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aehyung grew in a used-to-be lovely castle, with a loving father, hard working and caring maids and butlers, and his pets that his father had generously let him to keep. yet everything seemed to change drastically ever since his step-mother had come to his life. the boy usually had his alone time with his father for he to tell him stories about the man's adventures whilst drinking tea on the patio or just playing together with the rabbits in the garden, but the moments had long gone when taehyung's step-mother had started to steal more of his father's time until he was completely gone for both of them.

taehyung's step-mother, the queen, was a woman with high cheekbones, long dark hair, natural tapered eyebrows, and sharp brilliant eyes; a beauty in the shape of a human. she was the prettiest woman taehyung had ever seen, after his long dead mother. he and his father had soon fallen for the woman's fairness and accepted her in their incomplete family. a few months after taehyung's parents' marriage, the workers one by one had resigned for unknown reasons or fired because of their tardiness, leaving taehyung and his parents alone in the castle. not long after, his father had got sick and was bedridden due to his poor condition. it was all too sudden that taehyung still remembered the night he cried so hard next to his father who was telling him his few last words before giving him the coldest kiss he'd ever got from the man. the queen soon gathered his vulnerable state in her arms when she empathized on the time the only relation taehyung'd had in the world to be gone forever, making an illusion of how he was not truly alone and still had someone who cared for him.

yet never had the queen acted like a mother figure at all after that. it was taehyung and his pets now, with castle no longer as lovely as it used to be. for a long time, nobody could understand what was the matter inside the palace, but at last it was whispered that the new queen had ruled the castle by herself as a lone widow and kept her child--a hidden treasure--inside the mysterious kingdom.

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perhaps the country air made him fair and rosy--for all agreed that taehyung would have been a very handsome boy but for his lithe figure, resembling a girl, and so pretty, pretty face, with which, nevertheless, complementing his beautiful look even with the ragged rotten dress his step-mother got him from the shed. taehyung was never one to be picky with clothes to wear, but his father had always wanted a daughter so playfully back then, had he wore the sawed dress his late biological mother probably made for the unborn daughters just to please his father. now he'd used to learn to wear them every day since his step-mother also looked to enjoy him wearing them, had she always given him dress that the foster maids left in the house for taehyung to use to work.

even with how many tasks the queen gave him in a day, taehyung had always been an obedient kid who never left an order to be undone. however, little did he know, that he was despised by his own beloved step-mother, who thought of him as unlucky. poor taehyung was often left lonely and sorrowful with the changes in his household, but as a little ball of sunshine that he was, he was soon to recover to his cheerful personality, cheekily chatting with his 'friends' that were the rabbits.

one warm summer's noon, he was lying in the shadow of a mossy rock with the rabbits around him, just returning from the castle after finishing a hard task of cleaning the whole floor, taehyung had wished for a good nap he deserved before something had caught him off guard when a sudden splash sound came out from the pound of the castle just a few meters from his direction. he immediately stood up to help whatever fell down into the dirty water.

it was a boy, probably the same age as him, black curly hair and was wearing the dirtiest outfits taehyung'd laid his eyes onto. the boy was soon to catch taehyung's offering hand and pulled up to stand beside him. the strange boy threw him a blinding smile to convey his gratitude, and if having someone to break in the thick and tall wall of the castle was astonishing, almost impossible, taehyung was left agape with how adorable the other boy was. he looked just like a bunny.

"are you okay?" taehyung asked as the boy opened his dirty cap to dry his hair.

"thank you for your aid, and be sure i will do as much for you. my name is jeongguk," the strange boy said, grabbing taehyung's small hand for a hand shake.

the holds lingered for longer than what normal was supposed to be and taehyung still hadn't noticed the curious and precious stares jeongguk threw at him secretly. "i'm taehyung... how have you found your way to be here?" he asked instead, eyebrows furrowed adorably.

"my father had forced me to come and here i made my run because he is such a boring man," jeongguk whined in distaste. "come and play with me, instead, taehyung! i wish not to speak more about that boring matter. you should be honoured that i am such a good company!"

the boy led a dazed taehyung inside the garden further, and along a mossy path among old trees wreathed with ivy, and rabbits following around them, they had gone too deep in excitement and happiness for each other presence. having known for barely an hour, they both acted like they were tied to hips already. all loneliness and sorrow had tarnished from taehyung's heart when he saw how lively jeongguk had been, chasing the grasshoppers and making him flower crowns. he was too delighted for he to have more wish for another person to remain by his side to replace the void his father had left.

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"oh, mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?"

"why, snow white is the fairest."