HEY THERE!!!

ONE QUICK QUESTION

KAI OR SEHUN?

Why? You will find out later~~

Baekhyun was mopping the floor of the kitchen when the Queen decided to make her dramatic entrance. He tried to ignore her presence and continued to mop around making sure his eyes were focused on the floor.

“This is the place where magic happen,” the Queen said proudly causing Baekhyun to cringe at the fake tone.

“It’s beautiful.”

Hearing an unknown attractive deep voice manage to capture Baekhyun’s attention. He tried to take a glance at the Queen direction and sure enough he saw a tall guy who he had never seen before. The guy was really tall and stunning. His dark auburn hair was style perfectly, showing off his handsome feature.

Baekhyun had never felt like this. His heart was fluttering when their eyes met. That’s when he realized that the handsome stranger was looking at him. And Baekhyun had a surprised look on his face when he saw the handsome stranger sent him a very charming smile.

“Isn’t it?” The Queen chirped happily but she frowned when she realized that the guy standing next to her was not listening to her instead she saw a genuine smile plastered on the guy face. A smile that was not meant for her but for her stepson. Baekhyun.

She should have known.

“Go and clean elsewhere. You’re not needed here,” the Queen demand strictly.

Baekhyun flinched at the tone and he saw the Queen was fuming. The Queen glared at him and he can see the imaginary smoke flaring from her head and he loved it. Seeing the Queen angry was funny. Seeing the Queen angry out of jealousy was a blessing to him.

Pffftt, it’s not that hard to see how jealous that Witch is. She had her hand wrapped around the guy’s arm and stood impossibly close to him yet the guy didn’t even bat an eyelashes at her direction instead he was busy ogling at Baekhyun. Enjoying the looked on the Queen’s face, Baekhyun smile.

Time to put on an act.

Baekhyun nodded his head obediently and purposely choose to take the route where the Queen and the handsome stranger were standing. With a pail of dirty water on his left arm, and a mop stick on his right hand, he walked carefully trying to balance it afraid to spill it. At least for now.

When he deemed that the distance was perfect, he ‘accidentally’ tripped and fell, not before he ‘accidentally’ spill/threw the water in the pail towards the Queen.

“AAAHHHH!”

She screamed her high pitched scream.

“I’m so sorry... I don’t... I’m so sorry...” Baekhyun stuttered and tried to stand up but failed miserably as he fell flat on his but.

“Oh my god. Are you okay?”

Baekhyun wanted to scream his heart out when he saw the handsome stranger pushed the Witch away and ran to him with a panic look on his face.

“I’m fine, I’m sorry for ruining your attire. It must be expensive. I’m so sorry..” Baekhyun’s words were cut short when the guy place his index finger on Baekhyun’s lips. “It’s okay. I’m fine,” he paused for a moment before lifting his finger and eyed Baekhyun concernedly, “Are you okay?”

Baekhyun who was still surprised by the bold action just nodded his head. Their eyes were glued to each other, and none of them uttered a single words as they were so lost in each other gaze.

The Queen was furious and it was clearly shown when the Queen yanked Baekhyun by the arms. Baekhyun shrieked in surprised.

“LOOK, WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!” The Queen grabbed Baekhyun’s arm and glared intently.

“Your Majesty, please. Let him go,” the handsome stranger said and tried to coax the Queen who was gripping Baekhyun’s thin arm tightly.

“Chanyeol, he ruin my dress,” the Queen whined and Baekhyun wanted to snort at the action but he knew better that he shouldn’t do that. The handsome stranger or Chanyeol sighed, “I respect you as the Queen but I need you to respect me too. I’m not Chanyeol. I’m King Chanyeol and I hope you bear that in your mind.”

Baekhyun gasped in surprised. The handsome stranger, King? What? It’s not that he had anything against Chanyeol being a King but he seriously thought that Chanyeol was a knight because he had a very masculine figure. He felt stupid for a moment for assuming such a royalty to be a mere knight.

Great. Just great.

Baekhyun thought he might stand a chance to make new friend with the handsome stranger. It will be easier to make friend if Chanyeol was a knight and not the King. Though Baekhyun do had a royal blood in him but his current state didn’t prove that he was indeed the Prince. For once in his life, he wanted to scream that he was the Prince and let Cha- he meant King Chanyeol to notice him.

The Queen cowered upon hearing King Chanyeol words.

“So, where’s the Prince?” The question made the Queen and Baekhyun to look at him in disbelief. The Queen was quick to answer, “Why would you want to know about the Prince?”

The King let out another sighed, “I told you before. The sole reason I am here today, was to take the Prince with me, back to my kingdom.”

Baekhyun felt like he was flying in cloud nine. I’m free.

“YOU CAN’T!”

Baekhyun swore he had grown deaf when the Queen raised her voice. King Chanyeol was amused and he crossed his arms across his chest, glaring at the Queen, “ And, why can’t I see him?”

The Queen looked at Baekhyun and she smirked before saying the words that manage to send chill down through Baekhyun’s spine.

“Because, he’s dead.”

Baekhyun gulped.

“Knights! Order everyone to take their place. We’re going back,” King Chanyeol demand before leaving the Queen and Baekhyun.

“GO TO YOUR ROOM!” The Queen said with venom in her tone.

Baekhyun quickly left and ran straight to his room. He slumped on his bed and he cried. He was just one step to be free from this place.

But then, he thought about the people who lived in the kingdom and he knew that he can’t ran away leaving them behind especially when the Witch was the ruler. He just wished that he had enough power to protect his kingdom but he can’t because he knew that the Queen was more powerful than him and she can do anything that she want. Even if it was meant for her to kill.

This is not an exaggeration but it’s real.

Here’s the thing. When Baekhyun decided gave the Queen a nickname, Witch, it was supposed to be a sarcastic nickname for her. What he didn’t expect was for it to be real. She was Witch hiding inside a human.

He actually found out the truth about the Queen identity by accident. Specifically, yesterday.

“Can you two go and find something else to do?” Baekhyun asked, feeling annoyed when the two knights were looking at him as if he was a wild animal.

“This is the order from the Queen,” one of them answered.

“Listen, even if I go out from this room, I can never get out from this hell hole. So, can you two please just go and do something else. I just want peace, that’s all.”

The two knights who were used to Baekhyun’s attitude, pondered for a moment before they left Baekhyun. “Finally,” Baekhyun muttered under his breath when he saw the knights left his room. He felt thankful because the Queen still let him stay in room. At least he had a place in the castle that he felt like home.

He cherished the moment when he had a time for himself and free from work. Surprisingly, the Queen didn’t yelled his name like she usually does. He felt curious. It was normal before and he didn’t think too much about it but then he felt... Weird.

It’s a good thing that the Queen didn’t asked for him but it was weird because for the past few years he was summoned almost everyday. But for the past few days the Queen didn’t yelled out his name nor asked him to do the chores.

His curiosity somehow led him to roam around the castle. Since he had done chores almost at every nook and cranny of the castle, he knew about the knights whereabouts. Inside the castle, there was almost 50 knights guarding it and almost a 100 knights guarding on the outside of the castle.

With his agility and flexibility, he managed to escape from them and made his way towards the dungeon. The only place that he was prohibited from entering. Slowly, he made his way down the stairs and he felt thankful there was no sign of knight guarding the place.

It’s been a longtime since someone had enter the dungeon and it was abandoned for a long time. It was quite a surprised for Baekhyun when he saw the torches on the wall, were light up.

He followed the trail of the torches and he froze when he heard a familiar voice.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who’s the fairest of em’ all?”

Baekhyun marched forward and he peek into a room that was light up brightly. He place his hand on his mouth to stop himself from letting out any sound.

The room was indeed really bright as the chandelier hanging on the ceiling, brighten the whole room. There was a huge pot in the middle of the room, a lot of jars filled with weird looking substances were stack on the shelf, and a huge full size mirror was hang on the wall. The exact same mirror where the Queen was standing in front of it.

Baekhyun thank the Lord for making him turned to a genius when he decided to cover his mouth with his hand because he can prevent himself from screaming when he saw something that he wasn’t supposed to see.

Instead of seeing the Queen reflection on the mirror, he saw a half man with a mask on his face, smiling slyly at the Queen. Then the reflection talked, “I told you before and I will tell you again. Before it was you my Queen but when the boy reached the age of youth, he is the beautiful and the fairest of em’ all. And that boy is your stepson, Prince Baekhyun.”

One hand is not enough to cover his inaudible scream so he placed another one totally preventing him from making any noise.

The Queen rage and and she threw the glass of probably wine at the mirror and the glass shattered to million pieces while the mirror remain unharmed.

“THAT’S IMPOSIBBLE!”

The reflection looked at the Queen and said, “It’s possible as the boy is a pure ethereal, a beautiful silk jet black hair, a skin as fair as a snow and a lips as red as a rose.”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!”

It was silenced for a moment before the Queen laughed her evil laugh. Baekhyun was terrified and he watched in mortification when the Queen figure change. Her face was filled with wrinkles and her cheeks turns soggy and the skin was stretch down. Her eyes had became darker due to the eye bag and her lips were chapped. Her body were bend forward as if she had a hump on her back. She looked nothing like a Queen but she resembles a lot like an Evil Witch.

She arranged her steps to the pot and scooped something inside it and drink it. Her figure slowly came back to normal and she looked as if she didn’t turn ugly before.

Baekhyun felt like he was about to vomit when he smell the horrible smell coming probably from the pot. He ran back upstairs, pretending as if nothing happen.

He decided to keep it normal and tried to avoid eye contact with the Queen. He sighed in relieved when the Queen act like how she usually did.

Baekhyun cried turned to a sob and slowly it turned to a helpless whimper, leading him to sleep due to exhaustion.

What Baekhyun didn’t know was that he missed a very important part yesterday. A part that actually could help him but it’s too bad he missed it.

She then, struts her way to back to stand in front of the mirror.

“I want the recipe for everlasting beauty,”

The reflection brighten up and it grinned evilly, “The recipe is as usual.”

“HELL WITH IT!” The Queen yelled, “I had been using the same recipe but it didn’t work!”

The reflection grin wider, “Before it was simply a recipe for beauty, but for an everlasting beauty you need one special ingredient. An ingredient that belongs to Baekhyun.”

The Queen ears perked up, showing that she’s interested to know more, “What is it?”

“His heart.”