Hard To Love #1 | yyyeodang

12

can i go where you go?

HUGO's POV :

"Hugo Harrison, you had one job and you couldn't even get that right! I told you to be here on time yet you come at evening when guests are about to arrive. Do you have any idea how important this ball is? And just how important your and Princess Sofia's presence is in this event? How could you be so careless? I told you-"

"Uh, your majesty . ." Me and my mother's head turned towards her in unison. I signalled her to not interfere.

My mother hated when someone cut her off when she was talking. And Sofia was doing exactly that.

I was clearly trying to keep her out of trouble, but being the absolute genius that she is, she chose to ignore me.

Great. Now my mother will probably kill both of us.

"It was actually my fault that we got late." She spoke softly, looking everywhere but at my mother's face.

"Uhm . . You see, a friend of mine is getting engaged next week. I needed to buy her a gift, so I requested Hugo if he could take us to the shopping complex. He told me we might get late but I thought it wouldn't take us much time. It was just a gift afterall. But turns out, it actually took us quite some time."

Engagement? Friend? Shopping? What the actual fuck?

My mother's raging face relaxed and she asked, "Did you get it?"

"I . . . got what?" Sofia asked timidly.

"The gift."

Sofia looked at me from the corner of her eye in panic.

Oh fuck.

We clearly didn't go shopping, so we have nothing girly enough to show to mother. And I have absolutely nothing in my car that could be considered as an engagement gift.

I quickly came up with a lie and blurted out, "She searched a lot but she couldn't get the type of dress she wanted to gift her friend. That's why we got late."

My mother slowly nodded and turned to Sofia, "It's unfortunate that you didn't find the desired dress. Do one thing, come with your friend here tomorrow. We'll get her measurements and our royal designer will get exactly the dress you desire."

She gasped and shook her head frantically, "Oh no no, your majesty. Thank you but I'll manage on my own."

My mother, on the other hand, shook her head in refusal, "I won't take no for an answer. You'll be a part of this family. I can't let you searching here and there when our royal designer makes the finest of clothings."

Hesitantly, Sofia nodded, which made my mother smile slightly. "Good. From now, don't waste your precious time searching for stuff. If you want anything, you can ask me or anyone in the castle anytime."

She turned towards me and said, "Go to your brother's chamber, get dressed and help him out with his so called wardrobe malfunction. I'll have your clothes sent there. And Princess Sofia, come with me."

Sofia nodded and followed my mother to wherever mother's taking her while I stood rooted to my spot.

My mother would've probably ended the person who interrupted her. But somehow, she did not mind when Sofia did it.

Weird.

With those thoughts in my mind, I went to Axel's chamber.

[10 MINUTES LATER]

HUGO's POV :

"Do you pretend to be this dumb or were you just born that way?" Was the reply I got after I narrated the afternoon's events to him.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed and said, "What I mean is that-" A knock interrupted him. He yelled a 'come in' and contined speaking "you clearly don't know her well, despite the fact that you're gonna get married."

"Your majesties, your clothes." A maid came to us with Axel's new shirt and my clothes.

"Thanks. Keep them here." I patted the bed.

The way she blushed as she saw Axel didn't go unnoticed by me, and I'm sure it didn't go unnoticed by him as well.

He accidentally spilled coffee on the shirt he wore earlier which lead to him being shirtless right now.

He mumbled a small thank you before continuing, "Yeah, so, as I was saying. What's Sofia's full name?"

"Princess Sofia Willow."

"Wrong. That's the royal family's last name." He replied while putting on the shirt.

"Princess Sofia Kenneth?"

"Wrong. Sofia never uses King Roland's last name. Her full name is Princess Sofia Balkthazar." He said.

The moment I heard the name, suddenly everything made sense to me.

"Wait, so . . that was her father?" I questioned as I changed into a new shirt.

Changing clothes in front of each other when you're hitting adulthood might sound a bit weird, but not to us.

"Maybe. Sofia's life before royalty has never been made public, expect for the fact that her mother was a shoe maker and lived in Dunwiddie. So, we can't be sure whether that's her father or someone else. But the grave being of her father does make sense. Her father died when she was a child." He stated as a matter-of-fact.

My mind drowned into thoughts and suddenly one thing struck in my brain, "How do you know all this?"

"I'm an ERA graduate, dude." He replied as he combed his hair.

"And what does that have to do with what I asked you?" I rolled my eyes and took one of  his colognes.

"Being in ERA basically means studying about other royals, their kingdoms and their histories. Also, besides being my future sister in law, Sofia's also been my junior."

Of course, as the future king, he really needed to study all that boring crap.

I sometimes pity him. Yet, I can never imagine anyone else being Menquez's king other than him. He was born for this. Though, I'd never tell him that on his face.

{REVISED}