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It was a heavy storm that evening, the sound of thunder and rain a dull roar against the stained glass of Yunho’s windows. So much so that when Yunho heard the heavy thump of the brass clapper against the door, he thought he imagined it. He sat up in his bed for a few seconds, about to nestle back with his book and be done with it all when he heard it again, each repetitive thump ringing out with certainty now. Wrapping himself up in his robes, he shuffled down the stairs in his night slippers, careful not to slip on the polished marble floor with each hastened step.
"Hello?" Yunho called out, sliding the brass cover of the peep hole to the side.
It was hard to make out any details, but there appeared to be a person standing in the shadowed threshold. They seemed to be the same height as Yunho, but it was hard to tell with how much they hunched in on themselves, with the rain and wind thrashing about. The person cleared their throat.
“H-Hi. I got lost.” The voice was low and masculine, but the shivers wracking through his lower timber gave his words a soft edge. “I’ve been separated from my p-p-party in the s-storm, and I'm… very cold. Do you perhaps have lodging available? It would just be for one night. Anything with a roof would be fine, I just need to get out of this rain.”
“Oh, yes! Please give me second!” Yunho said. He shuttered the hatch closed again. He did briefly consider stranger danger. But the odds of this stranger being a highly skilled assassin set to assassinate the crown prince was admittedly pretty low… especially since they were coming through the front door. He fumbled with the iron latch pulling the heavy wooden door open with both hands.
“Th-th-th… thank you.” The stranger shuffled in slowly. With each step he took he tracked a small puddle behind him, looking a bit like a wet hen with his dripping silver hair.
“My name’s M-Mingi,” the stranger said, his body bristling once he was inside the palace walls, greedily letting the heat seep into his every pore. Yunho relatched the door behind them, not wanting any more rain getting in the castle.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m f-fine,” the stranger said. A wet hand came up to brush the cold hair away from his face in an attempt to make him look more presentable, which only partially helped. He looked like he had been thrashed by a washing machine. “I can compensate you once I make contact with my entourage in the morning.”
“Let me take you to the fireplace to warm up!”
“It's no hurry,” Mingi said, nodding bashfully as Yunho grabbed him by his sleeve, gently leading Mingi to the hearth. Mingi hesitated at the fancy velvet cushions before Yunho firmly pushed his wet behind down, picking up an iron poker to encourage the flames to burn brighter.
“Thank you for taking me in,” Mingi said. “I couldn't see a damn thing out there except for the light in the window.”
Yunho briefly looked away from the fire as he tried to pay attention, keeping polite eye contact and nodding. “Are you cold in those clothes? Here–” Yunho hung the poker back and began to shrug his robes off. Mingi made a sharp noise, standing up as if to stop him, but pausing before he could actually touch Yunho's sleeve, as if remembering how wet his hands were.
“No, no I really couldn't. Please–”
It was a moot point as Yunho threw his red and gold sleep robes over Mingi's shoulders, who flushed and looked down as Yunho tugged and rearranged it around his chin. Despite his height, the stranger still had a soft and round energy to him. Something that just made him cute and endearing to Yunho. Something in his face that just screamed “take care of me.”
Yunho rubbed his palms against his pajama pants. “Are you hungry? Here let me call for the kitchen staff, they'll bring some tea–”
“No, no, please. Honestly it's really no need, you've already–”
Someone screamed, making the two of them jump, their heads whipping back around. Seonghwa was in his big, fluffy black night robes, face mask on, candelabra in one hand, having seemingly come down to tell Yunho he forgot to turn the lights off when he was met with a stranger on his tuscan leather
After a mild scuffle and lots of screaming and yelling– which included calling the King down from their royal chambers– everything got settled down again, Yunho explaining things to his parents. The King rang up a few servants and the head chef to make something for the lost boy, while the queen made Yunho go upstairs and get changed into more formal clothes in the company of a stranger. When he came back down in his dining wear, he found Mingi was already sitting at the dinner table, dressed in the red and black colors of his kingdom. Several small dishes were whipped up and placed down the centerfold of the long dining table. Seonghwa was seated on his father's right hand side like he always did.
