Kris had come to the garden aswell to breathe some fresh air. As he had heard some yelling he went towards the source. Soon enough he could recognize Ren's voice. Kris didn't want to give himself out so he made no sound.

Ren said his last words loud enough for Kris to hear. Those words cut through the man's heart. He knew exactly how ren felt. Kris, too, had known Peewee before he went over to the Rotten's side.

Just to think of it: four years ago everything was fine, near to perfect and now... I'm pretty sure this place will end up in ruins if we won't act any time soon.

***

Yes, just four years ago everything was on it's place, but then, as we know, the U-KISS drama came up and things changed. Lucras raised the taxes for the first time and it wasn't a little raise, he doubled everything.

The Rotten told the King that this change was needed and soon enough the taxes will be set back as they have always been. But the taxes weren't lowered back to usual, instead Lucras raised them again the next year. He showed forged papers to the King from which one could read that the taxes had been set back to how they used to be. Of course the taxes were even higher than before.

The Rotten weren't stupid. Their plan wasn't to kill the people it was just to keep them controlled and busy with other things, such as keeping food on their table. The Rotten also weeded out any loyal ones to the King from the Council so that by now we can say that the Council is rotten to the core.

Lucras had it all thought through. Every single detail about his plan. His scheme was built up on fraiming the good ones and setting his henchmen onto the now vacant places. Thus he also framed the loyal councilmen and banished them. Whoever he found as a threath he sent out of the Kingdom. He never executed anyone, though. So at least he had that much of his conscience left.

How does Kris fit into all of this? He just happened to become the butler of the castle when Lucras started to carry out his plan. Kris was young and – as he says it himself – stupid, he didn't see the bad within the Headman so he agreed that Lucras will pay him double of his actual salary if he will help Lucras with some things. The Headman didn't say much about 'the things', he did, however, say that Kris didn't have to kill anybody. But seems that this part of the contract have been changed.

***

Now we come to this: but why did Lucras have Sunhi brainwashed? The answer for short would be that he just wanted to try this new technique out. He knew he'd need more henchmen at some point so one and a half years ago he randomly got a youngster – who seemed to have weak willpower - abducted from the streets and let the one brought to the castle. There he would let the poor one to be brainwashed and to be conversed to join him and the Rotten.

Needless to say, things didn't go according to plan with this one. Sunhi wasn't an easy one to be brainwashed. It took two months of continuos work to have some effect on her, then it took another month to finally get her forget some parts of her past. In her case she somehow forgot every single thing about Aron.

But the truth is that she locked those memories away to keep the boy safe. She knew that if the Rotten would somehow found out about Aron they would end him and Sunhi would blame herself. She didn't want that burden, she was sure that if Aron really loved her he would find a way to make her remember.

Thanks to Sunhi's stubborness and great mental streinght Lucras never tried to brainwash anyone ever again. They never reached to that part when they would have tried to converse her loyalty to the King onto them.

***

When Aron found out what happened he made his opinion on the matter clear in quite a horrofying way. He killed some of Rotterns' men right in front of the castle's gates. One morning – two weeks from Sunhi's abduction - when the gates' guards went out to replace the ones who had had the night shift they found only dead bodies of the last night's guards'. With this action Aron made the Night Watchman's name have a meaning of something people should fear.

Lucras of course reacted right away. He doubled the number of guards around the castle which meant that he had to recruit new men. What a shame: many of the men loyal to the King suddenly switched sides and became a part of Lucras's army. But we can't blame them because soldiers' and guards' families didn't have the, now usual, high taxes on them so they could get by quite nicely and they were the one who became the new rich ones.

Aron didn't budge when there were more of Rottens' army around the castle and in the city. What diffrence did that make? Though the King's army were sent into an imaginary war they were still loyal to the King and if summoned they would and will come to protect the right people when it's time.

As the Royal family feared for their life now Lucras used this opportunity to send them away. JR, in the other hand, wasn't that shaken. He did become to fear the Night Watchman but he didn't leave the castle. He did send his parents to the border of the city but then turned back. He decided to be the royal pain in Lucras's and he really loved to piss off that guy.

Aron kept eyes and ears open trying to find out where exactly Sunhi had been taken but he never found that out. He met his love after three long months and that meeting broke his already-worried-to-bits heart – the girl didn't remember him ans she was quite friendly towards the guy who accopanied him.

After that day Aron didn't smile like he used to, he began holding things to himself. Thank god he met Kris! That butler pulled the Night Watchman onto his feet again and gave him hope that he's not alone.

As we know Ren, Baekho, and Minhyun also got introduced to Aron. The three were eager to tell about Aron to JR aswell but the Watchman strictly forbade them from doing so. He didn't explain why exactly, he only said that the time wasn't right. Well, after tomorrow it's unevitable for JR not to find out about Aron. Maybe it really will be better fot the prince to find out this way – then he won't overanalize things like he sometimes does.

What happened after all of this you already know: Lucras began with the so-called final stage of his plan. He began undermining the King's authority blaming him for the misfortune – like the plaigue and the famine – which had layed over the people. Lucras also made sure that the prince and his friends - now even the princess and her friends - would be taken care of when the time comes.

And now the time has come.

Kris didn't really sleep tonight, he too much on his mind. He worried that NU'EST and the girls may get caught and then he can't help them. That's why he double-checked everything: the corridors, the gardens, the Cherry House. He checked if the doors didn't make any sound – they didn't, he made sure there weren't any guards around when the seven made their escape – hopefully there won't.

Back in his room Kris looked into the mirror and chuckled. I look like a panda now... Hey, Tao, look at your brother!

He went to wake up the boys and the girls and surprisingly even the heaviest sleepers could be awoken easily. Seems as if no one had had a good night sleep. They all gathered together into the hall from which the corridor will lead tto the Cherry garden. For now the Cherry garden's door was closed but moments later it was opened.

„OK, do you guys have everything you need?“ Kris asked one last time when they speed-walked straight through the garden.

„You've asked that like 5 times already! Basides it's a bit late to remeber if we forgot something.“ Baekho answered.

„Don't worry, Kris. We'll be fine.“ Haeran said in a motherly way.

The seven went into the Cherry House and Baekho right away went up to the secret door. Aron had some trouble getting it open and so did Baekho right now.

Kris closed the Cherry House's door and stayed near it.

„Well, I guess this is were we say our goodbyes, for now.“ he smiled weakly. He didn't know why but something didn't feel right.

„Guess so. Bye, Kris. For now.“ Minhyun smiled.

„Bye!“ everyone said in unison.

Baekho finally had the secret door open and he looked at others waiting for them to move.

A moment later Kris was the only one in the Cherry House. He sighed deeply.

„Good luck, guys...“

Just so you know: the most certain update day will be Saturday.

Cheers!