Wonwoo: Seungcheol is safe. He’s back to work this morning. I’m on my way to the train station. You still alive?

Jihoon: Yeah. We’re all still alive. Kind of.

Wonwoo: Kind of?

Jihoon: Jeonghan’s not doing so well. He’s on an IV feed because he won’t eat or drink. He just lies there on his bed. He’s not moving. Sometimes he cries and screams. The rest of the time…

Wonwoo: Well, they were the closest of brothers. Possibly closer than you and Dino.

Jihoon: Yeah. I’m kind of numb to it all. I think my heart has been broken too much.

Wonwoo: Yeah.
Wonwoo: How’s Hayi holding up?

Jihoon: God, she’s a feisty little thing, isn’t she?

Wonwoo: That she is.

The Palace was in an eerie silence when Wonwoo got back: the only sound coming from the grounds was one man gently sweeping the patio tiles in front of the gardens. The very place that yesterday had been aplomb of celebration and congratulatory shouts at the engagement of a Prince.

Jihoon, Hayi, Minhyun and Shannon were all in a room together. Minhyun was playing around with a ping-pong ball, attached to a bat with a string. Shannon was texting, curled up in a little ball. The two engaged best friends sat beside each other: Hayi was painting her nails by an open window, and Jihoon was simply staring at nothing.

Wonwoo smacked a wad of newspapers on the table, making everybody look up. “Jihoon,” he said quietly, “you made front-page news.”

“Our engagement?” Hayi got up instantly to rush to the papers.

“No. Your engagement is mentioned, though.”

Jihoon’s lifeless, listless head rolled against the wall until he was giving Wonwoo a dreary look. “What do you mean?” he asked softly.

Hayi picked up a paper, reading out loud. “Dark Prince Smiles at Phone.” She turned it around; Somebody had caught one picture of the moment Seungcheol had texted the Prince, and the smile on his face when it had happened. “Blablabla, in other news got engaged to… well, that’s something!” She put the newspaper back on the stack with an indignant look. “My engagement didn’t even make a headline!”

Jihoon didn’t even respond. He just turned his head again to look at the window.

“Sorry,” Wonwoo offered her. “Nobody’s ever caught Jihoon smiling on camera before, ever. He barely ever smiled as a child, even when he wasn’t dogged by paparazzi. It’s something nobody has ever seen before.”

She sighed and nodded. “I guess so.”

“Hayi!” Shannon put her phone in her pocket. “You promised to do my nails, too.”

“You won’t be able to text for an hour.”

“I know!”

Their conversation faded into the background as Wonwoo went to sit with Jihoon by the open window, inside the large windowsill meant to be sat in. “Hey.”

Jihoon didn’t respond in any way.

“…it’ll be okay. He’s safe, now.” Wonwoo paused a moment, wondering how to get a reaction out of the Dark Prince. “How are you holding up?”

Jihoon didn’t react, but a tear did drop from his eye.

Wonwoo mopped it up with a handkerchief before anybody could notice. It took him a while, staring at the other people in the room to figure out what to say. “…nothing can be done about it now. You have an entire week of interviews and appearances to be had.”

“…cancel them,” the Prince said quietly.

“Sorry?”

“I won’t be paraded in front of the paparazzi like this.”

“Jihoon, you just got engaged. You can’t do that.”

The Dark Prince turned his head to his bodyguard slowly. “Wonwoo. I’m telling you I’m not able. Physically.”

The bodyguard considered that for a moment, staring at the Prince. Jihoon was right. He wasn’t in any physical condition to go through the typical fanfare of a royal engagement. Depression was setting in his expression, and it was setting fast. His eyes were empty. Very empty.

“…I’ll see what I can do.”

Minhyun wobbled over carefully when Wonwoo vacated his seat; he sat with his kid brother, patting his arms.

At first, Jihoon shrugged him off. He didn’t have what it took to deal with Minhyun right now. The man had a severe mental disability, and needed a special kind of attention. Jihoon didn’t have the wits about him for it now.

I love you, Minhyun signalled, using sign language. Afraid that his mouth would fail him.

Jihoon made the signs back emotionlessly. Not even looking.

Then Minhyun fell forward to hug his little brother tightly, fingers jerking on his back.

Jihoon hugged him back. God, I love my brothers, he thought aimlessly. Minhyun can’t even understand half the things that go on around him. Can’t even speak properly. Can’t even walk properly. And yet, he knows exactly when I need him. Jihoon didn’t let his big brother go for a long time.

Minhyun understood, and just let his baby brother cry.

A shadow loomed over the window suddenly: both Princes glanced up at it. Jihoon reacted immediately: he moved his brother off the windowsill, grabbed his little sister by the shoulder – ruining her nail polish – and drove everybody out of the room within seconds.

“Jihoon!” Hayi