Now that exams and graduation were out of the way, The Rolls were having a blast of a time.  In under a week, they’d managed to get the record label to agree to a second album to be released at the end of summer, plus start organising a five-stop tour in various parts of the country rather than just playing in the capital city.  This meant Baekhyun tipping up on her doorstep midway through the week to ask if she could do their album cover art again, and to tell her that they were doing a large concert in an arena of some kind in the capital at the beginning of August, so she had to save the date.

“And bring the prince along,” he added, still inspecting Mary Jane with a degree of suspicion, since the plant had grown quite a lot in a short time and Yeonhee had placed it next to Juan in the living room.  “We’re playing some of our news songs and he might like them.”

Yeonhee had no idea if Yixing would have enough free time at the right time, but she promised she’d ask when Baekhyun bribed her with the promise of free VIP tickets, including for any bodyguards they needed to bring along.

“Especially Luhan,” Baekhyun added.  “If he comes, he’s VVIP.  Legend, that man.  Absolute legend.”

There was one thing that did really about being back home, and that was the press finding out where she lived.  Even worse, it coincided with both Taehyung’s case going to court and a general election being called at the turn of the month, and despite Yeonhee making it clear that she didn’t want to comment on either and that she had nothing to do with the general election in particular, they seemed determined to get her opinion on everything every time she or a family member stepped out of the door, no matter how many times they were shooed away or moved on by police.  After three days, Jongdae snapped and got a restraining order put on them for their aggressive behaviour.

Sehun had been busy, and so Yeonhee next saw him at the concert Baekhyun had insisted she come to.  Yixing was unable to go as he was out of the country at a political summit of world leaders, but he requested photos and was very pleased to see that Sehun and Jia had attended the concert together, practically glued at the hip.  Mihae and Chanyeol were also beginning to look rather cosy.

The first weekend in August brought Yeonhee a very happy surprise in the form of Minseok, who turned up on Saturday morning to relieve Jongdae of his duties.  Having made a full recovery, he was in the process of trying to get his fitness levels up again, and even though Yixing was still abroad, he seemed delighted to have Minseok back as an operating member of his security team.

Most of what Minseok had to do just consisted of shooing inquisitive people off the doorstep, but since Yeonhee and her family mostly stayed indoors, he had time on his hands to go through some security briefings and proposals for upcoming events, since he was still head of security for the prince and had to oversee that even if he couldn’t be all that active.

He also had a card from Yixing to pass on to her, and Yeonhee sequestered herself away in her room to read it after dinner.  It must have been written before he went away, because he apologised for not being able to post it to her before dashing for the plane, and for not being able to go to The Rolls’s concert with her, though he was sure it was going to be fantastic and wanted all the details on it when he got back.  In a little cartoon strip at the bottom, he invited her out for a date the evening after he was back.  Yeonhee wasn’t totally sure how much of a date it actually was, though, because he was suggesting Laserquest, “pick your own bodyguards, maximum three”.

There was also another yellow star in the envelope, and Yeonhee unfolded it to find herself with reason forty-four.

You’re not afraid to tell me when I’m wrong or being stupid, especially when I need it but don’t want to hear it.

Smiling fondly, she added it to the crystal bowl of reasons sitting on the table beside her bed.

The political campaigns were in full swing by the time that Yixing finally touched back down in Taderra late on the Wednesday evening of the second week of August, visibly exhausted on the press coverage as reporters swarmed him the second he set foot on the tarmac.  Yeonhee stayed up long enough to listen to the comments that he made to the press and to text him once she was sure he was in the car on the way back to the palace and out of the way of any cameras (just to be on Luhan’s safe side).

All I want to do right now is see my family, see you, and go to sleep, he texted back.

To: Private number, 23.49

Tomorrow will come quicker if you go to sleep now.

From: Private number, 23.50

Shh, you’ll wake me up.

He was in a very good mood when Yeonhee met him at Laserquest, Jongdae in tow.  She’d requested Junmyeon and Minseok as her other teammates because they were the bodyguards she knew best, which had left the prince with a lineup of Zenyu bodyguards.

“Oh, okay, I see how we’re doing this,” he joked as they waited to be fitted with the gear.  “Partisan ethnic lines.  Of course.”

“Minseok’s mixed,” Yeonhee pointed out.

“Notice how you’re trying to ascribe a Hanmi identity to him by using his Hanmi name,” Yixing sniffed.

“You’re so full of rubbish,” Yeonhee scoffed.

It was a very fun evening.  Yeonhee was absolutely terrible at the game, which was essentially paintball but with laser guns and special suits that recorded where the laser beams hit and awarded points based on where the shot landed, and Minseok, who had automatically just taken over being in command of their team, eventually ordered her up onto the rooftops of the simulated village with him, from where he was acting as a sniper, and attempted to get her to improve her aim.  Junmyeon and Jongdae roamed free, Jongdae racking up an absolutely monstrous tally of points through designated kill shots.  Yixing’s team, however, gave as good as they got, and Yeonhee found herself hiding behind a chimney pot when Zhoumi got up onto one of the rooftops nearby to pick her and Minseok off.

