Since he had only seen a fraction of their week-long spring festival the day before, Ryeowook was out and about again the next day, Changmin in tow. This time, there were actual guards accompanying them because Hyukjae and Donghae had decided to tag along. The vendors' calls were even louder, the people needier, the items supposedly better, more unique, the art of the finest in the country… of course. What else would anyone say if three members of the royal family walked right among them?

Ryeowook felt almost sorry for the poor guards who had to fend off any curious spectators or relentless vendors; as soon as one was fought off, five others had taken his place. And his brothers enjoyed the attention, of course.

The two maids from the day before walked near Ryeowook once again, shielding him and, in result, Changmin.

“Prince, prince, the apples from my stand are the best!”

“Prince, my husband is on trial! Can you put in a good word for him?”

“Prince, I heard you’re not married yet? My fine daughter is looking for a husband, too!”

“Prince, prince, my wife’s rice cakes are the best under the sun!”

“Prince, the ink from my store will be smoother than velvet!”

“Prince—“

Ryeowook had learned to tune them all out. Instead, he guided the group back to the porcelain cart from the day before. He picked up where he had left and this time, the two maids and Changmin stayed by his side, the two maids piping in with their opinions about the cups Ryeowook picked up. He smiled, taking in their comments silently until he decided to go with the blue flower set. It was too beautiful not to buy and he knew that his older brother would certainly like it!

“Is this for a special someone?” the vendor dared to to which Ryeowook simply smiled, accepting the carefully wrapped bundle with porcelain. One of the two maids took the bundle from him and they turned towards the commotion nearby, knowing that Hyukjae and Donghae had to be at its center.

“It’s for your brother, isn’t it?” Changmin asked once they were out of earshot from the vendor.

“Of course it is.”

“You don’t think he has enough of that by now?”

Ryeowook threw his close friend a scandalized look. “How dare you speak such profanities?”

Changmin raised his hands in defeat. “Please forgive the imprudent behavior of a mere scholar’s son. You are right that I could never reach the enlightenment that you have reached, my prince.”

Ryeowook laughed and easily made his way through the crowd to the center of the commotion where his two brothers were bickering in front of a fortune teller’s booth, Donghae trying to convince his twin to go inside while Hyukjae tried to reason that they certainly shouldn’t trust the shaman who would read their future, especially not a mere festival shaman.

Ryeowook’s gaze went over to the stage on their other side. Another dance group was performing, yet Ryeowook’s eyes were drawn towards the currently unlit fire bowls at the edge of the stage. Would Kyuhyun perform again that night? Was Kyuhyun at the festival, too? What inn might he be staying in? With his skill, he surely had enough money to stay at one of the better inns in town, didn’t he? Or was he like many of the bigger groups of performers who built up their tents outside the city?

A sharp pull on his arm brought him back to reality. He merely got the chance to throw a “Help me!”-glance at Changmin who waved him off while Ryeowook got pulled into the fortune teller’s booth.

The sweet scent of incense made the air heavy. Fabrics of all kind were draped over the place and there was a table in the middle, cramming the three princes into one half while a heavily accessorized woman sat on the other side. A headscarf hid her hair, its bright purple in stark contrast with the dark makeup around her eyes and blood-red lips that curled into a promising smile towards Donghae who had long since let go of Ryeowook’s arm and sat down excitedly. A misty glass ball rested on a small, purple pillow, though Ryeowook couldn’t tell whether the smoke inside was moving or if it was the incense smoke all around them.

Ryeowook hardly listened to the empty phrases that promised the best outlook and the brightest future, frowning instead at the incense’s smell that seemed to seep into each fold of his clothes and further into his every pore. He most likely wouldn’t get rid of the smell for another week.

“—with sweetness as red as roses.”

“Sweetness as red as roses?” Donghae echoed and Ryeowook realized that his brothers had already switched seats.

“Strawberries!” Hyukjae exclaimed. “Hae, let’s find strawberries! There have to be some somewhere!”

The two rushed out of the tent just a moment later, making Ryeowook sigh softly. He flashed the shaman an apologetic smile and retrieved the pouch that held his money, knowing that neither of his two brothers would have remembered to pay. He took out what he deemed to be adequate, frowning when something felt off.

He raised his gaze from the silver on the table, startled to find the woman looking right back at him. He squinted a little and was about to turn away when he heard the voice that was just a pitch off from his expectation, “Fate has a lot in store for you, too. A reunion, for certain, a path very different from what you expect.”

Ryeowook continued to hold the shaman’s eyes, waiting for the empty phrases, for the promise of luck, fortune, a good reign. None of it followed.

The woman finally diverted her eyes and took the silver instead, seemingly letting it disappear into a fold in her clothes as if nothing had happened, so Ryeowook turned away as well and left the booth. A reunion? Did that mean that his brothers would finally return from the frontline? And a different path from what he expected? His first thought was that he would somehow end up ruling the country and he fought back humorless laughter. As if! That option was way too cruel to imagine! And what if…

No. He would not think about the fire artist in this context. Most certainly not!

Changmin and the two maids were the only ones still waiting, but it was the scholar’s son whose forehead crinkled in a frown when their eyes met. Ryeowook let the tent’s door fall close behind himself and put on a smile, shaking his head lightly, then a thought crossed his mind and he inched closer to Changmin, linking their arms in feigned innocence. “So, where are we following my brothers to?”

