Prince of MK

“If you’re not going to listen, I’m not going to tell you my big news. And you’re gonna want to hear it, so I suggest getting your head out of your ass long enough to pay attention to me, kiddo,” Yejin said with an eyeroll, shoving her brother a little. She wasn’t going to waste her breath on someone who wasn’t listening.

“No! Yejinnie, tell me all your secrets!” Jaemi said, giving a strangled yell and throwing himself at his older sister. He latched around her waist, shaking her. “I’m paying attention now, I promise. No more getting distracted. I want to hear important things--tell them to me.”

“I don’t know why I bother to argue with you, you’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. Why are you always so determined to make me blush, huh?” She giggled, hiding her face in the crook of his neck. “Oppa….” Of course she knew how much of a rise she got out of him when she called him that; it was a little bit of revenge for all the blushing he’d been causing. “Never? That’s a long time you’ll be stuck with me, then. Maybe once Ivory isn’t such a new group, we’ll be able to see each other more during the day. I’m not auditioning for any new dramas or movies, my manager thinks it’s a good idea to focus on modeling for a while. All those shoots with Etude have apparently had a lot of people asking to work with me, so….” Talking about herself was never one of her strong points. “I do have to, though. I am sticking with you. I’m home every night, I’m eating a lot during the day…. This is me sticking with you. Hasik has Naeun unnie, though. Doesn’t he spend most of his time with her now? I’m not more important, your group is more important.” Taking the opportunity while she was moving around, she leaned down and kissed him for what was probably the first time since they’d gotten home. “I can feed myself, you know. Of course we can, I don’t feel watching anything sappy tonight.”

“I don’t do what I do just to make you blush. I do it because it’s true and you deserve every second of it. The blushing is just an added benefit. Because you’re super cute when you blush, you know,” he said with a smirk, pulling her in closer against him. Sighing a little, he pressed his lips to her neck. “Calling me that is so unfair, you know,” he grumbled before kissing her nose. As per usual, she was incredibly good at turning him on over nothing, making it so that he had pretend like nothing was wrong (until he absolutely exploded, that is). “Of course everyone is asking to work with you, princess. You;re incredible. I wish I could work with you. Someday they should get us to do a shoot together--imagine the chemistry!” Jae giggled, squeezing her tighter. “I know, and I’m proud of you. I love you so much, babe. Yeah, he does. He spends most nights at her place. But he needs people around him, so the nights he does spend at the dorm, he says he can’t sleep unless he uses me like a body pillow. Oh, shut up. You’re the most important--get that in your head. You’re more important than anything.” Even after she pulled away, he pulled her right back, cupping her face in his hands and trapping her for another kiss. “I like feeding you, though--you get all flustered and it’s super cute. Mm, yeah, if we watched anything sappy, I wouldn’t make it very far into it without getting bored, and then you wouldn’t get to see the end because we’d both be too preoccupied.”

“Am not. I’m not a real princess, even if I’m your princess. I do need lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles. But only from you. And sometimes Tae, I like to cuddle with him, too. You could too. You might and you might just be too nice to tell me that you want me to go away. It’s possible. I don’t know, what did you do before we were together? You have schedules and promotions and other things to do. Hang out with people who aren’t as dark and twisty as I am.” She laughed, nodding against his shoulder. “You do that, handsome.” You could tell she was in a good mood (at least, a good mood compared to most days) by how many pet names she was using tonight. “You might need more, though. You pay a lot of attention to me and maybe I don’t pay enough to you. No, I can’t. I love you. I always want to give you attention, I would never tell you that. You don’t take too much,” she mumbled, sighing. “I wish I didn’t have to. Well, yeah, because this is a household of one and a half, since you don’t really live here all the time. Just most of the time. So maybe one and two thirds. And I don’t eat a lot, regardless of the diets. I’m tiny. Yum, pepperoni. Sounds good, I’m starving.” Reaching around the arm of the couch for the remote, she stretched as far as she could before finally grabbing it and turning the TV on. “Wanna watch a movie? I’ll let you pick.”

