*** Chapter 8: The Fights ***

“Changjo, Come here,” Hyesung ordered.

“Oppa..”

“NOW!”

The girl jumped in surprise. She couldn’t believe that Hyesung just shouted at her. In fear of her brother’s rage, Changjo stepped forward, obeying him. But Jiwon seized her arm.

“Eun Jiwon-ssi…” Hyesung eyes was undeniably glowing with anger. “Release my sister.”

The guest were now showing challenging attitude. He stepped forward and kept the Princess by his side. “No. I won’t let her go.”

Hyesung widened his eyes. He stepped forward too, and within second, he stood right in front of him. “Who do you think you are, huh? How dare you hold my sister like that?” He motioned to grab his collar, but Changjo stopped him.

“No.. oppa.. It was mutual..please..” she knew Hyesung wouldn’t back up, so she was trying to seek help from Eric. “Eric oppa, please… You told me you know I like him…”

“Hyesung-a…” Eric indeed was trying to interfere.

“Even if Changjo likes him,” Hyesung intercepted, “Who does he think he is to kiss a princess who was bethroted to someone else? Where is your manner?” He was facing his-now-called enemy. “What do we know about him? What if he was just taking advantage of our Princess?”

“I am not taking advantage of your precious Princess, Your Highness,” Jiwon tried his best to maintain his manner. He knew for sure he couldn’t mess with this specific Prince. But he was still holding Changjo’s arm tightly.

“Keep your hand off of my sister..” Hyesung hissed.

“No!”

“You…”

Hyesung raised his fist. There would be fights in any moment. But someone entered the scene and obstructed the scenario.

“Hyesung, stop!”

It was the King. The other Princes were following him. Jaejin and Jaeduck were with them too.

Hyesung turned to his father, hand pointing the boy he’s threatening. “Father, this boy…”

“Keep your manner, boy! You don’t know who you’re dealing with!”

“But father..”

"Shin Goon!" King Imho warned him. And Hyesung knew, whenever his father called him with his title, he should just obey him.

When the prince no longer argued, the King faced the guest. “I think it’s time for you to reveal yourself.. Prince Matthew..”

Silence befallen. No one was saying any words. Changjo was looking at the boy beside her in a mix between confusion and disbelief. She wondered if she heard her father correctly.

“Prince.. Matthew..?” she asked.

The said boy turned his head to face her. She could see it clearly that he was showing an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry I never tell you about my real identity, Princess,” deep inside he surrendered. If King Imho already knew who he was, it would be unwise to deny it.

“Prince Matthew?” Eric was shocked too. “What Prince?”

“His Royal Highness Prince Matthew Ungern, Crown Prince of Belukha,” the King stated, somehow, proudly.

“Belukha?” Eric was a bit unfamiliar of the name.

“It’s a small country between the borders of Russia, Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan,” Jiwon responded. “I guess you never heard of it. We’re just nobody.”

“Nobody but your country produces one of the best and most expensive wine from all around the world,” Hyesung retorted.

Jiwon smirked, “I’m flattered that you know that fact, Your Highness.”

The foreign Prince then explained a bit about his homeland, since the audience we're not familiar with it, or perhaps didn't even know about its existence.

Belukha is country that laid between the mountains. It's about 600-1000m above the sea level so it was pretty cold there. With green woods around, he compared the view like the forest they saw on Twilight movies. Although they only had one city and several villages, they were not underdeveloped. They had access to internet, and they were also a pretty famous tourism spot, especially for those who wanted to hike the mountains. Most of their lands were woods and plantation. With population around 50 thousands people, their main speciality was agriculture and tourism. With their unique climate, they produced one of the best wines of the world.

Although his people pretty much had everything they needed, Jiwon, or Prince Matthew, wanted to try to develop their entertainment industry. That's why he came to Korea who was famous with the Hallyu Wave.

The foreign Prince then turned to King Imho, “How long have you known about me, Your Majesty?”

“Ever since you enrolled into SKK High School,” he answered calmly.

“What?” Jiwon was truly surprised. “You’ve known all this long? All these three years?”

“Yes,” the King nodded.

“But how…”

“I just have a habit to run a background check through anyone around my children and family,” the King giggled, “And I have all the resource to know everything anyway.”

“And you kept silent..”

“Yes,” the King nodded again. “I could understand. You disguised yourself so you won’t attract any attention. I knew you want to learn something here peacefully.”

“Yes, I am.”

