Snow White

 

Once upon a time, in a far away land in a kingdom which name was forgotten many years ago there was a queen, a very beautiful queen indeed. The said queen had a warm heart and a kind smile.

She spend her life living happily in her castle with the love of her life, the king.

The happy couple was fortunate enough to be granted with a son, a son that was just as beautiful as his mother.

Even in his infant days, all who were lucky enough to see him in person were stunned by him beauty;

His hair, was as dark as the ebony's stump

His lips, were red as blood

And his skin, was as white as the winter's first snow...

His name was Cho Kyuhyun.

 

 

"My prince," Kyuhyun watched him bow; he smiled to the young lord, feeling his heart taking a little jump when he got a smile in return.

"Your Highness," another girl from some random noble family bowed to him, he tried to smile at all of them, say a polite 'thank you' to everyone who came. But he soon grew tired of that, he didn’t feel like celebrating at all if you speak the truth, but he had to.

Today was the yearly feast where all of the nobles families from all over the land were invited to celebrate both his birthday and his father's anniversary to a woman he hates.

He knew he should probably invite a random lord's daughter to dance, give her family the honour of his time, but he didn’t want to. He set on a chair next to the two now empty thrones and watched the people dance;

The king seemed happy, his pretty, young, new wife was dancing gracefully with him,  Kyuhyun wanted to be happy for his father, but he knew, the way this woman treats her servants and everyone around her was terrible, he even suspected she was doing magic. Of course, if he would ever say a word to his father the said man would probably banish him from the land.

He sighed and scanned the floor with his eyes, freezing when they met a pair of dark one's he already knew too well, the young lord from the north. He was the eldest son of the most loyal family to the Cho's, Kim Jongwoon. The man was now 18, only four years older than the prince; they have met before, many times to be exact. And still, Kyuhyun could not understand why his heart was beating so fast every time he looked at those dark eyes of his.

 

 

The day after the dance he was sent by his father to a couple of aristocrats on a hunting trip

"Your Majesty," Kyuhyun turned around,
"Kim Jongwoon-sshi"

Jongwoon smiled, "will your Excellency be joining us on our hunt?"

Kyuhyun's heart started beating in a much faster pace when he understood the young lord will be by his side the whole day, "why yes I am", he smiled at the stable boy that brought him his horse and helped him get settled down, he was startled when he heard Jongwoon's voice again, this time it was much closer and weaker, "I know that this is one of your first hunting trips and that you don’t quite enjoy those trips but do not worry," Kyuhyun looked at Jongwoon's kind smile, he was sitting on his own horse and was currently leaning very very close to the prince's ear when he talked, "I will be by your side when they will expect you to lead"

Realizing that he was staring at the elder's lips when the latter was not even talking anymore, Kyuhyun mentally slapped himself, nodding he looked down embarrassed and not-so-gently kicked his horse, riding out of the castle he was immediately followed by a very long convoy of excited men.

 

 

 

Three months later, the king died.

No one knew the cause of death, frankly, no one really wished to find out. He left behind him a widow queen and a 14 year old boy, who was the only rightful heir for his kingdom. After many long arguments the parliament ruled that the queen shall rule alone until the boy will be 16 years old and ready to be king.

 

 

 

"Could you believe our luck my love?" The queen smiled as she walked into the secret room in her chambers, pouring herself a glass of wine from the shelf she smiled at the only thing she loved, her own reflection.

"Are you not being too greedy, my queen?"

An old woman's voice spoke to her from the small mirror that hung on the wall,

"You already had the throne and the king was wrapped around your little finger, now, the people wish you to keep the throne for just two more years..."

She grunted, rolling her eyes, "the people-" she mocked, "could want whatever they want, they don’t have the power to take the crown from my beautiful head"

"As long as you're sure in that…"

"What was that?!" the queen glared at the mirror, "Of course I am sure, no man could resist my power!" she took another sip from her wine, walking around in the small, round room she scanned her reflection over and over again, "If I will have to, the worst scenario is that I will marry the stupid boy"

"Are you sure the boy would want your hand in marriage?"

"Of course he will!" the queen threw the glass on the wall angrily; "Every man would want me!" she turned and glared at the mirror,

"Mirror mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

"My queen, you are the fairest in the land"

The mirror answered, the queen was pleased with that, after all the magic mirror never lies.

"But if you want that fact to forever be true,

There is someone a thousand times more beautiful than you"

The mirror's words gave the queen a great shock, "Who is that someone? Give me a name!"

"That someone is your own step son, you fool

Cho Kyuhyun, the king to be, is the most beautiful person on the land"

 

 

She becomes yellow and green with envy and from that hour on, her heart turns against the young prince, and she hates Kyuhyun more and more each day.

Envy and pride, like ill weeds, grow in her heart taller every day, until she has no peace day or night.

 

 

Two months before the boy should turn 15, the queen ordered her servants to call the royal huntsman. Jung Yunho was the youngest son of the Jung family, the Jung's served the royal Cho's for over a hundred years and were one of the most loyal people to the royal family.

 

"My queen," the handsome man bowed, "How could I service you?"

"Yunho-sshi, I wish you to take Kyuhyun on a hunting trip, just the two of you. Take him to a place deep in the woods", The queen said enraged, trying to keep her tired eyes from closing, she can't remember the last time she slept for more than a couple of hours..

"My queen?" Yunho looked at the beautiful woman with concern, waiting for further instructions

"Take him to the woods, and when you're deep enough, when you're sure no one could get to you or hear you, I want you to kill Cho Kyuhyun"

Yunho stumbled back, not believing his ears, "Your Highness, ki-kill the prince?"

"Yes I want you to kill him, was I not clear?!" she clapped her hands, a young servant boy came running in and handed her a beautiful antique brown-wood box, "Take this box, when you return, I want you to bring Kyuhyun's heart in it", she handed him the box and sent him away.

 

Few hours later, the young prince came barging into the throne room;

"I am not going on a hunting trip! I hate seeing animals die!"

The queen rolled her eyes and massaged her temples, "you are going because one day you are going to be king, are you not? You should at least know how to hunt"

"We are not in the medieval times anymore! A king is not measured by the amount of animals he can kill!" Kyuhyun stood there, looking at the woman that was sitting on the throne that was not rightfully hers, with one thought on his mind; tonight the Kim's are supposed to visit the castle...
"I should cut your tongue just for saying such words to me!" She looked at him, fire burning in her eyes towards the kid she hated to most, "as long as I am your queen you WILL DO AS I SAY!" she stood on her feet and slowly walked closer to him, "go now!"

It took Kyuhyun all of his mental strength he had to bow at her and leave the room, just one more year before he could do as he wished.

 

 

The prince followed the huntsman, looking away as the man successfully traced down a deer, after killing it and strapping it to the horse, he ordered that they should stop and get some rest before going back to the castle. Kyuhyun, as a boy who knew nothing about the nature and hunting even after all of those years, set on the ground with a pair of shoes that were lacking soles as they were designed to only be pretty, a tight black jeans and an over-sized blue T-shirt that failed to keep him warm.

"Can't we just go back already?" the boy asked, obviously grumpy and uncomfortable

"No, I was actually thinking about making a camp for tonight", the hunter replied, battling with himself the whole day, he didn’t know what he should do.

"What? Why? Let's go back!" The teenage stood up, stomping his feet like the spoiled kid he actually was

"Your Majesty you are the prince but excuse me for saying this, you know nothing about the dangers of travelling at night"

Kyuhyun sighed, accepting his faith he walked to look for wood to make some fire, hearing a noise behind him, the prince turned around to be greeted by the look of Yunho, holding a dagger in one hand and a wooden box in the other. Kyuhyun's eyes winded in shock and fear, that box was the first thing that made him hate the queen, an object that belonged to his mother and was given to that witch by his father. That box in the hands of the huntsman, and the dagger in his other could only mean one thing, Jung Yunho was a traitor.