“Get off me!” Changmin protested, but Ryeowook held on tighter for a little longer before he released his friend, laughing at his misery. Changmin wiped over his sleeve as if that could get rid of the sweet scent of incense. “My father will scold me when he smells this! He’ll lecture me until our next class starts!”

☆ ☆ ☆

With only the company of his two trusted maids, Ryeowook left the castle once again in the late afternoon. The twins had eventually gotten tired of all the people trying to get their attention, so they had retired to the court where Ryeowook had changed his clothes and brushed his hair in hopes to get rid of the scent. As a result, the scent hung in his whole room now.

But curiosity had driven him back out of the court and to the spring festival. He got another set of rice cakes for himself and the maids from the same vendor as the day before while he roamed the busy streets, soon arriving back at the big square. Some kind of freakshow had claimed the stage for themselves and Ryeowook quickly diverted his eyes, disgusted by the show they put on of the lesser fortunate for the mean people who took great joy in it. He couldn’t understand how people basked in such a dirty joy that required the mutilation of others.

“Pitiful, isn’t it?” someone said near him as if they had read his mind and Ryeowook spun around to the man whose voice he had immediately recognized. Yet Kyuhyun, once again dressed in all black, was still gracing his fingers over an array of sharp knives in front of him. “Though I’m not sure whether the crowd or the performers are the pitiful ones.” Kyuhyun raised a knife that would make a butcher proud, turning it back and forth a little while he looked at it before he put it down again. “By the way, where on earth have you been today? With this smell, people will assume you’re just as cheap.”

“It wasn’t my decision!” Ryeowook protested, realizing a moment later the gazillion things he could and should have said instead.

Kyuhyun rested his long fingers on the cart’s edge, finally looking at the prince with the ever-present half-smirk, then he bowed theatrically. “My dear prince.”

Ryeowook rolled his eyes and turned away. The two maids were standing on his other side, seemingly looking at the items on the cart next to the knife vendor, but he knew that they were paying close attention to him instead.

“And still no guards! Especially with this smell on you, I would have thought that you would keep some stronger protection around you. Or do you think the smell will take care of that?”

“I told you that it wasn’t my decision. Why do you care anyway?” Ryeowook huffed and looked at the same cart as his maids, just to realize that it displayed combs and nothing that would actually be of any use for him.

Kyuhyun laughed, making Ryeowook’s frustration evaporate. “How come I meet you here two days in a row, though? Did you miss me?”

“I was just wondering how you do all of that on stage. You must have practiced for a long time.”

“You could say so.”

Ryeowook raised his gaze to Kyuhyun to find the other looking back at him. Something about his voice had sounded strange, but he couldn’t pin-point it. “Can I get a full story out of that?” he tested his luck, but Kyuhyun shook his head with a smile that seemed… nostalgic?

“It’s not exactly a nice goodnight story.”

Ryeowook frowned and Kyuhyun turned towards the stage briefly before he went to the next booth, Ryeowook trailing after him.

“Thank you for the recommendation from yesterday, by the way. The rice cakes were indeed very good.”

The prince smiled, feeling proud at Kyuhyun’s praise over something from his town. “You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked them.”

“Is there anything else I should check out?”

“How about a fortune teller?”

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, bringing a smile to Ryeowook’s lips. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you.”

“In all honesty, a lot of things are good around here. Where are you staying at? Maybe I can recommend something that’s close to there.”

Kyuhyun flashed him a brief, cautious glance to which Ryeowook raised his hands in defense. “I’m staying in an inn near the south gate.”

“Then the market there would usually be a good place to go, it’s the biggest one in town. But I’m not sure if you’ll want to go to a market when you come here every day. Umm… this may sound a bit silly, but there’s actually a blacksmith near the gate who decorates his works.” When he was younger, he and the twins had spent countless hours watching the blacksmith work. Something about that work had always fascinated him and the patterns that the blacksmith put on his works to mark them had always cast a kind of spell on him and his brothers, watching them appear in the usually unyielding iron. Watching him was the only time that the twins had ever sat still for an extended amount of time.

“Why don’t you give me a tour?”

Ryeowook looked at Kyuhyun in surprise. Behind them, the crowd cheered a final time while Ryeowook’s eyes were caught in Kyuhyun’s and he found himself agreeing before he had time to think about it. “Yes, sure.”

Kyuhyun’s lips perked up into a smile. “Great. Then I’ll see you tomorrow after noon at the south gate, alright?” Ryeowook nodded, watching speechlessly as Kyuhyun turned away, breaking the spell of their eye contact. “I’m counting on you to cheer for me in the first row!” he said as he disappeared into the crowd that began to disperse, though some spectators used the chance to get to the front of the stage, expecting Kyuhyun’s act.

Ryeowook did the only thing he could: he followed after Kyuhyun, the two maids by his side immediately, and indeed managed to get himself a spot in the first row. When Kyuhyun went up on stage, he once again calmly lit the fire bowls with one of the torches that were spread around the stage. After his preparations, their eyes met with such certainty that Ryeowook could have bet the other had known about his position all along even though that couldn’t be possible.

Then Kyuhyun started his show and Ryeowook’s thoughts and worries dispersed with the first sparks that rose into the air before they went out.