Minseok had grown used to the idea of the Lu Kingdom winning the battle. He had grown used to the idea, after so long of waking up in the medical tent, spending the day in the presence of more alphas and betas than he’d seen in his life, and certainly after the long, uncomfortable, wagon ride to the capital of the Lu Kingdom.

But waking up in the palace was a whole different thing altogether.

Minseok’s eyes were swollen and sore; he’d fallen asleep crying, so he’d expected it, but it didn’t make it any more pleasant. It was bizarre: the room he and Jongdae shared was far nicer than a tent in the army camp, and in reality it was nicer than their room back home. But it was cold, impersonal. The sheets and blanket were soft from use by servants of years past, and countless washings, but while that was similar to home, the feeling was entirely different. There was no patch near the top of the blanket made from fabric from great-grandpa’s old worn shirt, no embroidery attempts from when his auntie was small, copying the successful embroidery Grandma had made when she was a few years older. This blanket wasn’t sun-bleached or stained with homemade soju that was probably too strong for anyone who wasn’t absolutely desperate to drink.

Cold. Impersonal. Minseok didn’t belong here. None of them belonged here.

And yet, here they were. Out of kindness or cold necessity, Minseok couldn’t truly tell.

Jongdae woke up with a start, and even though his face was mostly blank when he looked around the room, Minseok could see the growing fear in his eyes.

Minseok sat up, and pushed the blanket back, opening his arms.

Jongdae was out of his bed and hugging Minseok in an instant. Minseok held onto him tightly around the shoulders with one arm, and began to rub Jongdae’s back with his free hand.

“I want to go home,” Jongdae whimpered, his voice still sleepy, childlike in a way that Jongdae hadn’t sounded in a long while. “I want Mamma.”

Even though both their mothers and fathers were omegas, both Minseok and Jongdae had always been closer to their mothers. The thought of someone coming around and telling their mothers; or of a letter being sent and the whole family crowding around uncle Jaehwan, the only living alpha and the only one in the whole house who knew how to read, and hearing that Minseok and Jongdae were not among the few returning home, and that they were either dead or had been captured by the enemy… it sent a sharp pang through Minseok, and he held onto Jongdae tighter reflexively.

“I’ll do everything I can to make sure we see them again, Jongdae,” Minseok whispered into his cousin’s hair. “I promise.”

They had slept in their newly given underclothes, and so threw their uniforms on quickly. Even with his foot wrapped, Minseok was able to put his new pants on faster than he thought. Neither one of them had a comb, so Minseok did his best to undo any tangles with his fingers before re-braiding both his and Jongdae’s hair.

“I was told there is a washroom at the end of the corridor,” Jongdae told him. “And I’m sure someone will be able to tell us what we’re supposed to do.”

They were able to wash their faces, which did Minseok a lot of good. For one thing, he didn’t want to report to Kyungsoo looking like a child away from his parents for the first time, and for another, it made him feel marginally more in control of himself.

Once they finished, one of the palace guards told them to go to the same courtyard they’d been in the previous night, and even if they hadn’t remembered the way, there was a fairly steady stream of omegas headed in the same direction. Everyone was nervous and no one had any idea what to expect. The chatter was loud, even though the corridor and path to the courtyard were fairly open, and the constant noise put Minseok on edge.

He must have tensed up too much, because Jongdae took his free hand and squeezed it gently.

“We’ll be fine,” Jongdae told him softly. “We will both be fine.”

Minseok gave him the best smile he could and nodded.

He hoped they would be fine.

Baekhyun and Jongin were already there when they reached the courtyard. Minseok knew neither one of them were particularly early risers by choice, but the army tended to make a morning person out of everyone, whether they wanted to be or not, and by now the habit was ingrained. Baekhyun ran over to hug them, and Jongin followed close behind.

“Did you two sleep well?” Minseok asked as he watched Jongin rub his eyes as he walked.

“Oh yes!” Baekhyun nodded. “I still can’t believe they have real beds for servants. I thought we’d be in army cots or worse.”

Jongin nodded. “I slept really well. It’s just a lot to take in.”

