Aida was happily chatting with Sungmin while they danced, when he suddenly pulled her into his arms and whispered,

“Go tot where their Majesties are standing and tell them to get out of the ballroom, some uninvited guests are here.”

She looked at him, obviously very startled and a little disbelieving, but she saw that he was dead serious.

“Be careful,” she whispered back, knowing that his duty was to fight. She swiftly began making her way towards their Majesties. When she was about halfway through the ballroom, someone grabbed her arm. She swiveled around and saw none other than Evie stare at her with a worried frown.

“What‘s wrong? Why do you look so scared?” Evie asked, the face of the man behind her turning grim.

“Someone uninvited is coming, Sungmin told me to warn their Majesties, I guess you should go away too,” Aida answered and turned to keep moving towards her destination.

Evie looked at Kangin and he nodded in understanding. Evie her heel, caught up with Aida and they hurried together to get the Royals out of danger‘s way. As they reached them they heard yelling and screaming, so they had no time to explain anything, they just pushed the Royals in front of them and ran.

***

Just as Siwon and his partner were about to strike Kyuhyun, three royal guards jumped out of nowhere and tackled the two men. Iseul recognized one of them as Donghae, the guy with the cute tushy. Within minutes the guards had the two men subdued and were in the process of binding and gagging them.

“We'll take them straight to the dungeons your Highness. Are you and the lady all right?” Donghae asked, a teasing twinkle in his eyes.

“U-uh, yes, I believe so, thanks,” Kyuhyun answered. Two minutes later the guards and the bandits were gone.

Kyuhyun pulled Iseul close and hugged her tightly. “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

“Yes, I'm perfectly fine, but I won't be if I don't get some oxygen soon,” Iseul mumbled into Kyuhyun's chest, his words prompting him to loosen his hold on her a little bit. He looked at her with heavy eyes, he did not find her funny.

“Hey! Look on the bright side, now we have excuses for our messy hair!” She grinned and succeeded at making Kyuhyun laugh. He pressed his lips to hers for a brief moment before they returned to the ballroom.

***

As soon as Donghae and the two guards with him entered the ballroom with their captives the fighting ceased.

'One of them must be the leader,' Donghae thought. The men that had been fighting with the intruders managed to catch a few, but many of them managed to run away. The ones that got caught were immediately hauled off to the dungeons.

Sungmin didn't take part in getting the captives since it was his night off, but went trotted off to find Aida, Evie, the two older princes and their Majesties instead. While he was gone Kyuhyun and Iseul walked in to the ballroom. Kangin immediately came up to them,

“You okay?” he asked. Kyuhyun nodded, “yes, hyung, and you? You had no trouble in here-” he took a better look at his childhood friend, “no, I guess you did have trouble in here. How many?” Kyuhyun's eyes were grim.

“Not as many as you'd have though. I guess the leader of that group of bandits isn't exactly the brightest pea in the pod,” Kangin chuckled and Kyuhyun grinned.

“I can never understand how people can crack jokes two seconds after being under attack. Not the way you two can anyway,” he said an looked at Iseul, his eyes sparkling with humor.

“What, me? Pssht, no way! I'm very fond of being a sourpuss like you,” she teased, drawing a very elegant guffaw from Kyuhyun.

Kangin laughed at the pair's silliness. “I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Kangin,” he said and bowed.

Iseul curtsied, “I'm Iseul, it is very nice to meet you,” she said. Kangin was a little taken aback when he heard her name, it was the same name his lost sister bore.

'Don't be silly, that's not her,' he scolded himself.

Needless to say the ball was announced over once their majesties returned. Evie, Iseul and Aida went to Evie's chambers after Evie and Aida shared a moment each with Kangin and Sungmin respectively.

***

A few weeks passed and Iseul was going down to the dungeons for the third time. She didn't know why she'd gone down there the first time, but she'd found herself talking to the guy that had been with Siwon (she finally knew his name) when he'd invaded the autumn ball. His name was Hangeng and he was head over heels in love with his jjang, Siwon. She felt bad for him and, since she was a big er for happy endings, she decided to help him out a bit. Too bad Siwon was being such a butthead about it.

The guards let her in. Thanks to Sungmin, every single guard in the palace knew her and she was granted access nearly everywhere. Although Kyuhyun strongly objected to her going anywhere near the dungeons, she had a bit of an agreement with Sungmin. The fact that he was enchanted with her fostersister was a very useful bargaining token.

“Hey, how are you? Siwon's still throwing a tantrum?” Iseul asked Hangeng when she reached his cell.

“Oh, hi... Yeah, he still won't talk to me,” he answered with a pout.

“Jeez, how stubborn can a person be?!” she wondered aloud, completely forgetting that she had been the same, if not worse, towards Kyuhyun.

“Don't ask me, I have no happy answer to that question...” Hangeng sighed. Iseul tsk'ed. “Be happy, life is way too boring without joy!”

“You sound like some sort of mental case... But I guess you're right,” Hangeng mumbled.

“Even though I'm young I'm not completely ignorant,” Iseul huffed, “just leave all this to me, I'll figure something out.” She smiled and continued,” I should go now, before someone starts looking for me. Fighting!” And with that Iseul skipped off, the picture of flowers and sunshine.

***

Iseul opened the door to Evie's room and immediately closed it again. She knocked and after a little while she heard a faint “come in!” She entered and saw Evie and Kangin standing as far apart form each other as they could, both looking quite disheveled but obviously trying their very best to hide it. Iseul laughed,

“You guys seriously need to get married ASAP. At least before something happens that really shouldn't happen prior to marriage...”

“Shut up,” Evie answered with a grin.

“Well, I should get going, see you,” Kangin said and disappeared out the door. He almost crashed into Aida, who was on her way in.

“What was that?” Aida asked as she was shutting the door. Thus was apparently not her day, because Sungmin barged in and nearly knocked her out cold.

“Oh god, I am so sorry, are you all right?” Sungmin asked frantically as he grabbed Aida and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Uhm, yes, I think so... “ she mumbled against his chest.

“Why were you in such a hurry?” Evie asked.

“Oh, right, Iseul, Kyuhyun wants you, althought he didn't seem very cheery. In fact, I think I heard him mumble something about the dungeons. He chould've mentioned Heechul too, but I'm not too sure,” Sungmin said, still crushing Aida with his arms.

“Oh great, getting overprotective again is he?” Iseul grumbled to no one in particular as she trudged off down the hall.

“Well, uh, I gotta go do something, bye!” Evie hurriedly said and darted off, in the same way only she knew how. Sungmin and Aida still stood there, Sungmin not letting go of Aida.

“Um... You can let me go noe, I'm fine really,” Aida said, although it was muffled since she was speaking into his chest.

“....what if I don't want to?” Sungmin whispered in her ear.

“The at least let me breathe?” Sungmin loosened his hold on her. “I like it better when you're out of breath,” he whispered as he bent his head down and kissed her softly.