The moment Seungcheol stepped into the room, he was assaulted with a beautiful vase that smashed against the wall, missing him in a wide berth.

“You mothering lunatic!” Jihoon screamed. He gripped a heavy hard-backed book off the table and flung it. “You ing piece of !”

“Calm down, Jihoonie.”

“Calm down?!” The King gripped a desk calendar. “I’ll ing show you calm, you useless bastard! Argh!”

Seungcheol easily ducked away, advancing until he could hold the King’s wrists down. “Jihoon. Breathe. Calm down. You’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.”

“You let me go!” the screaming King answered, struggling. “You let me go right now you son of a !”

“Jihoon, Jihoon, baby, please calm down.”

“ you!” Tears began to fall as Jihoon’s little fists thrummed Seungcheol’s chest. “ you! Do you know what I had to do to get you off the reserves list? Have you any idea what I went through?!”

“Jihoonie, Jihoonie stop struggling, baby.”

“ you!” the young King spat, sobbing. “Why couldn’t you just stay at home? Why?”

“Shhhhh.” Seungcheol held him close, hugging him tightly. “Shhhhh, it’s alright, it’s alright.”

“It’s not alright,” Jihoon sobbed, sniffing loudly. He stopped trying to hit his boyfriend, opting for clinging to him instead. “It’s not alright because – because you’re going to fight now and – and I – and I! I might not… you might not! I mean… Seungcheol!”

“Shhhhhh.” Seungcheol moved to sit down and pressed the King into his lap. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry I made you so upset. Shhh, I’m sorry, baby. Just try to calm down a little.”

“Little er.” Jihoon’s bout of fear, rage and distress subsided a little. Emotional outbursts were few and far between, but being held in Seungcheol’s lap always calmed him down again. He was slaking back his last few sobs, sniffling out his last tears. “Going around behind my back…”

“I’m sorry.” Seungcheol’s lips pressed into his hair. “I’m sorry, Jihoon.”

“What did you do it for?”

“…’s a long story.”

“Get talking. I have time.”

“You once told me a King never has time for anything.”

“I’m the King,” the boy grumped stiffly, “they’ll make time. They’ll add a thirteenth hour to the clock, so help me. Start talking, Cheol.”

The man simply sat there, holding Jihoon to his chest, rocking to and fro a little for a while. “Do you know? Seungkwan and Vernon both volunteered.”

Jihoon frowned, confused.

“They’re both only seventeen, but they volunteered together. Since they can’t be let into the regular civilian troops, they’ve been given other assignments. They’re being deployed with a MASH unit, together. As corpsmen. They’ve been given training already. Vernon knows how to sew up a body. He won’t be asked to, but he knows. The two of them have been away from home for months already.”

Jihoon’s entire body stilled as he thought of the long-haired boy that always seemed to have petals in his shaggy mane, and his chubby-cheeked barista boyfriend. They were both so young. And MASH units didn’t exactly work far away from the front. “…I’ll get them out.”

“No you won’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“They don’t want out, Jihoon. They want to stand and do what they can. They’re a little young, but Vernon looks like he could be eighteen, and he did Seungkwan’s hair up some kind of way, too. This isn’t some play game. This is war. People are coming to invade their country too, you know?”

Jihoon’s little fingers curled around Seungcheol’s green shirt. “They’re so young,” he whispered.

“Yeah. When they draft notice came around to our neighborhood and I wasn’t on it, I was really upset. I went down to the draftee commissions board two days later. Said it had to be some kind of administrative oversight. But they told me my name had been taken off the list at the highest order, and… well, I knew what that meant. I knew you wanted me to stay home, away from the fighting. It galled me, but I had to think it over, so I went back. And when I got there… all I had left of my brother was a note.”

Jihoon swallowed against the harsh lump in his throat. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Not your fault,” Seungcheol breezed. “That dumb kid is always going into head-first and not thinking about the consequences. Especially when he and his lovey-dovey are together. They’re a couple of idiots. But… I guess it was embarrassing, you know? Having my kid brother go off to fight in a war that I was barred from. And after a few days, other people in the street began to notice that I was still working. So I bribed an officer and got put on the list.”

“Because you were embarrassed!?”

“No. Because, Jihoon, this is my country too. And the actions that have angered China are the workings of one single man. And they have no right to come into my country like this. I have a duty to fight for my country, my people, just as you do. To keep my mother and father safe in their beds. And… to keep the man I love safe, too.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Jihoon, when I said I wanted to fight for King and country, I meant it.”

“I had no idea you felt so nationalistic.”

“Well it’s not something I tell on a first date.”

The small King gave him a light punch in the shoulder. “Shut up. I don’t want you to fight for me.”

“You’re bein