Everyone pictured the Royal Family differently. Some people thought they were the heroes of history, but some thought they were the villains of the story. Zhanghao wasn't sure what he thought of it.
Secrets lay underneath the roof of the castle and he wanted to discover every single inch of it. He had been thinking about the castle ever since he got the job of becoming an assassin. It was the reason why he was the one that got requested to kill the Crown Prince's younger brother, Sung Hanbin.
An assassin's job was not to interfere with the world of politics, and he knew that too. It was a dangerous combination assassin's rather avoid, but Zhanghao desperately wanted to find out all of the hideous secrets that the royal family had been hiding like they were a diary waiting to be opened.
His boss knew his strong desire of that, so that's why she gave the job to him. A job that no one should even think of. Killing one of the royal family, it could lead to complete chaos around the whole kingdom. But it wasn't like Zhanghao was stupid to not know the consequences.
In fact, he knew everything. How the kingdom would react, what would happen to him and what kind of distrust that would give to the royal family, especially after Hanbin's own royal guard was murdered 3 month ago. That's why he was given a year to do it. 365 days. It may not be enough to gain enough trust of the king, queen and both of the princes, but it was enough to gain the trust of the public eye. One of the first guards was murdered silently by one of the enemies.
He remembered how Jiwoong told the story so confidently, how he trusted him while no one was watching the two and how he stabbed the dagger right into his cold heart. It was a flawless story, with no strings attached. It took him a couple of months and he remembered how he told him everything in detail, and maybe a little bit too detailed.
"So you're Zhanghao?" He heard the king speak and he examined every single thing about him. His voice was soft, but it felt cold like a freezing night. From the smallest details on his face, Zhanghao could feel his eyes piercing into his skin. He was trying to look as neutral as he could, because it was a new yet strange feeling to have all the eyes of the king, queen, the Crown Prince's and another girl on him. It was something he wished not to experience ever again.
"Yes, your highness." Having everyone here, yet the person he was going to guard was nowhere to be found. Maybe Hanbin didn't think this was important at all, maybe that's why he was not here. It made him want to chuckle, but didn't even change a single expression. He found it too strange, almost unbelievable.
Zhanghao noticed that the girl was quite tall, but not as tall as him. Her long hair was in a ponytail and she was wearing a pretty long red dress.
Of course he knew who she was. She was the beloved wife of the youngest prince. When people wanted to talk about love, they always thought of their relationship. How they were childhood best friends, how their friendship turned into something more, how they married once they both turned 18. It was like a perfect fairy tale, one with no mistakes, like the two were destined to be together.
Too good to be true.
"Youngmi, show him the way to Hanbin's room. He needs to meet him too." The queen's smile was forced. So forced that it was uncomfortable to look at. The girl-- Youngmi-- bowed at the queen, king and the crown prince before leaving the room. He followed her as he was looking around, finding the castle absolutely stunning. From the decorated walls to ancient paintings of old princesses, princes, kings and queens who used to rule the kingdom of Earth.
When people said that magic didn't exist anymore was a lie and Hanbin was proof of it. It was rare these days, because the society were scared that magic would control the kingdoms and create strong imbalance, but it was different now. People envied people that could control any kind of magic, they wanted to control the people who possessed those abilities for their own protection.
And that's why someone needed to guard the prince. The enemies either wanted to kill Hanbin or have him, because he was 'special' because of his ability to control nature. "Zhanghao, isn't it?" He got dragged out of his thoughts because of Youngmi. "Tell me, why did you want to become a guard?" Her smile was forming on her lips. Zhanghao took a small breath and tried to come up with a realistic answer. "I want to protect our prince. Without any kind of protection, prince Hanbin will be in danger."
It sounded stupid to Zhanghao, but Youngmi looked convinced of that lie. "That's beautiful." Only if she knew the truth, she wouldn't be smiling like this. Once they reached the Hanbin's bedroom, she swung the door open without knocking. "Binnie, come and meet your new guard." Zhanghao scanned Hanbin as soon as he saw him. He didn't understand why, but he expected the younger to give a much stronger than this, but he wasn't complaining.
