*Kikwang’s POV*

For the next three days, Doojoon acted strange. He attempted to start friendly conversations with me and was acting, nice? He was obviously uncomfortable and awkward about it. I didn’t think he was serious about what he said the night we arrived. I honestly found it weird how he switched up so fast, maybe the cold was getting to him. Or maybe he was afraid of what else I might burn. Or maybe, I was right.

It made me wonder if King and Queen Yoon knew about Doojoon and they knew this camping trip would’ve had an effect on him. He was like a different person. He seemed like he was in his element. He enjoyed the fishing a lot. He even enjoyed cooking the food, even though he didn’t have a choice. The longer we stayed out the little bit of himself began to show.

“I stink.” I groaned, waking up on our last day at camp. I was honestly excited. I couldn’t wait to be inside a building on a comfortable bed where there’s a bath, and food other than fish. “Then take a bath in the river.” Doojoon said, entering the tent.

“Tch. I’m not bathing with fish.” I scoffed. “What are you doing up so early anyway?” I remarked. “I was making breakfast.” He said, handing me a bowl of chopped fish. I nearly gagged at the sight. I was tired of eating fish. “Why so early?” I asked, taking the bowl from him anyway. “Since it’s our last day, I was thinking that we could go hiking.” He said.

I paused, “Hiking?”

He nodded, “There’s a small mountain not far from here.” He said.

“We?” I continued.

He nodded again, “And what if I don’t want to?” I questioned.

“Well, if my parents asked what we did the past 4 days we can tell them that we spent most of our time fishing, you spent most of the time reading, I cooked all day and worked out, oh and you burned our clothes.” He said.

I sighed. He had a point. His parents will be disappointed if they hear that that was all we did. It was just weird hearing him indirectly suggest that we do something together. “There’s nothing else we can do?” I asked. I didn’t want to go hiking. “Unless, you want to swim with the fish.” He said. I groaned internally. “Fine. Hiking it is, I guess.”

We ate our breakfast and changed. Doojoon packed supplies for our hiking trip while I put away some of my stuff back into the wagon, so we won’t have too much stuff to pack away when we returned.

“Ready?” Doojoon asked when I returned to the tent. “I guess.” I muttered, receiving the backpack he gave me. “My parents left some hiking supplies.” He explained. I only nodded before following him out the tent.

It took us ten minutes to walk to the mountain side that the jerk prince was talking about. “My legs already hurt just looking at it.” I remarked, staring up at the steep earth mass. “come on.” Doojoon walked up to the steep pass first. I let out an exasperated sigh before following him. “At least I’ll have a story to tell Youngjae when I get back.” I tried to motivate myself, taking my first steps up the mountain.

We found long branches on the ground and used them to guide our steps up the rocky mountain side. Doojoon walked up with ease, ending up several feet ahead of me. I struggled to walk amongst the unstable large rocks and pebbles. “He’s probably using his Earth ability to help him up.” I muttered to myself.

I was at least glad that my element was a cold element, so the dropping temperatures don’t bother me the higher up we went.

Doojoon’s demeanor completely changed as we hiked. He was more relaxed and seemed almost approachable. I raised an eyebrow at this. Maybe he really was in his element. He took in the nature around him, though there really wasn’t much to look at since the plants were dying from the cold. For a moment I thought I saw a smile on his face.

“We’ll take a break here.” Doojoon said stopping by a large formation of rocks. I lagged behind before sitting down on the closest rock, relieved at finally having a break. “Who hikes in the winter?” I remarked to myself as I fumbled through my backpack, there’s nothing to see when everything is dead.”

“Actually, it’s pretty nice later on in the winter when it starts to snow.” Doojoon said. “The snow makes everything nice.” I scoffed proudly, taking a sip from my water. “Doesn’t that make it harder to hike?”

“Yeah, but the challenge makes it even more fun.” He said. “You’re crazy.” I concluded. The cold doesn’t affect me that much, but I do know that it’ll be pretty cold and miserable for someone who’s element isn’t cold to hike in the snow. “Hiking is actually a popular activity in the Earth kingdom.” He said. “With Earth being our element, we feel the strongest on the ground. So, the further away we are from the ground, the weaker we become.” He explained, “Hiking allows us to go high without being far from our element. Strength is important to us.”