The four of them sat together like always. The food was good, and there was more of it than their army rations. There was just as much noise as there had been in the corridor and path, but this time it was happy chatter, and it was diluted by both the open space and many of the omegas being interrupted by food.

Minseok relaxed a bit. He could do this. He could deal with this.

Just then, Kyungsoo put his hand on Minseok’s shoulder, startling him.

“When you’ve finished,” Kyungsoo said softly, his breath brushing up against Minseok’s newly-pierced ear, “I need to introduce you to the prince’s other servants.”

Minseok nodded. The ball of lead in his stomach was back.

He ate quickly after that, he didn’t want to keep anyone waiting, and Jongdae squeezed his hand quickly as he stood, balancing with his crutch.

“You’ll be fine,” Jongdae told him with a small smile.

Minseok hoped he would be fine.

He walked over to where Kyungsoo was waiting for him. Next to him, there were five other people, three women and two men. The men both looked to be around his own age, but the women varied: the youngest looked to be around the same age as his little sister, while the other two were middle aged. When Minseok got closer, he could tell they were all omegas. They wore the same uniform Minseok did, and had their left ears pierced with thick silver rings, like Minseok. But Minseok noticed one thing different: their hair.

It was a small thing, such a little thing, but when Minseok was nervous he couldn’t help but focus on it. Even though they were palace servants, the other omegas all had beautiful, shiny, hair. They clearly had maintained their hair for quite some time, either by choice or through given resources. Instead of simple low braids, they all wore theirs in pretty twists, or beautiful high braids, practical but elegant. Minseok took as good of care of his hair as he could, but even the women in his family didn’t do much to maintain theirs. His hair wasn’t dirty, but it was far from shiny, and just brushed enough so that his braid laid flat. Already he felt like an uneducated farm boy amongst a bunch of rich kids, and while he was an uneducated farm boy, he had hoped that, amongst fellow servants, he wouldn’t feel as different.

But whatever they saw him as, they didn’t say. All five of them were polite, with warm smiles and brief introductory bows.  

After introductions, most of Minseok’s fellow new omegas had finished eating, and even though they were going up to other supervising servants, Kyungsoo still ended up with his hands full, and so wasn’t able to walk Minseok through his duties himself like he had said he would the previous night.

“I’ll supervise later,” Kyungsoo had said as he’d waved Minseok away.

Instead of Kyungsoo, Minseok was led around by Junmyeon. After the traumatic “induction” into the ranks of the prince’s personal servants, Minseok was glad to have Junmyeon with him. Junmyeon had smiled brightly when Kyungsoo had told Minseok that if he wasn’t around, Junmyeon was in charge, and peppered the conversation with worry about Minseok’s foot. He was sweet, almost motherly in a way that was different from both Minseok and Kyungsoo: he was smiles and chatter and visible worry where Minseok showed his affection in a physical but quiet way and Kyungsoo nurtured in an almost matter of fact manner.

Junmyeon gave Minseok a much more detailed tour than Kyungsoo would have, certainly. The Princes’ rooms were fairly extensive: there was his personal bedchamber, which Minseok did not see the inside of, a lounging area in an antechamber to the inner bedchamber; a private library, private study, and several parlor areas around the wing. Some were indoors, and some on porches overlooking the view beyond the palace walls. Minseok couldn’t imagine one person needing all of it. While he took him around, Junmyeon was unnecessarily proud of Minseok for simple things: like remembering rooms and, since they were walking so much, for not needing to sit down after a few hours.

“I worked in a field for most of my life, Junmyeon.” Minseok reminded him. “Even with a wrapped foot and a crutch, this is nothing.”

Minseok wondered if Junmyeon might stop after that, but instead the comment just made him ask Minseok questions about his home life. Minseok wasn’t usually one to go on about it, the only reason Baekhyun and Jongin knew as much about him as they did was because Jongdae was a chatterbox when prompted. But Junmyeon had a way of sounding interested in every single thing, including menial jobs that Minseok had done, that made him want to tell him.

