wooyoung nodded, his eyes casting downwards for a moment and holy shit, san must be going insane to think that wooyoung looked good like that, too.
the queen looked at her husband and nodded softly, the king nodding back and clearing his throat, turning his body to face the crowd once again. wooyoung was ushered to the side as all the princesses gathered around the centre, each trying to be at the front and foremost to impress the royal family of choi.
san, however, only had his eyes on wooyoung. the boy was chewing on his lips, toying with something on his left pinky. cute, he thought to himself. and san had to bite back a smile fighting its way up when he saw how quickly wooyoung looked away when he caught san staring at him.
"fellow majesties and highnesses, i am sure you know what a person like jung wooyoung ssi here is — a moon dust. they are people specially blessed by the moon goddess herself and are given the special ability to see the red strings of fate. i appreciate all of your efforts of travelling miles and miles in order to reach our kingdom, but i'm afraid that we'll have to make a choice now. jung wooyoung ssi?" the king asked, prompting the young boy to go forward.
san's eyes followed every movement of wooyoung, and even when wooyoung's breath hitched when his and san's eyes met again, san's breath hitched as well. something wasn't right. san knew it, he could feel it in his guts.
"m-my king," wooyoung stammered, pulling his lips together to a tight smile. he was playing with something near his pinky again, but this time, san felt something — some tingles — near his pinky. he looked down to find, once again, nothing there.
san's father narrowed his eyes at wooyoung. "are you playing with me, boy? speak up so-"
"let him speak, father." san spoke for the first time in the entire day, the whole court of people staring at him as if he just grew a second head. san sighed, it was kind of his fault for not speaking the entire day, he guesses. "he's probably just nervous, aren't you?"
san directed his gaze at wooyoung, whose eyes widened again cutely. he really looked like a dear caught in a headlight. and as much as san would love to stare at this beautiful boy for as long as he could, he used his hands to tell wooyoung to continue speaking so that he wouldn't get into trouble.
wooyoung cleared his throat, bowing slightly, "my apologies, my king. but i couldn't seem to see a, um, red string on his highness' pinky."
murmurs and whispers instantly erupted in the throne room, princesses muttering a 'is the prince soulless?' to the princess next to them and kings frowning at wooyoung, thinking that he must be a fraud. wooyoung must've sensed that, so he quickly said, "i-i'm not lying, i swear, your majesty. i could see you and the queen's red string just fine, as well as a dozen, if not, hundreds more red strings everywhere in this kingdom. i-i just couldn't see the prince's one.
"but there's nothing to worry about, your majesty. some red strings take longer to materialise since the moon goddess might be taking a long time to decide upon who's the best fit for our prince. so i can assure you, your majesty, that the prince will have a soulmate. it's just taking a while to show." wooyoung reassured the royals, which san could see his father physically relaxing back into his throne.
the throne room remained quiet for a while, all waiting for king choi to make an announcement or something — just something that would break the silence.
