Promise- Minsung

Chapter Eighteen

Minho stared up at him with a smile.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Look at you like what?"

"Like that! Like I'm some pretty girl at the marketplace!"

In an instant, Minho's face was cold. Jisung stared at him as his features became frozen and he stood from his rock.

"What? Prince Minho, I-"

"I'm going to go get a drink." Minho murmured, staring out at nothing in front of him. He seemed to be seeing everything and nothing all at once, and Jisung felt a twang of guilt. Was it something he had said? He watched as the Lee prince walked away.

Bang Chan, standing nearby, sighed as he watched Lee Minho. Such a happy face could become so sad in just an instance. Bang Chan almost felt worse for the Han Prince, who was staring after Minho with a shocked guilty look.

Bang Chan slowly made his way over to Jisung. "Don't take him to heart. Many things ruined love for him in the past. He still needs time to heal."

"What? What happened?"

Bang Chan gave him a hesitant pained look, before shaking his head. "It's not really my story to tell but..." a thought seemed to flash in his head. "You'd find out one way or another. Come, walk with me. I'll tell you a story..."

The lord and the prince made their way to a nearby pond, in which crickets chirped and the singing of their soldiers working to make camp could still be heard from a distance.

"So... care to tell me?"

"Prince... you realize that people can not control love, right?"

"It's not like I've ever been around any girls but yeah, I guess. From the novels and such, sure."

"Well, that's not just in novels. It happens in real life too..." Bang Chan kicked rocks as he walked. "And it happened to Minho."

"How so?"

"You see, Minho has always been a social creature. He loved going to the markets back home and just talking to subjects, which made him the most popular of his siblings. And one day, he met a girl!"

Jisung groaned. "Let me guess, he fell in love with her?"

"Right."

"Then what's the problem? He can just take her as a consort of some sorts, right?"

"Normally, that would be true. She was a noble man's daughter, so with normal circumstances, he could have just married her and lived happily ever after... but that's not the case here."

"What not?"

"You see, Minho is having an arranged marriage, one that could save our kingdom. Unfortunately, as part of the agreement, either party can not have any lovers or relationships before the union of the states. This meant that Minho could not marry here and could not be with her, even in secret."

"... right."

"That girl..." Bang Chan sighed. "I don't know if she really loved him or not. One day, she just showed up at the spot they would always meet, and told him she was getting married to someone else. A rich man's son. Someone she would be special to, or something like that. She said she wouldn't wait for him, and she had to get married, and she left him heartbroken and alone."

"Normally, the loss of one lover is not the biggest deal. What made her so special?"

"I don't really know. Maybe it was because she was Minho's first love, or maybe because he was naive enough to fall for her, but it broke him in two. In my opinion, the youngest prince doesn't trust the people in his life will not just pack up and leave. His parents disappeared out of nowhere, leaving him to be raised by servants. He turned her back on him, and even his brother shoved him away to rule with a steady hand, and sent him here, to a foreign country to try to make peace. It seems like nobody in his life seems to stick around long."