❝Forgotten
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                                   "Forgotten, yet so vivid."

L did not remember the full details, but he certainly did remember how the exhausted yet warm look on his mother’s face immediately lit up his day. Hours before that took place was a Thursday night, yes, he remembered that. The midnight air was colder than ever. Snowflakes touched the ground in a flock of white, like a big fluffy cloud blowing up into pieces.

The memory of where he was at the time his mother yelped in agony was blurry. He was probably in his bedroom sleeping, accompanied by one of his nannies. L recalled his nanny singing to him as an act to keep him asleep. The lullaby however, was cut short when his older brother came rushing into his room, much to the maids’ dismay.

L didn’t even open his eyes properly and he was already attack by a ball of energy, in the form of His Royal Highness the Prince of All Things Annoying right on his bed. His brother shook him so fiercely his head spin. It took him a lot of patience not to knock his brother right off the bed, that, and he also remembered that his brother was far bigger than him.

He was 3, his brother was 6.

And he was not kidding about the patience thing.

When he did manage to flutter his eyes open, L saw the unusual. His brother’s eyes were big and round, quite the opposite of his usual hamster-like eyes. The younger could sense an over-dose of excitement in those pair of coal-color eyes, and perhaps even a little fright behind all the happy act too.

“Sunggyu-nim,” The nanny addressed in a formal and polite tone, yet L could still hear that hint of annoyance in her voice, “What brings you here at this hour?”

The boy’s smile had fainted just a bit as he answered the woman, “Mamma’s giving birth! Mamma’s giving birth!” He exclaimed, eyes once again fixed on his younger brother, who was still looking a bit drowsy and sleepy, “Yah Kim Myungsoo!” He once again shook the younger boy, “Irona! Wake Up!”

The next thing L remembered was feathers, lots and lots of them. He also remembered his older brother falling off the bed, getting hit by a pillow, which was in L’s possession.

Ouch, and oops.

The two brothers started bickering. Well, the older bickered while L gave him a bored look. He questioned his brother’s uninvited visit to his room, which proved to be the wrong question to ask. The joy and excitement, wait, scratch that, the giddiness lit up the hamster eyes of Sunggyu, and he once again shouted right into L’s ears that their mother was giving birth.

Which was totally uncalled for, L frankly knew that statement already. His brother told him approximately 2 and half minutes ago, before he was pushed off the bed with a pillow. Nevertheless, Sunggyu continued to portray this newly giddy side of him, and all L could do was stay awake.

He didn’t remember the nanny exiting. He was too busy listening to his brother’s nonsense.

“I hear it’s a baby sister!”

“Do you know that babies stink? You sure did!”

“They cry a lot, and get tummy ache too. What’s their problem?”

“A sister means a girl. Eww! Is she going to have cooties?”

L remained silent because he was younger than Sunggyu, having to be three years younger. Not much happened when he was three, other than having to attend a few classes even though he can’t even talk properly yet. That year was almost as boring as the few years to come, with the exception of his little sister’s birth.

Sunggyu babbled a lot, shooting L with too many statements and questions. But he did fell asleep, they both did. It was not until dawn did they saw their mother. L remembered his older-turned-oldest brother grabbing his palm with the younger, joyfully walking through the halls to their parents’ bedroom. The knights guarding the chamber looked wary, but after a quick permission from L's father, they let them in.

A heavy smell of candles and strong medicine entered their noses. Sunggyu wrinkled his nose, covering it with his hand and letting go of his brother's. L eyes went straight to his mom. She was lying on the bed, exhausted and out of breath, but no one could have missed that shimmering happiness in her eyes.

Sitting on the bedside was her husband, Sunggyu and L’s father. At that moment, only proud and gratefulness overwhelmed him. He was not the usual strong and serious man L had grew up with for the last 3 years, he knew exactly how and who his father was.

A very powerful man. The most fearful man in the kingdom.

And yet it made L felt so confused and astonished, how a strong man like his father, could melt into a puddle of goo right in from of his beloved wife. The two were not the most lovable couple in the world, but somehow…

It did not matter.

But of course, L did not make these entire conclusions at that time. He was indeed just a three-year-old.

The newest member in the family was sleeping soundly in the woman’s care. L had never seen so much warmth and care in his mother’s eyes. It would be a lie if the boy said he was not jealous, because he was, very much.

He figured that his mother looked the same when she gave birth to him and his brother. Perhaps the love of a new mother was never one to look down upon.

