“She’s probably upset in her room again.” After the events of yesterday, Baekhyun wants nothing to do with Lei—which is why he suggests the most ideas for her alleged disappearance. “If she’s not in her room, she’s probably out in the gardens frolicking or whatever she likes to do out there.”

Kai is a lot more perceptive than Baekhyun gives him credit for, however. “You don’t seem very concerned.” The prince of Helios crosses his arms and wears a sullen look on his face. “What if my sister is burning another building?”

“Then it’d be on the news.” Baekhyun shrugs, propping his feet up on the coffee table. Although the night is still young in Baekhyun’s standards, when Lei didn’t show her face for dinner a few hours ago, Kai immediately grew worried. “It hasn’t been easy for your sister these past few days,” Baekhyun reasons. “She just found out her mother is with another man. And,” he lowers his voice, “you didn’t wish her a happy birthday.”

“I told you. It’s for the surprise party.” Kai sits down on an adjacent chair, but he doesn’t relax. “Do you really think she’s in her room?”

“Yes.” Baekhyun nods though he doesn’t really believe it. Knowing Lei, he believes her to be causing trouble in some part of town where news reporters aren’t present. Probably with her boyfriend who had the face of a player. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll put food out by her bedroom door. So she doesn’t have to go down and be uncomfortable.”

“Good idea.” Kai stands up, checking his watch for about the hundredth time. “But I have to go attend to my other duties. She’s the least of my worries right now.”

Baekhyun waves nonchalantly. “Have a goodnight.”

“As with you.”

With that, Kai strides off somewhere—probably to his office, and Baekhyun sighs and sinks further into his chair.

A part of him wants to demand some sort of payment from prince Kai. After all, “watching over” princess Lei is no easy task. If she’s not in her room where he’s not allowed to go, she’s out somewhere he can’t find. Just like that, his job is already a million times harder. To add onto that complication, she’s not the most considerate person. Perhaps it’s justified, but the way she stomped on his flowers was definitely out of bounds. (Baekhyun wants to believe, however, that maybe it wasn’t.)

His relatives hate the flowers that sprout out of the soil he touches, so they do everything painful to those poor plants. The worst part is that they know that he can feel it. Every pulled petal, twisted stem, and crushed leaves. Baekhyun almost feels like he’s the one being tortured. It starts as a twinge of pain at the back of his head that travels to just behind his eyes. It’s the worst pain he’s known, and his coming-of-age ceremony involved a whipping with hot chains.

But then Lei burned a flower.

Her actions ignited a storm made of fire in his head. The good thing was that the flowers and their plants died quickly, so he didn’t feel it much, but still. It hurt! He would have dismissed it as an accident, but it happened again. And again. And again. Until he saw her admiring the work she had done.

At that point, he couldn’t take it anymore. He has to admit, however, that he shouldn’t have said some things because that very afternoon she nearly combusted (again). After only a few steps inside, he heard her fall, and he knew exactly why. He wasn’t going to help at first, but he it was his fault. Sort of. So he his breath and carried her to her room. He had to ask the guards for direction since he didn’t know where her room was, and afterwards he had to beg the guards not to inform anyone. While a part of Baekhyun wanted to tell Kai that maybe there was an incident, he decided that would only worry the prince—and he already a lot on his hands.

Later that afternoon, Baekhyun was taking a stroll in the royal gardens when he saw a tall, well-dressed figure wandering around Lei’s bedroom window. For a moment, he was about to ignore it and continue walking, but then the figure began to throw little stones into Lei’s terrace. Curiosity bested Baekhyun, and he ran over to meet the smoldering gaze of the princess’s boyfriend—Lucas.

Something about Lucas doesn’t sit well with Baekhyun. From the moment they first met, something about him just wasn’t right. It was a mixture of arrogance and narcissism that exuded from the boy that reminded Baekhyun of his Yosulian relatives, and he didn’t like that. His discomfort only increased when he saw Lucas walk away from a distraught Lei to him, the prince of Yosul. Lucas’s motives were immediately clear to Baekhyun: get ahead of the game. In fact, the first words Lucas uttered to him without malice were related to business. If he wasn’t so disregarding about Lei, then Baekhyun would have classified him as corporate scum at the least, but Lucas’s actions disproved him.

Baekhyun told Lucas not to disturb Lei, but the boy shrugged and walked on the wall leading her to room. Upon reaching the terrace, he winked at Baekhyun and promised to take care of the princess.

Of course, Baekhyun knew better to trust Lucas. After all, the boy was hardly a man by Yosulian standards. But there was nothing to be done.

He saw neither Lei or Lucas that evening, and he saw none of them today too.

“Prince Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun looks up and sees Wendy peering him from the doorway. “Yes?” he frowns, glancing at the clock on the wall. “Is there something wrong? It’s a little late for you to have any other duties.”

“I’m just worried about Lei. I haven’t seen her all day.” Wendy walks in and shuts the door behind her with a soft click. “Between you and me, I allowed her to go to Lucas’s estate.” Baekhyun raises his brows in surprise, and Wendy gives him a small smile. “I know. I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I wanted her to have some fun. Get out of this house. It’s not healthy to be trapped here. But she didn’t answer any of my calls.”

“Well,” Baekhyun rolls the world on his tongue. “I’m sure that what she’s doing now. Having fun.”

“Shouldn’t I be worried?” Wendy shakes her head. “I feel like… I feel like she might be doing something regretful.”

“Allow her to.” Baekhyun shrugs. He doesn’t really see the problem there. In Yosul, adults and overseers encourage regretful choices because they train the youngsters to avoid future mistakes—most of the time. “It’s a part of growing up. She is 18 now.”

