Son, when you grow up will you be the saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned?

Once upon a time there was a prince called Jinyoung who lived in a grand castle in a faraway land.

Prince Jinyoung was a pure soul who enjoyed strolls in the castle grounds singing with the wild birds and animals. But behind the wide smile and little giggles is a lonely boy with sorrow in his heart.

Prince Jinyoung was brought into the world by the Queen of the castle who was adored by her kingdom. The queen who was known for her beauty enjoyed strolls in the forest that led out of the city. On a cold winter’s day, the queen pricked her finger on a Hawthorn tree. The torn pierced deep into the flesh of the queen’s index finger and three drops of blood dripped onto the white snow on the ground. The stark contrast of her red blood in the white snow by the harsh black Hawthorn tree made her utter a simple wish.

“How I wish to have a princess with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as dark as night”

The very next winter, Jinyoung was born and true to the queen wish, he had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as dark as night. However, the queen was granted a prince instead of a princess. The king and queen however adored their son and showered their prince with a grand ball to celebrate his birth.

Not long after her birth though, the queen fell ill and the kingdom was put into state of mourning when it was announce the queen had died.

It was tragic but little Jinyoung was still a baby and had no chance of truly feeling a mother’s love. Prince Jinyoung grew up close to his father, who ruled his kingdom in peace. His father, who had loved him for he is the only family he had left, never forgot to tell wonderful stories of Jinyoung’s kind mother and daily Jinyoung heard of how his mother had loved him. Every day he was assured that his mother wouldn’t have hesitated to give her life to make sure her son was well.

It was fall of his seventh birthday when his father had announce that he would remarry. Jinyoung was elated to find his step-mother was beautiful. He was however greeted by disappointment when he learnt that beauty does not reside easily in everybody. His stepmother was mean and sprouted insults to him whenever his father was not looking. The small prince had never been treated badly and was sent to bed crying each night.

It would have been easier if he could tell his father of the wrongdoings done to him.

But his father was happy with his new wife and Jinyoung couldn’t imagine breaking his heart.

So he bit his tongue and held in tears, as each insult was pelt his way. Prince Jinyoung was 7 but if it was one thing he had gained from his mother’s death is that you do whatever you can to make sure your loved one is happy. His mother died for him and his feelings were a small sacrifice for his father’s happiness. As long as his father kissed him good night before he sleeps and greets him good morning at breakfast he was fine.

But things didn’t continue to become fine.

As soon as snow fell on the castle ground, his father had fallen ill. Jinyoung was only a child and he could not bear the thought of losing his father. So he cried.

His father, however, told him “A king must stand strong for his kingdom. A son must be brave for his father”

In the dead of night, as Jinyoung cried into his father’s hand, his father said his last words. “You are as kind-hearted as your mother but you lack courage. Be brave, my son”

It was stated in the law that the queen shall rule the kingdom under circumstance that the king died. As the crown prince, the throne could only be claimed at the age of 19 and Jinyoung was barely reaching 8 years old. So it was then that the queen was crowned as the ruler of the kingdom until such time that Jinyoung was of age to rule the kingdom.

To say that Jinyoung was devastated that his father had died was an understatement. He was now left to live with his step mother who hated him and each day since the woman had come into his life was torture.

It was the night after the crowning ceremony that Jinyoung truly understood how much he was going to hate life from this day on. The queen had summoned him to her chambers and called all the servants out.

“Jinyoungie,” she snarled making the hairs on the back of Jinyoung’s neck stand. “I want to make you a proposition,”

Jinyoung watched as she combed her brunette hair straight with a brush, watching Jinyoung through her mirror. Jinyoung tried not to seem afraid but he was afraid.

“You are only 7 and it would be a shame to kill you,” she smirked. Jinyoung’s eyes flew wide open. “And after your father’s death it would be quite suspicious if you were to die too,”

“You murderer!” Jinyoung screamed, he could feel tears threatening to leave his eyes. But he wasn’t going to cry, not in front of his father’s murderer. “I will report you!”

