Chinsun was on her way to her room. She had been ecstatic since breakfast when Haeran broke the big news in whisper, of course, to her and HyunAe. It made Chinsun forget her little aching heart for a while and it also gave her something to think about. She and HyunAe were out all morning talking about Haeran and how lucky she is and they also fantasized about their own crushes and how they may end up together.

When Chinsun entered her room and looked around she noticed something on her table that wasn't there before, she was sure. She went closer and found that an envelope had been laid on her desk. It's bright color had caught her attention – whoever had put this envelope there must had known her favorite color. She opened it. The letter said: “Please meet me in the Rose Garden tonight at 8 pm. - Baekho”

Chinsun's heart raced. Maybe it wasn't an empty dream she had had after all. She read the letter again and smiled to herself. She still couldn't believer her eyes, but she still trusted her mind enough to glance at the clock and see that she still had two full hours to start believeing her own luck and to get ready to meet it.

Now-now, Chinsun, don't get your hopes up just yet. He may have asked others to come as well... it might as well be a little celebration among the servants, because the ball is obviously for higher ranked people... why do I even care? If he invited me then it means something. We could have talked about it in the breakfast table... Wait a minute! We didn't, at least I can't remember that we did. So it has to be that Baekho only invited me... hopefully. Anyway... I just have to find out for myself.

Chinsun roamed through her closet - I mean closet-room - and had a hard time, at first, to choose an outfit. She wanted to look presentable, but then again she didn't want to over do it. She wanted to show off, but then again she didn't want to look trashy. It was getting hot inside so she went by the window and opened it. It was already getting dark and it was rather cold outside also. “Well, that settles it. I'll go as a polar bear.”

It doesn't really matter how bad or good I look like. I can just roll around and make Baekho laugh... if he likes me like I think and hope he does, then it doesn't matter... it doesn't really matter... Chinsun glanced at the clock again. “Time to shine, missy!”

***

If Chinsun only knew what Baekho went through when preparing this big and marvelous surprise for her. The boy lost his mind when he got back from Dragon's Bakery with the cake, the great plan he had thought through many times vanished and left him with a toy monkey playing cymbals in his head. At the castle Baekho ran in and out of the castle. His hands were shaking which was only the most obvious thing in the world that he was nervous and had little to no idea of his actions.

„Baekho.“ Kris's voice reached to Baekho's ears and made him stop dead at his tracks. There was a mental train crash in the boy's mind. After a short moment the latter finally turned to the origin of the voice.

„K-Kris.“ Baekho said with wide eyes choking at his own words.

„You know, you could have asked us to help you. Because you obviously don't have the slightest idea what you're doing.“ Kris said while the 'us' came out from behind his back. It would take a whole chapter to name all the people that suddenly appeared from no where and began to magically set the scene called romance in the Rose Garden ready.

Baekho still had that confused and somehow desperate look plastered on his face. He looked rather silly standing in the middle of everything – a group of people decorating the trees, another group raking the last leaves in the garden, then another bringing the needed garden furniture and everything else. Baekho's face changed when smiling Minhyun came to view, it calmed the boy and gave him back his courage to pursue with his plan which he now remembered again.

It took under an hour for the mini-party to be set up. The garden got a make over. Lanterns hung above the little table where the cake was placed. Another set of little lanterns lit up the sides of the cobble-stone road leading to the table. As night got darker the lit-up garden looked magical. Shadows played on the castle's walls, trees leaned gracefully over the garden as they were embraced by the light. With the warm light around it felt like the cold night air had also become warmer. It was nice.

Baekho took a step back and looked at the result of his and his friends' work. It looked like it was taken straight out from a fairytale. The workers stopped and looked around, they got caught in the moment. Silence took over for a few seconds. Peace settled in. Everyone forgot their grim future with the war on their doorstep, everyone forgot Lucras and the Rotten. Only that remained was peace.

„Okay, everybody, time to go.“ Suho spoke up and broke the all-so-nice feeling in the air.

„Can't we stay, please.“ Chanyeol and Baekhyun tried to persuade the older to think otherwise.

„Be quiet, children. It's not your night today.“ Suho hushed the two and pushed them towards the castle.

