ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗬-𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡
─◌✰್ 𝗂𝗌
❝𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗲.❞

Plans had changed, and you, Mya, Jeongin, and JJ had arrived back at the mansion a day later than expected. You'd ended up staying two whole nights at the Jang mansion, rather than the originally decided one. Duke and Duchess Jang, JJ's parents, had thought it best if you stayed a little longer, insisting on the temporary maid making you all breakfast yesterday morning. Then, they'd made sure to take you all on a nice tour of the mansion, since, "Duchess Wang and Earl Yang haven't seen it yet!" Or so Duchess Jang had claimed.

Then, it had gotten late much too quickly, and you had all been invited to stay for one more evening. The night consisted of the four of you sitting around the tv in JJ's room, watching Gossip Girl until one in the morning. Jeongin claimed not to enjoy it, but you'd seen him getting way too invested in Blair and Serena's friendship for that to be true.

Now that you were back at the mansion, feeling surprisingly well-rested on the ride back, exhaustion set in once more. Because you remembered what you were coming back to.

Minho, your husband, was lying to you. He had been lying for a while, at least since the day of the all-nighter, in your estimation. He clearly wasn't very good at hiding the truth from you, and you'd known in your gut that something was wrong since that day. And again, he'd lied.

You couldn't be with someone who lied to you, over and over. Could you? No matter how deeply you cared for someone, no matter how long you'd pined, you had standards. And you would stick to them, even if it was Lee Minho you were talking about.

"Hey, Tess?" Lanhua's voice echoed through the door. Renee and Robin had left your room awhile ago, and you'd locked the door behind them, wanting to be alone, to sort our your emotions, before you came face to face with your husband for the first time in over two days. "You ready for the challenge this morning? It looks like it's gonna be an outside one! It could be fun!"

You sighed, quietly enough that she couldn't hear. You'd wanted to come back, put on a brave face, pretend that nothing was wrong. You didn't want Minho knowing just how badly he affected you. In fact, you didn't want him knowing you knew anything was wrong, yet. You wanted to speak with him in private, take the power back from him in this situation. You'd felt humiliated when Yeonjun had shared that Minho was hiding something from you. You wouldn't let him embarrass you further.

But now that it was time to face him, you froze. There was no way in hell you were ready to see, let alone speak, to him, not yet. You just needed a little longer.

"I-I don't think I'm feeling too well, Hua!" you called back to your friend, keeping your voice weak so she might believe you.

A pregnant pause, as your friend clearly weighed what to say next. "Take all the time you need, Tess," she finally said. You could tell she didn't believe a word coming out of your mouth, but chose not to say so. "Just don't stay away from us too long, okay?"

"Okay," you replied quietly, voice actually giving out this time. Knowing that your friends cared about you, even when they didn't know what was going on, made your heart ache.

Let's be real, you might be the only one who didn't know what was happening. For all you knew, your friends had been filled in on whatever Minho was hiding, and you were the only one in the dark. That was something you would find out. And you would find out today.

When you'd arrived back home, you'd been raring to go, desperate to find Minho and grill him on what he was keeping from you. But admittedly, cowardice was holding you back.

But when Lanhua's elegant footsteps echoed down the hall, you steeled yourself. You were on a deadline. After this afternoon, you were going to work up the courage to get some answers. It was about damn time.

————————————

"What do you mean, she refuses to come out of her room?" Minho grated, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he glared into Lanhua's cool eyes.

The countess shrugged with a smile, fixing her butter-yellow sports bra. "Don't know. She said she wasn't feeling well, so I let her be. I'm sure she'll come out later, don't sweat it. She probably doesn't feel good enough to do something active."

Minho had a sneaking suspicion that Lanhua — and you, for that matter — weren't telling him the whole truth. The minute you'd returned home, you'd locked yourself upstairs, and still hadn't come out. It had only been a couple of hours, but since Yeonjun promptly announced that the next challenge was at 9am sharp, he didn't have any time to find you. He'd been forced to change into a white t-shirt and basketball shorts, before trudging outside.

Today had started off shitty, and was just getting worse.

"She did look pretty sick," Robin supplied, glancing at Minho. "She's probably sleep deprived from traveling."

"We stayed up really late last night!" Mya said cheerfully. "We watched an entire season of Gossip Girl. It was awesome!"

"Were you watching too, Jeongin?" Seungmin laughed at the earl, whose ears turned red at the accusation.

JJ chuckled at her friend. "He loved it. He loves trash tv!"

"Do not!" Jeongin protested, but his face exposed him.

"Alright everyone, gather around!" Yeonjun appeared, and Minho wondered how the hell he'd gotten there. Oh yeah, he was a fucking dark spirit. Had he ever tried to hide that? Or had they all just been blind?

