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Eight am in the morning was the perfect time to get yourself some warm sunlight. Cale from five years ago would prefer to stay indoor and snuggle inside his thick, fluffy blanket though. Honestly, he still felt that way even now. But the habit he built up for these past three years made him automatically awake at six. His body muscle trained to get up, walk to the farm five minutes away from Black Castle, and water the crops. Yes, the crops.
After defeating White Star, less-busy Cale (he was still doing odd jobs sometimes) started to build the farm he promised to the team leader, Lee Soo-Hyuk, and to fulfill Choi Jung-Soo's dream. Three years and he's getting the hang of it. Tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers, pumpkins, lettuce, melons.. the list of vegetables and fruits that Cale has tried to grow goes on.
His farm was even larger now—thanks to the children and their competition on who made the biggest and most crops and thus lead him to open more field. He had two fields and one orchard now. The children and Choi Han loved to help him, but when harvest time came he still needed to call for a worker or two due to the abundant crops. He could even sell some of the crops to Harris Village now.
Cale remembered their first harvest. There were barely enough tomatoes and potatoes for lunch. The numbers of veggies was enough for a big feast on their third harvest. Raon hurridly called Mary, Rosalyn, Lock and the wolf children, and the Crown Prince for dinner. They moved the dining table to the garden for all of them to fit, as Hong and Ohn mumbled something about garden dinner party.
After that one dinner, they occasionally call more people for dinner party every time they had a successful harvest. Bud and Glenn, Lily, Basen, Cage, Jack, Hannah, Tasha, the tiger tribe, the whale tribe trio, and even Toonka and Litana. Not eveyone always showed up thougu, as some of them were always very busy, but it was always crowded enough to fill more than one dining table.
However, these last several dinner parties, one particular person’s seat was always empty. It was their main guest’s chair, none other than the seat of Alver Crossman, The Crown Prince of Rowoon Kingdom.
“I’m sorry Raon-nim, I have dinner planned with representatives from Breck kingdom tonight.”
“I’m sorry, I’m in the middle of a late meeting, I can’t come to the dinner tonight.”
And a lot more excuses. Cale tried to move the day one time but it turned out the Crown Prince was busy with some guests from another continent all week. Eruhaben suggested dragging the prince himself to Rock Castle, but Cale passed on the idea.
“Let’s just pay His Highness a visit.” Cale sighed one day. “Choi Han, I leave the business to you. I’ll bring this first batch to the palace with Raon, so it’s still fresh for hyung-nim dinner.”
“Alright, Cale-nim.”
And thus, Cale stepped into the teleportation magic circle with a wooden box full of fresh cabbages and cucumbers by his feet and Raon on his shoulder.
“Cookie Prince, we’re hereee~”
They nearly gave Alver, who apparently was changing his clothes, a mini heart attack.
“My Godness!”
Cale stared at his hyung-nim fit figure, as the latter buttoned his shirt as fast as he could.
“Can at least you call me before you come here uninvited?”
“What an odd time to change clothes, Your Highness, what were you doing?”
They spoke at the same time. Alver frowned at the unusual curious question while Cale casually walked over to the couch as if it was his own. The wooden box was left forgotten in the middle of the Crown Prince’s bedroom.
“I just finished my afternoon training. What brought you here?” Alver glanced at the box filled with fresh, healthy-looking green things. “And what are those?”
"This humble farmer boy is here to deliver freshly picked vegetables for the Sun of Rowoon Kingdom, who shines the land with his—"
"It's been a while since I hear those crap. What do you want?"
"–generous and warm light. Your Highness, if you put it that way, everyone would think I only meet you when I need something." Cale pretended to be hurt. Raon was already ravaging the chocolate chip cookie on the basket. “And those are vegetables, Your Highness. The cucumbers and cabbages we harvested this morning.”
“I know these are cucumbers.” Alver mumbled as he walked towards the box and intensely looked at the shining green things.
