Matsumoto Jun, the next heir in line to succeed the throne, had just been born from a small family of four who immediately honored his birth in celebration. All that day until nighttime, his family hosted a party that was meant to last as long as a week. However, because of his unstoppable crying, the party only lasted for a day. After putting all the noise aside, did then Jun stopped crying so his family put him in his bed and didn’t continue the party for his sake.

For the past few weeks since Jun was born, his parents were already looking a for a suitable princess for him to marry when the right time came. But because their kingdom was so far away and isolated, they weren’t able to find a princess for him to marry and rule together in the future. Instead, they just watched their baby cooing in his bed and blinking his eyes in interest when someone would come and scoop him up in their arms.

Just like time went by fast, Jun was already crawling on all of his four limbs. Unlike when he was a baby, he was able to cope with anything so his family then hosted a party, celebrating their son being able to move around. They gave him a special place to move about, in the middle of the palace, where everyone would just surround him and watch him have fun in his own little world. When the night was coming close and Jun was starting to fall asleep, the queen would put him away herself, and sing him a short lullaby causing him to fall asleep in seconds.

For Jun, growing up in the palace was his whole life. After he was able to walk on two and he just learned his first word, the queen then moved him from the palace to the outside world to finally get some fresh air. She allowed him to crawl on the evergreen grass that was their garden, and berated him when he pulled out a yellow rose from the garden. However, like mother and son doing nothing but getting along, Jun walked over to his mother, and fell asleep in her arms like he did when he was a baby.

The first time he was able to walk without stumbling and talking his first sentence, his family knew they had produced the perfect son. As time flew by and Jun was getting older by the minute, his mom sent him off to a private school, where Jun would have to learn everything that a prince would have to learn. Although learning at such a young age as 7 was hard, Jun was the opposite and picked up on things easily. Finally when he was allowed to go out in the school garden, he found himself a nice comfort spot, just besides the yellow roses that resembled his mother.

Trees were covering the entire area, shading him from the sun that could fry his exposed skin. The air was cool around him as he relaxed on the grass and he smiled just smelling the yellow rose giving off a nice fragrance.At the same time he closed his eyes, he heard the sounds of laughter and screaming not far off from where he was. To his curiosity, Jun stood up from the his comforts and sneaked a peeked from behind one of the oak trees. Just besides the greenhouse, was a bunch of rough looking little boys and they were trashing their limbs around as if hitting something. Jun knows this because he always played around with his toys, kicking them or throwing them across the room.

“Yeah, you little runt, you better cry!” One of the boys dressed informally, his tie dangling around his neck, yelled.

“You poor beggar! Why do you even exist?!” Another boy yelled as he nudged the first boy next to him, snickering and talking about something out of Jun’s hearing range.

As his curiosity was growing larger, he moved closer to the group of boys and he could clearly see why there was a circle and the group was yelling out mean words that he had never heard of. “Hey!” Jun yelled and all head turned to him, “Stop kicking him!” He thought they would back away, but they just stared at him like he was nothing.

“What do you want, new student?” The boy dressed informally asked him as he inched closer towards him.

“L-leave him alone...” Jun whispered weakly, slowly backing out when the other boys started ganging up on him.

“Why should we? He’s a poor bastard and he shouldn’t be here.”

Jun gulped a huge amount of saliva and his lips before speaking. “B-because h-he’s my friend! Y-you can’t h-h-hurt him...”

“Friend?” The leader asked him, his eyebrow going up. “You mean you’re friends with a poor bastard like him?”

“Yes!” Jun yelled, this time with determination in his voice. He had no idea why these boys won’t back away, when clearly he was the prince. When he thought they were going to back out, the leader pulled his collar and he was facing him. Jun closed his eyes, afraid that he was going to get hurt by the boy’s fist that was going up in the air. Instead of a blow landing on his cheeks, he heard the head teacher’s voice an earshot from where they were standing.

“Prince!” The head teacher yelled in time before the boy hit him square on the face. “What’s going on?! Get your hands off of him!”

“H-he’s the prince?” the leader gasped as he let go of his collar and backed away. “I’m sorry... I-I didn’t know...”

“Kuro,” the head teacher’s soft look vanished on her face as she looked at the leader of the boys, “What did I tell you about raising your fist? A boy shouldn’t raise their fist if it’s their last resort.”

“B-b-but--”

“No buts. You and the boys, come to my office now.”

Without another word spoken, the head teacher dragged the boys back into the building and Jun was wondering how he ended up in this situation. While he was fixing his uniform and putting his tie back in place, he heard a soft groan coming from in front of him. His eyes grew wide when he saw a boy dressed in their uniform, writhing weakly on the ground. Jun worriedly ran to his side and helped the student up from the floor. The boy staggered a bit to the side, but Jun grabbed his arm and put it around his shoulder for support. With the boy by his side, he took him back to his comfort zone afraid that he would pass out by the time they went to the nurses office. After telling him to wait, he ran back to the building, and came back out with first aid kit in his hands.

“Why are you helping me?” Came a weak voice from the little boy, whose head was lowered as if he was ashamed to look at him.

Jun shrugged, “I don’t know. I just feel bad when I see someone getting beat up.”

“But you’re the prince...You’re supposed to be beating me up like they did.”

“I would never!” Jun gasped causing the boy to wince from accidentally adding too much alcohol. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

The boy didn’t say anything else as he continued to nurse his wounds. He winced when the boy did, and he would look away when they were huge cuts and bruises on his arms. After he was done with his limbs, he grabbed the his chin and told him too look at him in the eyes. Jun saw nothing in there, almost like he there was no soul in his body. When he let go of the boy, he saw a very noticeable mole on his chin just like the one he has under his lips.

“There,” Jun clapped his hands together after closing the first aid kit, “You’re all done.”

“Thank you,” the boy mumbled his eyes looking somewhere else other than him. “I--”

“No stay,” Jun stopped him and pulled him down before the boy stood up, “I would really like to be your friend. I’m Matsu--”

“I know who you are,” he mumbled. “...Nino...”

“What?” Jun asked him, unable to hear what he said.

“I’m Nino,” he boy introduced himself, but this time louder so he could hear him.

Nino was a strange name for a boy like him. He wondered if he had a last name but didn’t bother to ask as he grabbed the boy’s wrist, and dragged him back to the school before the bell sounded off.

TBC