The Prince's Prince [SeungJin]

Chapter 30

A/N: Here's the promised chapter as a gift:) Virtual cookies to anyone who tells me how to paste chapters without losing the editing. Sometimes it works if I 'select all' especially if an RTF file but not always. I love to Italics but I have to do them manually every time so I've reduced them:S

Chapter dedicated to @jungwoniiiiiiie who commented

------------

Everything was better with tea. Seungmin got him a cup of it from the kitchens. It was still steaming minutes after while they sat down on Hyunjin's rarely used divan. It was lumpy and not at all comfortable but that helped him focus his thoughts.

"So, I'll meet the others tonight. Can you pass them the message please?" Seungmin nodded.

Hyunjin, on Seungmin's advise, was taking one step at a time; one task and one thought following each other. Too much and he'll be too overwhelmed and avoid getting anything done.

"And then we can get in touch with guild members and see if they left any other messages. Strangers staying in town aren't that hard to find."

He nodded to himself.

"And then...I'll stay the night at the hut, reconnecting with the forest" a breath "but I can't let my father or anyone else know for now!" He said panicked. His father still had power. What they were doing counted as treason.

"Don't worry" a hand on his jumping knee calmed him down. It remained there. "We'll cover for you. Me, the others. I'm sure your cousin will help you with your tasks here if needed so you will have more time. And Minho-hyung and Felix as well."

He didn't have to do this on his own. Sure women in his family didn't have as much power; but they were educated and Hyunjin often took his cousin's advice. She was a natural-born leader and often he wished they were actual cousins or siblings not cousins-so-much-removed. His own mother was behind a lot of his father's policies because once she married the future king, she had demanded an education. Pity that did not translate into her asking for basic education for everyone. Most of the peasants were self-taught or peer-taught. Seungmin had told him once that he had taught a lot of the farmers how to read and write. The rebellion was thinking of opening a learning space run by the community. Having basic education would solve a lot of the issue that they commonly ran into.

Also, if need be, Yeji could totally dress like him and no one would notice.

"And as for what we can do about the political situation...maybe we can meet all together and propose our ideas?"

"You're truly a great diplomat" Seungmin smiled. "Are you nervous?"

"I mean...this is my family. Not all of them are bad you know? I have this one aunt, she tries to ply me with sweets every time and she speaks to me like I'm five even now. It used to be annoying, now it's comforting." He didn't want a blood-bath even if they did. Violence begets violence. That was a vicious cycle which he did not want to experience. He just wanted peace. Pity that for peace they had to fight. It was rather ironic.

--------

In a rather risky move, Yeji did dress like him and shut herself in the library with papers that that were Hyunjin's task. He had exerted himself to near exhaustion trying to finish them but there was still a short pile. Yeji however shooed him away and told him she was more than capable of the task. The downside was that Lia couldn't keep her company or it will throw suspicion on them but she could visit with the excuse that 'Lady Yeji wanted to make sure you stay hydrated your highness'.

Yeji and Hyunjin used to try to imitate the other's voice when they were children and while their voices had matured since then, Yeji still had some handy skills. Anyone looking through the keyhole – there were a lot of gossips in the castle so much so that they had been taught to cover the keyhole – would see 'Hyunjin' working from afar and anyone asking if the young prince was all right would receive an appropriate answer.