It had been a few months since Chunji had woken up and L.Joe had made his decision to cap his feelings and stay away from Chunji as much as possible. Chunji had improved noticeably; his wounds were pretty much fully healed apart from a few scars, he didn’t have that distant, pained look anymore and smiled practically all the time, his nightmares had become less frequent (even so Niel insisted on sleeping with him, L.Joe disapproved needless to say), and he had blended into palace life well. He had made friends with everyone and everyone loved him, he seemed to have put aside his past and adopted his new identity well and L.Joe was happy for him but he couldn’t help but think there was something missing.

Last night had been sleepless for L.Joe, his father would be coming back to Andromeda that night and they were having a feast. Normally L.Joe would have been hyped for this because he loved and respected his father but the problem was that his father had left Andromeda at the same time as L.Joe did to go on his quest, which resulted in finding Niel and Chunji, on official business and had not been back yet and so did not yet know of Niel and Chunji. L.Joe was worried, his father would probably soon see Niel and Chunji and ask who they were. It would be pretty easy to answer for Niel but what could he say for Chunji, he would have to lie and his dad being the paranoid man he was might try to dig up Chunji’s past and then what would they do?

L.joe pushed all negative thoughts out of his mind when he heard the knock at the door.

‘Come in.’ He called knowing who it would be, already.

The door was slowly pushed open. ‘Are you decent, young master?’ asked a soft voice. L.Joe chuckled, recalling the time Chunji had accidently walked in on him in only his birthday suit after a shower, before answering with an affirmative. The door was pushed open a little more before Chunji poked his head through the door cutely, hands covering his face, looking through his fingers with one eye closed as if to check his ‘young master’ was telling the truth. After confirming it, Chunji straightened up and walked in with a tray of food. L.Joe was about to sigh in relief, Chunji seemed to be alone, he hadn’t been alone with Chunji since the morning of the day the boy had woken up because either Niel or Ricky, who had become like another Niel but shorter and with smaller lips, had stuck to Chunji like glue and had opposed to letting L.Joe or anyone for that matter being near the boy. However, it was too good to be true because as soon as the Chunji had placed the tray of food on L.Joe’s bedside table, something hurtled into the room and jumped on top of L.Joe.

‘YAH!! Get up, Joe!!! Ji Baby has other work to be doing instead of getting your out of bed!!’ Ricky yelled into the older boy’s ear, then hopped off the bed and began pulling the covers off the young prince.

‘Bwoh?!? Yah? Do you want to die?!! Get off me now!! And what is this ‘Ji Baby’?’ L.Joe yelled right back at Ricky who was now standing at the foot of the bed with a smug smile and L.Joe’s duvet draped around his shoulders like a cape. L.Joe was very sensitive with people giving Chunji nicknames, and the fact that this was one of Ricky’s hobbies annoyed him to no end.

‘You really are a pabo! Its Chunnie’s nickname of course! Duh!’ Ricky retorted

‘Then what’s Chunnie’

‘His other nickname, you know that.’

‘What happed to Jiji?’

‘It’s still his nickname, it just doesn’t fit the mood right now.’

‘How about Chun-chan, Ji-chan and Chibi-chan?’

‘Ahhha, Joe those are Ji Baby’s nicknames from a long time ago, when those Japanese visitors came and had an obsession with Chunnie and I had that obsession with Japanese things.’

L.Joe didn’t say anything more, Ricky reminding him of the Japanese visitors had annoyed him, like Ricky had said they had been obsessed with Chunji, calling him ‘kawaii’ and ‘moe’. L.Joe all but threw them out the palace.

L.Joe was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt a slender finger poking him. He turned around to see Chunji, standing by his bed side with clean sheets in his arms. While he and Ricky had been discussing Chunji had been doing his chores and now he had to change the bed sheets. Realising what was expected of him; L.Joe coolly stumbled out of bed and watched Chunji begin to pull the dirty sheets off the bed.

‘Chunji-ah’ L.Joe said

‘Yes, young master?’ Chunji said looking up from his task.

‘Answer truthfully, how do you feel about being given nicknames? Do you like it?’ L.Joe decided to take the issue up with Chunji, maybe with one negative word from Chunji, everyone would stop giving him nicknames.

Chunji looked confused for a second, before a light pink spread across his cheeks and he hung his head low.

‘Yes, young master. I love my nicknames.’ Chunji said quietly. As soon as the words were out his mouth, Ricky launched himself at Chunji and began cuddling him while vowing to make many more nicknames for him.

Needless to say, L.Joe was now in a foul mood. Not only had his plan failed but it had backfired tremendously. Huffing and pouting, L.Joe stomped out the room.

                                                                                                      *

Night had nearly fallen and L.Joe’s father should have been arriving soon. L.Joe was in his room, nervously pacing, watching as the Sun dipped below the horizon from his window.

He kept thinking about tonight, as the King was returning after a long trip, there was a huge feast and celebration to be held. However this wasn’t what was worrying L.Joe, the feast was being organized by Taeyang one of his fathers councillors and closest friends. All he had to do was dress well and show up. It was the fact that he had to tell his father of Niel and Chunji and that both of them would be serving at the feast that night. L.Joe was brought out of his thoughts and stopped pacing when he heard a knock at his door. He knew it wasn’t Chunji because his knocks were usually softer and he was busy getting ready for tonight.

