With a belly full of cereal and a bag full of books, Kyungsoo tugs on his jumper to pull it over his head successfully and arranges his thin, silky scarf around his neck. He doesn’t care if it doesn’t keep him warm enough because it was a birthday present from Baekhyun. Hanging on one of the coat pegs, Kyungsoo spots a jacket. A school jacket. He wonders how his mother or father had managed to buy one with the reputation they have with the clothing store attendants but shrugs it off. He should make sure to thank his parents for getting him one later. He slings his bag over both shoulders roughly and sighs. He trots up the stairs, goes back into his parents’ bedroom and peers through the door which is slightly ajar. There, he sees his mother sleeping soundly. Or so he thinks.

“Bye, mom,” He whispers but before he can shut the door behind him, his mother calls out to him.

“Come back here, baby.”

Kyungsoo jumps a little because he was convinced that she was asleep but turns around to join her anyway. “What is it, mom?”

She pats a spot on the bed and welcomes her son onto the bed. “Do you see these?” She whispers while pointing to her wedding ring and engagement ring on her finger.

Kyungsoo blinks and pulls a puzzled expression. “Your wedding ring and engagement ring? Yes, I see them.”

“I didn’t want them when your papa proposed to me.”

“But I thought you loved papa,” he says faintly, just so the both of them can hear.

“I did and I still do, baby, but when your papa proposed to me, I rejected him. A few months later, he proposed again.”

“And you said yes that time, right?”

“No… I rejected him again… Surely enough, three months after that, he proposed for the third time and that was when I realised that he really and truly loved me. It was his way of saying that there was no one else for him – only me.”

“Why did you reject him the first two times?” Kyungsoo shuffles closer to his mother and she takes his cold, dainty fingers into her warm hands.

“Because I was scared.” She lets out a hefty sigh and her son’s lovely, raven-black locks of hair that just rest on the top of his ears. “The reason I’m telling you this is because I know that you’re scared. If someone loves you, don’t be afraid. Learn from my mistake because you may not get those other chances like I did.”

“What should I do?”

“You love Kai, am I wrong?”

Kyungsoo leans into his mother’s delicate touch and encourages her to continue his hair. “No.”

“Don’t be afraid to love him, baby, and don’t refuse the love he gives you.”

Kyungsoo nods thoroughly.

She leans close to his face and plants a soft, tender kiss on his cheek. “Why do you think he loves you?”

Kyungsoo opens his eyes impossibly wide and he twiddles his thumbs rapidly. Occasionally they crash into each other and Kyungsoo pulls a frustrated face then he tries again.

“Why do you think he loves you?” She repeats, not trying to be pushy and gives him plenty of time to respond.

Kyungsoo stops rotating his thumbs around each other and looks up at his mother. “I don't know...”

“I guess that's how I felt, too."

“What do you mean?”

“When your papa and I were dating, I thought that I should have known why he loved me and got frustrated with myself because I couldn’t figure it out.”

“Why did you love him?” Kyungsoo asks excitedly.

“I loved him because he was so strange,” She chuckles. “He would always be so quiet and it intrigued me… Some of my friends still think that I only love him out of curiosity but I know that I love him because of how kind-hearted and humorous he is. He just needed someone to bring it out of him.”

“I see… So why does papa love you?”

“Why don’t you ask him on your way out?”

“Huh?” Kyungsoo looks at his watch and gasps. “Oh no, I’m going to be late!” He leaps up from the bed and rushes out of the door, almost tripping over the corner of the bed on the way out.

This time when he’s back at the front door, he bids a quiet farewell to his father who simply waves to him as he is about to leave the house. Kyungsoo looks down at his watch as shrugs his shoulders. I’m already late so why not ask him?

“Papa?” He calls, looking for his father amidst the delicious smells in the kitchen.

“What is it, Kyungsoo?” It seems that Kyungsoo’s father hasn’t noticed that he’s late either.

His father’s thin lips are pursed tightly as he concentrates on making breakfast for him and his wife. He has a small, round, pale face that is mostly covered in small beads of sweat from the steam in the room, large doe eyes and a small, button nose. Most of his facial features are similar to Kyungsoo’s except for his lips. He has a small chest and slender shoulders but his height makes up for that. This is where he is dissimilar to his son; the top of Kyungsoo’s head is only a few inches under his father’s shoulders but it fits nicely in his small chest which is big enough for one person to snuggle into.

“Papa, why do you love mom?”

Not taking his eyes away from his cooking, he says, “Mm… Now that’s a question.”

“You don’t know why you love her?”

Kyungsoo’s father turns off the gas on top of the oven and neglects the saucepan full of noodles. He turns to face Kyungsoo with a pleasant, sunny look on his face and a twinkling eye smile to match it. “There are just too many answers to that question. I cannot pick one that easily.”

Kyungsoo smiles. “She told me that she loved you because you’re kind-hearted and humorous.”

“She’s not wrong,” he chuckles heartily and beckons Kyungsoo to come closer to him. “Kyungsoo, I love your mother because she’s beautiful, perfect, funny, social, caring, lovable--”

“Papa, you can stop now. I think I get it.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because, uh, I, uh…”

“Do you like someone, Kyungsoo?” He asks teasingly.

