Putting the pieces together was much easier than I had suspected. Their story telling skills were enough to make me realize that I wasn't mentally insane, but actually pretty normal. Well, compared to them I am. In their eyes, I was probably the closest thing to 'normal' they get.

"Does that clear up everything?" asked Sunggyu.

I nodded to indicate that I had. My mind was starting to wander off at that point, to be honest. I was curious; curious as to how I fit into their individual lives. But those questions weren't meant to be asked in a group, it's best to be in private.

Mentally, I locked that into my memory bank, so I'd remember when the time comes.

I heard the noon bell ring, which indicated it was the start of my short work shift. Getting up, I slowly patted down my pajamas before bowing lightly. "It's time for me to start working," I smiled sweetly at them all. "I enjoyed this... truly. It was nice to finally know the truth. It's annoying to have so many secrets around you, even worse when you're involved somehow. Anyway, I'll see all of you around the palace right?"

The boys looked at me with large eyes. "That's it? No more questions? We expected to stay out here forever," Dongwoo grumbled. "We practiced and everything!"

Sungjong smacked his older brother in the back of the head. I guess that was their favorite punishment for a straightforward personality like Dongwoo's. "Shut up! It's not her fault she has to work okay."

"We will see you around," Woohyun grinned at me.

I bowed lightly once more before prancing off into my room. My hands slowly closed the doors, realizing that all of them were still looking in my direction, both discreetly and indiscreetly. I carefully closed the curtains, so they couldn't look into my room anymore.

As I took a bath, I kept thinking about their story. It really comes to show that the past drastically changes the future... Sungwoo Moon's death and the Queen's change for example. Both of these events brought the boys to where they are now, as Princes and alive. Not too long in the bath, I patted myself dry before slipping into my uniform. There was a drawer in my room just for the brand new white gloves that were issued, so I picked a fresh pair.

Exiting my room discreetly wasn't a problem. I didn't have to worry about maids seeing me because they typically did not work in the second floor of the palace, that's where the butlers roam around. They are the Prince's right hand men after all.

"Oh Sophia!" the King's happy voice echoed before I could even take ten steps away from my door.

I turned my entire body to face him properly. He was wearing a white dress shirt with navy blue slacks. His Queen interlocked arms with his, her gold dress hugging every curve of her body. She smiled sweetly at me, similar to what a mother would to her child.

"Yes, sir?" I asked.

"I would like you to show my Queen here," he unlocked arms with his wife and proceeded to push her my way, "how to create mini versions of that lovely cake you made at the banquet. She's been pestering me about it ever since she had a taste, and well, you know how the saying goes—'happy wife, happy life'."

She glared lovingly at her playful husband, and then looked at me to wait for my reply. All this time, I've expected her to start speaking, until I remembered the story. The thing is... she couldn't. That must be so hard.

"I'd love to," I smiled. "Are you ready?"

The Queen nodded at me before dancing her way to her husband. She gave him a light kiss on the cheek before hitting him on the arm, in a second she was by my side. Her hand held onto my wrist as she dragged me towards the kitchen. The King laughed and waved at us, as if we were going away on a weeklong trip.

Their relationship was one of the sweetest ones I'd ever seen.

As soon as we entered the kitchen, all eyes were on us. The Queen just flashed her normal grin, then proceeded to shoo each and every member in the kitchen to indicate that she wanted them to leave. Everyone understood and followed her orders accordingly. She disappeared into one of the walk-in cupboards. In mere seconds, she flashed by my side with her own apron on and her fair hair in a bun. She had my apron in her grasp also.

"So I'm guessing you know that I know, since it seems as though you are not hiding your superhuman qualities at all," I didn't know how to start a conversation with her to be honest.

She helped me put on my apron and looked at me with wide eyes. A slight nod indicated that she agreed. Her pale hands grazed by mine, and I heard the loveliest voice in my mind. It had a fairylike tone, one that is compassionate and heartwarming in every single way.

"I cannot speak to you formally, but this is how I communicate with my family," dare not move, but her eyes were enough to prove to me that it was her voice I was hearing. "That is what you have been wondering, am I correct?"

I was stunned at this point. Okay, so she's a vampire and a telepath? Can she hear my thoughts too? Oh my God can they all hear my thoughts? "How is this possible?" I asked.