"But it turns out that you're not only seeking for education, eh?" Minwoo stepped in.

"I don't understand what you mean," Jiwon replied.

Minwoo pointed his hand that was still holding Changjo firmly. "What about that? Are you purposely approaching our Princess? What do you intend to? Diplomatic relations?"

Jiwon heaved a long deep breath. "This.. is exactly why I prefer to keep my identity a secret. I know you must be thinking that I have some motives for approaching Changjo, while I..." He turned facing the girl. "Never imagine that I would be enchanted by a girl during my adventure."

"I don't believe you," Minwoo insisted. Well, he grew up with his mother's family situations where people would put sweet face and flattering words to get some benefits. He couldn't trust people easily.

The shortest Prince looked like he’ll start a fight, so Jaejin and Jaeduk -who now free to reveal themselves as Jai Jin and Ducky, Jiwon’s personal guard and assistant- also stepped in, trying to protect their Prince. But Jiwon waved his hand to make them stop.

"I don't need you to believe me," Jiwon riposted, challenging all the Princes who gave him the same look Minwoo was giving. He focused back to the girl, "I just need Changjo to believe me." He gazed deep into her eyes, pleading for some trust.

"Changjo-ya.. Don't listen to him..." Minwoo tries to interfere, but Dongwan stop him. He shook his head reminding the shorter prince.

"Let Changjo decide it herself.." Dongwan said.

The Princess herself was still in confusion. Everything seemed to happen so fast. She just found out that Jiwon had mutual feelings with her. But it turned out that he was also a prince? From another country?

"Princess Changjo," Jiwon spoke softly, "I like you... Truly.."

The girl was trembling to hear it. Some part of her was jumping in joy, but some part was doubting that these things were truly happening.

"Changjo dear," it's her father turn to speak. "Do you like Prince Matthew?" He asked tenderly.

"I.. I.." she looked into the boy beside her, and then she looked into her father who patiently wait for her answer. "But I'm to marry..."

"I asked you if you like Prince Matthew, sweetheart, give me answer to this question first.." the King demanded calmly.

Changjo looked at Jiwon once again before answering, "Yes, father, I like him."

The King formed a wide smile on his face. "Well then. If it's the Prince of Belukha I think I won't have any objections..."

"But..what about the Crown Princess?" Eric was confused with the sudden mood change from his father.

"By marrying Prince Matthew, Changjo will still become a Crown Princess, and eventually she will become Queen, but of Belukha, of course," King Imho replied. "In fact, Prince Matthew should have been Prince Regent or even King already since his father had passed away. But he was still too young at the moment, that's why his mother was taking the responsibility for their Kingdom. I believe when Prince Matthew has finished his education and go back to his homeland, he will be crowned King very soon." The man could see that the foreign Prince was confirming that his statements were true.

"But what about our kingd.."

"I still have you, right, Eric?" Only once in a while the King called his oldest son by his nickname. "You boys are serious about making you our future King, aren't you?"

"Yes father.. But..."

"Unless you are really into marrying your own sister..."

"Absolutely it's not the case, father,” he denied quickly. “I am relieved that I don't have to make Changjo marry me. And I will do anything to finish the procedures to become your Crown Prince. But if it's about Changjo..." he turned to Jiwon. "Any boy who wants to claim her, has to go through me first. Especially when he's been hiding his identity for whatever reason he has."

"Yes.." Hyesung's joining, "And me too.."

"And us also.." remaining Princes were already joining them.

"Boys..." the King tried to warn them.

"You have to let us do what we need to do, father," Eric argued. "In fact, who do you think it is who makes us become over-protective towards Changjo? You, father, is the one who keep reminding us that we have to treasure our only sister, ever since the day she was born. Now what we do is merely fulfilling your order. Although Changjo likes him and he too claims that he sincerely likes her, we must make sure that this guy deserves our sister!"

And so it was decided.

The King himself couldn’t do anything much to stop the unpredictable things his sons were going to do. Since all of them threatened that they would renounce their title and accept any punishments, if their father didn’t let them do what they thought was necessary to see that Jiwon was worthy for their only sister.

Jiwon must had a match with them one by one. It meant, there would be 6 matches. To win Changjo, the foreign Prince had to win 4 matches. He couldn’t end up in draw score of 3-3 as the host Princes would not acknowledge him. His winning score must be more than half.

At first he thought that they would give him hard tests, but when he saw the match list the next day, he couldn’t help but gape.

