Far away on the West 

“My Lord, bad news!!” The royal counselor ran abruptly as he clutched his expensive robe, preventing himself from stumbling. His panting old breath blew his long white dangling beard up and down.

“My Lord!! We got a bad news!” He screamed again, trembling legs were stomping on the ground while eyes wildly searching for the King as if his old brain forgot how to behave in the palace. He forgot to knock the door, forgot to greet the King, forgot to salute him, and—

“YAAH!!!! Get out of here!!” screamed the King in high pitch voice along with flying bailer, bucket, and towel from inside the room.

The counselor forgot that he burst into the King's private bathroom.

“ 

“Have you tired of living? Did you have nine lives? You know it is 6 am in the morning—which means IT'S MY SHOWER TIME! Unless your neck really wants to meet the guillotine which hasn’t been in use for a long time, don’t you ever dare to disturb me!” The King scolded him while tying up his bath robe. The counselor hardly swallowed his saliva as he rubbed his neck, imagining his head condition if he once again disturb the King's precious bath time.

“What brings you here?” The King continued; his eyes were on the counselor’s trembling hand, which was tightly clutching a paper. “What’s that in your hand?” he asked curiously.

“P-please, My Lord” The counselor stuttered and stretched out his hand, giving the paper to the King. The King straightened the crumpled paper that had been squeezed to be readable. After reading all the words written in black, his eyebrows directly fell sharply. He couldn’t believe in what he had just read; even he read it once again as if his eyes tricked him.

I don’t want to be a King, please forgive me, Father. I want to go to the place that I’ve always been dreaming of. Don’t bother to search me; I’ll be back soon if I run out of money.

From the most handsome son of yours - Jongin

P.S.: I brought Joonmyun with me, so you no need to worry.

“Grrr—COUNSELOR!!!” The King groaned, clenching his teeth. Harshly, he crumpled the paper and slammed it on the ground; anger took over his body and soul. “How comes YOUR SON running away with MY SON?!! HUH?!” The King pointed at the counselor face and glared him to death. “I assigned your son for protecting my son, NOT FOR HELPING HIM ESCAPES FROM THE PALACE!!” His voice’s thundering to all over the room, shriveling the counselor’s nerve even more.

The King knew Jongin's nature precisely; he was so stubborn yet spoiled. He said he would back soon if he ran out of money? Huh! Nonsense! The word’s just only to reassure his father. Jongin might have been preparing this plan, and the King should have suspected him from the beginning as his son, who used to use up tons of money for snacks, strangely had been starting to save his pocket money since a year ago.

The King was hard to believe that Joonmyun, a silent High Priest like him, recklessly ran away with the crown Prince. Didn’t he realize that he’d involved in a scandalous problem? It had been a long time since the King had reminded Jongin not to get too close with Joonmyun more than a guardian. He knew how Joonmyun liked to tell Jongin many things about the outer world, making the adventurous side of the Price out of his covertures. The counselor for the umpteenth times had advised his son not to be so gullible to the Prince as well. But that’s too late, here’s the result; they had been running away together to an unknown place.

“Forgive me, my Lord!! I deserve to die!” The counselor whimpered again—but soon he regretted on what he had just said because this time he wasn’t very sure the King wouldn’t punish him. The King only closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“He isn’t too far—yes, he’s still around here” The King mumbled, ignoring the counselor’s weeping. A moment later the King turned around and yelled.

“You quickly order the guards to chase Jongin and GET HIM BACK!!”

***

Far away on the North snowy mountain

“My Lord!” A tiny voice was heard. Luhan, a young little fairy in a thumb size, was flying to approach his human King, who was in his morning routinely: meditating on the royal park.

“My Lord, we got a bad news!” Luhan yelled out once again, but he directly cursed at himself afterwards. He forgot to bring a loud speaker with him, of course the wizard King couldn’t hear him.

