Berry Prince

six

The single beam of light was shining through the small gap of the tall, ruby curtains so I decided to get up and open them. The sun shone through bright waking me fully. After my eyes adjusted, I saw snow had coated the gardens. The trees, bushes and grass were covered in a thick layer of clean, white snow. It looked like a winter wonderland I had read about in my books. I hurried across my room to the bathroom to get on some proper clothes to go downstairs and eat.

The quicker I started lessons, the quicker I could get out and into the refreshing snow. The heat that Daegu normally had had always bothered me. The feeling of moist skin clinging to thin clothes grossed me out and the beach always seemed like an inconvenience; why go somewhere to get covered in horrible, grainy sand and swallow copious amounts of salty water? The winter time was my preferable season as the cold always washed over me and woke me from the haze of the year. Beautiful, white snowflakes would fall from fluffy clouds and paint the castle grounds and city like a pretty painting. The snow also meant less classes as my teacher suffered badly from the cold and wintery season.

I rushed down the stairs and ate quickly. Today was a vegetable omelette with various sides. I shoved the food quickly down my throat before kissing my mother's cheek to go and attend lessons.

My teacher, today, focused on music. She was telling me how my deep voice would be excellent for performing and I could probably become famous from it. We then moved onto English and then maths before she called it today.

I practically sprinted towards the main entrance of the large palace; large oak doors with gold bolting and decorations that matched the rest of the expensive palace. The guards raised their eyebrows as I left but other than that, didn't say anything as one of them opened the right door for me to leave.

The limestone water fountain that stood in the middle of the front garden had been frozen, its water in a beautiful figure as if reaching towards the sky for escape. The rose bushes that stood in front of the walls all had a light dusting of the icing sugar substance on them, causing their gorgeous roses to stand out. Someone had shovelled the snow off the large path that led to the towering iron gates that stood attached to the tall, white walls of the palace. Snow coated the normally green grass and as I stood on it, it made a satisfying crunch. I began to run. I ran all the way round the castle before I came to the back garden. The view from my window was even more amazing in real life.

The cold was nipping at my fingertips as I walked around the maze of bushes and trees. Someone had shovelled all the clean snow off the paths like at the front of the large estate, so I was easily strolling through the garden as I admired the trees that had ice climbing their trunks and the snow delicately placed on their small leaves. The beautiful willow tree that stood in the middle of the gardens had droplets of blue ice on all its drooping twigs and, like the other trees, had a thin layer of dazzling ice scaling its thin trunk.

Admiring the willow, I heard to my left humming. It was soft and sweet, and I recognised the song however couldn't place my finger on what the song was. Turning and following the cleared path, I came across someone in a thick coat with a big shovel, shovelling the thick snow off the path. I started to walk closer to hear the song better, but a twig snapped under my foot. The guy quickly spun his head around and I recognised it to be Jungkook.

"Oh, hey Taehyung-ssi", he said, turning to fully face me.

"Please don't use -ssi, it sounds to formal." I said shaking my arms in front of me, "Call me hyung."

A smile slowly grew on his face before he asked, "How do you know that I'm younger than you?"

OOF. NO. MAKE UP A LIE.

"Well... a lucky guess." I said, crossing my arms across my chest. "You do have a slight baby face."

"I do not." He pouted in response, "How old are you?"

"17, 18 in  19 days." I replied, smirking as he looked annoyed "And you are?"

"17 as of September."

"That means I'm your Hyung." I was happy about this as everyone in the palace was always older, even the princes of other kingdoms who came to visit.

"Fine then, Hyung. What are you doing out here? It's freezing and you only have shirt and trousers on. Aren't you cold?"

"Not really. I don't usually feel the cold. Also, I love the snow. It's so pretty."

"Yeah, it is." When Tae turned his head, he made eye-contact with the boy who then blushed and looked away.

"So, what are you up to, Jungkookie?" I said, walking closer to the boy slightly, as we were quite far apart, my hands in my trouser pockets.

"Chef said that I could either wash dishes or plow the snow of the paths and I really hate dishes, so I ended up out here."

"Oh. Sounds fun." I replied sarcastically. "I should probably leave you to your shovelling."

"I suppose so." Jungkook looked down at his shovel and then back into my eyes, "See you around, I guess."

"Yeah, see you around." I smiled my usually boxy smile before turning on my heel and walking back to the palace to eat something. The sound of crunching snow got further and further away as I walked towards the crystal white palace and I knew he'd gone back to work.

~988 words~