The next day came with a public broadcast that had everyone at W.O.L.F. worried.  The transmitters couldn’t tune out the inevitable static that was due to how far underground we were.  I bit my lip in worry.  The outside world didn’t seem to be doing so well with the Subject missing.  The more concerning fact was that the Prince was gone as well.  People were suspected the Subjects had kidnapped him or the Prince had gone rouge and had escaped with them.  

The theories were endless and quite amusing to mostly everyone in the hideout.  I was beyond stressed.  I glanced over at the alcove Jaehyo was being kept.  Unlike the others, it was closed off with spikes of glass, blocking off entry and exit.  The guilt was eating inside me too see him in there.  His clothes were worn and tattered.  His hair was unkempt and the black rings around his eyes emphasized the level of humility he must have been feeling.  Jaehyo had been reduced from a Prince to a prisoner in the matter of seconds.  It wasn’t very befitting of him.  Jaehyo was a pompous brat now but I couldn’t help think of him as a broken boy like he’d been when we first met.

The lights had dimmed and the spotlight shone on the staircase where the Chancellor and his wife would be making their appearance.  It was coronation day.  A light strawberry scent filled the room and the guests began to clap with the announcement of the new Chancellor.  The air was saturated with the special fumes my father said it would be.  I took the small pill out of my little purse and swallowed it immediately.  Father had said the strawberry would make me want to do things I usually didn’t.  I was only twelve but I knew what he meant.  It was meant to intoxicate and put the guests under the influence.

“How did you get one of those?” a voice said behind me.

It was a boy with dark brown hair and large brown eyes.  His fringe fell perfectly in front of his left eye which happened to be glaring at me.  My eyes focused away from his eyes and to the rest of his face.  The boy was angry.  His flawlessly sculpted eyebrows had knitted together and the corners of his lips had turned down.  He was my age but taller, and even though I shouldn’t have been intimidated, I was.  His figure loomed over me, threateningly.

“My father.  He’s the Chancellor’s Head Researcher of Sciences,” I replied with false confidence.  Obviously I wasn’t the important person in the situation, my father was.  I was only hiding behind his title.  For some reason, I felt the need to explain myself, as if I were getting into trouble and I was about to be scolded.  That would have been ridiculous seeing as it was only a mere boy my age that had caught me.

The boy softened and nodded.  He uncrossed his arms, letting them fall to his sides and shifted his attention to the Chancellor and his wife.

“They look happy, don’t they?” he asked, sadly.

I nodded.  “Of course.  They’ve been passed down the position of royalty.  They’d be crazy not to be happy.”

The boy turned to me then, tears in eyes.  “Being royalty isn’t as happy as you think.”

It was then I was able to realize who the boy was.  I supposed I should have bowed down at that point.  I had been talking to the Prince the whole time.  Yet, I couldn’t do that.  That would have gone against the whole point of our conversation.  Instead I pulled him into a hug.  He looked like he really needed it.

“ royalty,” I whispered, using the dirty words I learned from the kids in school.  Father had made me promise I’d never say them again but this situation seemed appropriate to use it.

Back then, Jaehyo had laughed it off.  Back then he’d been supportive of rebelling against his father.  We grew close because of the way his father treated him.  I’d always been there to make him forget.  Until that day, the day everything changed, inevitably Jaehyo had too.

~

Junmyeon stared at her, half of his attention on the transmissions and the other half on her.  He was confused.  He didn’t know why he was thinking things he shouldn’t have been thinking.  He was glad the other ones didn’t have telepathic Gifts.  With a nudge to his elbow, his attention snapped back to plan they were trying to formulate with W.O.L.F.  He looked over to see who’d done it and relaxed when he saw it was Yifan.

“You can’t have her, Junmyeon,” Yifan said, pointedly.

Junmyeon rubbed his face and looked over at the W.O.L.F representative, who kept blabbering endlessly with his foolish plans.  Everything the man had suggested had been idiotic and it had taken all of Junmyeon’s patience to remain calm with all his rejections.  With a heavy sigh he looked at Yifan with a curt nod, signaling they’d arrange a break.

“Excuse me, I think we all need to sit for a while and just think,” Junmyeon said.  “We’re getting nowhere.”

The W.O.L.F representative flushed and nodded, gathering all his papers and left them alone.  Yifan rounded on Junmyeon almost immediately.  Junmyeon might have been intimidated if he believed Yifan would do anything to him.  He knew Yifan was harmless and so he sat without shying away.

“This is unlike you, Guardian.  What is it with her?  Why do you keep staring at her like she’s a piece of meat?” Yifan asked, de