“Glad to see you here, Prince Leo,” Princess Amanda greeted. “When I heard that your university was planning to visit here, I was so delighted that I asked my father so that I could personally tour you.”

“That would be an honor, but aren’t you busy?” the prince asked.

Everyone was looking at them and was busy adoring the royal couple that Prince Leo was getting embarrassed and shy. He knew that he should not be so shy around people but he still was, especially because people were gossiping about them.

Thinking that Princess Amanda might have taken it wrongly, he explained himself. “I mean, I would love to, really. It’s just that you might have something else to do.”

“Oh, actually I don’t. I spend a lot of time here. My father entrusted me this museum so it’s not really a big deal,” Princess Amanda said as he smiled at Prince Leo who smiled back.

“Okay then. We would entrust ourselves to you, okay?” Prince Leo told his fiancé and started walking with her. Then, the professor came along and bowed to both of them. “Professor Seo, Princess Amanda would like to tour us around.”

Professor Seo was so delighted that he bowed several times. “It’s been an honor, Princess.”

Princess Amanda smiled at the professor. “No, it’s my honor.”

The professor called all students to gather around so that the princess could start the tour. When Prince Leo noticed that Jaehwan wasn’t around, he looked around but he never saw any sign of talkative Jaehwan. When Princess Amanda was starting to talk with other students, Prince Leo went to the professor and asked where Jaehwan was. “Well, he said he was going to meet his family here. So unfortunate that he missed Princess Amanda’s tour.”

Prince Leo started to walk slowly that he became the last in the line. Where did he go? I didn’t even know he’s from the South because he somehow gave me a vibe that he was really from the North? Besides, he studied at our University. He could have studied here if he had a family here.

“Prince Leo!”

He returned back to the reality when Princess Amanda called him so he walked fast towards her.

***

Princess Amanda did a thirty minute tour in the main building. Since she needed to go somewhere else, she bid Prince Leo and his classmates goodbye.

“Alright class. You can take photos around the museum, but please gather at the lobby at exactly three-thirty in the afternoon so that we can finally go home,” the professor said.

Prince Leo was not interested in taking photos so he went outside the museum and sat at the bench where he could just have a nice rest. He closed his eyes to at least dose off. Where would Jaehwan go? Why did he not tell me?

The prince opened his eyes and looked at nothing in particular. I don’t expect him to tell me everything about him but as a friend, he could have at least…

His heart skipped a beat, yet again, when he remembered what happened that morning. He knew that he had really been harsh with Jaehwan, and he might be just pretending that he was okay.

More importantly, why am I thinking about this? Why am I so bothered about him and his past? As a friend, should I really know?

He saw his classmates and even the professor going out of the museum. He stood and walked slowly towards them.

“Okay, please prepare a one-pager observation paper about this museum. It will be equivalent to a midterm examination, so please make it good. We need to leave so that we can arrive at the North Kingdom before eight in the evening, okay? Please go to the bus,” Professor Seo instructed everyone and everyone complied.

When the students one by one disappeared, the prince approached Professor Seo. “Aren’t we going to wait for Jaehwan?”

“Jaehwan told me that he would go back on his own, or he would convince his father to take him home. I didn’t want to let him, but he was too insistent. So I finally let him,” Professor Seo explained. “Your Highness, we need to leave.”

“I… I am going to stay here,” Prince Leo finally said, even though he didn’t know exactly why he was saying that. “I-I’m… I’m going to visit Princess Amanda’s palace to pay a visit to the King and the Queen.” Moreover, he didn’t know exactly why he lied. It wasn’t a plan. At least, it wasn’t included in his plan.

Professor Seo gave him a malicious smile but it was only for a short time. “Okay then, Sire. We’ll go ahead. Please be careful.”

“Don’t worry,” Prince Leo smiled and pointed at his bodyguards. “They’re here with me.”

Professor Seo then bid his goodbye and went ahead. Prince Leo stayed there until he saw the bus leaving. He was approached by a bodyguard and asked him where he wanted to go.

