Here we have an alternate interpretation of the Workshop Battle, where instead of running away crying after realizing Bam is still alive, Endorsi gets pissed and takes her frustration out on someone else instead...

This entire fic is also a bit out of my usual writing comfort zone. Please tell me what I did wrong, but not in a way that makes me want to join Hatz in committing halbok, lol.

The people here were packed together like grains of rice in a never opened bag. Even having left the party a few hours early, on Khun's request, Wangnan wasn't shocked to hear someone else wandering the mostly empty halls.

People were packed into the Archimedes like grains of rice in an unopened bag. It was almost like living on the Twentieth Floor again, with fewer shops but the same "trying not to think too much about our futures" kind of tension. Sometimes there was barely room to breathe, let alone walk without bumping into another person. The Workshop Battle's welcoming ceremony was concluding with a party that would end in the latest hours of the morning –

"He pisses me off so much sometimes... I swear..."

– and even though he was leaving the bright lights and the pulsating music behind him several hours early, Wangnan still couldn't avoid running into other people in the hallways. A few minutes ago, it had been that lizard girl who'd tied with Ran during the Battle x Gamble.

"Disappears for almost a decade..." This new voice was definitely female though. And it sounded familiar in a way that Wangnan couldn't quite place, until they were only a few footfalls apart and that feeling of familiarity began to nag at him. "Doesn't even try to tell us he's alive..."

He had heard that voice before, and recently. Wangnan was certain.

She continued grumbling, like he wasn't even there, so caught up in whatever was troubling her that he might as well have been a fly on the wall. Something about a name change, something about how she would've fought all of FUG by herself if need be, and then "ugh, I'm so pissed off!" one more time while Wangnan pieced together all of the newly acquired information.

One step later, two steps, and the woman was approaching quickly, and Wangnan was running out of time to figure out why he felt like he knew her.

'Looks like someone I actually do know,' was Wangnan's first thought.

Wearing a plain white tanktop and a pair of shorts, she kind of resembled Goseng. But her attitude was completely different. He'd never heard Goseng swear, he could tell that her chestnut colored hair, even tucked underneath a baseball cap the way it was, was a few shades too light to look like Goseng's.

Someone he used to know, then. From his past. There had probably been someone like that, with short, brown hair and a fiery temper and an athletic build. He just couldn't think of them right now. There had been so many old comrades, and maybe he was finally starting to forget one or two faces.

That didn't seem right either, so he took another look, a closer look, right as they passed each other.

She had an athletic build, a good figure, and long legs. It was her voice, however, that Wangnan was the most caught up on. He replayed it in his head, over and over – like it was a butterfly he was chasing. Trying to catch without a net.

He grasped at it suddenly, and the reason why that voice sounded familiar to him came as such a shock that he said it out loud, "Endorsi Jahad?"

Loose tongue, fuzzy thoughts, and blame it all on the champagne. Wangnan hadn't expected the person next him to really be Endorsi, but the girl's head snapped up at the sound of that name. From this perspective, the shadows of her baseball cap couldn't hide the most distinct features of her face anymore.

And shit, that face really did belong to Endorsi Jahad.

Wangnan stumbled backwards before freezing, and locking eyes with the one and only Princess Endorsi. He'd glimpsed her at the Workshop's party for all of five minutes, and that hardly counted, because he'd never imagined he'd get to stand this close to Endorsi when she wasn't on the other side of a television screen. Meaning, when he and Dan were doing the same thing they told Prince and Miseng not to do, and sitting so close to the monitor that they could make out every dot on the screen.

As soon as she registered the dumbstruck look on his face, she sneered at him. Wangnan was still too in awe of the circumstances to even care.

Besides, it made sense that she'd be leery of him. He would never tell anyone that he'd caught Princess Endorsi sniffling and mumbling to herself in a lonely hallway, but she had no way of knowing that.

The first thing he noticed, aside the way she was looking at him, was that her nose was running slightly. She had been sniffling between repetitions of "I can't believe him!", but she probably wore some expensive, high quality make up that would leave Goseng jealous for days, because her eyes were a little puffy and red, but not a single eyelash was out of place. Hell, even Wangnan was a little jealous. Not because he wore any makeup, but... he was definitely an ugly crier.

Which made Wangnan's stomach ache, because regardless of how she looked, it didn't change that fact that Endorsi was upset over something. Over someone. Someone that he could probably name, based on the clues he'd been given so far.

That line of thought quickly changed to something along the lines of "oh shit" as Endorsi's narrow eyed expression changed to an outright glare. "If you want something speak up already," she growled, "because the staring is creepy."

Betrayed by his own ability to speak, Wangnan could only continue staring in response. Shit. She probably thought that was creepy too. Recognizing that he could be in a lot of trouble here, Wangnan took one step backwards.

Endorsi matched his stride.

"Well, what have you got to say for yourself? You've been looking at me all night, haven't you?"

When he swallowed, his mouth and throat were suddenly dry. He opened his mouth to try and say something, try and justify his actions, but the only thing that came out was – incoherent. Babbling. Not even Wangnan had any idea what he was trying to say.

"No, staring is. I wasn't..."

Except, maybe, in his defense – "and everyone else" – he hadn't been the only one looking at Endorsi. A Princess among Princesses, how could anyone resist looking her way? "I, that is – "

"Just kidding!"

The tension in the air hadn't completely vanished, but at least Wangnan no longer felt as though his neck was in danger of being snapped.

"What."

"Obviously, I'm joking."

"O-oh." If the Princess was joking, then maybe it was safe for Wangnan to make a joke too? "I was more in danger of getting punched," he replied dryly.

Because if that had been a joke, he'd clearly missed the punch line. Which was why he'd said – it didn't matter. He really couldn't do anything right, huh? Even if he tried to explain his joke now, Endorsi would still have no clue what he was talking about.

Luckily, she didn't seem to mind.

"I mean, look at me," Endorsi continued. Considering one of her feet was now almost touching one of his, it was kind of hard not to. "I'm not even wearing the same outfit as before."

The up and down glance Wangnan gave her was, he hoped, not so weird that she went back to calling him creepy. He'd seen the dress that she'd worn at the party. He'd told Dan, who'd been sitting right next to him, she'd looked amazing wearing it. Until about three seconds ago, right before Endorsi had started interrogating him, he probably even could've told anyone who'd asked what color it was.

The important thing was that he'd noticed it. Endorsi had been kind of enough to make his defense for him – she wasn't about to accuse him of stalking her all night, and he wasn't a creep.

Wangnan was allowed to feel relieved for about five seconds before Endorsi continued, "Unless you..."

Her pointy teeth disappeared into a meek, little frown. She raised her arms in front of her, like she was deciding whether to slap him or cover her chest defensively, like he'd walked in on her changing.

Wangnan almost choked as the little mental alarm that rang whenever something very bad was about to happen to him sounded off for the second time in mere minutes. "I never...!"

"You're right," Endorsi agreed. The meek expression transformed into arrogance even faster than it had appeared, and suddenly, Wangnan knew that it had been fake. "You don't seem like the type of guy who'd ever get that lucky."

He stopped himself from protesting. Saying he could get lucky if he wanted to seemed like a bad idea, especially in this context.

Besides, he was safe now. Dumbstruck and incoherent, but safe.

Endorsi herself had both accused and acquitted him of at least a couple of crimes in half as many minutes. (At some point, Wangnan's brain would catch up to current events and he would realize he'd been whimsically strung along.)

"R-right... Well," Wangnan wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to say in this situation.

"Sorry if I caught you off guard or anything," Endorsi sighed. She took another step closer, and this time Wangnan was rooted in place. Now both of their feet were almost touching. If he twisted his body even a little bit, their arms would touch. They were definitely breathing the same air.

There was a pause that felt, to Wangnan, like it only lasted a second. In reality, it was a bit longer than that.

"That's all right," he said finally. "You're in a bad mood – "

"Actually, I'm in a terrible mood."

With the barest touch of her fingers, Endorsi tilted Wangnan's chin down to meet her gaze directly. He counted every point of contact between them – one, two, three – and even though they were barely touching, he'd never felt so controlled in his life. A little tremor ran down his spine.

"I can tell," Wangnan said, with a throat that was still hoarse.

At this point, he was fairly certain Endorsi wasn't going to kill him.

Endorsi's hand left his chin and trailed down his neck. A tingling sensation marked the trail she took – the places where her thumb and index finger slid over his jaw, where they'd stemmed together on top of the knob in his throat. The shivers running down his spine switched sides, and left him praying he wasn't misinterpreting the situation. For a moment, her hand rested heavily on his shoulder. Then her second hand mirrored the first, on his other shoulder, and Wangnan began to breathe in the atmosphere through his mouth.

"You're face isn't that bad," she muttered. Before he could start feeling too good about that, Endorsi added, "If I close my eyes, I might not even have nightmares about it later."

Slender fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt collar, twisting the material until Wangnan could feel it closing in, tightening and digging into his neck like a cloth noose. Not so tight that he couldn't breathe, not yet (would it ever be?). A bubble of air caught midway through his throat regardless.

He was at least a couple of inches taller than her, and she had him standing on the tips of his toes somehow. Using her position next to his neck as leverage, Endorsi's hands guided his head left, then right, and Wangnan followed along politely. Best to do what the Princess wanted, he thought. But also best not to resist.

Standing this close together, Wangnan could see her smile had a sadistic edge that the cameras never quite managed to catch. He felt it in his shoulder blades, too, when she took the two steps forward that forced his back against the Workshop hallway's sturdy wall.

She was gorgeous.

He and Dan had spent all of the previous night musing back and forth over which of Endorsi's qualities were the best. "Guys like us can only admire a Princess from afar, so we might as well be honest. It's her body."

Wangnan hadn't been unable to disagree, exactly.

Despite that, he pointed out that she had plenty of other good qualities too. Everyone talked about how brave she was. Her charisma, and her willingness to do almost anything for the people closest to her.

"I could really feel safe with a girl like that around," Dan had relented at the end. "But she's also got great legs, right?"

Then Wangnan had laughed in agreement, with Dan who was also laughing at his own sense of humor, and they'd made plans to get drunk the next night, which Khun had cut short in annoyance.

She was gorgeous, had all the beauty of a proper goddess, and here he was, barely ranked above a nightmare.

And she was threatening to cut off his oxygen supply. Wangnan couldn't move his head, but if he looked down with just his eyes, Wangnan thought he saw a glimpse of Endorsi's nail polish. Powder pink. Maybe. The strain made his eyes burn – he could only see the corner of her thumb, and just barely. It was fuzzy, on the fringe of his vision. It wasn't something he'd ever paid much attention to before. Her legs, her eyes, her laugh, sure.

When he swallowed, his Adam's apple brushed against one of Endorsi's knuckles.

The hand balled into his shirt wiggled, relieving the pressure on his throat slightly as Endorsi flexed her fingers. Then she tightened the ball, collecting a little more fabric. Stealing a little bit more of his ability to breath. Frankly, Wangnan was still confused.

He thought back to what Endorsi said. About closing her eyes. "What do you – "

With a wink and a smile, Endorsi leaned forward and kissed him.

Holy crap.

Was he supposed to kiss back?

They were still standing in the middle of the Workshop's hallway.

Holy crap.

His hands finally remembered how to move again, wavering in the air momentarily before he found a resting place for them. On Endorsi's forearms, he thought. He couldn't exactly see anything aside from Endorsi, but just her shuttered eyes and the long eyelashes resting on her cheeks, the soft sweep of hair on her forehead –

Somewhat more important were the things he could feel. Like the puff of breath on his mouth right before their lips had met. How soft her lips were against his. How chaste that kiss had been, as gentle and brief as if a butterfly had landed on his skin. The combined energy of shock and neediness traveling straight downward, threatening to turn this moment into something more inappropriate than it already was.

Wangnan had kissed quite a few people in his time, but nothing quite like this. It was a bit ironic that perhaps one of the most innocent kisses he'd ever received was coming from someone who only moments ago had been probably insulting him.

The moment he parted his lips, only slightly, to invite her in further – Endorsi retreated. Pulled away. Increased the distance between their mouths that she'd already put between them, and opened her eyes again, regarding his expression carefully. With a sense of amusement.

"I bet that got you worked up, didn't it?" Endorsi said, with all the false bravado of someone who didn't actually know how sex worked.

She wasn't wrong, for sure, but it was clear to Wangnan that she didn't realize exactly how not wrong she was. It was a good thing there wasn't a mirror nearby, because Wangnan knew exactly what kind of dopey expression he was wearing:

Dazed. A little tipsy.

Definitely horny, now. Aside from that, his lips were parted and his eyes were glazed over and he was probably breathing unappealingly through his mouth, and he had no idea if his feet were still on the ground.

"I take back what I said earlier," Endorsi decided. "Your face looks pretty good now."

He laughed, which soured Endorsi's own look of satisfaction immediately. It was curt, but he couldn't stop himself. Nobody thought of him as attractive. Nobody spent their nights fantasizing about moles and crooked teeth, or guys who wore the same shirt like three days a week. He didn't have abs or even money to throw around like Khun did.

Wangnan was, in general, not that attractive of a person.

"Not as good as yours," he said. Although honest, his compliments were not always the best at being smooth or flirtatious.

For a brief moment, he considered telling her it wasn't the best kiss he'd ever received. Far from it. Just to see what would happen –

Maybe she would kiss him again?

In the end, he didn't need to incite Endorsi into kissing him again. She laughed back, replied, "Nobody's face is as good as mine", and dove in again without his prompting.

The second kiss was nowhere near as good as the first one, and that was inevitably due to a mix of Endorsi's lack of experience and the second kiss lasting longer than one second. Endorsi paid no attention to where his nose was supposed to go, but anywhere that didn't involve being smashed against the hard bones of her cheeks would've been preferable. When she pulled away this time, the skin in front of his teeth was tender from being smashed into.

"You can still breathe, right?"

In all honesty, Wangnan had somehow forgotten that her hands were still caught up in his shirt collar. She must've mistaken his ragged breathing for something else. "Yeah, I'm fine – "

She dove back in, accepting his open mouth and the fact that he hadn't disagreed as invitation for more. By slicing his bottom lip with her teeth like a pair of scissors.

Wangnan recoiled on reflex.

Surprisingly – or maybe not, considering she'd just taken the time to check that he was okay a few seconds ago – Endorsi let him. The pressure on his throat vanished, and she let him take a step away from the wall.

He closed his eyes while wiping at his mouth, but opened them again to examine the results present on the back of his hand. Sure enough, it came back smudged with blood. He stared at that and not Endorsi for a while, but even without looking directly at her, he could practically feel the uncertainty of having maybe gone too far.

"I'm fine," Wangnan said again.

Reassurance for Endorsi, while he wondered briefly if her teeth were spotted with his blood also, or if she'd somehow been too quick for that.

Pain for Wangnan, who'd needed it to bring the levity of their situation come crashing down on his head. Kissing a Jahad's Princess. What the hell had he been thinking? A crime like that was enough to earn both of them the death penalty, should they get caught.

"But... Princess, we really shouldn't be..."

"Then tell me to stop," Endorsi challenged.

When he did exactly as she requested, the Princess glared back at him with a look that was none too pleased. Wagnan stood there with his arms shielding his face, pretending he didn't care. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, wasn't it?

The Princess's voice raised in pitch as she hissed, "Are you serious?", like steam rising out of a tea kettle.

"For starters," Wangnan said, "my face is fucking gross."

"Well, you didn't let that stop me from kissing you two minutes ago!"

Okay. He'd actually been referring to how thick the taste of iron was on his lips and tongue right now, but ow. Just going to ignore that remark for now.

"You're a Jahad's Princess!"

If there was an appropriate time for Wangnan to become angry about this situation, he figured now was it. Or, well, maybe two minutes ago, like when Endorsi had been pushing him against walls and threatening to choke him in the first place.

"What Jahad doesn't know won't hurt him." Endorsi's eyes narrowed again. "Besides. You're pretty drunk, aren't you? Tomorrow, you're not going to remember anything. "

It sounded not like a question, but an order. Be the drunkard. Let the Princess do as she willed. Even if that meant walking all over him and possibly ruining her own life in the process. Wangnan didn't have a response to that, aside from hoping he'd possibly misheard something in the tone of her voice.

"I left the party early. Like you," Wangnan reminded her.

"Still enough time to get a few drinks in."

"I'm not that drunk."

He didn't even drink until he was totally wasted anymore, not after that one time Khun threatened to lock him and Dan in a soundproof room for thirty days without food if they ever stayed up singing sea shanties until sunrise again.

"But you admit you drank a little bit, so you could be – "

The really scary threat had come from Arkraptor, who'd promised he would ban alcohol in their team for all of eternity if the two of them didn't shape up and start setting a better example for Miseng and Prince.

(It was mostly Wangnan's fault, and he knew it.)

"Even if I were, this entire conversation is making the champagne lose it's effect. Champagne isn't that alcoholic to begin with."

Not necessarily true, but he was hoping the Princesses of Jahad had as much experience with alcohol as they did with relationships. At the very least, Endorsi seemed to believe it.

"So you think that means I have to follow every little one of Jahad's stupid rules?" Endorsi's frown deepened.

"No, but – "

"Then what's the issue?"

He should've just said "yes", made her angry, and dealt with the consequences. Because Wangnan himself wasn't very good at staying angry, all it took was one big sigh for him to deflate, and for his hands to stop shaking.

"I-I have..." His mind scrambled for an excuse that would allow him to slip away without either of them raising their voices again, and stumbled across one that doubled as the truth. "somewhere... I need to be..."

The last of the tension eased from his shoulders as he said the words and realized, Khun was going to kill him for being late.

Well, fuck.

Endorsi wasn't the only person who could pick people apart by their loose strings, but it wasn't a skill Wangnan enjoyed using. A couple of years ago, when he was in a darker place, sure. But not so much now.

Too bad he was running out of options, and Endorsi still didn't look willing to let him go.

"What about your guy? I can't be..." Wangnan caught himself before he could commit to the mistake, because maybe he'd been wrong, maybe it wasn't Viole she was pining over after all. But if it was Viole, then of course Wangnan couldn't be like him. Calling Viole by name didn't seem like a good idea either way. "I can't replace that guy."

This time, it was Endorsi's turn to be left without a response, and Wangnan used that opportunity to his advantage.

He pushed back against Endorsi, finally. Without much force, but even if he dedicated all of his physical strength to this act – it was like his palms were pressed against a brick wall. She was a few inches shorter than him and slender, but things like height and weight were irrelevant inside the Tower. Judging by the way her smile flattened into a thin line, she wasn't going to let him push her around any time soon. So the act of pushing against her was really more of a suggestion than anything, and as much as Wangnan wanted to push her away, there was another part of him that really didn't.

Being Viole's substitute didn't sound like such a bad idea. Even if it was for only one night, pretending he was Viole with people who care about him after years spent apart.

"I can't do it," Wangnan insisted, unsure of for whose sake that was.

"That's not what you said earlier!" Endorsi snapped. "Which is it? That you can't because I'm a Princess of Zahard? Or do you really have somewhere else you need to be? Do you just not like me? Are you g– "

Wangnan's Pocket went off, indicated by the rippling effect in the Shinsu next to him. He didn't have to turn it to visible mode to know it was Khun calling him. He didn't really get messages from anyone else, including Dan. Or Arkraptor. And when they did message Wangann, it was usually asking him to pick up something from the store, or to make sure Miseng and Prince were brushing their teeth, because Dan had messaged Arkraptor about picking something up from the store first, which meant Arkraptor wasn't home to lay down the law himself.

Wangnan didn't need to shift his Pocket to visible mode to know what Khun was calling him about either. That strategy meeting. How long had he been sidetracked, standing here with Endorsi?

He was probably – no, definitely – late, and Khun was the type of person who sometimes got angry if he wasn't ten minutes early. Wangnan had thought that, recently, they'd been learning how to get past that, but...

But that was also before he'd walked into their room with a swollen and bloodied mouth. He'd have to take another detour, to rinse his face off in the bathroom, and see what he could do about fixing his chewed on lip with Shinsu.

Unused to being ignored, Endorsi's sighed. When Wangnan finally noticed her again, she was standing with one leg slightly bent at the knee and her arms folded across her chest. "Or are you..." She almost finished her question from earlier. "Never mind, tch. But tell me something, if you weren't busy or afraid of Jahad or whatever your excuse is, would you have reacted any differently?"

Wangnan didn't answer, because his Pocket buzzed again, and Wangnan still wouldn't look at it, because he could imagine the messages already, and they were Khun threatening to leave him behind on this Floor if he didn't get back to their room this instant, and fuck, Khun had no idea how close to home that empty, half-hearted little "threat" actually hit. How much that meant.

'Khun is a nicer person than he makes himself out to be,' Wangnan told himself. 'Besides, Goseng would never let the group leave this Floor without everyone accounted for.'

He'd thought the same thing about other teammates though. People who were more influential than Goseng and had fewer attachments to other people on his old teams than Khun.

"Fuck," he muttered, hoping that was good enough for an answer.

He turned away from her and ran. Endorsi didn't try to stop him again.

In case you reached the end, and are wondering how I managed to make this fic almost 5k words long, that is a GREAT question.