Chapter Two

For the first time in many years, Kyuhyun was finally given a soft and warm bed to sleep on. It surely was a large improvement, as he had spent more than half of his life on a cold and hard pavement, snuggled up against an even colder building.

However, Kyuhyun didn't sleep.

Kyuhyun was quite certain he had made the wrong decision to join this Civiltry alliance, trial or not. Even though he had idolized this secret alliance and always wished he had been part of it, he now knew they were idiots.

Only idiots make an attempt on saving someone from the gallows.

They'd surprised him when he was asked if he could help out, and he hadn't thought clearly when he had answered. Well, maybe that meant he belonged with Civiltry after all; he surely was just as big of an idiot as they all seemed to be.

Saving someone from the gallows, what were they thinking?

Kyuhyun sighed and turned around for the nth time that night. He didn't want to say it out loud, but he had gotten too used to the pavement that the softness of the bed was more of a punishment than a reward. No matter how he was lying, his body couldn't get used to the way it sunk into the soft mattress and how his head sunk into the even softer pillow.

The room's door suddenly opened and Kyuhyun stopped breathing as if he wasn't supposed to be there. Call it a habit, the only time he was inside a house was after he had broken in. and whenever someone suddenly turned up, he had to hide and basically vanish as if he wasn't really there. He had never failed to do so before.

As Kyuhyun slept on the upper bed from a bunk bed, he couldn't help but curse silently as the person who had just walked in happened to chose the bed below Kyuhyun's out of all the empty beds available in the room.

Kyuhyun listened how the person sat down on the bed and sighed loudly. Kyuhyun wondered who it was; Heechul? Ryeowook? Jungsu? He silently leaned over the edge to peak at whoever was below him and was greeted by a pair of brown eyes who stared straight at him, the eyes of someone he had never seen before.

The person fell backwards as soon as he laid eyes on Kyuhyun and breathed heavily, holding his chest in response to the shock.

"You scared the hell out of me!" he semi-shouted, and Kyuhyun instantly moved back and laid on his back, also quite startled. He hadn't known more people slept here -the large number of beds not hinting him at all-, and Kyuhyun didn't really feel comfortable having a complete stranger sleeping right below him. Below him, from all places.

A face suddenly popped up next to Kyuhyun, "You had to pick hyung's bed out of all beds, huh?" he remarked. 

"I... Guess?" he answered, having no idea what the other was trying to indicate. 

Jungsu had told him to pick any bed to sleep in and all beds had been unmade, indicating that they hadn't been preoccupied. As far as he knew, the beds were no one's. 

"I'm Henry Lau by the way, who are you? Are you new? What is your specialty? Did you join today?" Henry asked, eagerly placing his arms on the side of Kyuhyun's chosen bed and staring at him utterly curious. He was a bit too enthusiastic for Kyuhyun's liking, especially at 3 in the morning.

"I'm trying to sleep," he retorted cantankerous, turning away from Henry's smiling face as he spoke. To give more meaning to his gesture and to show that he was being serious, he pulled up his blanket a little more.

"Sorry.." Henry mumbled, before stepping down of his bed back onto the ground. Kyuhyun could hear him undress and laying down in the bed below him. "Goodnight stranger," he mumbled disappointedly.

"Night," Kyuhyun replied loudly, already looking forward to continuing his night without any sleep and with a stranger sleeping right below him. Wasn't he lucky.

Henry clutched his bow a little more as he made way towards the upper-class district of Haven. To say that he was anxious was an understatement, but aside from that he was also excited; this was his very first mission for Civiltry as a full member. He had succeeded his trial mere days earlier and couldn't be happier.

It came with responsibilities though, and he knew that even though he had just a small thing to do, it could still end up getting dangerous. After all, firing an arrow with a threatening letter at the royal gate wasn't something everyone could do and get away with.

He glanced back to make sure Jongwoon was following him as he'd promised he would. Even though Henry was now a full member and fully aware of the dangers his job could get him in, Jongwoon had convinced Jungsu to let him trail Henry so he could help him out when needed. Having a sniper in their team was rare and they didn't want to lose him on his first job already.

Jungsu had agreed, seeming more happy with Jongwoon's suggestion than he should have been, and that had been when Henry started to worry about his duty. If Jungsu believed he should be guarded by one of their oldest and best members, the simple task that was given to him might not be that easy as he had thought all along.

Henry sighed and clutched his bow even more as he didn't see Jongwoon trailing him. He knew he wasn't supposed to see him anyway, knowing that it was Jongwoon's job to assassinate people and to be unseen by everyone, it still amazed Henry that it was actually possible to be unseen. Then again, Jongwoon might have forgotten he was supposed to follow Henry, and in that case, Henry was indeed alone on the job. Henry silently wished Jongwoon wouldn't have forgotten about him and his very first, possibly dangerous, task.

As he entered the upper-class district, people started to stare at him. Henry had tried his best to look neat and rich, but he had most likely failed. He wondered if Jungsu had noticed it before Henry had left to do his job, but figured that even if he had, he couldn't have done anything about it anyway. Civiltry wasn't rich; they were lucky to have something to eat for everyone present in the evening.

"Are you lost, boy?" A man with a high hat asked Henry and came walking up to him.

"I'm fine," Henry replied rapidly, earning himself a very confused and mildly suspicious look from the man. Henry ignored it and turned to walk away from the man. He had no time for making up excuses, neither was he interested in chatting with any of these rich jerks with gold high up in their asses.

It was quite a long distance walk, luckily mostly uninterrupted, but eventually Henry saw what he was looking for. The castle of the King, mightily rising above all other buildings. The gate wasn't in view yet