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Kim Dokja felt his breath catch as he finally arrived at the ballroom. The fabric of his dress twirls as he turns in a circle to admire the spacious ballroom, he’d only ever read about this, rooms so big it felt like he could run forever and not reach the end. Looking up at the gold embossed ceiling, chandeliers hanging far above the ground illuminated the room in a yellow light. In his distraction, Kim Dokja bumps into a well-dressed man on his right. Kim Dokja quickly turns around to apologize before wincing at the bright white outfit and golden hair.
“Be careful, miss,” the noble man’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at Kim Dokja.
Not wanting to attract attention, Kim Dokja quickly curtseys in apology before skimpering away from the man. Trance broken, Kim Dokja finally takes the time to look around at the people, and notices how everyone is leaving the middle of the room empty. Curious, Kim Dokja tries to push past the crowd but all he gets is an elbow to the stomach. Undeterred, Kim Dokja bounces up on his toes and just barely manages to see above everyone's head. In the center of the open space stand a couple, each at opposite ends of the circle. Suddenly, the orchestra stops playing and the room falls to silence.
The crowd turns towards the pair and seems to wait with baited breath. The sound of a lone violin picks up and the man and woman slowly walk towards each other. The gentleman gracefully raises his hand in offering to the young woman in an emerald green gown. When the woman delicately takes his offered hand, the rest of the orchestra joins in with vigor and the pair starts to spin around the open space. One by one, they are joined by others from the crowd and, as if snapping out of a daze, the noise of conversation and rustling of fabric returns to the room. Some choose to dance, while others remain in the crowd mingling. Kim Dokja looks at the people swaying on the dance floor longingly before turning around, deciding that he should make the most out of this experience, as it’s likely to be the last time he’ll ever get the chance to be in the palace.
---
Walking down one of the many open hallways of the castle, Kim Dokja stops to admire a landscape painting hung ornately upon the wall. Stepping closer to admire the delicate blue brush strokes of the pond, Kim Dokja raises his hand as if to touch one of the many swans swimming throughout the painting. Quickly he draws back his hand, reminding himself not to touch expensive things because he could ruin them.
Having had his fill of fancy decor he heads back to the ballroom. Shouldn’t be too hard, he thinks to himself as he turns around, walking back down the quiet hallway. At every crossroad Kim Dokja confidently turns left, keeping his ears open for the sounds of the party. Yet as he continues to walk the palace stays silent, and soon enough, he finds himself walking past a familiar swan painting. At this point Kim Dokja gives up on returning to the party and heads through an archway leading outside. He shivers as a chilly breeze brushes his exposed neck and shoulders and he walks onto the dirt.
Under the light of the moon and stars, red rose bushes line a pathway to a neatly cut entrance in the hedges.
“How odd,” Kim Dokja mutters under his breath as curiosity gets the better of him. The sounds of crickets accompany him as he wanders further into the foliage, soon losing sight of the exit and a portion of the sky.
Walled in by the shrubbery, strange splashing noises can be heard clearer and clearer the farther he wanders. Turning the corner reveals the center of the maze holds a delicate pond along with marble benches. And at the edge of the pond, body turned slightly away, is the cause of the slashing noise. Kim Dokja quickly pauses, carefully not making any noise as he scans up the stranger's body and lingers at his face. The sharp jawline, dark, perfectly drawn eyebrows furrowed over eyes containing a deep pain, seemingly glittering in the pale moonlight. This image of cold elegance is quickly shattered when the man brashly lobs a rock into the pond, in what seems to be an attempt to make it skip along the water.
Kim Dokja has to quickly hide a snicker behind his hand as he watches the handsome man scowl at the pond as if it had personally offended him. The man spins around and looks accusingly at Kim Dokja.
“What are you doing here,” although it's likely to be a question, the man spat it out as if it was a demand.
“Hmm? What do you mean? Is the garden off limits or something?” he smiled mischievously, the garden could be royal family only for all he knows, but he’s learned over time the more confident you are the more likely people are to believe you. As if it was his plan all along, Kim Dokja strides over to the man and holds out his hand.
“And anyways, you seem like you need a little help,” he nods his head towards the pond before looking back up at the handsome stranger expectantly. There is a long silent pause in which the stupidly tall man glowers and Kim Dokja has the chance to wonder whether or not he should've just made a run for it as soon he was discovered, before one of the rocks is begrudgingly dropped into his waiting hand.
Kim Dokja tosses the stone into the air a few times before adjusting his grip on the rock. It doesn't feel quite right, so he adjusts it again. But then it comes to him, of course it doesn't feel right, Kim Dokja has never tried to skip a rock in his life. He fooled himself with his own confidence.
"Are you going to throw the rock or not," again with that way of asking a question like a statement.
