Yixing picked Yeonhee up to go to the hospital in a distinctly unflashy car.

“When on earth did you get a generic Volvo?” she asked in astonishment as she fastened her seatbelt.

“This is still a saloon car,” he pointed out as he checked she was safely strapped in and pulled away from the kerb.  “It’s just not top of the range, or a Merc.”

“But this is just so. . .”  Yeonhee searched for the right word.  “Unroyal.”

Yixing shot her a look of mock outrage.  “Are you seriously telling me you’re getting used to a life of decadence?”

Yeonhee shot him a dirty look, which made him chuckle.

“This is actually Dad’s car for when he wants to sneak around as an ordinary citizen,” he explained, half an eye on the satnav to check it had the right destination put in.  “I found the keys yesterday evening and figured it would be less likely to instigate rumours of you having sugar daddies.”

Yeonhee refused to comment on that, which just made him laugh harder.

“I need a picture of that face,” he almost choked with amusement as they left the university campus, “for posterity.”

Yeonhee was very glad of a sudden incoming call that allowed her to ignore him.

“I’m an absolute idiot,” Chen said without preamble.  “They’re from Wu Yifan’s terrorist cell.”

“Wu Yifan?” Yeonhee repeated, baffled.  The name clearly meant something to Yixing, because he stamped on the brakes.  Yeonhee was thrown against her seatbelt and catapulted hard back against her seat.  “Yixing!  What the ?”

He killed the engine and stuck his hand out.  “Pass me the phone.”

Astonished at his behaviour, Yeonhee stared at him.  Chen interrupted before she could give the prince a piece of her mind.

“His highness is with you?  Great, I don’t need to make a separate phone call.”

Throwing Yixing a dirty look, Yeonhee lowered the phone so she could put it on loudspeaker.

“All right, you’re on speaker,” she told Chen.  “He can hear you.”

“Have you told his highness what happened earlier today?” Chen asked.  Yeonhee shook her head before remembering that Chen couldn’t see.  Yixing at least had the patience to wait for her to respond instead of demanding to know what Chen was talking about.

“No.  I assumed you’d pass on any details necessary.”  She didn’t say that the encounter had left her unsettled enough to want to talk to Yixing about it in the specific context of snuggling, which might have been possible at the hospital but certainly wasn’t in a car.

Yixing was beginning to look annoyed.

“So, for context, your highness,” Chen said, “Antiroyo aggressively tried to recruit Yeonhee today by sending two operatives from their ZPX unit to coerce her into joining.”

Yeonhee had never seen somebody’s face pale so fast.

“I’m not going to,” she assured him quickly.

The prince stared at her as though she’d sprouted a third nostril.

Chen coughed.  “From that speechless silence, I take it his highness is more alarmed at your proximity to danger than he is at the non-existent possibility of you joining them,” he said diplomatically.

“ing hell,” Yixing agreed weakly.

There was a very awkward pause.

“What’s ZPX?” Yeonhee asked.

“Zoyang Pei Xinyei,” Chen replied.  “Which is Zenyu for Separate for Unity.  I can’t believe it took me so long to work out.”

The prince snapped out of his horrified daze.  “I thought Wu never gave you what ZPX stood for.”

“He didn’t,” confirmed Chen.  “But he also refused to use Hanmi throughout questioning, even for names.  This makes sense.”

There was another silence.  Yeonhee cast about for something else to say, but couldn’t think of anything.  In the end, Yixing heaved a long sigh and turned to face forward again, twisting the key in the ignition.

“Chen, can I have a full brief when I get back this evening?” he asked.

“Of course, sir.”

“Is there anything else you wanted to say to Yeonhee?”

“Only to be careful,” Chen said.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if they were somehow behind the anonymous gifts.  They’re probably trying to step up the pressure because you’re not biting.”

Yeonhee gulped.

“I’ll be in contact when I know more,” Chen promised before hanging up.

Yixing checked for traffic before easing out into the road.

“Are you all right?” he asked, glancing quickly in her direction.  “Sorry.”

She just nodded.  After a moment of hesitation, he reached out and placed his hand on her knee.  Yeonhee immediately covered it with her own hand, grateful for the comfort.

It was a very long journey to the hospital, since neither of them really felt up to speaking.  Yeonhee tried to figure out what was going through Yixing’s head, but his expression was oddly blank, and she was forced to give up.  He parked as close to the hospital as he could and then stretched across to the back seats to grab a pair of hats and a scarf.

“It’ll be too warm to cover up without attracting attention soon,” he murmured as he jammed the pokéball cap onto his head.  Yeonhee bundled her long hair up into the beret he’d given her and arranged the scarf around her neck so that it covered most of her chin and mouth.

A few journalists had been camped permanently outside the hospital since the king had been admitted, no doubt poised to get the scoop as soon as anything about his condition changed, but a young couple walking briskly to the entrance was evidently not enough to attract any attention.  A disapproving Minseok met them in the foyer, but he only briefly mentioned security issues and Yixing driving off on his own before leading the way up to the private ward where Yeonhee’s grandmother was being looked after until it was time to take her down for the operation.

The old lady was in surprisingly chipper spirits for somebody who was just about to hav