The Crown Prince

Introduction

(Chapter 1)

What we think of as traditional today was once, at one point in history, no other way to live. Many centuries ago people that came before us invented the cultures and customs we have today and sometimes take for granted.….Some traditions fade and others stay and others we can’t remember why we do the customs and observe the traditions in the first place…Remnants of the past ring throughout our modern daily lives though. Some you see everyday never giving it another thought as you walk down the city streets of what is modern day Seoul: Seeing hints of it as you see someone touch their right forearm with their left hand when giving something to another, came from holding your right hanbok sleeve (that we don’t wear daily anymore) out of the way for example….. The materials of what one’s home was made out of, the colors you could wear down to the hairstyles and clothing, everything about one's life and garments marked them as what they were and what level of life in which they lived for all to see: Men in their hanboks and hats that matched their statuses, long braided hair for the unmarried and hair tied up in a sophisticated knot on top their heads for those that were wed.  Even for back then there was a teeny hint of what we’d call fashion or perhaps the latest fad like some younger men that kept their bangs loose and out of the braid or knot.

Their lives mostly run by protocol and heavier traditions and customs than today. Busy markets filled with peasant merchants in the inner city right outside the Palace walls and not the traffic that is here today beyond Gyeongbokgung Palace’s walls; Getting to destinations by horse or on foot long before any man ever could imagine a motorized vehicle. Back when city lights didn’t dim the natural light of the midnight sun: The night sky used to be breathtaking as the stars illuminated and mapped the heavens brightly.  The landscape dotted with Hanok’s (traditional Korean houses) around the Kingdom and dusty roads connecting villages and providences across the land instead of the tall high rise buildings that line the paved roads and highways of today. Things sure have changed since then…. But something’s never change…. Take, friendship, and especially love and faith for example, it’s strong and unyielding; it has the power to remain and conquer all and so does family. Even if an evil presents its self, love can mend it! For nothing is more powerful than love and family…

Ever wonder why the nation’s official flower is a hibiscus? Or why kimchi is the nation’s main dish? Or why we give perfume, a rose and a kiss during a person’s coming of age ceremony?  It’s simple: it was forgotten over the passage of time or perhaps erased from history due to what people thought was just a fairytale behind the purpose and there for couldn’t have been a real reason for tradition. These long lost parts of history along with a few other events and the stories attached to them all have to do with a certain family and their son. The family had the public traditions and customs but being ordained by god, the family also had their own traditions and customs and beliefs that pertained to only them due to their status. For instance one special tradition had to do with a yellow hibiscus flower.

The family lived long ago in ancient times a few millennia before the land you know today as Korea...It was once proudly named The SHINee Kingdom and was blessed by heaven and ruled by that special family whom were the most magnificent and kindest royal family line the earth had ever known. They were the Royal Family Lee: The King, Queen and their Crown Prince Lee Jinki.

Like all royals in history anything related to the crown prince would naturally become history after their lives ended: What they did, successes and failures, how they lived, who they married, and this was true of his highness Lee Jinki and his royal spouse. Everything would be chronicled, either by someone or by their own diaries, which protocol stated they must write in daily. So naturally they were aware of aspects of their lives being known but what Prince Jinki and his beloved never would have thought of is: the three gifts they once gave each other, especially their secret kiss under the stars, becoming traditional presents of a coming of age ceremony.

Once people heard of their story in history books and or oral story telling people began to give the three gifts……But the memory of The Crown Prince and his spouse long forgotten as the years passed…For you see, Prince Jinki and his true love’s relationship, their love and their struggles due to someone’s act of treason would eventually propel the royal couple from factual history straight into myth and legend as more decades passed after Lee Jinki’s reign. But because of the nature of their story seemed unbelievable, people began to doubt if the story of Prince Jinki and his spouse was true or not. The people of the land knew the presents not only were given in love and care for the other person but helped them become men, men that survived the impossible, and men that loved. Where the gifts good luck to overcome changeling things in adulthood? Were they good luck to find love as an adult and marry?  Was it all just a myth, a fable? Regardless the gifts were and are symbolic of love and growing up…One thing all scholars agree on is, whether it was a true story or fictional, no matter what: The love between The Crown Prince and his spouse was real… Thus the tradition of the flower, perfume and the kiss still remain even thousands of years later though the real history had been erased…. The real history of The Crown Prince and his true love, Lee Taemin and how they fell in love; The true story of betrayal and treason and how The Crown Prince and his friends, whom were also deleted from history, overcame it. All of it lost and over shadowed by what sounded like fiction….What exactly sounded like fiction, fantasy? What covered up the real history of our people, The Shawols, the descendants of the SHINee Kingdom’s subject’s from thousands of years ago? I know they say never start a story with “Once upon a time” but I think in this case it’s only fitting........

                                       Once upon a time……..

I've been wanting to write a kingdom fic ever since i went to korea in 2013...This fic was fun to write; *is a huge history nerd* I studied alot about korea while writing this fic...

I used real facts and fictional ones (they are subtle though so idk if you'll notice) and blended them together to come up with this SHINee Kingdom. Example…The Yellow hibiscus (Hibiscus brackenridgei) in the fic is the kingdoms flower… The real national flower of Korea in real life is the mugunghwa (무궁화), rose of sharon a hibiscus that is a purple-pinkish one. I picked the yellow hibiscus because of Taemin’s shinee world pants/fandom color lol… but you’ll have to read the fic to find out its pretty meaning to the crown prince of course ;)

…anyways…enjoy! I hope it sounds interesting so far XD