It hadn’t taken long before everyone finally had arrived back at the palace. Yi Fan had summoned two dragons, his own and the black dragon that they had met at the palace before. Yi Xing and Zi Tao had insisted on going by the chariot together with Sehun and Lu Han, saying that someone had to maintain the calmness between the two. Yi Xing had kept on bickering about what a danger Sehun would have been in if no one was there to keep him safe from Lu Han. Zi Tao, on the other hand, had pointed out how worried he was for the princess and therefore had insisted as her bodyguard to follow her.
 

Chanyeol and Baekhyun had both been so impressed by the dragons that they had happily agreed on taking one of them for themselves to ride on back home. Jong In didn’t waste any time and just teleported back to the palace effortlessly. Joon Myeon and Xiu Min got to ride with Wu Yi Fan, since his dragon was the bigger of the two dragons and therefore had more space.
 

Lu Han had been extremely unhappy all the way back, sulking for not being able to have some alone time with Sehun. With the two guys plus the princess inside the chariot, it had been impossible to just ‘accidentally’ drop the vehicle on the ground and then taking the opportunity to do whatever he wanted with the younger guy.
 

After reaching the palace, Zi Tao had quickly lifted the princess up and carried her to her room. Yi Xing had absentmindedly followed after them, not really sure of what he was doing anymore, since he was too tired to even care. The dragons had been dismissed soon after arriving so they could finally get some rest after this whole new adventure, even dragons needed their rest. And so did the humans too.

Jiao Lin woke up with a headache in the middle of the night and tiredly rubbed her eyes as she slowly sat up. A dark silhouette at the side of the bed startled her before she recognized it to be Zi Tao, her loyal bodyguard. With a sigh of relief, she moved out of the bed and sneaked out of the room as quietly as she could. Moments later, she had arrived at the kitchen, her stomach growling loudly since she hadn’t eaten anything for as long as she could remember.
 

“What are you doing?!” A voice called out furiously from inside the kitchen, making Jiao Lin surprised. “That’s not water! That’s obviously dangerous! You can’t use poison in the bread! How can you be so clumsy? Are you sure you didn’t do it intentionally?”
 

“O-of course not! W-why would I do that? It was an accident! I promise!” Another voice was heard echoing through the otherwise complete silence.
 

“Start over! Now!” The first voice said before something clashed with the door, making a really loud noise which scared Jiao Lin.
 

She gasped as the door suddenly opened and revealed the angry guy that had yelled to the one that was still inside the kitchen. Jiao Lin’s eyes widened at the sight of a quite young-looking chef standing at the door with huge eyes staring at her. But his big eyes were nothing compared to the other guy’s eyes.
 

“Who are you?” The first guy questioned as he narrowed his eyes at the princess.
 

“Ah! I’m Xia Jiao Lin. Nice… to meet you?” She answered back hesitantly while smiling awkwardly. She scratched her neck and reached out her other hand towards the chef.
 

“Do you think I would believe that? That you are the princess?” The first chef said arrogantly and finished with a snort.
 

Jiao Lin stared dumbfounded at the guy in front of her. What? He doesn’t believe me? She thought, obviously taken aback by his words. The other guy slowly made his way towards the two and stopped right beside his companion. He observed her quietly until his eyes widened in surprise.
 

“How can you not believe it?! She’s obviously the princess! You pointed her out just the other day, at the party, don’t you remember?” The seemingly shorter guy said to the first guy, his eyes looked like they would pop out any second now.
 

The first guy hushed the other and stomped on one of his feet, making the other yelp in pain. “I did not!” He blurted out as if he was innocent, but his whole face soon turned a shade of pink out of embarrassment.
 

Jiao Lin chuckled at the strange encounter but didn’t utter a word about what they had spoken about, since she didn’t want to anger the chef. The shorter guy soon reached out his hand towards her to shake her hand and to introduce himself.
 