When the whole group finally got into a circle around Yeonjun, he continued. "As you can see behind me, the next challenge is an obstacle course! You will each get the chance to complete the course, and the person who gets through the entire thing the quickest, will win the date. It's pretty straightforward. Now, who would like to go first?"

Everyone looked at one another. No one had been given time to warm up, not even a simple jog.

"Ah, I guess I'll go!" Christopher raised his hand. He'd done a couple half-hearted jumps up and down right as Yeonjun announced what the challenge. "No laughing if I mess up!"

"No promises!" Riley called back, grinning when he sighed in response.

"Okay, I will start the time for you!" Yeonjun said, leading Christopher over to the start line. "First, you will army crawl on your stomach under these bars. Next, you will climb over this twenty-foot log wall, before rope swinging across the mud. If you land in the mud, I will add ten seconds to your time. Then, you will climb that rope, and come back down, before you do ten pull-ups on the metal bar, before running to that pile of mud, that you will also have to swim through to get to the finish line. Does that make sense?"

Everyone nodded, a little mystified that the challenge seemed kind of difficult, especially for the shorter girls. How fair was it, really?

"Alright! Three... two... one!" Yeonjun didn't even start a stopwatch, as Christopher moved through the bars on his stomach.

"Go Christopher!!" Jeongin cheered for the older duke, clapping his hands.

"Wow, he's doing really well!" Alaska marveled, nudging Riley in the ribs, who was just staring at the man intensely.

"Look at his arms!" Lanhua pointed. "He's almost as buff as you, Bin!"

"Not even close," Changbin grumbled, eyeing him with suspicion. "And why are you staring at his arms, anyway?"

Christopher made it under the bars with minimal effort, before climbing over the log wall. His leg got caught once, but he continued without any more errors. The rope swing was easy, and he crossed the mud entirely. All the rest of the steps seemed to come to him fairly naturally, even when he slipped in the mud pond at the end, crossing the finish line covered with the brown substance.

"And Christopher's time is... three minutes and twenty seconds!" Yeonjun announced, as if pulling the number from thin air. Just another one of his dark magic things, Minho supposed.

"Wow, you did great!" Mya gasped. "There's no way I'll be making it in that time. Who knows if I'll even be able to climb over the wall at all?"

Christopher hurried over to Riley, arms open for a hug. At first, the girl shied away from his mud-covered body, but after one glance at his abs, which were peeking through his shirt, which was plastered to his skin, she relented.

"I want to go next!" Felix exclaimed.

"Good luck!" Lanhua laughed at the stable boy, who grinned.

"Hey, I might surprise you, okay? Just because you work out every day doesn't mean I can't compete. I carry hay bales for a living." He flexed his arms, before moving to the starting line.

As the man made his way through the course, Minho realized Felix hadn't been bluffing. Although he was shorter than most of the guys there, and a lot leaner than Christopher and Changbin, he was all toned muscle, from a lifetime of working with the horses, and cleaning the stables. He pulled himself through the bars lithely, before swinging up over the logs with ease. He made it over the rope swing and up and down the rope in no time. The pull-ups were easy too. The only thing he struggled with was sliding through the mud, as his sneakers kept getting stuck in the ruts.

"Felix's time is three minutes eight seconds!" Yeonjun announced.

Felix grinned around at them all. "See, my time as a stable boy has paid off! Thank god I didn't live in a castle all my life. Right?" He glanced around at them all, but was met with mostly unfriendly stares. Clearly, the royals didn't find the jab amusing.

Changbin's brows were pulled over his eyes as Felix tried to high-five Lanhua, who gave him a half-hearted pat on the shoulder instead. "You watch where your hands are going, buddy," he warned softly, eyes flashing with warning.

"I didn't do anything!" Felix exclaimed, raising his hands over his head in surrender.

"Then stop trying to touch my friend!" Alaska piped up, face red as she frowned at her boyfriend. Or, her former boyfriend? Minho still hadn't asked Felix about what was going on between them. Seeing as they didn't share a room, they didn't see each other quite as much. If only you were here, you'd probably tell him all the tea.

Felix sighed, reaching out for Alaska's hand. But she snatched her fingers away before he could make contact.

"I'd like to go next!" she called, marching over to the starting line.

"Oh Laska..." Felix sighed, loud enough for Minho to hear. "You know you don't stand a chance. Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"What's gotten into you two?" Riley demanded, facing Felix. "You've been nothing but mean to her for days. When we were talking in the boys' room, during the flower arranging, and now today. What the hell?"

"Yeah, I thought you guys loved each other!" Mya stood with her hands on her hips. "I don't like the things I've heard about while I was gone."

"You better explain, Lee." JJ narrowed her eyes at him, protective of her roommate.

Felix was about to open his mouth, when Alaska let out a cheer, as she made it over the log wall, despite her lack of height. Maybe people shouldn't be underestimating her. Namely, her own boyfriend.

All that excitement was immediately gone, when she tried to swing across the mud. One of her hands, which was red and raw from climbing up the logs, slipped off the rope, and she went flying through the air, towards the mud-covered ground.

Before anyone else could react, Changbin, the renowned bodyguard, raced across the grass at breakneck speed and caught her in his arms, as she nearly landed in the mud.

"Wow!" she gasped, eyes wide as she stared at the buff man. "How did you do that??"

"I had a suspicion you were getting too cocky, and might fall," he said, frowning as he set her on the ground. "Be more careful."

"Yessir!" She fake-saluted, before hurrying through the rest of the obstacle course, with no more accidents.

"Alaska's time is three minutes, fifty-eight seconds!" Yeonjun announced.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Felix snapped, marching over to Changbin and Alaska, who were still standing near each other, as the duchess processed her semi-near-death experience. Well, as near-death as she'd ever gotten. "That's my girlfriend!" Felix jabbed a finger into the guard's chest.

"It's not like you were doing anything to save her," Changbin growled, eyes narrowed. "I'm not trying to date her. But if I was, I bet she'd be easy to steal from you, based off the shit job you've been doing at treating her right."

"Break it up, boys!" Lanhua called, waving her hand at the men. But when she met Changbin's gaze, her eyes narrowed. "Stop it, now."

"You did not just say that," Felix seethed, teeth gritted as he spat at his friend. Former friends? Things had changed rapidly between them. Everyone, really.

Hyunjin, the other Hwang sibling, stepped between the two men, who were glaring at one another like they were going to start a fight. "You two are friends, remember? And Lix, you're in love with Laska. You two love each other. It seems like you've forgotten."

"I know," Felix mumbled, studying the ground as he kicked at a stray clump of grass.

"You should try and remember it," Changbin snapped, eyes still flaming. "And get your shit together."

The two were about to continue yelling at one another, when Yeonjun interrupted, announcing that Jeongin was going next.

After him went Seungmin, then Robin, Hyunjin, and JJ. They each got under four minutes, landing themselves in the middle of the pack. Robin had struggled with the pull-ups, and was quite close to Alaska's score, with three minutes fifty two seconds. Hyunjin and Seungmin had earned themselves three minutes twenty five and three minutes thirty, respectively. JJ had squeaked ahead of them both, with three minutes eighteen seconds.

Then, Mya couldn't get herself over the log wall, and asked if she could skip out. Yeonjun had relented, telling her that she wouldn't win the competition if she did, which she instantly agreed to. She'd already gotten quality time with the guy she liked, anyway. Renee made it with four minutes two seconds, close to Robin and Alaska. The course clearly wasn't made for the shorter girls.

Then, Riley, Jisung, and Changbin went. Riley fell into the mud, which earned her an extra ten seconds, but she performed fairly well on the rest of the course, and landed in the middle of the pack. Jisung had a hard time getting himself over the wall, and subsequently couldn't do the pull ups. He was currently in last place, besides Mya. Changbin aced the whole thing, pulling ahead of Felix.

Next, Minho went. He liked to think he was pretty fit for a royal, whose length of hard labor started and ended at riding a horse across the kingdom every once in a while.

"Go Minho!" Jisung clapped enthusiastically. Christopher nodded in approval. Minho supposed they were the closest he had to friends, without you here. He managed a grin at them, before starting.

The course was fairly easy, with him struggling only on the rope climbing. Pulling his whole body weight up that thing was more tiring than it looked. But he had to admit, he hardly paid any attention to each task at hand, because he didn't care. If you weren't there watching him, if there wasn't the potential for a date with you, he'd rather just give up.

"Okay, Minho got three minutes thirteen seconds!" Yeonjun announced. "Well done. Now, our last competitor, Lanhua!"

The leggy countess grinned, a thin veil of confidence coating her flawless skin. Minho had heard from you that Lanhua worked out every day, ate healthy, and had a great skincare routine. Outside of drinking copious amounts of alcohol, she was certainly one of the fittest of everyone there, even giving Changbin a run for his money.

"Hell yeah, I'm taking you down!" She pointed at her guard, who just rolled his eyes, trying not to smile.

She jogged over to the starting line, warming herself up. Apparently, she was taking this seriously. Minho realized then that she and Changbin were the only two of the group who hadn't had a date yet. She needed this more than the rest of them.

And then she was off, not even giving Yeonjun time to count. She was under the bars, over the logs, across the rope, up and down, finished with the pull-ups, and finally, through the pile of mud, in at least half the time as everyone else.

The rest of the group was left stunned, as she climbed out of the mud, attempting to wipe the mixture off her matching exercise set, looking like a chocolate covered banana.

"Wow! Lanhua, with a time of two minutes thirty eight seconds, has come in first by a landslide!" Yeonjun clapped his hands. "That means she gets the chance to ask whoever she wants on a date."

