The difference in passage of time between Wonderland and his own world was truly beginning to make Kihyun’s head hurt the longer he tried to mentally make a plot line. The fact that the sun rose and set several times there in the same time as it only managed to do so once in his homeland was baffling. He often found himself chuckling to himself when it resembled the way time worked in the novels telling story of a world hidden in the back of a wardrobe. He wondered if that was one of the many tales that his grandmother read to him as a child, assuming that was the only way he could come up with something as strange as time passing in any other way than how it had his entire life. 

He still wasn’t sure if he believed that Wonderland existed anywhere other than in his head, unsure if there was a way to explain its ‘existence’ in any other way. A world that existed at the bottom of their pond. A pond that became a mirror. A hole in the tree connecting two vastly different worlds in which servants had symbols and numbers inked on their wrists, where he was called by a traditionally feminine name by a man with animated rabbit ears. Was this by chance the ‘crazy’ that his parents were afraid of, or simply his attempt to find an escape within himself from their suffocating, overprotective ways? 

Kihyun was so lost in his thoughts that he nearly jumped out of his skin when there was a thump behind him, bringing his focus back to where he was standing, centered in his room. His attention locked almost immediately on the worn thin book that was now on the floor in front of his bookcase. Letting out a sigh as he realized there was nothing to be startled by, he kneeled to pick it up, turning it to examine the back and cover, eyebrows knitting together when he didn’t recognize it. His other hand moved to the frayed yarn cord that kept it closed, unwinding it until he was able to open the cover, breath catching at the letters on the first page.

“Wonder…land,” he read, the skin on the back of his neck rose, a hazy feeling spreading through his mind, as if clouding a memory that was attempting to surface. There was a high-toned knock that had his eyes shifting up from the book to his bedroom window, finding a sense of comfort in the black-haired male he saw on the other side. Standing once again he set the worn book onto the nightstand beside his bed as he climbed onto the plush surface, sliding the window open, watching as Hyunwoo’s cheeks bunched up in a smile.

“Time to make my rounds with his Majesty?” Kihyun asked in a sarcastic tone that was lost on the rabbit eared male, who simply nodded eagerly, and the brunet couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh. Real or not, at least he was able to escape the estate walls for a short while.

As per usual the Queen was keeping close to him just as he had the first time Kihyun had gone through the garden for the initial clearing of debris and dead stems that had little chance of reviving even with proper attention. The only thing that had changed since the first instance was that he now knew the light-pink haired male’s name- and the fact that he shouldn’t know it. Oblivious to this fact, the figure watched every snip and adjustment Kihyun performed on the rows upon rows of flowers, shifting back when the brunet would turn in his direction to toss debris into the small bucket that followed them through the garden.

Reaching for the pair of scissors that had been supplied to him, Kihyun’s lips turned down into a soft frown when they had reached a specific plant bed that had been giving him more trouble than any of the others. Opening the blades of the scissors he leaned forward, his free hand giving slight pinches along the wilted stem, searching for where the nutrients seemed to stop, clipping a finger width down from there, passing the snipped vine into the hands of the light-haired male beside him.

“Hold this, will you?” he said, not paying attention to the look of complete bewilderment on the Queen’s face.

“Excuse me?” Was the response given and Kihyun found himself rolling his eyes, turning to face the other, standing straight even if it didn’t quite get him up to the Queen’s height, arching an eyebrow at him.

“Do you want them to get better or not?” he deadpanned, pulling a scoff from the Queen, watching him turn, confusing Kihyun with how he was walking away.

“What does a ridiculous creature like you even know?”

“Hyungwon.” The light-haired male froze mid-step, turning slowly to face him after a long moment of pause. “I know your name, your Majesty,” Kihyun continued, meeting the hard stare with one of his own. “Plants have feelings too. They need humans just as much as humans need them. Maybe if you actually gave your precious plants attention, instead of expecting your servants to put all of the care into their growth, they would get better. Maybe they wouldn’t have even begun to wilt in the first place. Bet you never thought about that, did you, Hyungwon?”

“How dare you assume you can speak to me in such a disrespectful manner,” Hyungwon hissed through a clenched jaw, re-approaching Kihyun in a way that twisted the shorter’s gut, fighting to not back down. After all, if this was just in his head, then he would essentially be backing down from himself, right?