She breaks into an evil laugh and rises from her seat at her dressing table. She paces towards small Jinyoung and an evil smirk paints her haunting features. “And who would believe a small boy like you, Jinyoung. They would think you are crazy with grief and lock you up with treatment,”

Jinyoung glared at her. She was right.

“You have nowhere to go, little boy. And as much as I want you dead, you are the only thing that would keep me queen. So I have a proposition for you,” she pauses in her stride to take a sharp look at Jinyoung. “Be a good little prince and I’ll let you live on the castle grounds. Let me rule this kingdom and I will let you live in the ground your ancestors built. Betray me and I shall kill you,”

“What is the use of life if I have nothing but suffering,”

“Oh but young boy, you are the prince to the kingdom. You’re responsibility lies in your subjects. Do you think I would not hesitate to cruelly murder your servants if you do not abide me?”

Jinyoung held in his tears as he thinks of the maids that raise him, the soldiers and the people of his kingdom. If it was anything his father had loved more than him was serving the people and it would be a disgrace if he selfishly thought of letting the evil queen torture them.

Jinyoung dropped to his feet and started crying, the pain simply too much to hold for his 7 year old self. He had just lost his father, and his kingdom. If it was the last thing he did, he was going to make sure the people were at least safe.

It was such a heavy burden for a young prince to carry.

The dark times then fell onto the kingdom. Prince Jinyoung was still too young to protect the kingdom from the unjust ruling of the evil queen. She the land dry of resources and eventually the people lived in poor conditions. The castle grew quiet and darker as the any signs of life were chased away by Jinyoung’s stepmother. Music was banned from being played unless at royal balls. Royal balls were seen as a waste of resources. The people who sought help from the castle were shunned for public misconduct.

The queen was an evil and vain woman. Her jealousy led her to forbid pretty dresses or corset. No women were to dress beautifully and women that did were sentence to the dungeon.

Jinyoung hated his life being unable to do anything but watch his kingdom fall to the ground.

So, there was a prince who had a lonely heart filled with sorrow from his tainted past but sang to birds as he waits for his age to finally reach 19.

-o0o-

Jinyoung liked to sneak out of the castle to sit at the hawthorn tree his mother had pricked her finger on. He wore a big cape that masked his face with a red apple in his hand as he heads into the forest. The legend has it that the forest is magical and that scary monster lurk in it. Jinyoung however has the path to the tree memorized by heart and feels most at home with the tree.

Jinyoung reads by the tree but most times he sings so the birds of the forest crowd him and reply his whistling and notes. The forest comes alive with him.

Sometimes Jinyoung thinks they understand him.

“Do all birds flock over for your company?”

Jinyoung jumped at the sound of a voice behind him. He looked behind him to see a young man in dirty clothing with a small smile looking at him.

“Did I frighten you?”

Jinyoung furrowed his eyebrows at the man, getting up from the ground to his feet. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Mark” he said with a polite bow. “I work in the mines in the forest”

Jinyoung looked at the blotches of coal that stained his clothing and his bag of tools that he dragged.

“Are you headed into the town?” Jinyoung asked out of curiosity. He had been sitting at this tree for all his life but he had never crossed paths with anyone.

Mark shook his head in disagreement. “I live in the forest”

“Then why are you here?”

“I heard singing and wanted to know where it was coming from,” Mark said as he set his bag of tools on the ground. He approaches closer to Jinyoung and smiled. “Can you teach me?”

“Teach you?”

“How to call the birds”

Jinyoung laughed and looked up into the taller trees that surrounded the short hawthorn tree. He lets a soft whistle leave his mouth when he spots nightingale in the tree. The nightingale swoops down and lands on the finger that Jinyoung held in front of his chest.  

“You’re a natural. What’s your name?”

Jinyoung eyes flew open in shock. He hadn’t realized that Mark didn’t know who he was.

“Jinyoung”

“Well, Jinyoung. will you teach me?”