the serpent.

balls and lights make sunwoo’s head hurt. he hates the theatrics of it all, the endless traditions that make no sense and have no place in the modern world. dynasty is one thing, the beauty of the castles and architecture is another, but balls and the flaunt of wealth is another. nobles from all around the kingdom come to gossip about who is poorer than the other, who looks worse in what color gown, and which couple could be the most powerful if they just matured and settled down enough for a proposal. 

sunwoo always stands at the corner of the room, never quite entering it unless to get another drink to quell his nerves and blatant boredom. his eyes scan the room before letting out a massive yawn. a plan starts to unfold in his mind, suddenly thinking of a quick exit through the castle’s gardens and off to bed, or maybe through to the library to revel in complete silence. it’s really quite nice when he can have the castle to himself at night, while everyone else is busy in the antiquated events that have never interested him as much as dusty books high on oak shelves. 

he almost finds the exit, looking around before wondering if anyone will notice his absence. there’s a tall knight standing near the door, looking regal as they always do. “excuse me,” sunwoo says tapping on his shoulder, a smirk fanned across his lips. “can i escape through these doors or are you not done nodding off yet?”  

( @cwnseoho )

seoho is no stranger to fancy balls. he has never been allowed to participate in one, but he has seen them time and time again. they were often the same, and even the music could not keep him from growing tired from standing in one spot for the entire night.

the knight swept his gaze over large room, decorated for the occasion and teeming with people from all kingdoms. unfortunately, his queen was not present. atleast if she were, he'd have something to look at. without her blessing him with her presence, he was definitely feeling the effects of exhaustion. most of his day was spent preparing the festivities for the royals that now enjoyed the fruits of his labor, and he couldn't find it in himself to hold himself to his usual professionalism.

normally, seoho held himself to incredibly high standards, but no one was looking at him now anyways. he let his back touch the doorframe behind him, leaning against it in a way that someone would have to really be paying attention in order to notice. he let his chin fall slightly, eyes slipping closed to get a moment of rest.

though, of course he could not even have that tonight.

as if on cue, he felt the touch on his shoulder, opening his eyes and straightening up. the knight let the fact that he was caught dozing slip from his mind, unwilling to discuss it, before he looked down at the person that had disturbed him. ah, yes, a prince. seoho knew of him, as he knew the faces of every royal and noble in all the kingdoms, but they hadn't yet met.

✧ beck & call

she finds it ridiculous that she has to run laps around the castle to find her own best friend. sure, she understands that they cannot share locations with one another because he amongst the elite guard and that would put his operations in jeopardy but damn does it make looking for him impossible in this god forsaken castle. perhaps that was simple a testament to seoho’s skills. many know that the elite guard often operate in the shadows. they’re neither seen nor heard when need be.

but now he was needed. by her. now.

nabi finally spots his stupid coconut shaped head at the end of the corridor. it’s quite funny how easily she can recognise him even in a throng of people. ‘you two are two sides of a magnet,’ her father would often say. opposite forces that work great together but can easily butt heads. they were only children at the time but her father’s analysis has only gotten more accurate as time went on. no matter how much he annoys her, he was still her best friend.

(unfortunately.)

thwack! “where have you been?” nabi demanded between huffs. she could barely string a sentence together without gasping for air. lapping the damn castle once was enough to make someone’s legs ache. imagine thrice while in heels. nabi didn’t even feel bad for smacking his shoulder. she could (and usually does) have hit him upside the head like he deserved. her feet were throbbing in pain. gosh, how she wanted to strangle this man.

“i have been texting you nonstop! how come you don’t know how to respond with a simple ‘i’m busy’ or something? what if i died?” nabi continues her dramatic rant between gulps of air, moving to sit on one of the golden lined baroque chaise sofas that was situated against the corridor wall. thank god the castle had random seats and benches throughout some of its halls. nabi may have passed out then and there if they hadn’t.

she flopped onto the chaise with a thump. being it was just seoho and herself in the corridor, she didn’t care for proper decorum in that moment. “honestly, the nerve. i thought you were off duty today! what could you have possibly been doing?”

