They buried HyunJoong in one corner of the forest. YoungSaeng gave the grave one last glance before leading the group out of the forest.

Once they were out of the forest, they spotted a small village and headed over there.

When they reached the village, it was as if a dead town. There wasn’t a single soul in sight and dust was everywhere, besides the dilapidated huts which were inhabited.

It was already evening and the sun was setting. They decided to look for a place to stay for the night.

Cold draftsof wind blew by and Kevin hugged tightly onto Kibum’s arm, scared. “B-bummie hyung…” he stuttered. Kibum placed a hand over Kevin’s and squeezed them reassuringly.

Another breeze was blown by, accompanied with eerie sounds. “AHHHHH!!!!!” Dongho screamed and jumped up. He immediately rushed to his Kevin-hyung. He hid behind Kevin’s small frame, occasionally peeking out from behind Kevin’s sleeve to watch where they were going.

This was much to Soohyun’s displeasure though. He’d very much prefer the boy by his side and be protected – by himself, but he didn’t say anything.

HyungJun was really very scared, but as a brave general, he remained a straight face. His body shivered slightly, but was visible to the man who paid him a lot of attention. “Scared?” JungMin who was next to him whispered and nudged him. HyungJun tsked and replied, “What’s there to be afraid of?” The other general only chuckled at the younger’s reply.

He found HyungJun really adorable. He loved his childish side and he never failed to make his heart jump out of his chest. He loved to see the annoyed look on HyungJun’s face whenever he intentionally tries to irritate him. Also the chubby red cheeks whenever he teases him. In fact, unknown to anybody, he travelled all the way to Xanderland to challenge the Prince, was also for the boy…

Meanwhile, YoungSaeng watched the couples and smiled bitterly. He could have lead his life as happily if the one he loved, HyunJoong was still by his side. Tears threatened to flow down yet again, but he bit down harshly on his cold lips to keep the tears in. He said nothing and just followed them. His mind was not with him anyway.

“I want to pee~” Kiseop suddenly whined. Kibum turned around to look at him, an amused look hung on his face. “Kiseop-ah, are you THAT scared?” He asked, causing everyone to burst out laughing.

“E-Eh?! NO!!! My bladder is full!” Everyone laughed even harder as Kiseop feigned a I’m-so-humiliated look.

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Without realizing, they had ventured deep into the ghost town. It was already late into the night. Just as they were about to spend the night in any of the huts, and old woman burst out of one of them.

They all eyed her suspiciously. What would an old woman be doing all alone in a dead, abandoned village?

“Well, what brings you young people here?” The old woman spoke. “Oh, we’re only stopping by to rest for the night. We-” Kevin replied politely but was cut off by Kibum. He looked  at the latter, confused. Kibum gave him a look which said he didn’t have to know, and surprisingly, he understood.

Kibum felt that the old woman didn’t have the need to know where they were headed to. He found her utterly suspicious, same with the others, except the naïve little Kevin.

However, he saw how exhausted the others were. He was as tired himself. As magical beings, their magical abilities they had depended on the amount of energy left in them. And judging by the state they were in, they had to rest, through the night at least.

“Oh please enter my house, you can stay here for the night.” The old woman offered with a smile.

The others all turned to look at Kibum for his decision and Kibum agreed, and he doubted an old woman could do anything to them.

Her house looked nothing like the other run-down ones. It was quite big and well-equipped – yet another point of suspicion.

“Errr… Ajumma, do you live alone? Why isn’t there anybody in this village?” Kibum asked.

She lifted her arms and crossed them in front of her chest – not rudely though. “My children moved out when they grew up, went to the city to work. In fact, all the young people have left, that’s why there’s nobody here.” Kibum lifted a brow.

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They decided to sleep after they had eaten dinner that was offered by the old lady. Actually, Kibum refused the meal with the excuse of not being hungry. He swore he saw her expression change to a dark one when he told her that, but quickly kept all smiles immediately after.

He left the others to eat with the old lady while he tried to figure things out. Everything was so confusing, even for him. Soohyun, Kiseop, HyungJun and Jungmin noticed that their Prince was acting weird, but didn’t say anything when they saw him deep in thought.

After they were done, Kibum split them up – the usual pairings, but with YoungSaeng and Kiseop together. This came with slight protest from HyungJun and JungMin’s signature smirk but HyungJun had shut up after that.

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-In YoungSaeng and Kiseop’s room-

YoungSaeng was more of the quiet type and he just smiled and nodded to whatever Kiseop was blabbering about, thinking about why the younger boy’s mouth never seemed to shut itself.

-In Dongho and Soohyun’s room-

Dongho was really tired after all the hooha that happened earlier on. He rubbed his eyes and yawned absolutely adorably, making Soohyun melt into a puddle of goo second by second. There was only one bed in their room so after much quarrelling about who sleeps where, Dongho pulled Soohyun onto the bed with him.

-In HyungJun and JungMin’s room-

The two were quarrelling again, for the millionth time. JungMin kept wanting to cuddle HyungJun to sleep, making HyungJun blush like never before. Their room also only had one bed (Ok, to make things simpler, all their rooms only had one bed.)

In the end, HyungJun won the battle and successfully and kicked JungMin off the bed. “Ouch!!!” The latter groaned in pain and fell asleep on the cold, hard ground, with a pout on his face.

-In Kibum and Kevin’s room-

Kevin fell asleep really quickly and Kibum laid down beside him on the bed. He could see Kevin’s beautiful face and dainty facial features clearly, although the night was dark. It reminded him of those days when he visited the boy secretly.

As he patted his black silky hair, he noticed a few strands of blonde hair. He thought it was nothing and just chuckled. “My little Kebinnie’s getting old~” he teased.

From lying down on his side, he flipped over to lie on his back and stare at the ceiling, tucking his arms under his head. Back to business.

He had observed the old lady when he interrogated her on the pretext of being curious. She folded her arms as she talked, meaning that she was not telling the truth – it was a sign of self-protection. He predicted that something would happen pretty soon.

Soon, the door creaked open and the silhouette of the old lady approached them. Kibum pretended to be asleep.

He felt the old lady crouching over him to get to Kevin. When she was not paying attention, Kibum opened his eyes a little to see what she was doing to his Kevin.

She gasped and looked horror-struck as she picked out the strands of blonde hair gently, careful not to wake the boy up… ‘Why was she so shocked?’ Kibum thought, ‘it was only a few strands of blonde hair... Unless…it had something to do with the “super powers” Kevin had displayed earlier when he defeated the vampires…?’ (A/N: She did not pluck out his blonde hair~ Just picking them out with the hair still connected to Kevin’s head xD)

I'm SOOOO SORRY!!! I know it's been like...*counts* a month! But listen to me first, I had to choreograph and perform a dance with my year 2 seniors and it's over now! I performed it today! So i really hope now that my updates can be back to normal - at least once a week.

Choreographing is really really REALLY difficult and i had to train everyday.. except Saturdays and Sundays... I'm not sure what it's called overseas, but in Singapore, it's called CCA (Co-Curricular Activity)? I'm in Modern Dance.

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