Chapter Text
For young Prince Hyunjae of Danbya, the palace he lived in had always been the loneliest place. For years, he had stared out of his window down to the forest that lay just outside of the walls and wondered what might possibly lie behind it, he’d tried to escape what seemed like an infinite amount of times but each one had ended up a failure.
He had supposed that it was his lack of planning that always let him down. Admittedly, trying to get out through the front gates the first time wasn’t the smartest idea he had ever had and trying to climb from his window the second time had proved just a little too terrifying for Hyunjae to bear however this time, on his eighth attempt, the boy had never felt so confident. Failure simply wasn’t an option anymore so with an old map in his hand and a heart full of determination, Hyunjae slipped out of his bedroom door.
Sneaking out of his room was easy, there were hardly any guards around at 1pm and through his weeks of endless planning, the prince had figured out that this was the time most of them had their lunch. So, naturally, even the guards that patrolled the halls at this hour were distracted. This played into his advantage, of course, as traversing his way through the east wing towards the back of the palace was relatively simple. It was only once that he had to quickly hide behind a cupboard whilst walking through the main corridor yet otherwise, his escape route had so far been completely clear.
When he finally reached where the secret tunnel was supposed to be, Hyunjae found the first flaw in his plan. The tunnel seemed like it was no where to be found, no matter where he looked, left to right, down the hall, behind cupboards, the boy just couldn’t find it no matter how hard he tried. His searching continued for at least 20 minutes, Hyunjae was tapping on various parts of the wall but nothing was happening. To an onlooker, the young prince might have looked like he had gone out of his mind and honestly, that may as well have been true. With the amount of time that he had spent cooped up inside the place, Hyunjae was surprised that he hadn’t been tapping at the walls in bleak hope of an escape long before now.
Just as the prince was seconds away from giving up, he noticed something over the other side of the wall. It was so small that the boy was surprised he had even seen it however he was extremely glad he did, the thing itself was almost like a tiny lever, Hyunjae quickly pulled it down and waited with bated breath for something, anything to happen and after a few moments it finally did.
Spectacular wasn’t really a word Hyunjae would’ve used to describe it but still it was one of the cooler things that the prince had seen. Slowly, a few bricks in the wall began sliding to the side, the prince was glad of how quiet and seamless the process was, the last thing he needed when trying to be sneaky was loud noises.
Finally, a small door appeared where the bricks once were. Something about it seemed rather eerie yet Hyunjae’s will to escape was far stronger than his fear of what could possibly lie in the tunnel. With this in mind, he reached out to the door handle to pull it open before clicking on his torch to illuminate the dull black path in front of him. Okay, maybe he was a little scared.
The prince looked back to his map quickly, the tunnel didn’t seem that long and along the way there were other tunnels that he could take to quickly get out if he wanted. Before walking through the door, Hyunjae took a deep breath as his mind screamed of the fact that he was a prince and he was supposed to be brave and mighty. It seemed stupid that he would be afraid of something as small and insignificant as a dark tunnel.
As always, the first step was the scariest, Hyunjae jumped almost comically as the door shut behind him and the natural light disappeared completely. His plan had been to walk quickly so that he could get back outside as soon as possible yet with how uneven the path was and how many weeds were growing both above and below him, this was borderline impossible. The prince found himself moving at snail pace as he carefully calculated the risk of every step before he took it.
After nearly five minutes of walking, the door at the other end began to come into Hyunjae’s vision. The prince sped up at this, wanting nothing more than to be freed of the dingy pathway. Only a few seconds later, his hand rested on the handle of the door and he pushed it open revealing a sight he had always so desperately wanted to set his eyes upon.
“Wow,” the prince spoke aloud as he walked up the stairs to view the sight in its entirety. Of course, the boy had seen nature before. Their family holiday palace was set in the middle of the most beautiful nature reserve Hyunjae had ever seen, yet there was something about the feeling of freedom that made the air around him taste so much sweeter. Perhaps it was the knowledge of the fact that outside of the castle walls he was nameless, just another face walking this path, no one would know who he really was or all of the things he had to face in life. Out here, he was simply just Lee Hyunjae rather than Prince Lee Hyunjae of Danbya and that felt like the greatest thing.
