food for thought
location. kingdom of spades town, sidewalk
@cwnkijung
when one of them asks for a picture, yurye respectfully abides for a few quick selfies before excusing himself and kijung. after all, mornings out with kijung in town were rare. they were on a timed schedule and he’d like to spend as much time catching up with kijung as he could.
“so, they were pretty right?” yurye decides to ask kijung, curious to know what his younger brother’s opinion is. it’s a sincere curious thought considering that kijung has never really asked him for advice on girls before. as a growing male, yurye can respect kijung’s privacy but even he had to admit he was a bit curious what his brother’s preferences were.
there’s only a handful of things in life that kijung feels genuinely grateful for but the few that he does, his appreciation is overflowing. truly, he didn’t have much to be proud of.
sure, he’s the only biological child to both the current king and queen which meant he should have everything but it sure didn’t feel that way nor was he treated like one. then, with his poor health since birth and throughout his childhood which speaks for itself in terms of how unfortunate it’d been, he couldn’t even be happy about getting better because thanks to that, the queen immediately pushed him into royal lessons. some reward.
now, he’s in the running to become the next king—albeit being one of the least qualified to, having earned his current title and rank mostly due to his bloodline rather than actually possessing the right qualities and traits a prince and thus future king should have—even though he has no desire to be. but it’s either this or be possibly disowned ( permanently ) by the queen herself for proving useless to her and he’s not insane enough to give up the life of luxury and lavishness even if he has thought about it more than once — after all, the kingdom of spades is supposedly known for it’s freedom so how could he, the prince of such a place, not yearn for it too ?
but like he said, there are a few things keeping him sane and still trying to a degree, most notably a person: kijung’s very own half brother. even if their mothers were different, yurye was the closest family he had and their only connection was the king. kijung should’ve had every reason to hate the older what with the king obviously favoring yurye and his mother more than he and the queen, but he can’t blame the old man. kijung would choose yurye over the queen too, any day— even if he’s going on about some restaraunt that opened recently that kijung just had to try, that it has high praise from the royal cook themselves, that he’d like it for sure.
it’s not that he’s unwilling to tag along though. he actually loves trying new places out, especially if it’s about food, but he’s generally up for anything. it’s one hundred percent due to this constant desire for freedom, to find adventure and live the way he wants to, so even if he feels confined to the palace at least outings like this make him feel like he has some free will. even better that it’s with company he likes a lot.
kijung just grins ( fondly ) at the other but he doubts yurye notices, the prince likely too wrapped up in talking. kijung could be talkative himself but he really can’t hold a candle to yurye sometimes, although he supposes that’s part of why the older is also so sociable and friendly. it’s both a blessing and a curse, he muses, as proven when a pair of girls approaches them, clearly starstruck—or enamored ?—with yurye. he doesn’t even consider himself as someone they’d be interested in for one second, not when his half sibling is around anyways and once again, he’s proven right when the girls only ask him for pictures. kijung just stands off to the side and smiles politely at them when they glance his way and then they leave shortly after too, which means he and yurye can continue on their way as well.
until kijung hears the older’s question and he almost trips over himself in surprise. he manages to catch himself before anything truly disastrous happens and once he’s straightened himself up, he fakes a cough to try and hide his embarrassment — and the fact that he’s not exactly interested in girls the way yurye is assuming. “ah, yes, they were,” he replies slowly, a faint smile on his lips because it’s true, they were pretty. but did he want to date them? not really — but then again, he does tend to lean towards guys more than girls.
he’s never told yurye—or anyone, for that matter—though because, well, it wasn’t exactly common and when or how would he bring it up anyways? just drop it randomly like “hey, i like guys more than girls!” on a fine sunday afternoon? it sounds absurd. kijung’s certain there’s definitely been same gendered couples before, even now, and in the future too but despite it not being completely frowned upon by many, there was still some stigma and judgement attached to liking another boy if you’re also a boy. thus, it’s easier and less hassle for himself if he just doesn’t mention it so he tries to shift the focus away from him instead.
“did you think they were cute? they clearly had a thing for you,” he tosses back far easier than he thought he would, considering how caught off guard he was just moments earlier, even managing to pull off a teasing tone. kijung can probably thank all those lessons he was forced to take that taught you how to mask your emotions and appear composed for that, though. “maybe you should’ve gotten one of their numbers,” he jokes, a grin finding its way to his face.