"Stay still!" Sandara demanded as she struggled with a small pale filled with soapy water. The small princess was frustrated. She had never thought much about baths. She was bathed everyday of her life. It was a routine that involved nothing but sitting in hot water will she was fussed over by her lady attendants.

But for some reason, the boy Seung hyun would have none of this nonsense. Sure, at one point, he had agreed to get in the tub. The sun girl had asked, "Seung hyun, please get in." And he did for the sole reason that she asked. All his short life no one had bothered to use his name or for that matter asking him to do anything. He was a slave who had spent much of his life cowering in one of the corners of the slave kennels, or in a cramped coop where slaves were displayed for sale. He was grappled by the hair, shoved to where the slave masters intended him to be. That was his life. So when the sun girl asked to please get in the tub. It had been quite an event in his life.

Please get in... Like it was his choice if he didn't want to do it. And she used his name like for once in his life he mattered.

So he got in the tub. No questions asked, he climbed over the short porcelain hedge, still in his rags and sat there. He stared back at the sun girl who looked at him with a smile. And well, Seung hyun thought it was a good thing. Her smile, that is. Her smile was a good thing.

And sure, at that point, he felt a muscular twitch around his mouth like he was trying this whole smiling thing back, but then the sun girl grabbed a pale and doused him with water.

He gasped as a rush of water went straight into his nose and he chokes. His throat burned as he coughs out water and mucus, and now he knew, he was sure the sun girl intended to drown him.

He has seen this before where sickly children of the slave trade were dunked in barrels of rain water when they are no longer candidates for sale. He had seen it, a litter of small bodies lumped together, lifeless after they were mercilessly drowned.

Now, Seung hyun, never really thought dying would be all that bad, considering most of his life he had spent afraid and hurt, being beaten, being starved. Death seemed something like a nice long sleep where you will never be bothered by hunger pains, or being kicked in the gut to wake.

But there, in the midst of coughing half of his lung out, he wanted no part of this drowning business. Not even for the girl who shimmers like the sun.

When Sandara reached out to him, her hand full of shampoo, he makes a wild grab at her hand and tackles her. They land with a surprised oomph! From the princess, who was more surprised than hurt.

The next thing Seung hyun knew, he was being pulled off the princess, by his wet mucky hair, and the prickling pain on his scalp was so familiar, it didn't really bother him much. Instead by instinct, he grabs on to the woman's other hand and sunk his teeth right on her wrist and bite hard. Hard enough until he could feel a surge of hot blood in his mouth. He was waved away with a loud scream.

"You! You filthy, mangy dog!" The woman exclaimed as she raises a hand to his face and brought it down with a resounding smack. Now, this... This is his life. None of this nonsense filled with his name, or pleases. None of that.

So he grits his teeth in expectation for the second hit, his lips curled into a snarl, his teeth red with blood, red spittle running down the side of his mouth.

Sandara looked at the boy horrified. She had never seen such a sight! And what a sight it was! The boy on all fours, grit teeth in a snarl. This boy, she thought, looked like an animal. 

And for whatever reason, she wasn't afraid but felt extremely sad. So when the lady in waiting raised her hand to hit him again, Sandara found herself on her feet, demanding the woman to "Stop!" 

"You are scaring him."

The woman looks at her bewildered, "but princess, he attacked you..."

"No. That was my fault. I'm sorry Seung hyun. You were surprised. I shouldn't have poured water over your head. That was stupid of me. I'm sorry."

Seung hyun's gaze goes to her. Sorry, she said. What does that mean? Seung hyun doesn't know very many words, and sorry was unfamiliar.

"There, there. I'm sorry." Sandara repeats and the boy thought whatever sorry meant it sounded like that was good. So when she approached him, his stance sagged, and when she gave him a pat on the head, he never once thought she would hit him. And when she asked again, "can you go in the tub again?"

He did. And when the lady in waiting panicked over her, to which Sandara just replied, "he is mine. He is my responsibility." Seung hyun thought, this sun girl, well that girl was his owner.

###
After the incident, in spite being washed and dressed and looking more human than he had ever been, Seung hyun was known through out the palace as the princess's dog. Not that he ever minded, because he had been called that before, and well, dog isn't half as bad as rat.

He had seen dogs. He thought they were kind of cute.

And thing was, he liked being the princess's dog. He was hers, that sun girl who bothered to feed him, teach him how to eat properly, spoke to him like he wasn't an animal.

It took him months to speak half-properly, but Sandara never felt frustrated. She was always happy to hear him talk. He trusted her more than anyone in his life and even after he understood that he was still her slave, he didn't mind.

His princess, well to him, she was his sun.

###

After much training, he could finally perform simple attendant duties which was mainly to fetch the princess's food, or carry her things, or just stand near her when she was off to study. And to be honest, Seung hyun felt he was doing those as much as for him as it was for her. To be around her, well, that was something he liked more than the castle's food which he found he was really, really fond of.