Exploring the forest was just as fun as the boy had imagined. Of course, he didn’t want to venture too far in case he would get lost or find himself unable to find one of the doorways that would lead him back to the tunnel yet the prince didn’t want to restrict himself either. In the end, he decided to stray from the path just a little. Hyunjae walked carefully at first, stepping over the tree roots that poked out from the ground and making sure he didn’t accidentally trip and hurt himself however after some time, this became less of a priority and Hyunjae found himself becoming less aware of his surroundings and more enraptured by the sights above him. Just as the prince found a particularly interesting looking bird, he suddenly felt his foot hit into a tree root below him and before he knew it he was lying on the floor with a searing pain shooting through his ankle.
“Hey!” A voice came then and Hyunjae felt a little scared as he saw a blurry looking figure running towards him through the gaps in the trees. This fear quickly dissipated though when he saw a kind looking boy standing over him and offering him a hand, “are you okay?”
“Yes, I think,” the prince spoke shyly back as he took the stranger’s hand and allowed himself to be led to a small tree stump where he sat down.
“Does your leg hurt?” the other asked him then and Hyunjae nodded a little bit to which the boy leant down and began squeezing it in seemingly random places.
“Ow!” Hyunjae yelped eventually as the boy pressed his ankle in a certain place which seemed to infinitely multiply the pain, “what was that for?” he pouted but the boy’s eyes only curled up into a pretty smile.
“It’s not broken,” he announced and Hyunjae was grateful for that, “I think you might have just twisted it or something, do you need help getting home?”
Despite the fact that he most likely did, the prince shook his head furiously, “no I’m fine,” he spoke out to which the other boy looked extremely concerned but seemed to drop it anyway.
“You should be more careful, everyone knows they should look where they’re going so they don’t trip over when they’re walking around here,” the stranger sat down as he paused for a second, “but then again, I’ve never seen you here before, what’s your name? I’m Lee Juyeon, I live just in the village over there, where do you live?”
The prince faltered for a second as he allowed his mind to race. Did he want to lie to this boy? Yet was it wise to just tell a stranger who he really was?
In a split second of madness, Hyunjae’s heart seemed to decide for him, “I’m Lee Hyunjae, I live up there,” he pointed towards the palace and Juyeon’s face quickly paled as he stood up straight and bowed at a complete 90 degree angle.
“Y- your majesty,” he fumbled over his words now a lot less confident and a lot more scared, “please forgive me, I had no idea it was you who I was speaking to or I would’ve been a lot more respectful.”
“Juyeon,” Hyunjae spoke to get his attention and the boy instantly stood up straight once again with fear in his eyes, “please, don’t worry about it at all, I’m glad you spoke with me how you did, I’d like to feel normal if only for a little while, if you’d feel comfortable enough to treat me so.”
“But your majesty, you’re-“
“I know who I am Juyeon, yet I wish I could forget that just for a moment and simply be Hyunjae rather than Prince Hyunjae.”
Juyeon seemed to still at this as his head tried to comprehend what he had just heard, “so you want me to talk normally?” he asked still unsure of himself but Hyunjae just nodded.
“I’d like that a lot.”
The younger boy accepted it then after not much more convincing and the two boys sat and talked for hours. Juyeon answered any questions Hyunjae had about his life and Hyunjae did the same in return. Both were equally fascinated by the tales they had to tell each other and in only a few hours, they formed a friendship unliked anything Hyunjae had ever known in all of his life.
Soon though, the sun looked as if it was about to start setting below the trees and Juyeon’s phone kept pinging in his pocket with texts from his mom asking where he was.
“I think you have to go,” Hyunjae spoke as he motioned towards the small device in Juyeon’s hand.
“I think so,” Juyeon hummed in a sad response, “do you have a phone number or anything I can have, I’ve enjoyed talking to you a lot.”
