Chapter 4: “True friends hide in the shadows of the enemies”

-_-_-_-

“Are you in love with someone right now?” The king asked him in the most frightening voice he had ever heard, and yes, when his father used that tone, it meant seriousness and a need for hot brewed coffee in the middle of a wintry January night.

Changmin, his eyes reflecting his father’s own, looked up from his book and took off his glasses, wondering what it would be now that had gotten his father so interested in his love affairs. Of course, he was, that was what his heart had wanted to shout, but his mouth didn’t listen. Instead, he planned to keep it until the war ended. He planned not to spill just yet, about the girl he was madly with for the past few months.

Although she was a friend of the royals, she was not of royal blood. She was not a princess. Yet, this prince did not care if she was anything but a pauper or a street vendor. He cared less of what she was, because still, she was raised in Europe by her parents, educated with the highest possible education everyone else was getting and that was impressive for a mere upper class woman in Sangdokchi.

And his parents, the King and Queen of Sangdokchi knew her of course. Yet, it was not yet the right time to confess it.

He shook his head with a smile. “No, Father. Why’d you ask?”

He cleared his throat to indicate trouble to Changmin’s ears. To his surprise, his own father, the King, had been smiling. “Son, do you know Byungmi?”

“Yes,” he answered. Well, obviously. Who wouldn’t know Byungmi? It was their neighbor, their sister village where they exchange products in order for more productive sales and rise in economical stature. Other than their forestry and domestication, Byungmi was another hopeless village like theirs.

The King sighed. “You’ve been to Byungmi once, correct?”

“Yes,” Changmin replied honestly, trying to recall. “Thrice. Two of which was to attend the princess’s birthday party and the other one was to engage their King to visit our port lands. Why?”

“It has been said that we are to share whatever pain with Byungmi,” the king opened. “Now that war is fast approaching, I’m afraid your coronation as the incumbent ruler would be delayed. But, not to fret for the old council has solutions to this.”

“Oh? How?” the prince wondered in shock.

“Yoona,” he said and Changmin seemed to have connected his father’s thoughts with his.

He nodded. “I understand.”

It was yet another ordinary day for him. No, it didn’t bother him at all that he was going to marry a woman he just met three days ago. It didn’t bother him about the secret, which was bound to be true, revealed to him by his dear sister Krystal. Who knows what lies she had been creating recently. That too, and it didn’t bother him at all that someone, just outside his quarters was a woman who waited. Waited for an explanation, a convincing response. Waited for everything from his lies to reality.

It was seven in the morning. The official ceremony started in an hour.

Thank goodness, they didn’t have to wear hanboks like the days of his parents. He glanced at the mirror, approved of his dashing neat look in the white suit that looked like Beethoven’s, and slowly turned the knob, already suspecting that she was waiting for him.

She smiled cockily at one glance, then turned her attention to the right. “That’s pleasing.”

“You think so?” Changmin wondered, a smile on his face.

“Of course not,” she retorted, slapping his cheek lightly. “Wake up and smell reality, Prince Charming, okay?”

He chuckled. “Do you enjoy sarcasm that much, Sooyoung-ah?”

She shrugged, twirling in her beige dress and light black shoes. “Do you like the new princess? How is she? I haven’t really laid eyes on her since I couldn’t come over for the past three days. Is she really that gorgeous as your mother brags about when I arrived?”

Changmin tried focusing on what she was trying to convey. In Sooyoung’s terms, sarcasm talk and truth had a thin line in between them so it was harder to tell which was which, which one was it that spoke her real intentions.

“Should we sit this out in the library?” Changmin stopped, smiling as he gestured to his right.

Sooyoung, rolling her eyes, sighed irately. “You know how it vexes me staying in the library. You read while I stay there watching you read. It’s not as interesting as you think it is, really.”

He shook his head, gradually holding her right hand. “No, we will talk instead of reading.”

Sooyoung looked at their interlinked hands and realized he was referring to business. Timidly, as her head was down, she pulled her hand away from Changmin, twitching her lips sadly.

“Don’t,” she warned when he tried again. Her voice, her whole personality, seemed to change to a different perspective from her bubbly self. It was unfair, to Changmin that Sooyoung was the only one who seemed to be moving on from the yesterday both of them were casted in. It was unfair, to Sooyoung that Changmin was the prince, the only man she seemed to have been madly in love with, now marrying someone he hardly knew.

“Sooyoung...” Changmin called when the girl started walking away. She stopped at the orders of someone more powerful than she was. “You know the story behind it. You know why and how it all happened. You know that’s why you didn’t come these past few days. You know everything. So now it’s my turn to ask.”

With a heavy heart, she faced him, frowning in worry. “You think this is easy? I cannot, Changmin. I can’t just hold back how I feel so easily. I cannot repress the emotions that much and I’m only able to today because it is your wedding. I’m having a hard time, if you must know. I’m having a hard time coping. I don’t know how...how I should let you go or how I should be falling in love. It’s difficult. But you....” she looked at him with sympathy. “You make it look easy that I’m...challenged to do better with keeping my heart steady or else I’ll fail you. I don’t want to fail you. I’ll try my hardest to forget it.”

Changmin smiled, putting his arms around her tightly. She didn’t push back, which was a very good sign to the prince. “It’s strange to see you confess. But I like it. Keep it up.” He kissed the side of her head, Sooyoung seizing his arms closely, her eyes almost teary from the drama she had to overcome.

“Do you love me, my prince?” Sooyoung asked tensely, Changmin letting go to stare at her dazzling eyes.

He chuckled, patting her head. “There would not be a day that I don’t think of you. There would be not a single day that I don’t miss you. There would not be a day that I don’t dream about kissing you.”

Sooyoung hastily planted a smack on his kiss before replying. “Last. There would be no next time for that.”

Changmin agreed sadly. “I know. I’m sorry...for keeping you by my side and making you believe a love that wasn’t even real.”

“That’s all right,” she answered. “I’m the stupid one.”

“I’m getting married in an hour,” Changmin added. “But you know this is not something I want. Just after the war, Sooyoung. After the war, we can be...together. Krystal can rule over Sangdokchi. I don’t care. We will run away, away from this nation if possible and hide. We don’t have to face this.”

Sooyoung laughed at his promise. “That’s about a millionth time. I get it. And I’ll wait for it.”

-_-_-_-

“Just after the war?” Seohyun asked, still surprised with the attitude her sister was showing. Because Yoona, though defiantly, obeyed her father’s orders, it struck her like a hurricane, farther stronger even.

Yoona nodded while scowling. “You know, other women smile on days as important as this. With Changmin, it’s absolutely impossible to smile. I don’t even understand the man and now I’m marrying him. I’m sure, after the war, this marriage would be over. Father would agree to free me. He would know I would want to go back and stay in Byungmi. After the war, Changmin and I will be separated. And I don’t have to stay in Sangdokchi.”

“Unnie, do you know how childish you sound like right now?” Seohyun cleared, and Yoon shook her head. “Do you not understand the conditions? You’re being selfish again, and that’s not the point. Changmin-oppa’s being kind to you, welcoming you, and helping you protect our village. It’s for all of us remember. It’s not about you.”

“Then when will it be for me? When will it be about me?” Yoona snapped back, looking at outside the window to see so many people attending. They were at the back of the altar, sheltered from the eyes of those who criticized her or abhorred her of some sort, for someone being out of the village. “It’s never about me. It’s slavery ins