Chapter 4
Joonmyun sat in the large conference room, waiting for the other members of the union to fill the room. He could barely repress the yawn threatening to escape his lips at how tired he felt. They finished cleaning the hall after the mission late last night and now it was early in the morning. There was barely any time to rest. But Joonmyun, as king, didn't have much of a choice in that regard.
Yixing and Lu Han came in then, bowing to Joonmyun who greeted them.
"I hope your stay in Sedocia has been most pleasant," Joonmyun told Yixing.
"Of course!" Yixing said excitedly. "It has been great. Your kingdom is very beautiful and being able to experience the kind of work you do for people in need was a good insight. It will definitely be an eye opener to the people of my kingdom."
"I am glad and honored," Joonmyun said, smiling.
Little by little, members came in, greeting the kings until only Heechul, Seohyun, and Jongdae were the only ones missing. Joonmyun glanced at the clock over the screen ahead and turned to Siwon.
"It's unlike Heechul to be this late. What's the matter?" Joonmyun asked.
"It seems they've tasked to meet Jongdae at a place a little too far from the castle. They didn't want to risk being caught."
Joonmyun nodded. "I see."
It took them another five minutes before the door opened to reveal the trio. Jongdae looked a little embarrassed to be among them, head bowed just the slightest. When he turned to Joonmyun however, a bright smile painted his lips and he nodded towards the older in greeting. Joonmyun felt himself straighten up in his chair, smiling slightly and nodding back.
Before Jongdae could take his seat, apparently the one to the right of Joonmyun's, Heechul stood by his side and smiled at the rest of the members. "Everyone," Heechul's voice resonated against the four corners of the room. "This is Kim Jongdae, officially the future fiance of Alpha King Joonmyun."
Jongdae flushed bright red at the applause and well wishes of the members of the union. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?" Heechul urged, taking the seat beside Jongdae's.
Joonmyun watched the subtle way Jongdae's throat bobbed before speaking.
"I'm Kim Jongdae and I work at the Department of Refugees as an Immigration Transition Officer. I'm twenty-three. I came to Sedocia when I was five, and I've been living in the kingdom ever since." Jongdae looked a little nervous and he glanced at Joonmyun as if asking for help. Joonmyun had to smile at that.
"That is more than enough, Jongdae, thank you. You may take your seat." Joonmyun gestured for Jongdae to sit. Jongdae sighed and nodded, mouthing his 'thanks' in Joonmyun's way.
"Now we'll introduce the members of the union to you, although you may have met most of them, if not all, in your days of volunteering," Heechul added, gesturing to the group of people around.
"As you may know, I'm Heechul, the President of the union. Other officers of the ERU are Siwon, the Vice President, Changmin, the Chief of our Finance, which is really just a fancy way of saying our treasurer and his assistant, the auditor is Tiffany." Members whose names were mentioned waved and smiled at Jongdae.
"We have three secretaries, our main secretary, also known as the Head of Relations, is Seohyun, and then Royal Advisors Minseok and Lu Han." Seohyun waved while Lu Han and Minseok lowered their heads. "And then there's Sandara, Sooyoung, Alpha Kings Joonmyun and Yixing who are just regular board members." At the mention of the Kings, Jongdae quickly bowed his head low.
"We have one more member, Doyoung, but he's more or less honorary, useful only when we need him. And that's the rest of the ERU. Once your engagement with Alpha King Joonmyun has been finalized, you will be an official board member as well," Heechul finished, patting Jongdae on the back.
Jongdae looked a little taken aback, eyes wide as they went over everyone in the room. “I—I didn't know that."
"It is a given," Joonmyun replied instead, "that the Alpha King and the Prince Consort of Sedocia are members of the union, no matter what."
"It is one of the many roles you will take when you marry His Highness, but there's still a lot of time to get you settled into your position. For now, we shall brief you and His Highness about the situation and the next course of actions." Heechul smiled and turned to Joonmyun.
"Proceed," Joonmyun said and Heechul nodded, taking the seat.
"Alright, let's get down to business."
Heechul turned on the screen and both Sooyoung and Sandara stood up. "The next step we have for you now is to cultivate your relationship," Sooyoung began. "We have at least one year to build you two into the perfect couple that the kingdom will love. What we have planned for now are a series of arranged meetings and then a series of dates and appearances as an official couple."
"Over the course of this month, Alpha King Joonmyun is tasked to visit several government agencies as well as other functions and events Jongdae will also be attending. We will utilize these settings to build some kind of friendship between His Highness and Jongdae," Sandara added.
"The first meeting will be at the Department of Refugees where Alpha King Joonmyun will conduct his yearly routine check. Now here's the important part," Sooyoung said, turning to Jongdae. "Because His Highness will be busy talking with a lot of government officials, it's up to you, Jongdae to make your paths cross. It's highly unlikely that any of us, aside from Minseok, will be able to orchestrate your meeting."
"However, because Minseok will be there, he will be in charge of informing you where they are so you can catch their attention," Sandara added.
"The next meeting will be at an ERU members and sponsors party, to celebrate the success of the previous medical mission. Since you've met twice before and have already exchanged numbers, then it will be easier to approach one another in that kind of setting.
"Please do spend a substantial amount of time together, but you're allowed to mingle separately," Sandara reminded.
"The last setup is the most staged meeting. From what we have gathered, Jongdae takes his lunch break at the same cafe every day since he started working. His Highness will be at a private event somewhere around the area and he will drop by at the cafe, seemingly out of curiosity," Sooyoung said.
"And then you will pretend to have met completely by chance, and Jongdae will ask Alpha King Joonmyun if he'd like to stay for a while to chat and Your Highness, you will accept the invitation."
"After all those, we will then move on to your very first date," Sooyoung finished. Her smile bright and wide. She and Sandara looked at each other and then gestured for Tiffany and Changmin to take the stage.
After setting up quickly, the screen changed to show the duo's presentation. Changmin started, "Moving on to your dating phase, after much deliberation and discussion, we've agreed that His Highness and Jongdae's dates have to be as real as possible."
"What do you mean exactly?" Joonmyun asked.
"Aside from a couple of key events, Your Highness and Jongdae will be allowed to go out wherever you please, whenever you please," Tiffany replied. "We will, however, be orchestrating your first date, the date you will be having on His Highness' birthday, the date on Jongdae's birthday, and other possible official date like settings like anniversaries and holidays."
"How many dates are we supposed to go on?" Jongdae blurted out, eyes a little wide and terrified. Joonmyun tried to hide his amusement before nodding at the question, turning to Tiffany and Changmin for their answer.
"We thought starting off with 2 dates per month and then gradually increasing them when the two of you were most comfortable would be a good idea, but we also thought that may be too calculated," Changmin said.
"A lot of your setup has been based on research and we thought that maybe we could skip out on statistics with your dating," Tiffany finished. "So if both of you feel like you can go on more dates earlier or later, it doesn't really matter. What matters is how the public views your relationship, whether it can be conceived as real is good enough for us."
At Tiffany's words, Jongdae turned to Joonmyun, almost hesitantly, and gave him a sheepish smile. Joonmyun did his best to return the smile, although deep down inside he worried just how he was going to ask Jongdae out on a date.
"About the first date," Joonmyun decided to ask. "Do you want me to ask when we go out for coffee or a more private setting would be better?"
"We agreed that asking at the coffee shop, where someone could see you, would be better," Sooyoung answered, tilting her head in Joonmyun's direction so he could see her.
"Actually," Sandara piped in. "We have that moment sort of choreographed."
Sandara and Sooyoung smiled at each other. "We thought it would be better for you guys to know what to do so it wouldn't be completely improvised," Sooyoung started.
"It's all very simple, trust us. Before you guys go your separate ways, His Highness, should smile at Jongdae, hold his hand, or brush your fingertips against each others' and then ask him, 'Would you like to go out on a date with me?'"
Joonmyun could hear himself swallow the lump of worry and fear down his throat. He casted a quick glance at Jongdae who seemed stiff before taking a deep almost audible breath.
"Okay," Jongdae said slowly. "What else?"
“That’s all! You can now proceed with your first date then,” Sandara finished.
Changmin cleared his throat and the rest turned their attention back on him and Tiffany. "Now, we'll give you a rundown of how your first date is supposed to be, from the setting, to things you should possibly be seen doing," Changmin explained.
"Because Alpha King Joonmyun would be the one asking Jongdae out, we thought it would be best to think of a date he would most likely go with," Tiffany began, clicking something on the remote so the screen in front would change. "We decided a simple dinner would be the best first date."
Joonmyun nodded slowly, recalling a dating tip his little brother had given him that dinner dates were always the way to go.
"We picked a cozy restaurant at the heart of the kingdom. It had good reviews and offers some form of privacy with their booth-like tables. But we're also planning on booking the whole place to give the impression of His Highness wanting to look good for Jongdae." At those words, Jongdae snorted, failing to keep it secret despite the hand on his face.
"Sorry," Jongdae said, an embarrassed smile on his face. "I just thought it was funny that Joon—I mean Alpha King Joonmyun would want to look good for me when he's a king, and that's already impressive enough."
Joonmyun smiled in Jongdae's direction while others tried to hold their snickers and giggles in. "I rather like it," he commented and Tiffany sighed in relief.
"Really, the whole point of booking the place is to give you two as much privacy as possible. Because this is the first date, we want to make it look and seem memorable.”
