You weren’t sure about how you felt in your new position. You wanted to hate Hyungwon, blame him for your parent’s deaths. You wanted to curse the ground he walked on but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it.

Hyungwon was carefree and thoughtful and dare you say it; weird.  

You were the one responsible for waking him up in the morning. This, in itself, was a chore. The prince refused to wake up no matter what you bribed him with. The only thing that woke him up was the promise of more sleep. The other day, he had to be woken up for an important breakfast with royal advisors but he refused to get out of bed.

You had to talk to him for an hour before you told him that he could go back to bed directly after the meeting. That made him shoot out of bed in a heartbeat. This was exactly how your daily interactions with the young prince went.

He also treated you well, he would slip you a few extra coins secretively under the table, instructing you to buy yourself something that would make you happy. Despite his kindness, you kept your distance. You talked to him when you had to do your job but no where else, the risk was too high to form a friendship with the handsome prince.

One day, a few weeks after you were first given the job next to the prince, you were folding his clothes and neatly put them in his wardrobe when he came into his room in a blind rage. This exhibition of anger was something very uncommon for the prince (As you had come to know) and you instantly turned to him in wonder.

He stared at you and slumped down onto his large bed. He took deep breaths to calm himself from whatever had driven him to anger. Hyungwon shrugged off his ornate jacket lined with gold and through it to the ground.

You had to admit that he very loosely reminded you of a child in a tantrum. You laughed to yourself but wiped the humored expression off your face just incase he had caught a glimpse. “Is everything alright, Your Highness?” The last bit fell off your tongue like poison. You enjoyed the prince’s company but you hated calling him a tightly that hardly belonged to him.

Hyungwon shook his head and ran his hands through his hair angrily, gripping at the strands of brunette tightly. “I’m supposed to get married in a month,” he groaned. He let go of his hair and lied down on his bed. Hyungwon stared up at the ceiling as if he were contemplating life.

“And that’s not something you want?” You asked carefully. You knew that ,when asking questions, you had to walk around eggshells just incase you went a little deeper than someone wanted it to be. So you started simple.

“No!” He yelled, though he wasn’t mad at you. He sighed and calmed himself before speaking again. He raised his head and waved you over to his bedside. “Look, Y/N, I know this is weird, but I really want you to lie down with me and talk about this.” He paused to stare at you. The awkwardness in the room couldn’t even be cut by a knife. He sighed once more and nodded, “I know it was weird to ask, but it feels better when someone is here, you know?”

You nodded your head and walked over to his bedside. You sat down and slowly pulled yourself up to lie down on the extravagant bedding. You stayed to the farthest side of the edge as you could. You felt bad for the prince, but not enough for you to get all cuddly and lovey on him in his bed.

He took a happy, content breath once you were all situated by his side. He rolled over on his side to face you. You rolled over on yours to face him as well. He smiled and continued on. “My father is forcing me to marry a woman who I barely even know in the next month. Then he wants me to have children and start with military training so I know how to run the army when I’m king.” He talked a mile a minute, complaining about his father.

You nodded along as he spoke. You found this incredibly adorable, how he didn’t care what he said or when he said it. He was just so natural like this. “Please don’t tell anyone this because I could be shunned out of the kingdom for it.” Hyungwon went silent, his anger was gone and so was his carefree attitude. He leaned in closer to your body, close enough for his face to be the only thing you could see, but not too close that it was awkward.

“Sometimes I wish my father never became king. When he became king, I had all of this responsibility pushed onto my shoulders and suddenly…” He trailed off, unable to find the words to say. 
“And suddenly your life was no longer your own,” You finished his sentence for him. You remember your days in the kingdom and how hectic your daily life was. Even at eleven years old, you were expected to start learning about royal affairs and regimes, something no child should learn. You were forced into a schedule and your life belonged to your kingdom and no one else.

You weren’t allowed to breathe without it being approved by the king. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing from Hyungwon. Something about it made him so human that you couldn’t hold on to your resentment for him any longer.

Hyungwon’s eyes widened as you spoke. “Yeah, exactly that.” You could tell he was astounded by your words. “I cried when I found out I was going to be a future king,” he sighed as he shut his eyes. “I wanted to become a bard so badly but now that I was going to be the king, I had to give up on my dream.” He went quiet and extended his arm and wrapped it around your waist. He pulled you close and wouldn’t let go.

You were stunned by the sudden move by him. You felt your body tense but it soon relaxed when you realized there was nothing else happening. “I’m sorry, sleeping next to someone always feels better.” He whispered before falling promptly asleep.

But you couldn’t be anymore awake.

This too became nearly a daily routine. He would get back from some royal event and he would expect you to fall asleep next to him as he vented about his father and his apparent hatred for the king and his men.

It was comforting. You knew you couldn’t speak to Hyungwon about your own life, but hearing about his was enough. One day, after a particularly rough day with his advisors, Hyungwon, came to his room in a joyous mood.

You were already seated on his bead, bracing yourself with whatever problem he had for the day. He walked in with a skip in his step and a broad smile on his face. You cocked an eyebrow and folded your arms. “Well this is a sight…” You muttered under your breath, but you knew he heard you full well.

He pointed to you and smiled wider. “That indeed. Guess what I found out today.” You shrugged your shoulders and laughed “I really don’t know but it must be good to make you this giddy.”

Hyungwon nodded his head. “There’s been a ball being planned for weeks and the happy little event happens tomorrow night. I also found out that I’m supposed to meet my fiancee tomorrow.” He was too happy about this and it weirded you out.

“Shouldn’t you be cursing your father and the heavens about that?” You questioned him wearily. He only shook his head and pointed to you.

“That’s where you come in.” He spun around smoothly and plucked a fine red rose from a vase on a table. He got on one knee and bowed before you, the arm with the flower extended towards you. “My fair lady, come to the ball with me tomorrow night so I can prove to my father that I don’t need a ty fiancee.” He said it so lowly and suavely that it made your heart skip a beat.

You smiled and took the flower. You stood up and held it up to your nose. “I don’t think so. I don’t accept invites from lowly bards,” you cooed to him pompously. You flipped your hair and walked past him.

Hyungwon quickly got up and ran after you, laughing now. “But princess. I’m the most handsome and talented man out there. You should accept my invitation.” He winked in your direction and reached for the rose.

You held it out of his grasp jokingly, hiding it behind your back and walking away from him. You hadn’t expected him to play along with your horrible joke, but you had to admit that you were finding this quite amusing.

You pranced around the room, Hyungwon following your every move very close behind. You did your best to keep the rose away from him. You thought you were succeeding until he was able to reach behind you and hold onto the rose, you along with it.

Hyungwon stared down at you, both your hand and the rose in his own. His face was alarmingly close to yours, but you didn’t mind it. He grinned and scrunched up his nose. “Now will you accept?” he asked softly.

You knew you should say know. You were lucky with being able to stay inside Hyungwon’s room all day. You never had to worry about a wandering eye possibly remembering who you were. But with Hyungwon so close and the possibility that you had started to develop feelings for the not-so-prince, you were inclined to accept.

“Of course I do,” you grinned but you knew that it was a horrible idea.