Jonghyun POV

The carriage jolted forward and I nervously glanced behind us. My mom...my sister...they were still in the palace. The guilt and anger started building in my chest, but now wasn't the time, plus Minho was with them. That Taemin kid wouldn't stop staring at me, and in a normal situation I would've asked him if I had anything on my face, but all I could do was clear my throat. Eventually we made it to the woods, but it was ridiculous just how dark it was. She was nervously glancing at Key, then she looked at me before looking away again. I wished I could say something, but explaining him wasn't easy. Explaining any of this wasn't easy.

I nudged Key, nodding at _____ and Taemin. We had managed to get Key's father on here, but he wasn't looking good, and it was obvious how worried Key was. He sighed as he tightened a blanket around his dad.

"Uh, sorry guys. I know you're probably confused." Key pushed his hair back and looked at me for confirmation, which I gave anxiously. "You see...the thing is...well..."

"Hyung, please." Wow, the kid got sass.

"Shush. It's just...hard to explain. His Highness, as in the king...he kind of went crazy a while ago, which is why you never hear about him." Key cleared his throat and I could tell it was hard for him, but I could only do so much. "He went on this sort of rampage a while ago, and let's just say things haven't been the same for many of us since."

It's been a year since I last saw him, and I thought it had been good riddance.

Your POV

The king? How long had it been...a year? So many things happened then; I really didn't want to think about it, but the prince must be hurting. Key, too. It was obvious that this was a tough subject for all of us; Taemin and I lost a father, and I guess Jonghyun did, too. Key's father started getting sick around then, too, but it was all just a coincidence, right? What could've possible happened to make it so unsafe for the prince to have to run with us? And why weren't we safe, either?

"I know, last year was...intense. But, we have to stop anything from happening again." Key looked to his father, who had been fast asleep the whole ride, and I knew that we had a lot ahead of us. What, I didn't know, but I assumed I would find out eventually.

"Key...what exactly happened? I mean - "

"I think it'd be better if we talked to someone who was actually there." Jonghyun sighed and nodded, and we turned a corner...straight to Onew?

"Isn't he still at the ball...?"

"It's ok; we'll just wait for him inside. It's safer there anyway; the king can't...won't come in."

Onew? The loveable, dorky, Onew? What does he have the can possibly keep an insane king away from him? I linked my arm through Taemin's and rested my head on his shoulder. What have we gotten ourselves into? As long as it didn't involve my stupid step-mother, I guess. 

It had been about twenty minutes when we heard the door to the deli open. One exasperated sigh later, we found ourselves facing an exhausted looking Onew. It was strange to see him without a smile on his face.

"Hey guys...long time no see, huh?"

"Jinki, we need your help." Jinki? "I know we said that would be the last time, but as you probably know..."

"Yeah, it's fine. I would stupid to refuse, anyway. You remember what to do, right?" Key and Jonghyun nodded. Taemin looked at me nervously, and I returned that look right back. "First things first, we need to get your voice back."

Heyyyy...guysss...long time no see...ha. UH well ok, so this story was originally started like what, two years ago? And I never wrote any notes down or anything so I'm just kind of going with the flow. Fairytales are usually pretty short, so this will probably follow suit, but I do have some things in mind that I want to add. This story was created mainly for me to just practice writing and experiment with different points of views and such, which is why it's written kind of weird, in comparison to other things I've written. With that said, my writing style has probably changed in the last year of not updating this, but I will try my best to retain the lightheartedness of the characters and overall atmosphere while also working with a somewhat dark villain. Happy holidays! I hope you guys enjoy whatever it is you do or don't celebrate :)