"Okay, now that makes much more sense," Jongdae commented. "And then what do we do?"
"Despite the private setting, we hope that you two can bond and refrain from talking about the arrangement. It would be best to use this time to further your friendship and really get to know each other as the end result would be marriage. There will be servers and staff from the restaurant in the vicinity, so please do keep that in mind."
"Oh and, if you can, please include some form of physical contact, holding hands, your feet rubbing against each others' and any other things you can think of doing," Tiffany reminded.
"And then," Changmin said. "At the end, His Highness will have to bring Jongdae home. Please make sure to walk him back to his front door and if you can, please give him a good night kiss."
Jongdae, halfway through drinking his water, spat it out and nearly choked, coughing and gasping for breath. The spectacle was enough to distract them from Joonmyun's barely audible 'what!' Heechul was immediately at Jongdae's side, offering his own untouched glass of water and patting the younger on the back. Joonmyun, still shocked, turned to Jongdae and then at Changmin and Tiffany. He didn't really know what to do, whether to make his question a little more coherent or to help Jongdae.
"I'm fine," Jongdae muttered, voice hoarse and clearing his throat. Joonmyun turned to him then, and his eyes must have screamed worried because Jongdae mouthed ’I'm fine’ to him before returning his attention to Changmin and Tiffany. "You want Alpha King Joonmyun to kiss me?"
Changmin and Tiffany shared a look before saying, "...Yes?"
"It's quite common," Changmin added. "We've done a lot of research and if both parties are attracted to each other, it would be best to indicate it with a kiss."
Heechul scoffed. "Stop acting like they asked you guys to have sex. A kiss is fine."
Joonmyun didn't even have enough time to look scandalized before Tiffany was talking again.
"It doesn't have to be on the lips, if you're both not comfortable with it. It can be on the forehead or the cheek. What matters is that you can be seen together in a romantic light."
Joonmyun really wanted to bury his head in his hands, but before he could do something improper, he took a deep breath. "All right," he settled. It seemed to be enough as everyone accepted his compliance. "But how do you expect us to remember all this?"
"Good question," Seohyun piped in. She gestured for both Tiffany and Changmin to take a seat and smiled at both Jongdae and Joonmyun. "We've decided to share with you a calendar and some documents detailing key events such as dates and fixed meetings. Each date will have a document linked with it that will contain details of your meetings." She picked up her tablet and tapped a few things before someone's notification went off. "There you go. Some of the later dates still don't have details but we'll add them in once we've finalized more of them."
"We'll also discuss them during the weekly meetings if the date happens on that week or a week before that, so we can review them over and brief you two constantly," Siwon added.
"What about the other dates, will we talk about them now?" Jongdae asked, glancing from his phone to the people in front. Joonmyun turned to Minseok and asked for his tablet so he too could check the shared documents.
"Since most of the dates happen months from now, we thought it would be best if we just briefed you about each date a week from now."
Joonmyun hummed in agreement, eyes busy as he scrolled through the calendar, opening documents whenever he pleased. "I think that should be enough time," he commented. "Thank you, Seohyun."
"You're welcome, Your Highness," Seohyun replied, taking back her seat. Heechul then stood up and clapped his hands.
"Okay, now's the time for questions. Does His Highness or Jongdae have anything you'd like us to clear?"
“Would we be allowed to message and call each other in private?” Joonmyun asked.
“Of course! If you ever feel the need to talk about the arrangement, want to discuss the more intimate details of your dates, it’s best to do this via messaging. We suggest that you do all you can to keep building your friendship with each other.”
“I see.”
“Anything else?” Heechul turned to Jongdae, eyes expectant. Jongdae froze for a second before glancing back at his phone, pink coloring his cheeks.
"Uhm, since you guys mentioned sex before... Are we required to have sex? Like during my heats, is that something we should do?"
Joonmyun's eyes widened, whipping his head to the side just so he could look at Jongdae. Jongdae didn't take his eyes away from his phone, not even really paying attention to his screen.
"What?" Joonmyun said, not realizing how loud his voice was until people were looking at him. Heechul ignored him, humming thoughtfully and looking at the union members to see if he could gauge their reactions. Siwon and Changmin were discussing things heavily. Seohyun looked mostly shocked while Sooyoung, Sandara and Tiffany gushed about how nice it would be to have heat partners. Yixing and Luhan mostly whispered between themselves, with Yixing smiling in amusement.
"Personally, I don't really see why you shouldn't," Heechul finally said. "It would both be convenient for you and most couples nowadays have sex within a few months of their relationship. What do you guys think?" He threw the question at the union members.
"I think it would be better if we let the matter be discussed by Jongdae and Joonmyun," Yixing spoke up. The members, including Joonmyun and Jongdae, looked surprised for a moment before nodding their assent. "After all, it is them who will proceed with the act and heat sex is of a very different matter altogether."