with: @cwnseoho

seoho didn’t have any connections from his childhood years, an era left in the past to rot, except one. a fleeting voice in his mind tells him he wishes he didn’t have this one, but he’d be lying if he believed it. as obnoxious as nabi was (though seoho would never say it, but he acknowledges he’s just as obnoxious), he couldn’t imagine anyone else he knew being the one to know about his past. she was the only one who knew his brother existed, the only one he shared precious memories of seojoon with.

the only one that could find the cracks in his armor.

she knew him too well, and sometimes it scared him. seoho had too many secrets, even ones he would do anything to keep from her. though he truly loved her, these days he often found himself doing his best to avoid being around her for too long. perhaps it’d been a little too long since they last talked, since she felt the need to hunt him down.

a hand came down on his shoulder, and seoho knew who it was immediately. there was only one person that would strike him unprovoked.

the knight whirled around to face his aggressor, a quick sweep of his eyes in the corridor telling him it was safe, the two of them alone. he let his professionalism drop, throwing a fist in her direction, though swinging only at air rather than actually hitting her. his glare was piercing, though he knew he couldn’t complain too much; he was in fact ignoring her.

not that he’d ever admit it.

“well, you are clearly not dead even if you certainly look like you’re about to keel over. though even if you died i feel like you’d find a way to haunt me...” he commented, a faint shudder working it’s way up his spine. no matter what happened, seoho knew he was stuck with her for the rest of his life.

he eyed the way she flopped down on the sofa, sighing. “really? you’re a princess now nabi, please do better,” he chastised on her posture with a roll of his eyes, ignoring her accusations for the moment. moving to stand by her side, he tried to atleast look like he was atleast assigned to nabi if anyone were to look down the hallway.

before the sun rises location. spade’s kingdom, graveyard open to anyone.

it’s early. early enough that the sun has yet to rise and the birds have yet to sing their morning choruses. but yurye is up. in fact, the usual cheerful prince has been up for the last two hours sitting on the stone cold bench in the town’s center graveyard listening to the quiet whistle of the wind. 

despite being the son of the king, his mother was never married to the king, nor had any royal titles bestowed upon her. so after her death, she was laid to rest outside of the royal palace’s graveyard. just like any other regular citizen. it’s a heavy feeling to have knowing how highly yurye is regarded compared to his mother, and how little she received.

his head hangs low and the edges of his eyes glisten with tears. it’s a strange thought to know that it’s been over 20 years since the passing of his mother. every single year that he goes to visit her on the anniversary of her death, he finds that there’s a part of him that grows with more fear each time. because he’s noticed how the already minuscule amount of memories he has of her is beginning to fade as each day is filled with new memories. more demanding thoughts and troubles of the present that require him to pick and choose what can stay and what can’t.

it scares him to know that the only reason why he can even remember his mother’s face is because of the photos he still has, kept safely in his private study. sometimes… sometimes it makes him wish that his mother had never brought him into the country to meet his father - the king. it’s a selfish thought to have, he knows. to wish that they could’ve just had a regular life outside of the country where maybe she would still be there. 

his thoughts are interrupted when he hears a sudden rustling from behind. their voice is quiet, like they’re talking to themself. 

his back immediately straightens and yurye wipes his tired eyes with one hand, sniffling quietly before standing up to see who else would be in the town graveyard that early in the morning. when he makes his presence known though, he hears the gasp and look of surprise on the other’s face. 

“i’m sorry,” yurye hurriedly apologizes before taking a look around. “i didn’t mean to startle you… i didn’t think… anyone else would be here this early.”

there’s an uneasy feeling in seoho’s chest when he wakes that day. it’s not until he’s dressed and already heading to the spade’s kingdom on an assignment before the sun is even up that he finally realizes why the unease tugs at his heart. the image of a certain puppy-like prince comes to mind, though missing that smile he usually has.

his feet carry him quickly, while his mind races. the knight knew many secrets across all three kingdom’s, and the truth about yurye’s mother and her untimely death was one of them. he’d learned of it a few years prior, dutifully taking the information back to his queen, though his heart was heavy for his friend as well. it was a horrible way to lose his mother, and seoho distantly hopes his brother did not meet a similar fate.

the knight finds himself at the cemetery, recalling previous years of observing yurye in this exact spot, on this exact day. he always watched him from afar, wishing there were anything he could do to ease his pain. seoho has never approached yurye before, but an accidental slip up has him crunching leaves beneath his boot, a quiet gasp surprising himself. for the first time in all the years he’s seen yurye here, seoho comes face to face with his best friend, sadly noting the splotchy redness around his eyes and cheeks. he can’t imagine yurye would want seoho to see him like this, and the knight knows he’s intruding on an extremely personal moment.

