It was the second chaotic breakfast in a row. the backup team consisting of Changmin, Yunho, Kyuhyun and their respective team members arrived to ensure that another episode like the shooting was prevented for the return leg.

Jinhwan was surprisingly friendly and was obviously a big fan of Taehyun. He kept asking the youngest member various question and interesting tidbits that happen during their various fan meetings. He was pretty much ignoring the looks from Mino who was listening uncomfortably but trying his best to not squirm in his seat.

A small selfish and petty part of Taehyun wanted to dislike Jinhwan but he found he found it really hard to since Jinhwan came across is really nice and sweet. In fact, he actually felt bad that he had to keep a lot of things from the guy just because Taehyun was not allowed to talk to an outsider. It was the order from the Palace.

“I still cannot believe that you got shot.” Seungyoon suddenly said out loud as he looked at the prince.

“I don’t think it is wise to say that out loud. It is a national secret. You cannot keep parading that information about.” Seunghyun said. His lips were drawn together in a thin hard line.

“I know. What do you think I am, stupid? Wait, haven’t you quit your job?” Seungyoon rolled his eyes.

“I did and tried but they won’t let me. Apparently, I am friends with Mino’s brothers so… I can do a lot of stupid stuff and they still won’t fire me.”

“Where is Jiwon?” Hanbin suddenly asked.

“He is out there doing undercover work. He may or may have a lead as to our problem out there.” Changmin informed.

“Wait while I translate that. Is that the spy language for : We don’t have any idea what the hell is going on?” Seungyoon asked as he munched on his breakfast.

“You could at least try to be nice.” Jinwoo chided.

“I am not the one who dragged Taehyun and all of you all the way to Jeju Island to get shot.” Seungyoon defended his stand. “Who knew you were here anyway? I mean how did this get out?”

“That is a very good question. How did this get out? Who else knows?” Jinhwan asked.

“Well, first and foremost, the whole Winner group does.” Seunghyun said.

“Yah! We would never…” Seunghoon snapped.

“I know and I don’t think it was any of you but there are a lot of people involved.” Seunghyun said as he placed two boxes of cornflakes on the table.

“You have stylists, managers, hairdressers, camera crew and practically everyone. All it takes is just one forgotten cell phone.” Yunho supplied.   

“So since you don’t know how the one who tried to shoot me find out. What are you going to do? Put me under quarantine?” Mino asked.

“In fact, we did propose this to your family. They were not opposed to the idea but eventually they discarded the idea.” Kyuhyun announced causing Mino to get out a huff.

“That is because it violates the fundamental human rights.” Taehyun answered seriously.

Everyone turned to look at the maknae when he spoke but Taehyun was just focused on Kyuhyun what just said to notice anything else.

“He is a prince and to keep him safe is of the utmost importance.” Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow at Taehyun.

“I totally agree but you can’t just lock him away. The Royal Family has the entire commissioned police force and secret service at their disposal. It must be possible to track that… that person. You are looking at thousands of brains to help you think.” Taehyun pointed out.

“And to find out whom exactly will benefit from killing you.” Seungyoon continued looking at Mino while he handed two pieces of buns with the raisins removed to his maknae.

“Seungyoon is right. You have any cousin who does not like your family and will be directly in line for the throne when all of you die?” Jinwoo asked.

“We have checked and it is not them.” Changmin responded.

“Anyway, I have no crazy relatives who want to see us dead. It must be some anti royalist or something.”

Yunho shook his head as he leaned against the kitchen counter, “I think he is an intern. He knew your location way too well. If he really found that out via…” He made little air quotes. “A lost cell phone, it has to been an amazing set.”

“It cannot be someone from our side. They are family.” Seungyoon insisted.

“So are our guys. So who is it then?” Kyuhyun nodded.

Mino stabbed at his bun on his plate a few times, “Yes, so who is it then?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Taehyun slipped away when everyone was focused on settling their luggage and made his way upstairs to find Jinhwan.

