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Out of all the lies,

my favourite one was You and I.

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To say, Taehyung was absolutely mortified. He has never been put into such situation where a girl literally threw herself over him with a strange glint in her eyes that he was not able to decipher. It was known to him that his sister must have done suspicious while he was away.

"What the fuc-"

"Your Majesty," She warned playfully, "Please don't use such inappropriate words."

Taehyung gulped as the woman lead him to the couch and he sat down, defenseless. She began to then uncuff his sleeves and helped him to take off his tie. His eyes were wide as saucers in astonishment as he saw her messing about the whole house. Her feet casually wandered off to the laundry room where she placed the blazer and the tie and then set her aim to his room to put back the cuff links.

Startled, Taehyung rushed towards her side and hastily took the cuff links from her, leaving her in a confused state. He smiled crookedly and dashed for his room before she could say anything more.

Weirded out by the behaviour, she marched to the laundry room to get her hanbok. "Her highness said that it was neatly folded on top of the cabinet." She muttered to herself as she finally spotted a brown basket in the place. She grabbed the contents out and was about to return back to the living room when a faint click grabbed her attention.

She turned back to see a little watch on the floor that may have fallen down when she was retrieving her clothes. Instantly, thousands of blurred recollections began to weave into a fine loom inside her head. Her eyes inspected the rust coated watch and moreover, she was surprised to see the watch hands still ticking. There were different pictures of familiar traditional animals drawn on it and the long string made it easier for her carry it around. But then it clicked.

It was her watch.

The one that her father had gifted her.

Anger flooded her vision as she tramped towards the nearest window, which happened to be the balcony of the laundry, and threw the watch away with much force her arms could muster. She watched it camouflaging in the melancholy darkness as the humid shadows once again clouded the clear sky.

But then she stopped.

A familiar ticking echoed in her ears as she dropped the clothes she was holding and clutched her head as she winced in pain. Her body shivered when the ticking just got louder, and more louder.

Tick, tick, tick.

She held onto the ledge of the sliding door as if her life depended on it. The excruciating pain travelled throughout her body even if it was her ears that suffered the abuse. She silently screamed and clasped her hands around her ears. Her knees were giving out and she felt energy drain from her body like grains of sand. She felt her insides churning into a gruesome mix as the ticking sound didn't go away.

Out of a sudden, she felt her surroundings tranquil once again. Fluttering her eyelashes open, she found herself holding her clothes and a watch that seemed a little familiar.

It was like as if she had already visited this part of her life before.

"What was I supposed to do? Huh? Anyways, His Majesty must be waiting." She nodded to herself as she went out of the room, switching off the lights on her way out.

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Taehyung clutched his beating heart as he leaned on the closed door of his room. He has never, ever, been this close with a lady before and he means it. The only woman interaction he ever had apart from his sister was with his geography teacher in high school who happened to be the only female teacher that taught his class, much to his relief.

He wasn't practically afraid of them, but prefers to minimise his contact with the other gender under his control. He even strictly warned Jimin not to flirt with any female if he's there with him to which Jimin always replies with, 'Dude no fun, I need my adrenaline', which wasn't quite surprising when it comes to Jimin.

So obviously, his heart almost exploded when the strange girl, whom he promised himself to kick out as soon as he could, lunged at him like he was her meal which wasn't exactly the case as Taehyung likes to be the dominant one.

But what's the use of being the predator if there's no prey?

Taehyung was almost at the verge of calling Jimin and telling him every little thing when the door behind him thumped loudly, catching him off guard.

"Your Majesty! May I know where the maids are so they can prepare your dinner?" A sweet voice rang out to the other side of the door.

"We don't have maids here." His eyebrows furrowed slightly at the endearing that he has heard quite a lot of times now. He frowned when he didn't get a reply from the other side so he walked towards his bathroom to get freshened up as soon as possible.

Turning up the temperature of the shower, Taehyung stepped in it and let the lukewarm water do wonders on his bare skin. The droplets soothed the tense skin and washed off any residue from the tiring day before. Taehyung hummed a song as he squeezed a small amount of shampoo and lathered it on his hair. The steam clogged up on the transparent walk-in shower as Taehyung dried up his body.

Walking out of his room in just a grey sleevless tee and even a more lighter grey sweatpants, Taehyung sniffed a wiff of spices in the air. He ambled towards the kitchen with the wet towel hung loosely around his neck as his eyes zeroed on the female in the kitchen.

The woman was stirring some sort of liquid in a pot and often took little sips on a separate plate for tasting. She hummed in satisfaction as her attention then drove towards a pan sizzling on the stove, she mixed up the ingredients as the smell wafted into the air even more.

She finally took notice of another presence around her because she turned around to find Taehyung leaning on the refrigerator with his arms crossed and a weird expression that was quite hard for her to decipher.

Was it amusement?

Hardness?

Confusion?

Or was it all three of it?

"May God bless Your Majesty for the timing, I was meaning to ask you something." She bowed lightly while wiping her soiled hands on the black apron.

"Go on."

"Does Your Majesty happen to have Tarak, perhaps?"

"Tarak?" Bewilderment revealed itself on his features, "What's that?"

Visible shock coursed throughout her body. She dramatically clutched her mouth, pretending that not knowing what Tarak was a grave sin. Her eyes were wide as the moon and her cheekbones shifted higher due to her jaw hanging out of sheer disbelief.

"Does Your Majesty not know what Tarak is?" She taunted, faintest of smiles soaring through.

"Uh, no- I mean, I could always use extra information."

She now grinned fully, "Tarak is the substance that herders use to sell. It's a white flowy substance of a cattle, specifically cows and buffaloes, made for their calves only but we extract some of it for economic purposes as people only depended on primary activities there. Tarak is a very expensive ingredient that even the royals could only afford some of it and was supposed to be used very minutely and carefully, Your Majesty."

Taehyung was left in awe but his mind wandered off the few things she said that were very bizarre for him, "First of all," he began, "You mean milk and second of all, what do you mean by 'there'?"

"Oh, they call Tarak, milk here? And do you have it? It will enhance the flavour of the thing I'm cooking." She batted her eyelashes.

"Erm, yeah, I do." He leaned away from the heat of refrigerator and opened it to take out a half-filled carton of pasteurised milk. When he handed it to her, she was literally stunned. After all, she did mention that Tarak or milk was quite rare 'there'.

"Take it." His voice shook off her temporary statue cosplay as she took it so delicately as if it was the diamond from the Buckingham Palace itself before she dashed to the kitchen and poured down generous amount of it in the pot. She hesitantly came back with an empty carton and showed it to him, "It's finished, I apologise for emptying out the valuable resource, Your Majesty."

"Oh it's fine." He waved off, "I'll buy another just down the street." He smiled and watched her eyes go bonkers again as if he just didn't say the most unsettling thing to her.

"Well," He laughed internally at her reaction, "Your Tarak is quite common here."

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"Your Majesty, where were the plates again?"

Taehyung watched in amusement as he observed the woman struggling with the cabinets, over and over again. She opened one and hummed in defeat of not finding the plates. She huffed again and went for the last cabinet which was way above her height. After somehow managing to open it up, she called in victory of finding the ceramic plates stacked up upon one another.

But there was only one problem.

She was too short to reach it.

Reaching out for her scrawny fingers to touch atleast the side of it, she stood on her tippy-toes to take them out. She breathed a sigh and rested the soles of her feet again. Just as she was about to reach out again, she felt a warm body pressing on her from behind as she found herself completely caged between the counter and the body.

A scent of herbal plants and mint penetrated through her senses and she felt completely indulged in it so much that she didn't even react when plates were handed out to her.

"Hey, the plates." The deep voice vibrated through her back as his chest was squished together. A tickly feeling came over her lower abdomen and her toes curled in response.

"Ah yes, thank you Your Majesty." She mumbled out weakly, quickly taking the plates from his hands. But even after she did, he didn't budge one bit.

"Your Majes-"

"Quit the 'Your Majesty', call me Taehyung." He placed his hands on either side of her and tilted his head to face her so that their faces were just inches away. Even in this state, Taehyung was admiring how she didn't blush but kept a straight face with gentleness evident.

"But Your Maje-"

"Taehyung." He cut her off again, voice much deeper than the ocean itself. It was like his voice had wrapped herself in a warm blanket but left out a limb in the freezing cold that's enough to send chills and convulsions down her spine.

"Taehyung." She muttered and saw the satisfied smile now carving itself on his features.

And weirdly, she liked the sound of it.

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A/N: blame 'Mr.Queen' for the sudden Tarak explosion there. I'm oozing with knowledge baby. Also author notes are the only place where I can disrespect grammar hahahah-

Why the heck do i feel so shy writing a simple shower scene-