The herald of a royal trumpet sounded loudly as Kyungsoo’s mare slowed beneath him, coming along to stop next to his father’s steed and directly across from the Queen and her son. Apparently Kyungsoo had met Prince Jongin as a baby—Kyungsoo wore a locket that proved it—but this was the first time they were meeting when both were old enough to remember, and Kyungsoo was not looking forward to the coming summer. At an expectant look from his father, Kyungsoo slid gracefully off his horse, eliciting a pleased chirp and hand clap from Prince Jongin’s mother.

The King pushed Kyungsoo forward—none to gently either—and he begrudgingly moved to stand in front of Prince Jongin stood waiting. Prince Jongin looked bored and unimpressed, and that annoyed Kyungsoo immensely. Regardless, he bowed politely in response to the other prince’s tersely insincere greeting of “Pleased to meet you.” Kyungsoo didn’t believe for a single second that Prince Jongin was happy to have him for the summer, and Kyungsoo made this disbelief perfectly clear with a glare and tiny raised fists as soon as his father and the Queen were sufficiently distracted. It was immensely satisfying for him to see Prince Jongin flinch back in surprise and sudden fear, although once the older boy recovered with crossed arms and a deep frown, Kyungsoo wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have provoked him.

He looks conceited, Kyungsoo thought, already dreading the next three months. If I get lucky, maybe I’ll get chicken pox!

The King’s attention returned to his son and Prince Jongin likely realized his own parent’s was soon to follow because he quickly said, “So happy you could come.”

Kyungsoo was prepared to ignore him, but an aggravated cough from his father prompted an involuntary response. “So happy to be here,” Kyungsoo expressed through gritted teeth.

This is not my idea of fun, Kyungsoo thought miserably, entirely unaware that in that moment, Prince Jongin’s thoughts exactly mirrored his own.

~~~

They spent the summer in the Queen and Prince Jongin’s sprawling palace, Kyungsoo and the other prince battling with fists and wooden swords while their parents remained blissfully oblivious.

There was one particular day when the two young princes had been dueling their way down the stairs, and Kyungsoo had purposefully tripped Prince Jongin so the latter ended up on his back at the bottom of the staircase. Kyungsoo had just jumped from a few steps above to crush the Prince under his weight and the King and Queen had chosen that moment to enter the room, misinterpreting the scene as clear evidence that their two sons were best friends already.

“The children seem to get along quite nicely,” Kyungsoo heard the Queen exclaim in delight.

His father nodded—the traitor—and agreed. “We’ll join our lands if this arrangement clicks.” The King looked pleased with himself, particularly when Jongin’s mother seemed to support the idea of a joint kingdom in the near-distant future. “It’s such good parenting,” he said in satisfaction.

“And politics!” The Queen added, gazing fondly in her son’s direction and smiling at the sight of the two Princes still wrestling animatedly.

Later that same day, the King and the Queen had moved their discussion to the outdoor patio, allowing Kyungsoo and Prince Jongin even more space to chase each other and beat each other up. The two’s antics went ignored as usual, and the King looked out over the wide expanse of the castle’s beautiful garden, marveling that someday all of this would belong to his son.

“I think we have a deal,” he conceded in the Queen’s direction, placing his attention on her after a brief glance toward his son.

She clapped her hands happily—that seemed to be her signature expression of good feeling—and grinned widely. “So happy we agree! And Jongin’s quite a catch,” she tacked on the compliment for good measure, even though Kyungsoo’s father had already proved more than willing to go through with the betrothal. Once the monarchs shook hands in a physical expression of concurrence, the King politely offered his arm, which the Queen took as the two walked back toward the palace. Kyungsoo and Prince Jongin followed soon after, still fighting one another with their wooden weapons and glaring fiercely whenever their parents weren’t looking.

“This is my idea of a match!” The King said cheerfully, grabbing Prince Jongin before he could make another attack on Kyungsoo.

The Queen’s actions mirrored the King’s as she caught Kyungsoo by the arms and held him back from running at Prince Jongin while the latter was incapacitated. Her overly large and enthusiastic smile returned in full force at the two children’s duel. “Such fun!” she crowed, completely unperturbed by the Princes’ attempted violence or the fact that their pretend swords left very real bruises.