Lanhua took a few seconds to catch her breath, before speaking. "Well, I would like to ask Changbin out on a date," she began. Then, her face became eerily serious. "But I can't ask him, not yet."

Yeonjun raised his brows. "Why not?"

"Well, he keeps fighting with Felix because of Alaska. And Felix and Changbin keep fighting over me. It's like they're trying to make each other mad, and until they figure out their shit, I don't want to date him. He should know that I like him, after all this time! As much as he annoys me, with his grumpy ass personality, I like him. And he's wasting our time by fighting with his best friend."

"Hey, what about me??" Robin burst out, but silenced when Changbin and Lanhua frowned at her. "Just saying," she mumbled.

Yeonjun turned to Changbin. "Well, that sounds reasonable. What do you think, Mr. Seo? Once you and Mr. Lee figure out your obvious issues, would you like to go on a date with Ms. Guo?"

Changbin swallowed, throat bobbing heavily as he fixed Lanhua with a searing stare. His jaw was clenched, hands tight at his sides. He was covered in mud, and Minho could see every one of his muscles flex. It looked like he was about to start yelling, or maybe punch something.

But when he met Lanhua's serious gaze, his eyes softened, just a bit. "I understand," he managed through his teeth, jaw jumping as he spoke. "After we sort this out, I would like to go on a date with you, Hua."

Lanhua nodded gravely, skewering him with a look. "I hope you're able to keep your word."

————————————

What the hell was happening outside? You ran to the window, as raised voices echoed through the glass.

All of your friends stood outside in the back yard, half of the group holding back Changbin, and the other half holding Felix. They were yelling things at one another at the top of their lungs. You noticed Alaska, Lanhua, and Minho were absent.

You tugged the window open, eyes wide as you surveyed the events unfolding before you. When had all this transpired?

"Tessa?" A voice vibrated through the other side of your bedroom door. "Are you still in there?"

You froze at the sound, immediately recognizing who it was. And it wasn't Lanhua this time.

"Go away Minho, please," you replied, trying to keep your voice steady. "I don't want to talk to you right now." You couldn't. You still hadn't figured out how to word what you needed to say.

"I-I need to speak to you, please." Desperation leeched through his words, and you could practically see him, fists against the door, hoping you would give him a chance. Your heart hurt just thinking about it.

But you steeled yourself. He was the one who was lying to you. You had no need to feel bad. "Later, Minho. Please," you repeated, voice cracking on the last word. "I just- I just need time."

"Time," he grated, and you could tell he knew the reason for your delay. "Okay."

"Thank you."

"Tessa?"

"Yes?"

A long pause. "I love you."

"I know." There was no way you could say the words back, not right now. You'd loved him all your life. You would not taint those words in an attempt to soothe his anxiety, when in the moment, you might not mean them.

"Say it back, goddammit!" he cried, voice hoarse. "Please, I need you to say it back. What the hell did Yeonjun-"

"Mr. Lee," Yeonjun's silky voice was right next to Minho's, and your eyes widened. Was he intervening on your behalf? What was going on? "I thought you were outside with the others? Why don't you join them."

"Yes sir," Minho muttered.

As you listened to Minho's retreating footsteps, trying to calm your thudding heart, you turned back to the window.

"Fuck you, Changbin!" Felix was shouting, face red. "I-I challenge you!"

"You challenge me?" Changbin smirked, goading the man on. "What era are we in, Victorian?"

Felix's lip curled back, an uncharacteristically harsh look on the stable boy's face. "Fuck yeah. If you're gonna flirt with my girlfriend, I'll go back to the damn Stone Age if I have to! So I fucking challenge you to a duel. An old-school fucking duel."

"If that's what will settle this stupid shit, then so be it," Changbin snapped, pulling as hard as he could on his arms, which were secured by Christopher and Seungmin respectively. "I accept your challenge. If I win, I get Hua."

"And if I win, I get Laska," Felix growled, reaching his hand out to shake. His brows furrowed, like he didn't know what was happening. That made... fifteen of you, you thought, shaking your head. What was this insanity?

Changbin paused, a look of confusion on his face. But he took Felix's hand in his, accepting the challenge. And with it, their friendship faded even further.

You had a feeling that was exactly what Yeonjun would have wanted.

laska's note —
wowzers, that was a long chapter! i'll admit, i got a little carried away, but there was so much that needed to happen! are felix and changbin going to duel? will one of them get hurt? and what about our girl and minho? she's having trouble figuring out what to say to him, and he's getting more and more desperate to talk to her. but it's clear yeonjun doesn't mind keeping them apart... i wonder what's going to happen, now that changbin has a date with hua on the line? the craziness continues in the next chapter...

𝖭𝖤𝖷𝖳 𝖴𝖯：
𝟰𝟴 - 𝘁𝗵𝗲
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