Ma Siwon liked his job.

Ever since he was a colt, he was known to be smarter than all of his other siblings. He was also stronger, and wiser. Sure, he might act like a canine sometimes, but that’s just what makes him a bit more special. When he was later handpicked to be trained as a royal steed, Ma Siwon was not surprised. He knew from the start that he’d get chosen. He worked hard, trained from sunset to sundown to be the best of the best. 

And best of the best did he be. 

The general himself became fond of him, and together they made an unstoppable pack. They served the kingdom to the greatest of their abilities, forever faithful and loyal to the King and Queen. When Queen Sora pronounced her pregnancy to the kingdom, both him and his rider were overjoyed. And when the beautiful prince was kidnapped at such a young age, they knew they would do anything and everything they could to bring him back. And even after almost 18 years of searching for the lost prince, Ma Siwon still hasn’t given hope. He knew the child will return. He’d bet his finest apples on that one.

With that in mind, Ma Siwon kept searching around for the troublesome thief. He wouldn’t give up so easily when the man had stolen one of the most precious treasures of the kingdom — the prince’s crown. He will search under branch and in every thicket until he finds the little bugger.

The sound of a twig snapping caught his attention while he was sniffing at some grass, and he immediately dove into a large hedge to hide. When the shadow of the stranger loomed over his hiding spot, Ma Siwon jumped out, teeth bared and eyes narrowed.

Mother Hee gasped in shock. The horse dropped out of his defensive stance when he realised it was just another citizen. 

“Huh, a palace horse,” Mother Hee sighed, regaining her composure after the little scare. She scanned the clearing more clearly. “Where’s your rider?”

Realisation dawned on her. “Haepunzel.” Eyes widening in fear, she turned around in direction of the tower. “HAEPUNZEL!”

She dropped her basket onto the dirt, then ran back from where she came from, leaving a confused stallion behind. She burst through the secret tunnel and dashed towards the bottom of the tower. 

“Haepunzel, let down your hair!” She yelled out. Nothing.

“Haepunzel?” Mother Hee began panicking, and darted towards the other side of the tower to find the entrance for the hidden stairway. She pulled out all of the rocks blocking it and bounded up the stairs all the way to the top. Looking around the tower in alarm, she knew the boy was already gone. Dread seeped in like poison, and she tugged her hair to calm herself down. 

A twinkle caught her eye, and she nervously looked towards the source. Something was shining brightly from underneath one of the steps of the stairs leading to Haepunzel’s bedroom on the second floor, contrasting the darkness of the room. Mother Hee quickly scampered towards it, and fell onto her knees to retrieve the mysterious object. It was a satchel, and she dug into it to pull out the item.

A jewel-encrusted crown. She had seen it before, somewhere. It looked like….

When awareness smacked at her hard, she immediately dropped the crown in terror. It was Haepunzel’s, she knew it. She still remembered the crown settled next to his tiny head while he was sleeping soundly in his cot, the night she snatched him away from the royal parents. How the thing could’ve wound up in her tower of all places was a mystery. Anxiety trickled in, and she tore her gaze away from the crown and continued searching inside the satchel. 

Out came a wanted poster of a man with a really big nose named Euntyrone, the bold letters up top saying ‘DEAD OR ALIVE’. Mother Hee knew what to do next. Heading towards a small bedside table, he pulled open the top drawer and wrapped her fingers around something cold and unforgiving. A silver knife. She tucked it into the folds of her dress and made her way back down the tower.

No one touched her magical flower except her. And if they do, they’re better off dead.

“I know it’s around here somewhere…” Euntyrone hummed, eyes searching around the forest. His eyes set upon a charming little cottage at the end of the trail they were on. “Ah hah! There it is, the Everlasting Friends.” He turned towards Haepunzel who was behind him, still wielding his frying pan. “Don’t worry, very quaint place, perfect for you. Don’t want you scaring and giving up on this whole endeavour now do we?”

After the incident with the rabbit, Euntyrone had suggested if they avoided ruffians and thugs from then on. Haepunzel agreed, and a devious plan started formatting in his mind. Avoid ruffians and thugs? Easy peasy.

“Well, I do like friends,” Haepunzel replied, his eyes shone brightly at the prospect of going into an eatery and meeting new people. Euntyrone looked excitedly at him.

“Yay!”

As the doors to the little cottage were burst open by Euntyrone, Haepunzel wasn’t feeling as eager as before. He gasped in shock at the amount of burly men in the tiny space, all with bizarre facial hair and a missing limb or two. He immediately poised his frying pan in front of himself, and aimed it at anyone that he thought would be a threat (aka everyone). To his horror, Euntyrone pushed him inside. 

“You smell that? Take a deep breath through the nose.” He emphasised his point with a sniff. “Really let that seep in.”

Haepunzel eyes shifted wildly at everyone and his breathing quickened as he was guided through the ruffians by Euntyrone. “What are you getting, because to me that’s part man-smell, and the other part is really bad man-smell. I don’t know why, but overall it just smells like the colour brown. Your thoughts?” 

The poor boy didn’t even get the chance to reply when he felt someone tugged his hair. Gasping, he spun around to see one of the men with his hair in his grasps. Haepunzel gathered up as much of his mane as he could and bolted away. The thug watched with interest as the hair kept going and going even while the tiny boy was running away.