‘Come in.’ The door was pushed open and in came Niel, dressed in a black waiters uniform.

‘What is it Niel?’

‘You should know. Isn’t it obvious? What are you going to do about me and Chunji?’

‘I’ll just tell my father that you were both from the fourth division and that both of your parents have died. He can’t very well research into your backgrounds to see if it’s true, as your village burned down.’

‘What if he has the documents in the churches checked?’

‘We’ll just say that Chunji was abandoned at birth, probably an illegitimate child or something.’

Niel was about to say something more when the palace bells began ringing, indicating the King had arrived. Both boys hurried out of the room, Niel went down to the kitchens while L.Joe went up to the entrance of the palace to greet his father.

As L.Joe reached the steps of the entrance, about 5 men riding horses came in through the gates, behind them there was a horse-drawn carriage, his fathers, behind the carriage another five riders, and behind one of these riders was a cage, that L.Joe recognized as something for prisoners, on wheels being drawn along. Inside it were two young men who were separated by a barred partition in the cage, however they were holding hands through the bar. One of the a fragile looking boy was curled up into a ball and it looked like he was sobbing, whilst the other boy was sitting up straight looking extremely angry but all the while he was comforting the other boy through the bars. Everyone there knew without questioning what the boys ‘crime’ was. As the cage drew closer, L.Joe got a better look at their faces and realised that both of them looked quite familiar, especially the boy that was comforting the other one, the boy who was currently glaring straight at L.Joe with his eyes full of hatred. L.Joe was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his father’s voice calling for him.

‘L.Joe boy come here and greet your father.’

L.Joe walked the little distance to his father and was quickly pulled into his father’s familiar embrace. He half-heartedly hugged back, eyes still focused on the cage which was now moving further and further out of sight.

‘Dad, what did those boys do?’ he asked still in his fathers embrace, his voice low

‘Ah let’s not talk about such depressing matters just now. Come, I hear you have a grand feast and ball prepared for me.’ His father said pulling away and leading L.Joe back into the palace.

                                                                                                          *

All had been going well for the last couple of hours, the ball had been held first and thankfully there had been no sight of Niel or Chunji among the waiters serving drinks and snacks, Onew was probably using Chunji to taste his dishes, something he did often to inconspicuously keep Chunji fed and fatten him up a little as he was still quite thin. However now it was about time that the feast would begin and the guests had slowly begun to move into the main dining hall and sit at their assigned seats.

Once everyone was sat down, L.Joe and his father made their grand entrance, and walked up the middle aisle as everyone bowed their heads in respect for them and took their places at the high table at the far end of the hall.

The hall buzzed as all the various nobles present chatted excitedly as they waited for their meals to be served. L.Joe however was more nervous and anxious than anything; he kept glancing towards the entrance of the kitchen looking for Niel or Chunji whilst occasionally nodding or answering while his father spoke animatedly about his adventures over the last few months.

‘Have they been starving you?’

‘Huh?’ L.Joe was confused at what his father had suddenly asked. His father was now laughing.

‘Well you’ve been spaced out and paying more attention to that kitchen door than to your own father.’

‘Sorry about that Dad.’

‘No need to worry. Here comes the food anyway’ said his father nodding his head in the direction of the kitchen.

L.Joe turned around and sure enough, there with trays of food in their hands at the step of the platform the high table was on, was Niel and close behind him Chunji, dressed in an identical suit. ‘It suits him better than Niel. He looks very handsome.’ L.Joe thought to himself but before getting completely distracted he motioned for the waiters to wait and turned to his father.

‘Dad there’s something I need to tell you.’

‘Hm, what is it?’

‘I’ve made some additions to the palace staff. Two boys. One works mostly under C.A.P. and the other is my manservant.’

‘Oh, well I should meet them then.’ His father said simply. L.Joe motioned again and Niel and Chunji resumed their work.

‘Here is one of them Dad. This is Niel, he works under C.A.P.’ L.Joe said as Niel bowed and began serving them. His father looked up at Niel.

‘What division are you?’

‘I was born into the fourth division, your Highness. However I was promoted to the third.’ Niel answered calmly. As Niel moved on to serve the others Chunji stepped up and began serving soup.

‘And Dad this is the other boy, my manservant.’

The King looked up and then everything happened so fast that neither L.Joe nor Chunji knew what was going on. In a second the King was out of his seat, with his hands around Chunji’s throat, several of the guard’s swords were at Chunji’s throat and back, Chunji in his surprise had spilt the scalding soup all over himself and the shattered remains of the bowl lay at his feet.

‘WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?’

Author's Note:

I'm so so so so so so x100 sorry that I haven't updated in forever. I've had some problems and I probably won't be updating regularly however I promise never to abandon this story. Ever.

Anyhoo I hadn't had any internet connection for a while so when I saw the comments today I was super happy. I fangirled over your comments (O.o does that make sense?). Anyway comments really really really give me energy even if they are super short. 

So though I haven't given hints anyway want to hazard a guess at who L.Joe's father is? Also I'm sorry but Changjo will come soon.