Hyungwon’s eyes moved back and forth along the paper, following Changkyun’s hand. He had watched the apprentice write notes for a good thirty minutes without interrupting him.

Every now and then, the apprentice would stop and look down at the frog expectantly, nonverbally telling him to spit out whatever question he wanted to ask. But Hyungwon didn’t. The frog was being uncharacteristically silent- purposely putting the apprentice on edge. When Hyungwon didn’t reply, Changkyun huffed and went back to his work.

This cycle repeated itself until Changkyun finally caved. He slammed dropped his pen and pinned his gaze on the frog. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

When Hyungwon said nothing and just kept looking at him, Changkyun sighed. “If you have something to say, just say it.”

Smiling to himself, the frog prince mentally patted himself on the back for managing to make the apprentice tick.

He cleared his throat, looking at the apprentice. “So… earlier, Prince Minhyuk called you his little brother…” he began, carefully eyeing how Changkyun would react.

“Ah,” Changkyun breathed, nodding in acknowledgment. Hyungwon saw the beginnings of a smile on his lips as he continued explaining. “I’m not his actual younger brother. He just considers me a little brother because he’s best friends with my master.”

Hyungwon felt underwhelmed. All that intrigue that had plagued him for the past few hours and this was the answer? The frog waited for Changkyun to say more, but he didn’t.

After a while, Hyungwon couldn’t help but ask, “That’s it?”

“Pretty much.” Changkyun shrugged like it was no big deal, but there was a finality in his tone that made Hyungwon realize he couldn’t dig further into it, most likely because it concerned Changkyun’s oh so elusive master.

But Hyungwon would be damned if he’d let their conversation end there, so he asked about something he’d been wondering since the moment he’d figured out that Changkyun was younger than Prince Minhyuk. “If he’s your hyung, how old are you?”

“Twenty one.”

Hyungwon hadn’t expected Changkyun to answer so directly. The frog jumped backward, eyes bulged wide in shock as he screamed, “You’re younger than me?!”

Changkyun’s brow rose. “Apparently? How old are you?”

“Twenty three.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were so old,” Changkyun chimed, voice sincere but unable to hide the mischief woven into his words.

“I’ll have you know, twenty three is not that old!” Hyungwon spat.

The mischievous glint in Changkyun’s eyes twinkled brighter, juxtaposing his innocent tone. “When converting frog years to human years, that’s like over a hundred.”

A dumbfounded expression settled onto Hyungwon’s face as he watched the apprentice laugh at his own dumb joke. Most days, living with Changkyun was pleasant enough, but having to live with his stupid sense of humor made Hyungwon worry his webbed fingers would permanently remain curled.

Though there was a part of him that wished he thought of it first.

“Explain,” Hyungwon said as he swatted a letter Changkyun received from the palace staff this morning. Its contents should have been groundbreaking and earth shattering for both him and Changkyun, but the latter acted like it didn’t matter.

Changkyun lifted it up and gave it a skim, looking entirely too uninterested.  He snorted at the last line and carelessly tossed the letter down before going back to work.

The frog wasn’t sure how to take this. How could the boy just throw away something as important as this? Changkyun sighed as he probably felt the frog’s glare. “Just ignore it.”

Hyungwon hopped onto the boy’s hand so he would stop writing and finally look at him. “How can I ignore the fact that this letter is saying that Prince Minhyuk is gone?! Are you telling me to ignore the fact that my chance at being human again is gone?!”

“Relax, everything will be okay,” the boy replied, yet Changkyun’s words did nothing to ease the frantic frog.

“Why are you so calm?! You’re hiding something, aren’t you?!” Hyungwon looked up at Changkyun, who’d given up at trying to work and now focused his attention on Hyungwon.

“That letter is just a precautionary measure to make sure people who don’t know Minhyuk-hyung well can’t get near him.” Changkyun explained as if the answer had been completely obvious from the start.

Hyungwon sneered, “What does that even mean?”

“Minhyuk-hyung is still on the palace grounds, but only a handful of people know where he actually is.”

It was so carefully worded that the frog realized that Changkyun was probably messing with him this whole time, “So, you know where he is?”

Of course the boy cleared his throat, doing his best not to flash a knowing smirk as he unfurled a cream colored parchment for Hyungwon to see.

It appeared to be Prince Minhyuk’s daily schedule.

“He trusts you enough to not only tell you where he is but when he’s going to be there?” Hyungwon asked, amused and taken aback by how Prince Minhyuk treated Changkyun. “The poor guy puts so much faith in you, and here you are sneaking around with some shady frog who wants to kiss him.”

The room grew ten times colder as Changkyun looked at him dead in the eyes. “I would never allow you to hurt Minhyuk-hyung.” If Hyungwon had ever feared Changkyun, it would probably be in that moment. He’d hardly had time to recover from the shock when the mood suddenly shifted.Changkyun was now smugly smirking at him. “Besides, you’re no shady frog. You’re just a naive, straight-forward brat who has a heart buried deep, deep, deep inside his chest.”

Though Hyungwon used to banter, he’d felt oddly pleased with what Changkyun had said. But no matter how flattered he was there was no way he was admitting to it. “How dare you call me a brat!? I’m older than you!”

Changkyun shrugged.. “You’re just proving my point.”

“I’m your hyung too! Why don’t you treat me like one?!” Hyungwon was basically whining at this point.

“I’ll treat you like a hyung when you act like one.”

Changkyun spoke to him as if he was a little kid, irking the frog prince even more.

How was he supposed to respond to that? Act like a hyung? What did that even mean? At the thought his mind flashed an image of Royal Guard Shownu. The older man had always tolerated him better th