Before Yunho took his seat, he cleared his throat.
"Mom, dad, this is Mingi. He got caught in the rain and made his way to the palace. I told him he could stay until the rain was over." He turned to their guest now.
“Mingi, this is my mom and dad, the King and Queen.” They weren’t literally his parents, but they had basically raised him.
Hongjoong cleared his throat, looking down at the visitor from across the table. “So! ‘Mingi’ was it? It’s been a while since we had… the opportunity to entertain guests so casually. Where are you from again Mingi?”
“From the Northern Kingdom.”
Seonghwa's eyebrows went up. He cleared his throat, interested now.
“I've heard that the span of the Northern kingdom reaches from sea to sea! Our kingdom is a bit… humbler as one could say. But! We have a rich history! I've always wanted to visit the North.”
Mingi nodded around a small bite of meat. He seemed to struggle when he ate, his eyebrows pursing and his jaw working overtime to chew each bite no matter how soft the food was. He was a slow eater. “It would be several days of travel to the capitol for sure,” he said after finishing his mouthful. “And you would have to bring a convoy.”
Hongjoong interlaced his fingers, leaning into the table with a glint in his eye. “Do you like the royal family there? How are they? Are there any beautiful princesses?”
“Dad,” Yunho whispered under his breath. “Not now.”
"Our Yunho has been looking for a partner for a long time now. A looooong time,” Seonghwa said brightly. Yunho would have buried his face in his hands if it wasn't bad form to put his elbows on the table.
Hongjoong pointed with his fork. “Yunho is an excellent heir, anybody would be lucky to be courted by him,” Hongjoong said matter-of-factly. “Honestly it's our,” the king paused to give Seonghwa a very pointed look, “fault for failing to find an appropriate match for him.”
Seonghwa just sighed and leaned back in his chair avoiding his husband's gaze. “We've vetted a few royals. But there are so many pretenders trying to make a fool of our lesser kingdom these days. Makes me feel protective of our poor baby Yunho here.” Seonghwa tried to reach across and pinch Yunho on the cheek, who narrowly avoided his hand by leaning across the table for a drink. Seonghwa’s hand uselessly grazing the air where Yunho's face used to be.
But Mingi simply nodded, his big, dark eyes attentive and curious, completely oblivious to Yunho’s embarrassment as he chewed thoughtfully. He swallowed his bite of veal.
"I'm a princess," Mingi said.
It was quiet for a few seconds. Seonghwa’s spoon stopped moving across his bowl, looking up with a confused look in his eyes.
"Huh?"
"I'm a princess,” Mingi said again, chewing nonchalantly.
Seonghwa looked at his husband, who looked back at him, who looked at Yunho, who also didn’t exactly know what to say, looking at his new friend incredulously. The King coughed into his fist which still gripped his meat-skewered fork, too taken aback to even drop the utensil on his plate first.
"A real princess," Hongjoong reiterated. “Not metaphorically. Like, an actual princess.”
“That's what I said.” Mingi said, rolling his eyes before spearing a mini potato on his fork. “These are really good by the way.”
After a very polite pause Hongjoong cleared his throat once more. “Excuse me, you just don't seem like…” He looked the boy up and down once and noted that he was taller than him. “...You just don’t seem like the princesses we've seen from our neighboring kingdoms.”
Mingi pointed his fork towards Hongjoong as if he had a revelation, struggling to get the words out as he equally struggled to swallow his food. “That's probably why they didn't seem like real princesses,” Mingi said. “It takes a good sense to tell. My royal tutor Yeosang is always telling me that you need good sense to discern these things.”
Seonghwa sputtered, two hands on the edge of the table. “How does a princess get separated from the royal escort anyways? Isn't the whole point to escort the royal?”
Mingi nodded cluelessly. "Yeah. It's not their fault, I guess.” He didn't manage to finish chewing this time, instead just pocketing his food into his cheek and talking with his mouth semi-full. “I stepped out of the carriage to pee and I think they just didn't notice I wasn't in the palanquin. I thought they would notice and come back for me, but once the storm started I got really lost.”
It was an unbelievable story even to Yunho, but he couldn’t let the boy get grilled by his parents over this.
“Hey. Mingi is tired from the storm. We can all be a little more understanding here.”
Seonghwa looked like he wanted to say something, before taking a deep breath and resting his knife and fork back onto the dinner plate.
“...Well. I didn't realize that we had a member the royal family here when we sat for dinner today. I would've brought out the gold encrusted tableware.”
“Oh, you really didn't need to. Everything is great the way it is.” Mingi said between bites.
Seonghwa rose from his chair. “Why don't I set up the guest bedroom that we usually use for delegates for you tonight? It'll be a little treat. As an apology for this rather… lackluster greeting from our kingdom.”
Mingi perked up, blinking brightly. “That would be so nice, thank you!” He smiled. “This is my first time traveling abroad, so all this stuff is really cool.”
“It's the least we could do.” Seonghwa said, a small moue playing at his lips. Yunho watched his mom out the corner of his eye as he exited the dining room early, directing a few servants ahead. Mingi continued to cluelessly wolf down his meal.
It was that sense of unease that led to Yunho peeking into the delegate's room after their late night snack, just to make sure Seonghwa didn’t do anything weird to it. It usually went unused, but Seonghwa had spruced up the room between dinner and now: a vase of fresh flowers on the bedside table and new gold and red sheets and pillowcases that matched the walls. To his surprise, Mingi was already sat on the edge of the bed, his silver locks wet and hanging in his face. However this time it was not from the rain, rather from a hot shower if the steam coming out of the attached bathroom was anything to go by. He was bouncing up and down a little, with a frown on his face.
Yunho knocked on the open door to be polite. "Mingi?"
“Oh! Hi Yunho!” He looked back down at the mattress. “Did anyone ever tell you that the guest bed is a little lumpy?”
“Oh sorry… I guess the bed’s not used very often. Do you feel warmed up now? I hope you didn’t get sick.”
Mingi smiled up at him. “Don’t worry, I’m a very healthy boy. I never get sick. And if I do I get better right away.”
Yunho smiled at that, stepping into the guest bedroom carefully. Mingi didn’t seem to care, continuing to rub his hair dry with a towel.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Mingi stopped his drying for a second to look up at him, one eye scrunched up a little. "Yeah?”
“Are you really a princess?”
Mingi gave him a look, before the towel came back, covering his face as he dried vigorously. “Why? Are you doubting me?”
“No! I just– I guess I'm not really certain what makes a princess “real” or not. Seonghwa is always making the distinction, but honestly I’m not really sure what it means.” Frankly, Yunho wasn't sure if he would ever get it or not. He kind of figured being a “real” princess included not chewing with your mouth open but Mingi had done that multiple times today.
Mingi didn't say anything, just pursed his lips as his face emerged from the towel again. “I guess it's hard for the untrained eye to tell. It's one of those ‘if-you-know-you-know’ kind of things.”
“I guess.” Yunho stood near the edge of the bed. An interesting thought crossed his mind.
“Could you tell that I was a real prince?” Yunho said, pointing to himself. Mingi tossed the towel away and tried to lean onto his cushions, continuing to mush about the top of the bed, as if there was something off about it.
“Oh yeah totally. It’s really obvious.”
“Really?”
“Right away.” Mingi sliced his hand across the air as if to indicate how instantaneously he knew. “You didn't even have to speak and I could tell.”
Yunho smiled. He found it hard not to smile when he was talking to Mingi. “What gave me away?”
Mingi shrugged. “Just how kind you are,” he said, trying to cuddle into the plush comforters. “A fake prince wouldn’t have been so kind to me.”
Yunho was silent for a second. He hadn’t expected such a thoughtful answer. He leaned in closer, his hands still folded politely in front of him.
“I’m curious, what is being a princess like for you? Do you have to take the same lessons as princes? I’m doing minor legislation right now. Just some land disputes. I’m also taking lessons in horseback riding, fencing and sparring… Oh lately riflery as well! Since the King and Queen have been thinking riflery is going to replace swordsmanship in the future.”