The lady’s eyes glimmered more when she saw her two boys. She gave them a smile and a small nod, signalling the two to come to her. The two boys came closer and soon, both were on the bed, taking a peek of their new baby sister. Her eyes were close, therefore he did not know whether she had inherited the famous coal colored eyes from their father. Both Sunggyu and he did, though L's were slightly more brown, like coffee. He got that from his mother, who had hazel coloured eyes. Perhaps the baby had hazel eyes like their mother, he was curious of that.

The baby's skin was soft and fair, a few tones lighter than the lady, which was a lot to say. Her skin was so fair but it wasn't pale, just like the snow outside. No, she could rival the snow outside.

“She’s so small,” Sunggyu whispered.

Their parents let out a soft giggle, which surprised L, his father never giggled.

“The golden pearl of the South,” The woman said to her boys, “Kim Namjoo,”

“L-goon,” Naeun suddenly called the boy who lay beside her, her eyes still lock onto the stars twinkling above.

“Hurm?” L answered in a slightly lazy manner.

“Did I do the right thing?” She asked softly, almost like a whisper.

L did not answer the question immediately for he knew that she did not need his answer. For the past years of working for her, L had already known Naeun quite well. The former princess was quite different from other girls. She was not an average cowardly young lady. She was indeed very strong and intelligent too. But above all the traits that she possessed, the best she had was her ability to love.

L knew that whatever answer he’d give her did not matter, as she made her choice out of love for her brother. She knew that; he knew that.

Then why did she ask the question?

“Your Highness,” L started, “You acted out of love, where is the wrong in that?”

Naeun slightly jerked, caught off guard by the term ‘Your Highness’, “I did what I’ve done for Jaewoo,” She paused, “But looking back at my decision, I can’t help but feel so…Stupid and selfish,”

“Why?”

“As you know, I’ve lost both of my parents, Jaewoo is the only blood relative that I have,” The girl stated, “I wasn’t thinking about anything else when I agreed, just him,”

L remained silent, so she continued, “To lose him meant that I were to lose a huge part of my sanity, and I can’t have Hearts run by a mad Queen in the future,” She chuckled again.

L was about to respond but she continued, “I love him with all my heart; I didn’t care about anything or anyone else. I was only thinking about him and only him, not the consequences nor the future of Hearts.”

The boy could hear that soft desperation in her voice, and when she turned to look at him, he saw it in her eyes too, “Your Highne-”

“Don’t call me that!” She snapped, “I’ve forgotten my people. I don’t deserve that title,” Her voice croaked, and L knew it wasn’t because of her sore throat. Tears started to run down her cheeks, passing the smirk Naeun had carved on her lips before dropping to the ground

My people.

You never forgot about them, my princess.

Her tears kept running down, yet she didn’t do anything about it. The girl did not wipe them off nor did she shield herself from her knight. That smirk of hers was still there, a sign of her mocking herself for being so gullible and stupid, selfish and inconsiderate.

That was what she thought about herself.

But to L, she was wrong.

To him, her mask had broken; the veil had disappeared. Crying in front of him now was a lost and broken girl. People always said that problems were like puzzle pieces, but she was the puzzle herself, scattered and missing in so many places she could not solve it. Trying to solve it would challenge her own sanity, and L knew that she had so little of it now.

But he could help her, and he would.

Slow and steady. He reminded himself.

The young man pulled her into his embrace, soothing her in the cold air. Naeun’s head landed on his chest, and she finally let out everything she had bottled up for so long. At that moment, she was scared and tired, devastated and angry.

But she had him.

“Sunggyu Oppa!” A cheerful voice called from from behind. The man in question turned and found his little sister walking towards him.

“Namjoo? What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” She answered sarcastically, which he had long gotten used to.

She got it from Mother, figures.

“Yeah, you live in this castle, but here is my room,” He retorted.

Okay, I got that from Mother too. Oh what the heck, all of us got it from Mother.

The princess rolled her eyes as she walked and soon, she was standing right in front of him. She held onto the Crown Prince’s arm and asked, “Is it true Oppa? Is Myungsoo Oppa really coming back?”

The older cocked his eyebrow before dragging his sister to sit on the sofa with him, “Where did you hear that?”

The girl’s hazel eyes twinkled under the radiant light. She flashed a letter in front of Sunggyu, one that the boy failed to notice, “Crown Prince Sungjong sent this too me,” She exclaimed.

The boy smirked, “Ah, that retarded boy?”

Namjoo pursed her lips before hitting her brother’s arm, “Ow!” He yelped, “What was that for?”

