STOP!

If you haven't read the previous chapter, please go back and do so. It was originally my hiatus notice but is now a legitimate chapter. Thanks.

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        I stay a step behind the prince as we walk away from my room, casting a glance back at Minho and Taemin, who give me encouraging smiles, until they disappear behind the curve of the corridor. I feel more ill at ease with the prince after the vision or whatever it was that happened in Jonghyun’s room. Part of me sympathizes with him but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pretend to be his long lost love. That’d be cruel and if I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life here, I’ll do it on my own terms. When the prince turns his head to make sure I’m still there, I lower my gaze to the floor. I keep my eyes on the hem of his robe as he continues walking, trying to decide if I should tell him that I know why I’m here.

“Watch your step.”

    Startled, I look up. The prince is at the bottom of a large step, hands already held out to help me down. I look down to judge the distance and decide to forgo jumping down myself as I’d probably trip and kill myself in this gown. Reluctantly, I place my hand on his shoulders. His hands find my waist and easily lift me from the stone step to set me down on grass. I quickly step away, letting my eyes shift from his shoulders to the garden just past him, a small gasp escaping my lips.

    He steps aside to let me step further into the garden. The small pond at the center is fed by a trickling spring that runs from under the bordering corridor, but the water is barely visible under the large, vibrant waterlilies. More lilies of every kind surround and color surround what edges of the garden that are visible, stretching their sleek heads upwards. Looking up, I feel my jaw drop a little when I see blue sky bright with sunshine and framed by the tiled roof.

I turn back to the prince, pointing up. “How? Is that really the sky?”

“It is,” he replies, coming to stand beside me. “Some of my father’s wives miss the sky when they stay here so he made small windows like this to the sea’s surface. Humans can’t see them, if you were wondering.”

    I watch the clouds play and am about to ask why they can’t when I realize how close he’s standing. Glancing over at him, I find him watching me intently, as if he’s drinking in every detail of my face. The faint tug of familiarity puzzles me and I unconsciously reach up to touch the lotus pendant. I quickly shove my hands into my long sleeves when I see his eyes follow the movement. Now that I know it was hers, I really should give it back.

Slowly, I untie the knot. Letting the necklace slip into my hand and holding it out, I avoid his eyes as I say, “Here, Your Highness. You should have this back.”

“How did you get it?” The prince reaches out to let the pendant rest on his fingertips but makes no other move to reclaim it.

“Kibum gave it to me when they were trying to make me ... remember.” Taking a deep breath, I continue, “I know why I’m here, but I’m sorry. I’m not Haeyoung. I haven’t remembered or whatever no matter what they tried. I only know about her because Minho and Jonghyun showed me. Please don’t be angry with them, Your Highness.”

“Jinki.”

“What?”

“My name. Or if you’re not comfortable with that yet, Onew. Just please don’t call me ‘Your Highness.’” The prince lets the pendant fall from his hand and starts walking down the path.

“Oh, okay. Wait, ... Onew.” I hurry after him, stepping in front of him to hold the necklace out again. “Aren’t you going to take this back?”

“No,” Onew replies, shaking his head and pushing my hand back to me. Staying silent for a few minutes while he searches my face, with a half smile he finally adds, “What use is it to me, lying in the dark among ancient memories? Maybe one day ... it will help you remember.”

“You must have really loved Haeyoung,” I say slowly, lowering the necklace before hesitantly putting my other hand on Onew’s. “But I’m not her.”

“But you are. You look-”

“Don’t say it. I’m not Haeyoung. I’m Lily, just Lily; a normal girl was trying to get through college and live my own life, not a reincarnated princess.”

Onew looks at me, the sadness in his eyes making me look away. Reaching across our hands, he uses a single finger to my cheek. Whispering as his hand cups my face, he asks, “Do you remember anything? Anything at all?”
    

