take note; some of their birthdays are moved and changed, so that the order would still be taeil (oldest) - jisung (youngest)

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3RD PERSONS VIEW。

"what do you mean you met a girl?!" mark exclaims after hearing jaemin's confession.

"shhh!!" jaemin harshly said, slapping a hand over his brother's mouth, trying to keep him quiet. once his brother finally calms down, he sighs and takes his hand off mark's mouth.

mark stared at him wide-eyed, "you're dead."

"well, then don't say anything!" jaemin crossed his arms.

"but, i can't just keep a secret from taeyong-hyung! especially such secret like this!" mark whisper-shouts, a bit worried that he had to pick sides again.

"come on, hyung! i trust you on this," jaemin whines, clasping both of his hands together as he faced his older brother with a pout.

mark looked hesitant, he didn't know if he should keep jaemin's, and the other's, encounter with the girl a secret, or just run up to taeyong and straightly tell him what they had been hiding for the past couple of days.

jaemin gave him a hopeful look, mentally praying that mark wouldn't tell taeyong. "you wouldn't dare! even donghyuck met her, you're gonna get all of the younger ones in trouble, including jaehyun-hyung and doyoung-hyung."

mark sighs, "just promise me that you won't get too attached like last time." he knew it was a bad idea to keep it a secret from the older ones, but he also knew his brother's consequences.

jaemin flashes him a bright smile, jumping up and down in excitement, "yes! thank you! just promise me that you won't tell them."

mark smiles at his happy brother and nods shortly, "i promise."

jaemin engulfs the older boy in a hug before letting go, "i'll go in now, see you later!" jaemin waves goodbye before dashing back into the palace. mark chuckles at his younger brother's actions, seeing his brother's happy is what he wanted the most because seeing his brother's happy was very rare.

the changes they had through the past years were big, especially after the incident. everything around him just suddenly changed, and what hurt him the most was, he had to pick sides. he had to choose between his younger brother's or his older brother's.

mark hung his head low as he stared at the pavilion's floor. numerous thoughts flooded his mind after choosing. he was afraid that was he did may cause something bad, something that would require a huge change again, he definitely didn't want that to happen again.

"prince minhyung?" the boy flinches at the sudden call of his name. he looks up and turns around and was met with a palace guard, mr. choi. "y-yes?" he stammers.

"you must go back inside, the queen is roaming around to check your rooms." mr. choi tells him and with that, mark nods and makes his way back into the palace.

mark was made his was to his own room. he was glad that he had clean up his room yesterday, that means his mother wouldn't scold him again for not tidying up his room. he takes a seat on his bed and stared at the empty space across him, he used to share the bedroom with jaehyun, unfortunately jaehyun had a rough time when the incident happened and decided to move to a room where he could be alone.

mark clutched onto the necklace beneath his white polo, his breathing hitched as memories flowed back into him. thankfully, a knock interrupted his reminiscing. he cranes his head towards the door and saw his mother standing by the doorway. "i'm glad you cleaned up, minhyung."

mark forces a smile, "i realized that i had to," he says and then looks down, still clutching onto the necklace. "i have to move on." he whispers, only audible to himself.

the queen smiles sadly, knowing how hard it must be for the boys. she knew very well that the incident hurt mark so much, although the boy never really shows it, she still knew it hurt him to see his brother broken, so instead of moping around, he did his best to comfort them in any possible way.

the queen clears her throat as mark looks up at her again. "i'll go check on your other brothers, for now, i see that you need some alone time." she says before closing the door.

meanwhile, in jisung and chenle's shared bedroom, the two boys were currently freaking out. "did you see the way they reacted!" jisung exclaims and plops himself on his bed. chenle nods and takes a seat on his own bed which was across jisung's.

"i could've died!" jisung shouts, throwing his hands up in the air.

chenle scoffs, "now that's just over exaggerating!"

jisung frowns and looks at the boy across his, "but it's true! you know how mad they could get, i'll be seriously dead meat." he crosses his arms and cranes his head to look away.

chenle sighs, "i shouldn't have whispered onto your ear, i'm sorry."

jisung shakes his head, "it was a bit nice but my stupid self just had to say it out loud." he groans and smacks his head.

chenle chuckles, "you just admitted that you're stupid! now that's a first." he lays back onto his bed, still laughing at his brother.

jisung shots his head up and glares at the boy who was currently laughing hysterically. jisung sighs and sits up straight, resting his chin on his palm. "i want to meet her again though." he mutters.

chenle stops laughing and sits up straight as well, "the girl?"

jisung nods, "i'm glad i still remember her name."

"you should, or else you wouldn't be able to call her once you see her." chenle utters and thought about the girl he met as well.

unfortunately, what they didn't know was that they had met the same girl.

it was complete silence in their room, the two were so deep in thought that they didn't notice the queen by their doorway. the queen watched both of the youngest sit there in silence, once she had enough, she cleared her throat, knocking on their door which caught their attention.

"mother," jisung mumbles while chenle just hummed.

"i just came to stop by and check your rooms, is everything alright?" she questions.

