ㅡ wounded.

they reached jeju safely, booking into the villa jungkook's parents has in jeju and see the decoration already planned and set up, the crown prince smiling in satisfactory. his friends are all here, including yugyeom, together with taehyung, jimin and his friends as well. his parents had asked him to settle down before going to the ballroom.

jungkook checks his room, he sleeps alone since jimin has his own room as well but they meet before entering the ballroom since the crown princes should enter together, especially during events like this. claps resonated in the ballroom, jungkook moving to stand in the center and gives a small speech before is asked to open some of the gifts he had received from close friends. he sees the lastest model of a canon camera he wanted last week on the table and opens it, sees the note inside and looks up to find jimin smiling softly at him, getting a small smile back in return.

he opens up a small box, seeing an ipod inside and finds no note so he asks, "who gave this to me?" mostly mutterig to himself but yugyeom answered, saying he was the one who bought it for the prince, giving him a polite smile and jungkook looks at him, knows that jimin is staring so he keeps the ipod back and stands up, gestures for everyone to dismiss and go ahead to have their meals and enjoy the party.

jungkook returns to his room after awhile to wash up, leaving jimin alone with his friends at their villa. it's when the sky changes colour and stars appear does jungkook comes out, his friends asking him to stay outside with them near the poolside and jungkook sits down at one of the lounge chairs there, reading a book and sees his friends swimming.

jimin splashes the water softly with his feet, a solemn smile on his face and his friends watches him from the side, a knowing look in their eyes. "jimin ah" jimin hums, not even knowing who called out for him but he was too preoccupied with his own thoughts, sad and a little hurt jungkook didn't even talk to him today, when they should have supposedly spend his birthday together, that's what lovers do.

lovers.

were they? the answer was clear.

no. it's all on black and white and jimin has to accept that, to come to terms that he should not fall in love with the crown prince because he doesn't feel the same way.

"you love him don't you?" the question has him tensing up, looking at namjoon with a helpless connotation in his eyes and the older smiles, nodding in understanding. taehyung appears from behind, placing a finger on his lips to motion to jimin's friends not to make a sound as he moves forward and pushes the silver haired into the pool, earning a surprised scream from the male, turning around to find taehyung throwing a laughing fit that made him narrow his eyes at the male before dragging him in the pool, making him grunt before jimin pull all his other friends as well, splashing water at one another till they were soaked wet, jimin finally having a laugh in a while.

when jungkook hears the tinkling laughter from a far, he closes his book and watches as jimin spends his time with his friends happily, but he can't stop the churn in his stomach when he sees taehyung being too close to his husband, touch a little more than being just friends. he snapped out of his thoughts when yugyeom suddenly sits next to him, waving a hand in front of his face.

"hello" jungkook hums, sees yugyeom smiling before he takes the box and takes out the ipod, "have you tried it?" when jungkook shakes his head, yugyeom plugs the earpod in and puts one side into jungkook's ear, the other in his, playing one of the songs he has already put inside. while they were hearing the music, they didn't hear the camera shutters going off.

"we went and return on the same day, i can't believe this" jimin dreads as both of them walks into the hallway of the palace, "maybe you forgot, but morning greetings to the royalties is something that we should do everyday" jimin facepalms himself mentally and stomps inside his room, washing up and goes to lay on his bed. he turns to his side and looks at the other side for jungkook who is sitting down at his couch through his glass door, and sighs heavily.

did jungkook like his gift? he knew jungkook wanted it since it was released but jungkook showed no sign of appreciation or gratitude, instead jimin furrows his brows when he sees jungkook holding up a black pendant, an initial of 'y' on it.

jimin wills himself to sleep off his pain.

the next morning after their greetings, jimin saunters off to change his clothes before goung to the garden, only to find taehyung here. "jimin ah" he latter smiles before sitting down next to him, peeking at the book the other is holding. "lets go" jimin lets out a noise of confusiom before he's being pulled up and brought to another place. jungkook watches from inside, fist unconsciously clenching as he grits his teeth.

"it's really pretty here, why didn't you bring me here earlier" the silver haired jokes but taehyung just shrugs, sitting under a tree as jimin walks around the palace's grounds, appreciating the breeze and atmosphere, cherry blossoms bloomind and falling to the ground.

they spent an hour or two there, before jimin has to go back to the domain to study and thanks taehyung for today, receiving a smile before the other leaves. jimin enters from the garden, finds jungkook practicing his fencing there. he makes his way back to his room, only for his name to be called.

"fun spending time with taehyung?" he hears the black hair utter, stopping in his tracks to turn and face him, just as jungkook places his sword down.

"are you being serious right now? yes, yes i had fun because if not for him, i would have died from boredom" he hears jungkook scoff, "who am i right?" now it's jimin's turn to scoff, raising an eyebrow, "where's your kim yugyeom? the two of you were glued to the hip yesterday, funny how he's not your husband. if you really love him that much, you should have done something so that you could marry him" jimin fists his hand, "you're so fucking selfish and full of youself"

jungkook looks at him, "what did you say?" and takes a steps closer, "you're selfish and full of youself" jungkook comes into his space and jimin glares at him, daring him to do something, but the male retreats and hits the ceramic with his fencing sword till it falls off the table and breaks into pieces, making jimin jump a little before he walks off.

they play golf the next morning, jungkook and jimin till taehyung appears, smiling at the both of them, "you said you wanted to practice horse riding with me"

"oh yes, i did. well we can go now" taehyungs stops him, "now? we can go when you're done" jungkook laughs and turns to look at jimin, "i was getting bored to death anyways, lets go" taehyung glances at jimin, not missing the hurt fleeting across his eyes before they left.

"once you hit the horse or the opponent, you're disqualified. when there's a ball in front of you, it's important to get it first, and then think about where to hit" jungkook explains to taehyung as they ride their horses, taehyung nodding as he listens.

"should we play now?" jungkook smirks before moving his horse, taehyung following suit. when they take a break, taehyung pipes up, "i feel thankful that jimin's in my class. thanks to him i easily got used to the environment" jungkook smiles, "you should be careful when you speka of him name. it's fine if it's with me, but with the elderlies, especially the queen, be careful"

"ah, yes, i'll pay more attention next time"

"should we start again?" the blonde nods and they get up their horses before starting again.

they have a press conference on the new art gallery that has newly opened, acting like lovers in the media's eyes as questions by questions are being thrown to them. both of them answered each question politely, until the room becomes chaotic.

jungkook's gotten hit by eggs.

ㅡ