“Serves you right,” She said, now giving him the infamous Kim smirk.

“Yah! Yah! Wipe that smirk off your face; you know you don’t look good with it,”

“As if you do,” She murmured.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh please Sunggyu Oppa, we both know that only Myungsoo Oppa is the master of smirking,”

“But he is not here now, is he?”

“Oh stop being so childish,” Namjoo sighed, suddenly impersonating their mother, the Queen, “He will be home less than a fortnight,”

Sunggyu shook his head, “Namjoo-ah,”

“Hurm?”

“Do me a favor,” He asked.

“What is it?”

“Don’t act like Mother, please,” He begged, earning a laugh from Namjoo.

“Oh Oppa, when will you change?”

“As soon as our father starts eating deserts, but I suppose that will not happen now, would it?”

The two siblings laughed. Somehow, whenever these two knocked heads with the other, everything would turn funny, courtesy of Sunggyu’s sarcasm and Namjoo’s sassiness, of course.

“He wrote you a letter? What does it say?”

Namjoo let out a small sigh, “As much as I love that boy, I can’t say that he was helping much,” Her head shook for a moment, “He only stated that Myungsoo Oppa sent them, King Sungyeol and him a letter, saying that Myungsoo Oppa will be stopping in Diamonds before coming home,”

Sunggyu nodded absentmindedly at his sister’s explanation, “How is that not helping?”

The princess looked at the letter in her hand, “He wrote me a very long letter Sunggyu Oppa,”

“And?”

“He only mentioned Myungsoo Oppa’s name twice,”

“Ah, I told you he was re-”

“Retarded?” Namjoo cut in, “Say that and I will give you a body flip,”

The young man let out a small laugh, “Ara, ara, sheesh,” He whined, which made Namjoo smiled.

“Twice or twenty times, Myungsoo Oppa is coming back. Sungjong would not lie to me,” The girl said, hope and longing filled her sweet voice.

Sunggyu smiled. It was no secret that Namjoo adored her second brother, even to the point of stalking sometime. It amazed him though, how Namjoo could remain so loyal and strong with a brother like that. Kim Myungsoo was not exactly…The friendliest brother out there.

Growing up, Sunggyu was the most nagging as well as the leader, being the eldest out of the three. Myungsoo stuck in the middle, silent and laid back. Some even said that he suffered from the middle child syndrome, whatever it was. Last, but certainly not least was the youngest and also, the only daughter in the family, Namjoo. The girl was always bright and cheerful, but she could be dead sarcastic and deadly terrifying too.

Ah, the perks of having such……Special parents.

Everyone in the castle adored Namjoo, as if she was the golden child. Despite his coldness and being distant towards the girl, Sunggyu knew that Myungsoo loved their sister as much as he did, but he just had trouble showing it. Or perhaps he did not want to show it. Either way, the love was there, just not being spoken out.

And Namjoo knew that too. She had tried so many times, asking her second brother to play with her, and he rejected her every time. Sunggyu was always the one who played with her, accompanied her. And for the last 18 years, nothing changed.

But she didn’t care. He was her brother, and she loved him all the same.

“Yeah, that boy is finally coming back,” Sunggyu agreed.

“I miss him Sunggyu Oppa,” Namjoo said.

The lad snorted, “Oh please, you were practically hugging his feet when our father announced he would leave Spades,” He teased.

“Oppa!”

“Eight…Nine…Ten,” Million.

L sighed on the ground of Dandelions, his eyes finally surrendering to sleep. He was quite surprised he made it this far. Between guarding the crown princess and basically getting bullied by his seniors, he just got 3 hours of sleep a week.

Pretty tough, even for his standards.

The lad felt something, or someone snuggled closer to him. He turned his head to the side and looked down, his eyes meeting the face of his favorite princess. The girl’s skin was extremely pale, worse that her usual milky skin. The boy suddenly remembered about his little sister having skin that could rival the snow.

But at the moment, Naeun was far beyond her.

 The girl had a few hair strands covering up the sides of her face, quite different from her usual style of a neat bun. But it did not matter, L still liked it anyways. He noticed that Naeun had snuggled closer for warmth, perhaps a tad too close. Not that he hated it. When you have a natural beauty snuggled up close to you, who were you to complain?

His hand reached to her cheek and forhead, removing the strands off her face. Somehow, L felt proud of himself. He had managed to save this fallen princess, letting her escape into a safer reality, taking her hand when no one else would.

