(+) ni hai hao ma - are you alright

(+) gongzhu - princess

(+) bie - don't

(+) zhishi ... liu zai wo shenbian - just ... stay with me please

(+) bao bei - baby ((petname that lovers give to each other))

(!) sad scene alert!

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Alana wakes up to a marvelous view ahead. She eyes the sleeping figure before her and stretches an arm to caress his sleeping face. Despite being on the same bed, Luhan and Alana were no closer than 10 inches apart. That just shows how much Luhan respects her and Alana likes that. A lot. Her lips automatically lift up to form a smile as she traces the outline of his face.

Luhan wakes up to stare at his own reflection through a pair of soft brown orbs. It was hers. Alana gasps and pulls her hand away only to have her body brought closer to his. Luhan had quietly slithered his arms around her waist when Alana was busy retrieving from her mild shock.

“L-Luhan!” Alana says clumsily, although her intention was not to stutter and make a fool out of herself. But she did anyway, and that made Luhan feel overjoyed knowing that his loved one also felt nervous around him. She rests the palms of her hand onto his chest to push him away, as her body still aches from yesterday’s events.

“It-It hurts …” She whimpers, and Luhan immediately loosen his touch on her and peers into her eyes lovingly yet worriedly. “Yah, Alana … ni hai hao ma?” Alana bit on her lips hard and sunk her nails into Luhan’s biceps. “Gongzhu!” Luhan exclaims, feeling her pain together with her. “Should I call the royal doctor over?” He makes a motion to hop off the bed, but Alana pried him down. “Bie! Zhishi … Liu zai wo shenbian.”

“Are you sure?” Luhan looks at her, unsure. She hides her face into his neck and in a breath. “Hmm…” She muttered, inhaling his sweet, intoxicating smell. He utters a quiet apology before placing his lips onto her forehead.

After some time, Alana finally speaks, “Luhan, it’s time for you to go.”

“Already?” He whines.

“Luhan.” She speaks, her directing tone appearing.

“Okay, okay, gongzhu. Just … take care, okay? I’ll be back after your tailoring session ends.” He combs his hand through her rich brown hair and gets off the bed, to jump off the window.

“You should try going out through the door like a normal human being sometimes.” Alana snorted.

“You should try taming your father.” Luhan retorts, quickly.

“Oh,” came her reply.

With one final nod, Luhan hops off the palace and landed gracefully onto the grassy ground.

_________

Alana huffs a breath as the maids and tailors went around her in a rush like a blur motion. Her body still aches and she beg to differ. With the final touch of her dress, a maid called out to her and said, “Princess, your tiara.”

Alana steps off the platform and made her way towards the said maid with the tiara. Her mother’s tiara when she lived. She touches the tiara with a soft smile. Her mother didn’t make it long enough to step up to be Queen. Her life ended short and hastily, and this was the last crown she had worn. Alana wonders would her mother would say if she was alive today, to see Alana wearing her tiara.

Slipping it on, she stares at herself in the mirror and gave herself a smile.

“You look just like your mother, Princess.” The head maid, Sara, said. Usually Alana would be mad when someone speaks of her mother but because Sara had served her family for so long, she let it be and smiles at her. “Thank you.” Alana replies. The tailors and maids stared at her beauty in awe.

The room’s door creaked open, and that caught Alana’s attention. She looks through the reflection of the mirror to see Luhan in a dashing set of black and white suit, with a bow tie. His hair was beautifully styled up as well. All in all, Luhan looks beyond the average handsome man.

The maids and tailors took this as a sign to leave, and with one final look, they all left the room, shutting the door close in the process.

“You look absolutely stunning.” Luhan said, breath taken.

Hearing this from Luhan himself, made Alana blush, abashed. His compliments mattered more than anything else in the world. He nears her from behind and stands next to her to look at the both of their reflection in the mirror.

“Hey, we actually look good with each other.” Luhan jokes, in attempt to lighten her spirits. Luhan knew the coronation meant the world to her and that she was nervous.

Alana tilts her head and looks at him with a small smile. “You think so?”

Luhan nods profusely. “Read your speech?” He asks.

She nods in reply. “Learned it by heart, till the very end.”

“I wish you the best.” He whispers, and pecks her temples. “If you are almost at fault, just remember me and you’ll be okay. I’ll be right there with you every second of the coronation.”

Alana chuckles at his self confidence. “Alright, soldier.”

He scrunches his nose in an annoyed matter. “It’s bao bei to you, sweetheart.”

Pushing his face away from hers, she scrunches her nose as well and utters a soft, “cheesy,” before laughing it off.

__________

Alana steps up onto the podium once the Sultan has finished his speech. She held in her breath as she looked upon the thousands of thousands of bodies that showed up for her coronation. Her eyes soften as they landed on her people. She was up next. She was the future Queen and she will be the one that will change her people’s lives in the future. Alana would be the first Queen that could overcome poverty. She had it all planned up in that tiny mind of hers.

