"You have to understand, I'm his lover!"
Japeth suddenly appears in the hall. He's dressed in a blue and gold suit. I've missed him so much, but he glares at me like he doesn't know me. Like I'm a liar.
"He's not. I love Sophie and Sophie only. He might be talking about my brother, but if he is, I think he doesn't know about his sudden disappearance. I'm sorry, what's your name?"
I know he's lying. I'd recognize his smirk out of a hundred. And he doesn't have the scar I gave Rhian two years ago.
"Don't get him out of the castle yet. I'd like to talk to him for a bit."
The guards nod and stand there. I lick my lips and laugh. There's something going on here. Something I do not understand.
"Alone. Kei, you can stay here if you want to."
I didn't notice our old classmate when I entered the castle, and he chose not to say a single word. He leaves with the other ones, anyway. He hasn't changed one bit; he's shorter than Japeth, but still taller than me. I sigh. I've always been the shortest one, so I see it coming when my love smiles and says:
"Have you seen what's been happening on the top shelf lately? Oh, wait. You can't even reach it."
"Fuck you, Japeth!"
It actually makes me giggle. I've missed his bad jokes. He crushes me against his chest and I can't breathe. I kick his right ankle and he stops. He passes his hand through my hair and ruins it. I spent an hour on it, though I don't mind it. Whatever makes him happy makes me happy, too.
"I assume you're the one who brought me back, right?"
He smiles and nods. He bends and studies me to my smallest details.
"God, your eyes are so pretty!"
I love when he says that. It's just so... nice. He sits on the floor and invites me to join him. It reminds me of the night in Arbed when our group of four had an evil plan and we'd stay all night to discuss every step of it, mostly stealing our test and changing our answer, and we got caught and punished every time.
"You should know I'm the king now, and we should keep it low-key. The people would throw rotten vegetables and fruits at us if they knew the king is in a relationship with a boy."
I play with the blue carpet that was underneath me; that's what he'll always think of me as. Just a boy.
