struck by lightning
When Wong Yukhei - a supposed-to be-duke from the 1840s - shows up in Kim Lara’s life, she has no idea what to do about him and about her growing feelings as time goes by.
♦ Pairing: Yukhei x OC (Lara)
♦ Genre: Kate and Leopold inspired, fluff, comedy
♦ Words: 10.8k
♦ Dedicated to: the one and only @dat-town who means the world to me; I love how we can still fangirl together and bond over anything and come up with ideas despite being 7 hours away from each other! Thank you for being you, I love you more than I could put into words! Take care, dear! 💖💖💖
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After revising five weeks worth of business terms, Kim Lara found herself dozing off again and again, sitting on the pouch in the small yet cozy living room of the flat. It was raining outside, thunders occasionally ripping the silence off, so she could feel even more sleepy thanks to the constant hurtling of the raindrops against the roof of the single-floor house.
She was just about to end her suffering and putting away her notes when she heard a loud thud from the very small backyard’s direction that was just a few meters away from her, on the other end of the backdoor that separated the living room she was currently in and the garden.
She immediately snapped her head back at the sound, her eyes widening when she caught sight of a human body that looked like it had just fallen from the sky, landing on the grass ever so gracefully. She reached for her phone, panic rising inside of her body, thinking of scenarios how such a thing could be possible. As she was dialling the police’s number, she took a few tentative steps closer to the door, and what she saw was far from what she had imagined.
The boy who had just landed there seemed like an innocent twenty-something dressed in some kind of a costume - a costume of a prince. He was dressed in a black frock coat with slim fit, a dark vest underneath, hiding a plain white shirt, and trousers with button flies, dress shoes at its finest. She had to admit that whatever occasion he had dressed up for, he looked like a real prince, even his hair was neatly styled back, only a few locks were falling into his chestnut brown eyes thanks to the raindrops sitting on his hair and the abrupt encounter with the wet grass.
When Lara’s eyes met his, she let out a yelp, not because of something she had seen in them because they looked like the cutest puppy eyes she had ever seen, but more like because of the way how frightened he was. To see her.
“Who are you? What are you doing in my garden?” she exclaimed loudly to be heard even through the occasional thunder, standing by the door, opening it just a few inches, so that she could look at the stranger. He seemed even more surprised to find her there when it should have been her who was the more dumbfounded out of the two of them. What was he? A drunk neighbour missing his flat and falling into her back garden? No, she had met all of their neighbours. He couldn’t have been.
After the initial shock, the boy seemed more hurt by her words than surprised and cleared his throat before he spoke up.
“I am certain that the tone you use is not appropriate for such a situation, my lady. You must not recognise me - and I have to admit it does hurt my pride - but I am Wong Yukhei, duke of Cumberland, and I live here, so if you may let me in…” He explained ever so eloquently, and she had no idea what to find more interesting. The way he spoke or what he had just said.
She furrowed her eyebrows in question, hands shaking as she was still trying to hold onto her phone, afraid that he might be a burglar or a con-artist or whatever. There were so many horror stories going on about people taking advantage of youngsters’ situations and robbing them when they were away for the weekend or inviting themselves into the flat saying that they were just checking on the water pipes.
However, that boy seemed completely harmless (even despite his odd costume), and was able to withstand the next minute of just standing there in the rain, getting soaked, while waiting for her to make up her mind. Eventually, she let him in, but only because of what she had seen in his eyes, and she decided to follow her heart because it had never deceived her before.
“Dude, you must have really hurt your head,” she remarked a bit in doubt as she held the door open for him, watching as he made his way into the flat. His steps were slow and calculated as if he had been walking on the runway, he took his time getting into the flat which made her a bit suspicious. Was he really into that prince play of his? But why? It seemed convincing though.
“First of all, it’s my flat and I don’t know any Wong Yukhei, duke of Cumberland, who lives here. We live here with my best friend and these are all our stuff!” Lara pointed around herself, the flat radiating their youthful vibes and eccentric personalities with her best friend, Mark Lee. A comic book here, a lava lamp there, a smoothie maker on the shelf, the notes of her business notes on the pouch, Mark’s long-forgotten brownies on the top of the fridge.
Lara and Mark’s history had gone a long way, it had actually gone back to elementary school. They had been the only British-Korean kids back in their hometown, thus they had been somehow destined to be best friends, and the years behind them had just proved their tight bond. Going to the same university, moving away and living together in the same flat had not even been a question, they had wanted this life for themselves, to be able to keep their friendship while going onto higher education, and it had just worked out fine.
So for this Wong Yukhei to say that it was his flat was utterly ridiculous, though the way he looked around seemed like he had been utterly lost as well.
“What is this place? Who are you? Why does this room look like this? Where is my chandelier?” He yelled frantically, making her question if he was really sane or he had just run away from a mental institute.
“Oh man! This will be harder than I’ve thought,” she mumbled under her nose, not quite believing the sight in front of her. What was she supposed to do with a guy who dressed up as a prince and who claimed that he was the duke of Cumberland and that it was actually his flat, not theirs? Even if he seemed completely harmless, the uncertainty of the situation bugged her a lot.
Before she could come to any kind of a possible solution, the front door flung open and then it was immediately closed, an all too familiar voice breaking the momentary silence.
“Sorry. Got a bit caught up in the rain and I-” Mark started chattering like he always did when he was in a good mood, and Lara had just turned around when her best friend made his way to the living room where she was standing with that so-called duke.
“Mark, please, don’t freak out,” she asked pleadingly, keeping her eyes on Mark’s face who seemed more amused than surprised.
“Oh look, it’s a boy! You finally got yourself a boyfriend, I see. Although he looks a bit odd, I must admit. I think I’ve interrupted something judged by his torn clothes,” he implied with a smug smirk, wiggling his eyebrows to which she just smacked him in the shoulder.
