Jinyoung and Jaebum were sitting in the kitchen going over the mail that had been dropped off. Jinyoung came across a long white envelope that had Korean and some complicated foreign language on it with a fancy emblem in place of a stamp. “What's this? It's addressed to Yugyeom?”
 

“That's a letter from his biological mom.” Jaebum explained.

“Does she do that often?”

Jaebum nodded. “Yeah. They write letters back and forth. They chat on the phone here and there, video calls. Normal things you would do with someone that lived far away from you. It's usually just her telling him he can visit on school vacations or what picture he wants done as his portrait to hang in the hallway of the castle. It's all very normal.”

“Do you ever get scared that she might try to take him away from you?” When Jinyoung had first adopted Mark and Youngjae, he was scared that at one point their biological parents would appear and try to take away his children. Sometimes, Jinyoung still thought about that.

Jaebum snorted. “Back when Yugyeom was still a baby I did. But she's not the 'mom' type of person. She still doesn't have anymore kids and when she and I agreed on making Yugyeom she made it clear. She wanted to know what pregnancy was like, not motherhood. She's a good person and she loves Yugyeom, there's just no way she could have handled raising him.”

Speaking of the devil, Yugyeom came into the house and headed to the kitchen, ear buds still in, as he grabbed a bottle of Coke. He walked over when he noticed the envelope from his mother. He removed his ear buds. “Did she send it to me?” Yugyeom asked.

“Yeah, probably asking about how you've been doing. I think she's still mad about the lack of video chats recently.” Jaebum said.

“It's not my fault that the Royal Church has been cleansing the royal grounds and that requires a bad Internet connection!” Yugyeom said. “I should make it up to her though.” Yugyeom climbed up the stairs to his room.

Over the next few days, letters came with more frequency, sometimes two in one day. Yugyeom started to chat on the phone with his biological mom more. There was even a video chat. One day while Yugyeom was staying late at school, a package arrived at the house.

Jackson, Mark, Youngjae, and BamBam all gathered around to see Jinyoung and Jaebum open it. “Are these crowns?” Jinyoung asked as he lifted up what looked like a horizontal wreath of flowers with ribbons hanging off of it.

“Those are the official flower crowns of the kingdom.” Jackson explained.

Jaebum digged deeper into the box. “There's one for all of us.” he said pulling out more flower crowns. At the end of each ribbon, there was their name written in the Roman alphabet. He passed them around to everyone. BamBam immediately proceeded to take a flurry of selfies. Yugyeom's flower crown remained in the box along with a piece of paper. Jaebum reached for the piece of paper, wanting to place it on top of the box but couldn't resist reading through it.

“This is sweet. Yugyeom's mom is saying that when he's done with high school if he wants, he can attend university in the kingdom. And that the kingdom will always be ready to accept their prince if he decides to live there at one point.”

“How is he going to attend university in the kingdom if he can't speak any other languages other than Korean?” Youngjae asked.

“Yugyeom's mom doesn't plan that far ahead.” Jaebum said. His lips formed a mischievous smirk. “What if we were to pull a prank on Yugyeom?”

“What kind?” Mark's eyes twinkled at the idea. Jinyoung and Youngjae didn't recognize him for a brief moment.

“Almost like a secret camera. We make him think, we think that he's accepted to go live with his biological mom and get angry with him. We film the whole thing and then send it to his mom and pray that she doesn't leak it to the Internet and I get involved in a scandal that says I emotionally traumatize my children.” Jaebum explained.

“That doesn't sound so bad.” Jinyoung said approvingly. Youngjae and Mark were losing the man that adopted them.

Yugyeom arrived home the next day, later than usual, having to stay late one last day at school. He wasn't terribly late and the weather had been so pleasant that he found himself humming as he closed the door as he entered the house.

“Yugyeom, we need to talk. Where have you been?” Jaebum stood in front of the entrance with his arms crossed and wearing his fake glasses. He looked serious and stern and angry. It was an expression Yugyeom had never seen.

“I was at school finishing something up. What's the matter?” Yugyeom was starting to sweat. Did something happen to someone?

“Nothing. Come in the kitchen with me.” Yugyeom followed Jaebum into the kitchen. From the doorway leading into the TV room from the kitchen he could see Youngjae and BamBam watching TV, both with serious expressions on.

In the kitchen, Jinyoung was standing up while Mark and Jackson were seated, all three of them looking somber.

“Why have you been spending so much time talking to your birth mother?” Jaebum asked.

“Her wife's gone to England for some event inviting the royal families of Europe. My mom doesn't like England that much so she opted to stay at home. She's been lonely and you know when she get's lonely she gets clingy.”

Jaebum did know that for a fact. Yugyeom's mother was a social butterfly. And had a habit of going off into tangents whenever she spoke to someone for more than three sentences. “Is that really all? You're spending so much time with her, just because she's bored? You're telling me that you have no attention of moving in with her to that big fancy castle.”

Yugyeom's mouth dropped open like a fish and his face paled. “It's not like that. She offered from me to visit like she always does. She just threw in me moving in as an option. In case, I wanted to try life from the perspective of the kingdom.”

“But then why wouldn't she tell me about? Every time she's called you asking for you to visit, she always runs it by me first.” Jaebum said. “Now, with something like moving, she would have a reason not to tell me until the last minute.”

“I thought my mom told you about it.” Yugyeom said, his voice getting softer with every passing second.

“She didn't. You're making me really angry right now, Yugyeom. I'm sorry that this family isn't exactly up to your standards.” Jaebum left the house and walked outside. He quickly set up the small camera he had kept in the pocket of his sweatshirt and the tripod that the always kept outside the house. Then he went back inside to the kitchen.

“If you wanted to move you should have just told me instead of trying to sneak around me.” Jaebum said when he came back.

“Stop, this is pissing me off.” Jinyoung said, his dialect erupting. “What are we doing? If his mom wants to talk to him alone and he wants to live with her then that' something between him and her.”

“Right, so why don't we do this ourselves. Because Yugyeom is obviously an adult and can decide to switch continents without even a goodbye note.” Jaebum said.

“It's amazing how little you've changed from what you were as a teenager.” Jinyoung said before going outside. He spotted the camera and placed his hand on his chest and let out a sigh. “When I lose my cool, I speak in dialect. I can't remember the last time I was so angry, I spoke in dialect.” he said to the camera.

Jaebum walked outside and pulled Jinyoung into a side hug. Jinyoung continued speaking to the camera. “Let's go back inside. We have to finish this.” Jinyoung opened the door to the house and he and Jaebum walked back inside.

Yugyeom began to speak when he saw Jaebum. “I don't understand this situation and why this is happening. I guess there is some misunderstanding and I'm sorry for that.”

“Don't you feel sorry for what you did, Yugyeom?” Jaebum asked.

“I'm sorry.” Yugyeom's voice came out barely more than a whisper.

“Sorry, is sorry that it?” Jaebum asked.

A brief moment of silence passed and Jackson spoke up. “He said sorry. What's wrong with you? He said sorry.”

Jaebum ignored Jackson's words. “Sorry? Is that all you can do?”

Jinyoung walked closer to Yugyeom and began speaking in a louder tone. “Say something? You have something to say to us.” He pointed to himself and Jaebum. “You should have said something.”

“Why is this happening like this?” Jackson said.

“Do you want to start a fight?” Jaebum turned his attention to Jackson.

“You three get out.” Jinyoung said to Mark, Youngjae, and BamBam.

Jackson removed his T-shirt and was left only in his black tank top. He made a movement towards shoving Jaebum when Jinyoung got in between them. “Let's stop this.” he said.

Jaebum and Jackson got out of his grasp and stared at each other, waiting for one of them to yell or throw a punch. “Let's stop this.” Jaebum said. He and Jackson immediately broke out into some weird bird dance that reminded Yugyeom of the birds he saw at the zoo with his family when he was eleven.

Everyone broke out into laughter and Yugyeom bit his lip and felt his face go flush. He hid his face in his hands. He broke out into tears as he tried to himself into one of the corners of the kitchen. Jinyoung played some boy band idol song from his phone as everyone else broke into dance. Jaebum pulled Yugyeom into a tight hug. He rubbed his back and ruffled the back of his head like he did when Yugyeom was a baby. Jinyoung soon joined in on the hug and Mark as well. Soon, everyone was hugging him. They broke away from the hug until it was just Jaebum hugging him while Jinyoung pressed a handful of tissues to his face.

“Why are you guys like this? This is so unfair.” Yugyeom said when everyone had given him breathing room but still teary-eyed.

“Come here.” Jaebum lead Yugyeom to the camera that was hidden carefully in the kitchen. “We decided to make a little video to send to your mom.”

“Hi Mom. Knowing your sense of humour I'm sure you enjoyed this.” Yugyeom said waving to the camera.

“We're very sorry about this. Um, Queen, I don't know how to pronounce your name.” Jaebum said sheepishly.

“I just call her Step-mom.” Yugyeom said. “It's one of the ten words of Korean that my mom's wife knows.”

“Yugyeom's step-mom,” Jaebum continued. “I wish I could step your country's language or pronounce the name correctly but it was all a joke. We don't do this often and we're taking good care of the future king of the kingdom.” Jaebum waved happily and Yugyeom who was still crying waved along with him.

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In case you're wondering why the kingdom has flower crowns I shall direct you to this post.  I know, Yugyeom is the cutest.

<3 Smooches <3