Zelo's gone. He branched off a while ago, when we first entered the city. He gave Jonghyun an awkward little head bob, and offered me a small, bright little smile, more unsure than he had ever been. I smiled back, and when he started to turn away, I called him back, told him to find me, whenever he needed the smallest thing. Zelo had smiled, a little bigger, and began again. I let him go, let him be folded into the buildings and the hanging bar signs and the cobbled pathways, uneven and dirty, until his mop of bright pink hair was gone.

Zelo, he has no family. I remember him mentioning guys named Himchan and Yongguk, who I believe are underground performers, taking care of him, but that's all. I hope he'll be able to forget this. I hope he'll be happy. 

We continued on, past the slums and the alleys that lead to nothing, in silence. Xuimin is still here, keeping pace just behind, and I'm a little ahead, leading the way down the main street of the city, aiming to eventually end up at my house. Jonghyun can go on from there, 

Finally, Xuimin pauses as we cross a square. Jonghyun and I both stop as well, and Xuimin faces us, a half smile on his face. 

A stretching second of silence, and then Xuimin inclines his head. "I'll meet up with you, in a few days. Castle?" He said to me, eyebrows raised slightly, and I nodded. 

"Yeah. South wall, maybe, dusk, in two days?" 

"Works for me." 

We stand there, silently, again. Then Jonghyun blurts out, "why did you help us?" before clamping his mouth shut. 

Xuimin only smirks at him, completely relaxed, amused, faced with Jonghyun's wary fear of him. He flicks his eyes to me, before meeting Jonghyun's again. "I realized I wanted my own life. I remembered someone who I needed to see again. And I've always been soft for love stories." 

And then he turns, and disappears into the city, folded within these buildings once again, the assassin with the freezing fingertips, who saved my life. 

I turn quickly, not wanting Jonghyun to see the flowering blush on my cheeks. I heard what he had said, when I had almost given up. I know what it means. I just don't know my heart. 

"C'mon, we should go before it gets dark," I say over my shoulder to Jonghyun, but when he doesn't move, I turn around. 

He swallows, and then considers me with those big eyes. "Go where?" He doesn't let me answer. "The palace, is, technically yours."

I could only shrug. I don't know. "I need to see Taemin." 

He looked so alone. "I don't... I don't know what to do." 

I felt such pity for him, just another one of us with no family, no one. "You're king. Be king." 

He squeezed his eyes shut, and he looked so vulnerable, that I took a step forward. "I don't know how to be king," he said, so quiet it was almost a whisper. "You... you would do a better job than me." 

I don't know what to do, what to say. "You can be king. You can do it." 

He shook his head, over and over, his eyes still shut. "No. No. I can't do it. I can't do it alone." 

And here it is. My choice. 

I can go back. I can go back to how it was, before. Just a life, with Taemin. I can pretend this never happened. I can pretend I don't know I'm the true king, I can fade back, I can leave Jonghyun alone.

or. 

I can choose him. I can be king. I can take the responsibility of this kingdom on my shoulders, and I can announce myself as king, and I can rule this kingdom. My mistake will be at people's expense. When I trip, all the world will see. But I won't leave Jonghyun alone.

I don't want to leave him. 

And then, quickly, so I don't give myself time to really think about this, and decided its a quite horrible idea, I take another step forward, and I kiss Jonghyun on the lips. Barely. But he's stunned.

I step back, grinning. "Let's go get Taemin." 

He blinked, then seemed to almost shake himself. "Um. Why?" 

"'Cause we're moving in!" 

I had never seen my Dino smile so big before. 

Ugh omigod this was so hard to write, becuase, like, FLUFF, and it's sooooooo bad. And short. But it's all I got. 

Okay, the plans I have for this: 2-3 more chapters. One will be a summerizer kind of think, years in the future kind of thing, and then I'll have 1 or 2, I haven't decided, chapters with excerpts from, cough, history books, that i think will clear some of this up, as well as give you guys a little insight on how Jongkey and peeps do after this point. 

Oh! And guess who Xuimin had to visit... I'll give you a hint... I'm a Xuichen shipper... *wink wink*