The kingdom is brimming with excitement, common folk flocking the downtown of the capital, scouring the tents of merchants for gifts. The skies have been filled with bright red lanterns, the concrete floors of the square decorated beautifully with colored chalk.
A celebration that has been anticipated for weeks has finally started.
In the castle, a new born’s cry breaks the silence, maids smiling as they hand the queen her hour old son. The birth of a healthy prince, a blessing upon the royal family! The queen gives an exhausted smile, but it still brims with love as she gazes at her son.
“Joonmyun,” she whispers, “today is the day you are shown to the world.”
In the same castle grounds, in a small hut by the gates, a maiden and a blacksmith crowd around their 2-year old son, smiling as they hold sweet bread for him to take. They each give him a kiss, before they break the bread into five pieces to be shared among the siblings.
“Happy birthday, our Chanyeol.”
Chanyeol is five when he is explained the purpose of his birth and existence.
His mother is helping him get ready for bed, reprimanding him (again) for his freshly scraped knees and the dust he had collected while playing outside. Chanyeol is barely holding his tears, feeling apologetic and guilty for having gone played with the other castle children.
“Why can I not join them in fun, mother?”
His mother had sighed then, her lips pressing together as she held unto his hands.
“Because you are not like them, Chanyeol,” she chided. Her lips turns into a frown, and Chanyeol blinked, noticing the wrinkles that dot around her eyes and mouth. “You are a promised child.”
Chanyeol sniffles, his eyebrows knitting together. “Mother?”
“Chanyeol, you are the promised child for the prince.”
When Chanyeol is ten, he meets Prince Joonmyun for the first time.
The prince is only eight, small and skinny under royal clothing, and barely comes up to Chanyeol’s chest. He has a sweet, shy smile, his fingers holding tightly to the Queen’s as Chanyeol is presented to the entire court along with his parents.
They are all bowing low, on their hands and knees, and only Chanyeol is given permission to stand and meet the Queen’s eyes.
She is gentle in the way she smiles, but it is not warm, not like his mother, as she pushes Joonmyun forward.
“My son, meet Chanyeol,” she says, ‘your promised one.”
Prince Joonmyun is very special.
Chanyeol is ten, has lessons on servitude every day from the break of dawn, and training lessons all of the afternoon. He is taught how to speak and how to carry himself, as well as to how fight and defend the prince. He is fed ideas from the scholars, some that sink in easily and others that he quickly rejects in his mind.
He no longer dares to speak up against them, not after his last lashing.
The loud bubbly child that had first entered the castle quickly becomes into a quiet, obedient one, his eyes always cast down.
Prince Joonmyun is the most important person in the kingdom.
Next, is the royal family, followed by the nobles, next the scholars, then the merchants, and in the very bottom of the social ladder, the servants.
“You, and your family were born and raised servants. The royal family has been kind in your upbringing, and you should consider yourself honored that you have been chosen to carry out what may be perhaps the most important role for the kingdom. If you prove yourself worthy, of course.”
Prince Joonmyun is not a normal prince.
“Kumihos are nine-tailed beasts, who were born deep in the forest and possessed incredible magical ability,” his teachers reads off the text, glasses perched over his nose. “They were the most powerful, and ruled their land. Legend has it that Ahri, the kumiho queen of the time, fell for a human man. She conceived him a son and a daughter, before the man betrayed her and fell for another human woman.”
“The kumiho, betrayed and hurt, set upon to kill the lovers, but upon realizing that the woman was pregnant, was unable to. Instead, she punished them for the rest of their lives, forcing them and their descendants into a life of servitude. The bastard child was born on the second birthday of her son, and for his parents sin, was appointed to guard and worship the young kumiho prince. The queen, afraid that the bastard child may hurt her son, performed a magical ritual on the boy, enslaving him to her son with a seal on his body.”
Prince Joonmyun is a kumiho.
Once a month, Chanyeol is given permission to meet the prince. The queen sees it fit that the servant is allowed to face the person he will guard for the rest of his life.
“And I ask for it,” Joonmyun had once whispered, shy and looking anywhere but where Chanyeol had been kneeling on the floor. Joonmyun was resting over large pillows, sipping on tea.
“Thank you, my prince,” he had answered, unsure of what else he could have possibly said. He is not even allowed to meet the prince’s eyes yet. He has been told over and over that this time (while short) was a blessing, and a low life servant like him should always be thankful. Always thankful.
Chanyeol usually does not life his gaze off from the floor during these times, even if Joonmyun tries to coax him to speak and eat. But after he learns of the royal family’s background and lineage, he steals a small glance at the prince.
There, among the pillows and in between the prince’s robes, a short, fluffy white tail lays flicking, and Chanyeol almost faints on top of the expensive marble floor.
On the morning that Chanyeol turns thirteen, he is awoken by guards who break into his home and take him away. He’s confused, and at first, he cries out as he’s dragged away, calling for his parents that stand shell shocked and helpless to help him.
He believes he is getting punish, and that this time it will certainly end in death. They have gotten stricter with their punishments, their patience thin whenever Chanyeol dares to make a mistake or step out of line.
Yesterday, when he had met with the prince during their monthly get together, he had been tired and bold. He had met the prince’s stare on whenever he spoke, and prince had turned red on his face. Chanyeol thought a guard would have intervened whenever Chanyeol spoke up, and had left the meeting sweating upon realizing what he had done.
The boy is thrown into a rugged room, the space dark aside from the candles light up in a circle in the middle. Chanyeol isn’t given a chance to get up, three more men grabbing his body despite his struggles.
