Glossary

Jonghyun ran as fast he could. He had been planning this for years now, planning to run away, planning to escape his father, planning to find him. Ever since that day, that night when he had failed to escape with him, he had spent the following day, years in regret. He had looked for him everywhere in his Kingdom, Qatem, been to every house that had a male who matched his age, his description and after years of searching he had given up hope of ever finding him ever again.

Until he came across a few old texts that were locked away in his father’s study and he realized he had been searching in the wrong kingdom. He still had hope, he still had a chance to find him and he was willing to do anything to keep that hope, to find that chance; and an opportunity came to him soon.

He had disguised himself, hid himself in clothes he had taken from the servant’s quarters and had slid out of the castle under the stars; the map he had memorized guiding him to find the periphery where he could easily crossover to the other kingdom. But his elation of liberation was short-lived; as soon as he had crossed the borders he saw his father’s men on his trail, wanting to take him back to his despondency.

He changed his plans and instead headed to the Forest of Asala he had read about, hoping going to the forest would help him more than finding him. And he did find help near the forest, but not in the form he had expected, a contingent of Manara soldiers. The contingent was enough to overpower his father’s men, making them retract but as a consequence he was captured by them.

His heart fell as the chains were fastened around him, he couldn’t be caught now; not when he was so close to finding him, finding Jinki.

That night Jinki couldn’t fall asleep. He had tried going down to the cells, but was immediately turned away as the prisoner’s interrogation was still going on. Everytime he closed his eyes, the prisoners face would come up. Those eyes, the genuine surprise in them when they first met his own, those lips shaping in a slight smile but soon a mask of impassiveness covering everything when he was pushed by one of the soldiers to move forward. And everytime he closed his eyes he was reminded of the slight pain he had felt in his chest when his eyes had met the prisoners, throwing him off tangent, making him question everything again.

At first he thought he was imagining it, seeing things he hadn’t seen before, but the more he pondered, the more he thought of the prisoner, he became convinced that he wasn’t imagining anything. Even under the dirt smearing his features, Jinki could make out that the prisoner was young; around his age or maybe younger than him; he was handsome too; he had a high nose that was a bit wide at the end, his full lips were a little red, highlighting them even more; no matter what the others thought, to him that guy did not look like a prisoner, did not look like someone who could harm, instead Jinki felt the urge of protecting him arise within. He eventually fell asleep in the late hours of the night, the prisoner still being the last thought on his mind.

“Wake up, brother! You will make me miss my lessons if you don’t wake up soon.”

Jinki groaned, “Okay, I am up. Stop with the poking.” He freshened up quickly, putting on the yellow robes of the Asfaeyr academy, he gave himself one look in the mirror, straightening out his hair to look more presentable and turned towards Taemin, picking up his bag, “I’m ready,” he stifled a yawn.

“I was just informed by our lovely general that we cannot leave the castle without any protection.” Taemin rolled his eyes. “Father and mother know how much we hate attracting attention, but no, they decided that we need to be escorted to classes with a huge troop behind us, and I even promised Minho and Kibum that we’ll meet up today.”

“Oh please.” Jinki groaned, just thinking about it leaving a distaste in his mouth. “Let’s meet up then. I know how good you are at slipping out of classes, is it the same soup place?”

“Yes, it is.” Taemin followed Jinki out of his room. “We aren’t going to kitchen today?” Taemin asked when he saw his brother take the stairs to their great hall.

“Don’t you want to know what happened to the prisoner?” Jinki asked a small smile shaping his lips.

“You don’t even need to ask.” Taemin smiled sheepishly.

-

“Oh, what a pleasant surprise! Come join in, my sons, you both are right on time.”

Jinki and Taemin greeted their parents and the other ministers who usually had breakfast with the King. They keenly listened to the conservation that was taking place, but they were not here to listen to them talk about some new policy.

“Did you find out anything from the prisoner?” Taemin asked, before one of the ministers could give his opinion on the policy.

“And what about the soldiers from Qatem? Were they captured?” Jinki added in.

“Quite the eager ones, aren’t you both?” Yunho sighed. “No, we haven’t been able to have any breakthroughs with the prisoner. He’s a real quiet one, but we are looking for other ways to have him communicate with us.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jinki inquired.

Yunho looked