After chanting a certain spell, sparkling rainbow color slowly covered up his body before finally Luhan transformed into a human. “This is much better”

Actually he hated every time he did this; he couldn’t bear how his neck would get cramp everytime he disturbed the King in his human form—but he had no choice. To be a human it meant he could’t fly, which meant he had to look up 90° to see his flying King. As he did that he could see a wide fatty blocking his sight. His King, sat cross-legged, put both of his palms over his thigh, and let his untouched the ground. Shortly, he was floating in the air, three meters in height above the flowers, with yellowish aura surrounding his body.

“My lord!” Luhan called him once again in louder voice, using his hands as a loud speaker.

“What’s wrong, Luhan? What did I say about my meditation?” The King of wizard replied, still closing his eyes

“I’m sorry. I have something important to be reported. Prince Sehun is missing! I wanted to ask him to catch butterfly along with me this morning, but I can’t find him anywhere.” The younger boy kept looking up, trying to find the King’s face, but in the end he only found a wide .

“Have you searched him at the fish pond?” The King simply replied as he knew Sehun’s hobby; feeding his lovely fish. It’s a cute hobby actually, considering he's a boy, but when we talked about Sehun, even the cutiest hobby could be dangerous.

One day, when Sehun was six years old, the King walked along with him in the royal park. As he knew how his son really loves animal, the King took him to the pond for feeding the fish. He swore it's only a minute since he had left Sehun alone, and for the next second, the fish on the pond—which were catfish in the first time—had changed into beastly sharks.

The King would never forget how hard the effort they needed for turning them back into their real form; at least three high wizards were needed to take it on. He couldn’t help anything but sighed when remembering his youngest child's fate. Sehun actually had unlimited power to the point that he could surpass his older brothers. Sadly, because of problematic tongue he had, he liked it or not, he wanted it or not, Sehun’s lisp was always a disaster when he chanted a magic spell.

“I’m afraid he wasn’t there. I’ve been there” Luhan replied with a worried tone, unintentionally he started biting his nails.

“At the bird cage?”

“No! I’ve been searching for him everywhere; at the chicken cage, rabbit cage, crocodile pond—but he wasn’t there” Luhan said in panic, moreover he could feel his neck got cramp now. “I also can not find where the royal crown is—it’s missing too. The crown is missing with him as well” Luhan half-yelled and right after that, the King lost his balance and fell down with a thud, making Luhan reflexively squeezed his eyes shut.

“What did you say?! What are you waiting for? Quick find him and our crown!”

With that, Luhan transformed back into his real form and flew away, searching for his Prince.

***

Far away on the East

That morning, he had prepared everything. He was squatting on the wooden floor room where the sword was hidden inside a secret shelf. He stared at the sword lying in the wooden box; the blue sapphire embedded on its handle was glistening when exposed to sunlight, adorning his royal symbol.

A sword was an object, which according to his mother, should not be touched by a Prince. Why a Prince couldn't touch it? What's the point of making friends with Kyungsoo since a toddler if he didn’t know how to use it?

As he picked up the sword, he could see the shadow of his lovely face reflected on it. Slowly, he’s his hair by fingers, feeling on how smooth his hair was and how beautiful he’s in a long straight hair. After he sure satisfied enough, without hesitation he grabbed his long hair and harshly cut it off. A few seconds later, long black hair heaped on the floor. Once again, he looked straight at his reflection on the sword, looking at his new hair.

"Is my sacrifice enough for helping the Kingdom?" He sighed while touching his new haircut. "Of course not. It's just a bundle of hair that could grow at any time. Come on, this is not so bad. I look more like a man now" He thought, consoling himself. He could fool his eyes, but not his heart. He still could feel the pain on his chest; upset after cutting off the hair that he had painstakingly nurtured.

He tied up the sword around his waist, and then wore a long oversized cloak, leather boots, and gauntlets. Running away from the palace, that's he’s going to do. He’s planning to run in the morning, when everyone was still falling asleep; or more precisely he made them falling asleep. With leisurely pace, he made his way out of his room, heading toward the main exit. As he had expected, the whole place was very quiet.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A familiar voice called the Prince right before he stepped his feet out the gate.  He swiftly blocked the Prince's way. The Prince just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Kyungsoo, the disturber.

