Chapter 13 (1/2)

The word ‘princess’ made O Shin’s lips twitch. Although others didn’t notice it, Myohan did, and he laughed silently. Although O Shin still remained cold and emotionless, he kept responding to the word princess. He sighed to hear Yuja call him ‘princess.’ The boys had been calling him princess for some time now.

“Oh, look at all this money. It’ll be enough for me to become a princess.”

“Ha!”

In the end, Myohan couldn’t help laughing. O Shin said ‘oh’ way too calmly, and it was just too funny.

The man gazed at him fiercely. Myohan giggled with a hand covering his mouth, his shoulders trembling.

Myohan thought that O Shin wouldn’t cooperate, but to his surprise, he was seriously into the play. He read his lines quite naturally.

Still, there were a few problems. He was the tallest boy in the class, and his voice was just too…masculine to play a princess.

“Oh, our Snow White!”

“Our beautiful princess as white as snow!”

“Princess, please open your eyes!”

Dwarves 1, 2, and 3 said their lines in turn. O Shin was lying on a few desks put together, and Myohan could see his eyes twitching. Myohan, still trying not to laugh, took a step forward.

“Out of my way.”

“Oh, it’s the prince of the neighboring kingdom!”

Sinsul, whose role was a dwarf, said his line with great effort. Myohan stood in front of lying O Shin sighed deeply, his smile long gone.

The man’s eyes were still closed. Myohan hesitated, and then Yuja harshly hit his shoulder.

“What kind of prince sighs like that in front of his princess?”

“Hey, don’t you have eyes? How can you call this a princess?”

Myohan pointed at the man as he said so. O Shin opened his eyes and looked at Myohan. Yuja crossed his arms and looked back and forth between Myohan and O Shin. Then he looked at O Shin’s feet that were in the air as the makeshift bed was short for him.

“The princess can be a little tall.”

“….A little?”

Chookjae, who was dwarf 7, rubbed his chin. Now O Shin was the center of everyone’s attention. He said slowly, “If you’re going to make me lie here for long, at least give me a pillow.”

Sinsul took pity on him, rolled up his jersey, and put it under his head. Now that O Shin felt much more comfortable, he closed his eyes again, feeling a lot better. Yuja sighed.

“Myohan, just do it unless you want to be the princess yourself. I let you be the prince only because I knew you would really get mad if I made you be the princess.”

Now Myohan had no choice but to put a hand right next to O Shin’s face. Yes, I am the prince, but he’s the princess. I’m not the one who’s suffering the most here.

He told himself so, put the other hand on O Shin’s left cheek, and covered where the lips were supposed to meet with his thumb.

Yuja had taught him the fake kissing method without actually kissing. The audience would never know if their lips really touched or not. O Shin flinched when Myohan’s hand touched his cheek.

“Your Highness, please save our princess!”

Myohan leaned down with dwarf 4’s line. The man’s long eyelashes were getting closer. When it was close enough, Myohan stopped, counted to three, and then put his head up. O Shin’s eyes slowly opened.

His dark eyes quietly stared at Myohan. The moment his red lips opened, Myohan frowned hard.

“My prince?”

‘Cat…?’

His head started to ache. His ears buzzed and he could hear a familiar voice. He fell to the floor, feeling great pain. He grabbed his head with both hands, but it didn’t make the headache go away.

“O Myohan?”

“Are you okay?”

“Are you sick or something?”

Unknown memories kept flooding in. Blue sky, green forest, leaves flowing on the river and the fear he had felt at the time.

‘You’re a cat.’

He took a deep breath. He couldn’t hear his classmates. A series of scenes went through his head.

“Myohan.”

O Shin, who had come down from the desks, hugged him from behind and put a hand on his head. Then he started to slowly stroke his hair. He softly whispered.

“Don’t think.”

Myohan’s mind was now blank. The voice started to fade. Myohan gripped O Shin’s shirt hard, and he spoke once again.

“Don’t try to think.”

That made the last bit of the headache disappear. Myohan couldn’t even recall what he had been thinking a second ago. When he looked up at O Shin, breathing hard, he was looking back at Myohan, his eyes as mysterious as usual.