"Minseok!" Yixing flung himself into the housekeeper's arms, nearly crying with joy.

"What happened?" Minseok pulled the young man close to him and his hair tenderly.

"I... He wouldn't let me go. And it hurt." Yixing mumbled into Minseok's shirt. “I didn’t want to leave but staying hurt so much.”

"He was trying to tell me something when I found him." Chanyeol butted in, looking incredibly worried,concern for his stepbrother etched into his posture.

"Yeah?" Minseok looked at the young man standing by the door.

"He wouldn't finish his sentence. It seemed like he couldn’t." Chanyeol shut the door behind him and slumped onto a chair by the bed.

Yixing buried his head in Minseok's chest, fear replacing the hope in his heart. "There was someone. He forbid to me say anything about what he told me to do."  He glanced up at Minseok, face covered in a burdened expression. "I don't know how he found out about the curse."

Minseok smoothed Yixing's hair gently, trying to soothe him. "Try to tell us anything. Try to find a loophole in the curse." Yixing scrunches up his nose. "He commanded that I do something tonight. Something dangerous." Yixing looked up at Minseok pathetically, struggling to find words around the big issue.

"Who is in danger?" Minseok rubbed Yixing's shoulder comfortingly.

"I don't know if I can..."

"Try."

"The... Ow!" Yixing curls into himself whimpering when the nausea hit.

Minseok raised his eyebrows, the gears in his mind turning quickly. "The prince?" He asked in a soft request for information, patting Yixing's head just as gently.

Yixing tried to nod but it hurt so badly that he kept his head level.

"Okay. So whatever that you've been ordered to do concerned the prince. And it will happen tonight at the ball?" Minseok pressed, determined to test the boundaries of Baekhyun's terrible 'gift'. Yixing tried to nod again but only ended up whimpering and clutching his head. "You have done well." Minseok Yixing's hair gently.

"If it will happen at the ball, wouldn't the simplest thing to do be to lock him up so that he can’t attend?" Chanyeol’s question breaking the doleful silence.

Minseok looked doubtfully at the door. "We shall try."

---------

Yixing watched the clock anxiously as it clicked into the seventh position. The ball was about to begin and he had been secured tightly to the bedpost with heavy chains and the door had been locked. Surely it would be enough for him to resist the command. Yixing closed his eyes and prayed hard that their plan would work. Minseok had informed him that he could not reverse the curse when there was such a strong intent behind the man's words. He curled his hands into fists and hoped that the prince would not be too devastated not to find him there. The clock tower outside the window chimed once and Yixing's body seized up as he strained against the metal. His blood already beginning to boil up. Agony flowed like molten lava through his body as he writhed against the chains binding him. He thrashed wildly, the gag in his mouth muffling the screams of pain as he tried his hardest to resist.

The chains cut deep into the thin skin around his wrists as he shook violently. The clock ticked by all too slowly. Yixing gasped and struggled, sobbing in pain. He could see the clock with eyes glazed with tears, the seconds passed by like hours and he was certain he would die or go insane from the pain before the hour was up. The sudden click of the lock startled him and he turned to stare at the door in horror as it swung open. His worst fear was that it would be Yifan.

However, it was the man who had visited him that morning and Yixing realised that his ‘worst’ fear was nothing compared to the devil who stood in front of him. The man chuckled at his horrified expression and untied him despite his protests, despite the fact that Yixing tried to stay tied in.

Yixing was wrestled into a stunning blue button down shirt that clung to his body tightly like a second skin and a pair of black jeans that look as if they has been painted on. A blue suit jacket was forced onto him and his wrists are hurriedly bandaged before he was forced out the door, the man whispering in his ear. "Do not remove the jacket. Your weapon is inside."

Yixing stumbled into the ballroom and everyone turned to look, he didn’t look right in any sense of the word.

Nevertheless, Yifan stared, mouth falling open in a less than attractive way. Yixing looked stunning even if he didn’t look well. Beside him, Joonmyun pursed his lips in concern.

Yifan strode through the crowd purposefully, eyes never leaving the man who had stolen his heart. Joonmyun hurried close behind him and offered his arm to a random young man standing nearby, so as not to seem suspicious. Yifan led Yixing through the dance, gaze riveted onto the smaller male with a mix of adoration and wonderment. Yixing tried to avoid his eyes, fearful of the terrible deed he had to do by midnight.