“Shut up! He’s not my boyfriend. He fell onto the grass a few minutes ago and he claims that he’s some kind of a duke and that he lives here,” she summed up as quickly as possible, not that she knew anything more really. The guy who looked around as if he was Alice in Wonderland merely blinked at the other boy, examining him with his big doe eyes.
“Wait! What happened that he appeared on the grass?” Mark furrowed his eyebrows, a bit uncomfortable under the intense stare of the so-called dude who - as if he had just been trying to tell a story - straightened his back, dusted off his coat and started speaking slowly and eloquently.
“I was riding my horse when a mighty thunder was heard through the hills and I do not recall what happened exactly, but I do know that there was utter darkness and then I woke up to this young lady standing by the door, looking at me as if I was a mere intruder,” he shared his part of the story which made Lara exchange a glance with her best friend.
Mark didn’t seem that suspicious though. He merely shrugged his shoulders and suggested:
“Look! We just have to Google if he’s really a duke.”
“Mind sharing with me why would you giggle if I am real?” The so-called duke asked with the most confused expression ever, making her jaw drop.
Was he really that good at acting or was he really thinking that he was a prince and he didn’t know things such as Google? She might not have believed that it would be the possible answer but she didn’t even know what to believe in anymore.
“No, dude. We will Google it, not giggle. We’ll search for evidence on the internet, you know,” Mark tried his best to explain but the other boy merely furrowed his eyebrows.
“I am real and you are endangering my territory,” he said almost as a warning, but Mark was already too deep into his little online research, he couldn’t respond to him. Lara peaked above her best friend’s shoulder to read what was written on the guy’s mobile phone’s screen, but her eyesight wasn’t that good, so she let him read out the findings.
“Look, there’s really a duke called Wong Yukhei…” Mark said, totally in awe. “But he died in 1846 on 15th June in a thunderstorm… Oh my gosh, it’s the same day as today!” He commented almost excitedly, making Lara’s jaw drop more and more. “And his residence… It was somewhere around here, indeed!” He turned to her with his whole body, eyes totally lit up as if he had been told that he had won the lottery. But for real? What kind of a conspiracy theory it was?
“So you want to say to me that he died almost 200 years ago, yet he’s somehow here with his nasty remarks?” Lara asked skeptically but the duke didn’t seem too pleased by her choice of words and he wasn’t afraid to voice out his opinion either.
“Language, young lady.”
“Not so appropriate remarks, are you happy?” She turned to him, eyeing him for a moment, eyes throwing daggers in his direction.
“Yes, certainly.”
“And so you’re somehow still alive and want your home back?” She kept on asking him, more and more in disbelief due to this unbelievable situation. What was this for real? Some kind of a prank show? No, that wouldn’t have been possible, Mark was horrible at pretending not to know something.
“We shall come to an agreement soon. Otherwise, I am turning to other actions,” the duke said firmly, making Lara think that he wasn’t joking. Or he was merely a good actor, who knew?
Yet, there was no logical explanation as to why they had a duke in their flat who had supposedly died 200 years ago, but looked exactly like the same one on the photo that the online search results had thrown into their face. It was crazy. How could it happen? And why? There must have been a reason that he had showed up where he had been living before and he had appeared right on the day he was supposed to die?
It couldn’t be but still… It was so surreal. It felt like a dream.
It was crazy, absolute madness, but they couldn’t deny that this so-called duke looked exactly like the one from the old photos and he had told them about the same life story that could have been read on the internet. He was actually a duke from a British father and a Chinese mother but that relationship should have been kept secret, so for him to seem invisible and for him to not cause any trouble in the UK, he was shipped off to the US, being given a mansion with servants and everything he needed, so that he wouldn’t go against his father and his own cursed destiny as an unwanted child and an immature duke.
Truth to be told, the boy seemed clearly dumbfounded when he had gotten to know that he had been sent off to the US because his father had been ashamed of him, not because he had been there to start living like a real man and studying to make his parents proud. He had also been told that his mother had abandoned him when in fact according to the history books, she had been chased away.
Lara felt a bit sorry for him while they revealed the truth to the boy but there was no other way they could have actually tested out the waters and see if he was being honest or not. Everything he had said seemed to overlap with the stories circling on the internet - apart from these rather heartless intentions behind his father’s acts. Though it had been the XIXth century and being a duke must have been a really big thing back then.
However, knowing about his bittersweet story didn’t mean that they had any idea why he was suddenly there on the exact day he had died but 200 years later, having all his memories and knowing nothing about the modern world. It was odd even just to think about the possibilities behind this weird phenomena, but Mark as the sci-fi fan he was, came up with all kinds of conspiracy theories and babbled about time travelling and such.
Knowing nothing better, Lara and Mark decided that it would be best if they were with the duke most of the time since he almost broke the toast maker when they were having dinner together, and they weren’t ready for disasters. So it was settled that Mark would go with the duke first thing in the morning to choose some casual clothes for him (since Mark’s own clothes were too small for the six feet tall duke), and then they would be going for Mark’s university lectures together. Lara highly doubted that everything would go according to plan, but he let Mark have his bro moments with these so-called super cool dude who had no idea what the internet was but at least his vocabulary was so extensive that Mark could learn some new expressions from him - or so she heard.
Lara let her best friend take care of the guy for the night, letting him sleep on a mattress beside himself. Since they had their own rooms, she merely checked in on the boys before going to sleep and she was totally dumbfounded when the duke bowed to her, wishing her a goodnight in such a poetic way that Mark immediately broke into little fists of laughter.
However, the next morning came and with that a whole new range of difficulties arose. First of all, the duke was up from the crack of dawn, looking around the flat and accidentally walking into Lara’s room, waking her up from her dreams and making her throw a pillow in his direction, calling him a pervert because he had ever so casually walked close to her sleeping figure as if he hadn’t known personal space. Then, the duke almost broke a mug, almost started a fight with their tv in the living room and almost died on the spot when he heard that the microwave was talking to him - aka signalling that Mark’s morning milk for his cereal was ready, but the duke was so surprised by the sudden sound that he fell onto the floor.
After the first few mishaps, they all sat down to have breakfast, Lara sending death glares in the duke’s direction while he was smiling at her as if she was the most beautiful person on Earth.
“What’s this?” The duke pointed at Mark’s breakfast which was his favourite type of cereal with semi-warm milk just like he liked it. No matter what kind of other options existed, his love for cereal was ethereal.
Mark casually shrugged his shoulders and responded in between two bites.
“Cereal.”
“What’s a cereal?” The duke insisted, not having heard of anything similar. Lara was munching on her tuna and mayonnaise sandwich, looking out for the rest of the conversation, hoping that his best friend could somehow get himself out of this situation or at least make the other boy understand what cereal really was.
“Uhmm… it’s something people eat for breakfast with milk or as a snack,” he concluded after a few seconds of intense thinking, then grinned at the boy on his left who was just as confused as before.
“What’s in it?” He blinked innocently at the boy, eyes hungry for answers as if he was trying to get to know some kind of a secret tip for being immortal when in fact it was just a cereal talk.
“Well…” Mark opened his mouth to explain it to him but gave up after a while and instead he put the box of the cereal in front of the other boy and let him read the list of ingredients.
“What is dextrose?”
“I dunno, man.” Mark shrugged like before, digging deep into his milk and cereal combination, munching happily as if he was still a kindergarten kid. However, the duke was practically scandalized by what he had heard, his eyes were twice as big as usual and his mouth hang agape.
“You don’t know what you are eating?” he asked, bewildered, making Lara burst into little fists of laughter. No matter how much doubt she had had, she couldn’t deny that this boy was sure not from this century. He couldn’t have been that good of an actor.
However, when the duke caught her eyes on him, she felt a bit bashful and immediately looked down at her sandwich, prompting the duke to continue eating the scrambled eggs he had made for himself. At least, that was what had been his intention, but he had needed a bit of assistance, so she had come to help him before he could burn down the whole kitchen and make their student loans cry out in despair.
They continued eating in this weird atmosphere, the duke asking questions that Mark couldn’t even answer, but eventually she needed to let the boys alone since she had a lecture in the first period, so she needed to leave the flat earlier than the duo.
“Are you two really going be fine?” Lara couldn’t help but ask before departing, her hands on her hips as if she was trying to warn Mark about something. But as always, her best friend seemed like the most chill guy ever, not having any worries regarding his newfound friend.
“Yes, sure. Don’t worry. We’ll be best bros, and I’ll introduce him to everyone,” he promised with a proud grin, exchanging a glance with the boy by his side who smiled widely at him.
“At least come up with a believable back-up story,” she asked of the boy since he couldn’t have just said the truth. They couldn’t believe it either, they didn’t need anyone else’s inquiry or noisiness.
“Will do,” Mark promised gleefully and sent a wink her way before she just rolled her eyes and turned on her heels to leave the flat and the two chaotic boys behind.
She should have known that these two wouldn’t be doing well when Mark had texted her that they would be going out with some of his university friends and that Yukhei - Mark was already referring to him as such and the duke didn’t seem to mind this either - would be going with them, so that he could socialize a bit. She should have known that nothing good would come out of them spending time together, especially not with Mark’s university friends who could be a bit too much sometimes - in her very humble opinion.
On the other hand, nothing could have prepared her for the sight of the duke stumbling into the flat being supported by her best friend who was at least a head smaller than him, his chestnut brown eyes a bit hazy and his expression a bit dreamy. She had to admit that he looked quite decent and handsome in his black jeans, loose t-shirt, converse shoes and it seemed that even his hair was styled differently, but anyway… Why did he look so drunk?
“Oh my gosh, what did you do to him?” Lara exclaimed like an overprotective mother but she just didn’t want to believe her eyes. How could Mark let things get so out of control that the duke was already wasted? Only 24 hours had passed since he had landed on their grass, and he was already drunk!
“He said that he can take alcohol well and he looked like he was having fun, so I didn’t want to stop him from enjoying himself,” Mark blabbered like the chatterbox he was, giving her his best puppy eyes, so that she wouldn’t be mad at him.
No matter how enraged she was, the drunk duke was the one who looked the most miserable, his chocolate-brown locks sitting messily on his head.
“Oh.. my lady… why are you always so woeful?” Yukhei asked, his words coming out of his mouth with little pauses in between and his eyes were staring far ahead as if he couldn’t focus well.
“I’m not woeful, I just don’t want to babysit a twenty-something duke from the XIXth century when all I’ve asked was of you was to take care of him and you got him wasted!” Lara turned to the duke, then to her best friend, not knowing at which boy she was more mad. Gosh, how could she ever trust Mark with a giant ass baby? He couldn’t even take care of the laundry, let alone another person. Great! Now she needed to take care of this, too.
“I’ve thought that he could handle this!” Mark protested fervently while wincing a bit from the force Yukhei was using on him to not fall ahead.
“You’re lucky that it’s Friday, so both of us are at home tomorrow, because I wouldn’t fully trust you with a drunk person after this,” Lara remarked a bit more harshly than she would have intended to, but one thing was for sure: Mark was a terrible drunk person, and he was even worse at treating anyone who was drunk.
“Why are you raising your voice, young lady?” The duke found this as the perfect time to speak up, looking down at the girl, his hazy eyes meeting her weary ones.
His innocent, almost baby-like stare made her tense shoulders let loose a bit, but it didn’t mean that she was reassured. It only meant that he had enough of an affectionate stare that she didn’t have the heart to be mad at him. It was as if she had tried to reprimand a puppy that looked at her with those warm, loving eyes. He might have been from a different country, but he sure made her feel odd things whenever she caught his glance.
“Let me help,” she offered with a bit of a bitter smile as she walked to Yukhei’s side and flung his arm over her shoulder, helping Mark not to carry him to the mattress all by himself.
