This is full of suspense. When Seulgi mentioned that someone wanted to see Chanyeol, he quickly thought of Kris.

He is clueless about how this would be possible. Supposedly, Kris is not allowed inside the premises — but maybe since his parents are not allowed to have any interaction with him, the restriction between Chanyeol and his husband is lifted.

His heart is exploding in excitement as he slides the door open, finding someone he does not expect instead.

“Chanyeol.” It is Choi Min — the person he never dreams to meet again and this taller teen has the guts to chuckle offensively at him, even surveys him from head to toe. “Woah! I guess you are not treated as a prince here, are you?”

Touching the band-aid on his cheek, Chanyeol wants to reflect the same rude attitude to him, but his title as the Crown Prince cannot be disregarded. He beams to the uninvited visitor and does not forget to bow.

“How may I help you?” The other boy this time snorts, and Chanyeol is secretly his hands at his back. The next thing that occurs between them shocks the young prince hard.

Choi Min does not waste any second, wrapping an arm around his waist, bringing him closer to him. The taller boy smirks drawing closer to his face — and Chanyeol does not feel good with their position at all.

He sensually whispers, “I want to take you back.”

Before Chanyeol can react, a snake-like muscle enters his mouth, aggressively exploring its depth and cavern, till he loses his breath. He can feel Min smirks against his lips, pulling him closer, but he cannot let this thing goes on like this, contradicting the taller’s idea as he pushes him away. Min growls at the kiss, pinning him against the wall as he grips both of his wrists. He frees Chanyeol’s lips and decides to work on butterfly kisses from the younger’s jaw down to his neck.

Chanyeol squirms and grunts at this nonconsensual interaction, gritting his teeth. “I fell out of love with you so nothing is going back.”

“Oh yeah? What if I spread our pictures together to destroy you?” Min’s eyes widen as he threatens the younger. “The prince is gay? What do you think masses will say about that?”

“Min, please… nnggghhh!!!” He yelps as Min bites his neck to stop him say anything anymore. The boy languidly his neck and Chanyeol feels disgusted with himself for letting this person does what he wants. If he is not injured right now, he can turn their table easily.

“I’m not the selfish one here, Chanyeol — you are.” He dreadfully says that to Chanyeol’s ears. “I was planning a right time to say sorry about our last meeting — I know I treated you bad that day — but you shoved me further away with your and Kris’ pictures. I really wanted to go back here because of that but I did not want to lose the chance to bring home a gold medal. And when I returned, instead of seeing you again, you ordered Shen to attack me.”

“I did not ask her to do that!” The other teen responds with a scoff.

“Yeah right! You think that I would believe your deceitful alibi? Hell no, Chanyeol!” Min mercilessly starts nibbling his neck again and this time the Prince screams for help. The rescue quickly arrives in the name of Shen, who hits Min to his sensitive part between his legs.

Chanyeol knows how painful it is for a guy, staring at his now lying ex. Shen pulls the prince from his spot and moves him behind her, and a moment later, the curling Min receives a continuous kick to his stomach from her. The Crown Prince, who cannot take this brutality, puts his arms around Shen and carries her away from the poor guy. The room, where they at, becomes a mess due to the series of events which happened just now.

“His Highness has nothing to do with the assault I inflicted on you!” Shen angrily says, still kicking her legs in the air as Chanyeol holds her. “I don’t mind killing you and I will never involve my dear Crown Prince to my actions, because I do it on my own. So if I were you, stop showing your face to us again since you’ll never win against me. And, you have the guts blackmailing his dear highness? Try spreading your past relationship with him and you’ll meet your end that you deserve.”

“Fine.” He coughs, spitting blood to the floor before he gets up and stands. He exchanges deadly glares with the only girl in the room, like they are cursing each other mentally, while Chanyeol remains shielded by Shen.

The tension is still high in this area.

“I really do love Chanyeol and I don’t want to suffocate him so you win — I’ll set him free.”  Chanyeol and Shen look at each other, dumbfounded to what Min said.

“What’s with the sudden change of heart?” Shen curiously asks.

“Well…” Min rubs his cheeks with his finger, looking at the floor, “as long as we will have BEEP! for the first time.”

“Oh… sure, I’ll send you…” Shen pulls a pistol from her blazer, pointing it to Min’s bottom part, and the two boys get alarmed “…to grave now if that’s what you desire!”

