ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬-𝗢𝗡𝗘
─◌✰್ 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅
❝𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿?❞

Jisung leaped onto the lounge loveseat, sprawling his entire body across it. He shot a huge grin up at Minho and Chris as he made himself more than comfortable on the plush material.

"What did you two want to talk about?" Minho asked his friends as he took a seat in the chair next to Jisung.

Chris shrugged. "Nothing, we just wanted to hang out somewhere other than our rooms for the next two hours." He chose the spot on the other side of Minho, curling his legs up on the soft chair.

"Well, if we're talking," Jisung grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. "What's up with you and Alaska?"

Minho frowned, his stomach twisting at the words. Had he been so obvious about his feelings for her? Of course he had. He'd only liked her since forever, and him asking her to dance at the ball hadn't helped. "There's nothing going on with Alaska and me."

Chris grimaced. "I hope there's nothing going on. Because you know that she has her heart set on Felix. But you've known for awhile, and that hasn't stopped you."

Minho glared harder, his hackles rising at the judgemental tone. Chris was never a catty person, but he should have expected the man to call him out for his questionable actions. Chris was known for his strong morals, and he made his feelings known in the most respectful way possible. But this didn't feel very respectful.

"What are you trying to say?" Minho couldn't help but challenge his friend. Screw it, who was Minho kidding? They weren't even close enough to be considered friends.

Chris shrugged, opening his mouth to respond.

Just then, a cameraman pushed the lounge door open and took a spot a short distance from them. Minho inwardly groaned. Of course they couldn't escape from the fucking cameras for more than two seconds. There was no way any of them could share their real thoughts now.

Chris glanced subtley at the camera, then back at Minho. "I'm just saying, you're married. Shouldn't you be focusing on the princess instead?"

"No shit, I'm married," Minho said through gritted teeth. "I was there, wasn't I? It's kind of a hard thing to forget."

Chris shrugged. "Could've fooled me. Could've fooled all of us, actually."

"I know I fucked up asking someone else to dance," Minho growled. This conversation wasn't relaxing at all. He thought Chris just wanted to hang out before dinner. Of course, he should have expected this to turn into an interrogation.

He glanced at Jisung for help, but the man just shrugged.

"I dunno why you'd ask anyone else to dance when you're married to Tessa," Jisung said, brow furrowed. "She's the princess! And she's really hot too."

"Every guy likes her," Chris pushed. "Why don't you?"

"I never said I didn't like her!" Minho threw his arms up in frustration. "It's her who doesn't like me!"

"Why wouldn't she like you?" Jisung questioned, eyes wide. "Did you do something to her?"

Chris shook his head. "Yeah, what's there not to like?" He rolled his eyes, words oozing with sarcasm. "You've been absolutely amazing to her so far."

"Yeah, well I don't see you exactly being a gentleman to any of the girls here either," Minho snapped back. "Like Riley for example. Why'd you just drag her out of the ball like she was stolen luggage? She's a duchess, shouldn't you treat her nicer?"

"What do you mean, stolen luggage?" Jisung gasped, glancing back and forth between the two guys like this was some sort of dramatic television show. Truthfully, all he'd need was a bowl of popcorn.

"And you!" Minho blurted before he could stop himself. This whole trip had been absolute hell for him so far, and he was exhausted. It was causing hiim to speak without thinking. "Where the hell were you for the whole goddamn dance? You were there stuffing your face with cheesecake, then you left!"

For the first time in awhile, Jisung was lost for words. Round cheeks reddening, he swallowed. "You have no right to ask me that, Minho," he responded quietly, shrinking further into the loveseat.

Chris sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, this conversation is getting way out of hand. I didn't mean to criticize you, Minho. I know that this whole thing has been really stressful for all of us, especially you. I wouldn't know how to navigate such a sudden marriage either. And Jisung, you don't have to tell us anything that you don't want to."

"Thank you," the Earl huffed, crossing his arms dramatically over his chest.

Minho nodded, face hot. "I didn't mean to call you out, Jisung," he muttered, averting his eyes from them both. "And I know I fucked up at the ball. I've been doing a lot of that recently."

