walking through the bustling market, jihoon waved at the friendly shop owners who greeted him. the boy scrunched his nose which was already coloured a light shade of red from the crisp morning air.
he looked up at the almost bare trees as he headed to a shop selling candy nearby. the sounds of chimes filled the small shop as he walked in and savoured the warmth from inside along with the faint smell of caramel.
a plump lady with a fiery red braid, stood behind the worn counter placed down the steaming cup she was holding. she looked up and greeted the boy with familiarity, "good morning jihoon! it's getting colder and colder these days am i right?"
rubbing his cold ears with his equally numb fingers, jihoon laughed. "it certainly is. one of these days, i guarantee we'll wake up to see white covering the ground."
the lady hummed and turned around to the shelves filled with jars of all sorts of bright coloured candies. "the regular?" she asked, grabbing two small bags full of assorted sweets.
jihoon opened his mouth but then changed his mind, "actually could i get two more bags? one filled with salt water taffy and the other with those peppermint ones." grinning the lady did as he asked. she swiftly tied the bags and slid the four bags over to jihoon who dug out a few coins and placed them down.
she took a sip from her cup, "peppermint... you hate those."
jihoon grinned, "but you know who doesn't? seungcheol."
"he's coming back today?" the lady beamed, "all the children are going to be delighted to hear that cheol's trinkets and toys will be open again."
a small laugh slipped from jihoon's mouth when hearing the name of seungcheol's toy shop. he nodded his head, "and i have a feeling he'll be back with some good news. after all, i did see him slip a ring box in his bag before leaving.." the lady's eyes lit up with excitement. tossing her braid behind her, she took another gulp from her cup.
"so if you come back next week with a smile on your face.... i'll know."
it has been three months since jihoon had left nytis and started living with soonyoung in reinwa.
"listen son... i'm sorry." he father said, sighing once again, "your mother is sorry. we're both very sorry. when you ran away, i was outraged at jisoo and you. i kept on thinking to myself what was wrong with you? how did i screw up while teaching you?"
shiwoo looked at soonyoung and jihoon from across the couch. "while you were gone, i did a lot of thinking and talking to your mother. i apologize for yelling at you and for hitting you. i've realized that... maybe i'm not the great father figure that i imagined in my head. all i've been doing is thinking about kingdom this, kingdom that and not enough 'soonyoung'."
yoonsun nodded in agreement and continued, "arranged marriages is what we've grown up with and what everyone else is doing right now. as a child of royalty, we have been taught how to fall in love with someone random who we are forced to be with. that's why everything was so.. so.. foreign to us when you said you fell in love with someone."
"your mother was much better at understanding," said his father, taking over again. "and.. as more time passed i think i've been starting to get it too. we can both clearly see how in love you are with this boy. i mean, you're willing to argue, fight, even run away for him. it's rare to find someone like this and so... both of us have decided to call off the arranged marriage."
soonyoung's mouth hung open as he stared at his parents sitting across from him, "because in the end, it'll be you who will be ruling over reinwa not us. it doesn't matter if we're not forming an alliance with some other kingdom, i've been focusing on that for too long. it's time for me to start focusing on you."
it was hard for him to get use to living in the castle. having someone come at a snap of his fingers was something jihoon had never experienced before. it was weird and he didn't like it, so as often as people would tell him to stop working, he would only refuse.
the air was getting warmer as the sun rose higher above the horizon. jihoon waved at the guards standing beside the open gates and headed into the castle. he glanced at a large grandfather clock sitting in the hallway, soonyoung and chan should be finished soon..
just as he looked away from the clock, the sound of pattering footsteps grew louder and louder before... somebody jumped onto him, knocking him to the ground with a thump. "oops! sorry jihoonie," the person, who turned out to be soonyoung, attached his lips to jihoon's cheek and hugged him tightly.