"After exchanging blood with Tablo," her other hand held onto mine, "I gained this ability. Once one becomes a full fledged vampire, it comes with its extra privileges and goodies."

"Does every vampire have that?" I asked.

"No sweetie," her eyes seemed to twinkle differently now. "It all depends on your current state when you transform into one. Tablo was in a desperate moment, my life was in his hands, and so he has the power to control others. As for me, I have the power to communicate, but only so by touch."

The power to control others... That explains how I felt this sort of pull when he asked me to come by his side at the meeting. In my mind I knew that I shouldn't have obeyed him, but a part of me had no other choice but to obey. It was a gentle kind of control... I couldn't imagine that being used immensely.

"Full fledged vampires have unlimited power, then?"

She nodded no. "Sadly, something that powerful requires a lot of strength and energy. Tablo cannot overuse his abilities or else he starts to weaken immensely. It's a consequence, and a painful one as a matter of fact."

Then why have the abilities? I mean it is a plus, but being immortal and such would be good enough for me personally. Wait, am I really thinking about this right now? In no way do I want to be a vampire. That... that would require so much sacrifice, and I am not willing to do so.

"You don't regret it?" I asked the Queen.

"Regret what? Becoming what I am today? Absolutely not."

"Even though you lost something precious to you?"

"My voice did mean the world to me, and without it I did feel incomplete at first. But Tablo's love and my children are more than enough to outweigh the losses. I get to spend the rest of eternity with the one I love," her smile reminded me of a girl who was in love for the first time—completely infatuated and overpowered.

"I see..." I looked away for a few moments.  So many things were rushing through my brain now.

"I know that this must be too much to handle," her voice seemed saddened now,"but be glad they told you. I didn't know about Tablo being a vampire until I was one myself."

My eyes returned to look at hers. Her love and care completely was reflected in her own eyes. "Then what did you guys talk about when you'd meet?"

"At first we exchanged facts; he is such a charmer!" A grin, the biggest I'd ever seen on her youthful face, appeared instantly."He told me that he would like to tell me something about him, and then I'd tell him something about me. We'd do that every day actually, something new every day; aside from that we'd talk about our day and our hidden thoughts. As a farewell, he'd get me to sing him a song, insisted that he wouldn't have it any other way."

We both started giggling simlutaeneously. Exchanging one fact for another... it was true. Woohyun had picked up that little trick from his father I bet. I pinpointed that he knew it worked once, so it was bound to work again.

And to be honest, it did.

"You don't know my name, correct, Sophia? I have never properly introduced myself to you before, now that I realize it."

Now that I thought about it, I didn't. I shook my head no.

"I'm Jenny, actually Jennifer Park, but I prefer Jenny."

Jennifer... Park... Why does that name sound so familiar? Wait... Pieces of my mother's stories started to join together in my mind. Jennifer Park! Jennifer Park was the name of her best friend! She said that her best friend had died years ago... well, had disappeared and her body never found... Is she? Is that her?

"Do you know Catherine?" I had to know. I couldn't leave such a burning pain in my mother's heart. "Catherine Yu was her name before she got married."

Queen Jenny quickly raised both of her hands to . Her eyes expressed shock. Tears instantaneously rushed down her smooth face like rain against glass. She looked frozen in place. After a few seconds, she pressed her fingertips against my face. I could feel the wet traces of her tears. "You know Cathy?"

"I'm her daughter," I told her.

Tears continued to rush down her face. She then wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me into a light embrace. Her right hand was against the back of my head, caressing like how my mother did whenever she felt like giving up from the hardships she faced at work. "You're Cathy's child? She... she truly must have turned out well... How is she? Whom did she marry?"

"She's doing well," I responded to her questions. I could feel the pain in her voice, yet the relief. "Mother opened a small clothing venue in the village, and sews all of her children's clothes by hand. And she ended up marrying Jun Song."

"Jun!" She stopped hugging me then placed both of her palms on my cheeks. "Oh Jun! He was head over heels for your mother since I could remember! I'm glad to know that they ended up together like I had hoped for. Is she well? Is your entire family well?"

"We aren't in the best financial situation. But we can get by happily."

"I must fix that immediately! I'll send over goods in the carriages—"

"No need to your Highness," I insisted. "It would be quite odd for a presumed dead individual of society to send her packages and things, wouldn't it?"

