The Prince's Prince [SeungJin]

Chapter 16

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to @noiirah who upvoted. Thank you!

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For one fearful second, Hyunjin thought they would insist in accompanying their prince especially since it was known that his protectors Minho and Felix had left and the Prince was deemed by many to be frail which in some aspects was true. Of course they thought the others went with the General rather than with the dissidents. Then again, the soldiers would not have judged. Sure their wages depended on them, well, being soldiers but they surely wouldn't like to go to war having to injure and kill and being at risk of also being injured and killed?

Thankfully the soldiers only cautioned them to be careful walking the streets at nightfall.

"Do not worry. I won't let anything happen to our prince" Seungmin decisively said.

His conclusive tone did not leave anyone thinking of the contrary so the soldiers went on their merry way leaving the other two to walk slowly back to the hut.

They could see Lia pacing in front of the hut, gnawing on her nails. When she spotted them she yelled in surprise and then shushed herself.

"Finally. Where have you been? Yeji has squeezed the life out of poor Kkami thinking that something nasty had happened to you. Why did it take you so long? I've been back an hour!"

Hyunjin smiled. It was a novel experience being yelled at. Sure, his friends did it but they had friends' benefits. Who knew one could enjoy that? Truthfully, it wasn't the yelling that made him pleased. In fact, he shrank to Seungmin's side but the fact that he was treated as any other person made him happy.

"Lia-ya while your concern is noted, perhaps show it in a better way? Hyunjin is still weak. We simply needed more time to walk and also we ran into some soldiers who now also think that I'm the new castle gardener but it's okay. We just need to find a believable lie."

"You're back!" Yeji yelled while Lia was apologising to Hyunjin.

After reassuring the two that no harm had come to them, Hyunjin tugged Seungmin's arm down, which arm he was still attached to like it was his personal cane.

"Seungmin-ssi, I mean, Seungmin-ah? Your family have been told to say you have a contagious sickness. How about we use that as an excuse why you won't be around?" Hyunjin proposed. Hyunjin wished they could delay the others' involvement into staging a stop-war action, ideally permanently. While Seungmin had been attending and leading dissentive meetings since even before he knew Hyunjin, he hadn't been caught and punished and Hyunjin won't rest until the other was safe.

First they lied and now they needed to lie in their bed for it...but perhaps it can be a cushy bed not a prison one.

He was the prince and rather than having a silver spoon in his mouth all his life, for him it meant taking responsibility. Seungmin had done so much for people that he should have been protecting and listening to himself. So had the others. Now it was his time to step up, use his brain if not his physical strength and get them out of this mess.

"That's not a bad idea. Perhaps it could be the same thing you had only harsher. That way even the soldiers that saw us would believe it. I should be sick tonight and tomorrow stay in bed" He surely had been nothing if clinging from Seungmin; it wasn't that hard to believe that he'll infect him with his sickness.

Yeji burst out laughing. Hyunjin suspected it was more from the stress than the situation but the strangeness wore their worries down momentarily. "Look at you, planning your sickness down to the finest details. Well, I should go. Since the soldiers saw you I can just say that I saw you going in but the walk outside weakened you further and that you don't want to be disturbed. Since the gardener is going to be sick, I'll volunteer to look after your plants. Just write me instructions and draw the plants with colours so I know which is which. If some of them die just revive them"