But Sandara, his princess, were at the top of his hierarchy of things he liked. It was a simple life, and he had a simple way of thinking. She made him happy just for being around.

A year passed, and though the kingdom thought the king's idea of giving the princess a slave was inappropriate, the people saw the princess grow more like a child. She laughed at Seung hyun's antics. She got mad when Seung hyun brought her a dead toad to see. Seung hyun enabled the princess to see, to feel, to know of innocence she had lost when her Queen Mother passed.

The kingdom of Koryu acknowledged that the dog of the Princess would be a regular fixture by her side for the years to come.

###

They were ten when another boy was escorted to the palace, but unlike Seung hyun, the child was donned in rich clothes, a lilac satin robe with flecks of gold at the seams. Seung hyun had convinced Sandara to peek in the court where the other boy was escorted.

They saw him kneeling in front of the King. His hands tied on his back, he was presented, "Prince Jiyong of the Fallen Kingdom of Dae Hun." 

Now, both Sandara and Seung hyun thought this was an odd sight. And from Sandara's geography classes, she knew Dae Hun was a kingdom that lied to the West of Koryu, but they knew nothing else. They did not know of the war the king of Dae Hun waged against Koryu due to territorial conflicts. They didn't know about prisoners of war or executions of kings.

All they knew was there was another kid locked up in one of the appending buildings of the castle. Sandara was forbidden to go and of course that only meant a loophole of sending Seung hyun to scout the newest terrain and meet the local.

Seung hyun had climbed up the window and hauled himself inside. The other child sat in the middle of the room quiet even after Seung hyun's rather ungraceful fall that toppled a whole cabinet with a crash.

the other child only raised his head from its stupor and regarded Seung hyun with dull eyes, "who are you?" He asked in a dead tone, more out of habit than true curiosity.

"Seung hyun." Seung hyun said as he tried to gather himself from his fall. "The Princess's dog, you?"

And at that the other boy's lips lift to a smile, "a dog? I have never seen a dog like you..."

"I'm the only kind. What about you?"

"Me? Well, I used to be the son of the King of Dae Hun. Now, well... Even if he is dead, I guess I am still his son..." 

"You talk to much." Seung hyun dismissed. Of course, Seung hyun lacked the delicacy around the sensitive issues of dead parents since he never had them. "I asked who are you."

The other boy laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of being told that he was talking to much when he was mourning his father. He thought, well, maybe this child is a dog, "I'm Jiyong."

"See? That was all I wanted to know."

###

Jiyong was raised in the castle as ward of Koryu which only meant he was a hostage to keep Dae Hun from rebelling. It would have been an experience that would drive the little prince mad... It had been Koryu's King that beheaded his father, but for some reason, the room he was in was always filled with laughter when Seung hyun visits.

Of course the guards would chase Seung hyun out, but for some reason, he always finds a way. And after a while, Jiyong was freed for the sole reason that Seung hyun vouched for him to King.

Seung hyun had unceremoniously thrown a bun on the King's head one morning and told him to "let Jiyong out! You let me out, why can't you let him go? He's a prince! I'm a dog? Now tell me how that make sense?"

Of course, Seung hyun got into a lot of trouble, but ultimately earned a hearty guffaw from the king, who has grown quite fond of Seung hyun for bringing sincerity to his daughter's heart.

Jiyong found himself free to go as he wishes, and he thought that Seung hyun was some kind of fearless hero.

At an impulse, Jiyong said, one day, "when I go home and become king, you should go with me. Kings have Knights, you know? You can be my knight."

To which Seung hyun laughed at, "prince or not, you are an idiot, Jiyong. I am the princess's dog. I can't go with you."

"Oh." Jiyong said without hiding his disappointment. 

Seung hyun gave him a consolatory pat on the back. "Cheer up,why don't cha? I know. Just marry my princess when you grow up! Then I can be your knight. Marry her and I'll protect you both."

Jiyong laughs, mostly because he understood that this was an impossible dream, "I'm the son of the enemy. The king will not allow me to marry his daughter."

"Well, that's good that you're not marrying him then. It's my princess you have to impress and she's nice, you know. She even likes my sort. I tell you, Jiyong. My princess she'd like you. If she could like a dog like me, I bet she'd fancy a prince."

At that Jiyong thought, and Jiyong was much too wise for his age, that Seung hyun was in for a lot of heart ache. "You do know you're not really a dog, right?"

Seung hyun laughs, "stupid, of course, I am. I am the Princess Sandara's dog, or else how do I, a slave of low birth can stay close to her? I'm a dog. Hers."

Jiyong purses his lips, "don't you think that's sad?"

"Are you kidding me? Being her dog is the best thing that happened in my life! Now quit this talk, I want you to meet her!" Seung hyun drags Jiyong by the sleeve. "You'll like her. She's as pretty as the sun, you'll see. And when we grow up you can marry her and then I'd be your knight or whatever."

And Jiyong stumbles along thinking, his friend, this friend of his will be in for a lot of heart ache.