Mingi leaned back and smiled. He patted the part of the mattress that was next to him. Yunho blinked. Usually the princesses he met before didn’t allow Yunho to be too close to them. Especially without a chaperone like they were right now. But it seemed even more rude to ignore a clear request like Mingi's right now. Yunho crawled up to sit next to him and tried to keep his heart from beating. Mingi pursed his lips as Yunho settled himself in. To be honest the bed seemed perfectly comfy.
“Hmmm, I do dance. Singing sometimes! But to be honest I like listening to it more than actually doing it. I go to the opera a lot. I'm supposed to be learning to cook too, but I was so bad at it they've stopped giving me lessons. Oh! I also tried riflery once! But I was also really bad at it. Also horses kind of scare me…”
“Dance!” Yunho perked up. “That’s interesting! Do you like it?”
“Yeah, I think so! And I'm pretty good at it. Maybe next time you can come up to visit my Kingdom and I can show you. We throw really nice galas in the spring and summer. And in the winters, the lakes get so cold you can walk over them. We have these special shoes and they make it so you can just glide over the ice.” He said, illustrating the motion with his hands. He brightened up and grabbed Yunho’s hand, shocking him. “If you visit sometimes, maybe I can get the royal opera house to put on my favorite stage play for you! It’s really good, it was made in Japan.”
Yunho held eye contact for a couple seconds, an unfamiliar heat rising up in his cheeks. Before he could embarrass himself further, he dropped Mingi’s hands, turning away slightly to press his palms to both his cheeks, cooling himself down.
“Aishhh, this is so unfair.”
“Why? What’s up?”
Yunho pouted slightly. “Well, when I visit your kingdom for the first time, you'll be able to prepare galas and operas. This is your first time visiting my homeland and I don’t have a single thing to show you.”
“Oh… I guess you'll just have a lot of time to prepare for my second time then!” Mingi said, patting Yunho on the back. “I mean, I’ll have to prepare a lot too! I've been taking a lot of ballroom lessons as well since I'm to be courting soon.”
Yunho took his head out of hands, trying to be cool.
“Um, how’s that going by the way?”
Mingi leaned back into the bed again. He wiggled around like he still couldn’t get comfortable. “Well… it's fine I guess. My parents aren’t like yours. They don’t really care who I choose.” He laughed a little, a barking exasperated kind of laugh. “They said I could marry the first person I saw down the street if I wanted to! I just…” He paused, Yunho felt his heart thump in his chest as Mingi looked away. The boy crossed his arms, pressing his lips together slightly. “I guess I just want somebody who will make my heart flutter.”
Yunho stared at Mingi for a few seconds, the air charged and full of tension. The storm that drove the boy into the castle in the first place continued to rage outside, thunder and rain like bullets drowning out the sounds of their quiet conversation to what felt like the rest of the world. Mingi looked back up at Yunho with a sharp gaze that seemed to fix him in one spot. His eyes were dark and angular and beautiful, with a beauty spot right under his right eye. Yunho’s gaze traveled down to his lips now, pink and plush, flushed from the steam of his shower. He swallowed thickly.
“Can I kiss you?”
Mingi’s eyes widened, making a motion to get up before Yunho leaned down closer, hand gently resting astride him.
“What?”
“Can I kiss you? Please.”
Mingi paused, eyes dancing in Yunho’s own. He slowly laid himself back down into the bed, assuming the same position he was in previously, his face heating up. He looked to the left for a second before Yunho slowly pressed him into the mattress, Mingi shifting uncomfortably against the sheets, hands coming up to wrap around the prince’s back. He coughed, making heated eye contact with the prince once more.
“...Close the door first.”
~
In the King’s quarters, Hongjoong looked over his reading glasses as his beloved wife continued to pace back and forth the length of the room. The king watched suspiciously for a couple seconds before speaking up.
“What are you doing, looking so pleased over there?”
Seonghwa stopped to laugh mirthfully, pausing to tip his head back and really get it all out before continuing up his pacing again. “I placed a pea under the mattress in the guest bedroom.”
