(+) gongzhu - princess

(*) baju melayu - a traditional clothes for men in malaysia

(*) baju kurung - a traditional clothes for women in malaysia

(*) sampin - a fancy clothing wrapped around one's waist when he wears the baju melayu

(*) songkok - an article that is usually worn on a men's head

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“Ready?” Luhan whispers to her as he lifted his hand mid-way across the air, wanting Alana to slip her hands into his. “Ready.” Alana nods to herself and naturally let her hand fall into Luhan’s soft but secure grip. “We got dem food, yo.” From behind, Baekhyun exclaims as he shoves the bag full of containers filled with cookies into the air. “Can you lovebirds stop? It’s annoying me, ugh.” Sehun whines and mumbles some incoherent words under his breath.

Luhan threw him a glare. “Why you-“ “Luhan.” Alana hisses with a stern voice. Luhan automatically obeys. He was still enchanted by how easily Alana could have made him listen to her orders. He was born a rebel, so he never really did followed order, but when he’s around her, Luhan slowly finds himself entertaining most of her commands.

”Haha, hyung can’t touch me because noona loves Sehun.” Childishly, the 16 year old sticks a tounge out to the 17 year old Chinese. “Sehun.” This time, it was Alana’s turn to glare. Sehun raises both of his arms up till his shoulders, as a sign of defeat. “Okay, okay.”

The rest of the EXO-K member snickers. Kyungsoo came to a realisation that Kai’s mind was elsewhere because all the boy had been doing for the past  15 minutes was stare into nothingness. The shorter male nudged Kai and followed Luhan’s lead, alongside with EXO-K. Jongin snaps out of his trance and shook his head. *You mustn’t feel this way.* He shakes his head, and walks away.

Stepping into Luhan’s school compound felt like a déjà vu for Alana. She remembers the day when she came here in search of Luhan and his friends to confront them. She was nervous that day, and so was she today. Feeling her nervousness, Luhan lightly placed his lips onto her knuckles to ease her a bit in which she laughed at. “Luhan, that tickles.” She giggles.

Luhan smiles at her, and his feet stops, ending their small and peaceful wall. Alana turned into a massive ball of nervousness again when she spots 5 familiar silhouettes from the back. The EXO-K boys all immediately stopped chatting amongst each other. They could feel the tension in the air as well.

Letting go of Luhan’s hand, Alana took a step forward and inhaled a breath in. For a moment, her eyes laid unmoving from the five figures by the big oak tree. The leaves from the trees nearby rustled when a gush of wind went by. Feeling a presence behind him, Yixing turned behind and got the shock of his life when he sees the most least expected person that he thought he would see.

Alana.

And behind her there was Luhan, and those 6 other boys that they had fought weeks earlier. Yixing hastily closes his Biology book and stands up. Minseok, Kris, Jongdae and Tao looks at him in surprise.

“Alana.” Yixing whispers, so soft that it almost couldn’t be heard past the strong wind. Faintly, Alana smiled. The remaining boys stood up with the same expression on their faces. Surprised, shocked, lightning-stricken. Their muscles tensed when they see the enemy behind here.

Alana takes another step forward. “They come here in peace.” She defends. Kris’ hard gaze lands on her eyes. With his deep eyes piercing into hers, he questions, “Why are you here?” Alana looks back at Luhan and the boys before doing something not even one of the m expected.

She kneeled down before the 5 of them. “Crown princess!” Yixing exclaims as he went forward to help her up. Alana brings a palm into the air and quickly says, “Don’t.” Luhan’s mouth fell open. His feet felt like it was glued onto the ground, and he couldn’t move. The rest of the boys all felt the same too. They were all too surprised to do anything. A figure brushed past Luhan and he notices it as Jongin’s. Jongin looks at her warily. “Get up.” He says, venomously. As a Prince himself, he knows that no royalty should kneel down to a person with lower degrees than themselves ever.

“No.” Stubornly, Alana utters. Jongin sighs inwardly. “Then I shall kneel down with you.”  Upon hearing this, the EXO-K boys gasps loudly, --- never had the Kim Jongin had kneeled down for someone before. “But Prince-“ Jongin cuts Junmyeon off when he lets he knees loose onto the ground. “Jongin…” Alana’s voice cracks as her tears threaten to fall.

“Alana, stand up, now.” Kris orders. He couldn’t bear to witness the scene any further. Having not one, but two royalties bowing to them, --- some nobles was enough to give him a heart attack for the day. Alana clenches her fists. “No. Not until you guys forgive me.”

The grass rustles next to her and she looks up to see Luhan kneeling as well. Her eyes soften. “Anything for you, gongzhu.” Alana looks at the two boys kneeling down with her and smiled. Not long later, the rest of EXO-K followed along, uttering their sincere apologies to Minseok, Kris, Yixing, Jongdae and Tao.

The 5 boys standing up heaves a sigh. Kris chuckled. Minseok talks for them. “You didn’t even have to apologise for us to forgive you.”

