3RD PERSONS VIEW。

"yah," renjun starts as he faces his brothers, "are you seriously going to ignore me for the rest of your life!?"

donghyuck hums and used the whiteboard to write a reply to renjun, "well, just for the day, and probably tomorrow." renjun reads and he scoffed at donghyuck's words, "come on! it's not like something good would happen!"

jaemin rolls his eyes and went back to reading his book. jeno, on the other hand, stared apologetically at renjun before snickering and going back to playing chess with donghyuck. lastly, donghyuck gave renjun a sly smirk before eating the pastry he got from mrs. kang's basket.

the four of them were at the study, hanging out as they had just finished their class for the day. youngho, kun, and ten were shooting some targets at the shooting range as lucas and sicheng were practicing fencing, however while the others were busy doing their own things, jaehyun was having tea with their father.

as renjun kept sputtering nonsense, the door to the study bursts open and in comes a giddy mark, chenle, and jisung.

"we're back!!" chenle screams as both of him and jisung jumped around.

the other young ones who were chilling in the study were confused by their actions and jaemin instantly peeped his head out at the side of his book. "what's going on?"

donghyuck groans and started glaring at renjun, "did something good happen?"

mark nods, taking a seat on his desk, "definitely!"

the remaining boys in the room who didn't get to go groaned as they shot electrifying gazes towards renjun, who was obviously smiling sheepishly at his brothers. "i-i... it was probably not worth it– maybe– uhh maybe their team won?" renjun said nervously.

chenle cackled, "this was better than our choice team winning."

jeno shot his head up, "what?"

"we met jaeyoung at the school!" mark announced and that made their gazes on renjun darken.

"renjun-yah!!!" the boys whined while renjun was in a state of disbelief.

"a-are you serious!? all of you met jaeyoung—"

"no. well, technically taeil-hyung did, but we tried our best not to let taeyong know..." mark explained, "...well, you know how taeyong reacts to girls..."

renjun bit his bottom lip, "how about doyoung-hyung?"

"doyoung-hyung already met her though," jaemin said, "when we went to pick up pastries."

renjun's eyes widened, "she almost met all of us."

"even you chenle?" renjun shot a look at chenle.

the young one nodded with a grin, "of course! i met her at the gates of her school," he then frowned, "it was kinda sad though, i met her when she was getting bullied—"

"there's someone bullying her?" donghyuck said, surprised. "who would bully a pretty girl like her?"

"that's what i thought!" chenle points out, "so i told joshua-hyung to help her and the bully was actually the daughter of that mountain clan leader."

"that is rude, for someone who's father is literally is nice to a lot of people..." renjun mumbled.

donghyuck scoffed, "yeah, renjun, and you who's like a prince in heflorescence! why are you out of all people rude to her."

renjun scrunched his nose and almost threw the pen he was holding at the latter, "i'm being suspicious!"

"isn't she suspicious!? she keeps on meeting us one by one!"

"what if she's an assassin!" renjun yelled.

"who's an assassin?" taeyong walks in with the rest, as well as minseok.

renjun pursed his lips and sat back on his chair, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he openly glared at his brothers.

"no one." jaemin shook his head sighing.

"no, you boys were clearly fighting, what's going on?" taeil questioned as soon as they sat in their seats.

minseok just deadpanned at them as he stood at the podium. "could you all please..." he murmured but the boys ignored him, which was something they would normally do. minseok didn't really want them to fight right now, they had something important to discuss.

"hyung..." jaemin trailed off, not knowing what to say to him.

mark noticed their struggling and sighed, "taeil-hyung it wasn't important. they were bickering."

taeil narrowed his eyes at the boy, "wasn't important? were bickering? the tone of their voices didn't sound like bickering."

mark frowned at this and looked at taeyong for help. taeyong sighed and placed a hand on taeil's shoulder, feeling the older boy flinch under his touch, "hyung, enough, let's talk later."

taeil huffed and diverted his gaze from the young one's. minseok cleared his throat and tapped his stick against the whiteboard, "thank you for calming down." he faked a smile before pointing at the words he had just wrote while the boys were confronting each other.

"you have fencing practices tomorrow, and i assumed prince jaehyun talked more to your father about the things you have to do?" minseok scanned the room and looked for the prince.

jaehyun raised his hand and smiled at the older, "yes, i did."

