Yoonhae would like to think that she has no more feelings for Minho. And in all honesty, no, she doesn’t love him that way anymore.

It’s just that she has spent more than half of her life looking after him and caring for him, and just the thought of her beloved ones being in danger made her heart dropped a few cm and she just wanted him to be safe, really.

Not to mention that Jinki’s important person – his brother Taemin, is in danger too.

“There are seven of them.” Jonghyun stated. They were both hiding on a tree and watching as the five men entered their once called ‘house’.

“Jjong, I have a plan.” Yoonhae proposed. “We can’t waste anymore time so please listen carefully.”

-*-

Taemin shuddered from head to toe. His hand sneakily grabbed the metal pipe he managed to find beforehand as a small attempt of self-protection. His other hand was holding onto Minho shakily. He thought about how the assistant always protected him and it was time for him to somewhat pay back.

The seven men were starting to ransack the whole house, stealing and grabbing anything that has some values – not that there were many since the house has been deserted for quite some time. For every single sound of movements, Taemin couldn’t help wincing and flinching.

He was extremely scared.

Minho frowned in his unconscious state and Taemin frowned along. He brought his hand to massage Minho’s temple tenderly, hoping it would soothe the pain. The tall man’s temperature was still increasing gradually.

I need to get him back to the castle. He’s going to die at this rate.Taemin thought. But how?

His train of thoughts was cut abruptly as a hand snatched his arm and tugged him harshly before yanking him to the centre of the room. Taemin yelped as his body hit the cold floor.

“Look what we found here.” Junhyung smirked. “It’s the little prince and his dying assistant.”

“No, stay away from Minho!” Taemin swung his ‘weapon’ towards them.

“Whoa, chill, prince.” Junhyung made a mocking face, “that’s a dangerous weapon you have there.”

Someone knocked Taemin from the back and the prince fell onto the floor clutching his shoulder. The metal pipe he was holding dropped onto the floor with a loud, echoing noise.

“Good job, Yoseob… Let’s tie the prince up and bring him back to the base.”

“And the assistant?”

“He’s poisoned anyway, let him die slowly and painfully.” Junhyung instructed.

Taemin struggled as Yoseob attempted to bind him with a rope and that earned him a punch in the face.

“Stay still, won’t you?” Yoseob grumbled. Taemin soon recognized him as the teenager who led him to the wrong place.

Taemin inhaled a great amount of air before shouting on top of his lungs.

“HEEEEEEELPPPPP! MURDERER! ! HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!”

“Yah, shut up!” Yoseob cupped Taemin’s mouth harshly, “I’m not a ! Yah!”

Taemin bit Yoseob’s hand until it bled. Shocked, Yoseob let out a cry of pain before glaring at him. “You bit me!”

“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!” Taemin screamed.

A loud crash snapped all their attentions – causing the men and Taemin to look towards the source. Someone has broken the front door and Taemin felt like he could thank all the Gods in the universe upon seeing who it was.

“Let go of the prince.” Yoonhae spoke with authority, narrowing her eyes at the hooligans.

“Whoa, now they sent a female warrior.” Junhyung made fun. “I know who you are. You’re the oldest prince’s assistant. This is getting more and more interesting.”

“Which part of my words do you not understand?” Yoonhae asked calmly.

She slowly stepped into the house while all of the men (except Yoseob) began creeping towards her. They didn’t exchange words, just staring at each other, waiting for someone to make a move.

Jonghyun made use of the situation to tiptoe his way towards the table, where Minho was. He quickly examined Minho in silence, and was glad that Minho’s condition was not as bad as he thought it would be. He lifted the assistant quietly – the gang still didn’t know that Yoonhae wasn’t alone.

Yoonhae caught a glimpse of Jonghyun’s blonde hair and knew that Minho was safe then. She only needed to get to Taemin and then they could flee.

“The man who carried a rifle from the other carnival… Was he one of you?” Yoonhae questioned, not really expecting any of them to answer.

“Ooh… You mean Hyunseung? Yes he’s one of us… I have no idea why is he so stupid, letting you all catch him just like that.” Junhyung replied casually, as if he didn’t care if someone killed his allies, “he better figures out how to save himself before he gets executed.”

“Why don’t you figure out how to save yourselves then.” Yoonhae finally stopped moving around and got into a fighting stance.

“Hm. You mind your own business.” Junhyung smirked.

A fight broke then – six versus one – and Taemin couldn’t help squirming again as Yoseob began tying him.

“Noona!” Taemin shouted. “Be careful, don’t hurt yourself… Yah! Let go you weird person!”

“Weird? Why am I weird?!” Yoseob pouted, offended. “You called me a murderer, a , bit me and now you said I’m weird?!”

“Let me go! Let me go!” Taemin struggled again.

“Aish, don’t make me punch you aga–“ Just then, someone punched Yoseob. Taemin looked up and his face brightened considerably as he saw Jonghyun grinning on him, Minho slumped on his shoulder.

“You okay, Prince?”

“Jonghyun-ssi!”

“Okay let’s continue our dramatic reunion when we see Key later. He’s the drama queen and we can’t snatch the role from him.” Jonghyun grabbed Taemin with his free hand and helped the prince stand up. “Let’s go!”

Taemin followed Jonghyun running towards the door. Junhyung noticed the three trying to escape and signaled to his men to divide themselves – some handling Yoonhae and some trying to stop them.

“Oh no you don’t.” Jonghyun kicked one of their stomachs and he tried to touch Taemin, “Don’t you know it’s rude to touch pretty women?!”

“Jonghyun-ssi, I’m a man!”

“But you are pretty!”

Taemin eyed Jonghyun in disbelief. How could someone be so playful and calm when faced by this kind of situation was beyond him.

In a matter of seconds, Yoonhae managed to get to them.

“Go, get out of here, quick.” Yoonhae pushed Taemin towards the door. Jonghyun was moving once again – occasionally kicking and punching the approaching bad people. Yoonhae stuck by Taemin’s side, fighting most of the men while pushing Taemin forward and protecting him.

Jonghyun got onto the horse with Minho in front of him. He hugged the limp Minho to make sure that the taller one wouldn’t fall off the horse – and then without hesitation he took off.

“Get on the horse, Your Majesty!” Yoonhae brought the men down two at a time. Four of them were unconscious – the only ones standing were Yoseob, Junhyung, and another man she didn’t know the name of. “Now!”

Taemin hastily scrambled his way to the horse and got on it. He turned back to ask for Yoonhae to climb on but she suddenly slapped the horse’s backside.

The horse let out a high-pitched neigh before running away. Taemin’s eyes widened as he realized what was going on.

“Don’t you turn back for me, Prince!” Yoonhae shouted after him, “See you at the castle!”

-*-

“Penny for your thoughts, Prince Onew?”

Jinki blinked and cleared his throat, offering his kind smile to Princess Victoria. “I’m sorry, I was spacing out, wasn’t I?”

“Well, you sort of tuned out on me but it’s okay… Is something bothering you?” She returned his smile sincerely.

“No, it’s nothing big, don’t worry.” Jinki led her towards the dance floor. “May I have the honor?”