“Maybe some needs to start, since kissing your ended in this garden turning into a graveyard,” he fired back, watching Hyungwon narrow his eyes, and he could practically see the gears of the taller’s mind turning, as if trying to come up with some witty comeback but failing. “You probably think it sounds stupid, but where I come from talking to plants encourages their growth. Try it some time,” Kihyun continued, Hyungwon scoffing as he turned his back to the brunet once again, Kihyun letting him walk away this time with the sense that he had actually won their little argument.

While Kihyun didn’t personally witness Hyungwon going around the garden, he did hear about it in great length from Hyunwoo a few days later when he next appeared to bring the brunet to Wonderland. He couldn’t hold back a snicker at the mental image of the light-pink hared male walking around the garden, surveying the area to ensure that none of the suits were around before mumbling something to the individual flower beds. He wondered how the Queen acted when he got caught by someone, if he chose to hide away in his room, considering the murmurs he heard in his dreams. It was just like how he knew that Hyungwon was starving himself, only now the worry encasing his chest was replaced with excitement; pride at one’s self for a job well done.

“When you say he personally requested for me to come back, do you mean that in the same sense as he’s demanding I come and tend to his garden again? Because it’s honestly getting exhausting spending and hour in Wonderland and having to basically relive that hour in my own world. Trust me, it’s nice being able to get out of the house for what is only like, five minutes according to my world, but I don’t know how long I can keep this up before I start going crazy,” he admitted, an odd emotion that Kihyun couldn’t place flickering through Hyunwoo’s dark eyes before the rabbit-eared male’s cheeks bunched up in a smile.

“Things are going well, and my Queen is very pleased with you. Soon you won’t have to constantly travel back and forth, please be patient for a little longer,” he assured the brunet, leading him to and then into the pond. Kihyun was almost getting used to the feeling of being incased in water then suddenly dry, the icy feeling in the air that was becoming far less present the more often he visited. He wasn’t sure if it was simply his skin growing accustom to the odd chill or if the castle was truly warming up as the garden was slowly revived. 

Kihyun expected to be guided to the garden, though by now he had a pretty concrete understanding of how to get there from where the Looking Glass resided, or even the dining hall that he hadn’t seen since his first and only meal with Hyungwon and Hyunwoo. When neither seemed to be in the direction that the black-haired male was leading him, Kihyun found himself glancing up at the other male every so often, giving a confused look to the set of double doors that they stopped in front of. 

“He wants me to visit him in… his bedroom? Isn’t that a little weird?” he questioned, pulling a chuckle from Hyunwoo as the other reached out to push one of the doors open, gesturing for the brunet to step inside. He was even more unsettled by the way the door was closed behind him, his eyes scanning around the large room, eyebrows knitting together when he didn’t see the light-haired male. He found himself drawn to a small table in the open area of the room, opposite the large four-post bed, though as he approached it he was sure that it wasn’t the table itself that he was drawn to, but the object residing on the center of it.

It was the necklace that Hyungwon had been wearing every time that Kihyun had seen the cold-toned male, the one he had been arguing with Hyunwoo over. Without thinking much he found his hand extending towards the white king chess piece that was secured to it, fingers curling around the oddly warm, smooth material it was made out of- tensing a bit when it was torn out of his hand before he could get a good look at it, attention turning immediately to the taller male narrowing his eyes down at him.

“Were you never taught to keep your hands off that which doesn’t belong to you?” Hyungwon hissed, and Kihyun resisted the urge to roll his eyes, not wanting to currently annoy the Queen any further.

“That’s a King,” he replied, watching the irritation flicker to confusion in the other’s eyes.

“What?”

“The necklace charm. It’s a chess piece, and it’s called a king. You know- like what I tried to call you when we first met and Hyunwoo kept calling you his Queen?” Hyungwon stared at him for a long moment, as if unsure of what part of Kihyun’s statements he wanted to question first.

“And ‘chess’ is, what? A material used to carve objects from?”

