It was, without a doubt, one of the most horrible days of Yeonhee’s life.  Once the air ambulance had left, she sat huddled in a ball at the back of the veranda as frantic people scurried to and fro, feeling utterly lost, until Luhan spotted her.  He looked extremely shaken, but he had enough of his mental faculties together to shove Yeonhee in Junmyeon’s general direction.  Jongdae was nowhere to be seen.

It was a very quiet trip over to Nihueng University Hospital.  Both Yeonhee’s and Junmyeon’s phones were blowing up with notifications.  Junmyeon checked his to see if there was anything important and then put it on silent – Zhoumi was also sitting in the car with them and appeared to be handling things in a series of emails that he was sending out.  Now that there was no immediate pressure for them to do anything, both of them looked absolutely rattled.

A few media agencies had already arrived by the time they got there, and hospital security was trying to deal with them as they were barraged with questions.  Junmyeon and Zhoumi silently hurried Yeonhee inside.  Yeonhee’s phone was still pinging non-stop with notifications.  Zhoumi spoke briefly to somebody at the desk and then they were following a nurse towards the emergency operating theatres.  The shock retreated into a general numbness as the nurse explained that the prince and Minseok were both already undergoing emergency surgery in the hopes their lives would be saved, and somebody in scrubs came out to confirm that Minseok didn’t have any prior medical conditions that they needed to be aware of.  One of Yixing’s other bodyguards had gone in the helicopter with them and had apparently already done that for the prince.

“I understand the queen has been informed already,” said the man in scrubs once Junmyeon had given him the information he needed, “but we don’t have a next-of-kin contact currently for Mr Kim.”

Junmyeon rubbed his face tiredly.  “I know his wife.  I’ll ring her now.”

The doctor stayed with him to discuss the medical details.

The conversation reminded Yeonhee of Jongin, who had likely been watching the broadcast of the press conference with Baekhyun, and she fished out her phone to see if he’d contacted her.

There were already almost a hundred new messages showing on her screen, but one of the most recent ones was from Jongin, and so she opened it.

From: Kim Jongin, 10.11

Holy

From: Kim Jongin, 10.11

Oh my God

From: Kim Jongin, 10.13

Are they okay?

From: Kim Jongin, 10.15

Yeonhee, is Minseok going to be okay?  Where was he hit?

From: Kim Jongin, 10.18

Do you know which hospital they’re taking them to?

Have the paramedics said anything about their condition?

From: Kim Jongin, 10.19

Please at least let me know if Minseok was still alive when they put him on the helicopter

From: Kim Jongin, 10.21

Yeonhee?

From: Kim Jongin, 10.25

I’m really sorry for the spam.  I just need to know where they’ve taken Minseok.  Then I’ll stop, I swear.

From: Kim Jongin, 10.32

Nihueng?  Jushao?  I know Jushao Hospital is the closest but the king’s being treated in Nihueng and it’s the best.

From: Kim Jongin, 10.36

You’re probably caught up with stuff, so if you don’t reply by ten to eleven I’ll just get a taxi out to Nihueng

From: Kim Jongin, 10.36

If he’s not there I’ll double back to Jushao

From: Kim Jongin, 10.39

Okay, I’ve rung the taxi.  Let me know when you can.

Letting out a long breath, Yeonhee typed a quick reply.

To: Kim Jongin, 10.44

They’re both currently in the operating theatres at Nihueng University Hospital.  I can’t tell you more than that.

From: Kim Jongin, 10.44

Got it tysm

Yeonhee took a quick look at the rest of her notifications and saw that a large number of them were from her family and Baekhyun.  Sehun and Mihae had also spammed her with messages, which was very unusual on Sehun’s part, but she didn’t feel up to responding to anything else, and so she turned her phone off.

Distraction arrived three minutes later in the form of the queen, who was absolutely distraught.  She somehow managed to keep her decorum in spite of it, but one look at the tears in the woman’s eyes, with her face so similar to Yixing’s and twisted with a heart-wrenching pain Yeonhee could never understand, and Yeonhee was bawling her eyes out.  It set the queen off too, and they ended up clinging to each other as they sat on the chairs outside the operating theatre.

Minseok’s family showed up next, followed by Jongin, and then a nurse popped out to give them a brief update.

“It’s going to be several hours before we finish surgery for either of them,” she said, “so might I suggest you use one of the more comfortable waiting rooms upstairs?”

The queen wiped her eyes.  “How are they?” she asked.

The nurse hesitated before she answered.

“His highness is in better condition than Mr Kim,” she said eventually.  “They’ve got the bullet out and they’re trying to limit the damage to his lung.  Mr Kim’s surgeons are hopeful his chances will be higher once they’ve given him a blood transfusion and they’re still trying to get to the bullet.”

Minseok’s wife let out a little sob.  Out of the corner of her eye, Yeonhee saw Jongin wrapping his arms around her.

They did, in the end, take the nurse’s advice, and the queen suggested they all move up to her husband’s private suite, since it would keep them out of the way of any journalists that managed to sneak in.  Luhan and one of the other royal secretaries joined them about lunch time, but nobody was in the mood to do more than nibble unenthusiastically at the food that had been brought up.

Luhan did manage to inject some life back into them all, though, since he couldn’t catch a break from work.

“The media is going completely bonkers,” he announced into the funereal silence of the room.  “And also, the palace should probably issue a statement to prevent political anarchy, since we have no government and the legitimacy of our back up is fighting for his life.”

It got people talking again as Luhan crafted an official palace statement on the incident, and then on the condition of both Yixing and Minseok, in which he had to strike a delicate balance between the truth and trying to make it look like the prince was not on death’s door.  While the adults hashed it out, Yeonhee joined Jongin over in the corner where he sat by Minseok’s wife, who was feeding her baby.

“God, it was horrible,” he murmured, his gaze on the baby.  “We saw it all go down on TV.”  He rubbed at his eyes.  “It’s funny how things can change in less than a second.  Just… fwoosh.”  Jongin made a flamboyant gesture with his arms.

Yeonhee agreed quietly, watching the baby’s tiny fists clench as it continued to feed without a care in the world.  There was something very calming about how oblivious the little girl was.

Minseok’s wife noticed their joint attention on the child, and once the girl had had her fill, she passed the yawning baby over to Jongin.  Yeonhee stuck her finger out for the baby to cling onto.  Its limpet grip on her felt like an anchor to the baby’s small world of bliss, and she and Jongin spent a distracted hour playing with the tiny child and making her laugh.

Luhan interrupted her fun just as Jongdae entered with an entourage.

“Yeonhee,” the secretary called from across the room.  “People are beginning to pick up on a startling resemblance between you and Scarf Girl on the palace veranda.  I think it’s best to confirm it’s you and we’ll sort