“WAKE UP!” a siren female voice bellowed which made the whole castle shake. Immediately, they had to get up and dashed out to the living room to see what happened.

“Oh, eonni!” HyunAe patted towards HyoSung.

“Viceroy!” DaeHyun saluted to her.

“Why did you come so early?” YongGuk looked out at the balcony and the sky was still dark. The sun hadn’t even rised yet.

“I come to check. Did the newbies pass the test?” HyoSung asked in return with a serious face. It seemed that today she came as a Viceroy, not HyoSung. However, no matter how serious she was trying to be, another person broke it.

“Hi guys!” HimChan appeared next to her and waved to everybody with a friendly smile.

“Commander Chan, where have you been the whole week?” SunHwa made her question but she already knew the answer so she turned to Zinger and they giggled together.

Zinger wiggled her eyebrows and teased them, “How was your Honeymoon? One week wasn’t enough right?”

HyoSung’s face flushed as red as a ripe tomato. “Guys!” she yelled at the girls. But HimChan didn’t feel embarrassed at all. He nodded as an answer and smiled sheepishly.

“Oppa!” HyoSung threw a mad look to HimChan and then in another second, she realized what she shouldn’t have said. “Oh no…”

“Wow…” HyunAe expressed her surprise. “Eonnie you’re calling him ‘oppa’…”

“It’s not like that!” HyoSung shook her head to deny but it seemed too late. She had already admitted that with her reaction. As everybody was giving her their looks, she had to do something else to distract them. Fortunately, she noticed she didn’t see YoungJae and JiEun’s adopted sister, AhSeung. “Where are Jae and Seung?”

“He’s here!” DaeHyun pointed to a guy collapsing on the table. He must have fallen asleep last night after a long tiring time explored the map with the antique book.

“And Seung is sick!” HyunAe answered her sister. Talking about AhSeung, she remembered that she should tell HyoSung about this secret. Little did she know that HyoSung had already known about it.

“Good morning!” Zelo and MinHee took their last step of the stairs and gathered with the others.

“Did you sleep well my brother?” HyunAe asked her little brother which made HyoSung turn a bit panicky. Immediately, she threw a worrying look to YongGuk as if wanted to ask him, “Did she find out?”

YongGuk slightly shook his head, without letting anybody see it then signaled her back with his eyes, “No I haven’t told her”

HyoSung clapped her hands together and commanded, “Okay. So today the newbies officially join our team. Your main mission is to find Poison. You all know how important that gem is to our planet. The whole planet’s survival depends on you now.”

“Jae!” She wanted to ask whether he had found something on the map but he was still sleeping.

“Yah Jae ah!” DaeHyun tapped slightly on his back and he got up, rubbing his eyes then stretched. Waiting for him to be completely awake, HyoSung asked, “What did you find?”

YoungJae yawned before answered, “Another clue… The map isn’t completed yet. There is one missing piece and this one is really important. But we have a clue to find it.”

“Where is it?” YongGuk crossed his arms waiting for the answer.

YoungJae threw the book to him, “I don’t know! I don’t see anything. Why don’t you read it for everybody?”

YongGuk leaned down on the table and opened the book, reading the next page, “You’ll find the missing piece of the map in Deathland…”

“Deathland? Oh no…” SunHwa screamed in panic. She was very afraid of that place just by hearing the name of it.

“Where is Deathland?” MinHee noticed her sister’s full-of-fright reaction but she had never heard of that place.

“The border area among the three planets: Neverland, EXO and MATO. That place is called Deathland because once we get there, there’s no way back. As it’s the border area, wars happen often here.” YongGuk explained. He heaved out a very deep sigh. Things were getting harder and harder each time.

“We’d better move now. There isn’t much time left before the third two-moon day of the year.” HimChan urged them. He tried not to let them have time to worry about what was going to happen to them. However, they were very scared. Each of them had their own fear.

After they had packed their bags, HyoSung gathered them together and encouraged them. AhSeung finally was able to get out of her bed. But she was still very sick.