“‘Chess’ is a game played between two people with black and white pieces where the point of the game is to capture the other person’s king piece. Or make it so any move they make would end in exposing them in a way that you would capture it, thus forcing them to surrender,” Kihyun explained, a dark spot on his middle finger drawing his attention to the digit, eyebrows knitting together when he noticed the same spot on the pads of his thumb and index fingers as well. Upon examination the spots looked almost like the silhouettes of tiny leaves, the fact that they didn’t smear away as he rubbed his fingertips together a little concerning.

Kihyun felt himself bristle when icy fingers wrapped around his wrist just like they had in their first meeting, Hyungwon seeming to have no respect for personal boundaries in contrast to the way he acted toward his necklace. He turned Kihyun’s hand palm up, then down and back up again, eyes moving to the brunet’s face once again.

“What are you staring at?” Kihyun felt his mind stutter, glancing between the tiny leaves and Hyungwon’s face, unsure if the taller male had enough of a sense of humor to try and joke about this.

“Are you serious? You don’t see them?”

“See what?” Hyungwon questioned in return, Kihyun scowling lightly up at him.

“The little markings,” he stated, the taller male releasing his wrist finally, allowing Kihyun to take a closer look at the tattoo-like markings now on his fingers.

He rubbed them together again while the Queen looped his necklace over his head and back to its usual place against the center of his chest. If the chess piece had been made of black material, he would have suspected that it had somehow stamped the shapes onto his fingers, considering the new markings were only in the spots that his skin had come into contact with the king. He didn’t have much longer to question the oddity before Hyungwon’s voice cut through his thoughts, sending a chill down his spine.

“Those were there the last time I examined your wrist, why are you suddenly shocked?” Kihyun stared at the other as Hyungwon was stepping past him towards the double doors, voice caught in his throat. The Queen raised one hand up in a gesture that he often saw the taller male use towards Hyunwoo, causing the rabbit eared male to hurry after him. The brunet was, at the moment, too stunned to offer any opposition, trailing after the Queen.

“Another trip to the garden?” Kihyun asked, though he didn’t get a verbal answer, turning a corner here and there, another pair of double doors being opened for the pair of them to enter the dining hall. The memory he had of the room left a bitter taste in his mouth, so he wasn’t entirely sure why he sat down in the seat gestured to, finding it a little odd that Hyungwon sat directly across from him rather than in the seat at the head of the table.

“You exceeded my expectations with your revival of my garden. While I told Hyunwoo that it would have returned to the beauty it once was in a much timelier manner if you had remained here, he argued that you had to leave because of your residence in that other world you travel to.”

“You mean the one he begged me to leave because your suits couldn’t pay enough attention to the garden you put them in charge of? The one I belong to,” Kihyun pointed out, Hyungwon staring at him with a mildly displeased expression that the brunet assumed was caused by his implication of the suits’ incompetence. Hyungwon took a deep breath through his nose, and Kihyun honestly expected a sharp comment to pass his lips, eyes darting to the door off in the corner as it opened, watching as a dark-haired female suit stepped into the dining hall, carrying a tray towards the two of them.

“Yes, that one. You speak so poorly of that world, why is it that you’re always in a hurry to return?” The light-haired male asked as the suit placed an ivory tea pot between the two, along with a pair of teacups settled on saucers with tiny blue flowers painted on them, decorating the perimeter of both. Kihyun’s lips parted to give an answer, slowly closing his mouth when he didn’t have one on hand to give, staring at the purple tinted liquid being poured into each of the cups before the suit placed the teapot back onto the table, stepping a few feet back from the pair.

“I belong there. It’s where my family is,” The brunet offered as reasoning, eyes lifting to Hyungwon, watching as the Queen picked up his own teacup.

“This ‘family’ of yours leaves you feeling suffocated, do they not?” Hyungwon pointed out, his tone making it sound like a rhetorical question, eyes flicking down to the teacup in front of Kihyun, then back up to the brunet’s face. He got the hint that he was meant to take a drink, his index and middle finger looping around the handle, steadying the weight with his thumb as he lifted the lightweight ceramic, noticing the half-dehydrated petals littering the liquid inside. “Hyunwoo told me that this world allows you freedom. Wouldn’t you rather spend your time here?” Kihyun had the cup halfway to his lips when Hyungwon spoke again, causing him to lower the teacup, eyes shifting up to the Queen’s face.