Hongjoong stared at his husband for a few long seconds. “I… see…”
He closed his book. He was going to need all his brainpower for this conversation.
“...What did that do exactly?”
“Isn't it obvious? Tomorrow morning I’ll ask if the room was fit to the princess’s standards. If the boy claims to have had restful night sleep, then we'll know if he's not a real princess after all!”
The king removed his reading glasses and crossed his legs, massaging the spot between his eyebrows. “Honey. I understand you want to find a good match for our Yunho but honestly I’m starting to get confused about the metric you’re setting for us here. Take that last girl, she seemed perfectly suitable–”
“She ate the shellfish on the dining table! A real princess would never eat shellfish.”
“Right… Okay, well after tomorrow's breakfast I think we need to have a serious talk about Yunho’s courtship. He’s not getting any younger. And we are starting to seriously offend our neighbors to the East and West. At a certain point I think we have to consider a compromise. Even a “half” princess would be fine if she makes our Yunho happy, right? For the joy of our son and the future joy of our nation.”
Seonghwa notably sagged at that, stopping his pacing to walk over to the chair next to his husband, slouching down in it and crossing his arms to pout. Hongjoong reached out for the hand closest to him and pressed a kiss into the back of his palm.
“He’ll be fine alright? No matter what your hang-ups are for his wife, our son is a real gentleman. A real prince.”
~
The next morning, Yunho waited at the breakfast table, anxiously fiddling with the embroidery on the high golden collar of his morning. He waited for their guest to join them as he watched the clock. The sun was already up, casting long shadows across the castle interior.
Ten minutes to the end of the breakfast hour, Mingi showed up. He was dressed in the new clothes the servants had laid out for him, but his silver hair was wracked and sticking up every which way despite his clear attempts to pat it back down. His face was flushed, and his elegant walk from the day before now instead held a step of cautiousness as he made his way across the room.
He slowly sat down, hissing as settled down into the cushioned oak chairs. Without asking, he pulled the nearest chalice closer to him, drinking long draughts of water unbroken for several seconds. Yunho sweated as the boy loudly exhaled.
"So." The king asked, nonchalantly spreading his napkin over his lap. "How did you sleep last night?"
Mingi cast an irritated sidelong glance to Yunho, who nervously maintained eye contact. The prince shifted in his chair slightly. Mingi sighed and rolled his eyes, breaking eye contact. He looked back down and stabbed at his food, his lips pursed slightly as he chewed over his next words.
"I didn't sleep a wink last night," he mumbled.
Hongjoong’s eyebrows shot up. He stole a quick glance to Seonghwa on his left, who almost seemed to rise out of his chair. Yunho was pretending to polish his silverware.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. In fact I barely even closed my eyes last night. I couldn't sleep at all. There must've been something big and hard in the bed, because my whole body is bruised," he picked up the appetizer fork as he managed to sneak in a quick pointed look in Yunho's direction before diverting his eyes back down to his gold and white plate, avoiding the fish and stabbing a piece of chicken. “You should get that mattress checked out.”
Seonghwa's mouth was open in shock, stealing a few not-so-subtle glances between their guest and his son. Yunho felt the sweat bead at on the back of his neck.
“Yunho,” the queen hissed beseechingly. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
Yunho suddenly stood up. He strode over to the other side of the table where Mingi was eating, the princess looking up at him confused, food halfway to his mouth. Yunho dropped to one knee, clasping his hand still holding the fork in it between his own. "Mingi!"
“Huh?”
"Will you marry me?"
Hongjoong immediately spit his drink out, rising to his feet, Seonghwa jumped out of his chair, grabbing the object closest to him (the chef coming out with another dish) and pulled him to his chest.
“Woah woah woah wait just a second here!” Hongjoong yelled. Mingi’s eyes rapidly darted across the crown prince’s face, mouth slightly ajar.
“Love is so beautiful,” Seonghwa wailed.
~
“I'm telling you, we went too far back. What if he's gone ahead of us and now we're even more separated?” Yeosang said, nervously perched next to the royal coachman atop the empty carriage. “We should've split up to look for him.”
