“Kyungsoo,” I hear my mother’s familiar voice as she shakes my shoulder, struggling to wake me up.  “Kyungsoo, wake up,”

“A minute longer, please,” I mumble into my pillow, pulling my blanket over my head.

“No,” She states straightforwardly.

“Why not,”

“Because..”

I smile as I listen to her hesitation, sighing contentedly.  I can sleep in, then.

“Just wake up!!” She pulls the blanket off of me, turning my smile into a frown.  She seems to enjoy doing that recently; wiping the smile off my face. 

“Mom, be a queen.  A queen doesn’t pout,” I cover my eyes with my arm, frowning at the bright light shining through my eyelids as she opens the curtains abruptly. 

“You’re my son, why do I have to be a queen in front of you,”

“Because..”

“You’re going to lose this argument, so just wake up,” She tugs at my arm and I sit up heavily.  “You’re going to come accompany me to the stables today!” She giddily announces, clapping excitedly.

I was about to drop back onto the bed but she kept me up, pulling me up so that I went off the bed with my feet on the ground. 

“Yay!” She leaps into my closet and takes out my white riding pants along with my white shirt and dark gray cardigan, setting it in my bathroom.  “Hurry hurry hurry!”

“It’s like you’re my sister,” I sigh, dragging my feet into my bathroom.

“Ei, don’t flatter me, Kyungsoo,” She gushes, blowing me a kiss from the door before running away, still full of vigour.

“It wasn’t a compliment,”

Even so, I bathe and put on the outfit she picked out for me, because I love her and I know how much she loves to ride.

***

I enter the stables just as her attendees leave.  I reply to their bows, smiling at them and asking them how they have been, as I always do.

“Your mother is as lively as ever, prince,”

“Her love for these animals never seem to run out,”

“And they seem to love her back just as much,”

“She’s waiting for you.  On Fern, as usual,”

I chuckle as I walk past them, wondering about their impressions on my mother.  It’s a wonder how she can be such a kid and run a kingdom all at once. 

“Kyungsoo-oo-oo!”

I step back calmly as she rides past me, a distance away enough so that the dust doesn’t make its way into my eyes or my nose. 

“Hurry and catch up! Red’s waiting for you!”

Fern is the beautiful white stallion my father had given her for one of their marriage anniversary.  It had jet black mane and tail, male, so that it could remind her of my father when he had gone.  It did; it became the only thing that could ease her sorrow when my father had died of a terrible sickness years ago.  She would ride it at night, talk to it, feed it herself, spend time with it so much, until she became herself, her bright self, full of laughter and life.

While Red, is a brown stallion my father also gave me for my 8th birthday 12 years ago.  It had light hazel mane and tail, female, and somehow, it was the only horse I could get close to.  My father had propped me up on her back when I was eight, and she had stood still, walked slowly as commanded, as if she understood my fears.

“Hey, Red,” I pat her neck affectionately and she turned to nudge my shoulder with her nose.  “I miss you too,” I chuckle, resting my forehead on hers, meeting her eyes.

I look up as I hear the familiar jingle of a birdle.

“Oh, sorry,” I step back as one of the stable keepers step towards Red to put the birdle on her.  I fondly smile at the way this particular keeper mutters playful words at my horse, gently putting the iron bar into and chuckling as Red snorts at something she had said.

The keeper was a she.  Slightly shorter than me, the top of her head reaching up to my chin.  She had a riding hat on, her dark riding outfit wrapping her small frame, flexing as she reaches up to set my saddle on Red.

Her hand digs into a pouch by Red’s door and she sets it under the horse’s mouth.  Red munches on it happily and whinnies in approval, nudging the girl’s face gently.

“Are those sugar cubes?” I inquire, tilting my head to get a look at her face.

She looks away politely, but I could hear the smile in her voice.  “No.  She likes apple flavored candies,”

I nod quietly, liking the fact that a stable keeper could know what Red likes.  If she hadn’t known what it was, even Red wouldn’t have liked it so much.  “Are you new here? I’ve never seen you around before,”

“Hey, Kyungsoo, what’s taking you so long?”

I look up to see my mother and Fern looking over Red’s door.  Fern impatiently steps back and forth and mom, well, mom’s mom.  “Come on, come on, you’re going to spend all your time feeding Red candies! She’s gonna get diabetes because of you,”

As if laughing with her, Fern whinnies when my mother clicks her tongue, urging her forward.

I mount Red and watch as the girl opens the door for me, keeping her head lowered politely.  Red takes her time to snuggle into her hand and only after I’ve clicked my tongue thrice does Red finally step away from the girl, who was chuckling at my horse and my impatience.

I somehow find myself unable to keep my eyes off of her.  She stays there, watching me and Red ride away.  I could only see the amused tilt of her lips under her riding hat.  Not even a glimpse of her eyes and not even a strand of hair loose.

“Eyes up front, prince!!”

I hold on tightly onto Red’s reins as she rears back, her front legs up in the air while Fern and mom passes by loudly with laughter.

“Let’s get them for that, Red,” I click my tongue and Red whinnies with a shake of her head, galloping after Fern into the castle fields.

I am Do Kyungsoo and my mother is the queen.

I am the prince and hey, I guess I’ll be looking forward to the next time I go to the stables.