Chris chuckled dryly. "I know how that feels."

Jisung's eyes flicked back to his friend, curiosity winning out over his little pouting session. "Since when as Christopher Bahng fucked up?"

"Hey, what about me?" Minho demanded. Was he really known as being a screw up, even among his friends?

Jisung giggled behind his hand. "I'm still mad at you, remember?"

Minho rolled his eyes, but turned to Chris. "Seriously though, I agree with Jisung. What do you mean you fucked up?"

Chris closed his eyes for a second, before meeting Jisung and Minho's gazes. "Well, you guys don't know much about my childhood, because I haven't really told you. But... Riley and I have a past."

"A past??" Minho demanded. Of course he hadn't known anything about this, but shouldn't he have suspected more? At the ball, he'd wondered what was going on between them, but before this week, he hadn't spared either of them another glance.

Paired with the bombshells he'd found out about Jisung, one thing became abundantly clear to Minho. He didn't know anything about either of these men.

"Yeah, well, we used to be really close as kids," Chris confessed. "Like, best friends close. We thought - well, I thought at least - that we were going to get married. Be like Alaska and Felix. But things happened. I fucked up. Maybe we fucked up, I don't know. But she won't talk to me anymore, and I don't know what to say to her."

"Why did you think you'd get married?" Jisung asked. "Weren't you guys really young?"

Chris nodded. "Well, we kind of confessed that we loved each other. It was kid love of course, but it felt really real in the moment. More real than anything else I've felt since then. But it might have been all fake to her, or she might have forgot. We were children. It was probably stupid."

"If you don't think it's stupid, then it's not," Minho countered, not even sure what he was saying. It wasn't like he'd listened to his own advice. The things Chris was describing... he'd felt that before. With one person.

"What happened?" Jisung inquired further. "You guys are both from Obsidian, you could've been together. It would've been perfect."

"Just... family things," Chris muttered, staring at his hands, which were twisting around each other, over and over. "It's always family things."

Minho glanced instinctively at Jisung, before realizing he was being way to obvious. Jisung might not admit any of the things you and Minho had heard during the ball, and if he wanted them to be a secret, Minho needed to respect that. But he found himself hoping that Jisung would let slip something else, something that he could tell you.

Why did he want an excuse to speak to you? Why was it suddenly of the utmost importance to be of use to you, for you to see him as helpful? He pushed that unsettling thought from his mind, and focused on the conversation once more.

"If anyone can understand family stuff, it's me," Jisung blurted, before covering his mouth like he hadn't meant to say that.

Chris squinted his eyes at the earl. "What the hell does that mean? Your family is crazy, we all know that."

Jisung slumped his shoulders, clearly regretting his words. "It's just... my family is uh... making me do something that I don't want to do. And it's all because of past drama, stuff with our ancestors and shit. Does that make any sense?"

Chris nodded. "I guess. Our families have been around for awhile. But my issue is more with my immediate family. I suppose it has been mostly my fault," he swallowed, but it clearly took a lot of effort to do so.

"What is your family trying to make you do?" Minho turned the conversation back to Jisung. It felt like his friend was right on the verge of revealing something important, something new that Minho didn't know. He had to listen as closely as possible to retain every detail.

Jisung's cheeks were painted rose as he spoke slowly. "They're scared of another family, a family from Moonstone. They think that our family line is being threatened by them, because they've killed so many of our ancestors. And they- they want me to do something bad to one of their descendants."

"Here at the mansion?" Chris's gaze flicked to Jisung, filled with suspicion. "What do you have to do, Jisung?"

The man shook his head, and it was clear that he was done talking.

But that was more than enough for Minho. That was new information. The Han family wanted Jisung to do something bad to Robin? Did that mean kidnapping her? Forcing information out of her? Murder? Despite Minho not even knowing Countess Choi very well, he didn't want her to be in danger. Was Jisung going to go through with whatever crazy plan his family was forcing upon him?

Minho was going to find out. But first, he couldn't wait to tell-

"How's Tessa?" Chris turned to Minho, trying to steer the conversation away from Jisung, who had clammed up and was nibbling on his bottom lip as he stared off into space.

