𝕾𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖊//𝖂𝖊𝖓 𝕵𝖚𝖓𝖍𝖚𝖎

Chap. 6

The meetings become more and more frequent. Weekly. Sometimes even twice a week. You would go up to Hollow Street, treading a little further each time before Junhui emerges from the shadows in front of you in his commoner clothing that at first, portrayed him as yet another man leaning next to the entrance of the pub with his head pulled to cover half of his face before you learned to map the leanness of his posture, the delicacy of his side profile, him, him, him.

Junhui takes you to places that could get your great grandmother shaking in her grave; places you've only watched in rapt curiosity through the coach's window as you pass by the entrance. Sometimes he takes you to the most common places like the edge of town where the stony path ends and the dirt path begins, opening up to a wind-brushed field. Only in the distance can you see the lump of trees and branches wave at you.

Junhui drops to the ground under the tree, patting the spot next to him as he glances up at you with tilted lips, "What do you think of the crown prince?"

"I've never really given it a thought," you admit, joining him on the ground despite your maid's voice tutting in your head over how improper the act is as the daughter of your parents, "from what I heard the girls talking, he's a crude man who welcomes any woman into his chambers, sometimes even more than one."

"Though that is only one part of him," you continue after a heartbeat, "if he makes a good ruler and for whatever reason he's ordered the guards (note that I said 'guards' and not you) to take any willing orphans, no one can deny that they are better off at the castle than on the streets, I don't see any problems."

"We lost my brother to the war two years ago," you solemnly murmur, shoulders caving as though if you'd make yourself small, time will turn back to when you're mere children and Hoshi is still here, running down the corridors of the mansion and almost running into the butler who's carrying a tray of evening tea, "he was too eager to go to war even though he was exempted as the son of the duke; he believed the crown prince's rule, the one he fought for, will be a better one."

"Because he claimed to be friends with the prince," you laugh dryly as you recall your brother's eager eyes as you and your family sent him off, never expecting to receive a letter of notice instead of the man himself, "no one's even seen the prince ever and there he was, gloating about being good friends with him."

"Nonetheless," the cord of your voice grazes painfully against your throat as tears pricked the waterline in your eyes and you cannot blame the gust of wind blowing through for it, "he has the highest opinion of his highness, I shall honor that in his memory."

"He sounds like a wonderful person," Junhui bites his lip as he drops his head to let his fringe conceal his eyes, "I wish I could've met him."

The branches waves in consolation from the forest line, telling you how sorry they are for your loss the way Junhui does, "he was a lot like you, come to think of it."

"So free," you breathe in and hold it for three heartbeats, smelling the dampened ground and moss from somewhere beyond the tree line, "if he was here now, he'd be playing dress up like you do, exploring the kingdom before it was a matter of time that he started exploring the world mayhaps."

"If he was anything like me, if not greater," you look at him, not surprised to see those doe eyes staring at you like watching the tips of a flame dancing over the hearth; oh so mysterious yet so deadly, "he would probably had already explored every inch of the kingdom; that's why he wanted to go to war; because he loves this kingdom so much, he wants to protect it."