“So please, stand up now, crown princess.” Jongdae begged almost crawling on his knees to Alana. Yixing warmly smiled at all of them.

“Oh, okay.” Alana simply says and stands up. The moment the knees left the ground, her body was immediately engulfed into a hug, by the boy who goes by the name Zitao. “Jie jie, I’ve missed you sooooo much.” His grip tightens onto her waist as he rested his chin onto her shoulders. Already used to skinship, Alana pats his back and replies, “Me too, di di. Me too.” Alana feels her shoulders turning damp. She pulls away from the hug and looks into Tao’s eyes.

“Huang Zitao, are you crying?!”

Tao nods as he rubs his eyes in a pouting manner.

And so, the September afternoon went on like that, with the rest of the EXO-M boys taking turns to hug Alana, and the EXO-K boys ending up eating the cookies they had baked for EXO-M, initially.

__________

A few weeks had passed since that blissful day, and everything went on smoothly. The EXO-K boys and EXO-M boys got together to form EXO, and it was all thanks to Alana. In these few weeks Alana has spent time with all 12 boys, she realises the little thing of that the boys themselves didn’t know of. The fact how Sehun looks up to his Luhan hyung so much, how intimate Chanyeol and Kris are because of their height, how Junmyeon cares for Tao like his own son, and much more.

All in all, Alana could only say that their brother bond was simply unbreakable.

One fateful October morning, Alana was woken up by her trustworthy friend and butler. “Alana.” Jiho whispers. He waits for her reply in one second, two and follows on until he couldn’t contain his excitement anymore. He jumps onto her bed and screams, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALANA AZHAR!!!” Alana grunts in reply and threw the blanket off her face. Her body lifted together into the air and back to the bed as well because of Jiho’s jumps.

“WOO JIHO!!!” She shrieks and throws a pillow at his direction. Jiho only grins in reply and screams, “PILLOW FIGHT!!!!!” and starts to hit the princess with her own pillow. “YAH-“ Her constant rejections was cut off when a pillow hit her across the face. “OI!” She screams and takes another pillow into her hold. “Oh, it is sooooo on.”

__________

Half an hour later, the two adults were left breathless on Alana’s bed lying on their backs side by side. “I have called in the school to tell that you will be absent today and arranged your car to head to your mother’s and packed some fresh water and flowers for your mother-“

“Jiho.” Alana cuts him off and turns to face him.

He looks at her in a questioning matter. “Yes?”

“Is father home?” He voice came out, softer than the usual.

Jiho kept quiet for a few seconds before saying, “The King and Queen has set off to England earlier this morning.” Alana bit her lips and sighed. It was always like this, every single year. On her birthday, --- which also happens to be her mother’s death anniversary, her dad would go missing and never show up in person to wish her or even visit her late mother’s grave. “I hate dad so much.” Her lips trembles as she says those words.

“He is such a coward.” Tears fell from the corner of her eyes.

“Alana it’s not that-“ Jiho’s voice drowns under the ringing of the palace’s bell. He stands up from the bed and says, “I’ll go check up on who is that. Go get ready.”

Alana only continued to sob harder into her bed when she reminisces back the reason of her mother’s death. It all happened on her 4^th birthday.

__________

“Look at my little princess! All grown up and pretty in her little pink gown!” Queen Amelia, --- Alana’s mother exclaims when she sees her only baby girl walking down the stairs to her mother. “Mummmmmmy!” 4 year old Alana hurries down the stairs to reach her mother. “Oh, slow down honey you might trip and fall and drop your tiara.” Queen Amelia carries Alana off the stairs as everyone in the ballroom watch the sweet mother and daughter moment right before them.

“Mummy! I am going to blow the candles out now!” Alana adorably says as he brother, --- Alex carries her up so that her height would reach the marble table’s. “You look really pretty tonight.” Alex whispers as she giggles.

Before the little Alana could even make a wish, a gunshot was heard, causing the whole ballroom to erupt with screams. Alana was hastily pulled away from the cake by her mother, and her father went off in search for the guards. Her mom, Alex and Alana hid under the stairs nearby as the doors in the ballroom were all locked.

Alana remembered seeing blood. Lots of them.

She started to cry. Queen Amelia hushes her as Alex tried to pry open the secret getaway by the stairs. But it wouldn’t budge open.  “There’s another hidden room across the ballroom. I think we can get there in time before any one of them sees us.” Queen Amelia said.

“Mother.” Alex sternly says. “It’s too dangerous.” He shook his head.

Being the stubborn headed woman she was, Queen Amelia drags her children when she thinks the coast was clear. What she didn’t know was, the coast was never clear. “Mom!” Alex says in alert when he sees one man dressed all in black aiming his gun at them.

Queen Amelia gasps and pulls Alana away from being the target. The man in black pulls the trigger and it hits Alana’s mother right in the heart. She falls down onto the ground and Alana starts to cry again. She shook her mom’s cold body and all Queen Amelia could say was, “Stay safe, my child.” with a faint smile. After that, her eyelids closed, --- forever.

