Earlier, Hwan was introduced with negative expressions like “troublemaker, problem child prince.”
It was true that such news about him was appearing in the mass media almost daily. However, whether his trouble was the kind that caused social controversy like drinking, assault, or abuse of power—that was also importantly not the case.
In fact, compared to such things, truly, even accounting for his age as still a high school student, it was very trivial and cute, even laughable mischief.
On a certain summer day under the scorching sun, he wanted to go out to the playground with friends to kick a ball. On another day, he suddenly said after school he wanted to go to a PC room with friends to play games. Then finally during vacation, he suddenly declared he would dye his hair brown.
Sulking over matters related to Huiseo was too natural a story to even mention further.
Just hearing this much should be enough to understand. Embarrassingly grandiose to even discuss, the “trouble” he’d been causing was none other than the extremely modest and ordinary wishes of a boy his age.
But regrettably, as a prince, Hwan couldn’t achieve even a single one of those trivial things.
Buying food freely on the street, laughing with his mouth wide open, yawning without hiding it at boring occasions. That’s right. Even listing more things, it all came down to things like this.
Even with just such matters, the world made a fuss on its own.
The biggest uproar occurred when, as mentioned earlier, Hwan brought up the topic of dyeing his hair. It wasn’t even about bleaching it bright yellow, but the very fact that he dared to dream of dyeing his hair as a prince caused the Empress Dowager, the highest elder of the current imperial family, to clutch her neck and collapse.
Naturally, news related to it occupied the main page of portal sites the next day.
In fact, if such trivial matters were making headlines day after day, one might have become somewhat discouraged. But surprisingly, Hwan didn’t bat an eye.
“Why shouldn’t I do that?”
He seemed to say as much. Watching Hwan continue to boldly reveal his feelings and wishes outwardly without caring, increasingly provocative modifiers like “heretic, mutant, troublemaker, square peg” began to be attached to him in article headlines.
The ironic point was that despite all such negative expressions, conversely, the number of people enthusiastic about him increased. It seemed that freely expressing his emotions felt approachable instead. Definitely different enough to not seem like imperial family, yet still impossible to hate.
Like a cute troublemaking youngest son. A thoughtless older brother or oppa from next door. Or really like a bubbly, personality-filled idol.
Many people adored Hwan and enjoyed him.
The imperial family was confused, not knowing how to accept this unprecedented situation.
“Does this even make sense! Even if the imperial family’s authority has crumbled!”
“Then what exactly should we do?”
“First, we need to make Prince Yoon exercise restraint!”
“If that were possible, things wouldn’t have gotten this far in the first place!”
Because of this, it became noisy inside and outside the palace, including the royal relatives and elders, but Hwan, the actual party to the commotion, paid no attention to complicated matters like the imperial family’s future. To put it bluntly, it was because he wasn’t going to become emperor anyway. He considered it a story completely unrelated to himself.
Moreover, in cases like now, saying he “didn’t have time for that” might be more accurate.
All of Hwan’s attention was focused on the phone he was holding, or more precisely, on Huiseo inside it who wasn’t responding. Displeased, Hwan bit down on his lower lip.
“…Jeong Huiseo. You, really.”
Not even checking messages was crossing the line no matter how he thought about it.
***
The ceremony had finally come to an end, and it was time for the invited people to finish their brief palace outing and return outside. Hwan’s patience, which had already reached its limit while having to wait briefly inside Geunjeongjeon due to security issues, was exhausted.
Jeong Huiseo was truly heartless.
“Is it so hard to reply even once?”
A pitiful voice asked the unresponsive phone as such.
Not that a reply would suddenly come from doing so.
Everyone had been frantically busy since morning preparing for today’s Uigwe return ceremony. But for some reason, Huiseo, who should naturally be by his side, wasn’t showing even a strand of hair, which had seemed strange to Hwan.
“Seonghyeon hyung. Where’s Huiseo?”
“Huh? Good question? Why hasn’t he come yet?”
“…Good question?”
“Maybe he overslept?”
“Overslept? Huiseo?”
He thought it was ridiculous, but unlike certain someone, Huiseo wasn’t the type to slack off, so Hwan waited calmly, thinking he would naturally come, while getting dressed.
However, what returned wasn’t Huiseo himself whom he’d waited for so much, but just one line of his message sent with a thud, just as the ceremony was about to start.
