Snow had erased the world's memory of colour.
The palace grounds lay buried beneath a pale stillness, stone paths softened and reshaped by frost, rooftops bowed under its weight. Cold ruled everything it touched, air, breath, bone seeping into walls and sleeves alike. Footsteps vanished as soon as they were made, and even sound seemed reluctant to travel, as though the land were holding its breath.
Kim Yunxi sat alone beneath the grandest tree in the courtyard.
In his ten years of living, he had hated this time the most, the snow, the cold, the Winter.
The beauty of snowflakes falling from the sky was his worst scene.
His features were striking in a way that drew eyes without meaning to. His hair, a rare shade kissed by red under the sunlight, tumbled over his shoulders like threads of fire. His face and body, were delicate, too soft, too lovely. His lashes were so long they shadowed the tremble in his wide eyes. Wrapped in layers too thin for the cool breeze, Yunxi shivered faintly, his small hands tucked against his chest.
He hated the snow.
If only it weren't the preparations of the coming ceremonies, how his father had promised he would be chosen as the Head to prepare these "gonna be cold ceremonies", he wouldn't step a foot outside his house gates. It was indeed the greed for food
.....S.2
With different ceremonies being discussed, how much would that lighten people up? The food, the dancing, the music, poetry and the introductions, and meetings of new young nobles and princes and princesses.
Jo Han Ji was one of the few people who hated this kind of feeling. How much noise would be in the palace, how the smell of sweat would linger in the halls. He hated it when he met new people, how they would comment on him made him think they thought of him as a trophy they worked so hard to win, to please. He strode out like he didn't mean to, escaping the stifling formalities of the officials' endless amble.
It was quiet outside, the snowflakes, the smell of nothing made him like winter even more. He wasn't bothered by the cold, he was always carefully well covered. Always dressed in layers. A prince, a crown prince who was held with care.
His eyes roamed around, everything was white, beautiful, lovely like he wanted it to be. Han Ji wished it could be like this. His sight was ruined when he caught sight of a figure in red.
Way to spoil his mood.
A tinny figure of a person, a toddler seeking shelter below the compound tree. Was it walking? Crawling? Until it reached it's seemed to be destination, a stone below the tree, maybe to seek shelter? What was it doing there?
For a moment Han Ji thought he smiled, it was an amusing scene. His movements were slow as he walked around hoping to see whatever his head wanted to see. The "toddler" was back facing him. It was only natural to feel the need to know what this was. The figure seemed to start leaving the centre, running to the building entrance. Han Ji walked slowly, his eyes never leaving the same sight. It was now running towards the only stairway leading to the round bridge hall. The same entrance that the prince seemed to be leading to. Han Ji walked slowly, hands behind his back like a royal Highness he was.
.....S.3
Yunxi ran, his young brain persuaded him that if he ran at a high speed, no snowflake would even touch him. With that idea, he ran as fast as he could, climbed the stairs as his tiny hands reached for the long silk gown he wore not to fall, his teeth out with the excitement for the result of his so-called speed.
There shall not be any flake on his head as he takes this last sta....BOOM. He crashed into something that he had not sketched on his map. And that is how Kim Yunxi lost in his own game of speed.
....S.4
Han Ji turned his sight to the entrance, and to this person. If he continued to move even little steps, he was surely going to crash into them. He was a prince though, he wasn't the one to create space for others apart from the Emperor, and this? This person was no Emperor, they would definitely stop, no? Before he could get an answer, he was in the other person's way, and it was too late to know they were not looking anywhere else to find out someone else was coming on their same direction.
Magnetically, Han Ji held his hand out and caught the other who was now falling backwards. He paused, the lips, the long lashes as they closed and opened again, and the light blue eyes. Han Ji thought he hadn't seen this beauty around. She was rare. Wait, he let go. Making the other fall back crying in pain.
The pants and boots, 'Why do girls these days dress like boys?' He was now irritated "Your highness!" Someone called.
Han Ji shrugged off his durumagi, the heavy overcoat of his royal robes. He stepped into the tiny person's trembling silence and draped it gently over their narrow shoulders. The fabric swallowed the boy whole, making him look even smaller, like a fragile bird cradled in warmth.
Yunxi lifted his startled eyes. They were large, round, and the colour of clear water.
Han Ji gave him a faint smile, firm yet warm, and for the first time in days, Yunxi's lips curved into something timid, almost shy, before he could say a word, the older boy turned on his heels and left. He didn't help him up, but he gave him something to warm his cold body.
That was where the memory always ended.., the palace bridge halls, a smile exchanged between a fierce young prince and a sweet boy who looked like sunlight itself.
---After years... .
The throne room was suffocating with fear.
Now Emperor,
Jo Han Ji sat high upon the dragon-carved seat of power. Time had carved him into a man whose presence dominated the chamber like a storm. His long, raven hair spilt over broad shoulders, dark as midnight, his sharp jawline set with unyielding authority. Muscles sculpted beneath his robes strained when his hand clenched the armrest. His lips, once gentle as a boy, now pressed into a thin, merciless line. His eyes—piercing, black fire..burned with irritation so intense that no one dared lift their gaze.
The officials lined the hall in two trembling rows. Their faces were pale, beads of sweat trailing down temples as they bowed low, afraid even to breathe too loudly.
At the centre of the marble floor knelt an old man, his wrinkled forehead pressed against the cold stone. His arms were yanked backwards by two armoured soldiers, the bones of his wrists nearly snapping under the pressure. His voice cracked with desperation as he cried out,
"Please, Your Majesty! Spare my family!"
The Emperor's sneer twisted his lips into a cruel shape. His voice cut the silence like a blade.
"Shut him up."
The soldiers shoved the man's face harder into the ground, his pleas muffled to pitiful whimpers.
Behind him, his family cowered; his wife, his brother, his.....son and all bound together by the same fate. They had been beaten until bruises stained their skin, their sobs echoing in the grand chamber. Some wept silently, others clung to one another in terror, their knees shaking as though the stone floor might devour them.
Whatever it was, they were all going down.
Above them all, Emperor Jo Han Ji's gaze did not soften. His eyes searched behind the traitor landing on his older and only son, Yunxi. Ajing hugged him tight, like a mother protecting it's eggs in the nest.
If Yunxi had told him the truth, if he had not lied to him when he asked, maybe...just maybe things wouldn't have gone south. Yunxi was shaken by the sudden glare, he shifted from the comfort of Ajing's arm before stealing another glance at the Emperor again.
Emperor's gaze towards him grew intense. Yunxi was one of his own, at least he thought he was,...now he was nothing but a disgrace and a traitor too.
Afterall, a son was bound to his father's actions. Han ji's eyes glanced up, at Yunxi, he was cradled in his cousin's arm like he could protect him from all kinds of danger.
'And you can still do this infront of me?' Han ji thought bitterly.
Once, long ago, he had smiled like hell wasn't real. Now, his throne was drenched in power, and mercy was a word long forgotten.