Never one to back down from a fight (except when he is), Kim Dokja decides that you only live once anyways, and throws the rock.
Kim Dokja stares for a moment at the place where his rock had gone into the pond with a small plop. Without even having turned his head, kim dokja can feel the handsome man's face drilling a judgmental stare into the side of his head. A quick glance to the side proves him right, a single, perfect, dark eyebrow lifted in question.
"Hm, it seems it just isn't the right weather for this kind of thing" Kim dokja says, more to fill the silence than to excuse his failed lesson.
"And what kind of weather is right for skipping rocks?"
Bait taken,nKim Dokja pulls back his shoulders and gets ready to bullshit.
----
“Crown prince, there you are! I’ve been looking for you all night, you know you can’t just wander off like that, especially on this night of all nights! What are you even doing out here?”
“None of your business”
Kim Dokja watches amusedly as a lanky man dressed in a tiger patterned suit scolds the prince.
The prince, Kim Dokja’s face pails as he realizes he called the crown prince a bastard. Kim Dokja tries to subtly look around for an escape but just as he’s about to back away there's a tight grip around his arm. Before he can figure out what’s happening, the prince, Crown Prince Yoo Joonghyuk, is pulling him out of the garden and back towards the ballroom.
“You know, I'm pretty sure kidnapping is a crime, even if you're the prince!” Kim Dokja sputters out as he stumbles after the handsome jerk, the hand not being pulled goes to bunch up his dress so he won't trip. The prince just looks back at him, brows furrowed in a scowl and lips slightly pressed together, he chooses not to answer and just continues pulling Kim Dokja into the ballroom. Internally Kim Dokja is starting to wonder if anger is just the prince's default emotion.
Unable to escape the taller man's grasp, Kim Dokja is forcefully pulled to ballroom, and then to the center of the room. Once there, Yoo Joonghyuk pulls them so they’re facing each other. He finally releases his wrist only to move both his hands to Kim Dokja’s waist. Finally understanding what the prince dragged him out here to do, he looks up at the prince in confusion.
“I don’t know how to dance,” Kim Dokja’s only experience with dancing has been scenes in novels. No, the times he tried to mimic what he had read about do not count, and had all been embarrassing failures mostly ending up with him tripping over his own feet.
“Then I’ll just have to teach you,” the stupid man says with an arrogance that Kim Dokja wonders if he was born with. The image of a tiny baby Yoo Joonghyuk toddling around as if he was already king brightened Kim Dokja's mood.
“Follow my lead.”
Kim dokja's hands are placed on the prince's shoulders, and they start moving.
Kim Dokja looks up at him with doubt, and comes to the conclusion that this must be payback for trying to push him into the pond earlier. Despite Kim Dokja’s distrust, the prince begins to step in time with the music, pulling Kim Dokja along with him.
What ensues could not really be called dancing and would be better described as Kim Dokja steps on the prince's feet as waltz music plays in the background.
“When I move my foot forward, move yours backward,” the bastard delivers his useless advice, perhaps finally fed up with his toes getting crushed. Despite the infuriatingly unhelpful instruction, Kim Dokja does his best to glean some speck of insight and looks down at how their feet are moving.
Step to the left, step backward-
“No, the other foot.”
“No, the other foot,” dokja mutters mockingly under his breath, focusing too much on trying to find the pattern to make a better comeback. Not too busy to not purposefully step on the prince's foot with all his weight the next step they take. He doesn’t even flinch. Though he doesn’t verbally acknowledge the petty act, Kim Dokja can feel the judgemental stare even with his head down and focused on his feet.
Eventually, he gets the hang of the rhythm and feels confident enough to raise his head, only to find dark eyes staring daggers at him. Kim Dokja gulps and is suddenly more aware of the hands firmly on his waist, but doesn't look away, determined not to back down. In the background, the music's tempo speeds up and the metal tassels on Yoo Joonghyuk's chest click together as Kim Dokja is roughly pulled and lifted into the other's chest.
"You bastard put me down! It's bad enough that you dragged me out here, without my consent, mind you, but now I'm not even allowed to dance with my own feet?"
-----
Earlier that day.
"Ok, stop moping around about not getting to go to the ball, its pathetic"
"You're exaggerating, I'm not moping"
"Yeah, sure, whatever helps you sleep at night. But get up, I've got a solution,"
And with that Han Sooyoung becomes Kim Dokjas unofficial fairy godmother, supplying her invitation to the ball, along with a dress to impersonate her. Of course, Han Sooyoung is much shorter than Kim Dokja, and ends up using a little magic to make it fit.
"Remember, the spell wears off at midnight, and I will mangle you if my dress has even the tiniest of tears in it. Now get!"
And with that Kim Dokja was shooed off to the ball.