[I don’t think I can go with you today]
Naturally, Hwan’s eyes bulged.
[Why?]
[Why??]
[Why?????]
The answer that came to Hwan’s relentless messages, sent without even a second’s rest, was truly concise.
[I’m busy studying for exams]
“…Studying for exams?”
Having confirmed Huiseo’s reply, Hwan couldn’t help but let out an exasperated sigh.
Jeong Huiseo studying.
In all the long time they’d been together, it was an absurd excuse he’d never heard even once. Of course, saying it this way, one might think Huiseo was that disconnected from studying, but in fact, it was the complete opposite.
For Huiseo, who from childhood had heard “genius” and “prodigy” until his ears had calluses, and who had actually received separate education supervised by the imperial family, study time outside of class was truly a waste. No, perhaps even class time was like that.
Hwan, who was more interested in Huiseo than studying, could tell from his languid gaze.
“He already knows all the content.”
Hwan had nagged daily to hang out together until right before bedtime. Yet Huiseo accommodated it all and still took first place in the entire school without batting an eye.
“That’s why he’s an amazing guy.”
Hwan found such a Huiseo fascinating, and was also proud on his behalf for no reason.
However, the problem was that after seeing him like that his whole life, if he now suddenly said he was going to study for exams, Hwan simply couldn’t believe it.
“What is he scheming again?”
Without taking a breath, Hwan struck down the phone keyboard with [Don’t lie to me].
But when he stood before the send button, his finger hesitated for a moment.
“…No, that’s not right.”
Hwan soon changed his mind.
The thought of asking where such an obvious lie came from, demanding he confess properly, and perhaps taking this opportunity to establish his dignity as a prince did briefly cross his mind. But how could dignity that didn’t exist spring up overnight? He’d be fortunate if Huiseo didn’t snort at him.
Instead, Hwan decided to take this opportunity to play a slightly more fun prank with his personal feelings involved.
And so, suddenly making a cunning expression, he quickly erased the talk about lying that he’d just written. And what he wrote instead was a rather cute and clingy “lover’s complaint.”
[Studying? Or me?]
He even added a sulking bear emoticon, wanting to look cute.
Huiseo might not remember, but what Hwan was imitating right now was a scene from a drama he’d coincidentally watched with him while flipping through TV channels a while ago.
Though in the drama, the comparison wasn’t with something trivial like studying, and crucially, Hwan and Huiseo’s relationship wasn’t that of lovers… Still, Hwan secretly hoped Huiseo would rush to him saying “What kind of question is that? Of course it’s you!” like the drama’s protagonist.
However, reality is never as easygoing as dramas.
The answer that came back, far from matching his rhythm, was as fast and sharp as an arrow or sword.
[Of course studying]
[Don’t say weird things]
Weird things, he says.
Once again today, Hwan had to swallow his tears because of the cold and heartless Jeong Huiseo.
“This smart guy! There’s no way he doesn’t know!”
His fingers, full of spite, literally danced on the phone keypad.
[Wrong! Wrong! Wrooooong!]
[You’re wrong!]
[Eliminated!]
But annoyingly, the answer that came back was also truly bland.
[Yes, that’s unfortunate]
“……”
But it’s not? The one who’s disappointed right now isn’t you?
Hwan, thoroughly riled up, chewed his lower lip while desperately denying reality.
[I’ll give you just one more chance]
[Think again]
[Huiseo-ya]
[Huiseo-ya?]
He also tried sending a few more messages telling him to think again, but after that annoying answer from before, no more replies came from the cold Huiseo.
Then finally, when it reached a time he could no longer endure, he was dragged to Geunjeongjeon where the ceremony was being held—this was the whole story of this incident. So Hwan had no choice but to give up.
“…What can I do? The one who loves more has to give in.”
Still, since it wasn’t an event going far away but happening inside Gyeongbokgung Palace anyway, he’d had the cute thought of “I’ll let it slide just this once.” Though he didn’t know what Huiseo was plotting, he’d decided to be generous and let himself be fooled.
But no matter how he thought about it, not even a single message after that was really too much.
[Huiseo-ya]
[Jeong Huiseo]
[What are you doing?]
[The weather is really nice today]
[It would have been good if Huiseo could have seen it too]
[Are you really studying?]
[Studying?]
[Really?]
I sent this many.
“Can you even see your studying in all this?”
When you’re not even really studying!