 

Kyuhyun jumped in surprise and horror when the dagger was thrown to the ground near his feet, he looked up and met Yunho's eyes, seeing how serious they were he didn’t dare to relax, "My prince, the queen wants you dead. I believe this is a chance you will never get back now, you need to run, you have to escape. Go now, keep on running south until you cannot possibly run anymore, get out of this cursed lands for as long as she is alive". Seeing Kyuhyun was still froze to his spot, Yunho pushed him back, making his stumble and snap out of his shock, "GO!" the hunter yelled at him, turning to where the horses were he grabbed the dead deer and opened the box,

The queen should never know.

 

 

So Kyuhyun started running, not looking back he knew this was the only chance he was going to get to run from the queen. His legs were not used to running and he was frightened till his bones. Feeling like something was pulling him back by his shirt, he yelled and struggled, failing to realize his shirt was caught by a tree he used all of his strength, not minding the shirt was ripped off, he kept running.

He didn’t know how much time has passed, when the light was hidden by the high trees and sleep was a privilege he couldn’t afford, minutes felt like hours, hours felt like weeks. He never knew it was possible for him feet to hurt so much, his head had a throbbing pain in it and his throat was so dry he thought that shoving a sword down it would be painless.

His body was suddenly filled with new energy when he finally saw it, a river.

With hope in his mind he run to is, falling on the ground few feet from it he crawled to the edge of it. Reaching both of his filthy hands to it he scooped as much water he could and drank it.

He lay there, feeling relieved, by that point he couldn’t get back up even if he wanted to. He groaned, feeling the tiredness taking over his body he closed his eyes for what he had thought was the last time, softly smiling when right before he lost consciousness; a picture of a young, smiling lord came to his mind.

 

 

 

When Kyuhyun opened his eyes the first word that came to his mind was 'soft'. He was lying on something soft, his back was aching and his legs were throbbing with pain but he didn’t want to move finding himself in the most comfortable position he had been in in days. After just a few seconds he panicked, how could the ground be so soft?! he tried to sit up and froze, he was in some sort of a house, lying on someone's bed. In the room there was a little sofa, a dining table with a few chairs by its side, a little kitchen with a fireplace next to it and six more beds like his, and to his horror, they weren't empty.

In the bed next to his lied a young man, Kyuhyun figured he was not a lot older than himself; he had a muscular body and was not bad-looking. The man turned in his sleep, and Kyuhyun gasped, HE HAD NO ARM. His left arm was completely missing! The young prince has never seen anything like that, not in his entire life he had saw a man who was not in perfect shape.

 

 

"AHHH!"

 

Kyuhyun jumped in surprise, looking in the direction where the voice came from, there stood another man. The prince's heart nearly busted out of his chest when he saw the guy, he was a freak! Kyuhyun stood up, completely terrified as the other six figures started waking up from the freak's scream. "He's awake!" a voice called, fearing that there was something wrong with all of them like the two he already saw Kyuhyun ran out of the room, the house was dark and the panicked boy was in a too rush to notice that he was running to where lied a log. He fell down and again, lost his consciousness.

 

 

 

"Is he ok?"

"Shouldn't we try and wake him up?"

"Aish we should have just leave him in the woods!"
"Noona, he's just a boy!"

All of the different voices hurt Kyuhyun's poor head, he grunted, rising his palm to his forehead.

"He's up!"

"Bring him some water!"

Kyuhyun opened his eyes, fighting the urge to close them back when he saw the muscular man was sitting next to him, looking at him.

"Hey, are you ok?" the man softly asked, a boy (that in Kyuhyun's eyes looked normal) handed the man a glass of water, as the latter talked to him again, "Sit up and drink, you must be dehydrated by now" 

Kyuhyun slowly set on the bed, scanning the room with his eyes he saw all seven males were awake and walking around the house, with shaky hands he grabbed the glass that was offered to him and drank slowly

"What is your name?" the man with no arm asked

"Ch-Cho, Cho Kyuhyun"

He heard a glass falling and breaking as seven pairs of eyes were now staring at him with what seemed like mixed emotions. Kyuhyun gulped, realising that this might of been a mistake he didn’t know if he wanted to answer when the man asked; "The prince, Cho Kyuhyun?!", but what had been already said he cannot take back, he nodded, looking down at his lap he realised those people might keep him hostage and sell him to the queen, meaning all of his hard work for the past few days was nothing but a waste.

"I told you we should have left him in the woods!" one of the man shouted, angrily standing up from the chair he was sitting on and walking out of the house's main door.

The prince felt the bed sinking a bit when the normal looking boy set next to him, he looked as the boy slightly pushed the man on the other side of the bed, making him snap out of his shock. The man shook his head and turned to Kyuhyun, "don’t listen to him, we mean you no harm, prince"

"Who are you? Why are you here? What's wrong with you?" Kyuhyun asked, too scared to realize how rude he was. He was surprised when the boy looked at him in the eyes, he looked hurt by the last question and Kyuhyun almost regretted asking it when he got up and walked away.

"My prince there is nothing wrong with us," the freak said, walking closer to the bed Kyuhyun was sitting at. Panicking and wanting to get away from the freak, Kyu moved backwards until his back hit the wall.

The freak sighed, he stopped walking and looked at the boy's eyes, talking is a soft voice, "Kyuhyun-sshi, I know you've never seen anything like us before, they keep people like us banned from society and as far away from you as possible", the freak set on the bed to Kyuhyun's left, still looking at the young prince with soft eyes, "We mean you no harm, we are different but we are not bad people, we really aren’t"

Kyuhyun looked at the freak, still not believing such a human could exist, the man looked like a man in his face and voice but his body was like as a kid, so short that Kyuhyun wondered if he would even reach his chest. But the freak had a soft voice, he looked at Kyu as if waiting for something, some kind of reaction, and when he got it as Kyuhyun hesitantly asked "What is your name?" he was surprised at how nice the freak's smile was.

"I am Lee Sungmin," the freak stood up, pointing and the man with no arm, "That is Choi Siwon, he is the one who carried you here by the way so you should be grateful for that", the freak, no, Sungmin, Kyuhyun corrected himself, kept introducing the other guys in the room to him, there were Donghae and Hyukjae, that were staring at him with apathetic looks, there was the man who was currently taking a walk outside, the pretty one with the long hair, yes that was Heechul, and the last one's were the boy, Changmin, who was apparently a year younger than Kyuhyun, and the man that was sitting very close to him, glaring at the prince, Yoochun.

 

After a few moments of silence the muscular man, Siwon, asked what they were all thinking; "Why where you in the middle of the woods alone, my prince?"

Kyuhyun sighed, not knowing where to begin, "My step mother, the queen, she was trying to kill me, I had to ran away"

"Why?" Sungmin asked, surprised by the boy's answer

"She wants the throne and the kingdom to herself I guess..." Kyu shrugged

No one knew how to react to the prince's words, after a moment Siwon talked again; "Well you should go back to sleep, you still need to rest. We will talk more tomorrow"

And with that, Kyuhyun lied again, sleep immediately finding its way to him one's he closed his eye.

 

 

The next morning, Kyuhyun was woken to the sound of whispers;

"I don’t like the idea of leaving him here alone!" an annoyed voice whispered

"Why? Are you worried?" a second voice, what Kyu recognised as Sungmin's, teased

"No, but we don’t know him yet. What if he'll rob us and run away?"

"But he's got nowhere else to go, why would he steal and leave?" a third voice asked

"We don’t know his reasons!" the first voice insisted

"What is it Minnie?" a new voice asked softly, "You want to stay?"

Kyuhyun couldn't realise why 'Minnie' was not talking but he guessed he nodded because the same voice added; "Ok, Min and I will stay with the prince"

 

And so, after a few minutes Kyuhyun set in the bed, looking to see the boy and the man he remembered as Yoochun sitting next to the table

"Where did all the others go?" He asked

The two turned to him, the boy immediately smiled and Yoochun just raised his eyebrows, "They have to work, not all of us can afford living like a prince you know"

Kyuhyun blushed, the boy saw his reaction and slapped Yoochun's arm

"Ouch! Min!" the guy looked at him surprised but all he got in return was another hit and an annoyed look

"Fine, fine!" the man turned to Kyuhyun again, "I am sorry prince, that was rude"

"Where do they work?" The prince yawned, still feeling sleepy

"In the only place they don’t have to communicate with other people and stay away from the society, we work in a diamond mine"

Kyuhyun nodded, turning his attention to the boy, "Changmin, right? Why don’t you speak?" he boldly asked, the boy looked at the floor, the smile wiped off his face

"He can't" Yoochun said, wrapping an arm around the younger's shoulders, "Changmin was born to live in silence, that is the reason he's with us and not his family, they threw him out of the house as soon as they found out, thinking he will live his life as a useless burden"

"Oh, I'm sorry" Kyuhyun blushed, feeling terrible with himself for asking in the first place, "So, the others, Siwon-sshi and Sungmin-sshi, where they born like- that, as well?" He couldn’t help his curiosity

"Yes, Sungmin was born with dwarfism, and Siwon was born without an arm, they were both, like all of us, banished from their homes and villages".

"That's terrible," the prince exhaled, he never thought a parent would exile his own kid, "And, amm... may I ask, why were you... why are you here?"

Yoochun stood up, walking to the kitchen he started talking again with his back to the prince; "I am homoual" turning, he chuckled at the prince's confused face, "you have no idea what that mean do you?" in the corner of his eyes he could see Changmin silently giggling, "It means that instead of liking girls, I like guys like me"

"And your parents, they kicked you out just for that?" Kyuhyun asked and Yoochun laughed, "god no!" he took a glass of water and walked to stand behind Changmin, softly massaging the younger's shoulders, "I ran away before they found out so that they won't burn me alive... they did just that to a poor girl that lived in my village when I was a kid, all she ever did wrong was fall in love with her best friend, her best girl-friend" Yoochun's face turned darker at the memory, a sad look in his eyes showed Kyuhyun how terrible that memory must be. Not knowing how to change the subject, Kyuhyun continued with the questions; "What about the others?"

Yoochun sighed and set on one of the chairs again, "Hyukjae has a problem with his speech; he can't talk without stuttering, therefore his family thought he had a brain problem. Donghae... Donghae is a special boy. He looked at the world in a different way than everyone else; he caches things a bit slower than others most of the time, he sometimes acts like a kid, but that fishy has a heart that's made out of pure gold" Yoochun smiled, thinking about his childish dongseang, "And Heechul..." he hesitated, not knowing how Kyuhyun will react, but choose to continue, "Heechul prefers to be called 'noona' instead of 'hyung'"

The prince frowned, not quite getting when the older was saying

"Heechul is a woman in her soul, she was born into a male body but that is not who she is" Yoochun tried to explain, "You should refer to her as a female as well"

"So..." Kyuhyun thought, "Is she homoual like you?"

Yoochun laughed, shaking his head he knew it would take the prince time to understand everything, but he was happy to find out that the boy didn’t show any sign of disgust or judgment towards them after the things Yoochun told him.

 

 

After that day, it was decided that Kyuhyun will stay to live with them as the housekeeper, and as the days past and with Sungmin's never-ending patience towards the boy; he successfully learned how to cook a few simple meals without burning and breaking anything. Some of the days, Changmin would have stayed with him in the house, they would clean and cook together and Changmin listened;

He listened to the prince's stories about his parents, his castle, the great parties and celebrations they did there, he listened as Kyu talked about the stables, about how he used to sneak into there and watch the stable boys feed the horses, about how fun it was to ride them, but as a prince he was never allowed to just go for a ride without a purpose, he listened as Kyuhyun told him about that guy, that special noble lord from one of the big families in the north of the land, about his smile, his low smoothing voice that made everything about Kyuhyun's body tinkle, about his beautiful dark eyes, about how when he looked at you, everything just felt right.

And Changmin knew, maybe even before the prince himself, that even if in that day in the woods, the queen would have cut his heart out of his chest, it would never be her's. A young northern lord had claimed it long, long time ago.

 

 

 

"Where is my wine? I told someone to bring it to me minutes ago!" The Queen stood up, angrily waking out of her dining room and into her chambers, yelling at the poor servant girls to get out, she took a deep breath and entered her secret room, smiling she gently grabbed the mirror and took her off the wall;

"Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?"

"My queen, you are the fairest here, it's true

But beyond the mountains there, not you

Because Kyuhyun is still prettier than you"

"Kyuhyun?!" The shocked queen almost dropped the mirror on the floor, "Cho Kyuhyun is dead!" She hung the mirror on the wall once again, "I have his heart in a box! He's been dead for almost a year now!"

"The heart in your box is not your prince; you were fooled by the huntsman who brought you back a simple deer's heart.

Kyuhyun is alive, growing up and getting more beautiful each day

Soon he shall be 16 and ready to take your crown"

"That stupid huntsman!" The queen shouted, "I will have him hanged!"

"I hope you know, my queen

As long as the boy is alive, the people will never be loyal to you"

"Then he must die" The queen turned and left the room, opening her closed she started throwing things out without even looking until she found what she wanted, her magic book. She smiled and set on the bed, book on her lap. And there it was;

'The recipe for a poisoned apple'

 

A few days later she prepared everything, knowing she only has a couple of days before the boy will turn 16 she worked fast.

She used a magic potion to make herself look old as a disguise, and took at apple with her. The magical apple, half white, sweet as wine, and the other half red as blood, the part Kyuhyun must bite. The only way to wake someone from the sleep the apple caused you was

A first kiss of pure love. She laughed loudly; the prince never even showed affection to the girls in the yard and he now lives with seven men. Her plan could not fail.

 

 

 

Knock knock knock

 

Kyuhyun's head snapped towards the door, that's wired, he frowned, the guys shouldn’t be back until the night falls, who could it be?

Hesitantly, he opened the door and sighed with relief when he saw a nice old woman smiling at him

"May I help you, my lady?"

"Oh dear, I am selling some apples for my living, would you be kind enough to buy some?"

Kyuhyun smiled at the woman, "I am sorry, madam, but I do not have any money"

The woman scowled, not liking his answer one bit, "Oh that's a real shame" She smirked "But since you've been so kind to me and looking at your beautiful face and body I know you should eat more, let me give you, as a gift, one red apple" She grabbed the poisoned apple out of the basked and showed Kyuhyun his flawless red side, "I want to give this perfect apple to you"

"Oh madam that apple looks perfect indeed, I could never take such a thing from you as a gift" Kyuhyun stared at the apple, seeing his own reflection from how clean and smooth it was

"If that is the problem, don’t you worry, let us share the apple my dear, half will go to you and half to me"

Tempted by the apple, the boy nodded, watching as the woman pulled out a dagger from her cloak and cut the apple in two. He failed to notice the other side of the apple was white, his eyes were glued to the intoxicating red colour as he received his half with a smile, immediately brining the fruit to his mouth, taking a bite he closed his eyes. Falling in to dream-less sleep. 

 

 

 

That night, when the seven miners came back home a high pitched scream broke the silence of the whole forest.

"Kyuhyun-ah!" Heechul fell on her knees; grabbing the boy's head she tried to wake him, to slap him, to get him to open his eyes. Nothing worked.

"He was poisoned" Siwon took the apple from the floor, giving it to Yoochun who stated, "This is not ordinary poison, this was made by dark magic, only a pure first love could wake him"

"But he is so young" Heechul cried out, softly moving Kyuhyun's bangs from his closed eyes, "Do you think the queen did it?" Hyukjae asked, choking off his tears

"Who else" Sungmin sobbed; hugging Donghae he couldn’t stand looking at the boy anymore, knowing that he will never open his eyes again.

 

 

So beautiful he was, even in his death, that the seven couldn’t find it in their heart to bury him in dirt.

They worked hard and built him a glass coffin; they laid him there and walked together, bringing it to a sunny glade between the tall trees.

Their eyes were dry and their cheeks were soiled with dry tears, knowing that this will be the last trip he will ever take.

 

They stood there as the sun set and disappeared into just little yellow lights in the distance, his pale skin shined with the colour of orange and pink when the last rays of sun hit the glass made coffin.

 

 

Changmin stared at his friend;

No. He couldn't let this happen. Not to Kyuhyun, not at such young age when he still has so much to do. 

Without any sign to the others he turned and started running, he wasn’t even sure that was the right way, but he had to try.

 

Changmin ran the whole night, coming to a point where he was going to fall and not be able to stand again at any minute. But as the sun rose he finally saw it, for the first time is his life he saw the castle of the rulers on this land, the castle of the Cho's.

 

Frankly, he had no idea how this was ever going to work;

He knew the lord, Jongwoon was his name, didn’t even live in this castle, he lived up north and only came for a visit a few times a year.

He knew he had never seen that Jongwoon guy; all he had was a description from the mouth of a biased person.

He knew that he could not ask for help, and that he would probably be kicked out of the castle, that is if he will ever succeed in getting into the castle.

He knew that even after finding Jongwoon he won't be able to say anything to him, not being able to talk the lord will probably think he is insane, and the fact that he probably believed that Kyuhyun has been dead for more than a year wouldn’t help.

And lastly, he knew that there's a chance that the young lord didn’t even feel the same way Kyuhyun felt about him, and if that was the case, his kiss won't even work.

But all Changmin focused on right now, was that he had to try, because even it there's the slightest chance that everything will go as planned, Kyuhyun will be saved.

 

Changmin walked in the castle-city and made he's way to the main gate, knowing how many people were staring him on his way made him feel uncomfortable, he knows he probably looks like a man who came back from hell but he needs to get to Jongwoon, he needs to do whatever he can to save his friend. He pulled his hoodie over his head, looking around he saw the stables Kyuhyun was telling him about...

Wait, the stables! There was another entrance to the castle from there.

Changmin ran over there, he hid behind a tree when he saw a servant boy taking a big box into the stable-house, smiling, Changmin waited for the door to close behind the boy. The second it did, he ran straight into the main entrance of the castle. Not wanting the guards to ask questions, he ran into a crowd of people that were standing nearby and slipped into the first side-door he had to the fort.

He walked around the halls, hiding from the guards while checking out every single man that was somehow close to the prince's description. By the time the sun was barely in the middle of the sky Changmin was a mess. Not finding the guy he was looking for he was depressed, sad, hungry since he hasn't eaten all day, and of course, exhausted. The boy hasn't slept in two days and had been running around and hiding all day and the night before. He set on the floor in the corner of a small corridor, thinking that he was well enough hidden he wanted to give himself a couple of hours sleep before he went on with the searches.

 

"Are you ok?"

A low voice talked softly on top of Changmin, making the boy jump up on his feet, scared of the stranger who had found him; "I didn’t mean to scare you!" the man looked at Changmin with concern, a quality not a lot of people in the noble yard had, especially not people who were born into the yard. Changmin blinked, looking at the man in front of him up and down; he was not that tall, around Kyuhyun's height, with dark hair was perfectly styled and his black thin eyes were caring, warm. Changmin wanted to ask him, he needed to know, could this be the guy?

Then Changmin remembered something Kyuhyun once said, he neared the guy, without hesitation he grabbed the man's hands and put his palm over his own, comparing them.

Changmin's eyes winded, the man in front of him blushed. It was him.

Jongwoon tried to pull back his hands but Changmin moved forward and grabbed him by his shoulders

You need to come with me

"What are you doing? Who are you? You look like you haven’t slept or showered in a month how did you get into the castle?" Jongwoon stepped back from what he thought was the crazy guy. He froze when Changmin moved again, he got down on his knees and grabbed the lord's hand, looking up to him with the best puppy-eyes look he had, it always worked on Yoochun, let's just hope that Yoochun wasn’t too biased...

Jongwoon was now sure the boy in front of him was not in his right mind, but he looked so exhausted and yet determined and had hope in his eyes.

"What is it? Do you want money?"

Changmin shook his head; all the gold in the world is worth nothing compared to what this man could give him

"Are you hungry? Do you want food?"

Changmin shook his head again

"Then what is it?"

In his entire life Changmin has never wished he was able to talk like he wished it now

He pulled the man closer to him by the hands he was still holding

"Can't you speak kid? Do you want me to come with you?"

Changmin jumped up, hugging the still shocked lord for a moment before dragging him out of the corridor and the building

"Wait, wait!" Jongwoon stopped the boy, forcefully spinning him around, "Where are we going? Is it far? Do I need to take my horse?"

Thinking that a horse will be a lot faster, Changmin nodded. They walked to the stable where Jongwoon order a random boy to prepare a couple of horses for a ride, but seeing Changmin's expression he chuckled, "Do you know how to ride a horse?"

When Changmin looked at the ground and blushed he took that as a no, so after the horses were brought to them he got up on his horse and held out his hand for the boy. Blushing ever brighter, Changmin climbed behind the lord and hugged his waist with one hand, pointing at the direction of the forest with the other.

 

 

By the time they reached the glade where Kyuhyun was lying the sun was setting again. Jumping off the saddle Changmin ran to where he knew the coffin stands

"Wait!" Jongwoon called after him, getting down from his horse he slowly followed the boy

"Changmin!" he saw the boy running into another man's arms, the man hugged him tightly and lifted him in the air, "You brat do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

"Kid?" Jongwoon nervously called, not knowing what's going on. Changmin broke the hug with the man and turned to him, walking closer he grabbed his hand and led him a few meters from where they were standing.

 

 

Jongwoon gasped, not believing his own eyes; right in front of him, in a glass coffin lied the most beautiful boy Jongwoon never thought he would see again, Kyuhyun. His precious prince, his lovely Kyuhyun was lying in front of him.

Jongwoon fell on his knees, gently moving his fingers on the side of the coffin.

He didn’t notice the seven men standing behind him with mixed expressions, most confused as hell. Honestly, he didn’t care. All he saw in his eyes was Kyuhyun.

The same Kyuhyun he was told a year ago that died in an accident during a hunting trip, the same Kyuhyun that he has been mourning on all of this time.

He blinked at let the tears roll down his cheeks as the boy that he now knew was named Changmin, opened the top part of the coffin, exposing Kyuhyun to the warm evening wind. Jongwoon gently grabbed Kyuhyun's right hand in his shaky one's, he brought those beautiful fingers closer to him and kissed them, letting more and more tears run down his face.

He gasped again when someone hit his shoulder, he looked up and saw Changmin standing behind him, his sad eyes looked at him, and then at Kyuhyun. Jongwoon was not sure about what Changmin was trying to say but if he guessed right...

People told him it was wrong, when after he found out, he declared his love for the dead prince. But he couldn’t help it, that boy took a special place in his heart that was forever only his to take.

And this might be his last chance.

 

Jongwoon stood up, gently moving Kyuhyun's arm to his lap as he slid to sit next to the boy; he looked at him for a moment, gently brushing the hair from his forehead.

He looked at his closed eyes, oh how he loved those eyes, when the prince smiled, his eyes used to shine brighter than any star in the night sky. He looked at Kyuhyun's lips; his red pinkish, thick lips always looked so soft in Jongwoon's eyes.

 

Slowly, he leaned closer to the boy he loved the most, placing his lips over the younger's soft once. He stayed there for a moment as the world seemed to stop.

Tears rolled from his eyes and soiled Kyuhyun's perfect white skin.

When Jongwoon moved back and slowly opened his eyes he knew that he didn’t care what would happen anymore.

 

Because Kyuhyun opened his eyes.

 

 

 

The End