Life as a Secret Changeling Prince

“M-Mothball?!” Jung-ho cracked out, looking at the statue and back at Firefly, his mouth agape.

Firefly nodded with a smug look on her face, “and I suggest you get used to being called that, who knows, maybe your looks would get you into the bed of the Empress one day?” With that, she turned and walked away with her head held high.

Jung-ho fell on his haunches, eyes wide in shock, his breathing beginning to quicken. Cricket ran over and tried to say something to him but it fell on deaf ears, as Jung-ho looked back at the sculpture, he began to feel sick.

The sculpture was rather new compared to all of the other ones in the temple, made not even fifteen years ago. It was to honor Empress Tsubaki of Neighon’s favorite lover, Mothball, also known as Seo-jun Park.

The pose it was in was rather flattering, he was sprawled out on the podium with his soft face resting on his right hoof. He had a subtle smile on his face, fangs just barely poking out from his lips. His mane was in rolls that somehow perfectly matched his semi-long braid, meanwhile his tail was rolled up into a bun.

The outfit he was in was the worst part for Jung-ho, as he was wearing the typical clothes of a concubine. The shirt had long flowing sleeves as if to show how slender he was, frills were visible from the collar of his shirt, and most revealing of all was the large slit in the skirt that showed off his left back leg.

As if it could be any more humiliating, the statue was made of pure jade, as if showing how much the Empress desired and loved him.

Jung-ho cringed as he continued to stare at his namesake, but was snapped out of his negative thoughts by Cricket grabbing his face and saying, “earth to Jung-ho! Are you there?!”

He gulped and was about to speak before Glasswing mockingly said, “don’t you mean Mothball, Cricket? You know the rules around here, once your second name is assigned, there’s no changing it!”

“I’m not calling him that if he’s not comfortable with it!” Cricket snapped, helping his friend onto his hooves, whispering that they should get going now.

Jung-ho slowly nodded, taking one last look at the statue and following his friend out, trying his hardest to ignore the taunts made by Glasswing.

“So how did it go?” That was the first thing Netwing asked, which made his son want to curl up and die on the spot.

“Fine.”

Netwing cocked an eyebrow, “just... ‘fine’? What name did they give you?” Jung-ho stayed silent, looking at the ground in shame.

Orchid looked concerned and whispered to her son, “ what is it?” Cricket hesitated before whispering back the name.

She gasped and slapped her hoof over her mouth, which startled Netwing before he pushed, “Jung-ho, what did they name you?”

“Mothball,” he cracked out, tears filling his eyes as his cheeks flushed bright green.

His father took a moment to process this, slowly turning to look towards the temple. After a moment of silence, he mumbled, “let’s get going, I have to get to working on the fields...”

Jung-ho tried to say something else but his father already started to walk away, he looked to Orchid and Cricket, who gave him sympathetic looks. “It’ll be okay, you will never bring your family dishonor,” she whispered to him, nuzzling his head to comfort him.

He just sighed and ran off in the direction his father went, it’s not like his day could get any worse than this.

He was wrong, it did get worse.

Turns out his mother had been dishonorably discharged from her position in the army, from what he could catch from his parent’s argument she did one of two things: she either assaulted the Wonsu’s (General) son by attacking him or... attempting to assault him in a way that made Jung-ho sick just imagining.

Jung-ho was curled up in his bed, hiding his head underneath his cheap pillows. He could still hear them arguing, loud and clear despite this.

He swore he even heard her say in their native language, “ 그걸 요청했어!” he genuinely wanted to vomit as he understood exactly what she said.

‘He was asking for it!’

Like his consent didn’t matter at all...

Luckily his father had retorted in a disgusted tone, “h-how dare you say that?! Dragonfly is a changeling, just like you! Just like me, he deserves the same decency that you have as a female! Just because he’s a male that’s deemed as ‘inferior’ doesn’t mean you have the right to assault him in such a horrible way!”

“Oh Mr. High and Mighty is telling me right from wrong now? Why just last week I saw you berating your son for acting too tough in front of the girls his age!”

“That has nothing to do with this! And I did it for his protection, now j-just... shut up!”

“And speaking of your son, might I remind you that he was born the bastard of a whore?! You can’t keep treating him like he’s some angel, that little brat needs to learn discipline the right way. And believe me, I’ll be more than happy to do it for you!”

Jung-ho whimpered as he heard hoof steps approach his room, he silently prayed to the Goddess Nati for protection. He had no idea if it was his father or mother, he begged the Gods for it to be the former.

Then a gentle hoof was placed on his head, he peeked out from his blankets and saw his fathers sad face looking at him. He pulled the blankets off himself and awkwardly stared at him, not knowing what to say after hearing their brutal argument in the kitchen.

“S-son...” Netwing cracked out, his voice was hoarse from shouting, tears were beginning to form in his red eyes.

Jung-ho freezed up, “Yes papa?” He almost never saw his father cried, yes he’s seen him sad before but never to the point of tears.

Netwing wrapped his hooves around his son and whispered almost painfully, “we need to go away... I don’t know for how long but we just need to... okay?”

Jung-ho nodded, hugging his father back as tight as he could, hearing him begin to softly cry against his mane. His heart broke every time he heard his father sniffle or gasp for air, sounding so defeated.

He was released after a few minutes of hearing him sob, being instructed to pack his clothes and anything of value, they were to leave in the dead of night. Netwing also told him something strange, “I need to tell you something once we’re far away enough, and I want you to know that even once you know the truth, I will forever love you as my son, alright?”

Jung-ho questioned this, only to be answered with, “this has to do with your second name, and be it the Gods blessing or curse you were given it...”