@choi soobin. working the kingdom's annual fall festival every year brought nothing but joy to kai's heart. it allowed his family to showcase their fruits, vegetables, and flowers to people from all over, and even earn them a few extra dollars that were crucial in supporting their livelihood. every coin made a difference when your family was the poorest of the poor. not that such a thing brought any of the huenings down; in fact, it made their bond stronger because they had to rely on one another and spent countless hours together in the crop fields.
they'd sold numerous items today, their most popular being pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, and marigolds. just as kai had been planning on restocking the shelves, he'd overheard his mother speaking to someone with an awfully familiar voice. spinning around to steal a peek at the man, kai immediately dropped the crate of pumpkins he'd been holding, sending multiple of the orange fruits tumbling out and onto the ground. mumbling to himself, he knelt down and began to pick up the escaped pumpkins. 'soobin, of all people? boy, he sure had some nerve coming to our stall and wanting to buy something...' truth be told, kai missed soobin practically every day. their friendship had been so strong, yet soobin's royalty status shattered the whole thing, and they'd never been able to rekindle it. still, as much as he craved their relationship, he couldn't help the anger that burned within him due to the fact that soobin seemingly never fought for them (as far as kai knew). was soobin suffering like kai had been all of these years? did he even care?
suddenly, his mom's voice snapped him out of his internal rant. "kai, honey, what are you doing? you've never been this clumsy before," she scolded him, shaking her head as she helped to corral all of the pumpkins back into the crate. "and come say hi to soobin! i thought for sure you'd be trying to knock me over just to get to him."
at that, kai simply scowled and grabbed the fruits before pushing himself back to his feet. his mom, bless her heart, couldn't be more wrong about the situation. he most definitely did not want to see soobin or even think about him at this point.
Every year, the kingdom holds a grand celebration for it's people to celebrate the harvest and accomplishments of the year prior and Soobin loved attending it when he was younger. Since he was chosen as the future king, he wasn't able to really enjoy it as he used to because he always had to hide in plain sight and preferably not talk to anyone so nobody could recognise him although he made an exception for the family of his dearest childhood friend from back when he was just a normal child. Through his influence, he was always able to gather some intel on how they were doing but it's not the same as when talking to them himself.
This year, too, Soobin wants to visit his second family so after his mandatory public appearance, Soobin quickly changes out of his expensive costume into a simple beige pair of pants paired with a dark blue coat his mother made him for cases like this with a yarn that was induced with magic so that the wearer was not invisible but had an aura, that people tend to notice less, especially if not spoken to directly.
With his outfit put on, the elf makes his way to the part of the festival that the commoners visit. Even though most stalls sell some crops they harvested, there are also a lot of other interesting things to see like little magic trinkets that are, of course, nothing he couldn't make himself but he loves seeing how elvish abilities are being used to make daily life easier. In his mind, he also already marked down some food stall that offer food he used to eat on special occasions like these as a child and misses dearly in the palace. Not like he was complaining about the food there but it's just not the same as his childhood food. One place he makes sure to never miss out though is the Huening's stall where he always makes sure to say hi and bring them gifts since they are really like part of his family.
So as he looks through the market, he finds the place he has been searching for finally and luckily for him at this moment, there aren't any customers. With a bright smile on his face, he walks towards the stall which is packed with products.
"Hi, I'd love to buy a forget-me-not~", he starts with a gentle smile, a line he uses every year and that has almost become an insider for them to recognise him.