         Unable to refuse the plea in his voice, I at last meet his eyes, ready to deny everything again. Instead, as my eyes lock onto Onew’s, something tightens around my chest like coils. A sudden roaring like an ocean storm fills my ears, spiking pain through my head. Blackness and swirling water flash in front of me as the thing’s hold on me constricts even more. Something large moves in the darkness towards me, its bright yellow eyes glowing.

“Lilly? Lilly!” Onew’s voice sounds far away, his words almost incomprehensible.

    I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to wake up and just as quickly as the vision appeared, it vanishes. Slowly coming back, I frown, annoyed at the fact that this is the third time today I’ve gone unconscious. It is also the second time I’ve woken up in Onew’s arms.

“Lilly,” he sighs in relief when I open my eyes. “Are you all right? What happened?”

“Nothing,” I mumble, sitting up and pushing myself off his lap.

“Do I need to call Yixing? Lilly-”

I shift further away and turn around when Onew reaches for me again, my heart still pounding. “I’m fine.” Those eyes...

He pauses before saying, “I’ll go get Yixing. Wait here. Will you?”

    I nod, seeing his feet move quickly past me. When I no longer hear his robe sweeping through the grass, I pull my knees into my body and rest my head against them. Closing my eyes again, I try to figure out just what it was that happened. It felt like before, when I was ripped away from Onew in Jonghyun’s vision. It felt ...wrong, suffocating. What was I talking about? All this magic swirling in my head felt wrong, felt like someone was running it through a centrifuge at full speed.

    On top of that, this ridiculous full court regalia is becoming stifling under the shining sun. Unfolding my legs so I can reach the ties, I fumble with them until I can strip off the top jacket. As I pull off the robe next, my fingers graze my back, making me pause. Setting the clothes aside, I reach back to trace the tops of the slightly raised scars that peek above the fabric. They’re just like Jonghyun described, four long, diagonal lines.

    I don’t really remember the day that I got them, just a blur of screeches, tumbling through the air, and pain burning through my body. The rest of my family had been fine, though I remember my mother crying by my bed, blaming herself for driving around the curve too fast. The thought of my mother causes my heart to drop like a stone when I remember I’ll never be able to see her again, to feel safe with her arms around me again. A few tears begin leaking through my eyes and I pull my knees back up in an attempt to comfort myself as I try to stop myself from crying again.

With my head buried in my arms, I don’t hear someone approach until their hand whispers across my scars. “Haeyoung?”

With a gasp, I jump away from the contact, hurrying to hide my back.

The man holds both of his hands out, palm out. With a gentle smile, he assures me, “It’s all right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to see if you were all right.”

“Who are you?” I ask, wiping at my face as I scramble to my feet and sloppily slide the jacket back on.

“You don’t remember me?” When I shake my head, he laughs sheepishly. “Right. You haven’t remembered anything yet. Well, we did literally bump into each other earlier.”

“You were the man in the hall,” I say slowly, vaguely recalling his face. “Dong...”

“Donghae! And you’re name right now is Lilly!” he smiles, childish delight in his eyes. That happiness fades almost immediately as he reaches into his sleeves to withdraw a handkerchief and hand it to me. “Why are you so sad?”

“I’m not,” I hurriedly reply, taking the handkerchief anyway to dab at my face. “I just put some pond water on my face because I was hot.”

Donghae adamantly shakes his head and points towards my heart. “You are sad, so much that your heart hurts, almost unbearably so...You’re also a little frightened of me, but you don’t need to be. I couldn’t hurt anybody. “

“H-how-?”


“How do I know? I can read other people’s emotions, but not their thoughts, so you don’t have to worry about me poking around your mind or anything.” Donghae flops on the ground, patting the grass beside him. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re so sad? I’m a very good listener.”

    His earnest smile coaxes me closer as I gradually lower myself to sit opposite him, still keeping a decent distance between us. I stay silent for a while, fiddling with the handkerchief, but eventually everything falls from my lips, from my meeting Kibum to the vision I’d had when Onew looked in my eyes here in the garden. The only thing I keep to myself is the dream I’d had in the throne room. Donghae doesn’t say anything or even move except to give me an encouraging nod when I pause.