It was a difficult task anyway, but somehow they managed to put him down onto the mattress without letting him fall over, and Lara thought that it was already an achievement. It was even more so because the duke drifted off to sleep the moment she wanted to start lecturing him, so she couldn’t reprimand him but at least he didn’t talk more either.
Mark was quick to leave the scene, saying that he was going to take a shower, and Lara didn’t feel like staying either. After all, Yukhei was sleeping, why would she bother? However, she couldn’t help but wonder while looking at the soundlessly sleeping duke that he must have been more shaken up by the world around him than they were because of his presence. He must have been more disturbed than he would have shown, and she couldn’t help but think how lost he must have felt. After all, until a day ago, he hadn’t even known that he had been practically sent off to another continent, so that his father shouldn’t have to bring him up.
Lara stood up from crouching after such a thought, walked to her own room to get her extra blanket out of the wardrobe and went back to the sleeping boy and put it over his body. She looked at him for another minute, watching as his chest rose up and down slowly and calmly, the dreamworld taking care of him for now. Then, she left the room to mind her own business, but she couldn’t deny that she couldn’t get his sleeping figure out of her head for a while.
The next morning was a quiet one until Yukhei woke up. Lara had finished making hangover soup for the boy while Mark was chilling in his bed, not wanting to get up. However, when the dude woke up, he also got out of his bed, so with the two of them coming out of Mark’s bedroom, Lara’s morning was suddenly filled with chatter and laughter.
The duke didn’t seem too down after the previous night’s drunk antics, but she wanted to make sure that his body was also doing okay, so she put the bowl of steaming soup in front of him, telling him to eat up before digging into her own breakfast which consisted of banana and chocolate oatmeal for that day.
“Lady, tell me about yourself,” Yukhei spoke up between two bites, his voice coming out a bit hoarse. Lara almost choked on her oatmeal, taken aback by the duke’s abrupt and seemingly random question.
“What do you mean by that?”
“What are your dreams? What are you doing for a living? What do your parents do? Such topics,” the boy explained with a genuine smile, looking right into her eyes. It would have been fine if he hadn’t looked so adorable with his messy hair that was nothing like the one he had wanted to display the first time they had met. In a loose shirt and grey sweatpants which they had purchased the day before, with his hair being a total mess, he seemed like one of them - he seemed as if he was a mere twenty-something who was struggling through uni exams and first loves.
Mark found the duke’s questioning pretty amusing, sending her a cheeky glance as if he was still pretty sure that Yukhei had been her boyfriend and he had walked out on them doing some of their lovey-dovey business when he had just fallen from the sky two days before. Lara merely kicked Mark’s shin in return, making him yelp to which Yukhei started asking what was wrong with him.
“I’m currently a business student at the local university and I wish to become a businesswoman in the future, maybe have my own business. My parents are pretty ordinary, mom is a secretary while dad is a Physics teacher. I also have a little sister,” she chattered in a rather neutral tone because she didn’t really think that her life could be anything close to interesting to a duke like him. It didn’t seem to be the case to Yukhei.
“Is your sister like you?”
“No.” She shook her head fervently, a bitter smile painting her lips. “My little sister is the complete opposite of me, so she’s the favoured one at home. My parents are absolutely in love with her, they adore her,” she added honestly, exchanging a glance with Mark who became all too quiet. He knew how was it like with her and her family, but of course the duke had no idea.
“Why is she the favoured one? I do not believe that there is anything wrong with you,” he elaborated with a concerned look, his words making her heart churn. How could he still be so innocent and warm-hearted when his father had practically abandoned him and had sent his mother away?
“My little sister is very likable. She’s chatty, she’s extroverted, she’s sociable, has a strong will and shares similar interests with my parents while I’m more on the shy and introverted side and I’ve never really had any topic to talk about with my parents,” she confessed.
However, as she looked at the boy, she immediately felt her heart sink because all she could see was pain and disappointment and confusion. She felt as if he had been angry and frustrated for her and if he could have just stood up from the table and do something, he would do so. Tiny little stars of affection were shining brightly on the sky of his chestnut brown orbs, shimmering mesmerized, making her a bit dizzy.
“I believe you are a very good person. Regardless of what your family thinks about you,” Yukhei broke the silence and the eye-contact with her, looking down at his soup and taking a huge sip from it.
Lara felt a bit suffocated all of a sudden, not knowing what to do with herself. Did this duke who had known nothing about her defend her? Did he just tell her something that she wished she could have heard so many times before? How could he detect something like this? How could he sense her true feelings?
Or he might have been just lucky to say the right things. Who knew?
“Anyway, let’s talk about what we should do with you,” she told to Yukhei but Mark’s eyebrows were also raised. “I mean, obviously you are someone from the past, so you have nowhere to go. We have enough space here, you can stay, but you really should get yourself a job or do something because we might not be able to pay for your share as well. I mean, we are already on student loans,” she explained a bit nervously, but her rational part might not have been her worst part. After all, it would probably save them this time from further headache, so that was good, right?
“I think I could get him a job,” Mark chirped in gleefully. “I mean, not me, but Johnny. You know he works at that café not far from the uni. He has mentioned that they are short on people, so I might be able to convince him to get Yukhei in,” he suggested with a wide smile, and upon seeing the glance they shared with the said boy, Lara had a feeling that Yukhei had met Johnny the previous night.
“Do you think that would be okay? Wouldn’t Johnny want to have his documents and such?” she inquired, biting down on her lower lip. There were so many things wrong with the fact that the boy sitting in front of her should have been long dead, therefore he had no ID, no residence, nothing… He was practically a historical person to the rest of the world meant to be dead by now.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. He’s already believed that Yukhei has escaped from his crazy family in the UK and now he’s here to start a new life, so maybe if I just ask him not to look for his documents, I think he wouldn’t oppose,” Mark reassured her with a wide smile as he always did when she got worked up and totally worried by something, and she only needed that smile of his and she felt like the world was a bit of a better place.
“Do not worry, lady. I will make myself useful,” Yukhei added with a charming smile to which she couldn’t help but blush a bit.
“Please, you don’t have to call me lady. Lara is perfectly fine,” she pointed out, embarrassed to be called like a woman in her 40s a few decades ago.
“Lady Lara then…”
“No, just Lara is okay,” she corrected him, Yukhei nodding to her words seriously. Mark had a blast listening to their little conversation and his cheeky grin only earned another kick in his shin. This time, Yukhei nearly fell over the boy when he wanted to examine the source of his pain but Mark said that it was just some kind of a seasonal pain in his leg, nothing that he should worry about.
Hearing that, Yukhei retreated to his seat and to his breakfast much to the delight of Lara and the reassurance of Mark.
It was indeed not easy with someone who had been from a different century.
Wong Yukhei had known how to ride a horse, he had read many more books than Lara and Mark had ever read combined, he had known how to speak eloquently and he had known how to conduct a debate as professionally as if it had been what he had been doing all his life. He had his way with words that seemed sometimes overly polite and unnecessarily sugarcoated, he even had a walk of someone royal and he would have preferred shirts and suits over T-shirts and jeans but he would have looked too much like a fancy lawyer if he had looked like that all the time.
He had needed to be told what the internet is, what a cellphone is, he had needed to be shown how to use the tv, the toast maker, the microwave, even the lights in the bathroom that only lit up when someone entered the room, so he didn’t need to try and turn them off by himself (he had tried and it hadn’t gone well). He had needed to be shown the new kinds of foods and drinks, he had needed to be told about today’s trends and how universities and university classes had worked.
He had been curious though, ever so eager to learn about this whole new world, and if anything, his enthusiasm and open-mindedness had made Lara admire him even more. She wasn’t sure that she would have been able to be so okay with a whole different world that was more advanced and probably more odd than the one he had been a part of before.
So may it be because he had indeed been from a different century and he had a very different mindset, but he had definitely put her mind at ease a lot of times: when she had made a mistake, when someone had cat-called her on the streets, when she had been the one to do all the work during a group work and such occasions. Yukhei had seemed to have a few reassuring words to say every single time, and they had been like remedy to her tired heart. This crazy and busy world that was built on criticism, disapproval, insane expectations and useless competition should have definitely made a lot of use of his knowledge.
So she shouldn’t have been that surprised that Yukhei had his opinion on beauty and the beauty standards these days as he had accompanied Lara to go jogging in the nearby park and he had been dumbfounded by the number of people who had been there and whom he had caught sight of exercising, not to mention the weight loss ads on the billboards and such. Lara explained to him that nowadays everyone was obsessed with weight and dieting, the society telling everyone that they were never enough, they could never be good enough or successful enough or thin enough.
“There’s no such thing as ideal beauty. People are beautiful because they are different,” Yukhei mused out loud, keeping his eyes on the girl who felt suddenly so small and insignificant.
There was definitely a different kind of aura to him whenever he was talking so seriously, and Lara caught herself being immersed in the colour of his eyes, the curve of his lips and the slight curliness of his locks at times like this. She was trying to tell herself that it was only because he had been someone completely out of their world, but she couldn’t deny that Yukhei had a whole different effect on her than most boys did.
“I think a lot of people would be happy to hear that,” she remarked instead, averting her eyes to the lake in the middle of the park.
“You included?” Yukhei asked gently, his words almost a whisper. The way he ever so softly asked such a question made her heart skip a beat. How could someone so pure yet intellectual ever exist? Chivalry may not have been dead, but she only knew about it because of a boy who had been from the 1840s.
“Yes, me included.” She nodded, a bitter smile painting her lips.
Who was perfectly satisfied with their looks nowadays? People tended to believe what they had heard if they had heard it so many times, and she had had her fair share of ups and downs regarding her body image, not to mention the criticism from her own parents. It had been really difficult for her to start loving herself and her body when she had only gotten nasty remarks on her looks. Though thanks to a best friend like Mark Lee, she had been almost reborn from all those critics.
“Well then…” Yukhei broke the momentary silence, and there was something in his voice that made her turn her head in his direction. “I am telling you that you are beautiful in your own way,” he confessed genuinely, lips curling upwards into a gentle, loving smile.
Lara found it difficult to breathe for a moment, her lips parting slightly at the force the words would have wanted to escape her mouth. Yet, her heart was so weak and so very fragile in that moment that she felt like she wouldn’t be able to get across what she really wanted to say. Because it was hard to put into words the way her heart warmed upon hearing his words, the way she was filled up with a giddy feeling as she was keeping the eye-contact with him and the way his beautiful star-filled eyes took her breath away.
“Thank you,” she mumbled instead, hands reaching to tuck a loose strand of her behind her ear. She didn’t consider herself a bashful person but beside Wong Yukhei, she seemed to be more shy than ever before.
“Anytime,” the duke replied with a smile that would be able to bring all the shiniest of stars to the canvas of the pitch-black sky and make it as bright as possible, bringing hope and love for a new day, for the time when the sun would rise and the next morning would arrive.
That was who he was though: a boy stuck in a new world but having the manners of a true duke, words as elegant as if they were hand-crafted, gestures genuine and polite, eyes beautiful like the blooming flowers in spring, smiles heartwarming like the sight of the setting sun on the horizon and presence as much of a remedy as a plaster on her wounded heart.
Soon, Yukhei’s presence didn’t seem that odd anymore, and they fell into a new, different routine given that the duke had started working at the café Mark had mentioned, and so with his shift and Mark and Lara’s university classes, they needed to calculate who would be at home and when. Yet, since it had been complicated to always try to arrange things, so that someone would let Yukhei into the house, they had decided to give a key to the boy as well and tell him the password to the alarm system.
Lara had tried her best to be rational about the situation and she had had many sleepless nights pondering how they could make Yukhei’s story as believable as possible but they couldn’t have just gone to the immigration office and tell them that he was a man from the XIXth century and ask for some documents with which he could actually be considered a legal person in the country.
Anyway, she had decided to not sweat the small stuff since it wasn’t that likely for the police to come and knock on their door, asking for Yukhei’s documents, and since he had seemed to be doing well at the café and they hadn’t really cared about his background due to his connection to Johnny, she had tried to be at ease with the fact that a duke from 200 years ago had landed on their grass one day and had stayed with them ever since. Not like she would want to get rid of him, of course not.
She had grown fond of the way the boy’s eyes widened whenever he had heard some kind of a new information, the way his mellow lips curled into a sunshine-like smile whenever he had succeeded at making anything from an edible omelette to fixing Mark’s bicycle, the way he had ever so quickly tried to help whenever she had gone grocery shopping and had arrived at the flat with more bags than needed, the way he had such a different mindset from anyone she had ever met and the way him and Mark had seemed to be so casual and playful around each other. It had been enough for her to just look at their interactions and it had already made her days.
As time went by, Yukhei had seemed more and more confident using modern technology and getting used to his new life, but may it be because of his workload or the fact that he had been used to a whole different world, but Lara hadn’t been that surprised when he had first fallen ill.
At first, he hadn’t really had an appetite during breakfast and since he had been such a big eater, she had been suspicious, yet when he had come home from work and he had been as pale as the white walls around him, Lara had immediately ordered him to rest while she would be making some soup for him.
That’s how she ended up in Mark’s room while Mark was away for an evening class, overlooking Yukhei as he was trying to consume her soup as much as possible. She glanced at him, worry taking over her. What if this was all too much for him? After all, he must have been living not only a totally different life as a duke who had been shipped off to a whole different country while being fed lies, but also he must have been having different climate, different economy, different transportation, different everything back then. He hadn’t even worked all his life before taking on this job at the café.
She sat on her heels beside the boy and smiled at him fondly when he handed her the empty bowl. She placed it on the ground and watched as he made himself comfortable on his mattress, covering himself with his blanket, his chestnut brown eyes not leaving her face.
She felt a bit uncomfortable under the intense gaze of the boy, but he looked so pale and so weak, she couldn’t even think about leaving him alone. Mark had always been the chatty and overdramatic sick, she had always felt like playing his mother whenever he had fallen ill, yet he couldn’t have shut up and complain about everything from the flavour of the soup she had made him or the coldness of the tea she had handed him for drinking. On the other hand, Yukhei was totally quiet, eyelids heavy, all the colours drained from his face, yet he didn’t seem like he wanted to go to sleep.
“Would you sing something to me?” he asked suddenly, his voice coming out raspy. As he blinked at her with his big doe eyes, she didn’t find the will in herself to go against his wish, so even though she didn’t consider herself a good singer, she decided to sing a song to him, one that was close to her heart and one that she had been listening to a lot when she was down.
“It sounds like you are still woeful,” Yukhei concluded after a moment of silence when she finished her song, and she let her lips curl a tad bit upwards hearing his words.
“A bit.” She nodded, letting out a long, weary sigh. “I’ve broken up with my boyfriend a few months ago and sometimes it still hurts,” she admitted, averting her eyes elsewhere but the boy’s face. She was so afraid that he would look through her, look into her heart and soul that she didn’t dare to look at him. That didn’t mean that he was of the same opinion.
“He must be woeful, too,” Yukhei whispered gently, and it was so pure of him to think that her ex-boyfriend had still been thinking about her. Her ex had already been thinking about someone else when they had still been dating, so that was probably not the case.
“I’m pretty sure he’s not. He was the one who broke up with me.”
“He should be woeful,” Yukhei insisted nevertheless, and he said it with such pain and hurt that Lara couldn’t help but look back at him. “He has lost a beautiful soul,” he whispered ever so affectionately and her breath was caught in her throat.
She needed to fight back the tears that were about to surface because she had felt so guilty for trusting her ex-boyfriend and she had hated herself so much for not seeing the signs in time. She hadn’t even thought about being someone who hadn’t been worthy of her ex-boyfriend’s cheating, she had just blamed and blamed herself, yet there was this boy who had known nothing about her relationship and made her see the whole story from a whole different perspective. While Mark was the frustrated, wanting to punch that guy kind of friend when he had heard about their break-up, Yukhei’s response was gentle, pure and loving.
Yukhei then reached for her hands that were resting on her thighs and held them as if he was afraid that she would run away if he didn’t anchor her, and the look they exchanged said it all: all those stars on the sky of his chestnut brown orbs, all the little diamonds shining in the jewelry box of his soul and all those memories hidden underneath all his polite actions and all those casual smiles. He was being honest, the only question that was left was whether he felt the same kind of love towards her than she had done so towards him?
As promised, Lara decided to visit the café Yukhei worked at with Johnny, and since Mark was the one who always hang out at this café and she had never been there before, the two of them went together on a fine Wednesday afternoon when they both finished with their class at the same time.
When they arrived, Yukhei was busy taking orders and didn’t look their way, so they found an unoccupied table for themselves and sat down. Mark couldn’t stop grinning from the moment they stepped into the place, and even if he was a cheerful and smiley guy in general, she took it upon herself to ask about the reason behind his sudden burst of joy.
“Why are you grinning like that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…” He shrugged his shoulders, but she saw through him. As she kept her eyes on him, he put his elbows down on the table and leaned closer to her as if he was sharing secret. “I was just wondering how easily you gave in to visit this café now that Yukhei also works here. Before, you never really wanted to come even though Johnny also works here,” he pointed out oh so cheekily, and she felt the need to wipe that grin off his face. Sometimes his honesty was a true blessing while other times it backfired and she didn’t actually enjoy being hit by his bullets.
“Well, two reasons are more than just one,” she tried to respond as witty as possible, but she knew that he was right, and that knowing smirk of his said it all, too.
“I’m just saying that I’ve noticed that you’ve softened towards this very gentleman from a different century, and I guess there’s more to you being here than just having two reasons that are more than just one, so I’m just wondering why you’ve never told him that you actually li-” he chattered endlessly as Yukhei was approaching their table and just when he was about to say the word she had been afraid to say out loud (it would have been even worse if the duke had misunderstood the situation), she kicked her best friend in the shin again - gently but still powerful enough for him to focus on the pain instead of his initial sentence. “Ouch!”
“Hey, are you alright, Mark?” Yukhei inquired with a worried smile as he saw Mark holding onto his leg.
“Yeah, yeah, sure. Must be because of those years when I was playing football,” he gritted through his teeth accompanied by a nervous laughter and a glare exchanged with Lara. She merely smiled sweetly at him, putting on a poker face as if she knew nothing.
“What can I get for you then?” Yukhei continued after making sure that the boy was doing fine, and Mark was quick to move on and make his order.
“I want-”
“Ladies first!” The duke reminded him ever so confidently and while it would have been fine under any other circumstances, Yukhei’s polite manners only added more fuel to the fire that Mark had started before, his smirk deepening as he watched closely the interaction between Lara and Yukhei.
“I would like a caramel frappe,” she decided after looking at the menu for a bit and turned to the boy with a soft smile. The way Yukhei looked back at her was ever so eager and ever so joyful, that beaming smile of his was truly one kind of a sight to behold. It was the kind of smile that made someone’s day a little brighter just by looking at it, and she would have been able to get lost in his beautiful smile and even more beautiful chestnut brown orbs if it hadn’t been for this slightly uncomfortable situation and the watching gaze of her best friend’s.
“And I want a latte macchiato,” Mark spoke up when Yukhei jotted down her order and turned to him.
“I will be right back,” the waiter boy promised with the widest smile possible and walked away from their table. Both of them looked as he giddily made his way between tables and between the gazes of other female customers.
Lara couldn’t not notice how the other girls looked in the boy’s direction, and even if she had wanted to turn a blind eye and not care about it, her heart had already abandoned her and didn’t let her have a peace of mind. Why was she jealous about them though? Not like she had been Yukhei’s girlfriend. Not like the duke hadn’t been as polite with everyone as he had been with her and Mark. It was just who he was, and while it was probably fluttering for anyone to be so respected and cared for, she was sure that he would have done the same with anyone else.
“Now I know why Johnny says that he’s popular with the girls.” Mark let out a whistle as he looked in the boy’s direction who had walked back to the counter. No matter how much she would have wanted to deny something like this, she couldn’t have gone against his words.
“I’m not surprised. He’s a real charmer after all.” Lara shrugged her shoulders, wanting to move on from the topic but Mark just couldn’t let it slide.
“In a good way or in a bad way?”
“Girls like when a boy is as polite as him, so I’m pretty sure his manners leave an impression on the female customers,” she elaborated while keeping the eye-contact with her best friend, not backing away from the slight tug of war he had triggered. While he had been inquiring and sending her gazes these days, it was the first time he had oh so casually dropped such comments. Maybe it was because this was the first time she really did something that made him question her emotions towards the duke.
“Did he leave an impression on you, too?” Mark quirked an eyebrow in question, cheekiness tinting his cheeks a shade of pink. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a weary sigh.
“Why does that matter, Mark?”
“I’m just curious, that’s all.” He waved his hands in front of him as if he was trying to brush aside the accusation that anything other than curiosity must have been behind his question. “Plus, he’s a lot better than your douchebag of a guy ex-boyfriend,” he blurted out casually but when he saw that expression on her face, he immediately sucked in a deep breath. “You know what I mean. It’s not your fault that he has cheated on you,” he added gently, his voice a bit timid after his previous cheekiness.
Though Lara knew that he meant nothing bad by bringing up her ex-boyfriend and comparing him to Yukhei because Yukhei was really nothing like that jerk. If anything, he was the complete opposite of him, and she knew that if nothing horrific happens to the duke, then he would probably stay the same kind of guy with a big, golden heart and that wide smile of his.
Yukhei came just at this time to bring their orders and when he put the drinks down on the table, he noticed the sudden change in the mood.
“Why are you both so woeful?” he asked, his big doe eyes wide in worry. Mark merely let out a laughter in response and hearing her best friend’s words, she herself couldn’t help but smile at the boys’ conversation.
“Dude, why do you always say woeful?” Mark asked between two giggles to which Yukhei reacted in the same way.
“I do not know. Maybe it is because of my past,” he admitted giddily and stayed a bit more at their table, Mark teasing him about his choice of words while Lara was trying to defend the duke by saying that he was merely using an extensive vocabulary much to Mark’s delight because he sure took it as a sign that she felt more towards the boy than he would have liked to admit.
However, Mark didn’t bring up the topic until they were heading home and leaving Yukhei to focus on his work after both of them had drank their coffees and talked through everything that had been left out due to the fact that they had been busy with their classes.
“You know, I’m not teasing you with a bad intention. I just want to see you happy,” Mark confessed, a friendly smile painting his lips. Lara turned to him, a grateful one taking place on her own lips.
“I know, and I’m very thankful for that. You are the bestest best friend anyone could ask for.”
“Of course, I know that,” the boy replied playfully and she smacked him in chest but only because she knew that he wouldn’t get mad at her. He would never. They had been through so much together that such childish acts could never be able to set them apart.
Living with Yukhei was definitely a fun one, but since he had such a golden heart and he tried to be as polite with everyone as possible, it was difficult for Lara to decide if he felt more towards her or he was merely being a real gentleman. She tried to look for signs and possible red flags, yet she had to realize after a while that she didn’t really see how he acted towards other girls and if he did, it was during working hours, so as a waiter, of course, he needed to be polite.
Needless to say, Mark kept glancing in her direction every time Yukhei made breakfast for them and he put down the plate in front of her or whenever Yukhei asked if she craved tea when she got home from an evening class. They had started to get to know each other’s habits and preferences, and while Mark had gotten the duke into eating cereal for breakfast, she was the one who drank green tea with the duke and talked about books they had read. Having book discussions had never seemed more fun, and truth to be told, Lara could see a whole new side of this boy, of someone who was so intellectual and so open-minded, it really warmed her heart.
With every conversation they had, with every glance they shared, with every interaction they had no matter if it was him helping her out with the dishes or their arms brushing together at the dinner table, she felt like falling for him more and more, and it was the kind of uncertain, slight yet continuous falling that she had been so afraid of. She was terrified of uncertainty, terrified of having her heart broken again and terrified of questioning her worth yet again.
On the other hand, it was crazy. Yukhei was the softest, most caring, most heartwarming person, and he would never be able to hurt her. At least, not intentionally, that was for sure.
So when Mark had once mentioned that according to Yukhei’s historical profile page the boy’s birthday was coming up, she had decided to put off her questions regarding Yukhei’s feelings and they had started working on preparing a little surprise party for him. They had been sure that he would be touched anyway because birthday parties hadn’t really been a thing back then as he had confessed when they had been watching tv once.
However, they hadn’t expected that after the boy’s initial shock and bewilderment when he saw all those balloons in the tiny living room of theirs and the birthday cake they had made together with Mark, he would burst into tears.
“Oh bro, don’t cry! I’ll cry, too,” Mark mentioned jokingly but Lara knew all too well that he was being totally serious. He was the type of person who cried every single time someone cried around him.
“It’s just…” Yukhei tried to find the right words between two nervous giggles, wiping off his tears. It was so heartwarming how someone from a different century who had slowly found his place in this whole new world - getting used to its customs and advanced devices and getting used to using informal speech more often than not - seemed totally touched by something so simple as a little birthday party. “No one has ever done anything like this for me,” he admitted coyly as he kept looking at Mark and Lara back and forth.
“Dude, you have us now. We’ll do it every year, don’t worry!” Mark stepped closer to him to pat his shoulder and directed a wide smile at him.
“Mark’s right. You deserve it,” she added genuinely, fighting back the urge to shed a few tears. The way Yukhei looked back at them was worth all the stress they had had over the birthday cake’s making, over the preparations and the actual gift she had come up with, but when he hugged them both at the same time, it really felt like not only Yukhei but all three of them had found their place a bit better.
“Alright, enough of being mushy. Let’s eat the cake now!” Mark announced to break the sentimental mood and everyone let out an airy laughter afterwards.
After that, they all sat down by the table to eat from the cake that had actually turned out better than either of them could have expected. While eating, Yukhei kept asking about the way people celebrated birthdays nowadays, and what was appropriate to wish for as he blew the candles and what was not. He even told them that he had wished that Mark and Lara could be the happiest people on Earth even though Mark had told him that he should have kept it a secret. Yukhei merely laughed it off with that adorable laugh of his, and Lara couldn’t help but wish for the same for him. And for things to stay the way they were because it was perfect in her opinion.
It was really fun, Lara didn’t even know if she had ever had such a fun birthday party with only just three people but the number really didn’t matter, it mattered more whom she was with. Time passed by quickly, and it was Mark first who decided to go and take a shower before retreating to bed, leaving Lara and Yukhei by themselves.
“Thank you for the birthday party and your gift. It really means a lot to me,” Yukhei told her yet again, keeping his chestnut brown eyes on hers.
“I just hoped you would like it,” she confessed coyly, thinking back to the days she had been thinking over and over what she could get him. Since Mark had decided on clothes (he had been the one who had first accompanied him, thus he knew Yukhei’s basic sizes), she wanted to come up with something more personal, and so she had decided to buy a book on generation Z and their way of thinking, hoping it would shed some light to him on how people around her and Mark were thinking and acting in general.
They just kept gazing at each other without saying a word, and Lara felt so shy under that gaze of his. Her heart was threatening to jump out of her ribcage and she was trying hard to not to let her erratic breathing be shown. There was just something in the way he looked at her so closely, so affectionately, so hopefully that she felt like she could even get him the stars if he just kept looking at her like that. It was crazy. Since when did she feel something so intensively?
She was glad when it was the boy who decided to break the silence first.
“I have a question, but I’m not sure if it’s inappropriate to ask, so I’ve asked Mark and he said that it is,” Yukhei started and bit into his lower lip. He looked at her under his long, delicate eyelashes, and no matter how nervous she was, she encouraged him to speak his mind.
“So my question is…” Yukhei stopped and took in a deep breath, making her heart pick up its speed. She gulped nervously, waiting for the continuation. “Would you like to go on a date with me?” he blurted out without further hesitation, and her heart literally skipped a beat, her lips parted upon hearing the question.
“Yes, I’d like to,” she said almost immediately, not even believing that she had just said the words out loud, but seeing the boy’s wide, reassured smile just made her more certain that she had made the right choice. Why wouldn’t she say no anyway? She liked everything with him.
She liked living with him, she liked having him around, she liked bumping into him when she was coming out of the bathroom and he was having his third midnight snack of the day, she liked listening to his stories that showed the true colour of him, she liked watching him as he oh so intriguingly watched tv, she liked eating his omelette that had now become a trademark breakfast of his and she just liked being beside him or watching as he slept safe and sound. She liked him and to know that he liked her back, there was no better feeling.
So even if he was a duke from a different century, even if he was a very different boy from anyone she had ever met before, she knew that her heart was in safe hands with him, and dating such a boy was really one kind of a ride, a fun, heartwarming and sweet one - accompanied by supportive friends such as Mark and shippers like Johnny. He might have been struck by lighting but maybe life had decided to give him another chance and it was to have a whole new life and a whole new meaning with Lara by his side.