✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

t w o

I put down my books and visibly sighed. Other royals were having lunch. Only me and Han left inside the classroom. He looked up from his notebook while raising an eyebrow. "Caught?"

I shook my head, "Just tired."

"Maybe you should really rest in the castle." he shrugged and continued writing, more like copying works from other classmates because he was not listening to the lecture earlier.

My nose scrunched and I shook my head again. "That sounds so old. I'm just eighteen."

When he remained silent I took a peek at the borrowed notebook. I whistled when I saw the handwriting. It was too neat and pretty compared to mine. "Did you borrow a girl's book?"

"It's Seungmin's." he replied.

"Who?"

Han looked at me in disbelief. "You don't know our classmate?"

"If it's a guy then no." I gave an innocent smile and he shook his head lightly.

Pulling me down to sit, he rested his grip on my arm and spoke in a low voice, "Her Royal Highness, he's Archer Kim's son, he attends the same sword fighting class with us, the same archery class with you and sits in front of me," his hand gestured to the seat in front of us. The table was tidied while the one in front of me was a mess. There's a brown notebook under the table and it looks like a diary. "You don't know him?"

With my eyes glued to the diary, I answered, "Nope."

Han sighed and let go of my arm. "He's nineteen."

"Was he there too yesterday?" he nodded. "Oh, I was too focused on defeating you I guess." Right after I say that someone entered the class. We both stopped talking. The newcomer's footsteps were nearing my ears but I did not bother to look. It's obvious it was a guy just by hearing the way the person walked. The footsteps sound firm, as if he wore a lead boot. Could be he's a horse rider.

The chair in front of us moved but did not produce any sound. It seemed like he lifted the chair while pulling it out. My lips curled up a bit. This must be the Seungmin guy Han mentioned just now.

"Han Jisung," the new voice sounded stern. I decided to just look at this guy, not wanting to play with my own guessing game anymore. He had his body halfway turned to Han and his arm rested on the chair's backrest. His face looked slightly done with the guy next to me but because of his light brown hair he did not look intimidating. More like an angry puppy with his facial features.

Han's hand froze. He slowly raised his head and gave him a sheepish smile. "May I...?"

I just watched the two having a staring contest. One was like a puppy trying to kill a squirrel with his eyes while the squirrel was holding the books close to him as if the puppy would snatch his acorns away. I stifled a laugh as I imagined them with ears and tails, being two non-intimidating furries.

The guy snapped his head to me and I immediately looked away, suddenly finding the chandelier interesting. I heard Han sighing, "Sorry.." he closed the borrowed notebook and handed it to this guy. As he took it he sent a glare towards this poor squirrel, making him lower his head with a pout.

I nudged Han, "Is that him?" I whispered. He nodded. "Woah, he doesn't look like a sword fighter."

"I swear you're looking down on guys too much," Han groaned. I scoffed. "By the way, can I borrow-"

"No."

His shoulders slumped down, "Why are you guys so mean."

"It's you who need to focus on the lessons more." Seungmin suddenly interrupted. In sync, me and Han looked at each other with our eyes widened. We were whispering and he was listening?