“Now wonder why you’re in pain,” he sympathetically comments when I finish. “All of this has to be so confusing for you and it was a dirty trick my father played on you. He shouldn’t have taken away that choice from you.”

I shrug. “Not much I can do about it now, is there?”

Donghae bites his lip, rubbing his chin. “You know, .... there’s thousands of books in the palace library. If there’s anyway for you to counter eating the peach, I bet it’d be in there somewhere.”

Looking at him, half afraid to even hope, I ask.“You really think so?”

“Maybe. I can try looking for you.”

“I can help you! I’m a fast reader.”

“Sorry, but you can’t,” Donghae replies apologetically. When my face falls, he immediately explains, “Only those with powers who’ve gotten permission or who’ve proved they can control their powers can access any of the books about magic. Since you don’t have any...”

Inwardly sighing in frustration at yet another set of frustrating rules, I probe, “You’d really do that for me?”

“Of course. We were close friends, before, even if you don’t remember. I don’t have much to do anyway, so this’ll keep me busy,” he tells me. Laughing, he adds, “Father will like that something’s keeping me out of mischief.”

I smile back shyly at his laugh, feeling the most at ease than I had all day.

“You’ve met Onew this morning, right? Do you remember him at all?”

Before I can answer, someone calls my name.

Donghae and I turn, seeing Yixing climbing down the step and coming towards us.

“What’re you doing here?” Donghae asks curiously as Yixing sinks gracefully to the ground beside me.

“Onew hyung sent me here. He said you fainted again?” he asks, examining me with a careful eye. “Do you have a headache like last time?”

“It’s not that bad anymore,” I reply, nodding when he silently asks my permission to lightly place his fingertips on my temples.

“Didn’t Onew come with you?” Donghae asks, leaning to look the way Yixing had come.

“No,” he replies, keeping his eyes closed, my headache fading away under his touch. “He told me he had to attend to something else and asked me to Lilly back to her room after I took care of her. He sends his apologies, Lilly.”

I nod in acknowledgement.

With a soft smile, he withdraws his hands. “I was just checking on the rest of you, don’t worry. Hyung was worried since this is the second time you’ve fainted today. I think it’s just stress from everything you’ve had to deal with, not something wrong with your body. If you rest the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow, you should be fine. Are you ready to go back?”

“I think so,” I reply, starting to stand up.

Both of the men hurry to stand and offer me their hands to help me.

“Are you all right walking?” Yixing asks in a concerned voice, keeping his hand ready to continue supporting me.

“I can take her back if you’re busy,” Donghae says, doing the same.

Releasing both their hands, I reassure them, “I’m all right now, I promise. It’s probably like you said, Yixing. Just stress. You all don’t have to stay with me. I’m sure you’re busy.”

    They both shake their heads and insist on walking me to my room where my constant guard Minho awaits. Yixing gives him instructions to not let me be disturbed for the rest of the day and leaves with another gentle smile and a promise to come if my head hurts again. Donghae follows with a wink as he says that he’s going to the library.

As I step inside my room, Minho coughs and when I look back at him questioningly, he asks, “How...how did it go with hyung? Did anything happen?”

“Nothing,” I tell him, feeling slightly sorrow for him when I see his face fall a little. “We only spoke a while before I fainted and he didn’t come back after.”

“Maybe something will happen tomorrow then,” he says hopefully.


I just nod, choosing the non-committal answer, “Maybe.” With that, I close the door, careless throw off the clothes until I’m only in a light shift, and fall gratefully into bed.

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Yay! I'm back! Did you miss me, my lovely readers? I missed you! ^^ Thank you for being so patient and loyal, waiting for me these three long months. I'm very grateful. Unfortunately, I must abuse your faithfulness a bit longer. I wasn't able to write much because I was so busy exploring Beijng, so I won't be able to fulfill my promise of a flood of updates. I will, however, try to get back in the groove soon so I can try to provide my weekly updates once again. Thank you again for being so steadfast. Saranghae. <3