The second chapter's rewritten version, with better format.
I still haven't gotten very far with the drawn version of this chapter...
Mostly I'm stuck on what clothes to give Lan during the first part.

Fair Game

'Her thoughts whirring around her emotional dilemma regarding Wicked and Gui, Lan chooses a rather daring step...'

All characters belong to Yu Wo, CatMuto does not own 1/2 Prince

At XX University, the last lesson of the day was coming to an end for the literature majors. Once the bell rang, they'd be free to roam the city as they liked and were already with their minds elsewhere. The warm weather was making concentrating particularly hard, the sunlight spilling into the room and illuminating it, heating up the students and making them longingly think of ice cream or the swimming pool. Amongst the many students not paying attention was Feng Lan, although she wasn't thinking the same as the others were. She wasn't even aware that the sun was beginning to burn the back of her neck.
"...since nobody is listening anymore, we'll end today a bit earlier." Min said exasperated and closed the book in his hands, the sound waking almost every student out of their stupor. Although it was only by about two minutes, they were happy to get out earlier, and the volume in the classroom increased steadily, friends calling to others where to meet or what to do later as they packed their stuff together. Min was among the first batch of students to leave, knowing that if he daddled even a second, half a dozen female students would suddenly teleport to his desk and ask him out to go for a round of karaoke or to the arcades, even some mix-parties. But with him leaving, the girls, who were thinking of doing exactly what he had feared, sighed heavily, their plans foiled.
"Hey, Lan, school's over." Jing said and looked at her friend, her head still in her hands and staring at the white desk beneath her. Bending down, Jing even snapped her fingers in front of Lan's face a few times, but to no avail.
"Lan?" Yun asked and bent his knees slightly to look into her face. Lan's eyes were slightly unfocused, but somehow concentrated on some random spot on her desk. Jing and Yun finally shrugged their shoulders, thinking that if anything was really wrong, Lan would not stay silent about it. So they decided to just leave her be and go home, ready to bombard her with calls in the evening, demanding to know what was going on.
When she was the only person left in the room, Lan sighed slightly and leaned back into her chair, beginning to tip back and forth on the hind legs. She let her head hang over the backrest and stared up at the white ceiling, oblivious to the thousands of tiny dots on it.

"The one you love, it's Prince, right?" Lan asked and twirled the coffee cup between her hands, barely daring to look up. Min across from her started in slight surprise and looked at her, but finally nodded with a little color rising in his cheeks. The girl frowned slightly. "Won't you... regret it? Prince is a man, after all."
"Regret? Never." he answered immediately. He looked at his hands, like he was seeing something invisible to her, and finally shook his head, his eyes growing gentle, but serious. "Prince is... like a rose. Beautiful, but with its thorns. If I had first known about those thorns, I'd never have dared to pick it up. But now that I have, I have also seen its true beauty and sweet fragrance... even if I tried, I cannot put it down anymore. And I don't want to, either."
Both were quiet for a while and then Min blushed, laughing selfconciously.
"Sorry, that must've sounded strange."
Lan shook her head slightly, ignoring how her heart began to beat faster at his words.

"Zhuo-gégé?"
"Mh?"
Lan squirmed on the bench a little bit, scratching the stoney ground with her sneakers a bit. Her finger was beating steadily against the bag that held her fries and she took a deep breath before going on.
"Do you like me?" she asked and heard a quiet gasp from her friend. Slowly, she dared to glance at him and saw that his ears had gotten quiet red. Zhuo stared at the ground for a bit, then looking at her for a second before returning to the ground again.
"Yes, for the past eight years."
"But, am I really worth that? I mean, what if I don't...?"
"You are worth any wait." he said with a strong voice. He scratched his neck in an embarrassed fashion and got up, looking up at the dark sky. "The sunflower patiently awaits the sun's presence. It faces wind and rain, always waiting for the sun's warming smile. Never regretting, however long it might have to wade through that painful time."
"Sunflower, huh..." Lan mumbled and ate a french fry, barely tasting anything, but glad to have something to do with her hand.

Lan's tipping of the chair slowed down, into a steady rhythm matching her heartbeat. She was completely ignorant of the golden sunlight as the sun began to set. And she closed her eyes. Both of those confessions, no matter how strange the metaphors were, had really shaken her up. Both were talking about her, but in such different ways that... somehow, it sounded like they were actually talking about somebody entirely different.
Still tipping, Lan sighed and tried to calm down. She wanted to sort through her memories some more, see her train of thoughts through to the end and then ponder if her decision, of which she wasn't entirely sure of yet, was the right one. Although, if she had already come to a decision, didn't that mean that she was just prolonging the moment she would have to follow up on it?

