I wipe my mouth with the napkin on my lap and tidily set it on the table, standing up and calling out, “I’m done,” before leaving the dining hall.  I ignore the snickers of my mother and Kai, and instead leave the room without looking back.

They don’t know how nervous I am about this.

Maybe I should chill.

I really should.

I swallow a lump in my throat and start towards the stables.  What should I say to her? “Hey Hana, Kai caught you kissing my cheek yesterday, so my mother wants to see you,”

“No that’s wrong,” I mutter to myself.

“Hey, you up for some lunch together with my mother and Kai?”

“I don’t think that’s right either,” I scratch the back of my head, still walking towards the stables.

“Hey—“

“Hey who?”

I stop in my tracks and look up to see Hana in her housekeeper uniform, her headband in her hands and her hair untied, the full waves enveloping her shoulders. 

“Hi,” I dumbly reply.  “You,”

She chuckles and walks past me.  I follow her and watch her hands reach behind her head, trying to tie the headband while she walks.

“Let me help,” I touch her hand and she drops them, letting me tie the headband for her.  “So, you know, I was thinking,” I hesitate, tying the band with ease, and then setting my hands on her shoulders, keeping her from turning around and facing me.  “You wanna grab lunch together?”

Hana turns her head to the side and looks at me playfully, an amused tilt to her lips.  “Lunch? With the prince?”

“Y-yeah, bu—“

“I can’t see why I shouldn’t say yes to that,” She laughs.  “I mean, who would say no?”

You would, if you knew we’re having lunch with my mother and Kai.  “Dress nicely, okay?” I stand in front of her and take some of her hair in my hands, setting it down so it rests beside her neck.  I look up into her eyes and its sides crinkle as she smiles.

“I’m always dressed nicely,” She says.  “Stables uniform, this grey dress, the gardener outfit,” Her hands make a dismissing gesture.  She waves and trots away towards the castle, her shoes clicking against the pavement.

“I’m serious, though!” I call out.

“I get it!” She answers, disappearing behind doors.

“Man, that was stupid,” I mess up my own hair, walking back into the castle, dreading lunch.  “She would probably kill me for this,”

I glance up at the grandfather clock in the castle hall, showing 8 in the morning.  4 hours to go.  What am I supposed to do now?

“You have lessons, Your Majesty,”

I catch Kai’s voice and turn at my heel, approaching him slowly.  “What is it?”

He backs away, a playful glint in his eyes.  “Etiquettes,”

“Uh-huh,” My approach turns into a trot and when he turns his back to run, I run.  “Yah, you stupid kid!”

“Hey! You’re supposed to thank me!” He laughs aloud.  “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be having lunch with mom and her!”

Well, here we go.  He and I are like brothers.  We aren’t blood related, but we grew up together.  My father had found him when I was 7, fighting with one of the castle’s guards at the gate, and watched from a distance enough he could hear the conversation between the two. 

‘What’s wrong, kid?’ One of the guards had said.

‘I’m not a kid, and nothing’s wrong! I wanna go inside the castle,’

‘Are you here with someone?’

‘No, my parents are gone.  I’m from the orphanage next door,’

My father knew that the orphanage wasn’t ‘next door’.  It was miles away, because the closest orphanage was at the borders of the city, by the farms. 

‘Oh,’ The guard simply replied, glancing at the other one and a sad look crossing their faces.

‘Why do you have that look? I’m not sad, I’m fine.  I wanna work in the castle when I grow up.  So can I at least take a look at it?’

My father had gone towards the gate and the guards, in surprise, bowed at him quickly and the kid stared at him, blinked, and asked, ‘Who are you?’

The guards gasp.

‘I’m just some uncle working in the castle.  You wanna see the castle huh?’ My father said, smiling.

‘Yeah!’

‘How much do you wanna see it?’

The kid spread his arms and jumped.  ‘This much!’

‘Well, okay,’ My father scooped him into his arms, carrying him into the castle, just like that.

I had watched too, and my father took my hand in his.  I looked up at the kid in my father’s arms, curious as to who he actually was. 

My father smiled down at me, lifting his eyebrows slightly, a gesture that tells me to listen well.  ‘How old are you?’ He looks at the boy in his arms.

‘Six,’ The boy puts out six fingers.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Kai,’

My father nods and the three of us tour the castle, my father introducing him to many rooms, and me staying silent the whole time.

We both find out that the kid really is an orphan.  We sat with him for lunch and listened to his story.  He was from the orphanage in the city and he didn’t have anybody except himself, no siblings, no cousins, not anything. 

The books in the orphanage had the castle’s picture in every last page, because they were mostly delivered by the castle.  He was very curious as a boy, so he wrote a letter to the caretakers and left the orphanage very early in the morning.  He talked to a man on a carriage carrying crops and asked if he was going to the castle, and when he found out that the man was leaving for somewhere near the castle, he took the ride and went through a lot of asking to get here, which explains the hay sticking out his hair and the smudges on his arms and cheeks. 

‘But I really do want to work in the castle, mister,’ He says, swallowing the food.  ‘The king seems like a really nice person, the queen is said to be really pretty, and I’d really like to meet the young prince,’

My father looks at me and smiles.  ‘You want to see the queen?’

And with that, we take him to my mother, who went along with my father’s play of ‘family working in the castle’ rather than the royal family. 

When my mother spent time with Kai, my father had went out to send a letter to the orphanage, asking for Kai’s documents.  I saw the fondness in his eyes when he looked at Kai.  My father was a very whimsical person, in a positive kind of way.  So within the day, he had gotten all the business regarding Kai done and returned to the room where my mother had completely bonded with Kai, who clearly did not keep track of time.

‘Kai, what do you stay about staying in the castle now?’ The queen says softly, holding Kai’s hands.

‘Can I?’ He asks.  ‘I think I have to ask the king’s permission for that.  And the queen too.  And the prince’s too,’

‘I like him, dad, he seems nice,’ Were the first words I uttered that day.

‘Well, I like him too,’ My mother joins in.

‘I think you’re going to have a new brother, Kyungsoo,’

I smiled for the first time that day and looked at Kai.

‘Kyungsoo?’ Kai says quietly, then gasps, tumbling off of his chair. 

I rush to help him and he gapes at my father, my mother and I, then squeak.  ‘You guys are the royal family, aren’t you?’

‘Well, we’re your family too, now,’ My mother chuckles, leaning onto my father.

And just like that, we grew up together.  Shared the same sadness when my father died, which is when I truly start seeing Kai as my brother because, one night, I was crying alone, he just came into my room and patted my back, and said this; ‘Even though I’m younger than you, I think I can take care of you, prince.  I guess that’s what brothers are for, right?’

And here we are now, wrestling each other in the gardens, until I pin him down. 

“Stupid, you really think you can get away from me?”

“Okay, okay,” He wheezes.  “I’m sorry,”

“Nah, don’t be,” I get off him, sitting cross-legged, looking out to the castle.  “Thanks, Kai,”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” He rests his back on the grass, hands behind his head, one leg pulled up.  “I’m happy for you,” He says quietly.  “A bit jealous, but I’m still happy for you,”

I laugh along with him and I reply.  “Your time will come soon,” I rest my back beside him and look up to the sky.

I’ve never regretted the fact that my dad had made the decision to adopt some random kid that showed up out of nowhere at the castle gates.

Because that kid really grew up to be my brother.