~~~

The years passed in a flurry of activity, and before Kyungsoo knew it he’d grown from age five into the awkwardness of being 12. It was a horrible time and he’d hated it even before June rolled around and Kyungsoo realized he’d be spending the next three months with a horrible boy who’d probably make fun of him the whole time—despite the fact that Jongin was a hyung and should have been more mature.

Kyungsoo stood in the window of his bedroom tower, arms crossed confrontationally as he glared down at his pleading father. The King was desperately trying to get his son to come down from his room so they could depart for Prince Jongin’s kingdom, but Kyungsoo adamantly refused to go.

“Good heavens, child,” the King called in exasperation, “don’t dawdle!” Kyungsoo’s death glare deepened, but the King was used to Satan Soo and ignored him. “We can’t keep Jongin waiting!”

He couldn’t care less about the Prince, but his mother was nice at least, so Kyungsoo felt somewhat bad about not wanting to spend the summer with the other two royals. Kyungsoo sighed in defeat and the King could see visible signs of his son’s surrender, despite the still crossed arms and the pouting lip.

“I haven’t packed or washed my hair!” Kyungsoo groaned to himself. To the King, he yelled out, “Father, I get seasick!” but disappeared into his room to get ready anyway.

At the same time, though an ocean away, the Queen had a similar conversation with her own son. “He soon will be arriving!” she exclaimed, bursting suddenly into Jongin’s room. Instead of her son getting ready for their kingdom’s incoming guests, she was appalled to find Jongin using an actual bow to shoot darts at a crude drawing of Kyungsoo’s face. “Is that respect you’re showing?”

Jongin thought that no, it was not respect that he was aiming for, but was too smart to actually say that out loud to his mother. Instead, he chose to express his dislike for the other prince in a different way. “If you make me kiss his hand again, I swear I’m gonna be sick,” he threatened. His mother only rolled her eyes at her son’s dramatics, dragging him out of his room by the ear.

Kyungsoo’s ship arrived a few days later and the King was actually the first off the boat, rushing to greet Jongin’s mother like the best friends they probably were. The evidence of his father’s betrayal was nothing new to Kyungsoo—the two royal families did spend every summer together, after all—but it was still annoying. Kyungsoo stood on the ship’s deck, back turned from the traitorous reunion, crossing his arms and furrowing his eyebrows when he heard his father say, “One day Prince Jongin will be his intended!”

He turned toward the monarchs at the Queen’s agreeing comment of “Splendid!” The movement was just in time to catch the splash of rotten tomato against his cheek, delivered with pleasure by Sehun, Prince Jongin’s menace of a best friend who disliked Kyungsoo almost as much as Kyungsoo disliked him.

That summer, Prince Jongin’s time was mostly consumed by Sehun. The other boy was a lower aristocrat than his friend—the son of a duke or something—and as such was much more daring. Kyungsoo spent his days following the older boys around the palace and the grounds, always a few steps behind and never included. Once, as Kyungsoo’s hyungs slid dangerously down one of the castle’s sleek banisters, he overheard Prince Jongin shout meanly to Sehun as if Kyungsoo weren’t even there.

“We’ve tried all summer but we just can’t lose him,” Jongin complained rudely.

Kyungsoo tried to ignore the stab of hurt his preteen and highly insecure self felt at the Prince’s words, instead shouting after the best friends to pause for a moment so he could join them. “Hey fellas, wait up!”

They didn’t. In fact, Sehun grinned nastily up at Kyungsoo to where the latter was only just reaching the beginnings of the staircase and shouted to Prince Jongin, “Quick! Put on some speed.” Prince Jongin, of course, listened to his friend and Kyungsoo was left behind yet again.

By the end of July, Kyungsoo had more or less stopped trying to join in on Sehun and Prince Jongin’s brand of stupid. If hanging out with the two of them meant that Kyungsoo would become a jerk when he was older like they had, he didn’t want to spend time with them anyway. That’s what he told himself at least. Some days, though, when Kyungsoo was feeling particularly daring, he still tried to into their reckless fun.

Sometime while Kyungsoo had sequestered himself in the castle’s library, Sehun and Prince Jongin had found the time to build a poorly-constructed tree house. Miraculously, neither the King nor the Queen had put a stop to the project, and had actually given it their blessing—provided Kyungsoo was somehow involved. Prince Jongin nodded in acquiescence that Kyungsoo knew was too good to be true, but their parent’s had accepted his agreement at face value and that was that.

Later, though, Prince Jongin had sneered down at Kyungsoo from where he stood with Sehun in their tree. He shook his head at Kyungsoo’s pleas to be allowed up, and ignored the younger prince in favor of Sehun.

“When picking teams,” he started conversationally.

“Or friends,” Sehun added.

“I never choose him!” Prince Jongin concluded with glee, falling onto his best friend as the two of them cackled in unison.

As they spoke around Kyungsoo, Sehun held out a sign on which was written NO GIRLS. “You think he’d take a hint and learn to read,” Sehun said sarcastically.

This really isn’t fair, Kyungsoo thought with a pout. He wasn’t even a girl. Rude. “Boys, it’s all or none!” he shouted up at the other two, reminding them of the rule his and Prince Jongin’s parents had established.

“We really couldn’t care,” both shouted at the same time.

Kyungsoo was done with them, and he ended their summer early by kicking at one of the support pillars set up underneath the tree house and sending the whole thing crashing down. Since some of the debris landed on top of him and other of the debris broke Sehun and Prince Jongin’s fall, all three came away with scratches, scrapes, and broken bones.

“This is not my idea of fun,” Sehun whispered to Prince Jongin as the two stood next to the Queen and waved the other royal family off. Once the King and Prince Kyungsoo were safely out of sight and out of hearing, Jongin’s mother her son and his friend, startling them into each other and causing both to fall to the ground in a terrified heap.

Kyungsoo was receiving similar treatment from his father, but he’d always been more delicate than his betrothed and the King didn’t want to risk his son bursting into sudden tears. It had happened before.

~~~

Long before they met, Prince Kyungsoo and Prince Jongin were destined to be wedded. This pleased the King and the Queen very much, but everyone else could see that the only point on which the two princes didn’t disagree was that the very thought of summertime was dreaded. Bones, though, heal much faster than bruised egos and hurt pride, so the years again passed quickly, even if each summer seemed to drag on longer than the last. Fortunately, Kyungsoo had since grown out of his awkward phase and was now a handsome young man. He was also increasingly well-spoken and educated—as was Prince Jongin, actually—for though the two princes still spent their summers on petty arguments and antagonistic contests, the rest of their seasons were filled with learning. Prince Jongin practiced hunting and dancing, while Prince Kyungsoo could often be found in his favorite armchair reading books on history, politics, linguistics, or medicine.

Well brought up or not, though, the King still had to physically pull his son from their carriage, even though Kyungsoo was now almost 16 and he was more than used to having horrible summers. Like usual, Prince Jongin was not much different, and he’d climbed a tree and hidden in its branches when the Queen had informed him of Kyungsoo’s arrival.

“He tries to talk me into playing dress up,” Prince Jongin later complained to a laughing Sehun. “And he’s always flirting with the castle guards!”

Sehun was having a difficult time containing his amusement and his chuckles echoed loudly against the palace walls. He elbowed his friend in the side and waggled his eyebrows. “I think you really sort of like him; ‘fess up!” Sehun urged with faux sincerity. Prince Jongin punched his best friend in the arm for that comment, and none to gently either.

Later, as Prince Kyungsoo and Prince Jongin were seated across from each other playing a subdued version of poker with obvious boredom, Prince Jongin admitted to himself that he’d like the other prince better if he’d sometimes lose at cards. Sehun tried to help by standing behind Kyungsoo and gesturing with his hands which cards the other prince was holding, but Prince Jongin couldn’t seem to win, even with his best friend’s less than legal assistance.

Still, he tried his best. “Four sevens and a ten,” he said, laying his cards flat on the table as he did so.

Kyungsoo followed Prince Jongin’s lead, laying down his cards with a dramatic flair as he exclaimed to Prince Jongin’s disbelief, “I think I’ve won again.”

“Every time he’s won!” Sehun shouted, throwing his hands in the air in annoyed wonder.

Kyungsoo grinned as Prince Jongin nodded dejectedly. “Not my idea of fun,” the latter agreed.

~~~

The agreement forged in the two princes’ childhood stated that they would meet for their last summer when Kyungsoo turned 18. Their parents hoped that, by that time, Prince Kyungsoo and Prince Jongin would have fallen in love and would happily become engaged before the coming of fall. That result, however, had yet to occur, and Kyungsoo’s father was getting worried.

“What if Kyungsoo doesn’t go for the merger?” he wrote the Queen in a hurried letter sometime around the new year.

The Queen’s response was brief, but strongly worded and came almost instantly. “Urge him!” her flowing script declared.

Both monarchs spent many days of that year trying to speak with their respective child in order to convince him of his love for the other prince and both princes, in turn, spent more than one sleepless night mulling over the approaching summer. For as long as either could remember, they’d been told they’d someday wed, but spending every June until September together didn’t make Kyungsoo any less apprehensive or Jongin any more prepared.

Summer finally rolled around, arriving with unexpected suddenness like it always did but surprising Kyungsoo with its appearance like it always did. He was 18 now, finally a man to match the one Prince Jongin had been for two years already, but that didn’t mean his father still didn’t have to lift his son forcefully from their vehicle to drag him toward his waiting prince.

“I’ve got bruises with your fingertips,” Kyungsoo complained to the King, needing some outlet for his nerves, even if it wasn’t really fair of him to take that out on his father.

Prince Jongin, though, had no such qualms. He’d had it with all his mother’s pushing and annoying hints so when word came of Kyungsoo’s arrival, he’d avoided the Queen like the plague. Sehun’s involvement, however, had been the last thing Jongin expected, so he was understandably surprised when it was his best friend—and not his mother—who pushed Jongin in Kyungsoo’s direction. His best friend’s smile was resigned, but Sehun had probably been convinced by the Queen that Kyungsoo was the best future for Jongin, so the Prince couldn’t hate his friend for the unexpected betrayal.

His forgiveness didn’t keep Jongin from shouting at a departing Sehun that he could do much better if left to his own devices. Sehun, though, was unconvinced. “I’m sure,” he shouted back incredulously.

Unfortunately, Prince Jongin wasn’t used to regulating his volume in his own home, so Kyungsoo overheard his parting words to his friend, and glared at the door behind which Prince Jongin undoubtedly stood. “He’s so immature,” Kyungsoo muttered under his breath, waiting with crossed arms and tapping feet for the other prince to enter the large ballroom.

Yet when Prince Jongin finally made his way into the room, Kyungsoo wasn’t ready. The man before him was tall, handsome, and smiling beautifully at Kyungsoo like he was the most wonderful thing in the world. Kyungsoo had never elicited such a positive reaction from Prince Jongin, so he hadn’t been prepared for the flutter in his stomach and the pooling of delicious warmth even lower. At Prince Jongin’s blinding smile, Kyungsoo hated that his knees began to actually buckle. One look in the other man’s eyes, though, and all of Kyungsoo’s previous doubts were gone because this was not the Prince Jongin of their shared past.

Prince Jongin’s bright smile betrayed none of his inner turmoil, yet Jongin had been equally unprepared for his heart’s reaction to Kyungsoo’s presence. Unlike Kyungsoo—who hadn’t been able to see Jongin as physically attractive when he had such a douche-like personality—Jongin had experienced physical discomfort over Kyungsoo’s looks for a few summers by that point, so his body’s response to the other prince’s fitted white suit was painfully familiar. It did, however, amaze Jongin that Kyungsoo had gotten even lovelier than the last time Jongin had seen him.

He started out as such an ugly duckling, Jongin marveled to himself, and somehow suddenly became a swan.

Kyungsoo bowed politely at Prince Jongin. “So happy to be here,” he admitted with a sincerity that jolted Jongin from thoughts which were quickly approaching lustful.

Years of training prompted a bow from Jongin in return, but his words were entirely his own when he grabbed Kyungsoo’s hands and entwined their fingers. “’Til now I never knew,” he said in wonder, “but it’s you I’ve been dreaming of.” Kyungsoo doubted that—he’d seen the leering looks Jongin and Sehun gave all of the palace’s younger staff—but he nevertheless allowed himself to be pulled into the other man’s strong embrace.

From behind a small crack in the ballroom’s closed door, the King and the Queen watched their son’s interaction with barely concealed excitement.

“What a good idea!” Kyungsoo’s father congratulated them both.

“Such a charming and romantic notion,” the Queen agreed with a smile. She clapped her hands with a smile as she overheard her son declare to Prince Kyungsoo, “We must announce the wedding at once!”

Since Jongin’s mother grabbed the King’s arm and led him away to instantly begin preparations for their sons’ engagement and marriage ceremony, the Queen merely assumed Kyungsoo’s happy response but didn’t actually hear a verbal expression of it. Even if she stayed to watch and listen, however, Kyungsoo’s words would not have been the one’s both she and Prince Jongin expected.

Instead of an ecstatic “Yes!” Jongin’s halfway proposal was met with a subdued “Wait” from a troubled Kyungsoo.

“What?” Jongin asked, confused by Kyungsoo’s sudden change of heart. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted,” he confessed. The Prince’s gaze moved slowly up Kyungsoo’s body, pausing on his betrothed’s sharp collarbone, heart shaped lips, and large, owl-like eyes. Speaking from his heart, Jongin admitted shyly, “You’re beautiful.”

Kyungsoo cursed himself for the blush he felt creeping up his neck to settle on his cheeks. “Thank you,” he replied with a shyness to match Jongin’s. “But what else?”

Prince Jongin didn’t know what Kyungsoo expected him to say. What else? he thought to himself.

Reading the disarray on Prince Jongin’s face, Kyungsoo clarified. “Is beauty all that matters to you?” he prompted questioningly.

Of course not! Jongin thought indignantly. His mouth, though, apparently had a mind of its own, because his response was not a long list of Kyungsoo’s many attributes—like it should have been. “What else is there?” he stammered out instead. Jongin could hear a resounding DENG, DENG, DENG echoing in his head, but it was too late to take it back, even though the sight of Kyungsoo’s eyes filling with tears made Jongin really wish he could.

Yet Kyungsoo didn’t cry; instead, he surprised Jongin for the third time that night. “What else is there?” Kyungsoo asked loudly, incensed. “I say “Is beauty all that matters to you,” and you say “What else is there?”!”

Kyungsoo’s anger startled a response out of Prince Jongin that recalled the immature boy the latter used to be. “It was dumb! I know!”

“You’re damn right it was!” Kyungsoo nearly shrieked and the Prince’s use of profanity was way more attractive to Jongin than it should have been. Despite that, Jongin was smart enough to apologize profusely and after a while, was rewarded for his efforts with a chaste kiss.

“I love you,” Jongin reassured his prince. “Your kindness and courage. I always have.”

“Okay,” Kyungsoo agreed with a bashful smile and another kiss. “I’ll marry you…if I must.”

Jongin rolled his eyes but took what he could get and swooped in to smother Kyungsoo’s lips with his own once again. A while later, once Kyungsoo had calmed down completely, he extricated himself from Jongin’s arms in order to glance up at his taller fiancée in amusement. “You should write a book,” he suggested, accompanying his biting words with a loving kiss to soften the blow a little bit. “How to Offend Princes in Five Syllables or Less.”

“Oh, shut up," Jongin ordered. Prince Kyungsoo had absolutely no problem complying with that command.