princess [a minsung story]

15

"you see felix," chan explained, "his majesty has been king ever since his parents, the king and the queen, passed away eighteen years ago."

felix widened his eyes. "eighteen? that's probably before i was born!"

chan nodded sadly. "his majesty was five then. none of know the details of his parent's death, but it was probably a murder."

the room was quiet for a while with grief. then seungmin spoke up. "a murder would explain why his majesty is so against trusting people easily. i would have an extremely difficult time trusting anybody after that."

"so that's why his majesty is so reserved?" felix asked, thinking about this.

"yeah." jeongin replied. "that's why the guards only ever stay out in the gate, the soldiers never leave the guard towers, i don't have assistance in the kitchen, and the maids only come to clean the castle once a week under our supervision and even they have known his majesty for a long time. it has been like this ever since his majesty was thirteen and was old enough to make such thing happen."

felix sighed. he understood minho's purpose for such a lack of social interactions, but something still didn't seem quite right.

"but so many kings and queens get assassinated every other day, and their children doesn't quite take it to extreme measures like this." he said, fiddling with his fingers. "they might avoid seeing others for a while, but no one shuts themselves out of the world so completely, even after so long. what really happened during the murder?"

no one had anything to say to that. "none of us truly knows." chan replied. "and even if we did, it's not our place to tell you something so private."

"i would tell you to ask his majesty about it," said changbin, leaning back into his chair. "but we already asked him about it many times, and he wouldn't say a word. no offense, but i don't think it would be any different for you when you've barely met him for a week or so."

felix frowned, dying with curiosity, but he knew the others were right.

"i have a question, though." hyunjin stated suddenly, making everyone's heads turn to him. he looked at felix. "i was there when his majesty first met you and jisung in the throne room. i was at the back of the room, waiting for the conversation to be over so i could either lead you to the guest chambers or kick you out."

"i expected his majesty to reject letting you two stay here." hyunjin continued, slightly pressing his lips together. "his majesty is a good person, but as far i've known him he's not that generous to let you two stay in the castle with free food and shelter, and would also not let you guys work for him in exchange as he never met you two before."

felix didn't reply and stayed silent, urging hyunjin with his eyes to go on.

hyunjin let out a small breath through his mouth before he continued. "saying i was shocked when his majesty accepted your request would be an understatement. not only he agreed to let you stay, but he even gave jisung such an important, trust-required job as his personal assistant. i know his majesty didn't ask jisung to do much yet and the job doesn't seem to be very effective, but when his majesty needs his personal assistant's help, the person with the job must be very obedient, and do exactly as his majesty says, or else..."

the knight did not finish, letting the sentence linger in the air.

"i already warned jisung about cho daehoon." mentioned chan, sighing. "although i'm not sure if he'll take me seriously."

"he better." said seungmin. "unless he wants the same thing to happen to him."

"what happened to him?" felix asked, his brain exploding with questions.

"he told someone something his majesty told him to keep to himself." seungmin answered. "stupid guy. he knew that his majesty could chop his head off if he desired. he almost did get killed, but he begged until his voice gave out so he's just in the kingdom cells right now."

"basically, his majesty needs to tell his personal assistant some more private information in order for them to do their job properly." changbin added. "the juicy information is unbelievably tempting not to spill, so the person with the job must have the self-control and loyalty. we all thought daehoon was the one, but i guess not."

felix frowned. "then why did jisung..."

"like i said, we don't know." hyunjin replied, leaning against his elbow. "but something must be different about jisung if his majesty did something like this."

jeongin bit hip lower lip. "now that i think about it, his majesty has been acting a bit different recently ever since jisung and felix came here."

chan nodded slowly. "i've noticed. his majesty seems more laid-off lately, and genuinely too – not faking it like he usually does with newcomers. i'm glad really, it seems like jisung is having a positive effect on his majesty."

"actually," seungmin frowned. "i have a feeling it's a little more than that."

everyone widened their eyes at seungmin's statement, all shocked, especially felix, who was aware of jisung's feelings towards the king.

"w-wait, what?" he stuttered out.

seungmin raised a brow. "have you guys not seen how his majesty looks at jisung? at breakfast the day i first met the boy, a few minutes ago in his room, and all the other times i saw them together, i clearly saw the change in the look his majesty has in his eyes every time they land on jisung. i cannot believe you guys didn't see that."

jaws dropped from everyone in the room. his majesty, the king lee minho, having feelings for someone?

"impossible." felix breathed, trying to make sense of seungmin's thinking.

the boy scoffed and rolled his eyes. "you guys are either blind or truly foolish if you didn't notice it. it's obvious – his majesty's eyes would lighten and sparkle a bit when he looks at jisung."

everyone tried to remember if what seungmin was saying was true. unbelievably, they all did at least remember a glimpse of minho's eyes softening when he was with jisung.

"...do you think... maybe his majesty...." felix tried to ask, but he couldn't get the words out properly.

"maybe." seungmin answered.

chan sighed. "it is possible, but remember guys, we must never make assumptions without being a hundred percent sure, alright?"

everyone nodded at the oldest's command, still kind of in a daze, and started to go to their positions. jeongin went to the kitchen to prepare lunch, chan went to set up the dining hall, seungmin went to check on the horses, changbin went to the courtyard to train alone, and hyunjin was about to head to minho's room when he saw felix still sitting on the couch, his heads in his hands.

"felix?" called the knight. the boy rose his head to look at him. "are you coming?"

felix shook his head. "no, i'll just stay here. i don't really have anywhere to go." he felt another spang of guilt for not doing his job as serving jisung.

"you can come with me to his majesty's room if you'd like."

"no, i would rather stay here and just think about some things." felix replied, giving hyunjin a small smile. "thank you, though."

hyunjin sort of got lost in staring at felix's smile for a second before he snapped out of it. he nervously rubbed his nape as he tried to hide his slightly pink cheeks.

"uh... alright, if you say so." he said, opening the door out the great hall. he turned to face felix again and smiled. "see you, felix."

then he was out the door, leaving felix alone to wonder what to do with all the new information even jisung didn't know.

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guess who's going to summer camp😰