“That’s a lot of hair,” he grunted. Euntyrone smiled. “She’s growing it out. Is that blood in your moustache? Goldie, look at this. Look at all the blood in his moustache,” he said as Haepunzel cornered himself at the bar, one hand holding onto his golden hair protectively while the other had his frying pan poised in front of him threateningly. He yelped when his back hit something solid, and turned to see an overly-large man with most of his face either covered by his hair or beard glaring down at him. Haepunzel quickly distanced himself.

Euntyrone tried hard not to chuckle. “You don’t look so good, blondie. Maybe we should get you a home. Call it a day,” he tried suggesting to the boy. “Probably be better off. This is a five star joint after all, and if you can’t handle this place, well, maybe you should be back in your tower.”

Right as they were about to exit the establishment, the doors were suddenly slammed close by a man much taller than Euntyrone (and larger), with his hand atop one of the thief’s wanted poster. “Is this you?”

Euntyrone moved aside the thick finger covering his nose in the wanted poster and sighed at the unrealistic, deformed nose in this version of the notice. “Now they’re just being mean.”

“Ho, ho. It’s him all right,” a rather attractive thug with a hook for a hand sneered. He pointed at a skinny man at one of the tables. “Changmin, go find some guards! That reward’s going to buy me a new hook.”

A ruffian with quite feminine features scowled up at him. “No way, Kibum. I could use the money.”

“What about me? I’m broke!” the man who had came between Euntyrone and the exit piped up, looking like he was going to burn down the place if he didn’t get what he wanted. An uproar started, as the hoodlums tried to fight over who would surrender the thief to the palace guards. Haepunzel watched with terror as they started to physically pull and shove Euntyrone into their clutches. He tried to yell over their shouts, but the small boy was easily dominated by the much bigger ruffians. With a frustrated groan, he whipped a strand of hair towards a branch atop Kibum and pulled with all his might. The branch pulled back, and when he let go the branch it flogged against the thug’s skull. Everyone fell silent as Kibum turned towards him.

“Okay, I don’t where I am and I need him to take me to see the lanterns because I’ve been dreaming about them my entire life!” Haepunzel blurted out in a mix of exasperation and nervousness. “Find your humanity! Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?”

Kibum unhooked his hand (literally) off of Euntyrone’s collar and approached the boy threateningly. Haepunzel tried to back up, but realised he was cornered with the bar counter behind his back. Right when the attractive scoundrel was right up at his face, his face softened a bit. 

“I had a dream once.”

Haepunzel wasn’t really sure what happened after that. Kibum had erupted into a song, accompanied with the voices of the other men. The hook-handed man said something about being a famous actor, he was pretty sure. After his confession, the other ruffians started joining in. The feminine-looking thug by the name of Sungmin liked baking cupcakes. A rather handsome foreigner, Hangeng, dreamt for love. The large man that had blocked their exit called Shindong said his hobby was collecting ceramic unicorns. Kyuhyun, a drunk man that was wearing nothing but a diaper and strap-on angel wings, lived for nothing but wine. A skinny yet freakishly tall foreigner with the name of Zhoumi did interior designing. Yesung’s into mime. Ryeowook did killer puppet shows. Even Euntyrone got roped into the musical (by force, obviously), where he confessed he’d rather be on an island that he owned, tanned and rested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of money. 

Haepunzel had even let out his own dream, where he just wanted to see the floating lanterns gleam. He confessed that he was glad that he left his tower to pursue it, completely unaware of his mother right outside the EverLasting Friends, who was just in time to hear the confession. She had tried following their tracks, but soon got lost and ended up on the same path they were on. Mother Hee heard the commotion coming from the eatery, and decided that she might possibly check it out. Her expression darkened when she heard Haepunzel’s confession.

However, their merry-making halted to a stop when Changmin burst through the door, announcing he had found the guards. Euntyrone managed to pull Haepunzel into hiding right when the general marched in, flocked with his men. He demanded for the thief. Euntyrone watched in horror as Yunho and Kangin also stepped into the joint, their hands cuffed behind their backs. They quickly hid behind the bar counter as the guards started scouring the place. Euntyrone nearly shrieked in fright when a hooked hand was ed in front of his face, and they looked up to see Kibum signalling them to follow him with his eyes. 

They silently shuffled towards the back of the bar, and Kibum pulled a lever with his hooked hand. A secret door opened, and Haepunzel peered inside to see that it led through a large tunnel. He looked up at the thug in appreciation.

“Go, live your dream,” Kibum had grunted at them. Euntyrone looked optimistic. “I will,” he replied.

The ruffian glared at him. “Your dream stinks. I was talking to him.”

Haepunzel smiled gratefully, and leaned up to plant a soft kiss on Kibum’s stubbled cheek. It took both the thug and the thief by surprise. 

“Thanks for everything,” he had whispered, before stepping through the passage. He managed to miss the jealous grimace Euntyrone threw at Kibum, who looked all kinds of love-struck. He slipped in right behind Haepunzel before he could blow their cover by attacking the hook-handed man.

new chap! and i got a dream finally debuted!

hope you all love it c: