wooyoung immediately sat down and started scribbling words down on a piece of paper — his best friend, yeosang, needed to know this — once he arrived at his own bedroom. yeosang and wooyoung grew up together, yeosang being the first one to notice wooyoung was a moon dust. so, in return, wooyoung shared everything with him. he would talk about anything and everything with yeosang, whether that be a potions explosion that yunho caused at the academy, or a rather odd couple stumbling to wooyoung's home and asking if they were soulmates. they weren't, but the two seemed somewhat pleased about that.
wooyoung still didn't understand why the king insisted, more like forced, wooyoung to stay in the palace until the red string appeared. gosh, if the king knew that not only did he lie to the royals of south korea, he also lied to tons of other royalties in the throne room, wooyoung might as well be dead. but he couldn't really just tell everyone that he, out of all people, was prince choi san's soulmate. he couldn't do that, not to all the royals and rich snobs in the room.
perhaps the king already saw through wooyoung's lies, ready to drag him over to the execution site the next morning and kill him right then and there. wooyoung shivered at the thought of that. no, if the king knew, he would've acted more hostilely.
two knocks were sounded at the door, wooyoung immediately straightening up and responded, "come in!" to the knocks. in came a maid, and on her face a soft smile with crinkly skin on the side of her eyes.
"good afternoon, jung wooyoung ssi," she curtseyed, and wooyoung lowered his head slightly as well, "the prince has asked for you presence in his quarters. would you want me to take you there?"
wooyoung froze. the prince? asking for him? what does that man want with him now? "um, yes, seeing that i've only been in the palace for four hours," wooyoung replied, getting up and folding the page to have it on his desk safely. he got up, drew in a sharp breath and smiled at the maid, "if you may?"
the maid led him out of his room and on they went. while crossing the many halls of the palace, wooyoung realised just how much art there seems to be on the walls. "i don't think i'm wrong to assume the royal family loves art a lot?" wooyoung guessed, the maid turning around and nodded, giving him a warm smile.
"yes, especially her majesty. she would attend all the art exhibitions if she could and most, if not all, of the paintings in the palace are selected by her. do you like them?" the maid asked. they were turning another corner and honestly, wooyoung believes they're just going in circles because there's no way all these turns actually leads you to places.
"oh, yes, of course. they are gorgeous and every single piece must have a beautiful meaning behind it." wooyoung answered, a soft smile on his face, "one of my best friends is an artist. gosh, the art he'd produce just out of his two hands — really, it's mesmerising, watching him draw."
the maid chuckled, opening a door and letting wooyoung in first, "just go straight to the biggest room at the end of the hall and you should find the crown prince. i'm afraid i can't follow you into the prince's quarters."
wooyoung glanced at her and saw that she clearly was told to stand outside the prince's quarters; poor woman's hands and head were poked inside so she could point the direction to wooyoung while her body was weirdly twisted so that she was technically standing outside choi san's quarters. wooyoung hummed, throwing a thankful smile at her, "ah, i see. thank you so much for guiding me here. good afternoon."
with that, wooyoung turned around and starting walking down the hallway. unlike the other parts of the palace wooyoung had been in, the prince's quarter was filled with different shades of royal purple and cream. wooyoung finally arrived at the end room, gulping before knocking twice, hearing a 'come in' from the inside and opening the door.