„Good luck, Tiger.“ JR said teasingly patting Baekho's shoulder. Baekho swallowed and nodded to him.

Baekho looked at his watch – 8.05. “She's going to be a little late, that's all. Maybe she decided to change at the last minute or something. I mean the castle is quite big, too.” he spoke to himself and waited for a while. He tried to keep his hopes up, but when another five minutes had passed he got a bit worried. „Should I go find her?“

***

At the same time Chinsun was walking around the endless corridors of the castle wondering where the Rose Garden was because the castle was actually a lot bigger and with a lot more complicated layout than back in the South, plus there were more than only one garden surrounding it. It took her a little more time than she expected but she found the place. When she was walking through the narrow gateway leading to the garden she got stuck. She didn't know why and how, but she got stuck and when I mean stuck I mean stuck for good and for the rest of her days.

„Why now?!“ she whined as she tried to move forward but without any satisfying result. She struggled and wiggled some more but nothing happened.

„Wait, Baekho should hear me from here! - Baekho! Baekho, help!“

As soon Beakho heard her voice calling him, he shot up and started running towards the way he thought he heard Chinsun's voice. He was afraid that his lovely Chinsun was harassed by somebody and it was a logical assumption, because with all the new faces around this place it could happen. But when the great savior and the man of the day reached to the sight of crime, a quite laughable sight was presented to him – Chinsun was at the gate stuck, struggling to break free. Her red puffed cheeks only added more to the ridiculousness.  Baekho had to hold back his laugh, but he forgot how when the girl looked up and met his eyes.

„Could you help me, please?“ Chinsun asked with a pleading voice.

„Right... Right away.“ Baekho said as he got snapped out from his daze.

The boy led the girl into the garden. Chinsun was taken aback. The garden full of little lanterns and candles was breathtakingly beautiful and even a little magical in her eyes. She had always imagined this sight in her head since she was a little girl and here it was right in from of her will all the bells and whistles. It was more than she could ever wish for, Baekho sure knew what he was doing.

„Did you made all of this?“ Chinsun asked looking at the boy.

The latter blushed and answered: „Yeah. Well-“

„All lies!“ he got interrupted by Chen's voice.

The couple looked up and saw that almost everybody in the castle were standing by the open windows. Every window that could be opened was and they were all crowded with familiar and not so familiar yet friendly faces. The maids that knew Chinsun were exceptionally excited, because they were rooting for the couple.

„What are you guys doing here?“ Baekho got a bit mad but it didn't resound in his voice.

„Just tell her you love her.“ JR shouted. It was easy for him to say, he had done the nerve wrecking confessing months ago.

Chinsun started laughing, Baekho was flustered, this wasn't a part of the plan.

„Please, open the box, Chinsun.“ Haeran told her dear friend.

Chinsun did as she was told. Though she wanted to make this moment special and remember this forever the curiosity told her to hurry it up. She untied the bow of the box and lift the lid. There was Baekho's cake with a writing: „Please be my sugarplum.“ She looked at the letters with a smile that grew wider and wider by every passing second – it was quite obvious that this wasn't written by the real cake maker. She pointed at the cake and looked at Baekho. The boy understood her silent question and nodded.

Chinsun squealed and hugged Baekho. „Yes! Of course! Yes-yes-yes!“

Baekho wrapped his arms around Chinsun and spun her around with the crowd in the castle cheering. The throngs of servants came into the garden. Kris had told D.O to make cakes and other foods for the evening's party. He had heard Baekho's conversation with Minhyun and Haeran so he figured he'd help his young friend a bit. Kris also saw this as an good opportunity to pull a party himself. When was the last time he let himself loose?

This butler really was the eyes and ears of this castle. He was a crucial link between the Night Watchman and the information from the castle. But he seemed sad somehow. Yes there was a heavy burden on his chest. He had to be the bad guy some time soon and he had let things come this far. He could have kept it all from happening, but he didn't.  I was weak and I have to make others pay for my incapability. Others didn't know any of this except for Tao. This young man had a past as dark as Kris. Actually everyone had a secret of some kind on their soul, as you've found out about U-KISS's bitterly aching past. But you'll find out soon enough what exactly are these ones here hiding.