“I’m Kyungsoo. I’m an apprentice chef here.” The shorter guy said with a small smile spreading on his face. His black hair was almost completely hidden beneath the white chef’s hat on his head, his slim figure dressed in all white too. The white color enhanced his eyes in a way that made him look almost angelic, big dark orbs that were lit up by the light coming from the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Jiao Lin took his hand only to get it slapped away in a second, making her look at the other guy questioningly.
 

The first guy cleared his throat before reaching out his own hand. “I’m Chen, the head chef in the palace and I’ve been working here since I was fifteen.”
 

“Oh…” Jiao Lin nodded a bit surprised but soon smiled as she took his hand. “Nice to meet you.” She said to them both, bowing slightly out of habit.
 

“If you could excuse us, we have to continue with breakfast now. There’s still a lot to do.” Chen announced before bowing and then he went back into the kitchen, dragging Kyungsoo with him.
 

Jiao Lin had totally forgotten the reason of why she even went downstairs and just stood there silently after the two chefs had gone away. Wait… why are they doing breakfast in the middle of the night? She suddenly thought as she watched the guys preparing food in the kitchen. But she soon understood why they had to start early with breakfast, as they were only two chefs in the kitchen at the moment.
 

Maybe I can talk to them some more tomorrow? Jiao Lin thought as she finally walked back to her room to try and sleep a bit more.

The morning was strangely lively as Jiao Lin woke up to loud voices coming from the room next to hers, voices she recognized were coming from her companions. She tiredly sat up and rubbed her eyes before noticing that Zi Tao had disappeared from the bedside. Puzzled, Jiao Lin got dressed in a violet dress that probably the maids had put at the small desk next to the armchair in the corner of the room. Then she made her way to the room next door, knocking before opening and walking inside.
 

There stood everyone assembled in the somewhat small room, the only light came through the closed window and lit up the bluish walls. No one seemed to notice that the princess had joined them; at least she thought so until Zi Tao smiled welcoming at her.
 

“Definitely not!” Sehun heatedly let out, shifting his position on the small bed in the middle of the room. Xiu Min seemed to have whispered something into his ear and now Sehun’s handsome face was a dark shade of pink, obviously flustered about something.
 

Joon Myeon and Baekhyun each sat on a chair positioned close to the bed, talking about Lu Han who was leaning on the wall with a frown on his usually cute face. It was odd not seeing the baby-faced guy clinging unto Sehun, which made Jiao Lin a bit surprised. Chanyeol sat on the floor with his long legs crossed and with a wide grin on his face as he looked up at the others. Yi Xing, Jong In and Yi Fan were not as happy as the others; on the contrary, they seemed troubled for some reason.

“You can’t keep on muttering incoherent things to yourself. Where’s your usually happy self?” Jong In questioned, irritated by the depressing aura that surrounded Lu Han.
 

“Why can’t you two just put everything behind and be friends?” Yi Xing butted in when Jong In didn’t get an answer.
 

“I don’t want to. He clearly doesn’t want to even talk to me, nevertheless be in the same room as me.” Lu Han muttered as he kept on staring at the floor, the dark aura only becoming worse by the minute.
 

“What’s wrong?” Jiao Lin asked worriedly.
 

Chanyeol was the first to answer. “They’re having a lover’s quarrel. Don’t worry about it.” He snickered, being one of the only amused persons in the room at the moment.
 

“That’s not why we’ve gathered today though… So it would be best if you two could just put your problems aside for a moment and listen, okay?” Joon Myeon directed his speech towards Lu Han and Sehun. “As I know, everyone in this room supposedly has a Jade box each, right?” He continued slowly.
 

“I don’t.” Yi Fan answered quickly, making everyone look at him. “Well, I used to have one when I was younger. But I’ve lost it…” He added soon thereafter, sounding a bit guilty.
 

