There was only one way you could find out if Baekhyun had been speaking the truth or not and that was by talking to Conan yourself. So the next morning when you believed that you had been able to calm yourself down enough so that you wouldn’t kill him as soon as he’d talk to you, you decided that you’d go looking for him. But when you got out of your room after eating breakfast and getting dressed the palace seemed even more abandoned than it usually was. There was no one in here and it seemed like the prince was gone as well since the maids were cleaning his room. Your eyes glide up towards the open doors and you wished that you could just see what was inside. You had no idea why you were this interested in seeing where he slept but it just made you feel curious. Knowing that Conan wouldn’t be there anyway you walked outside and closed your eyes as you stood still on the stone stairs. Like always it was pleasingly warm outside and you let out a relaxing sigh as you opened your eyes again and looked around. It was unbelievable how your feelings about this place had changed in such a short amount of time. 

While looking around the garden you suddenly spotted Amity standing a little further and away. You shouted her name and she turned around to you in surprise before waving at you with a bright smile. There weren’t a lot of people you felt at ease with around here but Amity seemed to be the only one who you could trust. After all she put you into bath every single day and she made sure that you were taken care of every morning. You walked towards her and smiled at her as she met you halfway and she shot you a questioning look. “What are you doing outside?” She asked and you remembered telling her about the drawing supplies that Baekhyun had promised to get for you so that you could keep yourself busy. But the prince was a busy man and so your things weren’t there yet and you had to find something else to keep yourself occupied. “I was looking for Conan, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.” Of course she had heard about the misunderstanding between the two of you and she cracked her eyebrow at you. You hushed her and explained to her that you only wanted to talk to him. “I heard that he’s at the stables, he’s going for a ride.” Amity eventually said and you smiled at her as a thank you. When you turned around to walk away she still screamed something after you. “Please don’t get yourself into trouble ____________.” 

It was for sure that if you’d hurt Conan or would do anything to him that the prince wouldn’t really approve it, after all they were best friends. Besides how big were the chances that you would be able to hurt him before he hurt you? He was a lot stronger than you and he had magic, so you were two big steps behind. No, you had to talk to him because you needed to figure out the truth. You wanted to know what happened to your sister so you wanted him to tell you exactly what happened that night. You were quite good at telling if someone was lying or not so you’d be able to see right through him if he would lie to you. The death of your sister was still a fresh wound inside of your heart and it was still bleeding, you weren’t about to forgive him that easily. You lifted your chin up in the sky as you made your way over to the stables. These creatures may think that they were better than you but that didn’t mean that you were going to let that get to you. This morning Amity had decided finally give you back your ponytail but she had braided your hair at the sides, putting it all together in an elastic band on the top of your head. 

When you got closer to the stables you could see that there were two horses standing outside, they were ready to be taken for a ride. The fact that Conan wasn’t alone didn’t stop you and you walked towards one of the horses, figuring out that maybe it was better if you’d wait for him outside than that you’d go looking for him and you would miss him. You looked at the animal and you felt a little bit ashamed of the thought that just a little more than a week ago you wouldn't have felt back to kill it so that it could be your food for you and your family for the next few weeks. Now that food was all on forehand it seemed so aimlessly to kill a beautiful animal like that. Two male voices reached your ears and you crossed your arm in front of your chest as you stared into the eyes of the horse, trying to see what it was feeling. But it seemed calm as it swung its tail from side to side happily and you were sure that it thought you were insane for staring at it like that. “____________?” Baekhyun’s voice surprised you and you turned around towards him with big eyes. No, it wouldn’t have stopped you if he had been someone, anyone but the prince. You should have been able to recognize his voice by now and then you could have gotten out of here before they had seen you, now you were too late. 

You opened your mouth to say something, to explain yourself but no words came out. Next to him Conan shot you an amused look and that seemed to remind you of the reason why you had come here and you straightened your back as you nodded at the other man. “I came here to talk to your friend, someone told me that I could find him here.” You explained and you felt how they both watched you and you told yourself that this was not the right moment for you to blush. It was a fact that you had gained some weight after you had been eating the good food from around here for some time now. You still hadn’t reached the weight of a normal person of your age, but for the first time in a long time your cheeks were getting a little rounder and there was some flesh covering you bones. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” The prince eventually said as he put his hand on top of the horse you had been looking at a few seconds before, apparently it was his. You bit your lip as you tried your best to stay polite and not to get angry at him. “I was just going to ask him some questions. If I wanted him dead I would have done something about that by now.” 

