~Chapter 10~

A Long Time

Minho’s POV~

With a swing of his spear, Taemin stops the arrow mid-air and cuts it in half. The arrow drops to the ground with a clink. All of the attention is on Taemin now. His quick and skilled move brought gasps in the air and whispers of shock and compliments. Jonghyun looks at his dongsaeng with wide eyes. If it weren’t for Taemin’s quick thinking, he would’ve died. “There’s nothing to see here, keep training,” Taemin says after a few seconds. Everyone was forced to look away and continue their activities, but the chatter carries on.

“Hyung I-” Taemin raises his hand up to stop Gun Tae from talking.

“Never use a bow again,” Taemin says harshly. “I don’t want you to hurt anyone by accident,” he turns, grabs his training sword and looks at me. “Hyung, I need to talk to you.”

“Hyung, I stopped the bow.”

“I know; I’m proud of you. We’ve been practicing for not too long now, and you already perfected it.”

“If I didn’t stop the arrow hyung could’ve-”

“Just because you had nightmares about arrows doesn’t mean that they’ll hurt you. You won’t get hurt by them, not on my watch. I’ll teach you everything I know about them. I’ll teach you the angles, the strategies, the types, and when you learned everything I know, I’ll find out other information to teach you. I won’t let those nightmares come true. If anything, I’ll stick to you like glue and keep you safe.” Clap. Clap. Clap. I turn around and see a familiar pair of eyes stare at me, taunting me. His face is covered with a black cloth and his dark clothing doesn’t give off a good vibe either.

“Well said. Too bad you can’t keep your promise,” the male says. “Hey, doesn’t this seem ironic? I’m wearing black and you are wearing all white. It’s almost like it’s fated that we duel here.” With that said the male runs toward me with his black bladed sword. I quickly move to the side and hit the edge of his sword with my flute. Taemin throws his sword at me and I catch it, exchanging hits with the mysterious male.

Eventually, we disarm each other- I disarmed him with a sword technique while he flips over, grabbing my sword with his two feet. I jump forward and grab him by his shoulders. He gets up and grabs me as well, trying to wrestle me down. While I was distracted by his strong grip, he wraps his leg around the back of mine and trips me. I fall over and drag him down as well. We roll on the ground, exchanging moves and trying to hit each other, surprisingly, we both manage to dodge really well. With a wave of our arms, I tear off his black face cover while he unveils my face. “Long time no see, Your Majesty,” Joon hyung smirks and tosses my face covering back to me. I catch it with ease and throw his black cloth back.

“Indeed. It has been six years if I’m not mistaken.”

“More or less,” he shrugs.

“Taemin, this is–” I turn see no sign of Taemin. Did he run off to find help?

“Your little hero is pretty mysterious, isn’t he? I hope I can meet him soon.” Joon hyung salutes me with two fingers and jumps over the wall, disappearing out of sight.

Naeun’s POV~

I take a deep breath and walk toward the training area. I need to see Taemin oppa and make sure he’s okay. I haven’t seen him for the past few days. I need to apologize and I need him to not hate me…I nearly scream as a person flies past me. I squint my eyes and look at the person–Taemin oppa. I dash after him and to my surprise, he was out of sight. I roam around and search for him. “Where could he be?” I say aloud. I hear a door closing in the distance and run toward the noise.

I end up in front of Taemin hyung’s room, greeting me was Key oppa. “What are you doing here?” we both say in unison. Oppa quickly places his finger in front of my lips and shush me. Hey motions with his hands and I move closer to him.

“Taemin,” he whispers in my ear. “He’s been acting really odd. You weren’t at peactice earlier, but Taemin saved Jonghyun hyung’s life by stopping an arrow with a spear that he never used before.”

“And?”

“So, I think he is a spy.”

“A spy?!” Key oppa covers my mouth with his hand and glares at me.

“Yes,” he nods. “You know that His Majesty has been making sure people of the martial realm are not a threat to him.”

“How does this have to do with Taemin oppa?”

“Haven’t you noticed? As a servant, he is skilled, more skilled than some heroes in fact. He also has a lot of respect from others and yet he isn’t even a sunbae. Doesn’t that sound fishy to you?”

“I think your job is getting to you. You’re too suspicious.” I move pass him and push the doors open. I step inside and surprisingly see no one. “Are you kidding me?”

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s not in here!” I yell and Key oppa dashes in, scanning the empty room. “What happened? I was sure that he came in here.”

“Something’s wrong.”

“Oh stop being so suspicious–”

“No seriously,” Key oppa cuts me off. “When have you ever seen Taemin’s room truly neat?” He pauses and allows me to think. It’s true. I always remember Taemin oppa rummaging through his piles and piles of stuff whenever I passed by his room while the door was opened. Even when the heroes were checking rooms his area was messy. “Also, why would he suddenly run to his room, clean it, and disappear?” It makes no sense. “Exactly,” Where could he be? “Not to mention the fact that he even packed his things.” Key oppa swipes his finger across Taemin oppa’s empty cabinet. He shows me his finger and surprisingly, there wasn’t any dust on it.

“Wow he cleaned up good didn’t he?” I shake my head. “Where did he go?”

Taemin’s POV~

“I barely escaped! Joon hyung…Ohmygosh that was Joon hyung,” I pant and flip my bangs off my sweaty forehead. “Damn that was close.” I lay down onto the ground, breathing harshly. I gulp down my last water bottle from Seoul and sit up. A few kids are currently staring at me with open mouths. I awkwardly smile and they walk away in a painfully slow pace. I get up and swing my bag over my shoulder. Once again I flip my bangs in place and trot down the road.

Why in the world is Joon hyung here anyways? I thought that I would never see him here. No wonder why Onew hyung was making such a fuss…but couldn’t he have given me a hint!? Man seriously, he doesn’t want me to kill his damn lover but he couldn’t bother to at least give me a little notification!? Oh yeah, no texting…Well whatever! I was so close to killing him! What if I killed hyung with my sword since I was protecting Minho hyung? What if I was so much in shock that I knocked him out and he dies?! Oh my goodness there was so many ways I could have killed him! Damn you Onew hyung, always making me feel guilty and scared…

 I walk toward the direction of the mountain with the magical old guy. I was going to head over there a long time ago, but I just never found the chance. Now that Joon hyung suddenly showed up, I finally found the chance to leave. I need to go to him and find a way to save Kai. He gave me his life bead thingy and he is getting weaker and weaker each day…It’s all my fault. I can’t leave him like that.

Not to mention Gun Tae’s issue. He has this broken jade piece you see, and he said it was from his family. Since he lost them, he assumes that they are dead. I think that there’s hope…Gun Tae actually broke part of his jade piece and gave it to me, saying that I was just like family. I have it on the necklace next to my magic charm actually. Maybe if I show the jade to the old man, he can identify it with his magic or something. I’m sure he can tell me if Gun Tae’s family is alive or not.

I need a check up on myself too…After the incident, my health has been terrible. Well, at least I think so. For some reason I find it hard to breathe sometimes and I get lightheaded often. I thought my limbs are used to my chains by now, but now, my wrists and ankles are bruised…all the time. That’s not natural, I know that much. I know he’s no doctor, but I’m sure his magic will be a bit useful! I just need answers...