Shen shoots the wall beside Min to scare him away and it effectively gets rid of him as he runs to the exit. Chanyeol and Shen did not blink for sure, but Min is gone in an instance as if he is a bubble that pops. They look at each other, before both of them descended down to the floor, exhausted. Chanyeol sprawled his legs as he still catches his breath, while Shen’s panting becomes softer, she crawls slowly like a hunting beast towards the open exit, then fires her gun ones again somewhere.

‘Phew,’ closing the door, Shen faces Chanyeol once again as she sits, resting her back against the wall, and wipes the invincible sweat on her forehead. “So,” she continues her soft breathing, “how did that jerk of an ex-boyfriend get here?”

“Seulgi,” Chanyeol’s short answer that makes Shen tiredly scoffs.

“Do you want me to finish that girl too for causing a headache to you?” The prince firmly shakes his head. “Heh, he must have used his so-called charms to that girl so she would agree with his request.”

“Maybe,” then they share soft and tired laughter.

Shen puts her weapon back to her blazer and gets up from the wooden floor, while Chanyeol just follows her with his eyes. When the girl senses his stare, Chanyeol quickly avoids the eye-contact.

“I’ll be back to my post, Your Highness.” She says heading to the other door of that room. “I’ll always be here to protect you even if you hate me.”

Stunned, Chanyeol looks at her directly, “I don’t hate you.”

Shen’s eyes widen a little but she does not say any response except a bow to Chanyeol. She pursues leaving the room and the boy does not stop her from doing so. They seem to mutually agree that it is still awkward to reconcile even after what happened.

Chanyeol is getting up when the door to the exit opens once more.

“Your Highness!” Wendy hurriedly enters and dashes next to the prince. They are joined by the rest of Chanyeol’s bodyguards, but they are all too late for the scene.

✿✿✿

“Do I really need to wear this? Shouldn’t I just have the court suit?” Chanyeol and his servants straighten the blue dragon robe he is wearing. He shakes his head in disbelief, furrowing his brows. “It’s not like today is my coronation or wedding or something, is it?”

The three ladies are busy polishing his looks, his hat, his clothes and shoes, but they do not forget to reply to the prince.

“Since it’s your birthday, Your Highness, this is a grand celebration of restoring the monarchy back.” Miyoung says, standing on a small chair to reach Chanyeol’s head as she fixes it. “There will be a procession from the grave of your dear ancestors to the birthday’s reception. For sure, the crowd is anticipating you outside.”

Chanyeol sighs and timing for Wendy who wears an expensive hanbok gets inside his room. She bows to all of them and they do the same. Beaming, she looks up to the prince with eyes full of awe. Chanyeol and Wendy walk side by side as they leave the room and the three ladies follow suit.

“You look more like a bride than a prince, Your Highness.” The girl playfully whispers and male teen instinctually nudges her after.

An open carriage is waiting outside his quarter along horsemen and soldiers and other servants like the travel of the ruler in the ancient time. Before he gets in his transport, his people pray for his safe journey then sincerely bow at him. Wendy sits beside the coach after and the travel begins.

As the main gate of the palace opens, blinding flash of lights welcome them. Chanyeol does not know if it’s healthy to look at them even his lasik was done months ago, so he bends his head a little avoiding them. He hopes someone from his people will explain that he is not trying to be rude.

The ceremony goes as plan, starting with their visit the grave of his ancestors, where Chanyeol asks for their guidance. And then, a procession to the main road where the public is holding flags of both the country and the kingdom, police cars lead the way, marching band, military soldiers and horsemen follow, then Chanyeol, and the rest of the palace people end the line.

The government decided to celebrate Chanyeol’s birthday in one of the luxurious hotels rather than one of the palaces — there waiting are the officials and selected family members and friends, specifically Wendy and Shen and no one else.

Chanyeol is congratulated by the Prime Minister — which is the second time they meet, then, his father. The President. Chanyeol sees the shine in his father’s eyes. He seems proud, he seems yearning for him, he seems really happy to see him. He may be looking calm, but his eyes tell a different story.

“Happy Birthday, Your Highness.” Chanyeol expresses a simple smile to his father as they bow to each other, reflecting the formality everyone else is giving him. The First Lady, who is just behind her husband, pays a greeting as well.

Once their greetings are over, the President looks to the side and his expression becomes more serious.

