The Spoiled Prince || WooSanSang

And There Was Only One Bed

Dinner was extravagant. The whole of Aurora's and Cheshire's royal families occupied the table. Yeosang sat at one corner of the table, his mother to his left and Jongho and Yuna right across from him. There was no place for Wooyoung; Yeosang didn't know why he expected there to be. His guard simply stood watch by the door. Yeosang wondered when he would get to eat.

Yeosang heard his name being spoken by Cheshire's queen from the other end of the table. "Your first son is very handsome," she said to Yeosang's mother. "It is a shame Yuna did not meet him first."

She had not exactly said it quietly; Jongho heard, too. He looked unhappy, though it was obvious to Yeosang that the queen had meant nothing bad toward him. She would simply rather her daughter marry the crown prince as opposed to his little brother.

"Princess Yuna is lovely," Yeosang said to Yuna's mother. "Though, she is four years my junior. I do not believe it would have been proper."

"Nonsense," she waved the thought away. "It would have been fine. But no matter. She seems to truly have taken a liking to Prince Jongho."

Yuna quickly nodded in agreement and Jongho blushed, the attention suddenly on him.

After an appetizer of a delicious soup Yeosang wished the cooks would make back home, the main course was served. Chicken. Yeosang picked at it as everybody else talked. Despite his usual dietary preferences, it wasn't half-bad.

He had largely tuned out the conversation around him--after a while, all diplomatic conversations started to sound the same. Then, Cheshire's King caught his attention.

"Yuna, dear. You did not bring that disgraceful servant with you. Have you finally let him go?"

"Of course, not, Father," Yuna said. "He simply has duties to attend to in Aurora."

Yuna's mother spoke quietly, as if she was telling a secret, though Yeosang wasn't sure why. The whole table was silent so they could hear her. "We wanted to have him fired, you know."

Even queens were prone to gossiping. Yeosang's mother asked, "What happened?"

And so Cheshire's queen told the entire table about what San had done. Yeosang didn't see what was so bad about it, but her tone was grave. Everybody except for Yuna and Yeosang looked scandalized by the end of her story.

"Absolutely disgusting," his father said. "He should have been sent straight to prison."

Yuna's father nodded in agreement. Yuna looked like she wanted to argue, but she kept her head down and focused on her food.

Yeosang, however, couldn't hold his tongue. "I do not see what the big deal is. He was not hurting anybody."

"Of course he was," his mother said, giving him a harsh look. "For a knight to partake in such activities...who knows how many people he could have influenced?"

Yeosang felt Wooyoung's eyes on him. He looked up and the guard shook his head subtly. Yeosang knew what he was trying to say. Leave it alone. He knew he should have, but he felt the need to defend San. "Perhaps he could not help it. And if he was only-"

"Yeosang! That is quite enough!"

Yeosang didn't know if he'd ever been scolded by his mother before. At least, not since he was a small child. He sank back into his seat, everybody in the room now staring at him. Stubbornly, Yeosang would not apologize. Though, he wouldn't argue further, either. He slammed his fork down harder than necessary, a last act of defiance.

He sulked through the rest of the dinner, not taking another bite of his chicken or the decadent-looking dessert that followed. Nobody seemed to notice. When the rest of them had finished eating, Yuna took Jongho's hand, claiming that she wanted to personally show Jongho her favourite parts of the castle. Both kings and queens left too, probably to discuss business or trading matters, or whatever it was that rulers discussed without the prying ears of their children. Prince Taehyun, at least, bade him a polite goodbye before retiring for the evening.