The Smiling Prince

The sun was brightly shining as after a few months of cold, the warm air of spring had come. The leaves of trees were yet again vibrant as she walked below them.

The world has changed drastically in the last few months, the knowledge of the realm of Eon caused titanic amounts of news to come out. So as she scrolled through her phone and saw a very popular musician riding atop a dragon in the Kingdom of Phirines for the first time, she couldn’t help but be in awe.

Though normal citizens like her weren’t allowed to do interdimensional travel yet, she hoped that one day, she would be allowed to. But while she walked, she heard a few footsteps behind her. With a poke of her uniform, Kei turned around.

“Yo~ you excited for school again?” Yusuke brightly asked, his hair had grown longer than last year, probably because the girl next to him wanted it.

“Yeah right, after this it’s college, then after that it's work,” Kei wallowed as Yusuke chuckled. But then, the girl next to Yusuke, Rin, smiled as she pinched Kei’s cheeks.

“Well, that’s for us,” she stated before giving Kei a playful look, “It seems like Princes in Phirines marry young, so who knows~ maybe at the end of this year we’ll be calling you ‘Your Majesty’.” Kei’s face gave off a slight hue of red, one Rin and Yusuke didn’t expect at all.

“Psh, was that supposed to make me flustered?” She asked, “You two have no clue what I’ve gone through.” The couple laughed as Yusuke patted Kei on the back.

“You two called almost every day, right?” He asked, causing Kei to quickly nod. Yusuke grinned as he remembered that during Kei’s birthday, Iscodaya was in a remote part of the Middle East, and though he sang the loudest during her birthday, he kept on glitching, causing the entire party to laugh.

“You think he’s coming back to school?” Rin suddenly questioned. Kei thought about it for a bit.

“He did say that he wanted to finish high school, but I’ve seen the things they’re doing in Phirines, so I guess he’ll be late.” Iscodaya always told Kei about what he wanted to do, and that was when she knew that they weren’t going to marry so soon. The Prince wanted to graduate high school, and then to go university for history.

The trip through the entire world was something that made Iscodaya really have a thirst for knowledge. And Kei always supported him through it all, a support Iscodaya always appreciated.

As the group met up with Yuuma and their other friends, they began to chat like always. The girls were congratulating Kei for her future as Earth’s first royal, though she told them that they were getting too far ahead.

The topic of second Prince Iscodaya’s partner has been going around the internet lately. It was revealed that the Prince was officially dating someone when he slipped out that he was texting his girlfriend on television. And since then, many people tried to find who this person was. But many more were trying to pretend like they were the girlfriend. Though Kei doesn’t really like it, she doesn’t immediately dispel it due to her wanting privacy.

But as she made it to school, she was already seeing the looks her classmates were giving her, especially those who were in their class last year. They knew, but Kei was thankful that they’d not spread it around too much.

The friend group made their way to their new homeroom, where Yusuke and Kei started to get familiar with their new classmates. All was going well so far, then, when Kei was sitting at her desk, just scrolling through her phone, someone suddenly sat on her table.

Kei wondered who this was, and as she looked up, she saw a boy. He was wearing a black mask, his eyes were dark brown, and his medium-length black hair was styled neatly as it descended down his face. She wondered who this was, “Excuse me?” She asked politely.

But after a few seconds went by, the boy leaned in, and in a voice she hadn’t heard before, spoke, “You’re real cute, you wanna go out?” He asked. Kei’s face scrunched up at the question.

“I’m sorry, but I have a boyfriend,” she stated, her voice less polite than usual. But then she saw through the boy’s eyes that he was smiling.

Then, he spoke again in a voice very similar to a certain boy, “I thought you’d recognize my eye shape by now.” Kei’s eyes widened as the boy brought his mask down, “Nice to see you in the flesh again, Princess,” Iscodaya greeted with that same cheeky smile.

Kei couldn’t believe it at first, as she thought that it wasn’t even real. But as she touched his face, she knew, “ISCO-” But before she could say his name, the Prince blocked her mouth.

“Shh, we are trying to not get attention here,” he remarked with a worried smile.

“We?” Kei questioned before she noticed another boy next to them. Tall, brown-eyed, with spiky medium-length, black hair. He was also wearing a mask, but when Kei faced him, he also brought it down. And there, was Kaus, with a charismatic grin on his face.

Seeing that two people were near Kei, her friends came to investigate. But when they saw the two’s faces yet again, Yusuke exploded with happiness, causing a lot of attention to be drawn, much to the displeasement of the two Phirinians.

“Yusuke,” Rin called out with her authoritative voice, instantly negating Yusuke’s loudness, “Wow, you guys have changed.”

Iscodaya and Kaus chuckled at the girl’s remark, “Sure did, we’re currently wearing contacts, and Kaus dyed his hair like, two days ago.”

“How long have you guys been in Japan?” Yuuma asked as he and Kaus wrapped their arms around each other’s necks.

“Like yesterday,” the swordsman uttered, “They actually don’t know the apartment we rented, so Iscodaya and I have been staying there.”

“How have you two not been noticed?” Kei questioned as Iscodaya took the seat next to her.

“Well, our appearances, we always go out with glasses and masks now. But we also changed our names,” Iscodaya stated as Kei nodded, “So when we’re out in public, my name is Kuromi, and Kaus’s is Yuki.” A silence came over the friend group at Iscodaya’s words.

Kei sat with a puzzled look on her face, “...They’re so girly.” The friend group laughed as Iscodaya and Kaus got a bit embarrassed.

“Bro, at least Kaus isn’t too bad, yours i-”

“SHUT UP!!” Iscodaya yelled as chaos began. Though they hadn’t met in many months, the friend group was still as chaotic as ever. As the class went around and introduced themselves, and the lesson started, Kei was constantly looking at Iscodaya.

He was still as diligent as ever, constantly asking, constantly writing. But the more she looked, the more she became flustered. The second Prince of another realm’s nation, was currently a normal high school boy, a high school boy she was dating.

And so, when the school clock ticked and ticked, and lunchtime came, Iscodaya and Kei found themselves sitting below a tree, the leaves falling around them. Black hair, and brown eyes, though he didn’t look otherworldly anymore, Kei still saw Iscodaya as her Prince, “You ready for the year?” She asked him as a pink petal fell on her nose.

Iscodaya smiled, as he leaned in and removed the petal, “If you’re here with me, I’m ready for anything,” he grinned before kissing her on the cheek. “Cause when I wasn’t ready for a lot of things last year, you were always there, pushing me forward, my beautiful Princess.”

The compliment caused Kei to grin widely, as her cheeks were pink like rose petals, “Then,” she smiled before leaning closer, “Kiss me like your beautiful Princess.”

Iscodaya sighed with a smile, as he did what he was told to do. And as the infinite horizon shined a bright blue above them, and the pink petals continued to fall on the green grass, the Prince smiled.