"at least let ji stand up," chan called out from down the hall. he let out a tiny laugh when seeing how irritated jihoon looked and then proceeded to smack soonyoung on the head with a pile of papers. "here, you forgot your work back in the room."
once arriving in reinwa, chan was offered the opportunity to learn alongside soonyoung which he gladly accepted. heojoo was happy that she received another student to teach and hoped that maybe having chan around would encourage soonyoung to pay more attention (it worked most of the time with the exception when neither of the boys paid attention).
jisoo quietly closed the doors and waved at jihoon. the boy replied with a half assed wave as he tired to get soonyoung to stop holding on to him. "jihoonie! heojoo smacked me on the head with her stupid stick again.." soonyoung whined, "kiss it and make the pain go away!"
the boy huffed and pressed a chaste kiss to his forehead and finally wiggles free. "why can't you be more like jisoo?" he said, moving beside the smiling servant. he had a look of annoyance present on his face but it quickly dissolved into a teasing smile. jihoon handed one of the bags full of colourful candy to jisoo, another one to soonyoung and the bag of salt water taffy to chan. "i hope you haven't forgotten that.. cheol's coming back today."
"cheol's coming back! i wanna see if he proposed!"
"imagine if jeonghan rejects him.."
"hey! that's not funny.."
"i hope he has my letters from seungkwan and hansol!"
"i wonder how jeonghan's doing..."
jihoon looked at jisoo and gratefully took the small fruit candy he had offered him. "let's all go to the gate then. seungcheol's bound to be back soon." jisoo said, ushering the two chattering boys to the doors.
"thanks jisoo," jihoon said, massaging his temples, "those two are.. a little chaotic sometimes."
"you should see how loud they can get during their lessons," jisoo said, with a slight smile on his face, "it's absolutely deafening."
the four waited patiently at the castle gates, all of them excited for seungcheol's return after visiting nytis for a week. they didn't have to wait long before a hooded man riding a speckled horse came galloping their direction.
the man tugged off his green cloak and revealed seungcheol's grinning face.
"so, what did hannie say?" chan asked eagerly as the man slid off the horse and pulled off the single crutch from his back. seungcheol momentarily paused,
"you all knew about it?"
"heading to a jewelry shop and then coming back with a small box in your hand isn't exactly sneaky.." jihoon pointed out. the man let out a short, defeated laugh.
"you're right, you're right buuut it doesn't matter anymore because he said yes!"
everyone started bombarding questions at seungcheol at once. all he did was laugh. unable to answer any of the questions because he couldn't hear them properly, seungcheol backed up, "g-geeze guys, at least let me put the horse back."
"i'm coming!" chan hollered, helping seungcheol carry his bag.
"please let me help you as well," jisoo said kindly, grabbing the reins of the horse. jihoon watched as seungcheol bowed his head thankfully and hobbled off to the stables with jisoo and chan on either side of him.
junhui was seriously a miracle worker. it had only taken the man a few weeks of testing and grinding of different herbs for him to find something to quicken the healing process for seungcheol's legs.
soonyoung sighed happily and placed his chin on jihoon's head, holding the boy in a warm back hug. "seungcheol and jeonghan are finally getting married, huh. it's about time."
jihoon hummed back in response and turned to look at the colourful roofs below. he leaned back comfortably into soonyoung's chest, locking his hands together with his hands was well.
there was a peaceful moment of silence and jihoon rolled his eyes up towards soonyoung's face. although he couldn't see it, he knew that soonyoung was looking down at him too. "hey, it's okay," jihoon rubbed his thumb against the back of soonyoung's hand, "we've got plenty of time."
soonyoung released a huff, "is it bad that i don't want to wait?"
a small chuckle slipped from jihoon's mouth, "at least wait until jeonghan and seungcheol have theirs." soonyoung lifted his chin and plopped it back down on jihoon's head, a tiny pout apparent on his lips.
"you're pouting, aren't you?" jihoon said as he and soonyoung swayed from side to side in the morning light, "don't worry, i'm not going anywhere."
"good, 'cause i'm not either."
"then how about we stay like this for a while?" jihoon said, motioning to what they were doing at the moment.
soonyoung cracked a small smile and hugged jihoon just a little tighter.
"yeah, let's do that."
we've all fought our own dragons and
now here's the fairytale ending we deserve.
THE END