In my haste to reach the jeep before Jimin and Jin, I completely forgot about making no noise. I lost the element of surprise as I made my way, tires screeching as I revved the car to a halt. I could make out a young boy with clear tan skin and messy brown hair falling into his eyes lying in the mud, an aging mobster with the mark of the Yakuza—a scarlet rose with black tendrils wrapping about it—on his biceps with the gun in his hand pointed at the man on the ground, and a much younger guy—who seemed to be his apprentice—standing beside the older idly. All of them stared in astonishment at the car, the fortissimo of it's screeching having stolen the attention off the boy laying sprawled across the mud, and their eyes widened even more when I got out and headed straight for them.

While I served as a diversion—the result of an impetuous decision driven by pure curiosity, my two darling companions seemed to have realised that I wasn't waiting back there for them like the good little girl I was but in fact, standing in front of the errant delinquents, completely unarmed like an idiot. They began running towards us but even sprinting till where we stood takes quite a lot of time, time which we didn't have.

In the meantime, the three men were still staring. The supposed apprentice lustily licked his lips while his mentor cocked his gun in my direction, unsure of whether to point it at me or the guy lying on the floor who was the picture of unadulterated befuddlement. Deciding that neither of us were a major threat, he let it lay by his side. Idiot. A complete and utter boneheaded-nitwit, underestimating my curiosity to find out what exactly was going on and the determination of the boy lying beneath him to run away. The boy looked back, saw Jin and Jimin rushing towards us and turned back to the front, breathing heavily as the wheels of his brain turned rapidly, overflowing with ideas. Thankfully, his captors hadn't seemed to notice yet.

I walked over to where the brown-haired boy lay, purposefully jutting out my hips with each step and finally bending down, taking care to ensure that my callipygous derrière was right in front of their faces as I bent down, making sure that the back of my skirt rose up a good few inches. Stretching out a hand to him for support while carefully balancing myself, I spoke first.

"Are you all right? Did you get hurt?" I scanned my eyes over his body, searching for any signs of cuts or bruises.

He took my hand and rose, then pulled me to my feet too. "No, nothing much but-"

The old geezer with the gun interrupted, his younger counterpart still staring at my ass. "Don't touch him. That boy belongs to us so get lost. It is unseemly of a woman to meddle in such menacing affairs. Leave it to the men."

Another misogynistic piece of shitting crap. Unfortunately, my life involved in dealing with quite a few. "You're right. Perfectly right. A woman shouldn't include herself in affairs that don't concern her. So I'll take this fair gentleman here, and be on my way."

He opened his mouth to interrupt but I cut him off, "This man does not belong to you, or anybody else for that matter. He is his own, a grown man—capable of taking care of himself at that too—and free to make his decisions by himself."

"Didn't seem very capable when he couldn't get up without your help." I gave him a glare and turned to the boy, who was still holding onto my hand.

"Do you wanna come with me or be with this gentleman here," I asked rather redundantly, looking back at the 'gentleman' who simply scoffed and said with an underlying sneer to his tone, "Woman, the only reason I haven't fired yet is because my mama taught me to never raise my hand against a lady such as yourself. So get out of my way and let me conduct my business with this man."

"Maybe she should have taught you to not raise your hands against anybody," I mumbled. Speaking up louder, I asked, genuinely curious, "What business could you possibly have with this man here?"

"I owe him some money," The boy spoke for the first time.

"He owes me two-and-a-half million Yen," The chauvinistic son of a bachelor said at the same time.

"Gnkk pcht syxkl," The other man voiced, still not quite done ogling my ass.

I was pretending to think for an appealing solution when I noticed Jin and Jimin almost here. Just needed to stall for a few more seconds and we're done with this brute. "Alright. Come to the palace and I'll have you paid. But you're gonna leave this man here alone for the rest of his life or I swear to God, you won't get off this easy next time. Gunning a defenseless boy in the middle of nowhere," I tsked.

Jimin rushed up and on seeing me nod, knocked both the men out with the butt of his pistol. Kicking the man who'd been shamelessly eying me with interest before, I turned to Jimin who enveloped me in a hug, the boy I picked off the ground awkwardly letting go of my hand when Jimin lifted me up in his arms.

"What were you thinking? Going out in front of two armed men exposed and vulnerable." He sounded pissed and yet, his eyes were overflowing with concern.

"Nothing really." He raised his eyebrows. "Thinking, I mean. Thinking nothing," I added.

"And besides, it's not like I haven't gone through near-death training to fight in circumstances like this back at the palace."

Jin looked ready to explode again but forced himself to calm down. Can't scare off an unknown outlander with his perfervid outbursts now, can we? I placed my hand on his shoulder and he shook his head in disbelief.

"Are you dumb or are you dumb," he groaned, exasperated.

"A little bit of both with a mix of crazy," I winked back.

The boy I picked up was still looking around, lost. "You mentioned the palace, do you know the Royal Family," he spoke up.

I grinned. "Quite well, in fact. Special connections with the queen myself. Future queen of course but yes." I cleared my throat, hoping he wouldn't see through me.

His mouth opened in an 'Oh'.

"Est, come on. Poor lad just got away from the clutches of those assholes, now's not that the time to pull his leg," Jin ruined my prank.

"But Jiiiiinnn, I was gonna prank him, why'd you tell him," I whined. The boy looked astounded; mouth still agape.

"Est? As in Princess Estelle Adeliza Calliope Xaviera Kyler, Heir to the throne of Illéa?" He didn't seem to believe me and continued to stare open-mouthed, evidently baffled.

"My, oh my, you seem to know quite a lot about me, besides having listed all my of my great-great-great grandmothers in a single statement," I said with mock disdain.

"F-forgive me, I didn't mean to across as obnoxious, I was just, surprised. It's not every day you come across Her Royal Highness." He apologised profusely before bowing deeply, looking guilty all the while. Shamefaced and culpable, as though he ran over an innocent puppy without meaning to.

"Oh please, call me Est. And don't apologise, you didn't do anything," I smiled and waved my hand, trying to put him at his ease.

"Oh, O-okay, Sorry again." Why is he still apologising, he didn't even do anything wrong.

I looked up at him, "What did I say about apologising? Hm? You know, if you keep apologising, I might think you're in on a conspiracy to have me dead." He looked positively mortified at that, terror washing over him as he stood rooted to the ground.

Seeing his face pale, it was my turn to apologise. "Sorry, I was just joking, don't take it to heart, here come with us," I stretched out my hand as an offer. He nodded and with a rather awkward laugh, made his way to the car with us.

"By the way, what's your name? This is Jimin," I pointed to my left, "and that's Jin," I said, turning my head to where Jin stood, observing the boy carefully.

He was regaining some of his confidence that he possessed while basking on the ground—as if  peacefully sun-bathing—and definitely not coerced into slumping like that.

"I'm V. V for victory, y'know?" He said with a little smirk.

"No, I don't. Besides, you didn't look very victorious back there, sprawled across the ground with mud all over you," I chaffed.

"Hey, that was on purpose. I meant to lie like that."

"Mhm, sure," I teased.

"Well, where're you gonna go now?" 

"I can't return home, not till I don't pay off what I owe, they'll be guarding my place very carefully. I guess I could just head to a local shelter perhaps. But I'd end up endangering a bunch of innocent souls, who'll end up as mere numbers on The Report, the insignificant casualties if I were to get caught." 

"But I suppose I don't have much choice in the matter, it's me or them." He sighed.

He shouldn't have to make such a decision. As selfless as it would be of him to give up his life for the sake of others, he shouldn't have to lie on the streets, in wait of ruthless mobsters to come and end his life for him. Nobody deserved that, not even the perpetrator of the most heinous crimes. Nobody has the right to steal another's life from them, take away the choice of life from another. And especially not some acquisitive hoodlums. 

Guess we've got a new addition to the palace. 

OKAYY OKAYY, FIRST OFF, THANKYOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU TO EVERYONE WHO'S STILL READING THIS, COMMENTING AND VOTING. YOU GUYS ARE SERIOUSLY THE MOST AWESOME PEOPLE, AND I WANNA CALL THIS 'FANDOM' SOMETHING LOLL, ANY IDEAS? I WAS THINKING MUFFIN LIKE HOW YOONGI CALLS EST

YESSS, ANTOEHR MAJOR REVELATION: THE MC's NAMEEE LMAOOOOOO, SHE'S ESTTTTTTTTTTT

ALSO COMPLETELY RANDOM, I USED AN OXYMORON FOR THE CHAP HEADING XD

NEXTT, SORRYYY FOR NOT HAVING UPDATED IN FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR, EXAMS SUCK. XD THEY DOO, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN ME BEFORE ONE OF MY LANGUAGE EXAMS, I WAS SCREAMING ON A GC, 'GO CHOKE ON A STINKY COCK' COZ THATS HOW PISSED I WAS XDD

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD I KNOW I WAS GONNA TRIPLE UPDATE BUT I THOT OF SPLITTING IT UP A BIT, DON'T WORRY THO, TODAY ONE CHAP, THEN WHENEVER I FINSIH UPDATING THE NEXT, I'LL UPLOADD

BUT BY NEXT SAT, I SHOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU LIKE 3-4 MORE CHAPS ;D

ONCE AGAIN, THANKYOUU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYINGGG COZ THE LAST FEW CHAPS WERE JUST FILLERS AND HONESLTY, ALMOST EVERY CHAP FEELS LIKE A FILLER BUT I TRY TO MAKE IT SEEM INTERESTING SOO TYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY FOR STICKING WITH ME 💖💖💖💖💖 

BTWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW CALLIPYGOUS MEANS HAVING A RLLY NICELY SHAPED BUTT, SO LET'S FLEX OUR BUTTS ;D

SEDUCING MEN IS EASY, ESP IF U GO BY REDDIT, SHOW TITS AND ASS AND UR ALL SET LMFAOOOOOOOO XDD 

OKAY OKAY, SUPERRRRR LONG AUTHORS NOTE (SHOUKD I REDUCE IT?), BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE TAKE CAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!