I only nodded at the mini history lesson, not sure why he was telling me this. And I don’t think he was aware of it either. “Plus, if you pay special attention, you can see the history of the rocks, starting from the bottom of the mountain to the top. It’s interesting, the history of rock and the different formations of the earth.” He said, looking around the rocks around him. He started to give a little history of some of them.

“Are you rock nerd?” I finally asked, somewhat surprised by how much he knew and could tell just by looking at some rocks. “Wh-What?” He looked at me caught off guard.

“You know a lot about rocks.” I said.

“Uh…” He quickly straightened up. “It’s obviously something we learn here in the Earth Kingdom.” He played cool. “I’m sure you learned about snow and ice and whatever.”

“Yeah, how it’s formed. But not the history and being able to tell the life story of snow.” I said.

He cleared his throat, “Well, we go into more detail.” He said.

“Yeah right.” I said, not believing him. “Let’s go, or else we’ll get back to camp late.” He stood up first. “Geek.” I smirked before standing up as well.

We walked for what felt like hours. Doojoon continued to move with ease while my legs started to hurt and get tired. I pressed my weight against the stick the steeper the mountain top became.

“Finally.” I immediately felt to the ground when we reached the top. It was definitely much colder at the top but Doojoon seemed unbothered by it. I looked over at the elder who was standing at the edge, looking over the land below him. He looked at peace, a warm smile on his face. This was a different Doojoon.

I stood back up and walked over to him, standing a few feet next to him. There wasn’t much to see, everything just looked dead. But I assumed that it’ll look better when the snow comes and, in the spring, and summer.

I had to admit, it was quite a sight, looking down at the vast land from high up. It definitely looked like another world. “Something tells me that you enjoy hiking more than the average person.” I concluded, “It’s your escape.”

“What?” He said.

“You enjoy hiking so much because it’s an escape for you. It clears your mind from your stress and any other problems you have going on.” I explained.

He didn’t say anything.

“It’s okay. Everyone has their escape. Why do you think I’m so good at arrows? It’s a stress reliever for me.” I shrugged.

It was silent for a moment.

“What makes you think this is an escape for me?” He questioned.

“It’s obvious. You’re a completely different person. You went from the Crowned Jerk to the nerd of the Mountains.” I said. He scoffed a little, “Is that what you call me?”

“You bet.” I said shamelessly.

He let out a sigh. “Look, maybe you were right about earlier.” He said, his eyes never leaving the world below. I raised an eyebrow. “Everyone in my family is open and friendly and everyone loves them, I guess. But this is a huge kingdom with a large population, so there are obviously people who aren’t good out there. I’ve witnessed high ranking nobles try to take advantage of my parents and some of them were successful. And I’ve seen how it’s hurt them.” He began.

“When I had my first serious relationship, she took advantage of me. But I kept letting her back in. I was an open book to her. I let her come back until I was beat down and hurt. I’ve witnessed Bora get hurt several times by friends when she was young. You’re one of the few friends she lets into her life.” He continued.

“I didn’t want to get hurt like that again, so I hid myself from everyone, including my parents. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt me again, so I did whatever I could to protect myself, but it felt lonely.” He admitted. “So, you tried to fill that loneliness without getting hurt.” I assumed.

“I guess. But I’m not going to be like my parents. I won’t let anyone use me. And when I’m king, I’m going to protect my family, so no one can take advantage of them again.” He said with much determination.

I nodded in understanding, “But you know you’re no better than those idiots that’s taken advantage of you guys.” I told him honestly. He gritted his teeth but sighed with a nod. “I’m sorry.” He finally said. I raised an eyebrow, not expecting the apology. It actually sounded sincere this time.

“You’ve probably had it worse than me. Moving here against your will and your mother gone and everything.” He said.

“Tch…and having to deal with a jerk prince who took away one of my friends.” I added.

“I’m really sorry.” He looked at me.

I looked back at him.

“Well, I’m not sorry about Wonho.” He said.

I scoffed internally, figured. “I’m not going to take your apology to heart just yet.” I said, “This is the Nerd of the Mountains talking. I don’t know if the Crowned Jerk is going to return when we get back to the palace.”