Kyungsoo had put in him on laundry duty, which was good, but the work got difficult with his foot wrapped. Actually washing the laundry wasn’t difficult: Minseok was given linens and such to wash, and sitting down at a washboard was easy on his foot. Compared to his work in the fields at home, scrubbing wasn’t difficult, even though the soap was hard on his hands. But he found he liked the repetitive nature of scrubbing and rinsing. Junmyeon sat a ways away, but they would come together and help each other wring out the wet fabric, take a break, and Junmyeon would start talking again.

The washing area was next to the river, which was close enough to the palace to still be in sight through the trees, but far enough to be a bit of a hike. While Minseok’s foot was wrapped, their guard had to carry the washboard, while Junmyeon took all of the laundry. Minseok might have been able to manage carrying laundry in a pack on his back, but the river was down a hill from the palace, and the hill steep enough that Minseok had to take care maneuvering with his crutch, and he was grateful that he didn’t have any weight on his back to contend with.

Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work on laundry and observe how other duties were carried out until he was physically able to assist, have an evening meal, observe evening duties, and then sleep again. Usually there was about an hour or so for Minseok to get to talk to Jongdae, Baekhyun, and Jongin before they all went to bed, but that varied depending on how tired they were after a very long day. For Minseok’s own part, while constantly being on his feet with the crutch under his arm hurt (he was pretty sure his upper arm around his armpit was bruised) he had had harder days during the harvesting season. He could handle this.

He didn’t see the prince for quite a while. A large part of the reason was because of his assigned duties, since he was primarily getting the laundry directly from whoever had cleaned the prince’s bedchamber that morning, or other linens that needed freshening and he didn’t have a reason to be in the prince’s wing during the day. While Minseok was observing evening duties, and later helping once his foot was healed enough that he didn’t need the crutch to walk any longer, the prince was either away or in his bed chamber or private library. The other reason was that, for a large portion of the time, the prince just wasn’t in the palace.

“Prince Lu Han isn’t an officer of the army or anything like that,” Junmyeon told him. “But he’s been training in tactics under several of the generals for several years now, and his majesty the king thought that now would be a good opportunity for him to gain practical experience.”

“So he’s been going to different battle sites?”

Junmyeon nodded. “Battle sites, even though he doesn’t actually get into combat: he’s the only heir to the throne, after all; and general meetings regarding the war when he is here.”

“No wonder I’ve never seen him beyond when we first came here.”

“Well, there’s time enough. This war can’t last forever.”

No, the war could not last forever. Minseok knew there weren’t enough omegas in his home country for that. Minseok wondered how far back the battle lines would be drawn. Would they get further and further inside his country’s borders until they were fighting inside the capital? Minseok had no doubt that his kingdom would lose compared to the Lu’s, he’d known that from the beginning. They wouldn’t draft the alphas, or even the betas, until absolutely necessary, and even though omegas were not all weak, he knew the army commanders wouldn’t learn from the loss of the first battle. They wouldn’t train the omegas properly, wouldn’t feed them well. Wouldn’t allow them proper care during heats. Minseok, Jongdae, Baekhyun, and Jongin had almost died from dehydration during their heats because all four of them had synched up within days of each other. Jongdae had disobeyed orders first, in order to tend to Minseok, and then Baekhyun and Jongin had disobeyed when Jongdae’s heat started not long after. Minseok had no doubt that more omegas would fall victim to the same rules.

No, there would not be enough omegas for the war to last forever.

Minseok wanted to ask, but at the same time he didn’t dare, how the Lu’s invaded cities. Did they only go after the government buildings and leave the homes and businesses of the people alone? Did they only kill those who resisted? Or did they burn everything and kill everyone? It was the only thing he was afraid of: he knew the farms would be reached first. Would his and Jongdae’s family be safe? Would there be anything left for them to live off of? Or would the Lu’s ride through and burn everything that they didn’t take for supplies, leaving the families to die during winter if they didn’t kill them in the process already?