“I handpicked it myself, Cookie Prince!” Raon shouted proudly. Alver smiled at him, “Great work, Raon-nim!” he gave the dragon a thumb up. Alver then pulled one of the cabbage to his hand and observed it up close.
“But why are you bringing this here?”
“You’ve been skipping our dinner invitation lately, so I thought I would bring the veggies here myself.” Cale said nonchalantly, but it managed to make Alver feel guilty.
“I’m sorry, it’s been hectic in the palace, and the invitation always comes when I already have another dinner schedule.”
“That’s why I'm here to deliver these so at least you have our fresh vegetables for tonight. Right on time, am I not?”
Alver smiled. “Thanks.” He called for the servant to take the vegetables to the palace’s kitchen. “This looks so.. healthy. You do a great job at growing and taking care of them.”
Cale shrugged and Alver could see a smug expression on his face. Raon munched on his third cookie. “This Great and Mighty Raon Miru helped a lot too, Cookie Prince!”
“You’re so amazing and mighty, Raon-nim.” Alver added, and Raon made a proud face. “Do you guys want some tea? I still have time before the next schedule.”
They ended up enjoying sudden tea time and talked a lot about Cale’s farm until Alver only had a few minutes to get ready for his meeting. He said goodbye in a rush as Cale stepped into the teleportation circle, Raon waved at the Crown Prince.
“Enjoy the veggies, Cookie Prince!”
The second time Cale and Raon delivered the veggies, with Hong and On came along, Alver was not present in his bedroom. Cale asked Raon to teleport one more time to Alver’s office and found him working on his paperwork.
“Oh hey. What brings you guys here this time?” he greeted them, then his eyes darted to the wooden box by Cale’s feet. “Oh? Another delivery? I thought it was one time thing.” Alver tidied up the document he was reading.
The two cats meowed at Alver with sparkling eyes. Alver smiled and pet them, the red furred cat purred and the silver cat tapped on his feet. “Long time no see, Hong, On, and Raon too. Want some cookies?”
The cats meowed again before jumping on top of the table. Cale and Raon sit down. “And a cup of tea for me, Your Highness.”
“You—ha, alright. You guys must be tired working in the field and come here straight after.”
“Your Highness, do you like melon?” Cale asked, he leaned his face on the sofa, as he watched Alver brew the tea in his small ‘kitchen’ area in the office. “Hmm? Did you guys harvest melons this time?”
“Choi Han brought some cantaloupes seeds last year!”
“It is a melon variant with orange flesh!”
“It’s very sweet. Cookie Prince, you’ll like it!”
The kids talked in turns enthusiastically. Alver smiled at their excitement. “Oh, let me help you with that, Crown Prince!” Raon’s magic sent the teacups and cookie jars flying and landing safely on the table.
Alver looked down to observe the big fat melons. “Should I open the melon so we can enjoy it together?”
“It’s a good idea!” the kids shouted in unison. Alver used his magic to peel and cut the melon into small-sized cubes and put them in a big bowl. They spend the rest of evening enjoying the fresh, sweet melon together as the kids told Alver the story of their effort at growing the fruit.
".. and the melons were not sweet, at all!” Hong said frantically.
“Turned out we watered them too much when it was already nearing the harvest time. We shouldn't have done that.” On continued, her head shook left to right to match her story.
“Farming sounds like a lot of fun, maybe I should visit the farm one day.”
“Please do, Crown Prince! Better visit when it’s harvest time, nothing beat the taste of fresh tomatoes!” Raon gestured something that resembled a tomato, the silver cat nodded in agreement, and Hong said. “It’s so refreshing after a long and hot, work day!”
“You can help with the harvest too, Hyung-nim. It’s a good way to use your muscle and it will be a good new experience. You’ve never worked on a farm before, right, Hyung-nim?”
“You’re just making up excuses to labor me, aren’t you?” Alver gave Cale the look of disbelief. Cale grinned.
“It will be a sight to see The Rising Sun of this Blessed Land of Boulder pick up carrot and potato from the dirt.”