He had to at least talk to him. He needed to let Jinhwan know. It was unfair for him not to know anything at the same time it was unfair for Mino not to tell him as well.

Taehyun carefully knocked on the door of Jinhwan’s room and was immediately answered by a cheerful “Come in!” Taehyun did go in instantly.

The room was almost completely tidied up. It was only the bed that was covered by clothes which Jinhwan was carefully folding into his luggage. When he noticed that it was Taehyun, he turned and smiled cheerfully.

“Hello Taehyun.”

“Hello.” Taehyun replied but his fingers could not help but fidget nervously.

“Are you still worried about what happened yesterday? Don’t worry though they sent more backup today to make sure we are safe.”

“Actually, that is not what I am here.” Taehyun answered. “Could we maybe… talk?”

“Talk? Is there something heavy weighing in your heart?” Jinhwan asked as he gestured for Taehyun to sit beside him.

“Well…”

“This is about Mino right?”

“Well…” Taehyun shrugged. He is unsure how he was going to tactfully approach this topic.

“You are Nammie right? You are worried because you were not allowed to say anything.”

“Wait… you knew?”

“Well, I did not really realize it until I saw you and the pieces just clicked.

“I did not mean to lie to you… I just did not know how…”

“I know. They think we are so stupid right? Jiyong hyung did warn me that Mino will pull such a stunt.”

“You knew about that too?” Taehyun eyes went wide.

Jinhwan gave a soft laugh trying to bite back the bitterness from sipping out, “I know why he likes me." He said smiling sadly. “He likes me because he will probably never like me as much as you.”

“He is such a choding.” Taehyun choked out. “He is so angry over Siwon hyung and so…”

“So afraid because it is you.” Jinhwan finished for him. “I know. If he involuntarily chooses me, I will stay with him. I love him a lot and know that I am desperate enough to love him even though he will never love me the same way back.”

“Jinhwan…”

“I know…” Jinhwan sighed as he continued to pack his clothes.

“Thanks for not being angry with me.”

“Oh, I am angry, furious and positively livid but not at you.” Jinhwan laughed. “When the Palace allows us to talk, no matter if he is still my boyfriend or not, I will make sure to break his kneecaps.”

Taehyun could not help but smile as he got up to leave the room.

“For your info, he still calls your nickname when he is sick. Every single time...” Jinhwan called out to the younger as he left.

Some things just did not change it seems… Taehyun thought to himself as he exited the room.

He met Seunghoon on the way down the steps who tried to find out what happened to him but Taehyun just shrugged it off telling him that he will update them later. 

When they joined back with the others at main hall, the guards were trying to delicately handle the situation between Mino and Hanbin who have been glowering at each other for the entire day.

For the sake of the greater good, they decided to put the two men into separate black vans. Taehyun saw Hanbin, sporting a shiny black eye, moving to the other van and wanted to ride that so as to accompany him but was pulled back by Mino.

“Why are you being like this?” Taehyun hissed at him.

“My van is in the middle so therefore it is safer.” Mino muttered.

“You are being childish.”

“Well, you are being unreasonable.” Mino fired back. “Now come on before I have to carry you.”

“Taehyun-ssi,” Seunghyun said softly, throwing a meaningful glace at the younger guy. “He is right. It is safer.”

Taehyun stared at Seunghyun for a moment before he finally groaned and got into the van without a further word.

Mino, out of sheer childishness, would have dragged him back out of the van because Taehyun chose to listen to Seunghyun instead of him.

The vans moved onto the streets carrying a more or less frosty atmosphere. There was an aura of defiance around Mino as he glared at the younger guy sitting beside him. The first thing Taehyun did when he got into the van was to promptly put on his earphones and listen to music so that he did not have to make conversation with anyone.

Jinwoo and Seungyoon were sitting in front of them oblivious to the tensed situation behind them. Seungyoon was working on a new track while Jinwoo cuddled up against him as he slept.