She looked down at her feet for a few seconds, and then returned to look at me. "You are correct." I could clearly sense the hurt in her voice. Was this also a side effect of her choice to be with Tablo forever? "Foolish for me to send her things from the other side... Eh... So they did announce me dead, just as I had believed."

"You know," I placed my own hands on her cheeks, just to wipe away the trails of tears, "she visits your home every year on your birthday and drops by flowers at the cemetery on the anniversary of your disappearance." It was the truth. Mother gathers the best tulips from our garden and she walks to the cemetery every year to go talk to her best friend. I don't think she ever got over her 'death'.

"She does? Oh, I'm so sorry Cathy... I wish I could just embrace your Mother right now... She is my closest friend, treated me like I was her own sister. We always talked about branching out of the kingdom and traveling together, just to see the other remarkable sites on the world. My sudden disappearance must have been so painful... I want to apologize..."

"No need to, I'm sure she knows that it wasn't your fault."

"I left without saying goodbye... And I can't return to her to even say it properly. What a selfish choice for me to make..."

"It was to save your life," I tried to encourage happiness into her heart, but it was already engulfed with sorrow.

"I've always wondered what happened to her," she hid her pain with a smile. "Knowing that she has a family of her own is enough to make me smile for days. I'm... I'm glad that her life turned out well, but not well enough. I'm going to arrange for things to change drastically in the village. Now that you are a connection, one that I have with the outside world, together we can change our old homes."

At first I thought she was kidding, but the determination was evident. She truly wanted to change things. I understood that it must have been difficult to try because she couldn't leave the palace walls, nor could she even try to roam freely because people might recognize her. It would cause such a riot if a 'dead' girl walked around town casually in the middle of the day.

"How...?"

"Honey, you can freely leave and enter the gates now. You are the start of a change for everyone outside. I had tried before, but it endangered my life and the life of my family, and so I couldn't in the end. But now that you are here, it will be much easier! Please help me with this; it will be my way of repaying back my old family and your mother. I... I owe them that much."

It was extremely convenient for that to occur. I mean, I entered this job with the hopes of changing someone's opinion about the village and then altering that to push for some changes. The opportunity is now in the palm of my hands, with the help of the Queen herself nonetheless! Even better was that, she understood the pain of living outside the walls, so she knows what needs to be done also. Together, we can make a difference. We can alter people's lives. We can make every change for the better.

I nodded, showing her that I would help her. "Okay Queen Jenny."

I was one step closer to my goal: bettering the lives of those I loved the most. But my heart, my heart was experiencing a change by now. I was... I was happy to help my home, my family, the town I grew up in. But this entire family... something about them is appealing in my mind. First, I'm the girl that all seven Princes are attracted to. Now I'm the daughter of the Queen's best friend. There couldn't possibly be any more surprises, right? But knowing this family by now, there had to be tons more.

How else am I connected to them?

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A whole chapter with the Queen herself?! Did you guys ever wonder what kind of a person she was? I sure wanted to explain to you guys lol. I decided to make this story much more fun by connecting Sophia even more with the crazy Woo family! Like what I did? Or was it too much to handle? One mystery after another being revealed... wait until the next chapter... you guys might just kill me lol jk. XD

But at least Sophia got what she wanted right? A chance to make a difference :3 I'm happy with this chapter, not my favorite of course lol hard to top the last one. 

I'm happy to hear positive feedbacks btw about the whole vampire thing :3 I've gotten 30+ subscribers now and over 1200+ views ;w; I'm so happy I cannot even express it properly ;~~~~; Thank you guys so much <3

@shirukuro-awee thank you~ i've noticed you're a very active commenter, thank you so much :D

@OnlyYouJBP-hehe I'm happy that you looove that part. I admit, I giggled reading it over ahdfkjah so perfect. Woohyun the perfect flirt. I'm glad, I hope you don't get bored with my story any time soon ;w; 

@BeautyDarkAngel-hehe~ is it confusing? :O I want to know because I don't want it to be ahsdf ;w; that's a pretty good assumption, I love hearing feedback like that! but i'm not going to say anything so *zips mouth shut*; i'm glad my writing style makes everything suspenseful! please keep reading :D

@LeePeppers-i thought the vampires thing would be too 'typical' but it makes sense right? LOL. ooh I know their feelings! but i'm not saying yet :3 it does come across that she likes Woohyun more, only because that boy is such an A+ flirt. awee thank you so much for your support (: