Chapter Text
Nishimura Riki tried his hardest to always be grateful for the cards life had dealt him. In fact, he felt very blessed to have what he did; caring parents, friends by his side, food on the table, and a roof over his head. Not to mention that his ever so caring parents just happened to be Prince Minori and Princess Yuko of the royal Nishimura bloodline, and the roof over his head belonged to their beautiful and luxurious castle.
Despite all that he had, Riki, who favored being referred to as “Ni-ki” by anyone who wasn’t his parents, couldn’t help but grow miserable as his days went on. He couldn’t stop the anxiety brought by the fact that he was slowly but surely inching closer and closer to receiving the prince’s crown when his father became king. The childhood that his parents let him enjoy by containing his identity from the public, which was a rather unusual childhood regardless, would eventually vanish once they announced their son as the next prince.
The dread that presented itself with the thought of his future responsibilities was taking over his life. He cared less and less about his homeschooling as time went on, eventually reaching the point where he disregarded any work Heeseung and Jay, Ni-ki’s caretakers who were basically his second set of parents, assigned to him. That is, until Ni-ki’s sweet mother put her foot down.
“Mother please! Why can’t Heeseung and Jay keep teaching me?” Ni-ki whined, something he was taught to never do. He despised how immature he let himself sound, but he wasn’t unable to accept the fate his mother had bestowed upon him.
“Do not whine, Riki. You know much better than that,” she said sternly, but her voice softened as she continued. “I know you love them but you clearly aren’t respecting them as teachers anymore, and the way you’ve been ignoring lessons leads me to assume you’re not allowing them to teach you in the first place. I want the best for you, and I believe regular school will be just that, so for now, Heeseung and Jay will remain as your caretakers like always, but not as your teachers.” His mothers hands stayed firmly on her waist.
Ni-ki knew he lost as he dipped his head in sorrow. “I’ll be completely lost, mother. It’s going to go terribly, I’m sure of it.”
“Riki, are you forgetting? Jungwon, Jake, and Sunghoon all attend the school you’ll be going to. You’ll be okay, and if your performance improves and you wish to learn from Heeseung and Jay again, your father and I will let you do so,” she said as she pulled Ni-ki into a hug, holding his head close to her chest. He didn’t forget that they attended the same school. He loved his friends, but Jake, whose mother was the castle’s main cook and whose father was a castle guard, was a grade above him. Sunghoon, whose parents were two of the main servants, was a grade above him as well, and Ni-ki knew this meant he’d rarely ever see the two of them during school. Only Jungwon, who Ni-ki called “Wonnie” and whose mother was Princess Yuko’s attendant, was in the same grade as Ni-ki. Knowing how things were going for him though, Ni-ki figured his luck would ruin his chances of seeing Jungwon in school, too. They probably wouldn’t have any classes together and he would have to fend for himself.
“I think you should get some rest now, sweetie. Enjoy this weekend, and I promise you when you’re in school on Monday you’ll be alright. I’ll be off towards the East side of the castle now. Goodnight Riki, and tell Jay and Heeseung to rest well too.” With that, she left a very gloomy Ni-ki in the dining hall.
The blonde eventually dragged himself up the grand staircase and into his room. He plopped himself onto his king sized bed that practically swallowed the boy due to how unnecessarily large it was. He stared up at his room’s high ceiling and sighed. Aside from the few gifts and trinkets he received in the past, there weren't many things about his oversized room that seemed to belong to a young boy like himself. His huge bed adorned with a navy blue bed set, his bland walls, and his fancy dresser all seemed to belong to an adult. Ni-ki didn’t mind too much, but he did kind of wish it was more exciting.
Suddenly, the door to his room inched open to reveal Jay holding a glass of water, followed by a concerned looking Heeseung.
“Hello Ni-ki, how are you feeling?” Jay asked as he walked towards Ni-ki’s bed to place the glass on the bedside table.
“Dreadful.”
Jay eyed Heeseung, both unaware of how they should react to his quick response.
“I just… there’s no way! I’m awful at speaking to people my age because I have almost no experience with it at all, so the entire experience is going to be just awful. And I love you guys, I don’t want random people teaching me! I want to stay with you. I didn’t even mean to neglect my work as much as I did, it just got so hard. Everything is getting so hard…”
“Our assignments were too hard? Were we not helping you enough?” Jay asked, concern laced into his voice.
Ni-ki sat up before speaking. “No, no, not that. I mean everything... eventually I’ll have to be a prince and then I’ll be known to the public and I’ve come to realize I’m far from prepared. Father is still the prince, he’s not even king yet, and he’s always so busy and has all these- these responsibilities, and next it’ll be me.” Ni-ki’s eyes brimmed with tears that he refused to let spill over. “I don’t want to be known by the public yet, I don’t want the responsibilities of being the prince. I want to spend more time with Wonnie outside the castle when mother lets us go into the cities and towns, but it will all vanish soon.” Ni-ki wasn’t one to cry often but his tears betrayed him, silently flowing onto his cheeks.
Being raised royally came with unfortunate side effects. One of the most prominent ones was that the Nishimura family, save for Princess Yuko at times, often swept emotions under the rug. Keeping yourself together and presenting yourself well no matter what the circumstances were was key. Ni-ki technically didn’t have to follow that standard yet, but he subconsciously absorbed the behavior since his parents always had to. He knew the foreign sight of tears coming from his eyes must have made his caretakers worried, but he couldn’t help it. He held his breath for a moment to try to stop, but it only made it worse.
“Hey, it’s okay sweetie. You still have time,” Heeseung said softly. “You should keep enjoying the days where you leave the castle and relax with the others, but they won’t be gone once you're the prince,” Heeseung said as he tucked the younger into bed. “And don’t think we’ll have to leave you once you’re the prince either. You won’t have to call us your ‘caretakers’ anymore if you don’t want to, but we’ll still be here to guide you through anything, just like now. You won’t have to face anything alone.”
“Maybe school will actually be best Ni-ki-ah, you’ll be in the castle less and you’ll meet new people,” Jay suggested hopefully.
“Even if I do manage to make friends, which I truly doubt will happen, I’ll have to conceal a huge part of my life from them until my time as prince arrives, and then they’ll figure out I’ve been lying about my life the entire time.”
Ni-ki could see the pain in both of the older’s eyes at the sound of his distress. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Ni-ki-ah. It’s too early to worry about telling others… but why don’t you think you’ll make friends?” Jay asked.
“...I’ve never attended a- a real school. The three friends I do have live here in the castle, and I never would have been able to be their friend if they didn’t live here. Not to mention, I’ve never been able to socialize the way they have… I’m going to stick out even if nobody knows who I am yet.” His crying had stopped, but the terrible feeling in his stomach hadn’t. “Even the way I speak is different from Jake, Sunghoon, and Wonnie. I’m much too awkward to be around new people. Curse the typical royal education system for making me sound proper!”
“Even without the social experience that they’ve had, you’re still a polite, caring, and mature kid, and you’ll go in knowing three people already! Ni-ki I promise you’ll be okay and I’m sure kids at school would love to be your friend,” Jay said, hoping to calm the boy’s nerves.
Ni-ki didn’t say anything after that, he just lied back in his bed. He really appreciated his caretakers, even after neglecting their school work they treated him with the same love and kindness, and also managed to make him feel a bit better.
Heeseung must have noticed the tiredness that washed over him when he stated “Sweetie, I think you should try to sleep now… it’s been a long day.”
Ni-ki nodded in agreement, allowing his eyes to droop closed.
Jay reached over to pat Ni-ki’s hair as Heeseung leaned to kiss the boy’s cheek. “Goodnight, Ni-ki,” both of his caretakers said.
“Goodnight,” Ni-ki mumbled softly as he rolled onto his side, not realizing how exhausted he had become from his stress. “Mother says she hopes you both rest well.” This pulled soft smiles from the two oldest in the room before they walked back towards the door and exited the bedroom.
—
“You ready, Ni-ki?” Sunghoon asked.
“I’m not really sure,” Ni-ki answered honestly, buckling himself into the black car owned by one of the castle’s drivers. He flattened the blazer of his new school uniform once he sat down.
“Don’t worry Ni-ki-ah, we’ll help you navigate your way around. Plus, we’re only about three weeks into the school year, so I’m sure it won’t be too hard to catch up,” Jungwon said, reassuring his friend.
The car pulled away from the castle when a crumpling sound came from Jake’s pocket as he pulled out a folded piece of paper. “We asked Heeseung to show us your schedule last night, so I took the time to highlight where you’ll be going all day just in case things get confusing,” Jake said.
“You’re too kind, Jake,” Ni-ki responded, unfolding the paper to reveal the school layout marked with numbers in order of which classes he had first and highlighted roots to get to each class. The lump in his throat eased due to the help he was receiving.
However, the feeling came crawling right back from his stomach up into his throat when Jungwon dropped a bomb he was already expecting...
“Ni-ki-ah, I’m sorry but based on your schedule you probably won’t be seeing much of me during the day. You’ll see us all at lunch, though! And apparently we all have art last period, so you’ll see me then too.”
Ni-ki sighed. It was just as he expected, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear.
“The end of your schedule sounds a lot like our friend’s schedule, though. He’s in all of my morning classes, and he’s really sweet. He’d probably love to make another friend, so please trust that it’ll be alright Ni-ki.”
“What’s his name?” He asked, though he wasn’t sure he’d even remember it due to everything else coursing through his mind.
“Sunoo. He’s been hanging with us since the year started.”
“Yeah, poor kid looked so lost the first day. I think his best friend moved away or something, so I invited him over at lunch and now we’re actually all friends. Should’ve seen his smile when we invited him over, brightest smile I’ve ever seen.” Sunghoon said with a smile of his own.
Jake nodded. “It’s true. I swear he’s an angel or something. He’ll be really easy to make friends with.”
Even if he’s the sweetest boy they know, he still may find me strange... He might make friends easily but that doesn’t mean that I’m capable of making friends, too.
“Oh, and you’ll meet Geonu, Nicholas, and Daniel during lunch too,” Sunghoon added, “but you probably won’t see Geonu in your classes… he’s in our grade.”
“Ah…” was all that Ni-ki could think to say. He wanted to believe them all when they said it would be okay, but he would still be alone, and Jay and Heeseung wouldn’t be there to help him. The conversation died down a bit and Ni-ki sunk further into the pool of his own thoughts.
It took nearly forty minutes after pulling away from the castle decently hidden by trees to arrive at the school, but when the well-constructed brick building creeped into Ni-ki’s view, his chest tightened. Once out of the car, the group of four began to follow the mass of students flowing into the front doors. Jake patted Ni-ki on the back to signal their farewell down a different hallway.
He had been in the building for less than a minute and he already had to be on his own. If he had clung to the map any harder, it would have definitely ripped.
Why is this school so complicated? Ni-ki thought to himself as he scanned the map. Gosh, you would think living in a castle my entire life would make this easier but at least I’m used to the layout back home, this is just madness!
Ni-ki eventually found his way to first period, literature, managing to arrive only a few minutes late.
“Ah, this must be Ni-ki, our new student,” the teacher, who definitely wasn’t Heeseung or Jay, announced to the class. Dread fell over Ni-ki who was standing in the doorway, his weight shifting side to side as he stared at the teacher.
“I’m your literature teacher, Mr. Choi. Good timing! We were just about to start the lesson. You can sit right next to Hyejoo over there,” Ni-ki walked to the seat Mr. Choi was pointing at and placed his bag down before he sat.
“Hiii new kid,” a voice behind Hyejoo spoke. He turned to see a girl with brown, shoulder length hair. “Hey dude, Ni-ki, was it? You look really nervous, but don’t worry, Hyejoo won’t bite!” Her energetic voice was a bit too loud for speaking directly to him.
“Yes, but you probably do, so let him breathe. He’s obviously scared Yeojin, don’t make it worse,” Hyejoo laughed at her friend’s overpowering approach. Yeojin rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat. All Ni-ki could do was look back and forth between the two girls, not knowing exactly what to say.
“Uh...hi, thank you. I’m just adjusting to how new this all is,” he forced a half smile before turning back to face the front of class. He swore he could feel sweat start to form on his forehead.
“Okay settle down class,” Mr. Choi said, followed by the low mumbling from around the room to fade. “Let’s get started.”