Bittersweet | l.fx au

Chapter 6

"You have me, don't worry!" Yeji pats your shoulder first thing in the morning. "It's not too busy at night, you just have to be alert for the bell and our prince doesn't really call for us that often."

"Thank you Yeji," You put away your bag of essentials in the locker of overnight shifts. It's about a few lockers where there were two spaces for the overnight shifts for each royal member. "Does he only do it when it's an emergency?"

"Most of the time." Yeji replies, making sure her outfit is in tip-top shape. "Or sometimes when he's bored and wants to play a game. Or to keep a secret and come up with a story as he sneaks out."

"What?" Your eyes grow wide.

Yeji smiles. "It's not that big of a deal. I'll teach you everything."

You nod, feeling a little better. Only just a bit like one percent but it's better than nothing, you suppose.

The day went by fast and it has now melted into the night sky. Yeji shows you to the room where you would normally stay in. It contained a single bed and a dresser but there's a cot stuffed in the corner. "You take the bed." Yeji says and puts her bag full of clothes on the cot.

"A-Are you sure? I can sleep there." You feel bad and since she's your superior, you don't want to mess anything up.

She shakes her head. "I'm fine!" Her eyes look towards a bell that's above the door. "All we need to do is stay alert and if we hear the bell, we go to his room. Like I said before, our Fourth Prince doesn't ask for us much so we're free to do what we want." She sits on the cot and with a grin, asks, "Let's talk!"

You're not sure how long the conversation has been going on but you feel like it's forever. There's multiple subjects being passed through and lingered on. You feel like you've made a great friend in Yeji. And that's how the night went until your last one.

The bell rings and Yeji looks at it in surprise. She motions for you to follow and you do so. The castle provided sleepwear that was still appropriate to tend to some duties in case the princes called for their maids. It was a different feeling at night where everything is mostly quiet and you look at the shadows that happen to dance on the walls.

The two of you finally reach the room and Yeji knocks. There's a faint "come in!" and so the two of you do. You're a little surprised to see that the window is open and Felix is sitting on the window sill.

"Are you going out, Fourth Prince?" Yeji asks.

"I'm heading to the tavern." Felix responds. It's when you finally notice that he's in regular clothes instead of sleepwear.

Still, Yeji doesn't say anything about it. Only replies with a nod and confirmation that she'll keep it a secret. Felix smiles and then heads out of the window. You're a bit confused and worried. Since his room is on the second floor and this was a tall castle. "I-Is he going to be okay?"

"Of course." Yeji replies. "He climbs on the ledges and has this whole way out and in. We're going to alert one of the guards that Felix doesn't want to be disturbed and don't worry, the guard knows too." She winks as the whole secret keeps getting bigger.

You follow Yeji and she finds one of the guards tasked to this area. He knows what's going on and replies he'll let the two of you know when he returns. You're kind of impressed by the way everyone works together to keep the secret. And so when Felix returns later that evening as by the ring of the bell, you memorize what Yeji does.

She prepared a cup of tea as well as a cool cloth. Felix is a bit tipsy, only slurring his words a bit but otherwise looks somewhat fully alert. Whoops. Scratch that. He almost tripped on his own shoes. You help Yeji to get him onto the bed and then she has Felix drink some of the tea. Apparently, there's some herbs in there to help relieve the alcohol.