What surprised him more was that Hanbin bowed 90 degrees to him, like he was the prince and the other was the guard. "It's a pleasure to meet you..." "Zhanghao, my name is Zhanghao your highness." The prince smiled.
"Oh, please don't call me that when--" "Hanbin," Youngmi stopped him with finishing that sentence. "Why won't you show him around the castle, mmh?" Hanbin's expression changed a little, but it wasn't brighter. In fact, he looked a little nervous, which he found a little strange. "S-Sure. That doesn't seem like a bad idea." Youngmi smiled before leaving the two alone.
"Follow me, Zhanghao." Hanbin's smile was definitely bright, maybe a bit too bright in his opinion. "Yes, your highness." It felt weird to keep saying 'your highness' after every sentence because he simply wasn't used to it. "I want to say, please call me Hanbin when we are alone. I feel it's a bit too much to keep calling me 'your highness' when my parents, my brother and Youngmi aren't around." That made him feel a little better.
Hanbin was slightly shorter than him, he noticed. The male definitely acted much different than he expected him to. Rather than cold, he was kind of sweet, if that was the correct word. "What were you before becoming a guard?" He heard him ask. Zhanghao thought a little before answering that. "Mmh, I was helping my father with his flower shop before I came here." Aside from him being an assassin, he actually did help his father around in the flower shop.
After his mother left, he wanted to help his father. He wanted to be sure he was okay and helping him around in his shop, it brightened his mood every time he was there to help him. "That is very nice. I love flowers. They're beautiful, don't you think?" Hanbin's voice was as soft as the clouds in the blue sky. "They absolutely are." He answered with a smile.
Before the silence could fall, Zhanghao asked him; "What's your favorite flower, Hanbin?" He never thought he would be having a conversation about flowers with a person like Hanbin, a prince. "Heliotrope, I think... I love the meaning behind them." He knew what they represented. Eternal love, a love that would never die.
"That's cute." Hanbin blushed a little at that comment. "What about you?" "Begonia. I think they're very pretty." Once they reached the library, Hanbin's eyes lightened up a little. "I saved the best place for the last." The boy showed the place like it was his little treasure. Zhanghao wasn't going to lie that he found this place ugly, because it was far from that. The old looking shelves, the windows that was filled with flowers with different colors, it gave a different vibe.
"I usually spend my time here when I'm free." His eyes kept lingering around the place. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. The library looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale. "It is a nice place." He was definitely going to explore this place before he leaves here. "The librarians are usually here, but they're free today. Their names are Hwan Minji and Ji Sori they are the sweetest girls you'll ever meet."
When Hanbin started walking again, he followed the boy until they reached a shelf. "It's not very clean, but it's my favorite shelf." 'The last song written for you', he read one of the titles. "What are these books about?" The shorter let out a small chuckle and smiled like it was an interesting question. "It's about tragic love stories." Oh, he almost said it out loud. Zhanghao kept looking at the different titles, 'Wait for you', 'The song of spring', 'Black roses', it didn't seem to end.
"Your majesty," A new voice had entered the room, "your brother wants to speak with you." He assumed he was also a guard in this castle. Despite the fact that he looked younger than him, he was taller. His black hair almost covered his eyes. "Tell him I will be there in a few minutes, Gunwook." So his name was Gunwook, he noted that in his mind. "Is he a guard too?" Zhanghao expected a yes, but the other shook his head. "Gunwook is no guard. He is one of our strongest knights and my brother trains him." He took a small breath.
The male noticed the way his expressions changed into a much less happy one, which he found a little strange, because from what he had heard from the people from this kingdom, the brothers had a very strong bond. He didn't want to think too much of it, he would rather wait to find out if it to be true or not.
