Chapter Text
The Roseglass Ballroom glittered like a thousand caught stars, chandeliers heavy with crystal, music curling through the air like perfume.
Princess Aurelia stood at the heart of it, the picture of grace: pale silk flowing at her ankles, her hair bound with a thin chain of diamonds.
Around her, the princes stood like points of a compass never touching, never crowding, but close enough that no one could cross the space between.
A marquis from the Southern Isles was the first to try. He bowed low, his voice honeyed, asking for a single dance. Aurelia opened her lips to agree but before she could, Bang Chan stepped forward with a polite, almost apologetic smile.
“I’m afraid the princess is promised for the next several songs,” he said, voice warm enough to sound like courtesy, firm enough to feel like law.
“Perhaps later… if she’s not too tired.”
The marquis hesitated, glancing at Aurelia, but Chan’s steady gaze left no room for argument. The man withdrew, and Lee Know silently shifted half a step closer, the faintest smile playing on his lips as if daring the next suitor to try.
Changbin intercepted the second attempt. A visiting duke extended his hand toward Aurelia — and found it clasped firmly in Changbin’s own before it could reach her.
“Strong grip, Your Grace,” Changbin said cheerfully, squeezing just enough to make the duke flinch. “Perhaps you’d enjoy an arm-wrestling match later. The princess needs gentler company for now.”
The duke laughed nervously and retreated.
At Aurelia’s other side, Hyunjin leaned in, his voice low and velvety.
“You’re tense. Ignore them. The night is ours.”
The way he said ours sent a flicker of unease through her but before she could question it, Han twirled in front of her, making an exaggerated bow that drew a ripple of laughter from the surrounding crowd.
“Your Highness, you promised me the next dance, remember? You can’t break a prince’s heart twice in one evening.”
The music swelled, and Han swept her into motion before she could protest. Every turn of the dance kept her eyes away from the gathering nobles, every spin bringing another prince into her line-of-sight Felix smiling warmly from the edge of the floor, Seungmin speaking quietly to a cluster of courtiers (no doubt arranging something), I.N watching her with wide, devoted eyes.
By the third song, Aurelia noticed the pattern. Whenever she moved, they moved. Whenever a stranger approached, one of them appeared between. They weren’t just guarding her they were keeping her.
Her heartbeat faster. On the far side of the room, the marquis from earlier tried once more to approach.
This time, Felix intercepted him with a gentle touch to the arm and that sunlit smile that made refusal seem like kindness.
“The princess has had a long week. Best let her enjoy herself with familiar company.”
And that was the moment Aurelia understood: no one was getting near her tonight.
No one ever would, unless the princes allowed it and judging by the way they glanced at one another over her head, some silent agreement passing between them, they never intended to allow it at all.