07. the young prince

The palace, Sunggyu found, could be accessed through yet another private path – one even less used than the previous – and even then Woohyun was wary. They left for home first, going back to Hoya’s house to eat some rice and chicken (‘the food was infinitive, Hoya wouldn’t mind’) before filling a small purple backpack with a few sandwiches and seemingly useless items Sunggyu threw in under the ladybird’s orders. Sunggyu felt like Dora the Explorer – he looked the part after all, especially with his purple backpack and Woohyun acting like a talking, invisible map.

When they did arrive in the palace, Sunggyu was anything but disinterested. The palace was big – big like the universe he was in and Xifed Tars. The walls were a clear white – the kind of newly painted white you would see on cement-paved houses, and the whole contraption really resembled a bunch of mushrooms connected. Mushrooms of different sizes and shades of red, tall, skinny mushrooms and short, fat ones were all connected. Some of them even had mushrooms on top of mushrooms. The whole palace was protected by a glass dome – a colourful one which showcased red, yellow, green and blue. Sunggyu thought the dome looked like something a circus would have. He gawked, speechless.

“Seriously,” Woohyun huffed, not impolitely. He was amused by the other’s interest. “Are you going to stare and gape every time we see a new building?”

Sunggyu didn’t answer. He continued staring. Now this was the kind of adventure he was looking for.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” the ladybird chuckled. He told Sunggyu to walk alongside the dome – not close enough for him to get caught, but not too far for the building to be invisible. There was a secret entrance there, Woohyun said. The last time he visited there had been. It seemed Woohyun was not mistaken – it still remained.

Hidden by both the people within and outside of the castle, a small trapdoor was engraved in the green section of the dome. It was hidden from the outside of the dome by a dark forest, and inside it was just behind one very wide mushroom. Woohyun took pride in its existence. The only other entrance was a double door on the side of the dome facing the major part of the city. That entrance, however, was guarded by tall, faceless men with hats covering their faces and mouths set in thin, unforgiving lines. That entrance was definitely not one neither Woohyun nor Sunggyu liked to try. The two explorers ducked through the door, quickly running into the first mushroom Sunggyu could enter. Surprisingly, there were no locks on the doors.

“The dome protects the castle,” Woohyun whispered, “There’s no need for locks.” He said no more.

Quietly, the ladybird led our young traveller through the rooms, navigating up and down steps and ducking subtly behind chairs to avoid getting caught. Sunggyu’s heart was pumping, his adrenaline high. It was so exciting, and with quick and quiet feet he ran through corridors and hallways and occasionally bridges which connected two mushroom clusters together. The inside of the palace was just as pretty as the outside. The walls and stairs were tiled neatly, a small blue diamond in the middle of every four larger white diamonds. The ceiling was decorated with an unknown galaxy – stars and plants standing out against the black and purple background. The floor depicted a bright, cloudy sky, filled with fluffy clouds against a light blue backdrop. It looked amazing and at times the rooms Sunggyu passed made him want to stop and simply stare, transfixed, at the detail and attention which had been etched into every space of the palace.

When he got too distracted, Woohyun blew into his ear. The young boy then proceeded to run, faster and faster, stopping only to hide behind whatever large object suited him fancy. He’d long abandoned his backpack, under Woohyun’s orders, in a room they ducked into quickly. This was meant to lead people astray, should they be seen. While hiding, Sunggyu often peeked, even though Woohyun told him not too, at the maids and servants who passed them by. They dressed in black and white, suits and dresses with embroidered collars and lace aprons. They had no painted faces, but they were a lot smaller in build and height compared to those in the city of Xifed Tars. Sunggyu could only differentiate the servants due to their varying hair colours. It was just as well too, for a rainbow-haired child passed him. Her long, silky hair was streaked in every colour of the rainbow – it was bright and intriguing and stare-worthy in Sunggyu’s eyes.

“Move,” Woohyun commanded firmly, but the young traveller was too curious to move. When the ladybird noticed a taller male coming, he said it louder, “Move child!”

It was too late though. The tall boy had seen Sunggyu, and whether the ladybird liked it or not, they’d been caught. The boy picked Sunggyu up by his shirt, staring at the air on his shoulder.

“Oh, Woohyun,” he snarled, “I bet the prince would love to see you.”

It turned out the servant was right. Sungyeol, Sunggyu later found his name was, had dragged them to the biggest room in the palace – a large space occupied by pictures and odd items. The walls of this room were painted to showcase thousands and thousands of different scenic views, odd, misplaced objects standing neatly on rows of shelves. Near the double doors, a small row of hooks held what seemed like thousands of cream coloured bed sheets, cameras dangling off the hooks on perpendicular wall. A small boy in a cape much too large for his frame was standing in the middle, occupied by his own desires. His hair was black, just like his cape. A gold crown stood on his head. He ly when Sungyeol cleared his throat.

“Thought you’d like to see them,” the servant said smugly. He didn’t seem in any rush to leave, and it seemed the boy in the cape wasn’t going to make him.

The boy didn’t turn around. “Who are they Sungyeol?”

Woohyun cut him off, “How are you doing, kid?”

This made the young boy freeze. Sunggyu watched as the boy turned around cautiously, his eyebrows raised. His surprise didn’t pass towards his face, but Sunggyu was sure the boy was very, very shocked. He stared at Sunggyu’s shoulder.