Vs. Eric: Video game
Vs. Minwoo: Obstacles course race
Vs. Dongwan: Archery
Vs. Hyesung: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
Vs. Junjin: Arm wrestling
Vs. Andy: Chess

Jiwon was a bit relieved since he actually mastered, or at least pretty much confident in some of the topics, especially when he saw that he will fight Hyesung in MMA, not Junjin, since he heard from Jaejin that the 5th Prince was very strong that Jaejin himself, his personal guard, could never beat the tallest Prince.

But Changjo turned into horror when she saw the list.

“Sunbae… Those are… their main skills. No one can beat them easily on those fields..” she warned him.

Jiwon chuckled, “I’m actually pretty skillful too, Princess. I’ll have the chances. I’m lucky already that I don’t have to fight your strongest brother Junjin. It’s only him that I’m not sure to win.”

“But, sunbae..” she gripped his hand. “You will fight Hyesung oppa..”

“Well.. he might be a Taekwondo master. But MMA, it’s free style..”

“But..” she insisted, “He has one specialized deadlock, that even Jinnie oppa can not free himself from it.”

Jiwon looked into her eyes, and he realized how serious her concern was. He put his hand on her face. “I’ll try my best. You have to believe me. I will win for you…”

The girl nodded and all she could do was praying that Jiwon could survive all her brothers’ treatments.

Because the Princes had decide the matches on their own, they gave Jiwon chance to choose the sequences. They will have 2 matches a day because they were aware enough that they couldn’t tire the foreign Prince too much so Changjo would not deem them of being unfair.

Jiwon was also showing his fairness that he would choose the match based on lucky draw. With a simple tool of a mere dice, where each number belong to each host Princes, whichever number showed up, he would fight him.

A day before the matches began, Jiwon threw the dice. It turned out, that he will fight Eric and Junjin on the first day. Dongwan and Minwoo would be on the second day, and lastly would be Andy and Hyesung.

The day had come. Eric was very confident since he always beat his brothers and even his friends in gaming. But he never knew anything about Jiwon. He was surprised that the foreign Crown Princes was very skillful too. Not yet Eric knew that his opponent's main hobby was gaming too. They fight with much difficulties, before finally Jiwon beat Eric and won his first match just like that.

Later in the afternoon, Jiwon truly understand that he wouldn’t stand a chance against the strongest Prince in arm wrestling. But he didn’t give up easily. It took him about 10 seconds before his hand gave up and slammed hard to the table. Changjo protested that her brother didn’t have to hurt him, but Jiwon cooly let it slide.

So it was 1-1 for day one.

The next morning with archery, Dongwan was indeed one of the best since he was very calm and concencrated as the game required. He almost get a perfect score if the sudden wind blow did not slightly change the course of his arrow and make im missed the center point. But that was what archery about. Jiwon on the other side, none of the Koreans knew that he used to hunt in his homeland. Hunting wild animals in the depth of the woods was not easy. Now when he could stand firmly and aim his arrow calmly, he easily grabbed the perfect score. Actually, just like Dongwan, his last arrow might had missed the target because of the wind, but somehow he knew where the wind will blow, so his arrow didn’t hit over the center circle.

Jiwon didn’t expect that the obstacles course would give him hard times. He started at the same point with Minwoo, but when the gun was shot, he couldn’t believe to see that Minwoo was able to dash like a bullet. Indeed the shortest Prince had a better agility than most of boys. Minwoo climbed the rock wall like a monkey, even when Jiwon used to climb trees, it didn’t help him much since he was left from the earlier run.

The rest of the courses was obviously Minwoo’s playground, including jumping, crawling, and balancing. The host Princes tried to make it fair by ordering their man to built a brand new obstacle courses that was different from the routines they usually had in the guard's training ground. But it didn't make any difference for Minwoo. He was indeed fast and strong. Jiwon was able to shorten their distance in swimming, but he couldn’t do much since Minwoo was already out of the water and dashing to the bell where he proudly rang it and smiled in victory.

The Crown Prince of Belukha started to feel a little nervous. Only Chess and MMA were left. It’s 2-2, he couldn’t lose anymore. Changjo clearly warned him, that Andy’s Chess game was flawless. There’s only one person that could beat him, and it was King Imho himself. Sometimes, even his siblings were doubting their youngest Prince that he purposely lose from their father to keep the King's dignity, but Andy never admited it.

