lee jihoon, six
"jihoon, you should join the other children and play for once." ryuji sighed while looking down at jihoon who was sitting on a bench fiddling with a clover in his tiny hands.
jihoon didn't even lift his head, the little boy twirled the green plant between his fingers while lightly swinging his legs in the air and shook his head. the woman looked at the fields where majority of the children were and shook her head. "then would you like it if i called eun over to keep you company?" ryuji glanced at a brown haired boy not much older than jihoon resting on a patch of clovers.
for the first time that day, jihoon looked up from his lap and shifted his dark eyes to eun. a few meters away, eun turned his head too and once seeing jihoon he grinned widely and waved his hand.
jumping a little, jihoon dropped the wilted clover to the ground and pushed himself off the bench. "oh it looks like- jihoon! where are you going?" the woman blinked in surprise when jihoon headed the opposite direction from eun and back into the building.
ryuji, reaches out her hand before dropping it down to her side once again. someone needs to break that child out of his shell sooner or later.
lee jihoon was not your average six year old. unlike most kids his age, he didn't like going outside to play. instead, he spent all his time on his bed reading and rereading, writing and rewriting words from the few books in the orphanage. jihoon was an intelligent child but when it came to interacting with others.. we can just say that he wasn't the best.
the boy was like a shadow, moving around clover field quietly. none of the children really ever noticing him but of course the nuns noticed. the women were worried about jihoon, thinking that he should have at least one friend to talk to. they didn't want him growing up knowing nothing but books.
luckily, things all changed when one day a certain boy with brilliant blue eyes showed up outside the door. it wasn't another child looking for a place to call home but instead the exact opposite. the king's oldest son, song kitae, accompanied by a guard stood in the doorway of the orphanage smiling widely.
"your highness, what are you doing here?" the nuns asked, completely stunned by the arrival of the prince.
"i heard that lots of kids live here and that they get to play all the time." the little boy gestured with his hands. "i want to play too!"
"b-but you're royalty!"
"so what?"
and just like that, kitae and his guard showed up practically everyday. the young prince never minded getting his clothing dirty and never minded playing with the children from a completely different class. the children at clover field never treated him like he was anything more or anything less.
that was the beauty of children. innocent and kind, not letting the social classes stop them from having fun.
jihoon shrugged off the appearance of the boy and continued doing what he did best. which was staying quiet and blending into the background. however, kitae's blue eyes saw everything. in no time, the prince decided to finally greet the boy.
"song kitae!" he said with his hand stretched out. "you're lee jihoon right?" jihoon looked up from his book, dark brown eyes meeting the prince's intense blue ones. blue eyes... blue like the ocean, blue like the sky. it was an interesting colour, not once had jihoon seen someone with eyes as blue as his.
after a pause, jihoon slowly put down his book and placed his pale hand into kitae's and shook it gently. this seemingly little action was the start to everything.
from that day forward, whenever kitae showed up, he would always head upstairs to find jihoon. at first jihoon found the prince.. annoying. the boy always showed up when he was in the middle of reading or writing which frustrated jihoon greatly.
he didn't understand why kitae was suddenly always coming to him. he was boring, he didn't like playing games and top it all off, he barely even talked! jihoon went to great lengths to keep the boy away from him. from placing a chair in front of his room door so he couldn't get in to hiding in the closet so kitae couldn't find him.
one day, jihoon got particularly frustrated because he just couldn't spell this word right. that's when he uttered his first words to kitae, telling him to "go away!" this was also when kitae finally figured out what jihoon was doing all the time.
"squirrel?" the prince said, while looking at the word scribbled over and over on the paper. "it's easy to mess up 'p' with 'q'." he said, grabbing the pen. "remember, for 'squirrel' you use the 'q'."
jihoon stared at the boy with a new look in his eyes. that's when he talked to kitae for the second time.
"thanks."