When Mino finally cannot take the ignorance of the guy beside him, he reached over to tug one side of the earphones off causing Taehyun to glare at him darkly.

“Accompanying the bodyguards is unprofessional.”

“They are friends.” Taehyun all but hissed back, his anger was evident on his face.

“I saw you at the garden yestersday night.”

The regret of the discovery flashed across Taehyun’s eyes very briefly but Mino caught it all. It was quickly replaced by disapproval.

“Were you spying on me?” He asked but something else dawned to him. “Is that why you fought with Hanbin?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I have Jinhwan already.”

“You are such a liar.”

Mino leaned towards him, the smile on his face was cruel but at the same time it was shaky. “Prove it.”

Taehyun was just about to reply when there was a huge blow to the van.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, as the vehicle overturned and then crashed. The loud sound boomed in his ear, like a knife cutting towards his brain. He was pressed against Mino who immediately held him in the midst of the shouts.

For a moment, nobody could fully orientate themself when another violent impact shook them all. Jinwoo shouted in horror, not only as the van ce but also the windows started to crack. People and seats were suddenly crammed against each other, someone was shouting, brakes were screeching and in the distance, there was an explosion.

Broken glass rained down on everything. When the surroundings cleared, it was then Mino started to take in the situation.

Seungyoon was unconscious with an ugly gash just over his eyebrows and Jinwoo was shaking him while trying his hardest not to panic. Seunghoon was saying something but Mino could not hear a word and realized that there was a volley of loud sounds that was drowning everything.

Shots. A gun. Someone was shooting.

The smell of burning crept into his nose and he suddenly felt something wet and warm on his shoulder. Mino noticed that it was Taehyun’s blood.

Taehyun looked up at him with wide eyes as he noticed it too. It was a small bleeding cut on his clavicle. His clothes were slightly torn and his hair was in a mess.

“Stay here.” He told the younger guy. “Just stay here.”

Mino went to look out of the back window… just in time to see how the next two shots were fired.

Changmin went down on his knees and then fell over, wounded. A man with a baseball cap reloaded his gun and stepped over Changmin’s unconscious body.

“He is after me.” Mino said as he began to remove his seatbelt.

Taehyun’s eyes flew to his face. “You can’t,” He begged him.

“He will gun you down just like what he did with Changmin.” Mino told him as he started to move towards the door. “Let me…”

“You can’t “ Taehyun said again but louder this time as he grasped his arm.

Another shot hit the van causing the back window to give way, splintering everywhere. Taehyun covered his face with his arms to shield himself. When he could looked up again, Mino was gone.

He saw Mino outside and crouching down. The shooter had not spotted him yet.

Throwing at glance at Seungyoon, he was relieved when he saw that his leader was awake and hugging Jinwoo. At least he regained consciousness and that was most important.

Seunghoon was holding on to Taehyun’s arm, he was held down by the seat belt and a part of the ceiling had came down.

“What are you doing?” Seunghoon whispered as Taehyun started to move.

“He will kill him!”

“Taehyun! No! Stay in the car!”

But the younger did not listen.

Seunghoon saw the maknae unbuckled his seat belt and crawled towards the daylight. Another shot rang out, Mino ducked and ducked again…

The gunman spotted them – he aimed… and several things happened at once.

Mino’s body shook and he fell towards his knees, holding on to his upper body. The gunman took aim again and Taehyun managed to drag the prince aside just in the nick of time...

It was then that Seunghoon realized where they were as Taehyun continued to drag Mino towards the edge and then both of them disappeared.

Somewhere in the distance, water splashed beneath them.

The gunman let out a stream of curses as he leaned over the handrail and broke off in a run. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Hihi back with an update... i am not feeling well so i thought i post sloghtly earlier... i am so glad to know that you all are liking this story... i know Mino is being a douche right now but it will get better... trust me... no silent readers please... i love to know your thoughts and chat with you all... thank you from the bottom of my heart for the lovely comments.. they are really good motivators for me =)