“Yeah right, lose the princess and half the party?” Jongho said, urging his sturdy, gray horse to a brisk pace alongside them. “Trust me there's no way Mingi could've ended up ahead of us.”
Yeosang ran his hands through his chin length black hair, the delicate curve of his lip turned downwards. “I shouldn’t have left the princess alone in the carriage last night. Good heavens, what if we lost him forever??”
Jongho wrung his gloved hands on the thick leather reins. He didn't want to admit it, but he was nervous too. “There's a castle up there, we should ask if they saw anyone. If not, they might have some resources they could spare.” Yeosang nodded, trying to straighten out his wrinkled clothes, barely containing his nerves. He hadn’t slept a wink.
Once flashed with the royal seal, the knights at the castle ahead were gracious enough to let them through the outer fence, the small convoy slowly escorted through the tall golden gates. The castle was not as large as the princess’, but it was more ornate and intricate that spoke to a more established royal family. One with a longer history, a longer reign. Yeosang and Jongho dismounted as they were led to the main doors, a powerful, thick, engraved wooden thing.
Yeosang cleared his throat and puffed his chest out, turning on his “royal advisor” mode. Jongho rolled his eyes and knocked for him.
Two servants came to answer the door, dressed in clean white linen dresses and caps, with navy trim on their tunics and aprons. “Hello there,” Yeosang started. “So sorry to bother you so early in the morning. We're a royal convoy from the Northern Kingdom traveling homewards after a diplomatic mission. Did you perhaps see a young man last night during the storm? Dressed in a simple white tunic and pants, silver hair and dark eyes, with an insignia ring on his thumb? We've been searching for him since nightfall and we're starting to grow concerned. We are starting to think, what if he wasn't dressed warm enough? What if he is cold? Is he eating enough? What if he tripped on his untied shoelaces and fell into a ditch? What if he broke every bone in his body? Oh God, I told him that he needs to keep his boots in double knots just in case!” Yeosang wailed, his hands coming up to clutch the sides of his head in worry. Jongho cleared his throat, pushing him back and stepping in front of him. He bowed deeply.
“Please. Any information will be generously rewarded.
The servants whispered to each other, a third woman poking out from behind the door to mutter something to the head maid. She turned back to face the two.
“Is this boy fairly tall?”
“Yes!” Yeosang’s head shot back up, pushing Jongho aside again. The relief was palpable in his voice. “Have you seen him on the grounds?”
“Wait one second here,” the maid said, turning to dismiss the other two and closing the heavy wooden doors again. Once out of sight, Yeosang placed two hands on Jongho’s shoulder as he jumped up and down.
“Oh thank the heavens!” he cried. “Oh thank god. I could never forgive myself if something happened to the princess.”
“Calm down, we don’t even know for sure if–”
The door opened again and a familiar tall frame came into view, speaking with an even more familiar voice:
“Hello?”
“Princess!” Yeosang almost cried as he ran forward to hug Mingi, jumping into his arms and wrapping his legs around him. Mingi just laughed and tried to hug him back. The princess was wearing an unfamiliar set of clothing, dressed in bright reds and black, but he was safe and visibly uninjured as far as the eye could tell. Yeosang clung to him and wailed.
“I was so worried, oh my gosh, bweuh hoo hoo…”
He suddenly remembered what the situation was and immediately jumped off of the princess. He smacked him once on the shoulder.
“Owww,” Mingi whined.
“How many times do I tell you! You need a supervisor when you go to the bathroom! Do you know how worried we were? Your parents are going to kill us when we get back! They're going to cut my head off and it's going to be your fault!”
“Yeosangieee, don't worry, you'll be fine! They'll cut your hair at most!”
Yeosang squeaked, hands coming up to his own throat. He almost sounded more horrified at the prospect of losing his hair than his life. “Princess, please, you must not allow that to happen. We can make it back to the castle in sixteen days if we rush. I'll call the carriage right away,” he said, pulling the princess down the stairs.
Jongho remained behind momentarily and bowed deeply.