“But,” Wendy whines, “I don’t want her to get hurt.” She pauses, biting her lip and averting eye contact. “I’m sorry, prince Baekhyun. I know you’re the last person I should talk to.”

Baekhyun smiles at Wendy’s concern. “There’s no problem with speaking to me about this. But really? What are you worried she’ll do? Get drunk? Set fire to something? You shouldn’t worry.” He touches her on the shoulder—a gesture he’s seen Kai do to his distraught assistants. Wendy looks up at him with teary eyes, and he tries his best to make a comforting expression. “I’m sure she’ll turn up. I’ll stay up to make sure of that.”

“Oh no,” Wendy exclaims, shaking her head profusely. “You’re not obligated into doing such a thing.”

“Nonsense. It’s my duty to watch over her anyways.” After a moment, he adds, “It’s also my duty as a prince to make sure people aren’t worrying themselves sick. You should rest, Wendy.”

“Thank you, prince Baekhyun.” She smiles and nods, though her eyes still seem watery. “Have a goodnight.”

After Wendy leaves the room, Baekhyun finds himself kicking off his shoes and lying down on the couch. While he does want to make sure that the princess is safe, a wave of fatigue overwhelms him. Today took a toll on him. Not only did he get lost in the attic section of the castle, he had to heal a plagued section of one of the royal farms. He’s still not sure what’s worse—a dark attic with strange drafts or an exhaustive session of healing several acres of land.

Baekhyun’s eyes flutter shut after a few minutes of struggling.

It seems as if only a minute has passed before they open again.

Baekhyun looks at the clock, and surprisingly, it’s nearly 2 in the morning. Confused, he rises and stretches his muscles. Perhaps he should move back to his bedroom. Princess Lei most likely had already came home and—Baekhyun pinches himself in disappointment.

He forgot to bring a plate of dinner to her room.

With a sense of anxiety, Baekhyun tugs on his shoes and runs out to the kitchen to fetch a plate along with a few fruits. The thing about royalty is that they never settle for less. Meaning, royals don’t keep leftovers. So, now he can only hope that the princess likes strawberries and blackberries.

Though the hallways are quiet except for a few guards taking rounds of patrolling, Baekhyun still makes sure his tread is velvet. Prince Kai had a stressful day and so did his advisors. He mustn’t disrupt them from a well-earned rest. Upon reaching the second floor where Lei’s room is, Baekhyun is careful to lay the platter of food a few feet away from her door—so she doesn’t step on it by accident. However, as he does, he notices a few black grains on the floor.

Ashes.

Baekhyun looks down on them, feeling both disappointment and anger. When he learned of the princess’s birthday and her brother’s plans to throw a surprise party next week, he immediately disapproved. Maybe it only applies to him, but surprises don’t make love to him like they do to others. And he knew nothing (and still doesn’t know) of Lei’s preferences, but he decided to wish her a joyous birthday nonetheless. To this, he asked around for her favorite flower.

Her favorite flower is marigold, as reported by Wendy. So, he grew an entire plot of marigold and picked only the best one. He expected her to like it and perhaps thank him, but she never did. Now he knows why. And now he knows why he had the most painful headache a few hours after leaving her the flower.

As Baekhyun blows the ashes away from her door, he notices that it’s ajar. Curious, he opens it farther to see if the princess has come home.

He doesn’t want to invade her privacy, so he slips his head inside to see if she’s sleeping on her bed, but a surprise greets him instead.

It’s Lucas. Alone on the bed.

“What,” Baekhyun exclaims, striding inside, “are you doing here?” He shakes Lucas until the boy jolts awake with wide eyes. In an instant, Baekhyun flies to the door and hits his back, shutting it with a loud thud that leaves him dizzy. “What,” he struggles to speak, “are you doing?”

Baekhyun, for some reason, is pinned to the door with a throb at the back of his head. He can’t move an arm or a leg, and Lucas rubs his eyes as if nothing’s happened. (Though, it’s clear that his gravitational powers are to blame.)

“Sorry,” Lucas apologizes in his deep voice, and Baekhyun falls to the floor. “That happens.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Baekhyun waves it off and walks over to Lucas who is still sitting on the bed. “Why are you here? I thought you were with Lei.”

“Why would you think that?” Lucas frowns. He fixes his rumpled clothes and pushes his hair into place. “I’ve been here for the last few hours. I thought she would be here, but she never came, and I guess I fell asleep.”

Baekhyun stares at him, trying to understand if what he’s said is the truth. Unfortunately, Lucas’s face is one of those faces that holds permanent smugness and arrogance, so Baekhyun isn’t sure of what to make of him. However, after glancing at the boy’s face, Baekhyun finds a deep cut on the corner of his lip, and his jaw has a small bruise that he tries to hide with turtleneck.

“What happened to you?” Baekhyun taps at the corner of his lip and jaw. “Get in a fight?”

“Oh, that.” Lucas presses a finger to the cut and winces. “It was a business deal that went wrong. Physical violence was the only way I could get what I want.”

Incredulous, Baekhyun arches a brow. “You fought someone?”

“Yes, I did.” Lucas doesn’t seem pleased, and Baekhyun swears he can feel the blood rush to his head—as if his new center of gravity is the ceiling. “He was an older man. Somewhere in his 50s. I taught him a lesson.” He smirks, and Baekhyun stumbles a step back. “Sorry,” Lucas apologizes, but there is nothing genuine in his statement. “That happens sometimes.”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter