adorn

chapter 4

at first, the atmosphere wasn't pleasant at all. after getting over the polite greetings which are required to be exchanged between royal families, the members sat down to feast. the uneasiness was so tangible that it could be cut with a knife and presented as another main dish. the placement seemed to have made things even worse.

two kings were seated in front of each other, starting the line. another component was hyunsuk who shuddered lightly under the other's burning gaze, struggling to eat with his trembling hands. then there was yedam who had haruto on the opposite side and hence tried to welcome in a small talk but after getting interrupted by his younger brother several times, he gave up and just ate in silence.

he had no idea what was so special in this visitation that two of his brothers behaved so oddly. the one that barely showed any tinge of intense emotions cried just after laying an eye upon the man he used to be on good terms with, and the other chose to be even more unruly this day than any day - he clattered using utensils swearing it was unintentional, stooped down to yedam just to ask if his pearls looked good if his frills were fancy enough, what's worse disturbing yedam's speech whenever the older made the initiative to talk.

the ones to save them from eating in a devouring silence were two monarchs, discussing over policy, rules, reigning. as the plates emptied and servants gathered closer to pile them up and lay the table again, providing freshly washed tablecloth, silver china set, and new flowers in the vase, yoshinori asked for his promised time solely with the other firstborn. the king had no objections to them exiting the spacious room, so he beckoned on his eldest son to show the other man around. at this second there was no chance for yedam to predict that it was the last time he saw his brother, for the next few hours he seemed to evaporate in the air, being either kidnapped by the other man or being the kidnapper himself.

as the crowd started dwindling away, doyoung saw the scope, and to yedam's bewilderment, he found a cunning way to change his seats. the youngest prince was now placed right beside no other than the prince from another kingdom. the observer of the whole situation wasn't offended, it was predictable that kids would, at some point should get along but within a minute yedam's head got jammed with thoughts causing other thoughts. he watched how doyoung looked directly into haruto's eyes, listened attentively to every word the other uttered, sometimes feeling bold enough to lower his gaze on the cherry lips in front, the hunch of inevitable calamity made yedam waver.

it didn't take long for the other pair to disappear from yedam's sight. doyoung asked the king if he could take haruto to the palace's garden and the old man consented with little to no boastfulness. he had made his eldest son take the other king, the one that ruled over a country that once used to be his country's mortal enemy, and he hoped quietly that at the right moment hyunsuk was enumerating the agreements they could have made. and if it wasn't enough to harbor his ego, his youngest son was showing off the beauty of their palace to the other son of his once called opponent.

"thank you, son, you can rest assured. your brothers will take good care of our guests."

stating so the man stood up and left. yedam was in a complete solitary now, and so his answer couldn't be heard by a single soul.

"I am afraid father, they will do much more than taking care of them..."

since that moment yedam had no chance of encountering hyunsuk and yoshinori somewhere in the castle premises. he wasn't looking for them, or even trying to bump into them by taking the usual routes his older brother would choose, he just simply decided to stroll a little around the well-maintained, palatial construction he was lucky enough to call home. not only that, one of the places he took a detour in was the garden, and so consequently he was expecting to meet two princes there. most probably doyoung giving the lecture about each flowers' name, period of the vegetation or assumably which the strongest stems are. surprisingly he was greeted by the flowers only. no human creature among them, nothing showing up even after his calls for the youth to stop hiding and come out. he furrowed his brows, pondering.

"no sign of hyunsuk, no sign of doyoung..." he listed, extending his two fingers alongside. "where have they gone?"

eventually, he had no other choice but to let it go with a sigh. kicking some pebbles which happened to be lying on the ground, he returned to the palace. locking himself in the chamber, he took a book to his hands, deciding that reading would be the most profitable thing to do. it was undoubtedly better than remaining idle.

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