내 왕자 My Prince || Stray Kids Hyunsung (Hyunjin x Han)

»»-- ♔ 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 ♔ --««

‚I know..' I got up from the bedding, my back facing the prince. ‚I never meant for you to be like him.. I know you're not.. I just want you to be safe..' With that I left the tent. I understood what he was saying.. but he also had to see my point.. If there was a fusion of our both opinions I would gladly take it at this point, because either way didn't seem to work. That's also why I had to leave the tent.. arguing further wasn't of much use. It didn't take us anywhere.. I didn't want to have a fight with Hyunjin.. So I left before anything could get worse. Minho was there after all.. he could calm the prince again.. say some smart words.... I don't know.. Minho was close to the prince.. so close that I didn't like it .. I hated it.. but who was I to talk.. In the end he knew the prince longer than Hyunjin knew me..

Even if it was late, I stayed outside for some time.. I knew well that my prince didn't want to see me in his tent.. so I stayed out.. I could wait until he's asleep and then get back.. or see if I was welcome in a different tent. Maybe Romin would let me stay. I shook my head. No.. I'd rather freeze outside here or get my head chewed off by Hyunjin or Minho before I would voluntarily share a tent with Romin ever again. Romin... his words from earlier were stuck in my head. It really wasn't just him, I believed the whole order of the listeners was caught up in this, like they were caught up in everything. He.. the old man was watching everything as if all land belonged to him. I just didn't know why he chose to stick to Jinheung's side. What I knew for sure though was, that we had to be ready for literally anything. They were the most unpredictable force out there, and we had to be just like them if we wanted to stand a chance in this battle. The only thing about that was though.. that only the impossible could be more unpredictable than the unpredictable already was. And I wasn't too sure about our chances to attempt and survive the impossible.

Outside it was cold, and the thoughts my mind kept spinning around didn't make the temperatures any better. It would only get worse from here on. As we were heading south, to the shore, the temperatures during the day could be called somewhat mild, but the night would still be icy. The first snow of this winter had already fallen some weeks ago. Not much was left of it now, though I was almost sure that the ground of Tang's land would be white in a few days. Limbs were stiff, bodies shaking, clothes too thick to be agile.. this wasn't the ideal season for war, just one more point on our list of disadvantages we had to live up to.

My hot breath mingled in the air as a small cloud, dancing with the slight night breeze. From the time I've already spent outside here, my nose and ears had taken on a red tint, my hands feeling like ice, hence I tried to keep them close to my body. The Fire had died down by now, the darkness and silence of the night engulfing me whole. I liked it. I liked silence, it was when you actually started to listen. And as there were so many noises during the day, the night felt like a relief for me, like that moment I could finally breath out. It wasn't too dark either, as the cold light of the moon had replaced the burning flames. It seemed all the more bright with no other light sources competing with it. If war wouldn't stand upon our borders, one could really appreciate the beauty of a Tang winter. The quiet season, like all noise was sleeping.

I sighed, letting out another big cloud of hot breath, closing my eyes afterwards. For the unprepared, the quiet season was a deadly season. I know what it felt like when nature kept you at the brink of your last light and I had to learn how to keep that spark alive. My body was relatively resistant to the cold now. When I was a thief.. when I had nothing to keep me warm, I- I shivered through the nights, but .. ultimately, shivering meant, I had still been alive. If you could still suffer, you weren't dead yet. And as long as I still had something inside me that clung to life, I could go on for another day. Over time the cold became more endurable.. just because it was the only thing I knew day by day, night for night.