Baekhyun did his best to hide the smile that wanted to show on his face but barely succeeded as he heard you saying the words he had used against you not such a long time ago. Conan coughed as he crossed his arms in front of your chest and sent you a dark look, he didn’t seem very pleased with the fact that you were acting so confident around him. “Well, why don’t you join us for a ride then? You can ask me everything you want to know on the way.” Conan said and your shot him an annoyed and surprised expression at the same time. They both looked at you as you shook your head and put a step backwards. This was not the reason why you had come here. You had wanted to talk to the man who might have killed your sister, not to spend an afternoon with him and Baekhyun. “What is it? Scared of a small adventure?” Conan joked around as his friend just stood there beside him and studied you quietly. You wished that he would tell him to leave you alone, but Baekhyun just stood there and he seemed sure that you could safe yourself out of the situation. “I can’t ride. I never learned how to…” You silently said as you turned your head and locked eyes with the animal again, and you swore you could see it laughing at you. 

“Oh, you don’t have to. Baekhyun has enough place on his horse, he’ll take you with him.” Conan said and this time Baekhyun’s expression finally changed. His eyebrows cracked together as he looked at his friend as if he couldn’t believe he had actually suggested that. You were already starting to shake your head and were thinking of an idea to get out of this. There was no way you were going to share a horse with him, this was not why you had come here. “Don’t you want your answers?” Conan was provoking you and you squeezed your eyes at him and bit your tongue. He was trying to make you angry on purpose. By now this whole castle probably already knew that you had a very short temper and that you got angry quickly. Besides it wasn’t like you had been very friendly towards their Crown prince since you had gotten here. “Let’s just go.” Baekhyun mumbled as he gave Conan a disapproving look, knowing what he was trying to do. How did you get caught up in this situation? It wasn’t till Baekhyun reached out his hand to yours that you realized you shouldn’t have come here. There weren’t a lot of things you were scared of, but you had never been on a horse before. What if it lost control? 

“You’ll be fine.” The prince said as he took your hand and pulled you towards him. You couldn’t help but hold your breath as he placed you on one side of the horse and stood behind you, his chest so close to you that you could feel the heat coming off of his body. He explained you how to get on it and placed his hands on you waist to push you up so that you could swing your other leg over. You were glad he couldn’t hear the fast beating of your heart because of his touch and you quickly shook it off as you tried to get used to your new height. The lucky thing was that the animal didn’t move an inch as you sat there, it was almost as if it could feel that you were scared. Slowly you placed you hand on his skin and it and it felt a lot softer than you had imagined it. But then again these were royal horses, they probably got the best care. Your body stiffened when suddenly Baekhyun climbed on the horse as well and sat down behind you. When Conan had suggested that he would give you a ride you hadn’t really expected this. Instead of taking note of your discomfort he grabbed a hold of the reins and with that he locked you in between his body and his arms. Of course you felt a lot safer now that he was sitting here with you, the chance that you would fall off now was small. But you didn’t quite know how to feel about being pressed against the chest of a Crown prince. 

“Are you ready human?” Conan asked and you glared at him as you watched how he climbed onto his own horse as well. As they did it it seemed so simple. You didn’t say anything as you tried to push away your nerves and tried to relax. What could possibly go wrong? Well that was definitely the wrong question to ask in this kind of situation. There were so many thing that could go wrong, countless things. The way that Baekhyun leaned forward and spoke to you softly made your breath get stuck inside of your throat. “Are you sure you want to come?” He asked since he could probably feel how tensed your muscles were, how couldn’t he if he was sitting against you? But no matter how much you disliked this, you wanted your answers. And over here, on this horse and with Baekhyun with you there was only a small chance you would actually kill him if you’d find out that he had done it. So instead of doing what you actually wanted to do you nodded and turned your head to look at him. But you regretted that almost straight away, his head was so close to yours that you jumped away from him and almost lost your balance. For a second you were sure you were going to fall but a strong arm wrapped around your middle and pulled you back in place. 

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