Huiseo had definitely tried to hold back. But it was useless because Ho’s raw expression asking if he’d gone crazy was too funny.
Whether Hwan had cleverly caught that small laugh without missing it, his ears immediately turned bright red as he whirled around and complained.
“Why are you laughing? When you’re the one who made me do this?”
“No, it’s just that….”
“I am working hard, right? Don’t tell me I’m not?”
“Of course not, I know that better than anyone.”
“…Really?”
As if pleased with that answer, Hwan soon smoothly sat back down as if asking when he had jumped up from his seat. What was funny was the fact that his shoulders were raised more proudly than before.
‘Is this working?’
Watching that foolish appearance, Ho couldn’t help but shake his head.
As mentioned before, this was precisely the difference between having Huiseo and not having him. If Huiseo weren’t here, if Huiseo hadn’t laughed at that timing. There definitely would have been another commotion and then some.
How does he handle him so well?
‘He’s really skilled, that Huiseo too.’
Actually, it wasn’t unreasonable for Hwan to complain about being at this event.
Normally, for events like this, it would be sufficient to have just His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress, and adding a bit more, just Crown Prince Kang. But this time, since the other party was a state guest in a family unit, they received a request to make a complete showing on this side too.
Because of that, they even mobilized the youngest, Hae, who was still a middle schooler and wasn’t usually brought to events, resulting in a total mobilization of the imperial family.
Hwan found this utterly ridiculous.
Frankly speaking, no matter how much they scrambled like this, they wouldn’t get a damn thing from it.
A state visit. There was no better event than this to exploit the imperial family.
‘…It’s good for taking photos.’
At the blatant zoo monkey treatment, Hwan clicked his tongue lowly.
After the cabinet was established, many things that had existed as the monarch’s authority were mostly transferred to the Prime Minister and others. As several years passed like that, before they knew it, all matters related to domestic affairs were decided entirely in their hands, and the imperial family had become completely unable to interfere.
The fact that the imperial family could maintain its existence even in its current form was because of its usefulness, however small, in diplomatic aspects. Of course, even that good part… in vulgar terms, they devoured it all from their side.
Dealing with major powers, or things with high attention, things with good results. They fiercely competed with each other to rush forward for such things.
But conversely, things with less interest, or unfavorable things. For example, at events where they had to face diplomatically uncomfortable counterparts due to inter-state disputes, they invariably put the imperial family forward.
They were people who would be mortified to be called second in cunning.
Not only that, they were even being treated like a tourist course good for taking photos like now, but the powerless imperial family was in no position to voice any complaints about this. Far from complaining, they went along whenever called and smiled oh so gracefully.
The Emperor and Crown Prince Kang would think it natural to do this as imperial family members, but in Hwan’s eyes, it was an incredibly frustrating and pathetic sight.
However, in a situation where their position was narrowing day by day, there really was no other option.
In the end, today too, as an extension of such circumstances, they received a request—not really a request—to have dinner together with someone from somewhere ‘a Korean War participant nation with which they had established a strategic cooperative partnership,’ but which was ‘somewhat unfamiliar’ to the citizens of our country.
Everyone in the imperial family knew that they would laugh and eat together like this, take photos, and the actual negotiations would happen elsewhere with them gathering among themselves.
So Hwan would rather finish quickly and go back to study more.
“I heard those kids over there are around our age too, and they’re quite interested in you?”
“Funny.”
At second hyung Ho’s whisper, Hwan snorted as crookedly as possible. His mood was that crooked.
‘So what? Did you tip me off to kiss up to them?’
No way. With that mindset, just as he was primly turning his head away, Huiseo, who had approached from behind at some point, whispered softly in Hwan’s ear.
“Hang in there. Your Highness.”
Then his legs, which had been sprawled out following his wayward mood, quietly returned to being neatly arranged as if asking when that had happened.
“Yeah. I’ll hang in there.”
Seeing Hwan suddenly smiling brightly and overflowing with enthusiasm, Ho, dumbfounded, rolled his eyes slightly.
***
It wasn’t difficult to warmly welcome those who had already been captivated once by the colorful and disciplined performance of the traditional honor guard. Ridiculously, they could also be called experts who were already well-versed in this sort of thing.
Thanks to that, the atmosphere of introducing the imperial family members and exchanging first greetings was smooth throughout.
The family-unit state guests who visited this time were the presidential couple from a distant foreign country and their two children, siblings of similar age to Hwan, under their care.
‘The younger one, I guess.’
