Luhan had his arms crossed over his chest, his beady eyes trained on the melted, deep purple liquid, on a metallic moulder. The object Boa held steadily looked similar to a metal spoon, the end of it was the shape of a hemisphere, and the handle as thin as a chopstick. The moulder was hovered over a small flame and Boa twirled the liquid inside in order to shape the melted amethyst into a small bowl like shape as a base for the rest of the ingredients. As soon as she has covered the whole area, she poured the excess liquid onto a metal plate. Kris came to her side and added the powdered combination of the crushed petals from the dillhoffia and silphium, allowing them to activate and fuse with the minerals in the gem before dipping the moulder into frozen icy water to freeze the substance.

Boa place the gem-turned-bowl onto the table and took more of the uncrushed petals from the plants and threw them into the bowl. She her lips and turned to Kris for the green light, before pouring alkaline water into the frozen bowl.

“But water wasn’t in the ingredient.” Baekhyun chimed, raising both his brows as he worried over his bottom lip.

“Of course it wasn’t written, because water is the base for almost every antidote there is.” Kris responded without taking his eyes off of the process.

He reached for a glass cover, one made form polycarbonate, before taking less than a pinch of the pure potassium powder to insert into the waiting liquid.

“Brace yourselves,” Kris’ voice was low, and Boa didn’t think twice to rush to her son and Chanyeol’s sides, right beside the Crown Prince. The former let out a breath before letting the glass cover hover over the mixture. With a snap of his fingers, the powdery substance dropped and came into contact with the surface of the elixir. Less than a swift second later, Kris released the polycarbonate cover and backed away.

What came afterwards wasn’t what Luhan nor the rest expected. An explosion happened and because the glass was as clear as crystal, the saw how flames seemed to form above the liquid before instantly subsiding as fast as it occurred. The loud popping sound was subtly contained by the glass but thanks to the polycarbonate, nothing was broken.

“What the—”

“Was that supposed to happen?” Luhan broke Chanyeol off and advanced towards the incomplete mixture, “You’re saying Shixun drank that when she was 11?”

Kris his lips but couldn’t utter a single syllable, but considering how things are now, he didn’t think he needed to justify himself either.

“We don’t know if there are any kids younger than she was now,” Boa told, “Besides, this antidote will be distributed to the whole kingdom if it succeeds. And I’m sure we can’t leave any affected subject, can we?”

Luhan’s eyes narrowed. Despite the explanations done and complete discovery of the antidote, Chanyeol could still feel the rising tension in the air amongst all four of them. He thought that things would work and fall into place amicably after their justifications and apologies, but he should’ve guessed that not many things could be resolved with just one apology. Especially after 15 years.

“But does it work?” Baekhyun who has been silent after the few final touches finally asked the question everyone else in the room had been keeping in their minds. Despite them following what was written, it was still something they’ve never tried making for 15 years after the first attempt. For all they know, the first try could’ve been a lucky outcome.

“I’ll drink the first sip,” Kris told, before making eye contact with Luhan. “You just tell your men to bring us the cherry blossom petals as soon as we touch down.”

~”~

Luhan left the lab, his heart almost hopeful realising that they could finally stop suffering from the unbidden epidemic for years now. Shixun will finally be able to sleep soundly, knowing that now nobody would ever hunt for her. And—

“Krystal…” Luhan’s voice trailed and echoed through the unlit and empty hallway of the third level of the ship. He hadn’t seen his sister since they came back from Zenn, and even Kai hadn’t mention anything about her. Well, the Crown Prince guessed he didn’t have the reason to anymore.

He let out a tired sigh, of course…

The Crown Prince stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pants and was about to head for her room, only to halt in his steps. If his hunch was right, her bedroom would be the last place Krystal would be in. He turned his heels and walked down the stairs, he could only imagine how much his sister is beating herself up about it. Despite her coldness, Krystal was always someone who gets attached too easily. She remains loyal to the people she held close to her heart, and ever since their mother was dismissed from the castle, the young princess vowed to keep her distance from both her brother and the King.

Their relationship became more strained when the King remarried two weeks later, and when their half siblings were born, Luhan was more than welcoming; making Krystal think that he never felt sorry for their mother who was demoted to a commoner and exiled.

But Luhan knew that the reason Krystal distanced herself then wasn’t entirely because of hatred, but mainly because she didn’t want to feel the heartbreak of losing another that she loves. She was young, too young to understand and accept the feeling of loss at such a young age. And furthermore, the King didn’t really try to appease her.

The incidents of their marriage failure clashed with when Kris and Boa came to the palace with their own kids. Which explains why the Imperial siblings never knew who they were; seeing how Luhan only paid heed to the external affairs of the palace, and Krystal never once went to the East Wing of the palace ever since the departure of her mother.

His footsteps ceased when he heard grunting and groaning noises, followed by solid punching sounds from the room before him. Luhan’s eyes lifted from his shoes to the door in front of him. His eyes were unreadable, but they held a strong emotion as they trained on the person inside the training room—punching and kicking her pain away.

The Crown Prince sighed as he unlocked the door. It was clear that nobody could’ve entered except him. He advanced closer to the practicing mat, letting no words escape his lips as he shuffled near. Sensing his presence, Krystal continued to land punches against the punching hands.

Her wrists felt like they were about to snap as her knuckles split open hit after hit with crimson dripping slowly between the gaps of her fingers. Luhan gave another sigh and drew nearer to his sister, catching one of her punch with one hand and pushing the punching bag away with the other.

“Let go.” Krystal’s eyes were filled with anger, but that wasn’t the most prominent expression Luhan caught. Anger was only the smallest hint of feeling shown. The more dominant expressions were—