“Fair enough.” He nodded, “But, when we get back, I’ll do better.”

“You don’t have to open up to me. We don’t know each other and we’re both being forced into this. I don’t expect you to open up to me. But I do expect you to respect me like a regular human being. That’s all I wanted.” I told him.

“Fine. I’ll make a deal with you. When we get back to the palace, I’ll stop seeing those girls. I will completely cut them off and focus on my duties as a crowned prince.” He said. “And do as your parents ask you to.” I added. “That too.” He nodded.

“And allow Wonho to come back to-,”

“No.” Doojoon cut me off.

“Excuse me?”

“He can’t come back. Okay?”

“Why not?” I folded my arms. “Because…he just can’t. Okay? It’ll look bad with him training you and being engaged.” He muttered. I frowned, knowing that, that wasn’t the case. “Just don’t see him for now.” He said.

“What?”

“Just-Just for now. Look, I opened up to you. I’m not asking you to open up to me, but all I ask is that you not see him for now. Until all of this blows over.” He urged.

I studied him. He was obviously insecure about mine and Wonho’s relationship. I mean, I can see why. I’m not going to lie, I do prefer Wonho over Doojoon, but that’s Doojoon’s fault. But if Doojoon was serious about changing, then Wonho being around would heighten his insecurity and fear. And I can’t promise him that I won’t gravitate towards the noble. But I am loyal and have no secrets. “Fine.” I gave in. “I won’t see him until we resolve this and get to know each other.”

He nodded, looking somewhat relieved.

“But, only if you keep your word about changing.” I said.

“I promise.” He said.

“Shake on it.” I said, holding out my hand. He took my hand in his and shook it firmly. “Good. Now that’s over, I’m going to lay back down before we hike back down. I stretched before finding a proper spot on the ground. Doojoon laughed a little, shaking his head.

We stayed at the mountain top for another half hour or so, before finally making our way back down. The trip down was faster, but somewhat scarier than going up. I managed to keep up with the nerd of the rocks, but had some close calls here and there, earning a sinker from the elder.

Despite our conversation, it was still weird seeing the less jerky side of him. What made it weirder was how quick he changed in a course of a few days. It made me wonder if he was aware that he was in the wrong this whole time, or that he was aware of his issue for a while, and just didn’t want to admit it. At the same time, I still wondered if his parents were aware of it too. And they knew that this was what he needed. However, I wasn’t going to believe anything until we got back to the palace.

By the time we returned to camp night had fallen. “Now I really stink.” I groaned, sitting by the fire after I finished making it.

Doojoon sat close by the fire, vigorously warming his hands and body. “Are you hungry?” he asked. “No. Don’t worry about making anymore fish. I’m too tired and If I eat another fish, I think I’m going to throw up.” I said, reaching for my backpack. He chuckled. “I’ll just eat the remaining crackers.” I said.

However, when I reached into the bag, I found that it was empty. “Or maybe not.” I said, earning another chuckle from him. “Here.” He said, tossing me his half full bag of crackers.

“Uh, thanks.” I said, not expecting the sudden gesture. “MM hm.” He hummed.

“So, I hear that you’re the best fighter in the nation.” I started conversation, not wanting to sit there in awkward silence. He straightened up, pride swelling in him. I rolled my eyes. “yeah.” He said, unable to contain his smile. “No one can beat me. Not even our best knights. Not even my father. I think I might be the best ever, in our kingdom’s history.” He said.

I subconsciously scoffed at his shameless confidence. He looked at me, “Don’t act like you’re humble either. Bora told me about your swelling pride.” He said. “Whatever.” I scoffed.

Silence soon fell between us.

“So, you have a younger brother that you care a lot about…you mentioned him earlier.” Doojoon said, seeming to want to fill the silence as well. “Yeah. I can’t wait to see him.” I said a smile unconsciously growing on my lips. “I have a lot of stories to tell him. He’ll be happy to hear them.”

Doojoon nodded.

My smile slowly faded in though, “But I’m worried about him. He hasn’t responded to my letter in weeks.” I sighed with much concern. I know he must have received my lett