The game went wild in the last five minutes, though, when one of Yixing’s other bodyguards, Hangeng, managed to lure Minseok away and somebody abruptly grabbed Yeonhee from behind.

“We’ve captured the princess!” Yixing hollered, holding up his laser gun as he trapped Yeonhee against his side.  “Cease and desist, dissident rebels!”

“Anarchy!” one of the Hanmi bodyguards – it sounded like Junmyeon – bellowed back.  “Take him out!”

“I can’t shoot at the prince!” Minseok yelled.  “I swore to protect him as part of my job!”

“ being meta!” Zhoumi shouted back, colourful laser beams zapping between the two of them.  The other two Zenyu bodyguards popped up from behind another building to take aim up at Minseok on the roof.

“Minseok, you’re decimating our score!” Jongdae bellowed.  “What are you doing?”

Yixing dissolved into laughter as Junmyeon joined in the laser fight with Minseok, who was standing in full view and apparently only cared about zapping Zhoumi as many times as he possibly could, while Yeonhee watched them, utterly bemused.  Only when a laser shot sounded from the rooftop across the street and Yixing whisked them both back behind the chimney pot did she realised that Jongdae had taken advantage of the chaos to sneak up on them.

“Hostage!” Yixing yelled, reaching around the chimney with his gun and firing wildly.  “I have a hostage!  Stand and negotiate!”

“It’s stand and deliver, highwayman!” Jongdae bellowed back, completely ignoring decorum.  “Yeonhee, shoot him in the head!  I can’t get a clear shot like this!”

It took that for Yeonhee to register that she was still actually holding her laser gun in her hand, which Yixing had apparently also forgotten about until Jongdae reminded him.  Just as Yeonhee raised her laser gun to his head, he whipped back round to point his own at her chest.

“Don’t,” he said, his voice low.

Yeonhee frowned.  “Is a head shot or a heart shot worth more points?”

He hesitated for a long moment.  “I don’t know.  I didn’t read the score sheet when I came in.”

Yeonhee pursed her lips, looking up at the big digital clock that was beginning to count down their last ten seconds in the arena with large red numbers.  Their team scores were displayed to either side of it, numbers flashing wildly in both positive and negative as the laser battle raged on between the bodyguards, but it looked like they were roughly even.  To either side of those scoreboards were the individual scores, which showed that Minseok was now below Yeonhee in the negatives with the number of fatal shots he’d received and that she was significantly behind all the others in the positive scores.  She did vaguely remember the score sheet giving a substantially higher score for one particular type of shot, but she couldn’t remember which.

She decided to follow Jongdae’s advice.

“Sorry, Xing,” she said as she squeezed the trigger.  “I love you really.”

Her score shot up by ten thousand points as he pulled his own trigger on her in the final second.

He took off his helmet, breathing a little heavily still.  “Well, if that’s what it takes for you to say you love me, I guess I’ll have to accept it.”

“What?”

“Take your helmet off.  I want to kiss you.”

Minhee took Yeonhee out shopping the next Saturday in an absolute tizzy.  It was Junmyeon who tailed them around, looking frightfully amused, but it was six shops before Yeonhee actually managed to get out of her sister what all the fuss was about.

“Jongdae’s invited me out to the opera tomorrow and I need to look respectable,” Minhee fretted.  “Opera-respectable means an evening gown and nice jewellery.”

“But you have all that.”

“Evening gown yes, nice jewellery no.”

Yeonhee was pretty sure that Minhee did actually have nice jewellery because she’d seen her sister wearing it, but a little more worrying was the fact that they hadn’t been to a jewellery or even a dress store or any kind of clothing store yet in the shopping outing, instead visiting a chocolate factory outlet (Minhee apparently needed comfort food), three art stores, a video game shop and a book store, which they were now in.

“Well, unless you’re planning to cut up the front cover of The Duchess of Rammoga and glue the pearl necklace on it to your neck, I suggest we find somewhere that sells, I don’t know, bracelets?”

“Do you think Jongdae will like The Duchess of Rammoga?” Minhee asked, instantly distracted as she picked up a copy of the book to inspect the blurb.  “Apparently it’s really good.”

“I think Jongdae would like us to focus so you make his jaw drop tomorrow.”

Fortunately, the next store was a jewellery one and so Yeonhee herded her sister into it.  Minhee instantly went into magpie mode, moving around the cases with wide eyes like a little girl in a state of ecstasy.  Yeonhee was pretty sure she heard her sister mumbling things like “so shiny!” before she herself was distracted by the range of earrings.

Just as Minhee was asking the store clerk if she could try a couple of bracelets on, Yeonhee finally caught sight of the price tags, and she balked.  She knew Minhee was doing well for herself, but even by Minhee’s standards this shop was expensive and she didn’t think it was worth spending so much on just one night out, even if it was with the man of her dreams.

Minhee didn’t seem to care at all, though.

“What do you think?” she asked, modelling an amethyst and silver bracelet.

“It’s pret