"You can wait in my room, Zhanghao." Before he could even respond, Hanbin disappeared from his sight.
He started to think. The perfect picture everyone had from the royal family might not be pitch perfect. It not being perfect might be better. He wandered around in the library for a little longer until he finally decided to leave towards Hanbin's bedroom. His eyes scanned every single detail of the castle. Zhanghao was honestly surprised a place like this even existed. He had read places like these in hundreds of books, yet he didn't know that places he read in stories actually existed.
Even his room was a place everyone wanted to be in. The guard's room was next to Hanbin's, which made sense but also not. He did expect the prince's room was next to his brother's room, but it wasn't. Maybe it had a reason, maybe not, but it didn't seem to matter to him. When he pulled down the doorknob of Hanbin's door, Zhanghao couldn't ignore the loud screams that were coming from the office of the king.
It was Dongbin's-- Hanbin's brother's-- voice. He couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, so he took a few steps closer to eavesdrop them. "Who would accept a prince like you?!" It was the first thing he heard. He could hear Hanbin softly speaking, so softly that he couldn't hear the words that were leaving his mouth. "He got what he deserved. He shouldn't have turned you into something like that!" Turned into what? He got more curious, but was stopped by Youngmi.
"What are you doing, Zhanghao?" The sweet voice was definitely fake. "Waiting for Hanbin, your highness." Her eyes hardened and took a small step closer. "It's prince Hanbin. Have some manners." Before he could say anything, she spoke again with a smile. "You're his guard, not his friend." She turned around and walked down the stairs. Even if he wanted to hate her for it, she was right.
He was his guard, nothing more.
The screams lessened, but that didn't mean that he wasn't curious anymore about what the two men were talking about. He couldn't blow his cover that wasn't really a cover up because he was curious. Maybe if he got close enough with Hanbin, he would trust him enough to tell him his secrets, including the things he was talking about with his older brother.
Zhanghao turned around to the prince's room and closed the door behind him. Now that he was alone, he could scan this whole place without having to worry that someone would suddenly walk into him trying to find things. Hanbin's room was bright blue mixed with green. He didn't think it looked bad, but he didn't think it looked good either.
There were tons of plants, too many to count. But there was one that caught his attention. It was a flower that he never had seen in his entire life. It was weirdly shaped too, filled with thorns and black and white leaves, which was odd to see. Two colored flowers were both naturally and magically impossible, so he was staring at the flower, waiting for it be one color, but it didn't change. It looked like a dead and malformed rose, but he was sure the flower was alive. Not the whole flower though, just the black ones seemed to be alive.
The more Zhanghao looked at it, the more it confused him. There were no thorns on the stem of the flower, but it was hidden in the petals, some were visible and some were not.
He didn't want to touch it, knowing some flowers were poisonous by touch. He couldn't see or smell if it was poisonous, but he didn't want to find out by laying a finger on it.
"Do you like the flowers?"
Hanbin startled him when he silently entered the room. Although he was smiling, his voice didn't match his energy. "I have studied every single flower, yet I have never seen something as unique as this one." He admitted. The male took a few steps closer to see which one he was talking about. "You didn't touch it, did you?" From the worry in his voice, Zhanghao knew the flower might be poisonous. Honestly speaking, he shook his head. "No, I didn't lay a finger on it." A small breath ran out of his lips.
"You shouldn't touch that one, it's... ehm..." He seemed to struggle to find the words he wanted to say. "It's a flower connected to me and someone else." "How is that possible?" He didn't realise he said it out loud until Hanbin lowered his head a little. "It's complicated." Complicated how? Is it a secret I am not supposed to know?
"As long as you don't touch it, it will do no harm." He wasn't planning on touching it anyways, but after what he said, he was sure he would never even think about it. "Did you create all of these?" As expected, he responded with a nod. "They're all very pretty." It wasn't a lie. He saw some of the rarest flowers here, so rare that Zhanghao thought most of them didn't even exist anymore.
"Thank you, Zhanghao." He was sure Hanbin was blushing again. It seemed to be a habit when he blushed every time someone complimented him or something of him.
"I wanted to inform you about the ball in the Kingdom Of Fire. It's on the 27th of May." So in 2 months. "My brother will inform you more about it." He wanted to ask why his brother would inform him more and not him, but it's probably because his brother knew more about it then him.
"What kind of ball is it?" He was curious, because there were tons of balls with all different kinds of meanings behind them. "A masked ball. It only happens every 5 years. You're very lucky to experience it, Zhanghao." A masked ball, he wasn't unfamiliar with these, just the fact that he never had been to one. Balls like this were strictly for royals only(and the guards of the royals), it was a well protected place so that no one attacked one of the royals.
Usually, these were held in the honor of a new king, queen, marriage or a new creation. It was a night where all kings, queens, princes and princesses united and enjoy the celebration together. Zhanghao was wondering why this one was hold. It must have an important reasoning since it's a masked ball.
"We will have plenty of time to get you ready, so you don't have to worry. I will teach you every single dance you might have to dance to." Hanbin smiled lightly, but it was bright as usual. Zhanghao stopped with everything for a second. Dancing?
When he became a guard, he mentally prepared himself for every obstacle, but dancing? It was the last thing he thought of. "Do I have to dance?" He really wished he said no. "You have to, it's a way to show respect." It could have been worse, he thought. "Okay..." His voice was barely above a whisper.
Hanbin's smile dropped a little when he saw the sudden worry on Zhanghao's face. "You don't know how to dance?" He immediately denied the accusation. "I do! I seriously do know how to dance, but I have never danced with someone..." Hanbin let out a small chuckle before placing his hand on his shoulder. "I will teach you, so you don't have to worry, Zhanghao." The way he said his name was too soft for his liking.
Sung Hanbin wasn't acting the way he thought he would have acted towards him.
He was too sweet, he was too careful with his words, he was too kind for his own good towards a stranger like him. It hadn't been a day and he treated him like a best friend and he couldn't tell if he liked it or not.
"Thanks, I think I do need some lessons on how to do traditional royal-guard dance." Zhanghao's smile was probably too small for Hanbin to notice. At the least he hoped it was invisible for him. "It's not that hard--"
"Zhanghao, can I have a private moment with Hanbin, please?" The prince was cut off by Youngmi who entered the room without knocking. "Of course, your highness." He looked at Hanbin and bowed. "You can go to your room and rest a little." He heard him say before leaving the room. He didn't need to close the door because she did it for him.
"It's a flower connected to me and someone else."
Connections between nature and humans was weird for people who didn't have the knowledge of the spirits of flowers. But Zhanghao's father forced him to learn about it even though he never asked him to teach him it. Now that he is thinking about it, once he ever gets a chance to meet his father after all of this stuff, he wants to thank him for teaching something so strange yet needed.
A connection between a human and flower was more common than people thought it was. Everyone had a little magic in them, whether they liked it or not. The only problem was that it wasn't enough to use. Spirituality was a form of magic that was possessed by everyone, but it wasn't really classified as magic when it came to humans and animals.
A connection between two humans and a flower was actually rare and according to... basically everything he had been taught impossible. It was not possible, so the fact that there was a connection between Hanbin, someone else and a flower made his brain explode. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Hanbin can control plants itself.
He wanted to know how and why the flower was connected to two souls and not just one. He needed to know, he wanted to find out.
He really wanted to go to the library to see if there were any kind of book about the connection of flowers and humans.
When he closed the room of his door, he immediately went to his desk and threw his books on it. He didn't bring any book like that from home. He just wanted to do as Hanbin told him to do, rest.
Zhanghao looked at the white painting of the wall instead of the words in the book as he let his thoughts overflow with the information he could remember what his father had thought him, but it didn't help him. A small groan escaped his lips and closed the book. He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and yawned. The sun was still in the sky shining brightly through the windows and he was just a little tired.