“Sunbaenim, I know you’re a genius guy,” Andy praised him before he started their game. “You’re that young prince your people are so proud of, since in your younger age, you have found a simple special way to produce wine. You distil the wine in a unique way that a young wine would taste similar to those that have been kept for years. That’s awesome.”

“Actually it was my father who started the experiments. I’m just finishing what he left,” Jiwon replied.

“But still, it’s awesome. I could never be like you,” the cute prince sincerely praise. “Do you really love my sister?”

“Yes,” Jiwon said firmly.

“Then good luck in beating me…”

Their game started. It took longer than anyone expect. Andy showed not much mood change, but his brothers knew he was more serious than before. Jiwon was unexpectedly good in the game too. They couldn’t believe that this foreign prince could put Andy in such difficulties. The youngest prince secretly took a glance to his sister before gazed Jiwon intensely. His time was nearly up, Andy must made a move before he exceeded his given time and declared lost. Without any change of expressions, he made a move. Jiwon, after observing the scheme that Andy was putting him in, he stared at he younger in disbelief, but Andy’s look at him, the flat expressions, somehow told him to keep quiet, and just continue the game. Jiwon put a poker face. He made his move, and in several turns later, he finally won the game.

“What was that?” Jiwon asked Andy quietly.

The later put a poker face too and answered, “Just beat Hyesungie hyung if you truly want to win Changjo… Good luck..”

The poker face in the youngest Prince's face suddenly turned to pouts and sad expressions as the audience were approaching them. The older Princes couldn’t believe that their Chess God was beaten. And the foreign Prince somehow maintained his cool poker face. Hyesung was intrigued by that annoying look and left them right away to prepare for his match. No one ever knew what was really happening between Andy and Jiwon.

Jiwon gave Andy a hidden ‘thank you’ and he too left to prepare himself for the last match.

It’s 3-2 for Jiwon now, if he could beat Hyesung, than Changjo would surely be his. But Hyesung didn’t seem to let it happen.

Hyesung might seemed much more slender and slimmer than Jiwon, but the 4th Prince was indeed strong. Actually he was the second strongest after Junjin. His punches and kicks were very powerful. Jaejin couldn’t let himself at ease since he knew the actual physical strength of his Prince. He clenched his fist when Hyesung’s kick swept Jiwon’s knees and made him fall to the ground. He couldn’t resist himself any longer when his Prince was thrown down, hitting his back to the floor with loud thud.

“Your Majesty..” Jaejin tried to stand up, but Jaeduck hold him firmly with all his might.

“Jin, No…” he forced his friend to stay on his seat. Jiwon himself was waving his hand, ordering them to stay where they were.

Jiwon rose with much difficulties, his body was aching. He knew he’s reaching his limit, but his gaze found his beloved Princess. She was extremely worried about him. He wouldn’t give up. He couldn’t let her down. He forced what was left in him to unleash his powers, but in the end, again, he was pinned down by the slender figure. And this time, Hyesung practiced his deadlock, which was more like a spinal lock in most martial arts forms. With his light body, Hyesung was able to put all his weight to twist Jiwon’s upper body and hold their form, pinning the older boy beneath him. Even during his mentored practice with Junjin, he always successful to made his brother surrender within seconds. Hyesung was surprised that Jiwon was not showing any sign of giving up, even when he couldn’t move any parts of his body, and his face was turning red due to lack of breath.

“Just tap, and I’ll release you..” Hyesung said.

Jiwon actually had some trouble speaking, but he finally uttered. “No..”

Hyesung widened his eyes. He clearly saw that Jiwon face showed that he was in pain. But he was so stubborn. He put a little more weight to his body, and he could feel that Jiwon tried to move in sync, adjusting as hard as he could to protect his waist.

Hyesung could sensed what he was up to. Somehow he found it strange. He freed his one hand to touch Jiwon’s waist. He pressed a little here and there to feel it, and then he realized it. He released all his lock and jumped standing up right away.

“ARE YOU CRAZY?!! DO YOU WANNA DIE??!!” he suddenly shout in rage that everyone present was surprised to see him doing so.

What happened?? What does Hyesung oppa mean?? What is wrong with Jiwon sunbae??

*** to be continued ***

P.s. Belukha is just an imaginary kingdom I created. It's not real. But there really is Mount. Belukha that lays between the borders of those 4 nations. You can check the world map. It's just a mountain, I'm not even sure if there are any civilization there. :)