did both kings want their people to hate them? This all seemed like such a terrible idea.

"But we don't want to disrupt the lives of all of our honorable working-class citizens. We don't want to turn your lives upside down any more than we already have. So, it only seemed fair to us," your dad continued, "that we choose two of our own."

Two of our own? What the hell did that-

"So please welcome and celebrate our first established couple, Lee Minho and Lin Tessa."

laska's note —
okay, so we all saw that plot twist coming, didn't we? how do we feel about tessa and minho getting married? how do you think they're going to react to that? and what do you think of all the contestants? we're going to get a better introduction to everyone soon, and you'll get to see what they're all like! are you excited to see the dating show? we still have the wedding, the courting ceremony, and courting ball to see first! i personally can't wait, it's all so fun! give me all your thoughts in the comments!

𝖭𝖤𝖷𝖳 𝖴𝖯：
𝟬𝟵 - 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹
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