“You are too. You’re the most beautiful princess in all the land and I’m lucky enough to be graced with your favor. I can give you tons of those. And Tae can keep you warm with cuddles when I’m away, and then I can kidnap you right back again. Athough...” he mumbled, an impish grin on his face as he whisper in her ear, “I can give you more than hugs and kisses and snuggles too.....” He chuckled, shaking his head quickly. “No way. I never want you to go away. I want more time with you. Before? Um.....Hasik and I would run around and mess with people mostly. And I’d try to break into dad’s office sometimes to bug him. I like hanging with you, though. You’re my favourite,” he pouted. He brightened up at the pet name, leaning in even closer to her (if that was possible). “You pay me tons of attention. I’m just greedy so I try to take more than I deserve.” He shrugged. “You don’t have to. Stick with me, babe. We’ve got our plan. As long as you’re eating right, you should be okay. You’re metabolism is really good. Plus, now that you’re dancing, that burns a lot of calories. I live here mostly. But if I tried to live here all the time, Hasik would get lonely and Sarang noona would get worried, so I have to go back sometimes to make sure everyone is okay without me. You’re more important though.” He adjusted her on his lip, leaning back into the couch a little more. “I’ll feed you and everything because I’m such a gentleman. Oooh, sure. Um...can we watch a comedy or something? I don’t have anything in mind but I’m in the mood for a comedy.”

“I was tired. Very tired. I’m not a princess, just a very tired, very worn down idol who had no one to take care of her until you came along. Are you sure you don’t resent me for taking up so much of your time?” She was partly kidding, of course, but she was really wondering if the fact that he had to spend so much time with her made him resent her. “If you want, babe. I don’t mind, as long as you tell me what it is so I know when you’re gonna attack me.” His happiness always rubbed off on her, so within a few seconds, she was grinning back at him and snuggling up closer. “You’re so whiny. Do I give you enough attention? Do you need more from me?” There was nothing odd about her suddenly becoming very serious with her questions before going back to being playful. “We don’t need a whole cake! You can’t keep feeding them all of our leftovers, Jae. Don’t you people diet? I dunno, you pick for me. I’ll eat mostly anything, just not strawberry. Maybe coconut or chocolate or something.” Her eyes fluttered shut as he typed, her body finally coming down from the adrenaline high of performing and accepting how exhausted she was.

“You are too a princess. My precious princess who needs tons of hugs and kisses and snuggles from her prince. Oh, shush. I could never resent you, first of all. Second of all, I like spending time with you and on you. What else would I be doing? Looking in a mirror? Telling Kyu how much better I am? Running away from Yejin so she doesn’t give me any more bad haircuts on purpose?” He thought for a moment, sighing. “I can’t think of any good ones. When I think of one I’ll tell you, though.” Her smile only made his bigger, and his arm tightened around her. “You give me tons of attention. If you don’t want to give me any more you can tell me to fuck off, too, because I know I’m an attention whore and I take too much sometimes. I think I’ll always want more attention from you, but whether I should get it is completely up to you,” he told her seriously, before his normal teasing, mischievous self was back. “Sometimes. Some of us do. I don’t think Hasik does. Jinnie probably doesn’t. I have to. Teo hyung does.....I dunno, it depends on who it is. But there’s more mouths over there,” he pointed out. Finishing his order, he tossed his phone aside, throwing his other arm around her waist. “I ordered pepperoni pizza and chocolate frozen yogurt. And then we’ve got juice and stuff here I think, but I can make you a smoothie if you want it.”

“You didn’t know me at all,” she pointed out. It was true; they’d spoken maybe three or four times before that day, and it was only passing greetings and small talk in the elevator. “Things would be a lot different if you still didn’t know me now. I just want a little bit of notice before you throw me over your shoulder or onto couches, okay?” Jiyoung sighed. “How are you older than me, you big baby? I really forget that you’re a couple years older than me when you whine like that,” she teased, kissing him on the nose. “We can’t order a whole cake! I’d have to work out all day tomorrow if I had more than a small piece. I need real food, please. Maybe pizza? I think I could have some pizza and be okay. And maybe frozen yogurt instead of ice cream.” She rolled a bit over to one side so he would have more room to move and reached up to his hair, playing with it while he was occupied.

“Nope. Totally didn’t. You just looked tired. Like a tired princess who needed a dashing prince to sweep her off her feet and carry her around for a little while. Man, am I ever glad I did,” he laughed, kissing her cheeks some more. “Okay. Got it. Do you wanna have a password? Like something I have to yell before I kidnap you. Like a secret codeword used only for kidnapping?” He suggested, grinning like a dork. “I’m whiny and need attention. Just how I am. Can’t help it,” he replied with a shrug, catching her cheek and stealing a real kiss this time. “We wouldn’t have to eat it all right now! We can have leftovers! And if you didn’t want to keep the leftovers, I have a dorm full of empty stomachs that would inhale it. Hmm, okay. That sounds good--pizza and frozen yogurt. What kind do you want? And what do you want to drink?” he asked, stroking her hair gently and rubbing her back as he texted Hyewon with his free hand. His older brother would be on his way home right about now, and it was on his way--he could easily pick something up for him. Plus, Jaemi was his favorite.

