A little over 2 months has passed since the revelation and introduction of the complete antidote. None of them wasted another second, getting to work to produce more of the concoction; making bottles out of amethyst gems before distributing to the rest of the Kingdom. Albeit all that, Shixun still managed to set things straight with Krystal. But despite the latter being okay with Shixun now, she still had yet to talk to Kai about what had happened. To her, it was better for them to drop things completely; becomes maybe sometimes, you don’t need closure.

“Baekhyun said the last district’s been covered, do you want to go check the stats?”

Kai looked up from his smartpad and was about to respond when his eyes widened in both awe and wonder. Shixun was in a beautiful sleeveless, pastel blue dress. Her eyes shone under the bright light of his office and her lips were pinker than they ever were. She looked far healthier now as compared to when they first met. Her pale skin glowed and her cheeks were full of colour.

Kai didn’t think the change would be drastic, but maybe it was because he’s been focusing so much on the distributions he hadn’t had much time to meet up with Shixun. There were no longer ebony marks on her skin and Kai has never seen her this confident in wearing anything that showed her bare.

“Kai?” Shixun tilted her head as she frowned, advancing towards the man. “Are you okay?”

Kai cleared his throat and placed his smartpad onto his desk, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He got off the chair and strode up to the brunette, taking both her hands into his. “You look beautiful.” He whispered into her ear lightly, making her cheeks turn darker than they were before.

“Well—” the girl stammered as she looked away, a smile creeping up her lips. “It’s because the there’s going to be a party tonight, so I thought—”

“Oh my God!” Kai groaned, throwing his head back. He completely forgot about the party!

His Majesty thought that it would’ve been a great reward for the people who had left for Zenn to celebrate their findings, and also to officially welcome Boa and Kris back to the lab. Although despite his warmest welcomes, Kai doubted Kris, nor his assistant would want to come back as research-scientists any time soon.

“Do you even have anything to wear?” Shixun asked, cocking a brow. “Don’t tell me you’re going to show up in your uniform…”

Kai gulped dryly. That was exactly what he planned the night before at least. He didn’t know how he could’ve forgotten about this evening’s plans but now he had to hastily finish his data gathering and get changed to reach there just in time.

“Sorry Shixun, I never planned on wearing anything fancy.” Kai shrugged, turning back to switch off his smart pad. “Besides, I’m pretty sure they won’t mind.”

Shixun sighed and shook her head in dismay, “Krystal was right, you really don’t care at all huh.”

Kai visibly cringed at the mention of the princess’ name but snorted a laugh afterwards when he remembered the times the King would invite him for dinner back in the days. He’d come with the worst outfits. Lucky for him, the King was lenient enough to let him off. Thanks to Krystal.

“Can’t you dress up for once Kai?”

“If you want me to, I’ll dress up for you.”

The man raised his head and looked into Shixun’s eyes. She had her hands fisted by her sides as she gulped down her response.

“…It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Shixun squeaked, not meeting his eyes. “I’ll see you at the party.”

Kai let out a soft sigh as Shixun spun and left. He thought that after everything was over, they would finally get a chance to be together. But the brunette didn’t seem to keen in taking a step further at all. He knew she was only considering Krystal’s feelings, and even Kai had to suppress and control himself from pulling the brunette into an embrace whenever he saw her.

Was the promise she made him keep on the ship meaningless after all? Kai didn’t want to doubt Shixun’s true feelings, because he never doubted his own.

Kai knew that if he wanted to bring them together, he will have to think of a more convincing situation to help her realise that the princess’ feelings, aren’t the only feelings she has to bear in mind and consider.

And Kai knew just what to do.

~”~

“Baekhyun! Baekhyun!” Chanyeol rapped on the door of Kai and Baekhyun’s shared room multiple times, calling and barking for his friend to open the door to—

“Look at my new outfit!”

The smile on Chanyeol’s face instantaneously faded and dropped when he came face to face with Kai’s deadpanned look instead. The man locked his gaze on Chanyeol briefly, bringing his eyes from the tip of Chanyeol’s nose to the end of his shoes as he analysed the outfit he had on. An irritated ‘tch’ escaped his lips as he turned to slam the door shut on his face.

“Hey! Kai!” Chanyeol banged his fist against the wooden door once again and whined for his General’s name. “Come on, open the door!”

“Baekhyun’s not here!” Kai screamed back, loud enough for his voice to penetrate through the thin surface of the door. “And change to some other colour! Blue doesn’t suit you.”

Chanyeol tutted and folded his arms in protest, “But blue looks good on me.”

The air went silent, but Chanyeol could hear strong footsteps advancing towards the door. When it suddenly stopped, the man couldn’t help but rest his ear on to the surface of the wooden door.

“Um—Kai?” Chanyeol his bottom lip as his eyes turned momentarily to give the door a side-eye. “Is everything—Ak!”

Kai’s expression was still as stoic as earlier, leaving Chanyeol to groan in pain as his head hit the ground when Kai opened the door abruptly. The former’s eyes were narrowed as he threw a black jacket onto his subordinate on the floor.

“But you don’t make blue look good, Park Chanyeol!” Kai scratched his head frustratingly and threw a pair of black pants to him. “Just—wear anything other than blue.”

Chanyeol got onto his feet and dusted off his outfit, blowing a frustrated raspberry as he took Kai’s jacket and pants into his hands. He didn’t get why Kai was so bent on him not wearing blue, it wasn’t even the his favourite colour!

He was about to turn around when Shixun suddenly appeared right before him.

“Oh, Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol’s straight lips turned into a bright smile at her cheery voice, “Hello Shixun!” his eyes then dropped down to her dress, “You’re wearing…blue…”

Shixun looked at her own outfit briefly, before giving Chanyeol an enthusiastic nod. But the man already had his he