“I’ll protect you, I promise,” He whispered and moved his head closer to hers, giving her a light kiss on the forehead.

I promise.

Suddenly, a faint sound of cannons was heard. The lad knew that the only reason they could not hear them clearly was because of their location, deep into the woods of Hearts. L's lips carved into a slight frown before sighing again. To his side, Naeun started whimpering and blurting out murmurs, a troubled, frighten look plastered on her face. L knew what was happening; his princess was having nightmares, as if sensing the troubles of the real world.

The young man wrapped his hands around Naeun, soothing her with comforting words and promises that only he could hear. He knew that they did not have much time left; he knew that the cannons meant that the Queen had announced war upon them. But she was asleep, and he was tired of running, a few more  moments like this couldn't hurt.

Breathing in the fresh air, he continued soothing the young girl, hugging her close as if she was his life. And perhaps, she was.

The lady in blue was tending her roses when she heard a knock on the front door. She quickly finished cutting the last bit of stem before leaving her garden to rush inside.

She went into the living room to get her three-year-old son. The last time she checked, the toddler was playing with his father but both of them were not there. In front of her was just a room fulle of small messes here and there.

“Jagiya!” She heard a loud and manly voice called, and immediately knew it was her husband’s. The voice had come from the front door, therefore she assumed that her husband had taken their child with him and answered the door.

She made her way through the halls. It only took her less than a minute to find her husband. She saw their son, Nam Isuel being carried by his father. The front door was widely open, which confused her a bit. Her husband usually did not trust strangers, heck, he did not even trust his associates.

“Yeobo?” She called, gaining her husband’s attention.

“Lady Park Chorong,” A crisp and very sharp voice addressed the woman. Goosebumps went up her skin; the voice gave her the chills. She knew that she had heard that voice from somewhere, but she could not remember where, or when.

Chorong stepped closer to her husband, and she was soon standing right behind him. Isuel started making gurgling noises, his eyes wandering around and around. A small giggle escaped from behind the crisp voice, amazed by the toddler’s cuteness.

Standing in front of the noble couple were 3 people. A young man in his early twenties dressed in a turtleneck and sweater with dark blue pants. Behind him stood a petite, pale girl in a floral yellow dress. She had her hair tied into a messy bun, as if she did not put much thinking into it. She stood too close to the lad, literally hiding behind his figure.

The last one, the one who giggled at Iseul looked around Chorong’s age. She had this sense of cheerful and bubbliness in her whereas the previous girl only showed nervous and fear. The last girl was dressed in a simple white dress. Chorong could see that it was slightly washed out and have a few sewing marks on it, showing that the dress was sewn by herself. The girl also had a sweater in her arms, one that matched the color of the shy girl’s dress.

The young man gave him a smile, one that she had not seen for a very long time.

“Myungsoo,”

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✉(A/N).

Important! -Inserts mysterious music- Dum Dum Dum...

Lol, okay. I got lazy, because like, a chapter in a month? Well, at least it's quite long...Right? Oh well. I've put in a big reveal in this chapter, one that I though would make a later reveal, but oh well. Our WooRong is in the house! Yeah, I love them c: -Flies off to lala land-

Let's play a game shall we? I want you guys to guess who the Kims' parents are. Now, I'm pretty sure every single one of us knows them, they're pretty famous. So, here's the clue: A famous variety show, Cookie, and an Angry Birds theme song. Can you guys guess who they are?

Woolim has release a statement regarding L's scandal issue, about him dating an ulzzang. But they had broken up because the've grown apart. Honestly, I'm disappointed, I thought that he would have pick someone...Oh I don't know, more like Naeun? I'm a hard-core MyungEun shipper, most of you guys must have known that already.

Many comments were made, both parties were hurt, but then again, I'm not going to be one of those 'inconsiderate' fans that call L a chicken. I support and adore him as a fan, and I will continue doing that, same goes to Naeun. I support them together and as individuals too. Idols are humans, and they make misatakes, we all do. L is not a Prince Charming, but I'm going to portray him as one in this story with Naesun. (But he's not a Gary-Stue though, I assure you that).

How about you guys? Share me your thoughts about this scandal (and this chapter), leave down a comment juseyo, and for the guesses too! A special prize (could we even call it a prize?) will be given!

PS: Syana-unnie, I know that you're a fan of ChoHan/Lurong, sorry if Woorong hurts you or anything. I name their son 'Isuel' after your screen name though. 'Isuel' means 'Dew', hope you like it c:

( h a r l e q u i n. )