Minho paused, caught off guard by the question. His cheeks reddened. It was as if Chris had been reading his mind. Did he know that he had just been thinking about you?

He cleared his throat, trying to play off the long pause. "Ah, she's good, I think. I haven't really talked to her much since the whole... secrets game. She wasn't very happy with me."

Chris chuckled at that. "Yeah, you could say that. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so angry before. I didn't know she had an attitude."

Minho found himself wanting to laugh too. "Yeah, that's kind of her thing," he replied with a wry smile. "She'll let you know exactly how she feels, even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts."

Chris raised an eyebrow at him. "And do you like that about her?"

"Would it really matter if I didn't?" Minho shrugged, glancing at the camera covertly. He hated that this was all being streamed on tv. How was he supposed to figure out how he felt about you in these conditions?

"It would make the whole marriage thing a lot easier if you liked her, right?" Chris prodded. "She's pretty, and from what I hear, she's smart. And if she can give it back, ya know, I thought you liked those kind of girls."

"'Those kind of girls'?" Minho laughed. "Do I have a type?"

"I dunno, I mean the only girl you've ever liked is Alaska," Chris replied. "So I dunno if you can really have a type if you've only liked one girl. But if you did like Tessa, I know I'd be happy for you guys."

"Me too," Jisung piped up from his spot. "That would be nice."

Minho nodded slowly, mind racing. "It would be nice, wouldn't it?"

———————————

Minho rolled over for the eight hundreth time that night. Hyunjin was nose breathing so loudly Minho couldn't think clearly, and even Seungmin's white noise maker couldn't drown it out.

He turned his head towards the clock. 3:30am. Too early for breakfast, but too late for anyone else to be awake. He'd had such a long, exhausting day, and he wanted nothing more than to fall asleep. But his mind wouldn't shut the fuck up, spinning round and round trying to formulate some kind of sense out of Jisung and Chris's confessions.

What the hell was Jisung and the Han family planning to do to Robin? And what about Robin and her family? Did they have any inkling that they were in danger, and if they did, were they going to do anything about it?

And what about Chris and Riley, and their obviously messy history? What had happened to them, and how did their family ruin their chances of being together? It seemed like everyone's families were doing everything they would to keep their kids from falling in love.

And then there was you.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his mind off of you, and the things Chris and Jisung had said.

Did he have a type? Could he have a type, if he'd only ever had one crush? The obvious answer was of course not, unless his type was a girl who was clearly in love with someone else.

But the other answer was... maybe he didn't just like one person.

And in Jisung's words, "That would be nice.".

Just that thought had him bolting out of bed, and coming to sit in the lounge, heart thudding in his chest as he prayed you would, by some miracle, appear next to him.

But what the hell would he do, let alone say, if you just so happened to be awake and show up? You would most likely be pissed that you'd woken up at this ungodly hour, and you had never been the most pleasant person early in the morning.

But the idea that you would just show up here to talk with him was a stupid fantasy. You probably still hated him for the thoughtless things he'd said during the secrets game. Why would you suddenly forgive him now?

But he had to talk to you. He had no idea why it was suddenly so important to him, but he knew he had to.

It was that thought alone that had him back standing up, ready to burst into your room and confront you.

But he didn't even make it to the door.

Because you were there, pushing it open, questioning brown eyes gazing up at him.

laska's note —
ah yes, a one-on-one chat with minho and tessa, exactly what we've been waiting for! honestly, it's about time they finally sit down and just be honest with each other. and what with minho slowly discovering that he might have stronger feelings than just hate for tessa, there might be some important things to say to each other! and what about all of jisung and chris's secrets? they seem just as confusing as ever. hopefully sleuths tessa and minho will figure them out together! but what do you think? leave all your thoughts in the comments! 🤭
also, a big happy holidays and happy new years to all my lovely readers! my next update will be autumn evening on new years day, so this is my very last update of 2023, that's crazy! do you have any fun new year's plans? i'm going to be with my bf and friends!

𝖭𝖤𝖷𝖳 𝖴𝖯：
𝟮𝟮 - 𝗯𝗲
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