“I spend plenty of time here already as your pseudo-plant doctor. You only want me here because I fixed your garden, but I doubt that you actually care about what I want,” he accused, the light-haired male’s lips tugging down into a frown, gaze shifting towards the door they had come in from, Kihyun following the line of sight to watch Hyunwoo join them in the oversized room. The white eared male bowed a few feet away from the pair, replacing the dark-haired female, silently sending her back towards the door she had come into the room from, smile bright as always.

“Your Alice is being difficult,” The Queen stated, confusion causing Hyunwoo’s expression to falter slightly, head tilting a bit before he looked between the two, and Kihyun couldn’t keep back a sigh this time.

“He’s trying to get me to drink something that I’m pretty sure is made of the dead leaves I pulled out of his precious garden,” he countered, a strange mix of awkwardness and concern altering the dark haired male’s smile, giving it a much more forced sense to it before he bowed his head slightly.

“My Queen cherishes his garden above anything else in existence. While they may seem to be simple flowers to you, I trust that by now you’ve been able to comprehend their importance to him. He has never before offered the tea brewed by the flowers from his garden to another. Please, take it as a sign of his gratitude for all you’ve done to promote the health of something so special to him,” he said, lifting his head after, smile having returned to usual before he glanced to the White Queen and back, both pairs of eyes looking expectant in their own ways. 

When it started to seem as though there wasn’t any way to get out of the castle without having at least a sip of the tea he decided to give in, bringing the delicate cup to his lips, warm liquid passing them and coating his tongue with a vaguely metallic taste. There was a sharp sting that started in the back of Kihyun’s throat as soon as he swallowed the mouthful of tea, causing him to grimace and drop the cup back down onto the table, one hand coming up to cover his mouth, the other his throat after causing the cup to clatter back into place. He could hear his name being called by Hyunwoo, unable to voice a response as he broke out into a fit of coughing, tears lacing his eyes by the time something else was brought up to his lips.

A different liquid was forced to fill his mouth, though he didn’t fight the faintly sweet and salty taste, the slightly cold liquid replacing the previous awful sensation, reducing his coughing quickly, leaving him wheezing faintly. Once he was able to focus again he opened his eyes, vision initially blurry but focusing to find Hyungwon standing, backed a few feet from his chair, a look of almost horror contorting his face in a new way, as well as showing that it was Hyunwoo whom had gotten him to drink something else. He mumbled a hoarse offer of thanks, the White rabbit nodding and setting the clear glass he had been holding to Kihyun’s lips on the table, searching the brunet’s face.

“What the hell did you put in my cup?” Kihyun snapped, Hyunwoo tightening the grip on Kihyun’s shoulder to force him down as he attempted to stand from his seat.

“Kihyun, calm down. My Queen bares no ill-will towards you,” Hyunwoo protested, the shorter male pushing his hand off his shoulder, successfully standing, though he didn’t make a step towards the White Queen as Hyunwoo seemed to expect, considering the rabbit eared male stepped between the pair.

“Then how else would you explain the feeling of fire in my throat as soon as I went to drink what he gave me? He didn’t even drink it himself, for all I know he tried to poison me, or give me something to keep me here,” he rattled on in accusation, Hyungwon stepping closer until he was inches away from Hyunwoo, looking strangely small compared to the white eared male considering their similarities in height, along with the way he usually commanded a room.

“I was just as horrified by your reaction to the tea as you were,” the light-haired male protested, letting out a small huff as he sat back down in his chair, which had Hyunwoo calming down slightly. 

“Kihyun, are you sure the tea wasn’t just overly hot when you took a drink?” The brunet shot a dirty look up at the larger male for the question, Kihyun’s suspicion growing.

“It was barely warm against my lips, there’s no logical reason it would burn my throat and not my lips or tongue,” he fired back. “You take a drink, if you’re so sure it’s safe.” Hyunwoo looked beyond hesitant at the order, turning his attention to Hyungwon, eyes searching for permission and after a pause the White Queen’s gaze flicked down to the teacup, then back up to the male’s face. A moment later, Hyunwoo was lifting Kihyun’s teacup to his own lips, sipping from it, eyebrows knitting together briefly as he silently inspected the taste.

