I'm sorry this one took so long! I was having trouble writing from Kaede's perspective and I didn't want to release a sub-standard chapter. I'll release one more later today. Enjoy!

Chapter 5 - Kaede meets Jin

My name is Kaede Yamahara.

I’m the first daughter and second child of an upper noble’s house. My father works as the treasurer and accounts manager for the Kingdom. My older brother is working under him in order to one day succeed his position and take over the Yamahara house.

As is common for the daughter of a noble, I was to be married off to another noble’s house.

I debuted in high society when I turned 13 and was continuously bombarded with proposals from various nobles.

Some were disgusting and their motives were clear on their lewd faces. Some were quite kind.

But it didn’t matter, I had already decided who I was going to marry.

Due to my father’s position, I was once brought to the castle, to practice my etiquette and so forth. 

My father had to meet with the King, so he entrusted me to stay still while he took care of business.

So of course, I wondered off. I found a beautiful garden, with an incredible array of plants. That’s where I met a small boy with golden hair and bright blue eyes.

He was playing with a small girl with black hair and black eyes wearing a maid outfit.

They were running around and chasing each other while laughing. At that moment, I was really excited.

I hadn’t even met anyone my own age before, let alone played with them. 

I ran up to them.

“Hey! Can I play too?”

The girl with black hair seemed suspicious of my sudden appearance, but the boy just turned to me and smiled.

“Sure! Do you know how to play tag?”

“Jin, she wouldn’t know how to play a game that you, yourself invented”

“Ah! I guess that’s true, Mari! It’s real simple okay? One person is ‘it’, if they tag you then you’re ‘it’ and you have to tag someone else! Got it?”

At that time, I didn’t care to think of who this boy was, or what he was doing in the garden of the royal castle. I was just excited to make a friend.

We ended up playing tag until we were collapsed on the floor.

“Huhuhu, not bad! That was fun! You should come and play again sometime! Ah, what was your name?”

“Kaede! That sounds fun! I’ll be sure to come and play again as soon as possible!”

I did visit the castle again, but I never saw the boy or the girl. It was only much later, that I discovered that the boy Jin, was the Crown Prince of the country.

Regardless, that was an incredibly strong memory in my mind, the time I made my first ever friends, Jin and Mari.

I would only see them again during my debut into society 8 years later, at the crown prince’s official crowning party.

…

By this point, I was no longer a child, I had been exposed to the ugliness of the noble world. They way that lower nobles would kiss your feet in order to receive some kind of benefit. How they’d order their children to try and befriend you for some kind of monetary or societal gain. It was disgusting and it was constant.

It made it difficult to make real friends, because you had no idea what the other party’s intentions were.

It was a formal event and so I was wearing a gown. Jin was wearing a splendid red overcoat with golden patches that matched his golden hair. He had grown into a very handsome young man.

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My heart skipped a beat. 

His eyes however, had greyed and were no longer the brilliant blue that they once were.

He was currently surrounded by noble children, all vying to befriend him. To anyone else he appeared to be a picture perfect Prince. He was calm and both looked and acted with purpose and grace.

To me, he looked very lonely. He was surrounded by people, but all I could see in his eyes was a sense of isolation.

“If it isn’t Miss Yamahara…”

“I apologize, I’ve just seen a friend. If you’ll excuse me”

I push past the troublesome, brownnosed noble children trying to befriend or wed me.

“Your highness, it’s been a long time”

I was far too embarrassed to call him Jin, like I did when I was 5.

He turned to me slowly, turning his back on a noble girl talking about some nonsense.

“I don’t believe we’ve met before though”

He doesn’t smile, nor greet me, but instead states so plainly.

“We met in the castle a long time ago and played tag together with Mari”

His eyes register a reaction to Mari’s name.

“I see. You were the girl at that time. If I remember correctly, you had promised to return and play again as soon as possible”

His eyes darken.

My heart stops.

“I did indeed promise that. Unfortunately, I never did find you again after that”

“Hah, I see”

He sighs, like I had said something disappointing. No, rather I’ve been grouped with the rest of the disgusting noble vying for power in his mind. Trying to use a childhood meeting as some sort of leverage.

I panic at this point and start fumbling over my words, but this just makes me look like I’ve been caught in a lie.

Just then, a handsome looking, pale man in his 30’s walks in, escorted by trumpeters and knights to announce his arrival.

From this, I can guess that this man is Jin’s father, the King.

Jin’s face doesn’t evoke a reaction. Rather, it looks like he doesn’t recognize the man who just walked in.

“That’s your royal father, is it not?”

I ask him.

“I don’t know. I’ve never met him before”

He responded with his normal cold tone of voice.

…

That was when it struck me how isolated this boy named Jin was. Even I feel disgusted by the efforts of other nobles when dealing with me, but at the very least I have two loving parents and a doting brother.

Jin is in an even worse position, when dealing with the nobles, because there is no one equal or above him in status apart from his father. I can still find solace in other noble children who have similarly high social positions, as they have nothing to gain from me. Jin has no one. He has no siblings, his mother has died and he just told me this is the first time he’s seen his father.

...

I have to physically hold back my tears from falling. 

What happened to that smiling, sociable, kind boy from before? Has the pressures of his life warped his personality to such a level?

I spent the rest of the party wondering about, interacting with as few people as I could get away with.

Then when I returned home, I begged my father to set up an engagement between Jin and I.

I was in love with Jin, that much was already established. Jin barely even recognizes me as an acquaintance. That’s fine.

The most important thing, the thing that I want to accomplish, is to make Jin smile again.