the man clicked two of his fingers and two maids immediately arrived in front of him, their heads bowed down as they curtsied ever so slightly. "you two will be tending to our guest here. make sure he's of proper clothes and cleanness before he goes meet his and her royal majesties." he told them, eyes not landing on them once since he was looking at the court for something.
"yes, sir," came from the two maids before they each held onto one of wooyoung's arms and guided him to a section of the palace.
if wooyoung marvelled at the height and the exterior of the palace, then he would've just knelt to the ground and never get up at the interior of the palace. if anything, it was ten times prettier than what the outside looked like. walls were adorned with art pieces from everywhere around the world — wooyoung recognised a monet and saw a picasso somewhere — with the royal purple curtains well coordinated to match with the creamy wallpapers of the hall.
the maids dragged wooyoung into one of the guest rooms, he presumed, and they immediately sprung into action. they didn't say a word at all throughout the entire process, only one of them uttering an 'arms up' after his bath when they had to put clothes onto him. wooyoung was exceptionally embarrassed since he never had someone do all these for him before. it was embarrassing enough to have someone dress him, but for those people to be of opposite gender? embarrassing.
don't get wooyoung wrong, he had no ill intentions towards the two girls that seemed even younger than him. wooyoung had known since a very young age that he was not attracted to females at all.
a knock on the door came right after the final bits of wooyoung's hair was groomed. it wasn't wooyoung in the mirror, he thought. it was almost like there's another person there. with wooyoung's hair groomed and tidied, wearing a rather-loose white shirt tucked into black dress pants did not seem like something wooyoung would look good in. however, he's got to admit, those black dress pants do look rather good on him.
"you're going to go meet his and her majesties now," a new voice entered the space of wooyoung's area, making the boy turn, "make sure you bow and only speak to them when you're spoken to. remember, you're only a moon dust. you don't have a higher authority than his and her majesties."
the woman was glaring at him, maybe even sneering at his looks. did wooyoung look bad? maybe he smelled bad. no, that wouldn't be possible — the two maids scrubbed him over and over again until all wooyoung could smell was the rose body wash they used on him.
wooyoung bowed and looked back up at the woman, "yes, ma'am." that seemed to have lifted her mood a bit; her shoulders were now rolled back and her spine straightened, making wooyoung felt smaller.
"very well. follow me." she turned around without another word and the two maids followed behind her, wooyoung quickening his pace to match with theirs.
a few minutes later, they stood in front of a pair of double doors which wooyoung assumed would lead to the throne room. he never saw the king and queen and so felt this nervous feeling bubbling up in his stomach. he, once again, played with the thin red string, which seemed to be leading into the throne room.
could my soulmate be in there? wooyoung thought. it could be a royal advisor, a maid, or even someone of more importance. who knew.
the woman knocked twice and the doors swung open, allowing wooyoung to finally catch a glimpse at the very core, the very heart of the palace. it was clean and spotless, just like the rest of the palace. unlike the creamy walls outside, the walls were painted white and the floor was tiled up with white marble, too. if wooyoung looked closely, he could probably even see his own reflection on the floor.
the woman walked in first, stopping about mid-way and curtsied, the two maids following. wooyoung didn't know if he should bow or not, so he just stood there, two hands interlocking each other and placed just behind his waist. wooyoung also took in the amount of girls, no, princesses in the room. huh, they must be here to offer themselves for the prince, he thought.
"your majesties, your highness. i bring to you the moon dust of south korea, jung wooyoung."
taking that as his cue to step forward and bow, wooyoung did just that, bowing a total of 90 degrees and lingered there for a few moments before returning to his original height. princesses and other kings and queens were slightly bowing and curtseying at his direction, making wooyoung feel proud of his identity as the moon dust of south korea. the queen smiled warmly at him while the king remained emotionless. this was so typical, he muttered to himself, the stoic king and the warm-hearted queen.
his eyes then moved over to the prince. and oh God, was the prince gorgeous. his cheekbones were high just like his mother and his features sharp like his father's. wooyoung could tell the prince was well-built just by how tightly the sleeves of the royal blue cloak hugged his biceps. wooyoung's eyes trailed down and when his eyes landed on the prince's fingers, his eyes widened.
there it was, the other end of his red string.
the prince was his soulmate.