"may you share to the rest of your brothers about what you have learned from your father?"

jaehyun nodded and walked up to the podium as minseok stepped down from it. "the king said that we have to talk to hyuwon again, they would be attending the grand ball."

"he also stated that they found a crack in the palace walls."

jaemin and donghyuck's ears perked as they heard about the news. crack? jaemin's brows furrowed, "wait, that cannot be—" his own whispering got cut off when ten spoke up.

"wait, what do you mean crack?"

"crack..." jaehyun trailed off slowly, "like a crack! the walls by the garden, the guards found a crack that leads to the small forest."

"well, then they should patch it up! what if someone finds the crack and starts entering it or whatsoever!" ten exclaimed.

"chittaphon, lower down your voice!" taeil scolded which made ten nodded and apologize immediately.

"but they should really patch it up though..." ten mumbled while youngho could only stifle a laugh beside him.

jaehyun laughed silently and nodded, "the king also said the same when the guard reported about the wall."

jaemin had a bitter look plastered on his face as he slumped in his seat. he thought how boring it would not being able to leave the palace anymore, but he also thought that it would be for their safety anyways.

"is that all?" minseok raised his brow and he looked back onto his clipboard.

jaehyun hummed, "he also said if we were sure about the guests for the grand ball."

youngho nodded, "aren't the guests only for the respected families?"

taeyong's ears perked up as he listened to their conversation. jaehyun nodded at youngho, "yeah, that's what they said."

"isn't this an acquaintance ball?"

"not really, the grand ball is to inform those respected families about the events happening on the season of efflorescence this year." minseok said and soon let jaehyun go back to his seat as he stepped back up the podium.

"why? what's the difference with the efflorescence season this year compared to the others?" chenle mumbled to jisung, unfortunately minseok heard that.

minseok light chuckles and posts a picture on the whiteboard, "this is a picture of baby haera, if you all studied about the royal families here in heraphany, you would probably know her."

this statement of minseok made taeyong stifle a laugh, earning taeil's attention as he just plainly shook his head and waved it off like it was nothing.

"ah! she's the lost princess of valfield, isn't she?" yuta pointed out, remembering the picture from the walls of the white castle.

lucas' face perplexed, "hyuwon has a sister?"

kun nodded, "well, he had– kinda, um, it's hard to explain."

"it's a famous rumor– err story? i guess." minseok said.

"tell me!" lucas grinned.

taeyong facepalms, "i guess you too don't study the history of heraphany."

lucas smiled sheepishly, "is it even that important?"

the rest of his brothers just either shook their head at his words, scoffed, or snorted at his cheekiness. he clearly didn't really care about anything at all.

"the tragedy of 2001,"

"sound's scary." lucas commented.

kun nudged him before looking at minseok, "continue, please."

"it happened during the downfall of district laencaster and district falconholt. a war broke out during that time and it happened so that baby haera was born around that war, during the second year of the war. unfortunately, at that time, during efflorescence season, there was this huge storm while the royal family of valfield were on their way here to heflorescence. they had to leave their carriage and baby haera was got carried by the strong flood."

"no way– did she die?" lucas questioned with wide eyes making the rest of his brothers glare at him.

"what?" he innocently looked at them, "she was a baby! babies can't swim! especially in a flood, that's like, thick, dirty water!"

"yeah but, she was inside a basket!" doyoung argued.

"that doesn't explain how she could not be dead!" lucas pointed out.

"enough!" taeyong scolded and looked back st minseok, wanting him to continue with the story.

"well, there were theories that she could have drowned, but there were also theories that she's still alive."

"we're celebrating efflorescence season a bit more grand than usual since baby haera is turning eighteen on the final day of efflorescence season."

sicheng had an amused expression plastered on his face as he leaned back onto his chair, "that's so cool."

lucas shot a look towards his brother, "isn't it?"

sicheng nodded, "both queen hera and baby haera is sharing this efflorescence season as like a dedication towards them, it's really cool!" he grinned.

"how's prince hyuwon coping up with this?" renjun questioned, curious about the fellow prince's emotional state.