He remembered his boss telling him to expose the secrets of the royal families house, and he would definitely do that. If he could do it before he gets murdered by the other guards, of course. That flower was definitely one of the things he wanted to remember.
He wrote down in his small book 'Hanbin's flower' before immediately hiding it somewhere were he hoped no one would be able to find it but him. He hid it underneath the floor of the closet. Zhanghao decided to write everything in Chinese instead of Korean, because he was sure no one here knew Chinese. Not a lot of people in this kingdom spoke the language.
An hour of two passed by and Hanbin and Youngmi were still having their private moment together, as she called it like that. Even though the room was next to him, he couldn't hear a single thing. Zhanghao closed the book he was reading and stood up to stretch his body a little. His eyes landed on a sword in his room while he was doing a little exercise.
He was almost sure it was his sword, because he, as a guard, needed a weapon to protect the prince. And a sword seemed like a perfect one. The sword looked heavy because of its size. It was big and the color silver and red were the colors he could see. It seemed a little weird, but it was oddly pretty. Zhanghao let out a sigh and laid on his bed, but before he could close his eyes for a second, he heard a knock.
"Zhanghao, are you still there?" It was Hanbin, who else could it be? "Yes, I am still here." When Hanbin didn't open the door, he stood up to do it for him. "I wanted to say that dinner's ready." He wasn't necessarily hungry, but he did want to eat. When the two were walking downstairs, Hanbin suddenly stopped him.
"Just to clarify," He took a pause for a second, "you're not allergic to anything, right?" Zhanghao thought it was a little weird that a prince was asking that question and not the one who actually cooked the dinner, the chefs. "I'm actually allergic to oil." The older joked, but the younger thought he was being for real. "I can tell the chefs to make oil free--" "I was kidding!" Not a funny joke.
A small 'oh' left his mouth and forced out a small laughter, too forced. "Well, that's good to know at the least." Zhanghao wasn't lying when he said that he was curious of how the food tasted like here. Maybe his hopes were way too high, but he wasn't planning to lower them until he actually tasted the food.
The dining hall was huge, probably bigger than a restaurant and the male was amazed of how big it was. "I know I have showed you around already, but I think I forgot to show you our dining hall." Hanbin was right, he did forget to show him this place. "Since you're my guard, you sit on the left of me." Royal guards sit next to the prince? That was a first.
"Gunwook! Hurry!" Dongbin screamed and let out a little groan. "Why is he always so late?" Hanbin softly touched his brother on his shoulder. "Go easy on him, he is just a kid." "He is 18, not a kid anymore." The younger sighed and smiled, but before he could say anything, his brother spoke before him. "Besides, he is a knight. There is no reason of why I should go easy on him if our enemies won't go easy on him." "You're not Gunwook's enemy." "He needs to learn it, Hanbin. He will have to understand that the enemies won't go easy on him simply because I am the one who is training him."
The boy let out a scoff. "Whatever you say." He spoke underneath his breath. Zhanghao sat on the left of Hanbin. The food looked delicious and so did it smell. Once everyone was sitting, Dongbin stood up and looked at Hanbin before his eyes moved to everyone else in this room. "I have something big to announce." All the eyes were glued on him, including Zhanghao's. He was curious of why he was speaking all of a sudden to everyone.
"Oh Hanbin, we all feel very sorry about the passing of your old guard." The sadness he saw in his eyes, it seemed a little odd. "We all loved Matthew." He tried to hold back a smile. "Your father was also very sad that such a young man had passed away so soon." Zhanghao had no idea who this Matthew guy was, but he was Hanbin's old guard if he had to believe what Dongbin was saying.
"He was murdered while trying to protect you, a true hero." Hanbin held his breath for a few seconds as he watched him.
"We are having a special meal in the honor of your new guard, Zhanghao." Everyone started clapping and some were even cheering.
