He stiffened. I could tell I had suprised him. He was a total idiot. Someone would eventually realize the now most powerful person in the kingdom walking through the streets of Quiy, and we would have a problem on our hands. I don't know what made me do that, to drag him away down an alley to hide him from prying eyes. 

He opened his mouth, just a little, so I covered it before he could scream, and trapped his waist with my arm.

"You lost, sweetheart?" I asked, and he stiffened immediately. He knew who I was, or at least recognized me from last night, and that thought pleased me, for some reason. 

"You gonna scream?" I asked, since he really couldn't talk with my hand on his mouth, and after a pause he shook his head no, and I cautiously drew back my hand, ready in case he changed his mind. 

He immediately raised his chin, and that thing that I hated was in his eyes, that haughtiness, appeared, although I know it never leaves. "How dare you?!"

I leaned back against the alley wall, crossing my arms over my chest as I looked him up and down. 

"You must be stupid," I told him. "You do know you're pretty much the king. Kings don't walk up and down Quiy without a guard, you-"

"How dare a city rat like you call a member of the royal family stupid?!" He spat, but I ignored him and pressed on.

"-You got too many enemies to do something so idiotic. I thought you stuckup, maybe, but not stupid."

He just stood there, his jaw hanging open at the way I had dared to talk to him like that. 

"And, besides, you aren't part of the royal family anymore. You are the royal family." 

At that, he locked eyes with me, and something made his eyes tighten. "And whose fault is that?"

Rage rose inside of me. But I do know that he did have a right to think that. I was a strange intruder, with knives and a full army on my back, that had appeared and disappeared as quickly as I had came on the night that his father, the king, had been murdered. And I had killed before. Too many times to count. But this got to me, and I don't know why.

I struck, slamming him against the brick wall, my arm pressing against his upper chest, him too suprised to even flinch as he was jolted backwards. "It wasn't me." 

The prince was struggling to breathe, with me injuring his delicate, royal ribs and lungs, but he managed to sputter out an answer.

"Why should I believe you?" He was still looking down on me, and I absolutely hated it. 

"Since right now I'm in the position to kill you, the most royal and great crown prince," I told him, my words soft at first but then gaining a heavy injection of sarcasm. 

He rolled his eyes a bit, before focusing on me again. "I- I will get you hung." 

I released him, watching as he gave a cough before straightening up to see the small smirk on my lips. "Good luck with that, most royal prince." And I meant it. 

"I'm the king," he said as soon as he could speak again, with his delicate, crushed, rich lungs.

"No, you're not." 

His eyes flared, and he drew himself up to his full height, which really was pathetically short. "I am of noble blood!"

"And I really don't care."

"You are just a dirty, disgusting-" 

"Ouch," I said, snickering, backing up to lean on the wall again. 

"City rat!" He finished, raising his voice, just to make his incredibly important point.

"Okay, great prince, you listen to me," I said, pointing a finger rather rudely in his face, but I think it was nice of me not to stab his eye. By accident, of course. 

"I. Did. Not. Kill. The. King. Understand?"

Something flickered across Jonghyun's face, and he sunk back, but still kept his haughty eyes on me. 

"If you didn't, which I highly doubt, who did?" He said, asking the one question I had no answer for. 

But who really did? Who wanted to frame me, to kill the king, to unsettle the kingdom? Hundreds of looters, criminals (not that I wasn't technically one of them), anyone who had a grudge against the kill. But it wouldn't be just some farmer angry about taxes. It would have to be someone skilled, someone smart, someone trained. Trained. 

"Anyone could have, really," I told Jonghyun, while inside my brain was whirling. Trained. Assassins, under my employer. They were trained, dangerous. Maybe one of them had a grudge against the kingdom, or the king, and acted alone. It wasn't my employer, for sure. I was one of the best. He wouldn't screw with my cover.

"Well, thanks for nothing," Jonghyun spat, but I fought down my anger this time.

"You need to snap out of it, lord prince. In Quiy, you're not the prince, not if you're not accompanied by servants and bodyguards and riding in your most royal carriage to protect your fancy shoes from the streets. You're just another person with a purse. You're just another one of us."

Jognhyun drew himself up. Again. "I am the crown prince everywhere."

"If you're the only prince, then why do you keep calling yourself the crown prince?" I asked him, and he froze. When he made no move to answer, still not moving, I pressed on. Something was wrong with him. Something haunted him, and I didn't know why, but I wanted to know what it was.

"He died three years ago, your brother."

Jognhyun me suddenly, muscled arms tightened, something unstable in his eyes, and I had to stop myself from stepping back, from cowering. He stuck his nose near mine, chin raised so he could meet my eyes with his unsettling ones. 

"Do not speak of him," he hissed, before backing up from me, chest heaving, and then whirling around to run out of the alley. 

I swore under my breath and ran out too, but I was too late, too slow, and he was already gone.

I headed home, my head throbbing, and my mind still clouded with worries. But as I stepped up the stoop, and sun high in the sky, and checked for the usual letter, there it was. White, pristine, sealed, with no markings or drawings, but I knew it was the letter.

I carried it inside, making sure the curtains in the kitchen were closed, and flicked on the light, holding the envelope under the light, and slid my fingernail under the seal, effectively breaking it and shaking out the letter. My heart in my throat, I unfolded it.

The Lord Siwon Choi and his wife, one son, three daughters.

Meet T.K and Zelo at far side of Vega Bridge at 9 o'clock at night.

Any servants that see any of you. 

Don't

Get

Caught.

I released a sigh of relief, but I know my employer might still know about the king. T.K and Zelo might be there to kill me. I had to watch my back, but for right now, I was clear. 

But I was never safe.