As the celebration went on Minhyun went up to Baekho.

„Go take Chinsun up on the wall.“

„You think she'd like that.“

„Just go. You'll see.“

„Oh, alright.“

Baekho took Chinsun's hand to get her attention. Both of them felt electricity run through their bodies. The boy leaned closer to the girl to whisper into her ear. „Come. I want to show you something.“

Chinsun nodded. As calm as she seemed on the outside she was actually making a lot of effort to keep it together. She was getting anxious for no reason. She knew that Baekho and she were now together, but she felt like there was something more to come and she wanted to know what it was. Either that or she was going crazy and looking for a sign in every action and little thing she saw.

The couple didn't say a word the entire time they were walking to the Cherry Garden's wall. It didn't mean that they didn't have anything to say – the thing was that every time either of them wanted to say something one just couldn't get the words out of one's mouth. Awkward first date problems, you see.

„Where are we going exactly?“ Chinsun got a bit nervous.

„Don't worry. I'm not going to use you.“ Baekho said, laughing nervously. Wait, that didn't come out right...„We're going up to that wall there.“

„Oh. Hee-hee. Silly me.“ Chinsun excused herself.

„It's OK. I'm as nervous as you are. - Ladies first.“ Baekho said. It was a miracle that he admitted to be nervous and that he got that out of his mouth. He usually wanted to look tough and be tough, but it seems that when it comes to girls he can do and say things he wouldn't usually do under any circumstances.

„And I thought I was the only one overly tingly.“

They had already reached to the little house. Baekho let Chinsun climb up the ladder leading up to the house's roof first, same was for the second ladder leading up onto the wall. What a nice gentleman he was. Baekho his changing right before our eyes!

„Ooh, this is beautiful!“ Chinsun beamed. „How come I didn't know about this place?“

„You don't see this place from the window and neither from the garden. You have to come near the Cherry house to notice our hide-out.“ Baekho explained.

„You even have benches here. This is awesome!“ Chinsun got even more excited.

„Why won't you sit down then and enjoy the view?“ Baekho offered motioning on one of the benches.

„With pleasure.“ the girl smiled dazing the boy.

After a little while fireworks could be seen in the sky. Chinsun gasped and covered . This was the perfect ending for today. Baekho smiled. He put his arm around his love's shoulders. This really was the perfection of the moment. Everything fell to its place and Baekho has to thank Minhyun later.

„Chinsun?“ Baekho captured his love's attention.

„Yes?“ Chinsun turned her to face Baekho.

The boy, however, had an interesting look on his face. „You know that I love you, right?“

„I know. I love you-."

Chinsun got cut off as Baekho kissed her sending her off to Lalaland. This would have been perfect if a huge orchestra would have started playing... but it seems that one can actually hear something nearly like that. Oh yes, their synchronized heartbeats... Nah, I'm just kidding, it was mere coincidence.

„...too." Chinsun finished her sentence once Baekho's lips had departed from hers.

Nothing could go wrong now, right? Wrong. From this moment on everything could go wrong. Everything that can go wrong will and you can only watch and bite your nails, throw things around your room and curse all you want. This is going to be one hell of a ride. Fasten your seatbelts, readers, we're entering the mad house!

„Lucras will be most pleased with this. We can use the girl as the bait.“ the sly bony creeper said to himself as he looked at the couple on the wall through his binoculars.

„Find the sight interesting, Peewee?“ Kris startled the little man. That wasn't the guy's real name, if you're wondering, he was just called this way behind his back because he looked rather pathetic and as he was working for the Rotten - so Peewee it is.

The fellow jumped and looked at the mighty butler. „Just the stars, sir.“ the 'Peewee' answered and bowed then walked away, basically ran.

„Right... stars.“ Kris mumbled as he looked after the creeper. Turning to look outside at the couple he felt a light stab in his heart – he used to be as happy as they were now, he used to have a heart. He closed his eyes and turned away. With bitterness taking it's tone a lonely tear escaped from his eyes „I'm sorry, Baekho. I really am sorry.“