“Right.” Alver mumbled. “Don’t worry, Crown Prince! It’s not as tiring as you think it be!” Raon chirped. He shoved a piece of melon into Alver’s mouth. “We can always take a break and try some freshly picked crops!” Hong added.
“You guys always take rest a bit too much.” On commented as she took a sip of her tea gracefully. Alver laughed, “It’s good to eat a lot of vegetables, though.”
“They still don’t want to eat broccoli.”
Hong and Raon gave a look of disgust upon hearing what Cale said. Alver laughed again. Oh my, a 9 and 12 years old were still children, after all.
“Anyway, with things settled down in the palace, I think I can go to the next dinner party. Just inform me as usual.”
“Alright, Crown Prince!”
Alver did show up at the next dinner party. Vicross served a big pan of baked zucchini and eggplant in tomato sauce as the star of the dinner. It paired perfectly with the wine from Henituse duchy. Alver couldn’t stay for the night, as he have a schedule early in the morning next day, and he teleported back to the palace in the midnight.
After that last dinner, though, Cale kept visiting the palace, even then when Alver already went twice for dinner at the castle.
“What do you bring this time, my farmer dongsaeng, who once a hero and the moon of Ro—”
Cale stuffed Alver mouth with strawberry after that. He brought so many different vegetables everytime which, to be frank, was mostly the first time Alver had ever seen them fresh and raw. Zucchini, bell pepper, potato, radish (Raon has particular hate for this one), kale—
“What is this, again?” Alver laughed as he held the dark green curly leaves beside Cale’s head. The redhead brushed the vegetables off with his hand. “It’s k-a-l-e, Your Highness, with k..”
Spinach, red spinach, and more lettuce variant. Alver just found out there were many types of leaves that could be served as the side salad for his steak. Butterhead, arugula, watercress, romaine tiberius—“Fancy name for a leaf.” Cale commented, to which Alver agreed.
“Why do I feel these vegetables grow too quickly?” Alver asked one day when Cale delivered another type of lettuce called iceberg.
“We have a new greenhouse for vegetables used in salad, as we eat steak a lot. Lettuce grows pretty fast.”
“Is that so?” Alver accepted the bouquet and placed it carefully on the table, far from his paperwork. “Where’s Raon? Why are you here alone again?” he glanced at Cale who dressed too casually and too clean for someone who was just working on the field.
“They are playing with Lord Sheritt-nim.”
“Playing? They are not on the farm?”
“Yup. The next harvest is still two months away.”
Cale already sat on the couch and ate cookies, as usual. Somehow Alver felt iffy.
“You know, I think you’ve been visiting me awfully a lot.”
Once a week, to be exact, and Cale only gave him a big bouquet of lettuce, sometimes with a small bag of tomatoes or onion. And he always showed up alone and clean, dressed neatly. And now he said the children weren’t on the farm. Like there was no harvest at all.
“Are you just making up excuse to come here?”
Cale still munching the cookies.
“Dongsaeng, do you perhaps, miss me?” Alver felt the corners of his lips lifted involuntarily. Cale was still busy with the sweets, but his head turned to the side to avoid Alver grinning face.
“You know you actually can just ask instructor-nim or Vicross to deliver this, right?” Alver who was smiling ear to ear, poked at Cale’s side. Cale dodged the Crown Prince and ignored his question.
“Hey, you actually miss this handsome hyung-nim of yours, aren’t you?”
“Cale, answer me,” Alver poked at Cale again. This time Cale stood up abruptly.
“Nonsense.” He said, his eyes was looking at anything but Alver’s, ears burning red.
“Now that you received the vegetables, Your Highness, this mere farmer are going to excuse himself.” Cale pulled out a teleportation scroll from his spacious pocket. Alver was practically beaming while looking at him.
“See you around hyung-nim.” He ripped off the scroll and disappeared, leaving Alver alone in his office, his laugh echoed in the room. He didn’t miss Cale’s blushing ear and his flustered face.
“Oho, that rascal definitely miss me.”
He really should be eating dinner more often at Rock Castle.