Kyungsoo blushes and looks shamefully down at his feet. “N-no…”

“I’ll get it out of you soon. Now chop-chop! I heard you shouting that you were late for school.”

Kyungsoo looks at his watch and groans. “You’re right. Bye, papa!”

“See you soon, Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo swings open the door and shuts it behind him. There is no bitterly cold winter breeze that greets him this morning. Although it is cold outside, it’s the chirping of birds that welcomes him to spring. He turns round a corner and sees a group of trees with flourishing pink cherry blossoms all lined up along the pavement. Among the branches of one of the trees, Kyungsoo sees a distinctive, navy blue scarf. He recognises that it’s his own scarf and pats his shoulders only to realise that his scarf is no longer around his shoulders. He hoists himself up into the tree and, balancing himself on one of the branches, stretches his arm out to grab the scarf. He feels the fabric just scrape the tips of his fingers and leans his body further forward to take it. He is just about to grab the fringing on the end of the scarf with his fingers when the branch snaps. He lets out an embarrassingly, high-pitched shriek as he plummets to the ground.

                                                                                                                -

Kai calls Kyungsoo for the third time. There’s still no response.

“DAMN IT!” He screams aloud, trying to hold back his rage but failing.

Kai and his endless grumbles of frustration continue all through the morning. While he eats breakfast, while he dresses and while he packs his stuff for school. He slouches in the comfiest sofa in the living room and pulls an annoyed face while watching the TV. A woman wearing revealing, red bed clothing appears in the doorway and sighs.

“Kai, he doesn’t have to talk to you every morning.”

Kai looks up at his mother and glares at her. “Yes he does, mom. That way, I know he’s not talking to anyone else.”

“You are so possessive.” She smirks behind her cherry-red lips and rosy-pink blush.

“Pfft, no.” He lies, checking his phone for any messages and frowns when he sees none from his dearest Kyungsoo.

“Say, why don’t you a little?”

Kai looks up at his mother and raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean? I already do that. I feel like such an for acting so annoying but I know that it gets him rilled up.”

“Why don’t you make him jealous? I know it’s not a very nice thing to do but it’ll certainly prove to you whether he likes you or not.”

“I don’t wanna test him like that.”

“Oh, come on.”

“What if he hates me because of it?”

“He won’t,” she grins, “it worked for me when I was trying to get your father to date me.”

“Seriously?”

“I must have told you this before, right?”

Kai grabs the TV remote and flicks through the different channels while nodding slightly to show his mother that he’s still interested in what she’s saying.

“Like I’ve maybe or maybe not told you before, your father was my homeroom teacher in high school.” She pauses to sigh romantically as she reminisces. “It was love at first sight. A lot of the other girls liked him too but I made sure that he only noticed me. I would sneak into the staff room and take notes of the kinds of things he liked. He liked the smell of perfume, neatly combed hair, someone who was well educated and, uh, smooth skin.”

“That’s creepy,” Kai mumbles, forgetting that they’re talking about his father.

“Yeah, but I loved that about him. Everyone thought that I was crazy for falling in love with my teacher but I didn’t listen to them. I didn’t care if he was eleven years older than me. I doused myself in perfume every morning, neatly combed my hair before every class I had with him, studied extra hard so my grades were outstanding and used hand cream three times a day in the hope that he would like me back. When I realised that he was paying extra attention to me, I started to hang around with other boys and even made up a rumour that I was dating someone just to make him jealous.”

Kai switches off the TV and turns to face his mother so he can give her his undivided attention.

“I did that for about a month until I couldn’t stand being without him. Oh! And that’s when I came up with my master plan to ask him out.”

“You asked him out?” Kai snorts.

“Shut up, Kai, and let me finish.”

“Whatever.”

“I behaved really terribly one morning and your father gave me a detention, which was all part of my master plan.” She smirks devilishly. “While I was in the detention with him, I asked him out. I think it was a few months into our affair when I pressured him into marrying me.”

“That’s not very romantic,” Kai scoffs. “Were you even sure if he loved you?”

“Never you mind that, Kai,” she snaps. “If it wasn’t for me pressuring him into marring me, you wouldn’t have existed. Then who would your precious Kyungsoo have, hm?”

Kai babbles something unintelligible under his breath and stands up to leave.

“I’ll see you later with Kyungsoo, Kai.”

“Bye, mom.”

When Kai leaves the house with only one of the straps of his bag slinging on his shoulder, he notices a few cherry blossoms soar past him. He grins. Spring is finally here.

After a few minutes of walking, Kai sees a familiar boy standing in a tree. Watching the boy intently, he sees him inelegantly reach out for a long piece of silk and tumble to the ground with it between two of his fingers. He lets out a high-pitched shriek and falls onto the pavement. Here comes Prince Kai to save the day!

Author's Note:

Okay... Now that I've got both Kai and Kyungsoo's parents' love stories out of the way, the story should continue as normal. Sorry if you found those two chapters a bit boring but I kinda wanted some backstory for the parents.