The first thing she hears as she wakes up is a loud gasp and the first thing she feels is the rock-solid chest of Hongjoong she's sleeping on. Her eyelids fly open and her first sight is the king's sleeping face, and as she looks around to find the source of the gasp she notices that the blinds in her room have been pulled apart, letting the sunlight pouring in, which could only mean one thing.

Someone else is in the room with them.

Her guess proves to be correct because she sees a shocked Serim at the end of the bed, too startled by what she's seeing that she's not able to move at all. Narae untangles herself from Hongjoong's embrace before pushing herself up against the headboard, knees against her chest. The two women look at each other silently, the lady-in-waiting's eyes getting wider by the second.

"Your- Your Highness, please forgive me. I did not mean to barge in where I was not invited; I wanted to carry out my daily duties. When I knocked you did not answer, so I assumed that you still had not waken up."

Narae winces; of course, how can she forget about her own lady-in-waiting? Serim is allowed to carry out her duties by waking up the princess early in the morning, even if it means going into the room without being invited. The princess was never against it, since it's not like she would have anything to hide in here. Well, not until today. She glances at Hongjoong, who is mumbling in his sleep, one of his hands still holding on to her left hand.

"It's fine," she says, trying to stop her voice from trembling. She is still shaken up by the dream she had yesterday, the effect intensified by the shock of suddenly seeing Serim in front of her. "You may leave, and please tell my brother that I'll be joining them- well, whoever would show up today. Allow me some time to get dressed up."

"Would you need any help, Your Highness? And for the... king." Her chin slightly darts to the direction of the sleeping king.

"Ah... now that you've asked, is it possible for you to find some fresh clothes for him? I would graciously ask for you to keep it a secret, but I know that would be hard. As long as Seonghwa doesn't find out before we go down, then it should be fine. You may leave the clothes on the couch right there."

"Very well, Your Highness. I will return with some clothes for His Majesty."

"Thank you, Serim," she smiles.

Serim bows before her eyes tear away from the bed, skittering towards the direction of the bedroom door. She almost jumps out of the room without even looking back once.

As soon as she leaves, Narae's body relaxes and she exhales, feeling the tightness of her chest unravelling. Slowly slipping her hand out of Hongjoong's grasp so as not to wake him up, she slides off the bed and wears her slippers. She looks around her wardrobe for something to wear, now that they're about to go on to track down the Arcus. She barely knows what the journey will bring forth to them; would it only be a short one? Getting there wouldn't be the problem, but when they come there it would be the problem.

Once inside the bathroom she undresses, takes a shower as she can't stop thinking about the dream she had yesterday night. She doesn't know whether it counts as a nightmare; she's not scared of it, but rather she finds it... unsettling? Was that the memory that was supposedly evoked by the smell of Hongjoong's perfume?

She gets dressed half-heartedly, what Hongjoong said yesterday about what would happen once she gets the Arcus disturbing her. Now she doesn't even feel eager to go, and maybe that it's even better if she doesn't get back her memories. Maybe, just maybe, she doesn't want to know what happened to her that night.

She realizes that she's scared of finding out the truth; that she'll have to break the trust in the people she thought she could've trusted. What if... it's one of them? Those that she did not suspect at all; her brother, her cousin, the rest of the princes? Then her hand stops on the doorknob, another name coming to her.

Kim Hongjoong.

She shakes her head. No, it's not him. She's sure of that; she knew it wasn't him that night. But... how can she trust her own memories? Shaking her head once more to rid of the bad thoughts, she fixes her expression and opens the door.

Her face automatically turns bright at the sight of the king sitting on the couch cross-legged, his hands tucked in between his legs as he has his eyes closed, lips pushed outwards as his head lolls to the side, clearly still sleepy even after waking up. Her measured steps towards him wakes him up as he gives a lazy smile with his eyes half-closed and pulls her to sit next to him.

Snuggling his head against her neck, he mutters, "Looks like my princess have woken up and gotten dressed."

Faking a disgusted snort she pushes his head lightly away before uttering, "You stink, go and take a shower. Serim will bring some fresh clothes for you."

"Ah, really." He throws himself to her again, hugging her and resting his forehead on her shoulder. "I'm still sleepy," he whines. "Can't we sleep a little longer?"

The tips of her ears go red at the mention of the word 'we' that she slaps his cheek lightly before chastising, "You better go and shower, meanwhile I'll have to think on how I'm going to deal with my brother."

"You know that I'll protect my princess no matter what, even if it means against her own brother," he drawls, clearly still dazed and sleepy. He scrunches up his nose before dragging his feet across the floor towards the direction of the bathroom, snatching the towel on the way.

She hears the water flowing, and she walks away from the couch, mind still heavy from yesterday. At the same time she's thinking on how she's going to explain to Seonghwa, or she could just exert her force as the 'annoying younger sibling' and simply brush it away. According to the others she's good at that anyway.

A knock comes on the door, and Serim appears with a set of navy blue suit, saying that it's the best she could find without making Seonghwa suspicious. The princess thanks her as she places the clothes on the couch and the lady-in-waiting retreats while bowing her head. After a while, the sound of flowing water stops and the door swings open, with Hongjoong doing his best to cover what there is with the towel.

She doesn't turn around, knowing that she'll probably turn red again with his sight, so she waves her hand over her shoulder. "Those are your clothes that Serim brought for you."

"No fresh underwear?" Hongjoong asks casually as he inspects the clothes.

"You-" she automatically turns around but yelps before closing her eyes as she sees what she's not supposed to. She turns around so fast her neck is about to break before she stutters, "Q-quick and wear- wear those clothes, we can't keep them waiting for too long. It's almost 9."

"Right away, princess."

She can hear the laugh in his voice as he slams the bathroom door shut again. It takes him less than a minute to come out of the bathroom looking dashing even in clothes not his, shaking his head to fan his partially wet hair. Pushing back his hair, a sudden gust of wind appears and as it goes through his hair, the pink changes to blonde. He tidies it up, deciding to let his bangs cover his forehead. All through, Narae can't stop staring at him that even when he's done and walks over to her, her mouth is still partially open.

"You know, it's going to be hard if that's the reaction you're going to make every morning you see me getting ready," he utters.

"I'm not giving any reaction," she says absent-mindedly. "I'm not even looking at you." Her eyes dart away from him.

"Sure, princess." He clicks his tongue. "Totally not drooling over me just now."

"I-" she starts, firm. "was not. I've seen much better."

"Ah..." he nods. "Really? Too bad I'm the one you're going to marry."

He winks before approaching her. Panicking, she steps back until her back hits the wall and she has nowhere left to run. It's true how the princess is slightly taller than him, but there isn't much difference seen- plus, with the king's demeanour, he seems much taller than he is.

"Then you're regretting yesterday night, aren't you?" He grins.

She hits his chest and snaps, "You're making it sound as if we did something. We just slept, and that's it. Stop. Making. It. Sound. So. Dirty." With every word he hits his chest, and with every hit he laughs.

"Right, I'm sorry, my princess. Morning hug?" He opens up his arms wide with the grin still plastered on his face, but Narae shoves him lightly.

"Stop playing around and go down. I told you the rest must be waiting already." She escapes from the trap, ambling towards the door but stops before she opens it. Gathering all her energy, she turns around and claims, "Thank you for staying with me for the night. You kept your promise and didn't leave me. And... I guess I felt safer having you in the room. The nights before I've always felt that somebody is going to break into my room and kill me. I've always had this feeling of someone going after me, even though I don't know who they are."

His expression softens as he shoves his hands in his pockets, making his way towards the princess. "You're welcome. Did you... have any nightmares yesterday?"

Her lips get locked from telling the story about the haunting song she heard; she doesn't know whether she'd call it a nightmare. So instead, she merely shakes her head, trying to appear cheerful. "No. I guess having someone to cuddle with made the nightmares disappear."

Hongjoong sighs heavily before his eyes go upwards, his lips pushed forward. "Looks like we have to do it more often."

She leans forward and kisses him. "Thank you."

He shrugs. "So not a morning hug, but a morning kiss? I can live with that."

"Shut it, now we really have to go down before the others start to look for us." She slips in between the open door and he follows suit.

As opposed to yesterday night, this time the king keeps a distance from the princess, following her cautiously as they navigate the hallways to arrive at the library again. He lets her enter the library first, where she automatically counts the number of people sitting around the table. Down to the last person, her brother, it looks like nobody has chickened out.

"Princess!" Mingi greets her first, waving his hand enthusiastically as their eyes meet. "We were waiting for you."

"Joy, looks like nobody decided to bail out on the last minute," Yeosang mentions as he sucks on a lollipop. "How amazing it is."

"Eh, but I don't see our one and only king," Wooyoung offers. "It's already 9 and he's nowhere to be seen."

Narae gives an awkward smile. She tries to read both her cousin and brother's expressions, and even though they slept in the palace last night, it really looks like they had no idea Hongjoong slept over. She hopes it would stay that way, because then she would not have to explain anything. For the first time, she's grateful that the palace is huge, making it easy for them to slip among them without being noticed.

"Maybe he's busy," Yunho offers. "You know, a king's duties are different than us. Can't say I understand what a king is supposed to do every time, but I can say they're busy people."

Seonghwa rests his elbow on the table and pushes his cheek against his hand, musing, "Busy doing what... I wonder..." then his eyes travel to his sister. "What time did Hongjoong leave last night?"

"Ah, right. You called him to stay back because you wanted to talk to him, right?" Jongho adds.

"Right," Narae replies, trying to keep a neutral expression and wondering whether Hongjoong is behind that door, listening on to their conversation while shaking his head at how the princess is about to lie brazenly through her teeth. "Well, uh, we talked for a bit, but then he said he has to go back to his realm at around 11 p.m. because you know, king duties. Said he would have to inform his people that he's going to join us today."

"Ooh!" San exclaims. "So that means he's going to join us? That means all of us will go!"

"I wonder what's taking him long, though," Jongho shrugs.

"Come on," Mingi whines. "Not everyone can teleport like you guys. Give him a break."

As if on cue, the door cracks open and Hongjoong sticks his head in between, before his hand appears and he waves. Narae pretends that it's her first time seeing him today, nodding her head slightly as a sign of greeting and then looking somewhere else. The king joins the crowd, taking a seat next to Yeosang as he blinks.

"Sorry for being late, transportation was a bit of a hassle. Kind of woke up late too, sleep's too alluring," he says casually while glancing at the princess, who is still pretending that she's not interested in the king.

"Talking about transportation, we've figured out how we're going to go to Opal's Bay." San claps his hands, then extends his arms like he's about to sing the opera. "A genius and quick method, where we won't get our heads bitten off."

"Before that, since we're going on a long journey, we prepared some food for us to eat after," Jongho says as he gestures towards a towering stack of wrapped containers. "Just a little gift from us."

"The twins are good at cooking," Mingi joins in. "Well, at least you don't get stomach aches from their cooking."

"Now if there's nothing else, we should get going. The faster we go there, the faster we can come back with the relic. Everyone's happy, and we can go back home," Yeosang says as he crushes the lollipop with his teeth.

"Wait," Narae stops them, who are starting to get up from their seats. "Not even a plan?"

"Well technically," Yunho starts. "The plan is to go there, not get our body parts bitten off or burned then run away with the Arcus. Sounds good?" He puts out a thumbs-up.

"And... our plan of... I don't know... means of protecting ourselves?"

"This?" Yeosang says with a question mark at the end while he splays out his hands, a blade covered with flames materializing on his hands. "Should be enough to try and protect ourselves, I guess. Would you like one, Your Highness?" He holds it out as Narae shakes her head profusely.

"Never mind, just keep it to yourself. I'll probably burn half of my arm trying to hold that."

He chuckles before throwing the blade in the air and having it disappear into thin air. "No worries, we'll try our best to protect the one and only Park Narae."

Seonghwa clicks his tongue before exhaling, his expression heavy with regret. "Mother and father let us go on this 'adventure' to find the Arcus, but they have entrusted me to look after you no matter what. If anything, and by anything it means even a single scratch on you, happens to you, I'll get the short end of the stick. So please, just follow whatever we're doing and don't put yourself in danger."

"I never expected aunt and uncle to give their permission so easily," Wooyoung shrugs. "But that's good."

"I will," Narae replies as she glances to Hongjoong, who gives her an encouraging smile.

"If that's settled, then it's time for us to depart. Can't wait to show you guys how we're going to get there," San claims as their group make their way to the palace front doors.

Their shoes click on the tiled floor, excitement and worry brewing among them as they move in a group. Narae and Hongjoong fall behind the group, secretly holding each others' hands, the king squeezing her hand as a sign of reassurance. Just as they emerge through the palace building entrance, they let go.

The sun has risen as they shield their eyes from the harsh light and heat, with only Seonghwa, Yeosang and Wooyoung showing that they're not bothered by it. Meanwhile, Mingi has tried to cover himself up with some crystals of ice that he conjures out of nowhere, but even then it's starting to melt.

"Okay, so," Jongho starts, "San and I thought long and hard on how we're going to go to Opal's Bay together, and at first we're thinking of teleporting there. But that's kind of no fun and anti-climatic so we picked the next best option, where everyone can still go at one time."

"We're getting help from our lovely pet, Byeol!" San exclaims as he moves to the side dramatically, revealing an animal sitting behind him.

The animal's fur is a mixture of brown and beige, and it's currently licking its paws. Then, much to everyone's horror, it starts to spread its legs and licks its bottom.

"Uh..." Yunho looks at it, unsure of how to react.

The rest give the same reaction, up until some who squint and rub their eyes, thinking that they're hallucinating.

"Okay, with all due respect," Wooyoung starts. "Both of you are the princes of Ylang, you're twins and you have two brains to come up with something, and this is what you're giving us. I currently have no idea on how we're going to even get past the palace gate with... that."

"The 'that' you're referring to is our pet," Jongho interjects.

"She's pretty, isn't she?" San bats his eyelashes.

"Do correct me if I'm wrong, maybe it's because I didn't have enough sleep and I'm currently imagining things, but that animal can't even lift one of us," Yeosang utters.

"San, Jongho," Hongjoong says. "That's a cat."

"Exactly, and she's our cat."