“Elbows – higher!” Yoongi ordered him without any sign of fatigue. Both of them left the estate of minister Oh a while ago and Taehyung followed his guard deeper into the woods, into a small clearing going alongside the stream.

“How did you find it?” Taehyung asked when they arrived.

“I had a stroll around together with Hoseok during our first night here. It’s quite far from the household – so we won’t be disturbed.” Yoongi replied.

In comparison to his friend, while panting a little – Taehyung looked at him with trembling legs already. “How much time have passed since he sparred like that with someone?” he wondered.

“Ever since they left the palace probably.”

Taehyung was sweating. “How much time did they spent like this in the woods?”

“An hour or longer?” - the prince asked himself after looking at the sky above them turning dark orange. The sun was setting already and he had completely lost any sense of the passing time. High trees around them only intensified the slowly swallowing their surroundings – darkness.

One second of distraction was enough for Yoongi. Another hit came at the prince in a flash. Taeyung gasped at the sudden pain in his stomach after Yoongi’s strike with a scabbard of his sword reached him.

The prince fell onto one of his knees and coughed out the saliva that almost left him choking. Even though he felt beat, he still felt proud at the back of his head thinking that the pain would’ve been much worse if he didn’t tense his muscles right before taking the impact.

“And you’re dead… way too slow Taehyung-ah – even though you managed to react – it was still too late.” Yoongi stated calmly with a smug smirk and the scabbard nonchalantly thrown over his shoulder.

“You got soft your highness.” he added while looking down at Taehyung.

The prince wiped his mouth with a sleeve and triggered by Yoongi’s choice of words – looked at him with a twitching upper lip. “S…s... Soft?” he repeated in a raging daze.

Yoongi took on a proper position, ready to attack again after seeing how Taehyung started slowly getting up from his knees.

“Am I wrong?” the guard added clearly amused by how easily he threw the prince’s focus out of balance again.

“Enough talking – Weren’t we supposed to fight?” Taehyung snorted with furrowed eyebrows and this time was the first one to attack his opponent. However his slowed down by the weariness movements were nothing difficult to counter with for Yoongi.

As the eldest of the prince’s guards – he was the most skilled in combat. Even though Taehyung lost to him countless number of times ever since they met, that fact never stopped the prince from standing up against Yoongi.

Out of four of the guards he was chosen as the one to replace the prince because they had no doubt that if anything was to go wrong – Yoongi would be able to easily take care of the enemy.

Yoongi was fast to assess his opponent's strengths and weaknesses, also quick with his movements and usually had two blades attached to his belt. With pitch black hair slightly longer than the shoulder-length if let lose and eyes similar to those of a cat which no enemy could deceive or sneak upon. Usually expressionless, since young age he concentrated on martial arts and the path of a future guard, soldier or maybe even general. In terms of physical strength and fighting skills he had years of experience.

Even though he was born into a noble family, him taking over the Min house was never his destiny. He knew that from young age as his older brother already was married and had children. It was his older brother’s duty to lead the family and support the bloodline with a male heir.

Yoongi knew that as a second son – in terms of any obligation to the Min family, he was freed of any responsibilities other than to never bring harm to the Min name. In terms of material goods he was deprived of inheriting anything after his father.

While looking at the prince in front of him being so worked up, his highness who he could name as his friend – Yoongi could only reminisce about how they used to be before.

His way into favor of the current king was easy. As the member of entrusted Min family and son of a declared to Kim Family general who proved himself in the battlefield – Yoongi was taken in as part of the Royal Guard where only members of noble families could serve.

Almost… he thought with Jimin in his mind. Even though his family was of no noble bloodline, Jimin’s father proved himself to be loyal to the crown. Both of their fathers fought on the same battlefield and with that Yoongi had no point in treating Jimin as someone less worthy of serving the royal family.

Yoongi clearly remembered being introduced to the prince for the first time. Almost 16th at that time he only learned later, that it was shortly before Jimin left for his initial army training – the one he himself already graduated. Being older by two years, Yoongi knew how much his presence intimidated the young prince.

And he couldn’t deny that it used to give him some kind of satisfaction back then. “I was young and immature…” Yoongi thought while dodging Taehyung’s attacks.

Both, the king and Yoongi’s fathers were happy and proud to see their sons together. However Yoongi never thought that the young brat Taehyung used to be would become someone he would treasure more than his own brother – and he didn’t mean it only by the functions both of them fulfilled.

-“It’s an honor to our family. You’re being treated as almost equal with the prince by the king.” Yoongi got reminded of his father’s words and how happy they made him, even though all he did was just following the prince in silence.

Back then he had no idea of how brokenhearted Taehyung felt after Jimin’s departure. Only with the first training fight their fathers arranged between them – Yoongi felt how frustrated and hurt the prince was.

At that time Taehyung kept his mouth pursued tightly, only his eyes reflected rough and agitated emotions that were suffocating him. Even though they were strong, his attacks got messier with each hit and in the end the fight ended with Yoongi’s first win.

He could bring many similarities from that time to their current fight.

“Your sight is blurry again.” Yoongi said straight into Taehyung’s face when the scabbards of their swords crushed again.

“Huh?” Taehyung looked at him with a risen eyebrow and gritted teeth. Earlier he thought that this work out was going to help and clear up his mind but Yoongi’s words turned to just add turmoil to the mess his thoughts already were.

“It’s been three days already.” Yoongi added and pulled Taehyung aside after grasping onto his collar. With one of his feet put between the prince’s feet – he easily made him fall on the ground again.

This time it took Taehyung longer to regain his composure. Falling took his breath away for a moment. He rolled onto his back while cringing in pain.

Yoongi placed the tip of his scabbard to prince’s throat - “Till now I observed from a distance, but my question is – how much longer are you going to deceive yourself?” he added while leaning above him.

Taehyung shoved the scabbard away and threw a tantrum filled glare at his royal guard.

“Is thinking of her messing up your head?” Yoongi continued asking while slowly circling around Taehyung who pulled himself up from the ground and kept on sitting with his face turned down.

Black fringe covered the prince’s expression making it hard for Yoongi to see what remained hidden behind it.

“And what can YOU know about it?” Taehyung scoffed at his guard after a moment of silence between them.

“Weren’t you someone who always treated women as nothing else but a nuisance? What right do you have to judge me and my way of treating her?” he continued angrily and finally glared at Yoongi.

In response, Yoongi coldly looked at the prince with a risen eyebrow “Get up…” he ordered and then attacked as soon as Taehyung was back on his feet again.

Next he flooded the prince with dozens of attacks, such the prince could hardly keep up with. When Yoongi left him some time for evening his breathing before attacking again -”For me there’s no inbetween – It’s either black or white – but you’re playing a game that will leave you hurting more than you already were.” he shouted into Taehyung’s face.

Surprised by the sudden outburst and the ugly truth in Yoongi’s words – the prince blinked few times astonished and didn’t manage to react when another attack came and struck him to the ground.

Stunned by the sudden fall and pain in his back – Taehyung was able