"Yes, I think that would be best." Heechul nodded and then turned to Jongdae. "We'll leave it to you guys. You can do whatever makes you two comfortable. We won't force you to have heat sex, but we also won't disallow it. Just be careful and use protection." Heechul then turned to Joonmyun and eyed him for a few seconds.
Joonmyun could feel his flush deepening but he nodded. He needed to take a gulp of his water to regain composure, but everything was fine after that.
"Any more questions? Your Highness?"
"None, Heechul. I believe everything is fine and ready now."
"Okay, good. Meeting dismissed! Let's meet again next week, same time." Everyone stood up, bid their goodbyes and started leaving. Joonmyun, before Jongdae could leave, pulled him to the side and excused him from Heechul and Seohyun who would take him home.
"I just need to talk to Jongdae for a few minutes," Joonmyun said.
"Okay."
Heechul and Seohyun tried to peer through the door but Minseok closed it on them. Joonmyun sent him a look of gratitude and brought Jongdae back to where they sat, inching his chair closer to him.
"I just want to know if you're really willing to do this," Joonmyun began. "I know Seohyun and Heechul have talked to you and explained everything, but I need to hear it from you."
Jongdae smiled, soft and reassuring. "You're really kind, you know that?" Before Joonmyun could reply, Jongdae spoke again. "But yes, I know what I'm doing and I'm more than willing to be a part of this."
"Why?" The question slipped before Joonmyun could think of a proper way to word them. Jongdae didn't seem to mind as he shrugged.
"I don't know if you know this, but I think my profile already contains this information," Jongdae said, voice low and hesitant. "My mom, she was taken in by breeders." He winced at his own words but continued on. "When she finally had me, when she knew for sure she was giving birth to a male omega, she planned to get us out of Venocia. It took her five years to do it, and she had help then. Eventually, my mother and a few others escaped, but somehow she got injured or sick, and we didn't realize how fatal it was until it was too late. My mother died within the sixth month of our arrival. I had just turned six."
Joonmyun was quiet for a moment. He didn't really know what to say. Jongdae's profile definitely didn't say anything about his mother, or her being handled by a breeder.
Of all the horror stories about omega abuse, breeding was the one Joonmyun hated the most. Alphas and betas would kidnap female omegas, breeding them until they gave birth to male omegas. Most of them died trying to conceive male omegas and those that survived to give birth to one had to suffer the death of many children before that one fated child. They were either killed off once they served their purpose or dying from various illnesses.
"The alpha-beta couple who helped my mother escape took me in after, and when I grew old enough to even dream, I vowed that I would help omegas as much as I can." Jongdae continued, looking at Joonmyun and holding his gaze. Joonmyun could see the strength and determination in those eyes. "Venocia is known as the kingdom with the cruelest treatment of omegas. If I can help those people get the freedom that I'd gotten, if I could save those mothers before those omega children could lose them, I'd gladly do whatever it takes."
"Your profile didn't say anything about your mother and I don't think that was an easy thing to say, but thank you for sharing your story with me," Joonmyun blurted out. It was the first thing that came to mind, but it didn't sound half as bad when he said it. He took Jongdae's hand and squeezed it in comfort. "I think that if your mother could see you now, she would be very proud of the man you came to be."
Jongdae shook his head, but the flush in his cheeks was enough to tell Joonmyun that he appreciated the compliment. "Thanks," he muttered finally.
"You're welcome," Joonmyun said, smiling at Jongdae in earnest. He let go of Jongdae's hand and then took a deep breath. "And thank you as well for going this far with me. It's not easy and it will probably only get harder from here, and thank you may not be enough, but thank you, Jongdae."
"Oh stop it," Jongdae said, exaggerating his embarrassment. "You're making me blush."
Joonmyun chuckled and so did Jongdae. It was quiet for a moment before Jongdae broke it, smiling sincerely and sweetly at Joonmyun.
"Like I said before," Jongdae said. "It would be my honor, Your Highness."
"Just remember that you always have the option of backing out. If or whenever you feel like you can't do this anymore, then we'll end this immediately."
"I know, don't worry. I promise to see this through as much as I possibly can." Jongdae flashed him a sincere smile that made his cheeks burn.
Joonmyun swallowed thickly and nodded. He offered his hand to Jongdae's which the younger shook. "Then I probably shouldn't keep you."
"See you soon, Your Highness," Jongdae bid, slipping his hand away from Joonmyun's hold and walking towards the door. Before the door could close behind him, Jongdae turned to look back and met Joonmyun’s eyes. He waved at the young king, smiling so bright and wide, like he was about to laugh.
Joonmyun tried not to laugh as he waved goodbye. |
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wheredreamslast2017-02-03 11:27 pm
