.twenty seven.
Minji walked the path from the general's home to the palace where the princes lived. She had woken up in an exceptionally good mood, looking forward to the tenth prince's announcement. After their little bet the previous day, he had to keep his end of the bargain and announce in front of his brothers--and maybe even the king if he was having breakfast with them that morning--that he was in fact a shrimp, as Minji had coined him the nickname from the moment they met. As they spent more time together, it had become more of a fond nickname for him, and not the insulting term she had initially wanted it to be. Minji was starting to think the tenth prince wasn't half bad whenever he wanted to act properly. She found herself actually having a good time when she was around him.
When she arrived at the palace, some of the guards greeted her, while one of them offered to escort her to where the princes were having breakfast. It was more out of security reasons for the royal family. They couldn't just let anyone past the front gates, even if they were close friends of the princes.
Minji walked up with the guard and she saw the group of boys sitting together. At one end of the table were Mu, So, Baek-ah, Han, and Eun. At the other end of the table were Yo, Won, Wook, and Jung. Minji felt her face light up when her eyes met with Jung's and his did the same. He jumped out of his seat at the table to go greet her. On the other hand, Eun was all but pleased to see her. His eyes widened in horror as she shot him a teasing grin. He knew exactly why she was there and he knew she wouldn't be letting them off the hook.
Jung pulled her in for a hug after greeting her happily. "What brings you here so early, Hak Soon?"
"I'm here to see Eun actually." She informed him before she could even realize that she hadn't worded it quite how she wanted to say it. Jung's smile was wiped clean off his face and his brothers behind him watched with interest. Baek-ah coughed awkwardly and looked away in an attempt to give them some privacy, but it was difficult because they were all there and they had all witnessed it. Quickly trying to salvage the situation, she added, "I didn't mean it like that. Its just that we made a bet yesterday and he lost, so I'm here to see him keep his end of the deal." She knew there was nothing wrong with Eun and her being friends.
But she didn't want Jung to get the wrong idea, especially considering that Jung had been jealous of the two spending more and more time together lately. He felt like he was being pushed aside by Minji to make more space for his brother. Minji and Eun didn't get along, and as far as Jung was concerned, he liked it that way. He didn't want his older brother to suddenly realize that maybe he didn't hate Minji like he thought he did. Ji Mong did always say that a boy who was mean to a girl was that way because he liked her. But that applied to children and they were all teenagers already.
Eun coughed in order to clear his throat. "I have no idea what she's talking about." He denied what Minji was saying.
The fifteen year old felt her jaw dropped in shock that he would now pretend it didn't happen. The anger bubbled within her in mere instants. Her index finger pointed at her accusingly. "Don't play dumb, shrimpy. Last night when I saw you, you agreed. You can't just go back on your word like that." She was absolutely outraged, and also surprised that the dumb little tenth prince would have the forethought to deny it all.
"Yah, you crazy wench." Eun said, nose in the air as he reverted back to his arrogant self. "I made no such deals with you. You must be mistaking me with someone else."
Minji scoffed at that. "Yeah, like there are millions of other tenth princes in Goryeo."
The other brothers looked to Wang Han, who wasn't an exact lookalike, but did resemble his older brother significantly. He gave a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't look at me. I didn't talk to her yesterday."
