The Prince's Princess (prolouge)
“Why do I have to do this?” Inoo muttered, glaring at the dress the handmaid had brandished at him.
“You promised you would. Now do it.” Inoo’s younger adopted brother, Daiki said, taking the dress from the maid and practically hitting Inoo in the face with the hanger. The soft silky fabric stuck to his lips, and he jerked his head away.
“No.”
“Please?” The youngest brother, Chinen, asked. Inoo quickly looked away. “No!”
“Inoo.” The king had finally gotten away from all of the questions in the ballroom and was able to come into the back room where Inoo was. “I’m really sorry, but I adopted all of you children with the intention of having offspring after my wife, the queen, died, seeing as I will never marry again. I adopted four sons and a daughter, so that my daughter could marry off to a noble and actually be wealthy, and make her way in the world, sharing her riches with the children that she had grown up with.”
“I don’t see how our family history has anything to do with me going to a matchmaking dance in a dress!” Inoo exclaimed, again shooting dagger-eyes at the gown. The king sighed.
“You’re the daughter I adopted, Inoo.”
Inoo stared, dumbstruck, at the king. “But I’m a guy! Dad, you told us that our sister died of a sickness after you adopted her!”
“Well, yes, but I was still planning to adopt a daughter. It didn’t end up happening.”
“Obviously.” Daiki rolled his eyes.
“I’d hoped that Hikaru would’ve gotten married by now and we wouldn’t have to deal with all of this.” Everyone stared at Hikaru, who shrunk back behind the handmaid. “Sorry!” he squeaked.
“So, could you please, please, please just go to this ball? I am in the process of adopting a girl as we speak-for some reason the process was delayed and I couldn’t have her come to this ball, but Inoo, I promise you won’t have to do this again. Now, please…?”
Inoo looked again at the ball gown, a scowl crossing his face. “Fine.” He finally said, taking the dress from Daiki’s hands. Suddenly, he found all of them-Hikaru, Daiki, Yamada, and Chinen-snuggling him, shouts of “Yay!” filling the room.
“But-” Inoo said, catching his father’s attention before the older man made a break for it “After this, you have to tell me how you thought I was a girl!”
A small boy, around the age of 13, let the curtain closing the back room off from the ballroom fall, stalking off. His brother had told him to see if he could find out what was taking so long, and he had found out something far more important. Shintaro smirked. He couldn’t wait to tell Onii-chan.