“No,” Hyunjae hung his head a little, “I’m not allowed a phone until I’m 21 and even then I’m not allowed to have any contacts that aren’t approved by my father,” he sighed and Juyeon only nodded.
They fell into silence for a few seconds after that yet their sadness was so loud that both boys could hardly stand it. Juyeon was racking his brain for some way, any way that they could meet again and Hyunjae was already feeling the sadness of having to leave his new friend.
“You could meet me here,” Juyeon suggested and the prince’s head quickly snapped up.
“Really?” he asked almost believing that Juyeon was simply playing a trick on him for a moment.
“Of course,” Juyeon grinned brightly at the excitement of it all, to him it was a new adventure and a new friend to take along and he simply couldn’t be happier about it, “show me your map.”
Hyunjae pulled the piece of paper from his pocket and Juyeon pulled a pen from the small bag that he had been carrying with him. They scanned over the map and Juyeon crossed out a few things that were outdated and no longer in existence then, when it was finally to his liking, the younger drew a little cross next to a well that Hyunjae had commented about coming across earlier.
“You can meet me here every Tuesday at 3pm if you want, I come here a lot because I have a shorter day at work that day,” Juyeon smiled kindly and the prince grinned in return.
“Okay, I have no meetings on Tuesday afternoon anyway so that’s perfect, I’ll see you then Juyeon.”
They parted ways at that and as Hyunjae returned to the castle, the dingy tunnel suddenly seemed so much brighter and less terrifying. Just from spending a mere few hours with Juyeon, the boy already felt infinitely happier than he could ever remember being and he owed this to the sense of true normality that the other boy had brought into his life. It seemed like Juyeon’s friendship was all that he had been waiting for and needed.
In the weeks that passed after that, the two boys met up every single Tuesday and spent countless hours wandering through the forest and talking about anything and everything. Hyunjae found that with every week it became much easier to find his way through the tunnel and out to the well that he and Juyeon always met at, in the months after they found a place that Juyeon promised to make into a den for them both to use and the younger took the prince to the edge of his village which Hyunjae had always longed to see.
It was only a few weeks before Hyunjae’s 21st that things seemed to become little different. Juyeon hadn’t began acting weird per say more so he had began acting a little less confident than he usually did. Whereas in the weeks before he would feel comfortable lying his head on Hyunjae’s shoulder or letting the older boy lie across his lap when he’d had a particularly hard day, Juyeon now seemed a little wary of doing those things and honestly, it terrified Hyunjae.
The prince was well aware of how his own feelings for Juyeon were straying further and further from those of a mere friendship everyday and because of this, it made Juyeon’s distance feel so much further. Every little sign of affection Juyeon would show to him made the prince feel so truly elated that the thought of not having them anymore stressed him out to no end and even worse, Hyunjae simply just couldn’t understand why he was pulling away.
Maybe it was the fact that soon the public would come to know Hyunjae’s face or maybe it was the fact that Hyunjae would soon be heavily monitored and their friendship would become so much more strained than it already was but whatever it was, the prince didn’t like it one bit. However, the true reason for it all became clear on one summer’s afternoon as two sat on a pair of swings that Juyeon had hung from a tree a few days before. “Hyunjae, can I tell you something?” the younger spoke into the silence causing the prince’s heart to quickly fall.
Hyunjae had already settled on his idea of what Juyeon had been planning to say to him. He knew that no young people ever stayed in villages, even less ones with little to no prospects unless your wish was to work for the royal family themselves. Of course, Hyunjae couldn’t possibly be selfish enough to ask Juyeon to stay in a village with nothing to offer at all other than him and although the boy had much prepared himself for this exact situation, facing the real thing felt infinitely harder.
“Of course,” Hyunjae replied back as he turned to face Juyeon and desperately tried to stop the tears from forming in his eyes.