Maybe her life was getting better because she was, but of course she knew that it was all him. He wasn’t the arrogant Prince he was around everyone else when they were together. Sure, he was still pretty full of himself, but he never put anything before her. Not even when it came at a high cost to him, like losing sleep to make sure she was fed and taken care of and not alone when she woke up in a cold sweat at 3am. She didn’t understand why he loved her the way he did, but she loved him just as much. “Can not. Yeah, you asked me first, though. And you would’ve put me down if I told you I didn’t want to be kidnapped.” Jiyoung sighed, moving around so she could get more comfortable since she knew they weren’t getting up any time soon. “I love you, too. You know that. I love you a lot. I’m hungry, though, so as much as I love you, I need food. Can we order something?”

He laughed a little, tucking her hair behind her ear and kissing her cheek before resting his chin on her shoulder. “Yeah, but I didn’t know you as well back then. And we weren’t together. So things are different. As long as I’m nice about kidnapping you, can it be allowed?” he whined softly. A pout appeared on his face, and he glanced sideways at her. “Are you saying you don’t want me to hold you here? You want me to let you go?” He feigned sadness a little longer before his signature bright smile appeared back on his face. “Yeah, of course we can. What do you want? We should order a cake or ice cream to celebrate how awesome you are and how great you did and how amazing you are,” he said, one hand going to find his phone while the other stayed tight around her waist. 

While it was a little out of the norm for her boyfriend to worry about anything at all (other than how his hair looked), there was nothing unusual about Jiyoung worrying herself quite literally sick. She hadn’t, though, only because of the fact that Jaemi had set a pretty strict schedule for her to stick to so she wouldn’t. It had cut into the time that she felt she should’ve spent training, but the alternative to their arrangement was her distancing herself and hurting him again. That wasn’t what she wanted, so she gave in.  She yelled as he yanked her down to the couch. There was a reason she never walked in the door first. “HEY!” she laughed, smacking his arm the best she could from the position he had her in. “You can’t just ambush people like that! No matter how much you love them, it’s rude, mister!”

everything with Jiyoung was new and strange for Jaemi. He’d never worried about someone as much as he worried about her. Or thought about someone. Or loved someone. A world that had been filled exclusively with himself a year earlier was now full of her. She was, dare he say it, much more important to him than he was. He grinned, adjusting his arms around her and closing his eyes. “Can too. Remember? I kidnapped you and you were okay with that and everything turned out great. I’m just kidnapping you again. Any rudeness is overruled by how much I love you, which is tons and tons.”

“He reminds me more of a dinosaour…” He mumbled mostly to himself, nodding toward the door “Yes, go tell him. Right now. Go to him, hurry. And don’t come back.”

“That’s cuz he’s a grumpy old man. Kyu-asaurus Rex, the grumpiest old dinosaur to ever roam the earth,” Jaemi announced, grinning. “If I don’t come back, we can’t go to the zoo. I’ll just text him so he can’t punch me.”

“I haven’t been in the zoo forever. Let’s go to the zoo… I think it’s time you reunite with your family.”

Jaemi giggled to himself. “I’m gonna tell Kyu you called him a monkey. Or a lion. Or a zoo animal--I don’t really know which one you’re referring to.”

There were gonna be things she didn’t want to hear that she knew he’d tell her, so she took a little longer getting to the shoot than she needed to. She stopped to grab coffee and a muffin, or was it a scone? She couldn’t really remember, but she took her bag, including some sort of pastry for Jaemi, and headed to where she needed to be. Walking in, she spotted him getting styled and dropped her bribe in front of him on the table gently. “There are rules here. Just so you know. There are things I don’t need or want to know, and you aren’t gonna tell me those things. Got it?”

He nodded. “Yeah, got it. Hasik and I made a deal, remember? I told you. Not a word. I honor deals. He posted all sixteen instagram pictures, so I’m bound by the deal.” Okay, so maybe no embarrassing stories, but Jae had a loophole. He could still bother her with questions. And he was still excited to spend time with his best friend’s girlfriend---if they ever got married, he’d be the best man, so he wanted to be friends with her now so he had things to talk about in his best man’s speech.