The imperial family members who had received advance notice vaguely thought upon seeing those two that the younger sister would be the one interested in Hwan.
Whether she had seen Hwan’s SNS while surfing the internet, or seen ridiculous gossip news related to him, they judged that side would have better accessibility.
But that too seemed to be a hasty prejudice.
When they actually greeted him and saw the expression that brightened the moment they saw Hwan, they could naturally tell that the one interested was not the younger sister but the older brother.
“What was his name again? Andersen?”
“Adrian.”
Hwan and Ho hurriedly reconfirmed information about him with smiling faces.
“Nice to meet you. I am Prince Yoon.”
To Hwan greeting him like that, he, with attractive healthy bronze skin, laughed heartily and offered a greeting in his native language. There was some slight physical contact like a hug, but considering the stories they had heard through the grapevine, they thought it ended rather plainly.
‘…So it’s just interest, literally?’
There’s a troublemaker prince in some country in the far east. And this time our father is going there. Since we’re following along anyway, I should see him, something like that perhaps.
‘If it’s just that, well, I can get along appropriately.’
Hwan shrugged his shoulders once.
Since Huiseo had warned him in advance, he smiled and responded appropriately, handling it in a business-like manner. So the imperial family members, who had been anxiously worried that Hwan might cause trouble by being unnecessarily sulky because of the story he heard earlier, were gradually relaxing around then.
The problem occurred in the very next situation.
Actually, it wasn’t easy for someone who knew Hwan fairly well not to know Huiseo. For no other reason than that Hwan himself had plastered his SNS with photos of Huiseo.
‘So you’re that Huiseo that Hwan is crazy about?’
He could be glad about that thought. He understood.
However, if he tried to hug him warmly in the same way he had done to himself just now, and greet Huiseo by rubbing cheeks with him, the story became a bit different.
Hwan’s eyebrows twitched precisely because of that.
Among the people Hwan had met, there were quite a few—no, definitely not few—who pretended to show interest in him but were actually trying to approach Huiseo.
‘Why? I’m the prince though?’
Why does it sometimes seem like he’s more popular?
Even when such thoughts occurred, looking back at the circumstances that made him unable to help but like Huiseo, he also thought, ‘Right, being so fair and pretty and kind and cool, I understand.’ Moreover, who could he blame? He was the one who made Huiseo that famous and popular.
But tricks pulled right in front of him were nonsensical.
‘Not even if my eyes are filled with dirt, you bastard!’
With that feeling, Hwan quickly inserted himself in front of him as he approached Huiseo with a friendly greeting, and burst into loud, therefore more unnatural, laughter. Then, unlike his thoroughly business-like response earlier, he even grabbed and hugged him warmly as if they were brothers who had known each other for years.
“Oh my! Thinking about it again, I’m so glad to meet you! You really came at a great time!”
‘Why is he acting like that?’
Because of that, not only the person who was suddenly in Hwan’s embrace was flustered, but everyone surrounding the two felt the same. Especially the imperial family members who knew Hwan’s brilliant track record, needless to say. What on earth was that kid thinking acting like that—their vision went dizzy for a moment.
And for good reason, no matter how unrelated to practical work, this was still the scene of diplomacy.
If he committed excessive discourtesy, the imperial family could face criticism both domestically and internationally. No matter how strangely well things worked out for Hwan in this area, if he went too far, even that couldn’t be expected.
‘Should we just smile and brush it off as a heartwarming scene, as if they’ve become close?’
Among the working staff, there were a few people breaking out in a sweat, wondering how to handle this.
Without a care for such efforts, immature Hwan, to whom this situation was more important than anything, thought that since things had come to this and the other person was from another country anyway so he wouldn’t understand, and whispered ominously in the ear of the person he was hugging.
Of course, maintaining a smiling face so that other people would never notice was essential.
“He’s mine. Don’t touch him carelessly.”
But having done it, why, they say you can roughly understand foreign curses too, not the exact meaning but through intonation and nuance. So he momentarily thought that perhaps this too, even if the exact meaning couldn’t be known, might convey the nuance of a warning.
But Hwan immediately shook his head.
‘So what?’
The negotiations would probably already have a rough outline, so would they really fall apart just because he was slightly offended by something like this? If by any chance that happened, he could just blame those cunning guys for being incompetent and be done with it.
‘Hmph.’
Even though he probably couldn’t actually do that, Hwan thought such unreasonable thoughts again.
But unexpectedly, soon a ‘pfft’ sound of unfamiliar laughter reached his ears.
‘What?’
that’s so embarrassing i had to skip to the end