“I know that this is wrong and that I shouldn’t be saying these things to you at all,” Juyeon began, “and I know that it is probably really selfish of me to dump all of this on you when I know you’re already going through so much with everything about you finally being known to the public and everything but I just thought that if I kept all of this inside for one second longer I would explode.” He took a second to breathe finally.
“Juyeon you know you can tell me anything right?” Hyunjae spoke reassuringly despite the fact that his head was running at a million miles an hour and he wanted nothing more than to know what the boy was going to say to him.
“I like you Hyunjae,” Juyeon spoke into the silence and the prince felt his heart stop beating for a moment and his breath catch in his mouth, “you don’t have to say anything,” Juyeon continued after Hyunjae’s moment of silence, “I just wanted you to know in case after you go into the public as the prince I never get to see you again.”
“Juyeon,” Hyunjae let the boy’s name slip from his lips and despite how many times he had uttered the younger’s name before, this time felt infinitely more special, “I like you too you know, how could I not,” the prince smiled.
“You- what?” Juyeon asked in disbelief, “me?”
“Who else?” the prince’s smile widened even more then, “I hope you realise that you are the first person I’ve ever met who has allowed me to truly be me, I owe you so much Juyeon.”
“You mean that?”
“I’ve never meant anything more.”
They kissed then. All full of love, longing, warmth and nothing else. Their lips moved in perfect unison like they were made for each other and although Hyunjae had felt nervous when the younger leant in, his first kiss had felt just as easy as falling in love with Juyeon had. Perhaps everything in his life was easy where Juyeon was concerned.
When they finally pulled away, the light glistening in Juyeon’s eyes as they curled into a breathtaking smile was unlike anything Hyunjae had ever seen before. It seemed almost baffling that regardless of the fact that they had no idea what lay ahead, both boys couldn’t help but leave their negative thoughts in the back of their minds and focus only on each other.
As they stared at each other for a while simply to bask in the moment, Hyunjae felt his face heating up under Juyeon’s gaze and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t fight the pink that danced across his cheeks.
“Why are you blushing?” Juyeon asked with a teasing smile as he brushed a few strands of hair from Hyunjae’s face.
“We were just staring at each other how am I supposed to not blush?” Hyunjae asked back causing the boy to break into a laugh.
“Maybe you’re right,” he commented before grabbing Hyunjae’s hand and lacing their fingers together.
Silence took over them once again but this time their hand swung between them as they both stared up at the setting sun. Hyunjae had never felt such happiness in all of the years he had been alive. Of course, he had experienced many great things in his life, he had been to many beautiful places, seen the wonders of the world and experienced sights that many would kill to witness however not one of them could ever live up to the sight of Juyeon in that moment.
The setting sun cast a beautiful glow on the younger boy’s skin, his lips were curled into a fond and truly contented smile. His brown eyes glistened with every emotion he was experiencing, happiness, excitement and pure, unfiltered love. Everything about him set Hyunjae’s heart racing.
“Juyeon,” he broke the silence then and the younger’s head turned to face him, “be mine?” he asked simply.
“I’ve never wanted anything more.”
In that moment as Juyeon squeezed his hand and leaned to press a soft kiss on his cheek, Hyunjae forgot every pressure that being Danbya’s prince set upon him. For those few minutes, he was simply Hyunjae, the boyfriend of Juyeon. He wasn’t the prince who the entire population were desperately waiting to meet, he wasn’t the future king who would have to rule over millions of people and that felt so beautifully freeing.
Juyeon seemed to notice that Hyunjae was deep in thought as he knocked their shoulders together lightly. “Hey, let's see who can swing the highest,” the younger suggested.
“How old are you, 10?” Hyunjae questioned back and Juyeon only scoffed.
“You act as if you don’t want to try it,” Juyeon commented as he pushed off from the ground kicked his legs out.
“Is it safe?” the prince asked.
“I made it for you to use, I’m certain it’s safe.”
At this, with the aid of the butterflies that were swimming in his stomach, Hyunjae pushed off from the ground and swung next to Juyeon, laughing as he quickly reached the height that the younger boy was at.
He’d never felt happiness quite like it.