His voice was reduced to a squeak. “Hyung?”

“Nice to see you too Myungsoo,” Sunggyu was sure the ladybird was smiling. “How are you?”

The prince, unlike Woohyun, did not respond casually at all. The young boy narrowed his eyes, his meekness and surprise replaced with anger. The boy glared.

“You’re one to talk,” the prince said coldly, “Abandoning me for years and coming back, only to say how are you?” He stared at Sunggyu, his voice sounding quite terrifying. “And you’ve chosen some human over your own brother. How could you, hyung?” He spat the last word out like venom.

The prince got very angry. He threw a vase on the floor, watching as it did not break. A loud sound, resembling glass shattering, could be heard, but the vase remained in the same shape and form it had been in prior to being smashed. Sunggyu had no time to ponder over this phenomenon when the prince spoke again.

“You’re a terrible hyung,” he cursed, “And now you decide to walk back here. Woohyun-hyung, how could you?”

Unlike Sunggyu, the ladybird did not seem the least bit surprised.

“How are Mother and Father?” he asked casually.

“Don’t you how are mother and father me!” the boy shouted. Sunggyu could hear the anger in his voice. “You leave me alone with this – with this castle and city, and you expect me to just tell you how mum and dad are?! How could you hyung! What about me? Don’t you care about me?” He glared angrily at the ladybird. “I’ll tell you how I’ve been. I’ve been horrible – I’m been locked in here with a bunch of responsibility and ugly people and disgusting things and it’s all horrible! You left me here, you selfish person, you left me all alone when you promised you wouldn’t and just decided you’d run as far away as possible. Don’t I matter hyung? Don’t I matter at all? You left me with all of this – I hate it!”

The boy stomped his foot on the ground, his crown sliding out of place. Sunggyu watched the prince, wondering how such a pretty little boy could be so scary. When he looked at the younger’s face, he thought the prince was rather cute – he had a petite body with chocolate eyes and a melting stare. But after looking at the prince’s tantrum, Sunggyu couldn’t see anything pretty about the boy.

Sunggyu turned to the space on his shoulder. “You’re the Prince’s brother?”

“Why yes, yes I am.”

The prince glared. “And he was meant to be the ruler of this land.” The boy walked over to sit in his chair, legs brought to his chest. He was fuming. He sighed dramatically.

“You’re obviously here for something,” he said. “Surely you wouldn’t come here just to say Hi.” Myungsoo sighed again. “Well, what is it you want?”

“We need a ticket out of here for the human,” Woohyun replied.

“Absolutely not!” The prince and Sunggyu cried at the same time.

Myungsoo glared at the ladybird. “You really think I’m going to let this kid go and risk losing you again? Neither you nor the boy will be leaving Xifed Tars, and that’s final. I don’t care much for him – humans are some of the stupidest beings anyways – but you seem to find him a lot more important than me.”

“Don’t look at me,” Woohyun said, “You’re the one who asked.” Catching his brother’s glare, Woohyun bit back his tongue. “Myungsoo, this isn’t for me –“

He ignored the other’s sarcastic remark. “Well it certainly is now, isn’t it?” the prince exclaimed, “You’re the one asking for a ticket, you’re the one who left your brother and never came back. You’re the boy who didn’t listen – who didn’t even care for his brother.” He caught of Sunggyu’s confused face. The boy smirked. “Oh, didn’t Woohyun tell you? Why he’s a ladybird and not a human – why Hoya looks seventy?”

The handsome prince snarled, “Woohyun’s a fool. Woohyun’s always been a complete, utter fool. You see, not long ago your precious ladybird used to be a human, and not so long ago Hoya used to look his age. That was back when Mama and Papa were still here – when they were still ruling Xifed Tars. Hoya got caught up in some silly affairs – some sort of drama between enemies of our universe,” Myungsoo waved them away, “Not important. Anyways, being the intelligent kid Woohyun was, he decided to get himself involved. No, I’d told him, it was too dangerous and a lost cause. But the fool – my precious hyung – wouldn’t listen.

“It was a lost cause. He had been a bit too late, and before Woohyun could play the hero of the story, Hoya had already been put under a spell. He was transformed into an ugly old man, and Woohyun, trying to defend the other, became a ladybird. I was furious when I found out – our whole family was. Mama and Papa were so angry at Woohyun they left to settle the score.” Myungsoo stared angrily at the boy. “They were killed, leaving me to the throne.”

The young boy pointed an accusing finger at Woohyun. “This boy, he lied. You lied Woohyun – you killed Mama and Papa, you left me here. You were meant to amend for your deeds. Our parents are dead because of you! All because of you! Why did you do that – why didn’t you listen to me? You killed Mama and Papa with your acts.”

“Mother and Father never loved me anyways,” Woohyun murmured.

“Lies!” the little prince cried, “Mama and Papa loved you a lot! That’s why they went after the people who hurt you!”

“No, Myungsoo,” Woohyun whispered, “They’d never love me as much as they loved you.”

But the prince could not hear him. He was still angry over the other’s deeds.

(A/N: Updating because LOL deadlines don't like me. Uhh; the time lapse between this and the previous chapter is pretty short compared to my other stories, so check to see if you've read Chapter Six first maybe my A/N warning you should be at the top LOL There's also another chapter I'll update later in the day because only eseech plans out 11 chapter stories to finish in about 13 days //wining Thanks for reading!)