“That doesn’t matter right now. Don’t you all think it’s weird how all of us have gotten a jade box? Or is it just me who is thinking too much about it?” Joon Myeon said as he looked at every single one of the persons in the room.
 

“I’ve been thinking about that too…” Zi Tao stated. “There’s supposed to be at least ten of them, since the princess doesn’t have one. Maybe they’re connected somehow?” He added after thinking it through seriously.
 

“How will we know that though?” Baekhyun questioned while tilting his head to the side. ”I don’t have mine here… Maybe we should get everyone’s boxes and bring them here? So we could check?”
 

“That’s a great idea!” Xiu Min happily stated as he suddenly stood up from his position on the bed. “But mine is quite far away now that I think about it…” His smile soon faded and he slumped down on the bed again.
 

“Well, mine is also pretty far away. But that’s not a problem, not for me at least. Why don’t we split up and go get them?” Joon Myeon said in turn. “I’ve left it back home. How about everyone else? Where do you have yours?”
 

“Mine is under my bed in my room here in the palace.” Yi Xing announced with a smile.
 

“Mine is also here in the palace.” Jong In answered.
 

“Well… I’ve got my box at Baekhyun’s place in his hometown.” Chanyeol happily said and turned to smile at Baekhyun who only nodded.
 

“I left mine in my hometown too.” Zi Tao stated quickly, his eyes lit up after he had mentioned his place of origin.
 

“What about yours, Lu Han?” Joon Myeon questioned the still gloomy guy.
 

“It’s in the palace…” Lu Han tiredly answered before going back to muttering incoherent things to himself.
 

“And yours, Sehun?” Joon Myeon asked, making Lu Han glance at the said guy curiously.
 

“It should still be in my room at home… At my parents’ place that is…” Sehun answered quietly. Something had flashed in Lu Han’s eyes when he had heard what the younger said; obviously his mood was lifted a bit.
 

“I’ve hidden mine though…” Zi Tao shyly said before exchanging a glance with the princess. “Since we have to split up, I’ll take the princess with me to my hometown.” He soon added in a determined tone.
 

“Sure. But you should take at least one person more with you, since that Cui Fen woman is after Jiao Lin obviously…” Joon Myeon let out matter of factly. “Let’s split into three groups then. Baekhyun and Chanyeol obviously have to go together; Jong In maybe can follow them?” He questioned and looked at the said guy.
 

Jong In exchanged an uneasy glance with Yi Fan but soon nodded in agreement. He had decided that Yi Fan could do great without him anyway.
 

“Great. Then who’ll follow Zi Tao and Jiao Lin?” Joon Myeon asked. “Xiu Min, you better go with me…” He soon let out as he saw the said guy about to volunteer. Joon Myeon knew that it would only be a disaster if Xiu Min would follow the two, since the guy was deeply in love with the princess.
 

Xiu Min pouted unhappily as he realized that he couldn’t argue about it. Deep inside he knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate as well around the princess and therefore didn’t even care to fight over it.
 

“I guess I can go with them.” Yi Fan announced as he stood up before them.
 

“I want to be in their group too… I do have healing powers if something would happen to the princess…” Yi Xing shyly let out and smiled sweetly as Joon Myeon accepted his request.
 

“That leaves me with Xiu Min, Sehun and Lu Han.” Joon Myeon rounded it up at last, finally finished with splitting everyone into groups. “Let’s get breakfast and get ready before we leave then.” He ended the meeting so they all could go towards the great hall and get breakfast.
 

Little did they know that they would soon meet someone that wants to destroy for them, doing his/her best to get in between the group and getting closer to his/her real target… 
 

The danger’s not far away…

Author's note:

Hi! I'm sorry for the late update, I really wanted to update last week but I had inflammation in my right eye -.- But now it seems to have healed almost completely :D So I can finally write again ^^

Anyway, I've finally introduced Kyungsoo and Chen! They'll return in the next chapter again ^^

Thank you all for reading and commenting! :D

/Angela90s