Her palms turned sweaty as the citizens’ waits for their new Princess to say her speech. Most of them yawned in boredom, already knowing what kind of standard speech a normal Princess would say. Heck, she might not have even written the speech herself.

But Alana was determined to show them different. She wanted to prove them that she will be the change to their world.

“Assalamualaikum and good morning. My name is Alana Azhar.” She her lips and searches the crowd for one particular face that would be the pillar to her everything.

Once she spots him, she forces herself not to break into a grin on the podium with thousands and thousands of eyes watching her. His eyes were locked onto hers as well.

Gaining courage from seeing his pure smile, Alana gathered all the strength she has left and starts, “And I am your new Crown Princess.”

__________

The crowd breaks into a loud applause, some even standing and some even tearing up due to her heart-whelming speech. The Sultan looks at his daughter from the sideline and smiles to himself; --- he had certainly chosen the right one to take over his throne in the future. So be it, she was not a male, --- but his daughter, Alana, owned a mentality better than a male, and Sultan Azhar was sure that Alana could lead this country on the right path in the future.

Alana steps off the podium with a large smile. She had done it. She had proven the world that she would be the change of her country’s future.

Alana settles herself in her assigned car as the Sultan and his Queen parted ways with her into another car. Jiho hopped on with her and congratulated her on her great speech. She grins in return and tells him that it was thank to him that she did not stuttered in front of the entire nation, as she wasted most of Jiho’s time practicing the speech in front of him.

Jiho just meekly smiled.

All of a sudden, the car came to a screeching halt. “Driver?” Alana cautiously asked.

“We are in deep trouble.” The driver says, his tone sounding deadly.

A series of non-stop gun shots were heard. Alana hunched over her seat as a normal reflex motion. Jiho hovers over her and puts his blazer over her head, hushing her to not make a single move while he goes out to check on some things.

Alana pulls Jiho to a stop. With watery eyes, she says, “Woo Jiho, don’t you dare take another step. You and I both know the Japanese are here and if you were to take a step out, you know you are no longer a living man.”

Another gunshot was heard, but this time is sounded like it came from the front. Alana looks at her driver in horror when she hears the glass of the window to the car breaks, a bullet already in her driver’s skull. He was already a dead man.

“Don’t look, princess!” Jiho tries to divert her attention, but being the stubborn girl she was, Alana still stared.

“I have to go Alana. This is my duty. This is my destiny. It is my duty to serve and protect you, and if I die doing that, I would die a happy man.” Jiho places a hand onto the car’s door.

“Ji, please.” Alana begs, tears, threatening to fall from her eyes. “You’re the last family I’ve got, Ji.”

Jiho takes off the locket that he always wears around his neck. He unclenches Alana’s fist and kept the locket in there. “In here, there are happy memories Alana-ah, so when you’re feeling a little sad and blue, just open it and you’ll immediately smile.”

“Jiho, please don’t.” Alana gives a final tries and claws her fingers deep into her friend’s skin.

“Alana, if this is where my live ends, I don’t have to worry no more, I don’t have to protect you no more, you already have Luhan with you.” Jiho breathes, heavily and pauses.

“And Alana, remember that little dream you always thought of since when you were a child? You’re halfway through. Even when I’m gone, even when I’m not there next to you to defend you, please fight for it, fight for it, because it’s not just your dreams, it’s our dream, Alana.” Jiho lands his lips on her forehead, for a final brotherly peck.

With that, he sprints off the car, more gunshots filling the air, and more pieces of Alana’s heart breaking.

“Woo Jiho!” She screams as she watches his body stumbles onto the ground, and she remembers not feeling anything from her heart anymore, she remembers not feeling human anymore, and the memories of her mother’s assassination played on her mind like a broken cd player, as it rewinds over and over, at the brink of her mother’s death.

The car door on her side opens, to reveal Luhan, and she lunges towards him and cries, she cries after eleven years keeping it in, the almighty Alana finally breaks down and cries as she mourn over the loss of her best friend.

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Hey there! I'm back after a long time keke. A lot of things has happened, and it took me sometime to get over it. Although I'm not an EXO-L but seeing Luhan leaving his group did hurt me as much as it hurt you. At first I was really happy that he was doing what he wants to do, but then I realised that I was probably never going to see him sing up on stage again. But yet again, nothing's ever sure for real, I mean look at Yifan right now, his popularity is topping off the charts, and he even wrote his own song! Maybe, just maybe when Luhan gets better, he might come across a thought to get back into the singing and dancing industry. Let's just put that aside, and wish for his health right now because that's all that matters. And oh, I miss this deer more than anyone could imagine. It's like when he left, he took half of my soul away as well.

Now back to the story. I am so sorry I had to take Jiho away from you, and half of you are probably confused as heck with this chapter, but it will be explaine in the upcoming chapters and your doubts will be cleared.

Have a nice day and take care everyone!

xoxo, Tuna.