“Please, please, stop,” he begs, confused and hysteric over what they’re doing. They’ve never done this before. He is slammed against the floor and it knocks the wind out of him, his lips parting in a silent scream. His hands and feet seem to be restrained because suddenly he can’t move, a pair of blue eyes coming into view.
“Chanyeol, my name is Yixing. The kingdom witch,” the strange man with blue eyes explains. “Today is the day you are given your seal.”
Chanyeol comes in and out of consciousness. Most times, it’s because of the blazing pain currently wrapping his body. Other times, water is dump on his body, strange hands moving him here and there, his bare body lifted upon a table. He is given water and spoonfuls of food that he can barely keep down, body to weak to protest or even process the events.
He cries, he cries a lot, his screams unheard by the witch who burns his body with black ink.
At some point, he begs for death, pleads for it all to stop, for everything to just end. He begs for mercy, apologies spilling out of his lips before he can even stop them. Yixing touches his cheeks and places well aimed kisses to his forehead and nose, smiling sadly at the boy.
“Shh, do not give up yet.”
On what seems to be the third day of his delirium, his chest heaving as fire consumes his body, the doors of the room are kicked open, and a flurry of activity starts inside the room.
A second circle is created next to his own, and the servant can only stare blearily as the body of the prince is placed next to his own. He makes a pain sound, but the kumiho remains asleep, a sweet smile on his face and his features soft.
The witch moves to stand over the prince, knife in hand. Chanyeol makes a noise of protest, a weak whimper that goes unheard as the witch lowers the knife and very carefully, begins slicing through the skin of the prince to draw blood.
The witch begins to chant as the blood coats the floor, and after that, all Chanyeol sees is red.
Chanyeol is not the same boy when he leaves the room.
The seal covers the side of his neck, his chest, and down his left arm. He moves out of his parents home to a room inside the castle that is only his, and is handed an uniform in the colors of black and red, the kingdom’s colors.
His training increases, and his lessons are reduced to fit the hours of the early morning.
“The Seal, upon placed on the promise one, will go through a phase of rejection or acceptance. If the magic rejects the vessel of the promised human, the human dies. But if the magic accepts the promised user, the human’s soul, body and mind is sealed forever.”
“The seal serves a protection. The servant, who will become the human companion of the kumiho, cannot bring harm upon the kumiho. Any ill action or thought against their master will only inflict pain upon the user. The kumiho is also able to control their promised human with their magic. In exchange, the human is given strength, agility, intelligence, discipline, and good luck.”
Chanyeol grips his quilt pen that much tighter as his teacher reads off from the text, glaring down at the black ink that paints his skin.
Joonmyun upon seeing Chanyeol breaks out into a smile, hands grabbing his robes as he runs towards his promised servant, a large smile on his face.
The kumiho throws himself against the servant’s body, and the other boy splutters as his arms automatically move to encase the smaller boy, making sure neither of them spill all over the floor.
“Prince,” Chanyeol gasps, his eyes wide as he looks down at him and to the guards. “Prince, you cannot - “
“I can, Chanyeol,” the soft voice rings, quiet laughter following the kumiho. His eyes shine as he looks up at the human boy, smiling. “I can touch you now.”
Later, when Joonmyun insists for Chanyeol to sit with him in the pillows, he shows Chanyeol his left arm, black ink decorating his wrist in the form an intricate droplet. Joonmyun takes Chanyeol’s own left arm, pointing at the spot blank spot over his wrist.
“See? We’re meant for each other.”
Chanyeol learns very quickly that it is hard to hate his prince.
All those years of strict, rigorous education to turn him into the perfect servant seems almost like a lie. In the books, kumihos are unkind, powerful mythical creatures. To Chanyeol, Joonmyun is a person to be hated and to be fearful of. He is Chanyeol’s only purpose of life, and for that, the young servant comes to resent him for many years.
But as Chanyeol’s days begin to be filled with Joonmyun, he learns many things that were never covered in his studies.
One, is that no one besides the queen or the other princes, are allowed to touch Joonmyun.
Two, kumihos love sweet things very much. And shiny things even more, if Joonmyun’s secret hoard of shiny trinkets is any proof.
Three, Joonmyun has two other brothers, older, who also have promised servants. Sehun has Jongin, the youngest son of the castle’s baker, and Baekhyun has Jongdae, an orphan who was dropped on Sehun’s second birthday.
Chanyeol had thought he was one in a million - the only boy who had dared been born on the exact date as the prince - but he learns that any boy, born among the servants who is two years apart in age of the prince and is born on the same date is promised to the kumiho.
In Sehun’s case, Jongin and another boy were chosen, but the seal only accepted Jongin. In Baekhyun’s case, no one had appeared for two years, until Jongdae had been dropped in the castle’s doors.
Four, is that every kumiho alive has a unique shade of fur. Joonmyun’s is snow white, and so, so soft. He means purity and his powers align with that of water. On the nights were the moon is full, his ears won’t grow on the sides of his head but on top, lined with fur.
“I look strange in those days,” Joonmyun admits, painting the flowers from the garden as Chanyeol stands guard next to him, back straight. “I am not myself, but a demon.”
Chanyeol turns eighteen on the same day Joonmyun turns sixteen.
The day is spent differently.
For the first time in sixteen years, Joonmyun was to be presented to the kingdom as the next prince in line for the throne. Chanyeol, for the first time in his life, was to finally step officially into the role he had been prepared for his entire life. He has graduated from all his studies and training, and reported to the Queen the day before along with all his teachers.
“From this day forward, your days will begin and end with the Prince,” she had said, sitting on her throne. “Guard him with your mind, with your body, and with your soul.”
