Tin Whistle (NAMJIN)

// 1 //

Long ago, there was a prince who lived in an old, grey castle. Everyone but the prince who lived there was depressed. Even the king and queen were sad.

Seokjin, the prince, was the only one who was cheerful. He did find it quite odd and somewhat funny. However, try as he might, the prince was never able to raise anyone's spirit.

He'd often be left scratching his head at the end of the day, running out of ways to get the household to etch a smile on their faces.

---
Seokjin

I cringed, blinded by the sunlight seeping through the blinds as I got up to stretch my limbs. I ruffled my newly-dyed pink hair, forcing myself to stand up. I intentionally sighed loudly, "Another day of being around sorrowful people"

While brushing my teeth and humming to myself, my mind was brought back to years ago where it was the day of my 7th birthday. Everybody who was invited to the birthday party had giddy expressions on their faces.

Except for my parents and the rest of the household. They'd put on colourful clown masks in order to conceal their despondent features. And I'd be the only one to know about their condition while everybody else would be totally oblivious to it.

I was deeply saddened by it. I knew it wasn't because of my bahaviours or my academics for I was doing pretty well. Sometimes, I'd question myself why I wasn't becoming like them, all glum and zombie-like.

Since I've lived with them since I was born, I was frightened that someday I would turn into one of them without realising it especially now that I'm a teenager and that I might have real bad mood swings.

Though, I'm glad I am still as gleeful as I were then and that is something I will always be forever grateful for. I rinsed my face, going down the stairs right after.

The place was filled with dusty old furnitures, rusty suits of armour that never fail to scare me and paintings of unhappy-looking ancestors that I never really bothered to know about.

As dirty as the palace sounded, it was something for me to call home. Besides, the castle isn't all that bad. There are a few parts of it that I like to go to sometimes, for example, the garden.

I took a seat in front of my mother, who already dug into her breakfast. Like usual, she had her cheerless face plastered on. Hearing my arrival, she greeted me good morning to which I responded back with a wide smile, a weak attempt to get her to smile.

She didn't smile back just like how I expected every single time, pretending as if she didn't catch it. It was good enough that she actually put the effort to actually acknowledge my presence though.

Unlike father, who barely spoke to me unless he really needed to. I do love him dearly, I mean how can I not when he was one of the peoplewho raised me since I was a baby.

After finishing up my soup, I excused myself from my mother who simply nodded. During my free time like these, I enjoyed writing poems and reading, especially playing instruments.

These are a just handful of things I loved to do to entertain myself. There are other things that I like to do too but it'd take me a long list to talk about them. It may look like I was anti-social but I do hang out with my friends, it's just that I prefer doing individual activities.