It was the first day of the spring festival.

Ryeowook and Changmin had met up in front of the royal palace in the early afternoon to attend the festival together while the prince’s private maids followed behind them.

“I’m looking forward to seeing our mystery magician!” Changmin cheered for the umpteenth time, making Ryeowook laugh. As promised, he had told his best friend all about Cho Kyuhyun the day after the private show that the royal family had received and ever since, both young men had been impatiently waiting for the spring festival. But first, they wanted to enjoy the special market and other acts that had been prepared for the festival!

“Me, too! I wonder if he prepared a different show for today than he did for us in private.”

“You think he will?”

Ryeowook nodded quickly and slowed down when they entered the market, the maids close behind them. The rich blue color of his royal robes’ outer layer immediately got the attention from the nearby vendors who quickly called out for him, but other than that, the majority of the villagers left him alone: they knew that he came to town often enough for them to get many close looks at him.

“I’m certain! He will have a very different audience tonight and a very different stage.”

“That is true.”

The market place was colorful with bright hanboks and loud with the vendors’ calls, children’s laughter and adults’ chatter.

Ryeowook came to a stand by a cart that offered toys carved out of wood. Many of them were formed as horses or cows, but Ryeowook also spotted a few human figures among them as well as dragons, bears, tigers…

“Dear prince, you have made the right decision! All of these have been carved freshly out of the best wood near town!” The vendor immediately started praising his goods and his hands moved swiftly over his collection to introduce it, then he picked up a bear and a tiger. “Here we have the famous characters from Tan’gun’s story! If my lord wishes, I will carve him the divine birch tree as well and—“

Changmin laughed, taking Ryeowook’s arm. “Thank you, we’re not interested,” he interrupted the vendor, pulling the young prince away.

“—I will also carve the cave for you. Grander and in more detail than anyone else!” the vendor called after them until his voice got lost among all the others and Ryeowook turned to his best friend.

“The figures were so cute!”

“You don’t need them. And you don’t know anyone else who does.”

“But they were cute!”

Changmin rolled his eyes and continued to pull Ryeowook along with the slowly moving masses, not allowing him to stop at the next cart that offered toys, these ones adorned with straws. The vendor called out for him to stop, but Changmin kept moving relentlessly, so Ryeowook satisfied himself with merely looking from afar at that vendors’ goods.

They only came to a stand again when they reached an artist who was juggling with fruit that he had most likely gotten from a nearby stand. He rotated the four apples with ease but without taking his eyes off them while he seemed to listen to his audience.

“Do five!” a man called from the opposite side.

“Apples are boring!” someone else threw in.

“Yes! How about bananas!”

“If you can get me bananas?” the juggler replied and the crowd cheered.

“Bananas! Bananas!”

“The normal folk can be satisfied so easily,” Changmin complained quietly enough for only Ryeowook to hear.

The prince hit his friend’s arm gently, shaking his head in dismay. “Confucius would not approve of your words! So don’t let our teacher hear you.”

“Just saying,” Changmin grumbled and Ryeowook turned his entire focus back on the juggler who was holding two of the apples in one hand by then and juggling the other two with one hand. He showed them some more tricks until the masses parted and the man from earlier was back with three bananas. Ryeowook watched for a while longer, then he and Changmin moved on, the maids again following closely behind them.

“Changmin-ah, they have rice cakes!” Ryeowook cheered when he spotted a new cart soon after, immediately pulling his perplexed friend along without giving him the chance to object.

“Prince! You have come to the best place! We make our rice cakes with only the finest ingredients. May I recommend—“

“I’ll take four of each!”

“You can’t just—“

Ryeowook made a dismissive gesture towards Changmin while smiling brightly at the two elderly women behind the cart who looked at him in surprise. “How much will that be?”

He paid and watched happily as the women prepared four small bags that held a rice cake of each flavor, handing them to Ryeowook who distributed the first two to the maids who thanked him profusely and the third one to Changmin who gave up his protest and thanked him as well. He kept the last one to himself, thanking the two vendors, then he happily continued his way, taking out the first rice cake curiously.

They came to another stop at a mime’s stage that Ryeowook watched with childish interest, watching in awe at the invisible walls the mime built and at the acts he played with the children all without uttering a single word.

After the mime, they walked past fortune tellers and more food options, more toy carts, carts with games, those where children stayed to play. In the middle of the big market place, a troupe was in the middle of a show and they even had their own musical group that emphasized their stunts.

When Ryeowook overheard one of the maids saying that she wanted to look at one of the accessory carts, he set the signal to move on, briefly scanning over the cart the accessories as well before he moved on to a cart with fine porcelain. Changmin excused himself soon after for the next cart, but Ryeowook merely nodded lightly, his focus on the beautifully painted cups in front of him. They were decorated with cherry blossom motives. He knew that his mother, and if not her, then definitely one of his sisters-in-law, would definitely like them! And what about the ones with the blue flowers? Wouldn’t they be something for Jungsu? He did have a thing for such filigree objects, after all. Then again, did he need cups like this?

Black fabric beside him distracted Ryeowook from his task at hand and even the seller in front of him stopped talking in the middle of advertising his goods. The prince looked up in surprise at the lack of a colorful hanbok, yet he hadn’t been prepared for the amused, almost mocking eyes that met his and the smirk that played on the other’s lips. The man whose black cape had caught his attention cocked his head a little, raising one eyebrow.

“A familiar face in a place like this. But I don’t see any guards around?” He looked around as if to search for guards, but Ryeowook could tell that the other didn’t need to search to know that he wouldn’t find any. After a moment, their eyes met again and this time, Kyuhyun bowed formally towards him. “The little prince, if I remember correctly?”

“Yes,” Ryeowook replied, then quickly shook his head. “No! Why ‘little prince’?”

“You seemed like you are the youngest one. Aren’t you?”

“I am.”

Kyuhyun smiled, a knowing smile. “How come someone like you can be found in such a busy place without any guards?”

“My prince!” a sudden, high-pitched voice drew his attention away and just a heartbeat later, the two maids were by his side, one of them halfway standing between him and Kyuhyun protectively. “My prince, are you okay?” the other asked with worry and Ryeowook nodded, flashing her a gentle smile.

“Yes, please do not worry. Please relax.”

“Who is this man?” she asked him quietly and glanced at Kyuhyun with mistrust. The man dressed in black still had a playful smile on his lips though he had turned towards the porcelain cups, studying them.

“He’s the fire artist who came to the palace just last week. Please don’t worry.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am.”

The two maids took a little longer before they eventually relaxed their postures and slowly went back to the accessory cart, still keeping a cautious eye on them, though.

“So that’s why you didn’t bring any guards,” Kyuhyun commented as soon as the maids had gone.

Ryeowook turned back to the fine China and carefully took one of the cups in his hand to study it closer. “I thought you would perform today?” he changed the topic.

“Oh, I will! I’m just waiting until it’s dark and until that troupe”—he nodded towards the big stage behind them—“is done.”

“You’ll perform there?” Ryeowook set the cup down heedfully, then he turned to Kyuhyun again who grinned at him.

“Of course.”

Ryeowook tsked and turned back to the cart, lifting up one of the cups with blue pattern for closer inspection.

“Since I’m assuming you come here every year, do you have any recommendations for a traveler like me?”

The prince looked up and nodded. “The rice cakes from the two ahjummas near the juggler are really good.”

Kyuhyun inclined his head. “Then I will make sure to pay them a visit before my show.” He looked up briefly, then he turned to Ryeowook properly and bowed. “I’ll be moving on, don’t want to be late, right? Until we meet again, little prince.”

“Hey!”

Kyuhyun flashed him a promising smile, then he his heels and left.

“Who was that?”

Ryeowook jumped, almost letting the frail cup fall. He placed it back on the cart, then he faced Changmin who had filled the spot that Kyuhyun had taken up just moments earlier, quizzically looking into the direction that the fire artist had disappeared into. “That was Cho Kyuhyun.”

Changmin’s eyes lit up with understanding as he faced Ryeowook. “The one whom we’ll see later?”

Ryeowook nodded quickly. Not wanting to buy anything at this point in fear that it would break throughout the remainder of the evening, he glanced at the beautiful cups once more with a heavy heart before he nodded towards the vendor with an apologetic smile. He and Changmin went back to the two maids, waiting a little for one of them to pay for a new, cute hair pin with a flower on it, then they all continued walking, Ryeowook’s thoughts immediately going back to Kyuhyun. He had stood so close to him so suddenly!

Soon enough, the sun began to set and the performers on stage ended their show. They left and the area around the stage cleared, prompting Ryeowook to abandon the cart they had just arrived at in order to pull Changmin to the stage and stand in the first row, the maids coming to a stand one on the prince’s free side and one behind him. Ryeowook could barely contain his excitement for the upcoming performance and for once, Changmin didn’t seem to be annoyed—or fake being annoyed—but instead engaged in the expectant chatter.

They didn’t have to wait for long until a figure clad in black made his way to the stage, each step bearing the aura of self-confidence and power. He came to a brief stop at the top of the small flight of stairs to drop his black coat there, revealing tight, black pants and a tight black shirt, the ends of its sleeves secured with equally black strings of fabric, if Ryeowook wasn’t mistaken, but he had to squint his eyes to identify any details. He watched with interest as Kyuhyun moved two unlit fire bowls closer to the middle, double-checking their stance before he turned to the audience, their hushed whispers dying down to a tension-filled silence.

Kyuhyun bowed to the people, taking the time to greet all four sides, and when he turned back to the front, Ryeowook’s breath caught in his throat when their eyes met—or maybe he just imagined it. Kyuhyun’s lips formed a cocky smirk as he went to the edge of the stage once more to get one of the lit torches, lighting up the two fire bowls with it. Within seconds, flames were rising high, their flickering light illuminating the man standing between them and giving him a god-like aura as his gaze wandered over the crowd. Ryeowook briefly wondered if Kyuhyun did that on purpose, if he knew about the effect his appearance had—the kind of look that could make any woman swoon over him. The young prince wasn’t immune to that invisible pull, either, his eyes taking in Kyuhyun’s entire posture until he looked up just to be confronted with that knowing smile once again.

Just when the first people started to whisper, Kyuhyun moved the torch over his head in a semi-circle, leaving behind a trail of fire like a shooting star that dissolved into thousands and thousands of tiny, red sparks a moment later. His show had begun.

Kyuhyun showed them illusions of faces and animals and landscapes that Ryeowook hadn’t known fire could show; he made the flames dance over his body just long enough for the crowd to hold its breath and release it in cheers when the flame disappeared without leaving any damages. He blew fire high into the air until the ball dissolved in millions of sparks before Kyuhyun caught their attention with another trail of fire that made them hold their breaths in worry about the artist.

A winding trail of fire that reminded Ryeowook of a dragon was the grand finale and he cheered along with everyone else when Kyuhyun bowed one more time, only realizing that he had been squeezing Changmin’s hand for the majority of the show when he let go.

“Wasn’t that amazing?” he asked while he still watched Kyuhyun put back the torch, pick up his coat and put it on before he seemed to disappear into the masses. Then Ryeowook finally turned towards his close friend, just to find him speechless, also staring into the diction that Kyuhyun had disappeared into.

“How… What…”

Ryeowook laughed. The maids on his other sides were already gushing about the performance as well while he linked his arm with Changmin’s, slowly moving towards the direction of their respective homes. “I told you Kyuhyun is awesome! Can you believe he did all of that? Please tell me I wasn’t mistaken when I saw that dragon. And did you see the cute butterflies? Or the birds? And that huge fireball!”

“Ryeowook-hyung, how is any of that even possible?”

“I know, right?” He couldn’t help but laugh again when he realized that his best friend was so overwhelmed by the performance that he even forgot to use his official title. “I’m so glad he also performs at the festival! Do you understand why I was so excited?”

“How did he even do that? The fire lasted so long!”

“Didn’t it look awesome?”

“I was so afraid that he would burn himself!”

“Me, too! Oh, did you see the two butterflies? I bet they are a tribute to the story of the butterfly lovers from our dear neighbor China!”

☆ ☆ ☆

Ryeowook only stopped talking about the performance when he was alone in his room that night, but that didn’t mean that he also stopped thinking about what he had seen. Instead, he sat at his open window that overlooked their garden. The pale scythe of the moon barely illuminated the cherry blossoms that Ryeowook could just make out due to their white and rose petals, the trees’ branches casting the ground flowers that would begin blooming soon into complete darkness. But the world in his mind was still alight with the fire games Kyuhyun had showed them earlier, his appearance as black as the night but his fire brighter and more versatile than the sun.

Once again, the young prince found himself wondering about that man who was always dressed completely in black. When and how had he learned to manipulate fire like that? How was that possible?

His thoughts went back to Kyuhyun surprising him at the porcelain cart, suddenly standing beside him as if he had been searching for the prince. Would they meet again?

Ryeowook looked up into the stars, but their white light betrayed no answer to his questions. Would he get a chance to ask Kyuhyun any of his questions? Would Kyuhyun maybe return for any further festivals? Many wandering performers did return to the capital, after all. And would he perform every day of the spring festival? Would Kyuhyun do him those favors?

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Hello~ Here's chapter two!

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