As a Prince, he had a lot of guardians, but this one was special. Kyungsoo was his private royal guardian; he’s nimble, brave, loyal, yet he was sharp-tongued and had no manner. He couldn’t tell how Kyungsoo managed to survive from the soporific that he had poured into guard's and maid's breakfast. Being a childhood friend he was, Kyungsoo always knew the Prince guile and knew how to avoid it.

The Prince stepped aside to the right, but Kyungsoo blocked his way with his body. The Prince stepped to the left and  he blocked it as well.

"Ugh, I should have known that he won’t cooperate with me" The Prince grunted in mind. He had took a several steps behind to keep a distance before he finally drew his sword to Kyungsoo.

“Get out of my way, Kyungsoo! It's an order from the Prince” He said arrogantly, threatening the royal guardian by using his peerage. He hated to do that, but he had no choice; he knew it very well that his royal guardian was as stubborn as himself. Instead of obeying him, Kyungsoo smirked with his annoying smile.

“So you are a Prince now?” Kyungsoo asked in sarcastic, narrowing his eyes at him

“I am always a Prince, so you better move before I cut your head off” He threatened once again, trying to be bold.

Intense.

The guardian shifted his gaze at the sword in front of his eyes before looking back straight to the Prince's eyes.

“The Prince whom I know never leave his palace and never threat people with a sword” Kyungsoo mocked, making the Prince bit his lower lip and growled furiously.

“I SAID GET OUT OF MY WAY!” He yelled and purposely pressed his sword on Kyungsoo’s neck, but of course the other didn’t scare at all.

“You know, all this time I never drew my sword toward you” He calmly replied. “But if you keep insisting to go—” Kyungsoo stepped back and in a record time the Prince found Kyungsoo’s sword against his neck as well, “—I won’t hesitate to fight with you, right here right now” Kyungsoo threatened; his voice’s full of intimidation.

The Prince gulped; for a moment he scared. How could he win against Kyungsoo, a pure-blood swordsman, who had been teaching him every single trick in fencing since he’s a toddler? Rather than wasting time and energy, he holstered his sword back.

“I know, I will never win against you, but you can’t stop me either” The Prince walked away indifferently, but only to be stopped by Kyungsoo. He grabbed and pulled the other’s wrist harshly, making his robe, which was covering up his hair, slipped out of his head. The guardian’s eyes grew bigger in pure shock when seeing the Prince in front of him had a boyish haircut rather than long hair.

"Y-your hair?!" He stuttered.

“I’ve cut it off” the Prince replied and looked away.

Kyungsoo dig his nails deep into his palm, clenching his fists tightly. Every body knew how strict the palace rule in forcing the noblemen to keep their long hair. Without it, they would be considered as ordinary people.

“Yixing, are you insane?! The magic leaf is only a myth!” Kyungsoo couldn't tell where his brave was coming from, but he realized that he had already grabbed the Prince's cloth around his neck and shoved him onto the wall, trying to straighten the Prince's out off track mind.“Get back to your room now!” Kyungsoo ordered sternly.

“I won't. Not before I found the medicine” Yixing glared at his guardian.

“Don’t try my patience—” Kyungsoo growled as he grabbed the other's cloth even tighter. Yixing grabbed Kyungsoo back.

“My brother is sick, Kyungsoo!!” He yelled and quickly pushed Kyungsoo back, setting him free from the guardian's tight grip. “You know his ailing has no cure! If he doesn’t recover and fails to be the next King, he has to marry the Princess of our enemy to keep this Kingdom safe. You know I’m not a crown Prince, I can’t be a King, but I don’t want this kingdom fall to our enemy either.”