What happened next felt like a blur to Alana. She remembered her brother taking her to the secret room and leaving right after for revenge.  Alana remembered crying alone in the enclosed room and rocking her body from side to side to soother herself. It’s not until nightfall her father found her only to deliver news of her mother’s death and her brother’s coma. Could you imagine the burden of a 4 year old girl when she heard that news? She was only 4 years old; --- a child could only take so much.

__________

Back to the present, Alana can feel someone rubbing a thumb in circular motion on her back. Her shoulders went up and down as she sobbed louder into her bed. The person never stops comforting her until she has calmed down a bit. Lifting her head off the bed, she was more than surprised to find Luhan’s eyes staring back at hers.

“L-Luhan.” She hiccups.

“W-Why are you not in school?” She stammers and looks down to her fingers.

Luhan’s thumb never left her back. “Come here.” He says lightly and drags her body to his for a hug. Alana grips onto his back and let her head fall onto his chest, his palpitating heart soothing her more and more by the minute. As odd as this seems, she finds herself liking to listen to his heartbeat. She moves her head upwards and bit his left shoulder, --- that caught Luhan off guard but he let her do that anyway. His hold tightens onto her waist as he shoves his face into the crook of her neck.

Alana pulls away from his shoulder and starts to play with his soft brown hair. “I got worried of you when you weren’t at our usual spot today. So I ditched school and looked for you instead.” Luhan utters as his warm breath tickles her neck. She giggles. She pushes herself off him and looks into his eyes to say, “Will you go somewhere with me today?”

Without hesitation Luhan says, “Of course, gongzhu.”

__________

Alana eyes Luhan from head to toe. He was dressed in a silky black Baju Melayu, and a golden Sampin was neatly wrapped around his waist. On his head was a black Songkok that complimented his fair skin well. He fiddles with the buttons on his neck. “Uh… help?” Luhan says cheekily. Alana uncrosses her arms and let her fingers linger onto his exposed skin. Once she was done buttoning his Baju Melayu up, it was Luhan’s turn to eye her up and down.

The silk black Baju Kurung hugs her curves not too tightly, but perfectly that he could see what he wanted to see. She has a scarf over her head, --- just like how her religion teacher had when Luhan had seen her with the rest of the boys months ago. She looks different from usual but overall, she looks very nice. “Thanks, Luhan.” Alana says, jolting him. He smiles down at her and follows her out of her room.

Jiho hands her a basket and ushers her out of the palace. “Be back soon! And Luhan, take care of her, please.” Luhan nods firmly, and follows Alana into the limousine.

An hour later, the limousine arrives into the compound of a Muslim graveyard, and Alana steps out first to lead Luhan the way. She walks across the other graves politely, making sure not to step on them unnecessarily. Luhan respects this and follows her steps.

“We’re here.” Alana stops so suddenly that Luhan almost bumps into her.

Alana starts her prayers to her mom and Luhan kept quiet at one corner. He observed the grave. It has its own golden ring around it, because Alana’s mother was royalty after all. There were two tombstones, one at the front and one at the back which Luhan assumed to be on the face and leg, with words of language that he couldn’t read of.

Alana waters the grave and turns to look back at Luhan. “Would you want to?” Luhan nods and takes the bottle away from her hands, mimicking her moves earlier. “Good job.” She smiles. Luhan grins like a happy child and steps away from the grave.

After muttering a few other prayers, Alana only utters a, “I miss you.” before looking at Luhan to signal him that they were leaving. “So soon?” Luhan questions as he plays with his Songkok. “Dummy, that belongs on your head.” She laughs and places it onto Luhan’s head once more. “Can I talk to your mom?” He asks, cautiously. “Sure.”

Taking a step forward, Luhan sets one knee onto the ground and starts to speak to Queen Amelia. “Your highness.” He starts. “You have an amazing daughter, and a very strong son.” Luhan lets his hand to trace onto the words on the tombstone. “And I love your only daughter very much. She has changed me in the greatest ways possible and had shown me how cruel the world was. Despite that, she never gave up and kept moving. She knows what she wants and gets it done. She’s smart, beautiful, talented and responsible. She’s someone who I would idolise of.”

Luhan pauses to look back at Alana.

“And she makes me happy.”

“So please, allow me to love her.”

Luhan stands up, bows to the grave and pour some flowers onto it before slipping his hand into Alana’s. Her eyes were crystal, and he knew that any moment her tears would come falling. He quickly drags her into the car and pulls her into his embrace. He presses his lips onto her forehead and as the limousine moved, he looks into her eyes and whispers, “Let me make you happy now, gongzhu.”

And with that, Alana’s tears fell across her cheeks, too touched to mutter a reply.

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Hey! Haven't wrote in a time because of the whole lot of vendettas happening around me. Got the inspiration to get on my feet and type once more when Wu Fan's OST got released a few days ago! Enjoy this update and oh, Infinite's back with "Back"!

xoxo, Tuna.