“ah.. i’m sorry,” he counters. “i did not wish to disturb you.” the knight turns his gaze downwards, arms behind his back to let yurye have some semblance of privacy. he knows he wouldn’t want yurye to see him cry, which is why he has never spoken about his brother to anyone but the queen. he cried in front of her once, when he was still young, but he vowed not to do so again.

SECRECY;
      the queen of hearts + the serpent knight
      tw: nsfw !!

it’s the middle of the night when seoho gets the summon, a knight in training sent to his bedroom to tell him the queen as requested his presence. he’s wearing a simple, sleeveless white button down shirt tucked into his pants, the top few buttons open to cool off. he had only just arrived back from his last assignment, pants still tucked into his tall boots, laces tied to the top, and a sheen layer of sweat from work still glistening over his pale skin.

little things location. kingdom of hearts palace grounds @cwnseoho​

“seohoooo,” yurye groans as he trudges after the tall elite knight of hearts through the palace grounds. “come on, give me a break!”

yurye doesn’t hide the disappointment in his voice as he continue to follow his friend, sticking his hands into his pockets like a child as he rolls his head back in annoyance at the lack of attention said friend was giving him. there really wasn’t much for yurye to be upset about, considering that the new policies regarding guarded travel for citizens across the borders at night was just approved in that morning’s meeting. what he did have a reason to be upset about was not having run int princess eunae at least once during the three days that he had been staying at the palace.

usually, being in the palace for that long yurye would come across the charming princess at least once if even for just a minute. even that was better than not seeing her at all and he was set to return to the country of spades in just a few hours. part of him had wanted to try seeing if he might run into her before his return, but the part of him loyal to seoho won over. thus, following seoho around outside despite the other male seeming to want the company of anyone but yurye in that moment. 

“at least tell me how you’ve been and what you’ve been up to if you won’t talk to me about eunae,” yurye complains as he starts slowing the immediate pace he had kept right behind seoho. “or enjoy the nice weather while we’re out together, come on.”

yurye pauses to take a good look at the garden hedges that were just trimmed that morning. the surfaces are extremely flat and straight while the curves are perfectly rounded. the amount of time and effort that must have gone into creating heart-shaped hedges must have taken a long time. he commended whoever had the patience for that.

and then his mind is back on seoho and the last time they had seen each other. the memory doesn’t come immediately and that’s all yurye needs to know that it had been too long ago. 

“i only have a few hours before i have to go back,” yurye states before turning towards seoho calmly. “at least spend one hour with me before you get back to work. if you were really that busy you wouldn’t be here right now right?”

yurye cracks a grin with his last statement with a cheeky shrug of his shoulders to express his playfulness.

seoho pinches the bridge of his nose in irritation (though lighthearted, seoho can't imagine ever truly being upset at the prince that follows him around like a lost puppy). he can't help but think that atleast eunae finds ways to occupy her time, rather than incessantly bother the knight.

even taking longer strides to try and outpace the prince hadn't worked, and seoho was starting to feel his defenses crumble. he did truly enjoy being around the prince, even if all he did was talk about a certain annoying princess. they were able to fall into a playful banter easily after having met each other, the prince poking and prodding at him until he finally gave in, letting himself enjoy the others company.

sighing heavily, he comes to a stop, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword at his waist. there aren't any footsteps immediately behind him, and he turns around to see yurye a few yards away, staring off at the manicured hedges.

what has seoho been up to? he squints at yurye's ear, avoiding looking at his face as he recalls waking up with the queen in his arms just that morning. the red tint of her lipstick hadn't come off of his collarbone when he bathed, staining his skin. he'd been forced to wear his shirt buttoned to the very top, whereas he usually wears his shirts unbuttoned for breathability. he can practically feel her lips on his skin as he thinks about it.

so no, he couldn't talk about that... he wouldn't talk about eunae, either. the princess behaved so well when the three of them were together that yurye would never even begin to believe the things she says to him in private. and there's only so much gushing about the princess he can take. so that's a no as well.

why did his relationships have to be so difficult?

a few strides have him standing in from of yurye, looking down at the prince's grin. his shoulders sag in defeat as he reaches up with his free hand to run his hand through yurye's hair. it's soft to the touch as he tucks it behind the prince's ear, tidying his appearance a little bit.

( ♡ ) closed starter:jealous      ⤷ @cwnseoho​

between the two of them, eunae had never been shy about her disdain towards the elite knight. it wasn’t as though he’d done anything to her in particular, but there was always something about him that managed to bring forth a feeling of anger that the princess was rather unfamiliar with. she knew that she didn’t hate him, but having to watch her mother dote on park seoho more than she did her own children did not make eunae like him at all. and to be fair, through the rare glances they’d exchanged with one another, she was certain that he was likely not a big fan of hers either.

so why, of all knights in the kingdom, was he assigned to guard her today?

the library had always been a safe haven for eunae, but today, it felt as thought it’d been breached. while the two hadn’t exchanged a single word to one another, the silence in the room was deafening. it was so distracting that she couldn’t bring herself to study any of the books that sat open before her. instead, eunae could only stare at the pages blankly. 

after several moments that had felt like an eternity had passed, she’d finally decided to break the silence. there was no way she could absorb any information in the current environment, nor did she wish to waste anymore time in her day. letting out an exasperated sigh, eunae slowly dragged her eyes upwards at the stationed knight and put little effort into stopping herself from glaring as she did so.

“by chance, is there anything else you could do or anywhere else you could be rather than here with me?” it wasn’t as if he was some low ranking guard who had to be around the palace watching the royal family’s every move. 

“i really must get a better grasp on these policies before i leave to the outer kingdoms on official business in a few days’ time. it be disastrous if i wound up embarrassing the kingdom of hearts as its representative and—“ who knows what mother would think of me then, is what she’d wanted to say. but to let down her guard and show even the slightest bit of vulnerability before seoho (of all people) was unthinkable. “never mind that. i’m just unable to focus properly right now, and i’m sure that you don’t wish to be here with me either.”

seoho didn’t really care about any of the queen’s children, in all honesty. he surprisingly felt no shame around them, considering he slept with their mother behind everyone’s back, but they were not the queen, thus he had no interest.

eunae least of all.

being on duty for the young princess always ensured a long, boring shift. she never left the library, meaning seoho had to stand in one spot for hours on end. he would never admit it, but there are definitely times where he had fallen asleep on his feet. he got pretty close today, swaying to one side, chin down, before he was stopped from toppling over by the only other voice in the entire library (which seoho thought should say something about eunae, as it was nearing midnight). seoho would far rather be standing outside her bedroom door, atleast then he wouldn’t have to look at her.

the knight lifted his gaze, leveling it with eunae’s glare. he blessedly kept his expression passive in the face of the irritated princess, instead noting how much she looked like her mother. the thought made him miss the queen in that moment, he’d never be so bored if he were stationed with her instead—

(seoho sat on the edge of a lavish bed, knees spread while he gazed up at the woman standing between them, hands obediently in his lap. she held his face in her hands, one tucked beneath his chin to lift his head to look back down at him. the lust in her eyes lit a fire behind his own.

‘little knight, i’ve missed you so,” the queen of hearts said, slowly leaning down while seoho watched those cherry red lips approach. seoho closed his eyes then, as the queen’s lips pressed against his own.)

seoho cleared his throat, standing up straighter, arms held behind his back.

“my orders come from the grand officer, so no, there is nothing else scheduled for me at the moment,” he recited with professionalism before muttering ‘unfortunately’ under his breath.

“you know as well as i that i cannot leave you unguarded,” he pointed out tersely, though understanding that their wish to be apart from each other was very much mutual. amused, seoho noted that eunae finally speaking to him is somehow the most exciting thing that has happened the entire shift, so seoho decided to place the bait and hopefully pass by some time.