3RD PERSONS VIEW。

a few hours ago...

"you've got some explaining to do." renjun utters coldly, both of his hands on the side of his hips as he glared at the two boys across him.

meanwhile, the two boys shared the same expression, smiling sheepishly at the older boy. renjun sighs, gesturing his head, tilting it a bit to the side, signaling them to follow him, "our room, now."

the two followed renjun to his and donghyuck's shared room. as soon as they entered, renjun gently closed the door and stood in front of the two boys sitting on the couch. "explain."

"you see—" donghyuck and jaemin said at the same time causing the two of them to look at each other.

renjun rolls his eyes, "jaemin, you explain."

jaemin clears his throat, "you see, we went out." he admits.

renjun facepalms, "and why did you do that?"

"to roam around the district! duh," donghyuck exclaims.

"you could've asked permission." renjun utters, crossing both of his arms in front of his chest.

jaemin scoffs, "they won't even let us out unless we're going to receive bake goods from the bakery."

donghyuck nodded, agreeing to what jaemin said, "he's right."

"then you could've told me and i would've asked mother if we could go to the library." renjun sighs.

"please tell me no one recognized you."

jaemin shakes his head, "gladly, no one was suspicious of us."

renjun lets out a relieved sigh, "thank goodness."

"but," donghyuck speaks causing both of them to shot him a look, "we bumped into jaeyoung."

"again?!" renjun shrieks.

"shh!" jaemin scolds.

renjun scoffs, "how many times are we gonna bump into that girl— i swear this is getting suspicious."

"she doesn't even know who we are and that we are princes." donghyuck mutters.

"you never know, what if she's good at acting?"

"you're too ahead of yourself, she's nice and innocent, maybe this is fate." donghyuck chuckles while renjun just vigorously shook his head.

"absolutely not!" renjun exclaims.

"why not?" donghyuck raises a brow, "you're acting like the elders."

"that's because i am one."

"no, you're with us, you said it before, you take our side."

renjun rolls his eyes, "that was before—"

"—before they tried to convince you how much you should despise a girl." jaemin cuts him off.

"yah! you despise them, too!" renjun retorts.

jaemin scoffs, "i do not."

"your action at last months conference meeting is saying otherwise," renjun says in a singsong tone.

jaemin squints his eyes at his brother, "it was necessary."

"yeah, leaving a girl alone and slamming a door at her face, is necessary." renjun mocks while jaemin just sighs.

"to think about it, it was quite necessary." donghyuck nods, poking his cheek.

jaemin grins, "see! he agrees with me."

"how was that even necessary?" renjun cocked a brow, his mouth parting a bit.

jaemin hums and clicks his finger, "she was like clinging onto me like a sloth on a tree, how isn't that annoying?"

renjun thought for a bit, "quite."

"but still, what if jaeyoung is the same? what if she's hiding behind that mask of a smile she has!" renjun protests.

donghyuck scoffs before smirking, "just admit that you find her smile beautiful."

renjun hesitates for a bit, "i-i do not find her smile b-beautiful!" he stammers, silently cursing himself for doing so.

jaemin grins in victory, "aha! you've been caught! you do find her smile beautiful!"

renjun sneers, "oh come on, me? liking her? impossible." he says before heading towards the door, "you guys are unbelievable, i'm gonna go first."

"so, should we put a schedule when we go out?" jaemin clasps his hands together.

donghyuck gasped, "you're planning to go out more?"

jaemin nods, "yes, why not?"

"aren't like– aren't we somehow gonna get caught?"

"why would we?" jaemin scoffs.

"w-well i've heard from the older ones that the guards have been searching around the palace to find something that could lead to the village, something like a crack in the wall, isn't that like what we just passed through?" donghyuck murmurs, looking down at his lap.

jaemin purses his lips, "we still need to find out if that's official or not, then we should plan our schedule of rebelling."

donghyuck chukles, "call!"

. . .  fast forward, on the way to the district of valfield.

"don't be nervous, you'll be fine." jaehyun mumbles, rubbing his brother's back. jisung slowly calmed down, muttering a soft, "thank you." to his hyung.

"this is your first conference meeting without taeyong, huh?" jaehyun tilts his head and jisung nodded.

"more like without mark." yuta chuckles and looks at his younger brother. "you're growing tall, sung."

jisung's lips slowly tugged up into a small smile, "really?"

yuta nodded, "you might get as tall as youngho-hyung soon."

jisung chuckles softly and looked out the window before tapping kun's shoulder. "are we there yet?" he questions.

kun shakes his head, placing his book down, "we're still a bit far, jisung."

"why don't you rest, jisung." he suggests.

"rest?"

kun shrugs, "we're probably gonna arrive at midnight, we'll be passing two districts before we enter the district of valfield."

jisung frowns, "valfield district is that far?"

kun nods, "each district is huge, it would take awhile to pass through. don't worry, valfield is the biggest district, you'd love it there."

"i hope so." jisung says before closing his eyes, resting his head onto jaehyun's shoulder.

soon, they finally arrived the district. the car drives into the palace after getting inspected by the knights. "jisung-ie, we're here." jaehyun whispers, lightly shaking the young boy.

jisung yawns and stretches before hopping out the car after yuta did. "woah, this is like, so humongous!" he exclaims once he got the full vision of the white palace.

"you haven't been here before?" yuta furrows his brows while jisung replied by shaking his head side to side.

"well, here it is."

"i've only seen it through pictures, i never imagined it to be so... massive and beautiful." jisung breathed out as he gawked at the huge castle.

"your highness," a maid bows at them, "the royal family is expecting you in the throne room."

the four boys followed the maid and was lead to the throne room where they met the queen, the king and the prince. they all bowed to each other before the queen suddenly engulfs each of the boys into a hug, "you boys have grown so much!" she states with a big smile.

"prince hyuwon." kun says before bowing, his brothers doing the same. hyuwon bowed back, "it's nice to see you again, prince kun." hyuwon flashes him a small smile before looking at his mother.

"one of the butlers will take you to your rooms. get settled in and tomorrow you can maybe roam around the district, i'll hire a knight to guide you around." queen hayoon states before looking at her husband.

"the meeting will be held tomorrow after lunch. don't be late." the king says.

the boys nodded, "yes, your majesty."

"i'll help you around as well." hyuwon whispers and walks with the boys out the throne room.

once they were out, they let out a relieved sigh and instantly dropped the formalities between each other.

"it's been awhile since i've last seen you guys." hyuwon chuckles, rubbing his nape slowly.

"well, it's been awhile since last year's efflorescence season." jaehyun lets out a small giggle. "how are you doing?"

"i've been doing good, however, my parents have been really devoted to this search. like, seriously, i get that they want to see haera again, but the accident happened seventeen years ago." hyuwon lets out a frustrated sigh, glancing up at one of the oil paintings of his younger sibling when she was a baby.

hyuwon frowns at the painting, looking down at his fisted hands. "we don't even know what she looks like today, heck she was still a baby when the accident happened."

yuta puts his hand on hyuwon's back, slowly patting it to calm the boy down. "it's because this year is her eighteen birthday, it's really special. maybe that's why they have been so devoted to the search."

"probably." hyuwon snorts.

jisung looks up at the oil paintings on the wall. they also had numerous of oil paintings up on their hallway walls, mostly pictures of one of them, all of them, two of them, of their parents and ancestors.

"didn't you leave haera something that you would somehow figure that it's her?" jaehyun tilts his head to the side a bit.

hyuwon shrugs, "i was a little kid back then," he glances up the painting again and notices a pendant. "i guess she may still have that." he points up the necklace.

jisung furrows his brows, his eyes squinting at the painting. "she looks so cute." he mumbles.

kun snaps his head towards jisung, unfortunately hearing what he said. kun shakes his head and decided to let it go, haera was no where to be found anyways, even though she's a princess kun would still be cautious. he didn't want any more heartbreaks. eighteen heartbreaks was already enough, he didn't want another fresh batch of broken hearts.

kun snakes his arm around the younger boy, making the latter flinch at the sudden touch. jisung side glances at his brother before looking back onto the carpet floor.

"oh, by the way, tomorrow i can tour you guys around the district if you want." hyuwon grins, walking up the stairs.

jaehyun smiles, "that sounds nice."

"but we're gonna pass." kun interrupts jaehyun before he could even speak.

"you guys are gonna love it, especially since the village has been decorating the place lately for efflorescence season!" hyuwon claps his hands excitingly. hyuwon suddenly stops, just realizing what kun said, "wait, why are you going to pass? kun, you love to walk around the village, always."

"it's your favorite event?" jisung asks.

hyuwon nods, "it's honoring both queen hera and my sister– princess haera. i love the season with my whole heart."

"but seriously," hyuwon stops making the boys come into a stop as well. "don't you want to stroll around tomorrow, i mean, it's been awhile since you've been to valfield."

kun sighs, "things are different now, remember? i hate walking around the village anymore, especially if i happen to bump into a girl." he murmurs.

yuta pursed his lips together, "thank you for the offer hyuwon, but i'm agreeing with kun-hyung here. we've changed. we'd rather say indoors than go out and mingle with... people." he trails off, intertwining his fingers together.

kun presses his lips into a thin line before going ahead, asking the butler to take him to his room. yuta follows the older, leaving jaehyun, jisung and hyuwon in the middle of the hallway.

hyuwon sighs, "that's unfortunate." he chuckles dryly, his head hung low.

jisung frowns, "i'm sorry about my brothers, they are just really that cranky after the... incident." he awkwardly states, glancing at jaehyun who was oddly quiet while staring down at the floor.

it was silent between them for a couple of minutes before jaehyun looks up, before clearing his throat and also forcing a smile, "we should get to bed." he mumbles before walking away.

jisung sighs, "i-i'm really sorry for them. it's just that... she really broke us but she had effected some of us real bad."

hyuwon chuckles and ruffles jisung's hair, "it's alright, jisung. it's not like that's the first time they acted like that to me."

jisung knits his brows in confusion, "huh?"

"taeyong, taeil and youngho visited a few weeks ago. it didn't end pretty well."

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