Jonghyun reared back immediately, and I straightened, a smile forming on my lips. His eyes were open, his nostrils flaring, his chest heaving, and I felt some kind of satisfaction, seeing him so unraveled. That was the reason, after all, that I had kissed him. 

"What the hell was that?" He finally found his voice, as he backed up from me, eyes still huge. I smirked. 

"Sweetheart, you better get used to surprises." His jaw dropped to the dirt when I didn't elaborate further. 

"What was that?" I blinked at him, and my lip, feeling the cut with my tongue before speaking.

"A suprise."  When he could just stare at me, I decided to have a tiny bit of pity for him. 

"You're going to be king, today, and as a king, you're going to get a lot of surprises. This was one. Practice." Jonghyun finally recovered, and immediately slammed his I-don't-care-I'm-so-much-better-than-you-anyway-and-you're-just-city-trash face over his features, but I had seen what he was trying to hide. 

"I think you just like me," he stated, and I scoffed. 

"Why, sweetheart. Why is the world would I like you?" 

"Because I'm the crown prince, trash." I tilted my head. There it was again. Crown Prince. I saw my opening. 

"You're the second-born prince, brat. The crown prince died four years ago." 

The prince locked his jaw, something in his eyes that I had never seen before, behind the anger; sadness. Mourning. 

"Four years ago," he repeated, looking lost.

"Four years ago." 

I remember that. The crown prince was named Onew, one year older than Jonghyun, and one his way to become one of the best kings in history. Kind, caring, intelligent, it was heard in Quiy, and very close to Jonghyun. The king was rumored to be very close to the crown prince too, and he was generally a popular prince, well liked and well recieved. The queen was long gone then, died seven years ago of an outbreak of fever. Then the prince had been killed, mysteriously, or something. He had disappeared, and been entirely ignored afterward. It was like the true crown prince had never existed, and instead Jonghyun had slipped into that role of the future king, without a word. I had never wondered what had happened to him, and neither had anyone else. No one thought it strange, that the prince should disappear off the face of the earth like that, I had never questioned it.

But now I am. 

The memory of his older brother was clearly giving Jonghyun a small breakdown. He was just standing there, his meager light showing the bags under his eyes. His fingers were moving, tapping each nail to each other, over and over, but he didn't move otherwise. His breath was coming back faster, harder, and just as I started to step away, weirded out, he stopped suddenly, eyes wide.

And then he blinked, as if just remembered where he was, and turned to me. 

"My brother is dead," he said. I nodded, confused, but his haughty tone was dropped, for once, and I was glad of that. 

"Four years ago." I nodded again, feeling the pressure of his dark, wide eyes on me like a physical weight, trapping me, making me unable to move. 

"I haven't slept a full night in four years," he said, his tone robotic and even, and I tried to disguise my amazement at that. Four years was a long time to mourn. Four years was a long time to not forget, to not move on.

"He was to be king, and now I must be king," he said, his eyes dropping for once, and caught on a pile of kicked sand and dirt like it held the answer to all his prince-ly problems. I was glad he wasn't staring at me, for once. 

"Today. Today I must be king," he said, and his eyes bore into me, a drill.

"Yeah," I said, and as I did, I reached down to a knife left in my belt, the handle. As I did, my hand met the metal, and I winced. I didn't expect it to still be hot.

Coughing the smoke out of my mouth and lungs, I waved the thick air away, trying to yell but my throat is too hoarse. I spin around, the crackling of fire all around me, T.K, who had just been to next to me, was gone, wrapped in smoke. I took a guess and ran toward a wall, hoping there was a door there. I had to get out. 

I tripped over something, and went sprawling, earning me a bloody lip. As I pushed myself to my feet, I glanced back at what my foot caught on, and choked. It was the body of a woman, thin and long legged, dressed in finery that was dangerously close to the approaching flames. Siwon Choi's wife, probably. From the look of it, she had already been dead maybe an hour. This was getting weirder, but it was getting hotter in here, stuffier, and I needed to get out.

I took off again, the smoke blinding me enough that I almost slammed into a wall, but I skidded to a stop at the last second, coughing, my eyes watering, my panic rising. The instincts in me took over, and I shut off my senses of pain, and focused to fighting down my panic, as I had learned to. I need to survive. 

I need to live, for Taemin. I need to take care of him.

With that thought, I turned around, my back to the wall. A window, large, the flame at the shutters, was across the room and wedged in a corner. The shutters had been swung open so the left shutter hung at an odd angle, the wood splintered, like someone had rushed out of it in a hurry. The door was, when I scanned the fire, was no where to be seen. I had the best chance to go through the window, to risk that the fall was low enough that I could walk away from it. 

I sprinted across the room, careful to avoid the woman's body and the burning furniture scattered through the room. The tip of my shirt caught on fire and I clumsily slapped my hand onto the flame, wincing as my hand met the heat, but I smothered the flame soon enough. I was running straight into the smoke, so I tried to hold my breath, but that only made my panic rise, and my increasing panic made my breaths shorter, more frequent. I started stumbling, my eyes too filled with tears from the heat and smoke to see properly, but I was still moving, still moving forward, because that's all I can do now.

I slammed into the wall this time, my shoulder coming in direct contact with the sandstone wall, and I stumbled back, my shoulder first igniting with a shot of red hot pain, then cooling to a throb that I could feel in my blood. I shook it off, shaking my head repeatedly, and reached up to shrub at my eyes, trying to see, but only succeeded in getting ash into my eyes. Feeling blindly, I first felt my hand getting hotter, so I drew back and stepped left a couple feet, then tried again.This time my knuckles scrapped painfully into the stone, and I cried out, but as I moved my hand, I met a breath of amazingly refreshing air. I dared to crack open my eyes, and I could see a square of black in front of me. I let out a breath, coughing as I did, and moved forward, my need to get out my only need. I felt the stone below my hands, and I could grip the edge. I hauled myself up, painfully, the fire and smoke and ash making me weak. I got my knees onto it, and then my feet blindly. I teetered to standing, painfully aware of where I was, and opened my eyes to slits. I looked down. I looked back, at the fiery mess. I wondered if T.K had survived. I wondered where Zelo had gone. 

I fell into space.

~~~

So, in case you didn't know, the italics is past. The next chapter is gonna continue the past, and then go to the future. 

Anyway, I want to thank you guys so much. There'd been like 2 more upvotes this week and it makes me so happyXD

But, I would love it if you guys comment. I'm updating a lot lately, and it really makes me happy to see comments. THANKS FOR READING!