-Jongup’s POV-

The four of us stood outside of Daehyun’s bedroom door listening to Dae and Jae arguing…again. “They’re arguing again?” Zelo whined. “It’s the 5^th time this week.” Yongguk sighed. “I thought they were supposed to be all lovey dovey at this point.” I grumbled.

“They’re arguing over who gets to keep Niko.” Himchan sighed listening to the conversation through the door. “Niko? Who’s Niko?” I asked. “Ooh! I know Niko!” Zelo jumped. “Who’s Niko?” Yongguk questioned suddenly interested. “He’s a teddy bear that Youngjae sleeps with every night.” Junhong explained.

“No wonder you like Youngjae so much, because you both sleep with little Teddy Bears~…” I said. Zelo nodded, but then stopped thinking about what I had said.

“Why would they argue over that though?” Himchan asked confused. “They used to share it when they were younger. And then Daehyun gave it Youngjae to keep. But I don’t know why they’re arguing over it yet.” Zelo explained in a know-it-all tone, he liked being the one to know everything while everyone else knew nothing, because usually it’s the other way around.

“Do you think Youngjae is homesick?” Zelo asked pouting. Everyone was silent, and thought about it. “What makes you say that?” Yongguk asked. “Because when Daehyun and Youngjae were younger Yo-,” “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, we get it.” I said knowing that he was just showing off now. “We should visit them.” Himchan spoke up.

“Visit who?” Bang asked. I smiled knowing what Channie was talking about. “That sounds like fun.” I said. Zelo’s eyes widened. “You mean?” he began. The elder nodded. The maknae jumped up in excitement. “That’s be great! Let’s do it.” He cheered. Yongguk seemed hesitant, “Do we just leave? Without telling them?” He questioned. “Come on Bang! Don’t be so uptight and question things.” I said. “Yeah! Just go with it.” Little Zelo tried. He was utterly excited.

“Why not? They don’t seem too bad…” “Or bad at all.” Zelo interrupted Himchan, correcting him. “Junhong likes them a lot and-,” “Yes I do!” Zelo interrupted him again. “Daehyun likes them too, and he’s jealous of them. And Youngjae cares for them a lot, so wouldn’t you be interested in meeting them?” Himchan was able to finish without any more interruptions from the younger.

Yongguk sighed giving in. “Let’s go then.” Himchan announced leading the way. “You’re going to like them!” Zelo told us as we walked to the stables. “They’re really cool! They even taught me how to rap! You should try it!” he told Yongguk. “Oh! Oh! And Minhyuk-hyung and Ukwon-hyung are really good dancers.” Zelo said to me. “I think you’ll like Jiho, Yongguk. And Jongup you might like Kyung. And Channie I think you will get along with Jaehyo.” Zelo said laughing at the last part.

We entered the stalls and settled up our horses…for the thousandth time. Once Junhong excitedly hopped on his horse we followed his lead towards the villages. “Zelo…Where are you going? We’re supposed to go through the rich people town first.” I said noticing that he was going a different direction. “I know…this is another way. I don’t want to go through there.” Junhong answered.

“Oh.” I pouted. Himchan straightened up and smiled. “What’s wrong? Are you upset that you can’t perform your little show in front of the girls?” He taunted. “No.” I simply answered. “That just means more for you.” I looked up at him smirking. His cheeks faintly turned red and his smile disappeared. I looked away and sighed, he doesn’t realize that I mean every word I say.

“We’re here!” the excited Zelo announced. The place was gloomy as always, I never really like coming here because of that. Junhong jumped off of his horse“Stay right here. I’ll be back.” He said and ran off.

“Soo…what do you guys think of about Youngjae? Hm?” I asked starting conversation between the two party poopers. “He’s not that bad actually…” Himchan stated. “What about you Guk?” I asked. “He’s, something else I guess. It’ll take a while to get used to him after all that happened.” He answered. I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “Can’t you just forget about it?”

“It’s not that easy Jongup.” He snapped. “Hey. No need to get all snappy.” I raised my hands as if to surrender. “Huh…? Sorry Jongup.” Yongguk sighed. He was clearly out of it. “It’s cool I know you’re trying to keep yourself from getting jealous of Zelo’s new friends. Daehyun is going through the same thing too.” I simply said. Himchan nodded in agreement. I smiled.

“See even Channie agrees.” I pointed out. Himchan realized what he was doing and quickly stopped nodding. I leaned over and caressed the elder’s hair. “It’s okay Channie to agree with me. Uppie is always right.” I spoke smoothly in his ear. He turned red and knocked me over, but I caught myself before I could fall off. Yongguk laughed, “You better watch it Moon Jongup or else one day Himchan will really kill you.”

“He’ll try to kill me.” I said emphasizing the word ‘try’. “I’ll be waiting for that day.” I told Himchan. “Pabo.” He grumbled under his breath. Then it became silent again. Himchan and Yongguk were back thinking to themselves again. I tried thinking too…but nothing happened. Now I was bored. When is Zelo-ah coming back? I hope he didn’t ditch us and leave me with these two mothers.

Just then an idea came to mind. There wasn’t anything else to do, so I just might as well start making random sounds to break their concentration.

I’m not being obnoxious, I’m just simply helping them. They think way too much. They just need to chill sometimes. Thinking is good, but now isn’t the time to think. So I continued to make loud groaning and sounds. But nothing happened, as I expected.

So I moved onto loud yawning sounds. Channie sighed in annoyance, but that wasn’t enough. Next I changed to whistling, I am a pretty good whistler, I can even change my pitch. I whistled higher and higher. This time Yongguk grumbled something to himself. I sighed in disappointment.

“Aigoo…You guys are so boring.” I said aloud. No wonder Junhong likes his new friends a lot…they must be more fun.” I muttered under my breath. You’re such a baby.” Himchan let out in irritation. I smiled, I knew he would say something eventually. “What did you expect? I’m your baby though.” I cooed. “Yah!” Himchan spat unsure of how to respond. “You sort of set that up for yourself.” Yongguk chuckled. I smiled cheesily at him.

Himchan shook his head and sighed. “You sigh way too much.” I told him. He just sighed again. “Ugh! That is so annoying.” I complained. He sighed again. So I sighed back at him. Then he sighed even harder. I mimicked him. We went back and forth until there was a sudden ruffling in the bushes.

Zelo jumped from the bushes with leaves all in his hair. He had a huge smile on his face. But his expression turned into confusion when he saw Himchan and I. Channie quickly went back to his “professional” posture. I rolled my eyes.

“Junhong, what happened?” Yongguk asked. “Yah! What took you so long? These guys are no fun.” I whined. “Haha miane Uppie. I uh…almost…huh, you won’t believe this…” Zelo began “What’s the matter?” Himchan asked. “Heh…um…I almost forgot to come back.” Junhong admitted with a light tint of pink appearing on his cheeks.

“Himchan and Yongguk didn’t know how to respond. “It’s alright little Junhong. You did the right thing.” I said getting off of my horse walking up to him. “Shoot, I would have completely forgot about them.” I said patting his back. I felt Channie’s eyes on me. “So…Can we meet your friends?” I asked. Zelo nodded. “Follow me!” He said.

But then he stopped. “Oh…and don’t bring your horses.” He said. “Why not? What if someone steals them?” Yongguk muttered in disappointment. “No one is going to take them. After all we pretty much scare everyone here.” Himchan said sadly. Thinking about it now, it was kind of sad. Without another word Yongguk and Himchan climbed off of their horses and joined us.

The 3 of us followed behind Zelo. It was kind of awkward. Some people walked by us as if we weren’t there at all, while some littile kids ran away running to their mothers, crying hugging their mom’s arms.

“Shhhh…” I overheard a mother holding her baby in her arms. “Mommy! Don’t go!” The baby boy cried. “I’m not going anywhere” She assured him speaking calmly. “…Th-They’re going to t-take you away f-from me.” The baby boy continued to cry. I made eye contact with the woman. She looked frightened. I gave her a soft reassuring smile. She seemed to clm down a bit, but she was still on edge. “Come on, let’s go home…I’ll give you a little snack.” She smiled at her son. “I don’t want a snack. I just wanna go home.” He sniffled. “Okay we’ll do that then.” She spoke softly and walked away, holding his hand tightly. I watched them leave until they were out of sight.

I couldn’t help but sigh. I know the others heard too. We never paid much attention to these things because we don’t really come here, and when we do, it’s not for a good cause. “We’re here!” Zelo announced.

I looked around. It was the same place we came to last time, and the time before that. “Zelo-ah! You’re back!” A tall guy with a deep, rough voice exclaimed running, giving Zelo a tight hug. “I missed you.” He pouted. “I’ve only been gon for five minutes.” Zelo chuckled, embracing his hug. “That’s a long time.” He whined. “True that.” I spoke up.

Everyone became silent, they all turned and stared at me. This…was…awkward. I could’ve sworn I heard crickets. Just then another guy walked up to me. “Welcome back.” He smiled sort of uneasy. “I feel welcomed.” I muttered, pouting playfully. The guy laughed lightly to himself. “I’m Jiho.” He was the first to introduce himself.

He held out his hand for a handshake. I stepped up to him. “The name is Jongup.” I gave him a Hi-5 instead. This time he smiled more genuinely t me. “Let’s just drop the formalities.” I said. “Sounds good to me.” He agreed. “Awwee! This guy is real cool!” I told Junhong mimicking him a little bit, the younger just laughed at me. But the Jiho guy was pretty cool, every time I saw him he had a cool, chill aura about him.

-Jiho’s POV-

After Zelo introduced everyone, we hung out at the edge of the village where we had more room. At first they were kind of stiff and awkward but eventually they warmed up and started talking and play round a little. The Jongup guy was an interesting person, him and Kyung got along very easily.

“So, you’re saying Zelo here is your younger broher?” Jongup said as they started their 50^th conversation. “Yes…” Kyung answered. “So then that makes me your older brother.” Jongup concluded. “What? Noo~…I’m your older brother.” Kyung argued. “Nope, too late. I already called it.” Jongup refused. “But I’m older than you!” Kyung whined. I just laughed at them.

Also Jaehyo and Prince Himchan were getting along quite nicely. “I know how you feel. Jongup messes with me all the time.” Himchan said. “They don’t understand. It’s hard for us you know?” Jaehyo said shaking his head. Himchan nodded in agreement. I shook my head, whatever Jaehyo.

Zelo, Jihoon, and Taeil were enjoying themselves as usual. The two younger ones were trying to teach Taeil how to rap. “I can’t do it!” Taeil said out of frustration. “Awe…come on Taeil you can do it.” Jihoon encouraged. “We can show again.” Zelo urged. Though they’ve shown him 5 times already. “Naw You’re just showing off now.” Taeil declined. Smiles grew on the two’s faces. “Wh-Whaat?” Zelo said trying hard to hide his smile. “We don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jihoon struggled. Taeil just stomped his feet crossing his arms and walked away over to Jaehyo and Himchan.

I looked around and saw Yongguk standing alone watching everyone. I walked over to the serious Prince. “Something on your mind?” I asked him. He looked at me a little surprised. He didn’t respond. “It’s okay. You don’t have to answer right away. I understand.” I said. It was silent, I stood right next to him rocking back and forth on the back of my heals, watching the others.

I was glad to see Zelo back and everyone enjoying themselves, though it did seem a bit strange with the royals in the picture. I couldn’t help but miss Youngjae, however. I worried about him. It’s been nearly a month since I’ve last seen him, but I know that he’s in good hands. Not just because Zelo was there to take care of him, but also Daehyun.

I always knew that he had a good heart. From the recent encounters with him I sensed that he didn’t lock his hear up completely, I had seen it in his eyes. “I just don’t understand.” Prince Yongguk confessed.

“Well, there’s many things that we don’t understand.” I told him. “I don’t get it though. How did all of this happen?” He went on. I didn’t respond. “Everything…everything was a lie.” He shook his head. I remained silent and let him speak. “How can people be that way to one another? I know I’ve done some things but Daehyun was so hurt. So of course I acted that way towards Youngjae.” He said, his voice was filled with regret. “And…I don’t get how you guys can welcome us, as if nothing happened.” He said, his voice cracked slightly.

“You can’t hold on to things forever, especially once you’ve already found the solution to the problem.” I said. “But why? Ottoke?” He questioned earnestly. I never really thought about it before. I never thought about how we could be so forgiving and welcoming as soon as everything was set and done for good.

“Hm…to be honest, I don’t know. I guess growing up in a village unsure of what your future will be like tomorrow, you kind of need something to bring you back up and not be like those around you. The 8 of us kind of found each other Jihoon, Ukwon, Minhyuk, Kyung, Jaehyo, Taeil, Youngjae and I. We grew up with hope and love, and to grow with open arms. And not to hold grudges, because if we did we would never be able to forgive because bad things happen to us all the time…if that makes sense.” I tried.

“That only makes me feel worse.” He chuckled weakly. “Just learn to open up a little and. Don’t hold on to things that won’t matter in the end. Just relax for now as if nothing happened, that’s what everyone else is doing.” I told him.

He slightly laughed and shook his head. “Here I am talking to you like you’re my hyung and I’m the one who’s older than you.” He laughed. “You can come to me anytime.” I joked. “Nuh-uh. It’s going to be the other way for now on. He said. “Oh, so you’re my friend now?” I said.

He stopped joking around and straightened up. “No.” he said formally. I frowned. “I’m…your hyung.” He smiled. I jumped on my tip toes and poked his arm. “Awe~…I knew the tough prince from the Bang kingdom has a heart.” I teased.

-Zelo’s POV-

“Alright you guys we have to go now.” I announced when it began to get dark, but they all ignored me. “You guys~…” I called, but everyone continued what they were doing. I know they heard me. “Yah! Bang Yongguk! Kim Himchan! Moon Jongup! We gotta go!” I yelled.

“Uuuuuuuuggghhhhh….” Jongup groaned. “Come on.” I said. “Can’t we stay a little longer? “ Himchan said. “Yeah. We were having a good conversation over here.” Jaehyo joined in. “We should get going too, before the guards come out.” Jiho said.

“We can stay just a little longer.” Yongguk said. “Yah! You guys are making me seem like the party pooper.” I said. “Well you are being one.” Jongup remarked. “Besides we have to get back to Daehyun and Youngjae.” I ignored the elder. “They won’t even noticed. They’re probably too much into their argument that they still haven’t noticed that we left.” Himchan remarked.

“Jiho~…” I whined for help. Jiho just laughed. “Alright boys. We gotta go before the guards come.” Jiho clapped. The 6 boys sighed and groaned, reluctantly getting ready to leave. “Bye Zelo!” Jihoon sniffled giving me a hug. “Bye Jihoon-hyung.” I said.

I honestly didn’t want to leave. I really did miss them. I missed them so much! I could only imagine how Youngjae must feel. The other 3 stood up reluctantly and said good bye to the others. “Hey Zelo. Tell Youngjae I said Hi.” Jiho called. “I will!” I promised.

“Me too!” Ukwon called back. “Okay.” I promised him as well. “Me too! Tell him not to forget about us!” Jihoon jumped. “Ok, Jihoon.” I laughed my eyes tearing up a little, I really didn’t want to go.

On our way back the 3 of them talked happily about their day. I lagged behind sadly in thought. Yongguk noticed this and slowed down his horse so that we were riding side by side. “What’s the matter? Something on your mind?” He smiled nudging my arm. “They’re Youngjae’s friends…his only family.” I told him. Mm hm.” He nodded. “Youngjae must really miss them…” I said. Just then a messenger rode past us at high speed.

-Daehyun’s POV-

“Come on Youngjae~…Come lay down with me.” I said. “No!” he spat crossing his arms. “Why not?” I questioned. He just looked at me as if to say seriously? “We’re not like that anymore. I told you it’s going to take time.” He said. “You’re not really going to go back and sleep in Dr.Sunhi’s office are you?” I said. “You’re not listening.” He frowned. “It’s way more comfortable here. You don’t want to go back there.” I tried to convince. He shook his head and walked towards the double doors of my bed room.

At that moment an idea came to my mind. “Good Night Daehyun.” He said. I rolled out of my bed and snuck up behind him. Before he could turn the door knob I grabbed him, hugging him from behind tightly He gasped at my sudden embrace. I smiled and picked him up off his feet. He tried to fight back but I used my strength to my advantage.

“I love you Youngjae.” I cooed. “Daehyu, let…let go of me.” He said still struggling out of my grip. “Nuh uh.” I said. “Daehyun!” he was whining now. “I’m never going to let you go.” I told him. “Youngjae…you’re mine…forever.” I whispered in his ear.

Youngjae blushed. Awe~ he’s so cute. “H-Hajima~…” he struggled to get out. “Nope. You brought this upon yourself.” I said, tossing him on to the bed. I climbed on top of him to prevent him from crawling off the bed. I placed my hands and knees on either side of him, smiling down.

His cheeks turned a darker shade of red. “Daehyun…get up. Please.” He was too embarrassed to speak any louder. “Isn’t this more comfortable than that patient’s bed in Dr.Sunhi’s office?” I tilted my head. This side of him was too adorable. “Wh-What if someone…someone comes in?” He said in a hushed tone, failing to convince me otherwise. I shrugged. “Then it’ll be up to them to leave…or watch.” I winked.

He frowned at my response and tried to push me away, but it was a failed attempt. At that moment the door opened. Well what do you know? Somebody did come in? Youngjae seemed to have read my mind and narrowed his eyes at me. I smiled back.

“Yes?” I responded turning to look at the intruder. Youngjae stole the opportunity to push me off and jump off the bed. But I grabbed his arm and pulled him into me and held him, preventing him from going far.

“I’m sorry for interrupting.” Dr.Sunhi bowed. I squeezed Youngjae tighter, the look in her face did not look like she was here with good news.

“Youngjae…You need to come with me.” She said urgently. But to my surprise he didn’t move. “It’s your mother.” She said handing him a letter. I released my hold to let him take it. He read the letter. Worry filled his eyes. He jumped to his feet. “What is this?” he asked breathless.

“Your mother is very sick Youngjae…” Dr.Sunhi said cautiously. “So?! She’s always been sick?! What does this mean?!” Youngjae suddenly burst. I stood up this time. “Youngjae…you need to calm down.” I advised but he ignored me. “Wh-What does this mean?!” He looked as if he were in denial, shaking his head.

“It’s much…much worse than…before.”” She confessed. “H-How can she get worse? How much more does she have to suffer?” tears streamed down his soft cheeks. “It’s…It’s because of her nature.” Dr.Sunhi chose her words carefully.

“What? Her nature?” Youngjae repeated getting even more upset. “You won’t understand right now, but you and your mother are…different.” She was hiding something, but I couldn’t guess what it was. It was as if she were waiting for something…like the right time.

“I have to go.” Youngjae said firmly. “Follow me.” Dr.sunhi said. “What? No.” I spoke up grabbing Youngjae’s wrist. “Daehyun…let…go. I have to take care of my mother.” He said. He pleaded me with desperate eyes.

“I just got you back. I’m not going to let you go. I’m not going to risk anything. I promised you.” I said standing my ground. “Daehyun! This isn’t about you! Or anything you said! Right now my mother is in a terrible condition. I…I have to see her before…before.” He didn’t dare finish his sentence. “Fine. But, I’m going with you.” I said letting him go. He nodded.

We slipped on our cloaks and ran down the long spiral stairs just to bump into the others. “What’s going on?” Yongguk asked me concerned. “It’s Youngjae’s mother…she’s not doing good.” Was all I could say. I noticed Dr.Sunhi and Zelo make eye-contact.

Junhong’s expression did not show any good signs. “I had a…a dream.” Was all he could say. “We’ll talk about it later.” Dr.Sunhi said calmly. “I’m coming with you.” Yongguk said. I was a little surprised by this but didn’t have enough time to ask any questions.