"yes, mother, everything is alright." jisung responded with a faint smile.

she smiles back, "that's good to know. i'll be going now." she says before leaving and closing the door behind.

"you okay?" jisung looks at chenle.

chenle nods, "i just miss my mother." he sighs and glances at the portrait of his mother and his siblings which were kun, sicheng and renjun.

"aren't you gonna visit her soon?" jisung tilts his head. he, too, misses his mother.

chenle hums again in response, "me and renjun-hyung will probably go back to demesna soon to visit her."

"speaking of mother, would you want to visit your mother later? before you travel to valfield," chenle asks and stands up, walking towards his desk. "i'll ask joshua-hyung to buy us some flowers again!"

"but don't you have like a session with minseok-hyung in like an hour?"

chenle scoffs, "that session would just be about our schedule again, or some irrelevant history about heraphany, the usual. i'll just ask renjun-hyung."

jisung rolls his eyes, "skipping classes again, huh?"

"yah! don't act like you don't skip your classes as well." chenle huffs, crossing his arms.

"i don't," jisung sticks his tongue out, mocking chenle. "and i don't think you'll be able to pass through taeil-hyung again."

chenle waves his hand, "i got this, i'm a legend."

jisung chuckles, shrugging, "whatever you say then."

jisung grins, "i'll go ask permission from lady misun."

he suddenly stops at what he had said, "l-lady misun? i mean mother!" he awkwardly mumbles, rubbing his nape.

since they've all agreed on calling the queen, the king's first wife, mother, for some it was quite new. like jisung, they'd accidentally call her lady misun. "it's fine jisung." chenle chuckles, "it's just you and me, father isn't around."

"right!" jisung chuckles as well, "i'll go ask for her permission now." he announces before leaving their shared room.

on the other hand, jisung's older siblings, doyoung and jungwoo were in their shared room, discussing about what jisung had said awhile ago. "did you hear what jisung just said?" doyoung asks the boy who was by the vanity, fixing his hair.

jungwoo's ears perked up, "yeah, i did." he answers faintly, his eyes focused on fixing his hair.

"i'm disappointed at them." doyoung sighs and takes a seat on his bed.

jungwoo hummed, "who?" he tilts his head, glancing at his brother's reflection in the mirror.

"the younger ones."

jungwoo chuckles softly at his brother's response, "and why?" he questions and runs his fingers through his hair.

"i believe that in the past few days, at least some of them has been making up excuses to go out and meet this girl." doyoung utters making jungwoo freeze.

"girl?" he looks at doyoung.

doyoung nods, "obviously, from what jisung bursted out awhile ago, he met a girl. well, guess what?"

"what?" jungwoo raises a brow.

"he's not the only one." doyoung grunts.

"what do you mean?"

"apparently, jaemin also met a girl." doyoung sighs and face palms.

jungwoo scoffs and looks back at the mirror to fix his hair, "jaemin? jaemin doesn't even go out the palace."

doyoung chuckles dryly, "that's what we thought."

jungwoo squints his eyes at doyoung through the mirror, "he's been sneaking out?" he asks.

doyoung nods, "correct!"

"poor kid, he must've missed going out." jungwoo murmurs to himself, shaking his head a little.

"what did you say?" doyoung looks at him.

jungwoo shrugs, "i said nothing!"

"anyways," doyoung begins, "the day i brought him with me to get some bread from mrs. kang's bakery, he coincidentally meets the girl there."

"wow," jungwoo's mouth parted a bit, "fate." he chuckles.

"fate?" doyoung raises a brow, "seriously, woo?"

jungwoo shrugs, "what? you never know! what if the girl jisung met was the same girl you and jaemin met? you can't just tell me that's not fate."

"stop reading fairytales, this isn't a tale with fairies and magic, wake up, woo." doyoung sighs.

jungwoo presses his lips into a thin line before speaking, "doyoung, i know how much mina had affected you, but you have to move on. not every girl is like her."

"not you, too." doyoung groans and lays back onto his bed.

"i'm also annoyed by the fact she fooled us all, but i also realized that we should let go of that past, it's already been four years!" jungwoo exclaims. "you gotta let go. you can stop loving her now, doyoung."

doyoung scoffs, "love? i never loved her."

jungwoo snorts at his brother's retort, "sure you didn't."

"yah!"

"look, i know you're siding with the older ones, but you seriously need to let go of her. she's worthless."

jungwoo stands up and walks up to his own bed, taking a seat, his gaze still fixated onto his brother, "it's not like i don't agree with you, i do, but the younger ones need to live their life free again, we can't just keep them captive in this place forever."

doyoung looks at jungwoo, "really?"

"don't be so salty, you must've scared her when she met you." jungwoo frowns.

doyoung scrunched his nose, "i did not!" he huffs.

jungwoo smirks, raising a brow, "sure you didn't." he rolls his eyes.

"okay, maybe i did, but just a little!"

"whatever." jungwoo scoffs and grabs his notebook. "we need to go now, i don't want to be late to our session."