"What's wrong?" Yifan quizzed seriously as he finally took them away from the crowd into the rose garden his mother loved when she was alive.

Yixing kept glancing back towards the ballroom desperately hoping to pick out Chanyeol or maybe even Minseok. His heart rose to his throat when he saw no sign of them, only to sink when he realised that he’d have to fight this on his own.

Joonmyun released the man he held in his arms and turned away with a hurried apology to search for the prince. The man he had danced with was so abnormally tall that he saw right over the heads of people mingling in the ballroom, so he could have maybe noticed something, "I'm sorry but have you seen the prince?" Joonmyun turns back to his partner only to see his eyes widen and he was off, running through the crowd towards the gardens.

Joonmyun followed after the man, sure that he had seen where the Prince had gone. They arrived at the entrance of the rose garden just as the prince slid the door closed. "Follow me." Joonmyun gestured to the man and he pushed back a brick in the nearby wall revealing a doorway covered by shrubs and rose bushes.

They crouched there, eyes on the couple standing in the center of the garden. Unknown to them, Joonmyun's father, the king's advisor was also hidden nearby, ready for damage control; to be the saviour of the day.

Yifan pressed Yixing close to him, not sensing anything wrong as his own nerves were getting the better of him. He pressed his lips against Yixing's gently and Yixing kissed back, one hand sliding slowly into his jacket which was pressed between the two of them. Sewn into the lining of the jacket was a sheath and a dagger resided there. Just as the man had said. Yixing withdrew his hand quickly, leaving the dagger untouched when Yifan pulled away and dropped to one knee, pulling out a small velvet box which opened to reveal a simple silver ring. It was nothing that somebody would expect from a royal but it was beautiful to Yixing, it fit Yifan too.

"Yixing. I know we've only known each other for two nights but I am completely sure that you are the one I want to spend the rest of my life with." Yixing set his jaw, itching to tell him no, to tell him about what he was about to do but he kept silent, tears filling his eyes.

Why me? He gritted his teeth as Yifan continued. The prince deserved somebody even slightly more normal. Or extraordinary. Not a defect.

"Will you marry me?"

Yixing bit his lip so hard that he was afraid to draw blood, he wished he could squeal in happiness but his body was battling itself. He wanted to be happy, that’s all he wished for. "Of course." He let out and Yifan's face lit up. He rose to his feet and slipped the ring onto Yixing's hand. In a fit of happiness, he pressed his lips upon Yixing's, pulling him close.

Yixing trembled in his arms as they kiss, his hand sliding into the lining of his jacket and pulling out the silver edged dagger.  He lifted the dagger behind the Prince's back and Joonmyun covered his mouth in disbelief. Chanyeol clamped a hand around Joonmyun's arm, fear rippling through him. The nausea swept through him, agony following closely behind. He quivered in the Prince's grip.

‘Fight with every fiber of your being Yixing.’

His mother's words trickle into his mind and he fought like she told him to, so many years ago on her deathbed. With a cry of triumph, the dagger clattered onto the ground, the prince untouched.

"Seize him!" The guards spring from their hiding place and Yifan's eyes widened. The soldiers grabbed Yixing's arms and twist them behind his back, causing him to cry out in pain.

"What do you think you are doing?!" Yifan tried to tug the guards off Yixing even as they wrap chains around his arms.

"If Your Highness would look behind himself, you will see the weapon. He tried to kill you." The advisor stepped forward, a cruel smile etched on his face. Yifan stared at the silver dagger lying on the ground behind him and then looked at Yixing, who had been restrained tightly.

"No." He shook his head even as the guards started to drag Yixing away, the man surprisingly silent. But, not in thought, more that he was shocked into disbelief. "I don't believe you." He whispered, staring forlornly at the dagger lying on the grass.

"Your Highness." Joonmyun stepped out from his hiding place and reached out a hand to touch the prince.

Yifan flinched away. "Just leave me alone, I need some time to think and figure everything out."

He mumbled, scooping the dagger up and walking out of the garden.

"What's going to happen to that man?" Joonmyun asked.

His father smiled at him and a prickle ran down his spine, "He will face the death penalty of course. It is treason to attempt to assassinate the prince."