It was a worry in his mind, in the minds of all the captured omegas, but even in the palace of the Lu’s, there was nothing they could do about it. Life in the palace went on. Minseok’s foot healed, and he was able to properly join the ranks of the prince’s personal servants. His workload increased, but he liked it. He felt a bit more in control again, able to carry things on his own, have two free hands even while he was standing, walk or run at faster speeds. He could race Jongdae to the courtyard for their morning meal, or tickle Baekhyun into submission when the younger omega thought it was a good idea to try to wrestle him. Kyungsoo was pleased with his work: Minseok was strong enough to move heavier objects by himself than Junmyeon or any of the prince’s other servants could alone: sure there were some things that no one could lift by themselves, but when it came to heavy objects he didn’t tire as quickly. Even with his other duties, he could now properly contribute without help no matter what the task was.

“I knew I was right about you,” Kyungsoo told him once. And then he’d given Minseok his highest praise: he’d smiled.

It had been well over two months since Minseok and the other captured omegas had come to the palace when Minseok’s responsibilities increased quite a bit. One of the prince’s other servants, Yerim, the youngest girl, received word that her grandfather was very ill and she needed to come home.

Of course Kyungsoo let her go. The other women helped her pack her things, and Kyungsoo assured her that her position would still be open for her when she returned. Minseok was relieved for Yerim at that: he knew that most head servants would not have been that generous, whether they were allowed to be or not. Barely a day after Yerim had left, Kyungsoo pulled Minseok aside.

“I want you to take on some of Yerim’s responsibilities.”

Minseok paled. He knew what Yerim did: she and Junmyeon were usually the ones to serve the prince his meals and anything else he might ask for, help him dress in the mornings, undress in the evenings, brush and style his hair… essentially, the most public things. Yes Junmyeon had helped Minseok with the washing but that had not taken all day.

He knew from talking to Junmyeon that it took training. Training that Minseok didn’t have, and had barely had any exposure to. Minseok had seen his grandmother dress in her fine hanbok for holidays and special festivals, but he’d barely been allowed to touch it, much less know how it was put together. His own clothes took no preparation. They weren’t made of fine material and were designed to be work clothes: easy to put on, sturdy enough not to pull or rip doing most things, and didn’t need any extra care. He knew the prince’s clothes would be none of those things. As for brushing and styling hair… Minseok’s hair didn’t even look like Junmyeon’s or Kyungsoo’s: how was he supposed to know how to brush and style the prince’s hair? And that wasn’t even counting serving food…

“I can hear you panicking,” Kyungsoo interrupted his train of thought. His voice was gentle, and he reached out and took Minseok’s hand. “I will help you. Junmyeon will help you. You will be fine.”

Minseok doubted that very much.

Jongdae sided with Kyungsoo. Minseok told him, Jongin, and Baekhyun during dinner, but Jongdae didn’t get a chance to talk about it with him until they were going to bed. Their room was dark, the moonlight was barely shining in through the screen covering the window, and Minseok couldn’t see Jongdae’s face, only the spot where he was on his bed, although, since their room wasn’t very big, his voice was still close when he spoke.

“It’s going to take a lot of work,” Jongdae said. “This is stuff we’ve never even had to think about before. I know you’re worried about it, I would be too.”

Minseok nodded.

“You’ve never been afraid of hard work, Minseok. At home, in the army… you always jumped in to help, to figure it out. You’re smart, Minseok. We might not be educated but you’re smart. We’ve all had to adapt, and you’re one of the best at it. I think you’ll be able to do it. It’ll take a lot to learn, but you’ll be okay.”

“Thank you, Jongdae,” Minseok whispered, and leaned over to kiss his forehead. He was still unsure, but having his cousin’s confidence helped ease the worry in his brain some.

Ultimately, Jongdae and Kyungsoo were right. They started with serving food and drinks, and made sure that Minseok knew enough to not make a fool of himself. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to make pouring tea look as delicate as Junmyeon made it look, though. Junmyeon had beautiful hands: even though he’d worked a lot, they still looked nice and the backs of his hands, at least, looked soft. Minseok was no fool: he knew that, even if his hands were pampered like the prince’s, they would never look remotely soft: he’d been working in the fields since he was old enough to walk and help plant.

