There were a lot of encounters when it came to the Unimonian heir. Since he was the heir of the Ziroian throne it only made sense that the two heirs would have to meet up to get used to each other. He knew, since he was told many times by his father, that one day all heirs would have to come together and work with each other.

It was fate.

To him he wondered if this fate was born for him or it was planned. In time, he knew he wouldn’t care. Being the heir gave him many opportunities. He had friends that anyone would want.

Kangin and his brothers were friendly and so was Leeteuk—and with Leeteuk as a brother, little Ryeowook would definitely be raised well and fine so there was no problem or issue there. And then there was Jaejoong of course. He couldn’t ask for a batch of better and friendly, and trustworthy friends.

Happiness was all he felt when it came to his friends, especially Jaejoong. He couldn’t be any happier.

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As always, he found himself walking down the halls with people passing him. Those who worked for his parents would pass him—the liars, the ones who hid behind masks and disguises. He wondered if perhaps they believed if he had lied to them once. Probably the “yes” he answered with every time they asked if he was okay when he wasn’t.

He didn’t think he had lied about anything else to them. He didn’t see himself as a liar. He wasn’t hiding a huge secret like they were hiding. All he was hiding and wasn’t speaking about was that he knew they were hiding something and they had lied to him. His lies and secrets wouldn’t be as big as theirs—that he would make sure of.

There were only a few he was aware of that didn’t lie to him. His friends: Kangin and his brothers, Leeteuk and his brother likely, and Yunho and his brothers. These friends of his likely didn’t have parents that lied, but he saw something that he didn’t know if they saw. He saw a difference between Queen Ji Ling and the other queens.

She was the odd one, like Queen Jessica.

The time he had seen all queens together was when the day after Prince Ryeowook was born. He hadn’t heard anything, but he sensed something strange about Queen Ji Ling. She didn’t seem too involved in her newborn son as her older son was. Leeteuk loved his brother. And for a moment, briefly for a moment, Jaejoong felt that…Queen Ji Ling didn’t love the newborn baby.

He thought these thoughts of his were preposterous! He had to be wrong. There was no queen he was aware that didn’t love their child. The queens loved their children. He didn’t know how Hyohyeon was towards Jewel, but having the child sleep in her room instead of a nursery—it told him something. He knew his mother was a liar, but…he didn’t think she didn’t love him. Perhaps that was the huge secret everyone was keeping? His parents didn’t love him.

Even if it did make sense in some way he didn’t think that was what his parents or the workers of his parents were hiding from him. It had to be something else. It seemed like it was something else. If they didn’t love him he still didn’t picture that being what they hid from him.

Thinking about his mother not loving him made him return to his previous thoughts: queens—mother who did not love their children. He frowned once he remembered something. He knew the story of King Jung Woo Young and his first wife. He knew about the stories of King Woo Young and all of his wives. The second one saddened him as much as the first one had.

“King Jung Woo Young, heir of the late Jung king, had grown to be a strong and wise young man. The wisdom his family carried was passed down to him and therefore such trait shall be passed down to his own children later on. King Woo Young had fallen for a woman from Zirani, her name wasn’t known or even shared. The woman had been known as the Queen of Ziroi, wife of King Jung Woo Young. The two had been married for two years and had been received a son by the second month of the third year.

After the child had been born there were claims made by servants and maids that the Queen of Ziroi had tried killing her own child. It was days after when the King of Ziroi was completely convinced and sent his first wife away from the kingdom. The woman was forbidden to set foot on the land of Ziroi and in any towns or the castle. ‘Death shall fall upon her if she is to come back,’ were the words of King Woo Young. Those words he had meant and the woman was never seen ever again.”

He felt sympathy for his dear friend. He had a mother and so did the other princes, but his dear friend’s mother was gone. But he did have a caring stepmother—he had two, which must’ve been a struggle for him.  After being told he’d have a sibling it must’ve been a difference for him, especially having a stranger fill in the void his mother had in his father’s heart. Queen Choi Ki Ah was not cruel and had no issues. After the birth of Prince Jung Siwon things had gone well. Things seemed to have gone better hearing that Queen Ki Ah was going to give birth to another baby. It was even more joyful when King Woo Young and Queen Ki Ah had their minds set that the baby was a girl—the first Ziroian Princess. All happiness had gone down the drain once the Assassination of Queen Ki Ah and Princess Ji Won had happened.

King Woo Young’s second wife wasn’t even officially a queen, but she had the heart of one. She was a better queen than the first wife of King Woo Young could’ve ever been. The woman had wished for her daughter to be born first before she would have her own coronation which was something everyone besides King Woo Young wasn’t okay with. Everyone wished for her to be officially the Ziroian Queen. She was a woman to remember—a good one she was indeed. It was a tragic thing when Ki Ah and her daughter died. Both two innocent people had left the world without fully living their life.

After that storm of sadness had faded away, the Ziroian King seemed willing enough to have his queen. He had lost his first by her own cruelty and the lost the second to the cruelty of another. He could only pray to God that this next wife of his would be with him longer than the other two had. Once marrying the woman, Shim Ji Song, King Woo Young and his two sons were blessed with another Ziroian baby boy. It wasn’t that they didn’t want another brother, but it would’ve been nice to have met their sister—to meet Ji Won.

Prince Yunho had been through way more sadness than the other two boys had. He had lost his mother who tried to kill him. He had to get used to a woman replacing his mother. He lost a wonderful motherly figure and a sibling. He then had a woman replacing his motherly figure and having another sibling; many replacements, deaths, and sadness filling his whole life.

Jaejoong could only wonder how long it would be until the prince would finally snap. He wouldn’t blame him, of course. How could you blame someone innocent? Besides, the prince was strong. Sure there were tears shed, but he wasn’t complaining. He was taking it strongly—there was no other choice and no other pain to choose from. But Jaejoong felt like the prince did not deserve any pain after everything he went through. No child deserved to feel such feelings. It wasn’t right.  

“Jaejoong.” He heard a female voice call his name. He was too lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t concentrated on what he was doing. He had to lift his head up to look at who had called; he must’ve been looking down while thinking. It was his mother.

The prince cleared his throat and blinked. “U-uh, hello umma! Sorry about that if I wasn’t listening.” He hated being caught at times where he was focused on a certain thought.

Queen Min Jun folded her two hands and offered a soft smile before speaking to her son. “It is no need to worry, Jae dear. I just wanted you to know not to wander off; Queen Jessica is coming to briefly visit.”

“A brief visit from the Queen of the Asian Commonwealth?” Jaejoong asked and thought for a second.

What matters concern her here? Jaejoong thought in his head with bitterness towards the spoken of woman. He had no liking of the queen and never saw himself ever having any favoring towards the woman. She was odd queen. He wondered if her empire would crumble—but every one of them had once.

Queen Min Jun nodded her head. “Yes. It wouldn’t be very proper of you to be wandering like a thoughtless child, would it? Especially if you were to accidentally bump into her.”

Jaejoong nodded slowly and his eyes landed on something else. “Yeah, I suppose so.” His mother bid goodbye before turning and walking away from him.

Masks, Jaejoong thought before having the goal to walk to his bedroom.

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He heard many words from the light, thin walls. The words were bad and none he didn’t want to hear. They were not pleasant at all to him. Those words were being released from the last two people he didn’t want to hear such things from. His parents were discussing things in the room next to his brother’s nursery.

He would have his brother’s crib in his room, but it wasn’t his place. He knew he showed a little more care and effort into raising his brother, but…he wasn’t the parents of the second prince. He was only his older brother, and even if he was the heir and next King of Amiopi, he couldn’t do as he wishes.

He was already crossing the line and his duties by spending overtime with his baby brother. He was scolded by his father and lectured by his mother, but it didn’t and wouldn’t work with him. Many other children would’ve been completely and fully convinced the first time, but he was still going against the words of his parents.

Leeteuk would not allow nannies to just raise his baby brother. It wasn’t completely like that for his life, but he knew many royal children who not taken care of by their parents. Ryeowook deserved to be cherished and loved and Leeteuk and the nannies seemed to be the only ones who truly cared about the prince.

He was really confused about his parents. They were not making sense to him anymore, especially his mother. His father was working too much and yelling at his wife as for his mother—it was as if she was asking for more time away from her dear children who wished for the love and care from their parents instead of total unrelated strangers.

Leeteuk could only wonder what was truly going inside of his parent’s heads, but he had other things to deal with instead of them. He knew the loudness of their words was interrupting his brother’s sleep. To avoid the words and loudness, Leeteuk took his brother by his arms securely and walked out of the room and made it to his own chambers.

If only they would care, Leeteuk thought in his head as he rocked his baby brother lightly and hummed a lullaby. He didn’t want to think about it, but he thought of the possibility of Ryeowook only being cared about by him. This was something he truly feared and did not want.