Prince's Gamble | HAOBIN

2. Friend or Foe

What was the prince doing standing in their classroom? Zhanghao wondered, jaw dropped just as the others were too. The academy school, created for those of the middle class at lowest, was not a place you would go looking for one of the royal family. 

Zhanghao's surprise didn't die down as the teacher told the prince to sit in the empty chair to the left of Zhanghao. Watching him as he walked towards him, Zhanghao locked eye contact, surveying the prince. 

Despite his high status, his eyes portrayed none other than a boy the same age as him, on his way to completing his last year of school. Their eye contact broke when the prince turned to sit down before taking out a few books and pens out from under the desk. After doing so, he turned to Zhanghao,

"Hey. I'm Hanbin." He smiled, a smile all too warm for Zhanghao's heart, "What's your name?" 

"Oh w-wow, the Prince Hanbin?" Zhanghao replied, nervously. 

"Drop the 'Prince'." Hanbin said, "I hate it." 

"O-oh sure." Zhanghao said, feeling the need to bow or show some form of respect to the prince's command. An awkward silence fell between them before Hanbin began to talk again,

"You still haven't told me your name." Hanbin said, raising his eyebrows. 

"I'm Zhanghao." Was all Zhanghao managed to get out. 

"Let's be friends, Zhanghao." Hanbin replied, grinning. 

—

Hanbin couldn't help but feel the nervousness rushing to his ears as he waited outside the classroom door, waiting for the teacher to call him in. His whole life he had been taught about the need to separate those of different wealth in order to keep the kingdom in stability. 

At least that's what he was taught at within the royal education. 

His father certainly believed the same, always enforcing the cruelest laws on those of lower status and especially those who fell under the term 'slave' or 'servant'. He hated it. Every single bit of it. Hanbin believed in the ideas of equality, where royals lived amongst their people, using their wealth for the needs and good of the kingdom rather than personal gain. 

And this school was his first step. 

He wanted to show his father that it was easily possible to spend everyday life with the lower class, even make friends with them and devote time to them. 

Hanbin was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw the teacher gesturing for him to walk in. Eyes gazing around slowly as he walked in, he observed his new class. Hanbin knew that when he was to move schools it would become the talk of the town, and that assumption didn't fail him when the students immediately had their mouths gaping at the sight of him, whispers starting up again. 

As he moved towards his seat, he made eye contact with the boy directly to the right of where he was about to sit. The boy's dark eyebrows enhanced his features, making his cat-like eyes sharper as they gazed into Hanbin's soft ones. 

Hanbin wanted this to work. He needed it to work. Might as well make some friendships along the way, and even so there was something about this boy's presence that interested Hanbin. A sort of pull that he needed to answer. 

So Hanbin sat down and began to talk. 

—

"Friends with the prince?!" Gyuvin looked to Zhanghao as they walked out of the classroom to lunch. "I'm surprised he didn't go to Ricky, he's quite obviously the richest one here." Gyuvin smirked.