HyoSung took a deep breath and took a look at her team, “Listen guys! We’ve just met each other for a week, or maybe a bit longer than a week, but all those time was still not enough for us to become a strong team. Because we haven’t known one another well, we haven’t understood each other. The adventure we’re going to make is a very tough one. Maybe we’ll lose somebody, which I don’t really want to happen. And to stop it from happening, we need to unite and support each other, protect one another well. We need to stop hiding secrets from each other and instead, strengthen our friendship, love, brotherhood, trust. Use the free time we’re going to have on the spaceship to do that! I hope when we reach Deathland, there won’t be any doubts between us. Can you do it, guys?”

“Yes…” a small voice of agreement came from some of them. HyoSung shook her head and shouted out, emphazing the words to encourage them, “CAN YOU DO IT, GUYS?”

“YES!” they replied loud and clearly. Despite that, HyunAe sneakily glanced at AhSeung and YongGuk. What should she do then? It wasn’t easy to tell that truth. She needed to tell HyoSung first, it would be easier. HyoSung wouldn’t want to have war too so she may also protect AhSeung and then things would be less complicated to be told to YongGuk and especially, YoungJae.

As she could see, AhSeung also fetched out a sigh. And she didn’t go together with YoungJae anymore. When YongGuk passed HyoSung, he stopped for a second, staring at her with his surprising eyes and whispered, “Are you crazy? How can I tell her about that?”

“It’s my fault too! What else can we do? It’s the truth!” HyoSung replied with a persistent attitude. The truth must be known.

“But she’ll hate us! If she stops loving me, we can’t find Poison anymore!” YongGuk grumbled inside his throat in order not to let the others hear it as they all were getting on the spaceship. “It’s not about Poison though. I don’t want her to hate me!”

HimChan put a palm on his shoulder and gave an advice, “If she really does love you, she’ll forgive you!”

YongGuk bit his lower lips with confusion and be the last person to step on the spaceship. It was time for all the truth to be revealed.

“What’s this?” Zelo pointed at a shining round on the floor in the middle of the luxury loyal spaceship of the Viceroy. “It looks like a magical circle or something!”

“It’s a ‘Truth circle’. Anyone standing inside it can’t tell the lies.” JongUp explained.

“How can you know?” Zelo questioned back. In fact, he was a bit surprised when JongUp seemed to know about this well as usually, he didn’t know well about anything.

“I remember when I was a child, my family used to have one like this. They used it to teach me never tell lies!” Zelo nodded as JongUp’s reply. So that was how JongUp was taught to be always honest to people.

HyunAe helped AhSeung to sit down on the couch because she was sick so she was the only exception while the others had to sit on the floor, around the circle. They all hesitated to choose who would be the first to step inside the circle and tell the truth to everyone. HyoSung glared at YongGuk but he shook his head. He wasn’t ready at all.

For HyunAe had been feeling irritated for a while since she knew AhSeung’s story, she raised her hand and wanted to be the very first person to say out the truth. She hoped that after hearing it, they would understand and wouldn’t harm AhSeung as well as let her be back with SooHyun in Neverland.

“I’ve got something to say.” HyunAe gave YongGuk a look and apologized, “Bang, you were right about Seung. She’s not Ji’s sibling. She’s a Neverlander!”

Everybody eyed at AhSeung with a very questioning look, especially YoungJae. He couldn’t believe in his ear. A stingy feeling filled his heart up. It was like there was a flock of bees stung on his heart. The girl he loved was a Neverlander, an enemy. The pain inside, he really wasn’t able to handle. The thought of being betrayed was even worse. Even though YoungJae already heard it, he still wanted to confirm again, “Seung… is it the truth?”

HyoSung also knew that the truth would break people’s heart. Plus, JiEun had told her before and said that she should keep AhSeung as a hostage so the Neverlanders wouldn’t hurt them. Not to make the atmosphere too heavy, she added, “But Seung is innocent! Ji adopted her when she was very young. Don’t treat her as a Neverlander!”

“Viceroy, you also know about this?” YoungJae opened his eyes widely and stared at her. Now he felt like HyoSung had just thurst a sword through his heart.

“I’m sorry…” that was all HyoSung could say.

“That’s not all!” HyunAe continued, “We read in the book about the legend of Poison. In the last life, AhSeung and SooHyun were cursed to be apart until this life because of Poison. We have to let them reunite!”

A tear dropped down on YoungJae’s cheek. He didn’t let it drop on purpose but he couldn’t hold it anymore. He stood up and ran away.

“I’m sorry Jae…” AhSeung mumbled on her lips.