The turns of events are fast, Chanyeol does not have the time to understand the occurrences around him.

He is dazed, while his father moves to his side like covering him into something — the next thing that happens — a gunfire is heard.

Chanyeol feels the impact of the shot because the person who is embracing receives it. Every part of his body is shaking, especially his eyes — which is making a contact with his father’s kind one.  There is a tear on the President’s eyes and he is about to lose his breath. His hand slowly reach Chanyeol’s face, caressing the cheeks with his thumb, before he completely falls to the ground, and since his son, is shocked of what’s going on, he remains petrified, cannot save him from descending.

When he hears the hard sound of a cold body falling to the floor, and his view becomes clear and adjacent to the hitman, who has the gut to wear a smirk, Chanyeol snaps from being frozen, pulling something from his sleeves — he does not think anymore and fire his weapon to that guy’s shoulder. His men quickly take the gun from him and the others take care of that person. His mother rushes to the side of his father while he is taken away — his consciousness shuts down an instant later.

✿✿✿

“Chanyeol?”

The boy, who owns that name, revives, gasping as he gets up. He finds himself in his room and dextrose is attached to his arm. Since he is alone there, he immediately gets up even there is a struggle while holding the stand of his supply. Before he can reach the doorknob, someone opens it, so he moves back.

The surprise Wendy is back with normal clothes. She gently guides Chanyeol back sitting to his bed.

“I’m glad you’re awake.” Wendy wipes the tears from her eyes and she looks not doing well after Chanyeol’s birthday, which makes the prince curious about the aftermath. He is afraid to know whatever the truth is, but will have it eventually soon.

When Wendy sits with him, he starts asking. “What happened there?”

Wendy seems reluctant to tell him which automatically inflicts fear on him. She looks at the floor with a solemn face.

“What I can only say is it’s… chaotic.” With the heavy word she uses, Chanyeol seems to be taken aback but he needs to know more.

“What about my father, Wendy?” The girl bits her lip like she is in pain and Chanyeol knows what it means already.

“The President is shot near the heart and the operation to take the bullet from him is successful. However, he is in a coma right now.”

“Thank God.” Chanyeol smiles in relief and tears run down from his eyes. It is more than enough to make him happy to know that his father is alive. “I want to see him, Wendy.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that.” Chanyeol figures that is what she would say since it’s affirmative that his life is in danger — but there’s something strange about her expression, which shows pretty serious. “We may not be allowed to be outside but I need to tell you something. I don’t care if I’m not allowed to say this to you but you have the right to know.”

“What is it?”

✿✿✿

Wendy does not need to reveal who the culprit is to Chanyeol because he knows that person well.

Jung Yonghwa has returned to his life.

It is still vague why this senior attacked Chanyeol’s birthday but the prince guesses it is about his nonsense hatred towards him. The last thing he knew about Yonghwa is the downfall of his fortune while Chanyeol's life is somewhat glorious. It must be due to envy. As of this moment, he is held in custody and they may simply put him in juvenile.

Aside from that, some people dislike him for his position, especially the members of their branch family. Their dispute just grows stronger as they use this moment when Chanyeol is still vulnerable.

There are a lot of things going on and the Crown Prince does not want to just stay not taking action.

Chanyeol requests to the Lord Chamberlain to meet the suspect, setting in his mind that he will still insist even he will be refused several times. But, there is no rebuttal that happens since Lord Won wholeheartedly permits him. He will be the chaperone for the said meeting, along with the First Lady herself.

The next morning they go to the police station, leaving Wendy and the other servants in the palace. Media have been following them from there to their destination but they are not entertained by anyone from Chanyeol’s party since the guards have been blocking them.

The officials accommodate them and lead to the interrogation room by their chief. It is so quiet that makes the coming confrontation suspenseful — but Chanyeol will not let this ambience intimidate him.

“No matter how hard we tried to make him spiel the truth he wouldn’t budge.” The Chief says. “He says he wants to see His Highness first.”

“Did he really call me that?”

“No,” The Chief stops at the door and so their party, “he calls you informally with a smug look on. He’s pretty difficult to talk to and I hope you won’t lose your cool.”

“I won’t.” The Chief seems to count on Chanyeol on that, nodding, opening the door for him.

To be continued…

A/N:

Will edit later for some typo and grammar errors. Advance Happy Father's Day ♥

NEXT: Yeorum(Summer)’s Gift