Zhanghao was speechless. He was afraid to make any sudden movements and be seen as disrespectful, so he just stood up, bowed and smiled. He hated that all the eyes were glued on him, except for Hanbin's.
Dongbin bowed in response, "Congratulations, Zhanghao." Zhanghao could see that Dongbin was sincere with his words. His eyes looked kind and welcoming. "You will be guarding Hanbin. You should take care of my brother for me."
He felt stupid. No, he felt stupid because no one knew his true intentions besides himself. "I will do everything I can in order to protect your brother." Zhanghao responded. He wasn't sure what else to say because he never mentally prepared himself for situations like these. He hated when everyone was looking at him, especially a large group.
"Well then, let's continue our dinner, shall we?"
Zhanghao sat down when Dongbin did. He looked at Hanbin, who seemed a little hurt. He was sure it was about Matthew, his old guard. He must be still hurting about what had happened, losing someone is never easy.
The rest of the night went by without accidents, which made Zhanghao breathe a sigh of relief. No random speeches he had to give in front of a large group at the least. After dinner, the boy followed Hanbin-- he needed to be there for him after all. "Hanbin, are you okay?" He asked, hoping that he would stop with walking and turn around.
And he did. "I'm fine Zhanghao and I am sorry for not warning you about what happened in the dining hall. I haven't had a new guard in such a long time that I forgot that we always have a special meal on the first--" The boy cut him off with a small smile he hoped Hanbin noticed. "It's fine, don't worry. It wasn't that all scary, I was just... surprised, that's all." He looked relieved to hear that.
"It's good to hear that it was fine." Before he could ask anything else, he spoke again. "You're dismissed. You can do whatever you want. I want some alone time." Zhanghao wanted to stop him and ask him a few questions, but instead just bowed and went to his room.
He was curious about the Matthew guard, what he meant to him. It was sure that they had a close bond, friends, lovers maybe-- no, that was impossible. That's how he liked to think of it. The world wasn't homophobic, but a prince loving a man? Hanbin had a wife too, he was married. Lovers was definitely not---
Why was he even thinking about it?
A deep sigh escaped his lips and closed the door behind him. He had so many questions, yet he left them unanswered. He was going to find out eventually(he hoped). Hanbin's brother, Dongbin, was kind to him. He didn't find out anything about his parents yet, but what did he expect? It was his first day.
The boy grabbed a pencil and a sheet of white paper and started drawing the flower he saw in Hanbin's room. Black leaves were alive, while the white ones seemed to be dead. Tons of thorns were hiding underneath the petals. Half dead and half alive-- he knew that flowers can be like that, but it was rare. Too rare for a reason. Someone broke Hanbin, but it wasn't just a heartbreak.
Someone scarred him so deeply that a part of the flower died. It's not easy to kill a part of the flower and it wasn't easy to bring that dead part of the flower back either. There was a way to bring it back alive and healthy, but he didn't want to be that someone that helped Hanbin with that. He wasn't here to safe the prince, he was here to do the exact opposite.
To kill him.
He didn't want to get attached to Hanbin, and saving his flower meant that he could get too close with him. He had to pretend, not to actually care.
After drawing the flower on a paper, he grabbed the hidden notebook from underneath the wood under the closet and placed it in between the pages were he wrote 'Hanbin's flower'. After placing it back, he opened the doors of the closet to grab a pajama to wear, but even the sleepwear looked rich. It looked much different than the ones he had at home.
After changing into his pajamas, he jumped into his bed and grabbed the book that was on his nightdesk and read it until he was tired enough to sleep.
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A/N: This is my first time writing assassin x prince, "I am supposed to kill you" enemies(but not really enemies) to lovers so I am very excited to continue this story! This will be a shorter story, but I will try to keep things interesting.
ANYWAYS, I really hoped you enjoyed this first chapter, hope to see you in the next one too, bye<3