"they have a search going on." jisung answered which made a couple of heads turn towards him now.

the amount of people listening to him made him flustered, "e-eh, i was just, listening to prince hyuwon's words when we were t-talking!"

jungwoo chuckled, "that's good to know that you actually listened when you were there, jisung."

jisung's cheeks dusted pink as he covered his face with a notebook, "please stop looking at me."

his older brothers laughed at his state and just continued listening to minseok. apparently, they had got along quite well now, but that doesn't mean taeil forgot about talking to his brothers.

after the study, he made sure that yuta, doyoung, chenle, and jisung were all present as they met up at the pavilion.

"tell me more about this girl." he said, sounding more like an order to the others.

"she's nice–" mark starts.

"and pretty–" yuta cuts him off.

"yeah but mostly nice–" chenle now says.

"but isn't her smile pretty?" jisung questioned.

doyoung scoffed, "she's— okay, maybe she is a bit pretty. but she's suspicious!"

"shhhh, she's nice!" mark sneered at doyoung while doyoung just rolled his eyes.

taeil blinked as he watched his brothers, listing the possible things they could even say about jaeyoung.

"okay, okay, i get it!"

"i get that you're all seeing her as a nice person, but, she's a girl!" taeil emphasizes.

"hyung..." chenle whined, "not with that lecture again."

"chenle, you know how girls' looks could be deceiving." taeil deadpans. "plus, she has clearly almost met all of us! what if– what if something bad happens again, huh?"

doyoung looked down, "exactly my point." he mutters bitterly.

mark's happy face faltered, "no. she wouldn't do that."

"that's what you said about mina—"

"stop bringing her into every damn topic! mina's gone. she's back with those fucking scimitars! let's just accept she's not the girl we wanted her to be, we failed to realize that, okay!?" mark bursted out.

"i'm sick of tired of picking sides." he sighed and rested his forehead on his palm.

"i hate how you all just push me away when i ask you what's wrong then make me and lucas choose to pick sides. it's unfair. i don't side with either."

"i'm gonna go get some fresh air, don't even think about talking to me." mark uttered before slamming the door closed.

jisung winced as he watched the door slammed loudly close.

yuta chuckled awkwardly, "i'm gonna go to my room and do something else." he said before leaving the room in a more calmer way.

both chenle and jisung also stood up to leave the room, not even daring to say something to taeil.

jungwoo, who was all that taeil has, remained in his seat as he smiled sadly at the older one. after a few minutes, jungwoo would also stand up, "i agree with what you are saying, but i don't think jaeyoung's a bad person. she may be, for you, that's your first impression on her. we all have first impressions, hyung."

"you'll see the nice person they are referring to soon enough." jungwoo said before walking off.

taeil sighed and sat on one of the seats in the study. he kept drowning himself within his thoughts, not even noticing taeyong who walked into the room.

"taeil-hyung?"

taeil hums and look up, baffled to see taeyong.

taeil closes his eyes and buried his face into the palm of his hands, "taeyong?"

"yes, hyung?"

"am i a bad brother?"

taeyong almost choked on air as his eyes went wide, "why do you even think like that!"

"...i don't know...i just– i just want the best for my brothers. i know you do, too."

taeyong gulped the lump in is throat as he smiled bitterly, scoffing at the older's words, "of course i do."

"if i was only faster than that girl, i would've died instead of her. she's an idiot for saving the royal family."

taeil looked up, "what do you mean?"

"she literally got her self shot, just for us, she didn't even know who we were. she was just some mere maiden that happened to work at the palace!"

"she was brave—"

"yeah," taeyong scoffed, "i can't believe she could do that."

"would you do the same?" taeil raised a brow.

taeyong chuckled, "i'd die just to save this family."

"mina... she broke us apart... i hate her for ruining our brotherhood." the younger one spat, "doesn't she have a heart?"

"all of her words were plain bullshit. she loves us? she fucking loved us for her plan to work."

the more taeyong thought about it, the more he got frustrated. "hyung! how could someone do this to a person?! how cruel could they get?!"

taeil clenched his fists and pulled taeyong into a hug. taeyong broke into tears as he shook uncontrollably under taeil's embrace.

"hyung– i'm so angry at myself–"

"how could've i loved someone who just saw me as a prince she needed to kill! she's so cruel!

"i just wanted to love someone who loved me as a person..."

—

yiKes

anywaysdbdkdjd AAA thank you for like– literally enjoy this story althOugh you probably be like: "wTf ∑(ﾟДﾟ)" rn

bUt seriously! the reasons gonna be explained soon?

yeah,
probably

-jibin