“We greatly appreciate your compassion and hospitality. Trust, you will be greatly compensated. May I have you and your master's names?”
“Mingi! Mingi wait!”
Before another word could be spoken, a young blonde boy came running out the doors, right past the servant girls and the still bowing knight. The boy was still in the process of pulling his overcoat on, hurrying down the stairs and towards the awaiting carriage that the princess was currently being pushed into. Yeosang looked over his shoulder, face scrunching at the commotion.
“Who is this?” Yeosang said,
“Oh, um–”
Before Mingi could even say another word the young man had sprinted up to the carriage, reaching out desperately and grasping Mingi's left hand. Yeosang gasped, his grip on Mingi's other arm tightening at the sight of this.
“Young man! Please step away from–”
“Mingi! Please just think about what I said. Please Mingi,” he said. “I– my Kingdom is small, but I meant every word I said. And it's not just because we–” he paused mid-word, his gaze flickering to the royal advisor who was standing between them now. “We– we kissed.”
Yeosang gasped like he had been stabbed. Yunho’s grasp tightened, eyes shining as he started up again with even more passion and vigor. “I was serious when I asked you to marry me!”
“What!” Yeosang gasped even louder now, his face red as he yanked the princess away from this unknown man, Mingi helplessly pushed behind him and into the covered vehicle.
“Please just think about it!” the boy cried out, shoved back down to ground level.
“I will Yunho, I promise.”
“Jongho, do something!” the dark haired man hissed. The very next second, a great big gray horse thundered down between them, Yunho stumbling back to avoid its great big hooves coming down between them. The man on the back pulled back on its reins, twisting the body of his horse around, angling his own as to block the prince as the carriage holding Mingi stirred to life, the coachman on the back spurring the horses into action.
As the long white convoy began to move, his own servants opening the golden gates for their guests' departure, Yunho began frantically searching through his pockets. He made a move but the man astride the horse skillfully moved to stop him, Yunho blocked in place. Faced with no other option, he held the paper up, outstretched towards the man.
“Here.”
Jongho frowned, eyebrows creasing. He plucked the paper from the boy with a gloved hand, looking over the front and back.
“It's– it's just an old envelope but it’s got my name, title and address on it. Please give it to the prncess.” He swallowed thickly. “Please.”
Jongho looked the boy up and down again. The man had big brown eyes, shining with sincerity as he stared beseechingly at the knight. He was clearly desperate, yet somehow not pitiful. Jongho looked at him for a long time, before sighing and stuffing the envelope in the breast pocket of his jacket.
“Thank you,” the young man said. His face was honest and easy to read, relief flowing over his shoulders at the acceptance of his letter. Jongho scrutinized the boy for another second, waiting until the royal procession was outside the confines of the gate again, before nodding once and turning his horse around and out, hooves thundering underfoot. The boy didn’t try to follow them again, just stood at the threshold as he watched them leave.
When they were finally a considerable distance away, Yeosang poked his head out of the window on the side of the carriage. He held the curtains open, looking all around until he made eye contact with the knight.
“Who was that boy? What did he give you?”
Jongho looked ahead, idly leading his horse, but silently pulled out the envelope, holding it out in front of the hexagonal carriage window for Yeosang to read. Yeosang squinted, making sure he was seeing this right, before snatching it and opening it up. It was empty inside. He paused, eyebrows creasing, before closing it back up and flipping it over.
“Prince Yunho?” he read aloud.
“What are you talking about?” a voice called out from within the carriage.
“Nothing!” Yeosang yelled back into the darkness.
He handed the paper back to Jongho who took it back coolly, folding it back into his breast pocket as Yeosang’s head disappeared from the window a second time as he checked back on the princess. After a few seconds his head emerged again, this time wrapping the curtain around on both sides of his chin so the princess couldn't hear what they were talking about.
“How do we know this guy is good for Mingi? What if– What if he's not even a real prince?” Yeosang hissed.
Jongho was silent for a sec. He whipped his reins, standing up slightly in his stirrups as the horses picked up the pace. “Don't worry about that,” Jongho said with a grimace. “He's a real prince all right.”