Kyungsoo remained silent, staring at Yixing and slowly realising his tight grab. Of course Kyungsoo didn't want to let their Kingdom surrender. But let Yixing, his best friend, went across the sea and went through the danger alone?

Certainly not.

“Okay—fine! If you keep insisting to go, bring me with you!” Kyungsoo exclaimed, unintentionally saying the words without any order from his brain; Did they come out from his heart? Yixing doubt his sharp-tongued royal guardian was actually so loyal to him, but who cares as long as he agreed. Yixing smiled at him and in the other hand, Kyungsoo seemed like regreting on what he had just said.

Both of them headed toward the main gate. They were about to step out of the gate, but suddenly two guards, who had already conscious by now, caught them from afar and closed the main gate. Panicked, Kyungsoo wrapped his hand over Yixing’s slim waist and pulled him up to his shoulder. After taking several steps behind, Kyungsoo ran forward and jumped over the gate as if his body wasn’t influenced by gravitation.  

“THE PRINCE IS KIDNAPPED!! GET HIM!!” Kyungsoo heard the guardians shouted and tried to chase both of them.

"Kidnapped?! Who’s kidnapped? Did they mean I kidnapped the Prince? Yixing, you have made me a royal fugitive" Kyungsoo thought, regretting his own decision that he had made just now.  

***

Far away on the South

“Hey, put it back!!”

Baekhyun shouted furiously as he pointed at the suspicious man in robe hidden in the crowd. The man got caught, silently stealing Baekhyun’s most expensive merchandise, elixir optima.

“You have to pay for that, get back here you thief!!” Baekhyun scolded him and in no time, he leaped over his cart in attempt to catch the thief. “Take care my stuff, please!!” He shouted and waved his hand to the other merchants. Luckily, Baekhyun had such a small body, so he could easily penetrate into the people’s crowd in the market. Two seconds later, Baekhyun had gone from the sight.   

“You want to get my stuff for free, huh? Over my dead body!” Baekhyun grunted while running.

The thief should be strong enough to run as an angry Baekhyun wasn’t very easy to surrender until he got what was rightfully his. He could see the thief had lanky body and long legs, but to his unfortune, Baekhyun was as agile as him.

After forcing his feet running faster, bumping some ladies, and crashing other merchant’s carts, Baekhyun managed to set himself free from the crowded market as well as narrowed the gap with the thief. He stretched out his hand, flailing to grab the thief’s robe, before finally he failed as the thief suddenly made his way down to a deserted alley.

“Huh, What a fool! That’s dead-end” Baekhyun smirked in confidence. He felt somewhat lucky to be a merchant. Besides he would never run out of the essential’s goods and could go anywhere as long as he had a merchant passcard, he also knew all of the corners of the city. He’s very confident that the thief would be caught. But after Baekhyun turned down the alley to follow him—

He’s gone.

Baekhyun looked around, eyes darting to every corner of the alley. He couldn’t understand how the thief was gone as if he was swallowed by the earth? The right and the left of the alley were high walls which about ten meters in height. Except his legs had a grasshopper’s jumping ability, which could leap hundred times higher than his body length, Baekhyun would believe that the thief could escape.

“Damn it!! I lost a lot this day!” Baekhyun cursed and slammed his headband onto the dry ground furiously, staining it with dust. He frowned and bit his lower lip as he thought hard; what he had done today until he got such a bad luck? He had met the thief. Yes, the special clan that gifted by a rare yet troublesome ability—disappearing.

Baekhyun crossed his arms in anger before finally shifting his gaze down to the pitiful headband. He intended to leave it there, but being a stingy merchant he was, a moment later, he picked it up and patted it off from dust. As he cleaned up his headband, unintentionally, his eyes captured something strange on the ground where the headband had fallen. The ground, which supposed to be dry, was somewhat wet by red liquid. Curiously, Baekhyun squatted and slowly stretched his hand out, letting his fingers to touch it. His eyes gradually widened after he realized on what he had just found.

“B-Blood?!”