Before Minseok felt like he was ready: it was time for his first “test.” The prince had company, and had called for tea. Junmyeon walked with him, carrying one tray while Minseok carried a second. Minseok vaguely watched Junmyeon out of the corner of his eye, to make sure he knew where he was going, but he was mostly staring at the teapot on his tray, hoping desperately that he wasn’t going to spill anything. Slow, careful steps…

“Minseok, you can walk faster than that,” Junmyeon smiled. He stopped to let Minseok catch up with him and murmured encouragement as they approached the parlor.

They stopped just outside the door, and Minseok could hear voices through it, but couldn’t make out what was being said.

“Prince Lu Han!” Junmyeon called out. “May we come in?”

“Of course!” Came the reply.

Junmyeon opened the door with his foot: wiggling it open with his toe before he caught it on his heel and opened it wider, letting Minseok in ahead of him. His movements were so smooth: Minseok didn’t think he would ever be able to copy that without dropping everything. Minseok kept his eyes down the teapot; his heart was pounding and he just knew that everyone could see that he barely had an idea of what he was doing…

Junmyeon whispered in his ear: “set it on the table next to the prince.”

Minseok knew the wisdom in that: with Minseok pouring for the prince, only he would see if he did something wrong, as opposed to a guest being on the receiving end. On the other hand, Minseok did not want to mess up in front of the prince, of all people. But that was what Junmyeon told him to do, so he finally looked up to see where the prince was sitting.

There were two men around his own age visiting the prince. They were sitting separated enough from the prince that two small tables were perfectly necessary, but close enough for easy conversation. When Minseok got closer, he could tell one was an alpha and one a beta. The beta had a sweet, slightly sleepy-looking, face, and smiled gently at him when he caught Minseok looking. The alpha was broader, with a handsome face that looked like it belonged on a statue, but he didn’t look unfriendly.

“Junmyeon, my love!” The beta said in a teasing, overdramatic, voice as he flung his arms open. “Come here to me!”

“Give me a minute, Lord Yixing, or hot tea will be coming with me,” Junmyeon told him.

Minseok refocused on the prince and almost dropped the tea tray. The prince was staring at him, his eyes almost comically wide but intensely focused. Minseok couldn’t quite tell if the expression on his face was interest or something else, but there was nothing he could do about it: he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong.

He was aware of Prince Lu Han staring at him, at his face, while Minseok poured the tea for him. It was very nerve-wracking, and Minseok couldn’t help how his hands shook, but he still managed to pour the tea without spilling. He set the teapot down gently, without making much noise, and stepped back. He bowed deeply to the prince, and gave a second bow, not quite as deep, to his guests, before he hurried out of the room. He would wait for Junmyeon outside, since the man was currently being cuddled by the beta, Lord Yixing, but Minseok thought that if he didn’t get out of the room quickly he wouldn’t be able to breathe.

Why had the prince stared at him so intensely?

After dinner, Kyungsoo found him as he was heading back to the prince’s wing. He looked like he’d been laughing, a smile still on his face and his voice was light when he spoke.

“I want you to join Junmyeon while he sees to the prince tonight.”

“What?” Minseok thought his eyes might fall out of his head. “I’m not ready for that; I haven’t learned anything about how to store clothes or etiquette for undressing, or-“

Kyungsoo cut him off with a laugh and by holding up his hand for Minseok to be quiet.

“I don’t think that will be necessary just yet. Junmyeon will give you simple instructions for now. But as soon as Prince Lu Han’s guests left today he came and found me. He wanted all the information I had about you.”

“He did?”

Kyungsoo nodded. “I haven’t seen him like this in a long time, it’s hilarious. He was trying to be subtle, but he’s asked me to have you start attending to him personally.”

“But what if I do something wrong?”

“Even if you do, I highly doubt he’ll mind. Prince Lu Han is really very lenient, to the point of being frustrating, sometimes.”

“But what about…”

“Minseok.” Kyungsoo cut him off. “Calm down. You have the prince’s attention in the best way possible. Everything else will come in time.”

He certainly had the prince’s attention, but he wasn’t sure how much of a good thing that was just yet.