“Let’s… tour the South,” he said, even though what he really wanted was to look for Jaehwan. No, I am not worried about him. I am just into the mood to tour the whole place, since this will also be our kingdom in the future. The bodyguard bowed. He waited for Prince Leo to go back to the car and he followed him until he was finally inside the car. The bodyguard sat at the passenger seat as well. The other body guards entered the other car as they prepared to leave.

“Where do you want to go, Your Highness? Any exact locations you wanted to visit?” His chauffeur asked.

“I am under your supervision,” he said to his chauffeur who just smiled. Prince Leo looked outside the window. “I do not exactly know where to go.”

“Aren’t you going to find your friend?” The chauffeur asked as he drove.

“It’s not my business to find him. I just really want to see the future kingdom,” Prince Leo said as he observed the surroundings outside the car. “This place is kind of… nice.”

When they were about to go out the gate, Prince Leo looked around and he paused as, to his surprise, he saw Jaehwan entering the museum once again. The prince’s eyebrows met.

Why is Jaehwan returning to the museum? Did he forget something here? “Change of plans. I just want to stay here a little longer.”

The chauffeur bowed slightly as he smiled and looked at the prince from the rearview mirror. “Okay then, Sire.”

***

Jaehwan stared at the stairs leading to the upper wing of the museum. It looked museum goers were prohibited to go there after a certain time.

There was a monitor flashing an instruction that only museum staff were allowed to go to the upper wing after four in the afternoon. Since it was already three in the afternoon, Jaehwan decided to go upstairs.

“Excuse me, Sir, you are not allowed to go upstairs,” a woman stopped Jaehwan who was already halfway into going up. Jaehwan turned around as he tucked his backpack close to him.

“But it says that it is fine to go before four in the afternoon,” Jaehwan told the woman as he pointed at the monitor. “So I can still go, right?”

“Actually Sir, we failed to change the announcement in the monitor, but the South Palace has ordered to permanently shut the upper wing even to us staff,” the woman explained. “Only the officer in charge can go inside.”

Jaehwan scratched his head then he simultaneously looked at the woman then at the upper wing entrance. “But I really need to go there. Let me off just this once, alright? If you let me off, I’ll give you an autograph from Prince Leo because he’s my friend!”

The woman looked fascinated at the thought because her eyes twinkled at the mention of the North Prince. However, she insisted that Jaehwan could still not be allowed.

“I am allowing him to go inside, since he is my visitor.”

Jaehwan turned to the owner of the voice. He saw an old man standing at the entrance of the upper wing. He was smiling at him. He didn’t know if he saw it right or if his eyes were deceiving him, but he also saw the man bowing slightly at him.

“But Chief Hwang-”

“I will take full responsibility for this young man,” The man referred to as Chief Hwang by the staff said. “Come, young man. You can go here now.” Chief Hwang entered the room and Jaehwan just followed.

He did not immediately enter the room but rather he stared at the entrance for quite a while. He was feeling nervous at the thought that the room would actually make him remember his scary past and he would just collapse due to anxiety attacks. He could not let the chief be scolded in his account since he had done more than enough for him. Just by letting him enter the restricted area and taking full responsibility was more than enough to thank the man.

He breathed in and out heavily then he decided to finally enter the room.

He saw the man standing just close to the entrance as he waited for him. It was only then when Jaehwan observed the man was around fifty to fifty five years old. And upon seeing him close, he saw the chief’s face. He was surprised to see that he had a lot of burn marks on his face.

Jaehwan bowed simultaneously as he thanked the chief. “Thank you very much, Chief Hwang, is it? I really needed to go inside since I needed this for my paper-”

“You don’t need to thank me, Sire. My pleasure is with me, Prince Ken,” said Chief Hwang. Jaehwan stood straight as he nervously looked at the man who was bowing at ninety degrees as a sign of respect to him.

“A-Ah… I’m not…” Jaehwan tried to lie but the man looked like he wasn’t convinced. “H-How…”

“The moment I saw you tucking your backpack close to yourself, I already know that you’re the prince,” he reasoned out. “I was actually about to go out when I saw you staring at the entrance. I was about to