Love must be the most powerful force that exists on Earth. It has the power to take you in the clouds and then, with a sweet smile, it pushes you to the ground until you’re buried deep. Love makes you feel useless, because it knows that there is no way for you to compel it. Jongin questioned the meaning of love at the moment he heard that Seulgi had been taken away from him. He was a kid, it is true, but does love have an age? That kind of pure feeling does have age? It was the first time that Jongin felt like he had been turned from a giant into an insect that you could easily step on. As soon as he heard about Seulgi’s situation, he wanted to help, but he had no idea how. Yet, knowing that she disappeared, the thought of never watching her quietly blush at every word he said or never looking her into the eyes it was hard to bear. He ran to the Palace as fast as he could hoping that someone knew something, hoping that maybe he would find her there. Minister Park welcomed him on the stairs of the tall building.

“Prince…” he murmured with a look of hurt flashing over his face. Minister Park was the only one who always stood by Jongin and he was his Father’s closest advisor.

“Minister Park, we have to do something! This morning I went to Seulgi’s house and she wasn’t there, her servant told me she was taken and everything was tattered.”

Minister Park hurried Jongin down the stairs while checking if anyone was watching them. “Prince, you have to listen to me. The situation right now is not favorable for you to create a fuss, too. I know that Seulgi was important to you, but right now there are more important things that you have to consider.”

“For the first time I want to think about things that truly matter to me. Please, just this time, let me think about a person’s well-being and not treat them as dust covering stones. We can’t blow people away like dust, we cannot act like people do not matter. At this moment, Seulgi matters for me.” Jongin sighed, his vision blurry from all the unshed tears. “I will do it by my own, then.”

Minister Park wanted to stop him somehow, but only ended watching Jongin’s retreating figure. He couldn’t go against the boy’s words, because they were true. Jongin had too much feelings for a ruler and it hurt Minister Park’s feelings to know that the boy had to learn it the hard way. The truth was too much to bear, even for an already grown-up boy like the Prince.

“You won’t ever make it by foot.” Jongin was startled to hear the voice, even if he was aware of the horse that kept following him for a long time.

He looked at the boy on top of the horse squinting his eyes, “What do you mean? Just leave me alone…”

“Prince, please come with me. I know where you want to be.” the boy stopped the horse in front of Jongin and the later furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“Who on Earth are you?” Jongin spat. He felt so much sorrow that he felt like at any time he could go out of his mind.

“I’m Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol.”, Chanyeol smiled as if his name was something that Jongin already knew. It was true, indeed. The boy that stood in front of him was Minister Park’s son, Park Chanyeol. “Now that the Prince knows my name I think we settled our relationship. Come on!”

Jongin didn’t have the slightest clue what was Chanyeol’s idea of the place he wanted to be at, but he had no choice. Indeed, the boy inspired him trust. They rode the horse throughout the forest and Chanyeol motioned for Jongin to get down, getting down himself after that and securing the horse next to a true. The taller boy told Jongin to keep quiet and to follow his lead.

They stopped on the edge of what seemed like a cliff. Down there was a road that seemed to be worn out by time. Jongin looked at Chanyeol as questioning him about their presence there. Chanyeol just pushed him down, on the ground. “They are coming. Your Royal Highness must keep quiet no matter what, alright?”

“I am not the Royal—“, Jongin was starting to say how he wasn’t the Crown Prince and therefore he couldn’t be called The Royal Highness, but Chanyeol shushed him as some people started to make their appearance on the road.

Jongin watched slowly as some guards made their way on the road, securing a litter. Yet, they didn’t all look like the Palace’s guards. They definitely had something foreign about them, and when he looked better he noticed they were Chinese. He started to feel panic rush all over him, but he waited, realizing how dangerous it would be for him to make a fuss right there. Jongin’s eye was rapidly caught by the row of people that came after the carriage, they looked like villagers, their hands were tied and those that felt tired and fell to the ground were harshly hit with some ropes. The Prince felt his stomach tighten at the sight, the anger was slowly building inside him. However, his eyes fell on the girl at the end of the row. Her clothes were partly ripped and her hair was down her shoulders, jet black. She barely walked and when tiredness wore her body out she stopped, the rope making contact with her back so hard that her head fell back. At that moment, Jongin felt like he reached madness. It was Seulgi. Her face was red and a trail of blood was coming down . His senses urged him to get up and free her, hold her, caress her, and more than anything, apologize. Chanyeol pushed him down to the ground guessing his thoughts. His harsh whispers caught Jongin’s attention immediately.

“Prince, all of those people are your people. Each and one of them. All of them must have families who grieve over their departure. There are children who miss their parent’s embrace and parents who miss the warmth of their children’s embrace. You are this nation’s King, now more than never, you are our King. You were born with a responsibility that you may find too much, but the Heavens put this weight on your shoulders because they knew you as the only one able to bear it. As of right now, you must want to do something reckless, but remember that it is better to close your eyes once, so when you fully open them to see clearer. You are weak now, but you can grow stronger. Watch all of this. The King has no control of the situation for he is bedridden, the Crown Prince left to live inside our enemy’s household and the Queen hates our country. Then I ask you, what is there left of the people? What are we meant to do? You must want to go there and free her, but will your heart let you leave without looking back at those people, your people?”

Jongin watched how to skies swallowed the red globe of light. It was the first time he wandered so far from the Palace and he was surprised how the Guards or Minister Park didn’t come after him. It had been such a hard day for him, but he couldn’t help but replay Chanyeol’s words inside his head like a book that he couldn’t stop re-reading. Every word of Chanyeol was true, he had been so selfish, and he didn’t realize that his duty was a great one. He was so confused about where to start and what to do that it felt