“It seems quite hot to me still, Kihyun. Perhaps you didn’t realize the temperature?” the dark-haired male questioned, Kihyun’s own eyes widening when no other affect took place, and Hyunwoo set the teacup back down onto the saucer it had been resting on initially. “My Queen means you no harm, as I said before. Perhaps you don’t like the taste of the tea, and that’s what caused the bad reaction?” he offered, gesturing for the dark haired female from earlier to come back over, smile returning to her face, even as Hyunwoo mumbled to himself while trying to decide what to have her retrieve for the pair.

“Toadstools,” Hyungwon stated, cutting the White Rabbit off, and causing him to give the seated male a curious look, though it melted into a smile and he nodded, glancing to the dark-haired female, sending her off with a look.

“You haven’t asked for those in quite some time,” Hyunwoo said, almost sounding as if he was teasing the Queen, and Kihyun found himself slowly taking his seat again while the light-haired male didn’t offer a verbal response. He simply began sipping from his own teacup, not sparing Kihyun a single look for the time being. He wasn’t sure how long passed before the servant returned to the room, setting a tray on the table with what appeared to be cookies shaped like and decorated like mushrooms. Kihyun had honestly expected to be served actual toadstools, watching as she placed a few different colored cookies on two small plates, serving one to Hyungwon before placing one before himself. He stared down at the plate, then up at the light-haired Queen, giving him a hard look.

“Eat one of the cookies from my plate,” he ordered, earning an unamused look from the other male, though Hyungwon surprisingly didn’t offer a protest, lifting one hand with his index finger extended, making a circle motion with it. Without much hesitation, Hyunwoo switched their plates, and Hyungwon picked up one of the red and white cookies, bringing it to his lips, taking a bite out of half of the mushroom cap with the faintest snap, chewing and swallowing without much change to his expression.

“Still convinced I’m trying to poison you?” Hyungwon asked, leaving Kihyun feeling mildly baffled. Had he truly imagined the burning in his throat? Or perhaps Hyunwoo had been right about the temperature somehow? He looked down at the plate in front of him, choosing the purple and green decorated cookie, examining it more the closer he brought it to his face before giving in to the two pairs of eyes on him, taking a bite as Hyungwon took another from his own. It wasn’t as sweet as he was used to cookies tasting, the texture reminding him of shortbread, though a dizzy feeling started surrounding his head as soon as he swallowed, causing him to drop the cookie into his lap, grimacing as one hand lifted to hold the side of his head, eyes scrunching closed as the feeling worsened.

As he kept his eyes closed a set of double doors appeared in front of him, in a hallway that looked like the one Hyungwon’s room was in, though he didn’t seem to have much of a chance to look around, hands that weren’t his own coming up to force the doors open. It honestly reminded him of the dreams he had before, where he was walking around seeing through Hyunwoo’s eyes, but this time emotions flooded through him as soon as the doors revealed the white and red figure on the ground inside. His stomach dropped so fast he thought he was going to throw up, running to the figure and crumpling beside it, hands trembling as they pressed over the center of the red stain on the figure’s chest, hands becoming soaked in what he could only assume was blood. His could feel the stinging of tears lacing his eyes, streaking down his cheeks, a small sob bubbling up from his chest, eyes locking on the bleeding figure’s face when one hand covered his own, giving it a weak squeeze.

“My Love, who did this?” he felt himself ask in a trembling voice, the hand squeezing his own bringing it up to the figure’s cheek, giving it a slightly firmer squeeze.

“Alice,” the figure wheezed, before the grip went limp and he felt something similar to an electrical shock though his body.

His eyes snapped open and he stood, breathing coming out in a mild pant, the room around him starting to come back into focus; he only had a moment to realize that Hyungwon was standing beside his own knocked over chair, his own breathing ragged to match Kihyun’s, tears streaked down both of their cheeks. Hyunwoo’s ears seemed to be straighter than usual, high on alert as he looked between the pair, gaze bolting to Hyungwon when he raised a shaking hand, pointing at the brunet.

“Alice, you’re here by sentenced to death for the murder of the White King,” the light-haired male stated, a pair of suits quickly gripping either of Kihyun’s upper arms harshly, dragging him from the room, unfazed by his struggles. He tried to crane his neck to look back at Hyunwoo, calling for help, the last expression he saw on the White rabbit’s face being one of complete confusion.