Heaving a large sigh, Lan took her gaming headband off and let it flop onto the matress.
"If I didn't have my beloved Meatbun..." she muttered and got out of bed, stretching, thinking of the horror that was called a ship. For the past three in-game days, she had been stuck on a ship that was currently transporting her, rather against her will, to the eastern continent. And as she had left the soil of the center continent, there was no way she could PM Lolidragon, Wolf or Yu Lian or anybody who could somehow help her out.
Thankfully, after only a day she had spent scrubbing the deck - after the sailors had taken her money under the guise of transport costs - her pet had made itself noticeable. Crying because it was hungry, Meatbun had actually saved Lan and her sanity. So she gladly shared her food with her pet, happy to have somebody to talk to who wasn't an NPC sailor or an NPC trader off to find some new goods.
From what she had heard, the next time she logged on, the ship will have reached its destination and she would be able to get off of it... stranded in a place she didn't know. Then Lan could... no idea, she would still be incapable of PMing anybody who would be of help.
"Ah, how to tell the guys what happened...?" she sighed. "...well, at least I won't have to be the one to give Yu Lian the news!"
Almost like her mind was being read, the phone rang at that exact moment. Rushing into the hallway, Lan picked it up immediately. And Zhuo was on the line.
"Xiao Lan, where are you? Everyone's waiting."
"Zhuo-gégé! It's so good to hear your voice...!" Lan said, her voice breaking slightly.
"A-ah... anyway, what's going on?"
"Um, I'm, like, a stone's throw away from the eastern continent..."
"...how did you get there?"
"Well I... um, actually... I have no idea how this happened." Lan admitted, laughing selfconsciously. "I was out drinking with Nan Gong Zui and Kong Kong and... my memory's kinda blurry, they kept ordering more drinks and I kept up... I think we had a friendly brawl in the city, but... really, I don't know how or when I got onto that ship. I woke up while it was in the middle of the ocean."
Finishing her story, Lan waited for Zhuo to say something. But the silence on the other end of the line was so thick, the girl held the phone away from her ear to check the display to see if the call was still connected. A split second later, she was glad she had pulled the phone away.
"Are you insane!?" Zhuo's angry voice suddenly yelled and was heard very well, despite the distance between ear and phone at that moment. "You're a girl! You can't just go drinking with two guys, especially without knowing them too well! Completely unprotected! You have any idea what could've happened to you!?"
"But I'm not a girl in-game."
The silence returned, but now with an icy air almost seeping through the line and freezing Lan at the spot. Clearly, Zhuo had found her smartass retort not at all funny. The girl finally sighed.
"I'm sorry, Zhuo-gégé. I'll be careful. Could you tell the guys where I am?"
"Sure..."

Yu Lian's icy stare made Prince refuse to move in the chair he was sitting in. Not that he would've dared to move anyway, considering the very lengthy scolding Yu Lian had just finished giving him, after he returned from the eastern continent after 'three weeks, twenty-one days' as she had kindly reminded him.
Like he would forget. But he knew that any false movement right now could mean the end of him. Yu Lian wasn't just displeased or angry with him, she was furious. Because for once she had ditched her serene smile and shown her dark feelings.
"You have learned, haven't you?" she asked.
"Yes'm..."
"Good. Then this sort of thing will never. Happen. Again." the mage gave him a last glare and turned her back on him, leaving the room and was quickly followed by her husband and various other people. The elf waited a few seconds and then allowed himself to relax, almost melting off the chair, and heaved a huge relieved sigh.
Her anger was really, really bad. But he was glad that he had brought that tiny piece of that gemstone from the eastern continent. Actually, luckily that turned out to be worth a lot, otherwise... he didn't want to imagine what she might've been like had he not brought anything 'worthwhile' back.
"Your Highness!" Gui's voice called, reminding the elf of his presence. Then the bard suddenly hugged him tightly, almost lifting him off his feet. "Gui has missed you so much!"
"Gui!" Prince replied in the same happy tone and punched the bard away. "I missed you, too! Especially beating you up! I'm so happy I can do that again!"
"Anything His Highness wants..." Gui coughed, mastering the pain.
"Nah, I'm really glad to be back."
"Well then, welcome home." he told the elf and managed to get him to smile.

