promise ↜ ljn

♕ final

〚 7 years later. 〛

Haneul walked around the castle, the tiara on her head was sparkling. However, the queen was in a rush. She had meetings to attend as well as an event to progress. As she walked rapidly towards the stairs, she collided with someone, causing her to almost fall and the maids to be on full alarm.

"Your Majesty—!"

The queen stood up straight again, she looked for the person she bumped into but found no one up ahead until she glanced downwards.

"Jeno!" The queen exclaimed to the boy in front of her. The named boy simply smiled sheepishly at the queen as he was embarrassed for what he had done. His eye smile never failed to melt her heart, erasing the final bits of anger she had for him.

The boy held on to her. All the maids stood still behind the queen, waiting for their next order. Haneul smiled softly at him, it has been quite a while since she last met him as she was busy with her duty as a Queen. She missed him dearly.

Haneul crouched down to match his eye level. "Will you not greet me?" She asked softly. "I was looking for Jisung, I did not see you." The toddler replied innocently. Jisung was his dear friend, they were about the same age and they were extremely playful.

Jaemin often came to bring Jisung so the two could train together. The children became awfully attached to one another and they were very close, just like Jaemin and Jeno before.

"Hide and seek?" Haneul asked and the younger one nodded. "I'm tired of looking for him." The younger child pouted. Haneul chuckled at his cuteness. "You cannot lose to him, your father would tease you." The queen brought a hand to pat the younger's head. Again, the boy pouted at her comment. He would always lose when it comes to arguing with the king.

"Dear child, stop pouting. You'll make me sad." Haneul said. "No Mother, you can't be sad." The small boy suddenly threw his arms around her neck. Jeno had always been soft whenever he noticed that Haneul was sad. Haneul blamed herself slightly as she failed to hide her tears from him.

Haneul loved her son, of course. However, he reminded her so much of the prince she loved. She didn't cry just because she was sad. She only cried because she missed him and she wished things would be different at times. However, that was not a reason for her to continue being sorrowful. The queen knew she had to move on.

"If you win over Jisung, then I won't be sad." Haneul kissed his cheek and the boy giddily looked at her. "I will not disappoint you, Mother!" He exclaimed, full of determination. Jeno excused himself and sprinted away to seek for his dear friend so he could boast his victory afterwards.

〚 王 〛

"—and then I found him under the table!" The boy exclaimed, he even tried to demonstrate Jisung's position under the table. Both of his parents started chuckling at his adorableness. Haneul took a handkerchief and wiped the younger one's mouth as it was smudged with his own food.

"Sit properly." She said and the younger one did as told as he resumed sitting down. "Are you proud of me, Father?" He asked and all eyes were on the king later on. "Of course I am." Yoon Oh smiled. The three of them continued to eat and when it was bedtime for Jeno, Haneul carried him upstairs.

However, the young boy wouldn't stop talking. He had so much to tell his mother as it had been a few days since they last see each other. Haneul was distracted by a lot of work for the week so she had less time to spend for her family.