"Prince, I'm sorry."
The elf looked surprised at Gui, currently looking very beaten up with bruises forming on him and especially on the back where Prince had stomped on him once out of frustration. Frowning, Prince cocked his head to the side.
"What are you apologizing for?" he asked, wondering how weird it was for the one who just got beaten up to be apologizing to the beat-upper. It was such a strange thing to do.
"I promise, I won't pry into your affairs again."
Prince kneeled onto the floor to be on the same eye-level as Gui and frowned some more, wondering what he meant. Earlier, Gui had found out that Prince was not who he thought he was in real life. Actually, he had confused him with his brother... not that Prince felt any desire to inform Gui about that. Quite the opposite. He would be quite happy if the bard wouldn't ask anything about his real identity... which he was sort of promising at that moment.
"So... you don't want to know who I am in real life?" he asked.
"No, that's not it." Gui answered, shaking his head slightly and then his eyes grew serious, an expression not often seen on him. "But it doesn't matter to me who Prince is in real life. Who you are in-game is your real personality. So it doesn't matter. No matter what gender or age or anything... Prince will always be Prince to me."

Lan put the chair back onto all four legs with a loud clunk when she stopped tipping it suddenly. Her neck was protesting against the whack it got, but she didn't seem to register it. Slowly opening her eyes, she turned her head to the side and got blinded by the sun setting right in front of her. Somehow, she felt like she had wasted her time. Thinking things through had only proven her point to herself again, had firmed her decision that she had come to much earlier. But there was still that sense of worry...
When her phone suddenly went off, Lan almost jumped a foot and quickly grabbed it, answering the caller who was ripping her out of her very important thoughts.
"Sis, where are you?" Yang Ming whined and yelled into her ear at the same time. Taking a quick look at her watch, Lan noticed that she must've spent hours here without really taking note of it. Getting up, she grabbed her bag. "You're not home from school, there's no dinner prepared and I'm hungry... Hurry up and come home, Zhuo's worried, too!"
"Y-" Lan began to yell at him, annoyed that he was much more concerned about food than about her actual well-being for 'missing', but she quickly gave up. It wouldn't change anything, anyway. "I'm going home now, you won't starve. Call Zhuo and tell him I'm fine."
"Tell him yourself..." Yang told her before hanging up.
Lan sighed. That probably meant that Yang, not knowing where she was, had called Zhuo and asked him if he knew anything. Since he didn't, he got worried and looked around, finally deciding to wait at home with Yang when she did come home.
As she was on her way back, Lan took a quick detour to a take-away place and buying some food. What with spending all this time in school, thinking about serious things and making decisions, she felt exhausted, but also energized and in no mood to do any cooking when she entered her home. And Yang wouldn't care, food was food. But there was still that worry in the back of her mind, making her wonder if her decision was right after all... although she was rather determined to do it now, so any time spent on worrying was wasted.
"You're home! And you brought food!"
That was what Yang called out when Lan had stuck her keys into the door, which was then instantly ripped open by her brother. Getting in, Lan thrusted the bag from the take-away into Yang's hands, rushed into the living room where she threw her bag onto the couch and already started to head into her room, giving Zhuo only a quick nod when she saw him.
"What about-"
"Not hungry!" Lan called and closed her door, sitting down on the bed and putting the gaming headband on. She quickly lay down, not bothering to change her clothes or get underneath the blanket. She just wanted to log in as fast as possible.

Taking a deep breath, Prince held it for a few seconds and then exhaled, knocking his knuckles against the door a few times. He was hoping that Wolf's information was correct and he would find Gui here. A dull answer from inside was heard and Prince opened the door, stepping into the office. The bard was sitting at the wooden desk, surrounded by blueprints for future expansions and designs.
"You got a minute?" Prince asked, worried that he might've interrupted a brilliant thought.
"I've always got time for Your Highness!" Gui answered in a happy tone and tensed slightly, waiting for the elf to lash out at him about that whole 'Highness' stuff again. But he didn't. Instead, Prince entered the room and shut the door behind himself, leaning against it. Doubts were nagging at him again. Maybe his decision wasn't such a good one, after all. He had rushed to get online and find Gui, so that he wouldn't have time to second-guess himself. But even if he had waited, he would've just made things worse.
"Do you want to meet me?"
The words were out before Prince could somehow tell his brain to stop his mouth from running off. But now that he said it, the silence in the room was so tense. The elf barely allowed himself to breathe, he waited for Gui to say something or do something.
"What?" Gui finally asked. He wanted to hear him again. To make sure that what he had just heard was real and not a trick of his ears. Prince sighed and slid down the door a little bit.
"Do you want to meet me? In real life, I mean." he repeated a little louder this time. He scratched the floor with his feet. "If you don't want to, that's okay."
"No, I-I mean, of course I do!" the bard said, happy to know that he hadn't misheard him. But he tried to keep his hopes low, in case Prince was playing a mean prank on him or something. For so long, Prince had forbidden Gui from asking any questions about his real identity, yelled or hit him for even mentioning anything that came close to the topic of meet-ups. So Gui had promised not to pry or ask anything anymore - and now here was Prince, suggesting a meeting himself! It... it was almost too good to be true.
"Um, do you have any concrete plans in mind or...?" Gui asked when Prince remained quiet except for a quick nod when the meeting was agreed upon. Now, the elf stood straight, pushing himself away from the door.
"Not really. Just soon." he admitted and scratched the back of his neck. "And someplace where we're alone and no-one interrupts us while we talk..." Gui wondered what was going on in Prince's head. After refusing so long, he was suddenly expressing a desire to meet Gui in real life and the sooner the better, without anyone close-by to bother them... what was driving him so? Any attempt to read Prince's expression was useless as he merely showed some uncertainty about where to meet up.
"You say soon... is tomorrow alright? After school, on the roof. Barely anyone goes there after hours." the bard suggested, crossing his arms. Then he slapped his forehead. "No, wait, bad idea. If the girls see me go there after hours, they'll follow and corner me... but it's important, so... well, I guess I could skip the last lesson and go early..."
He was muttering more to himself now and Prince shook his head slightly, smirking.
"Tomorrow's fine. I could skip, too." he said. "That necklace you gave me a while ago? I'll wear it, so you can recognize me. See ya." Gui grinned slightly at the mention of his present and watched Prince turn around and open the door, but he didn't step out. He stood there for a few seconds with his back to Gui and finally looked over his shoulder.
"Don't be too shocked, okay?" he asked with a wistful smile and closed the door behind himself, leaving Gui alone to wonder about the elf's words and his own confused thoughts.

Min looked at his watch for the millionth time. True to his word, he had skipped his last lesson by feigning a sickness and having a colleague take over the class, then going up the stairs to the rooftop instead of heading home. And since then, he's been waiting for Prince to arrive. He turned around and looked again. The high chainlink fence surrounding the edge of the roof, the area empty except for the door leading to the staircase he had taken.
Sighing, he turned around and looked at his watch again. Only a few more minutes and the last lesson of the day would be over. Granted, he hadn't specified a time, but Prince had mentioned he might skip the last lesson, too... so either he hadn't skipped and was going to meet him after class was over... or he had decided to not appear at all... Min shook his head quickly, suppressing anymore such thoughts. Prince wouldn't ask for a meeting and then just not show up. He was scatterbrained and forgetful at times, but it seemed important to him and he knew how important it was to Min, so he was definitely not going to just stay away. And Min chose to continue to wait for him.
But the longer he had to wait, the harder it got for him. Every minute that passed made his doubt and insecurity rise. Trying to distract himself, Min wondered about Prince's appearance. Even if he had promised to not try and find Prince in real life, he had always wondered in the back of his mind what he might look like or how he might act, see if his real personality differed from the one in the game.
Footsteps!
He could hear them, however dull they were because of the distance. Footsteps were climbing the last few steps of the staircase leading to this roof and any second now, the door would open and reveal Prince, most likely grinning and apologizing for taking so long. But when Min turned around, the door didn't get opened and he saw no shadow moving behind the small glass window set inside the door. With a sigh, Min faced the opposite way again and saw some students leaving school grounds early.
On the other side of the door, Lan hesitated to keep going.
She had skipped class, as she had mentioned she might, and had wanted to appear right away. But worry had nagged at her, causing her legs to refuse to work properly and making her walk slowly, clawing her hands against the walls or railings. Anything solid that would prevent her from turning around and running away. But as soon as she had set her foot onto the last step, all of her courage had disappeared and she had quickly flattened herself against the wall. The short glance she had gotten from Min waiting made her curse herself for taking so long... she had actually hoped to be the first one at the meeting spot, so that he would be the one to arrive and see her. So that she wasn't the one to initiate the meeting, however cowardly that was.
Lan slid down and sat on the hard cement floor, her whole body trembling.
Meeting in real life was much harder than she had expected. But she had wanted to meet him as soon as possible, so that she couldn't waver in her decision. And yet she had still gotten this far, only to chicken out. But, staring down at her shakey hands, Lan felt worry creeping up on her when she thought about how Min would react. He'd probably be angry... he'd definitely be angry. He wasn't a person to yell at someone, but it could happen. Or maybe he'd leave as soon as Lan appeared and ignore anything she might want to say.
The bell for the last lesson rang.
Lan sighed, wondering what would happen now.
Would Min continue to wait? Or decide to go home and find Lan hiding here? Worried, Lan forced her legs to support her weight and stood up, one foot already on the stairs and ready to run down if the doorknob began to move. But nothing happened, no steps or any sound approached the door. Slowly, Lan turned and dared to peak through the glass set in the door and looked at Min. He was still standing at the fence where he was before, his back turned towards her. But his shoulders seemed to have slumped down after hearing the bell. Somehow, it was an incredibly sad thing to look at. Perhaps the pain in having been stood up by Prince was worse than having his illusion about him crushed... at least, that's what Lan told herself when she approached the door with two huge steps and gripped the doorknob.
She hesitated again.
She had made a decision. Now she had to go through with it. To run away now, when she had already made it this far, was no longer and option. Besides, it would be unfair to him... Putting her other hand over the first one, she held the doorknob tighter than necessary and slowly turned, pushing the door open. The tiny squeak from the hinges sounded louder than it was. Min had reacted immediately on that sound and turned around, seeing Lan appear. And the hopeful glint in his eyes died away instantly. His shoulders slumped down again.
"I'm sorry..." Lan said. Thinking that she was apologizing for walking in on him and was merely here to meet someone herself, Min started to turn away, but then his eyes caught the glint. He saw the familiar necklace, with the crown-shaped pendant nestled below her collarbone. For a second, Min just stared at her and then turned around, his hands clawing into the fence.
"I'm sorry..." Lan said again.
She had no idea what was going on in him right now or how he was dealing with this situation, because nothing in his body language showed a particular motion. So she slowly forced her feet to move and stand with a little distance between them at the fence. Neither said anything for a while. Maybe it was only a few minutes or even an hour, only the way the sunlight got less showed the passing of time now. A cool breeze ruffled their hair, but was unable to do anything about the heavy atmosphere between them.
Silence remained.
Min studied Lan out of the corner of his eye. The more he did, the more similiarities he saw that he had refused to see before. Although her eyes were a warm brown and not the familiar bloodred shade, they had the same swing to them. Her features, even the way she brushed her hair back was identical to Prince. But Lan didn't look at him once. Only looked straight ahead at the scenery with the same conflicted expression Min had seen on Prince the day before.
"...this explains things." Min finally said with an exaspirated smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Lan turned her head towards him, but Min kept looking at the ground. "It explains a lot."
"I'm sorry, Gui." she said and Min felt his heart skip a beat, hearing the same note that Prince used when saying his name. Straightening, Min looked ahead and sighed.
"Did you decide to tell me because you pity me?"
"Not at all." Lan answered with a slight force and turned her head back. And then her voice softened again. "But now, things are fair between you and Wicked."
"What?" Min felt his blood boil at the mention of his rival's name.
"It's just... You and Zhuo-gégé love me. And I can't give either of you a clear answer, yet. But somehow..." she confessed and brushed her hair back again. "I thought it was unfair that Zhuo-gégé knew my real identity and could contact me anytime, while you... well, couldn't. I thought if you both knew, you'd have a fair chance... I'm sorry, that does sound like pity."
She held out a piece of paper.
"My number... if you want it."
Min took it and looked at it for a minute before putting it away.
"Thank you for being honest with me, Feng Lan."
Lan blushed slightly and looked away, unable to withstand his gaze anymore.
"You're not angry?" she asked.
"A little. But when I think of when you first saw me in the classroom... like I said, it explains things." Min said and shrugged his shoulders. "Come on, I'll take you home."

Finally, the second chapter's rewrite is done.
This has been sitting here for so long... mostly because I found I got the emotions done well in the first version and I didn't want to do a simple retyping...