After only a week, Baekhyun has captured the attention of the media. The reporters documented every single bit of his arrival to Helios and then some. There was a leak of information (Lei is sure that the source is Baekhyun), and the reporters rushed over to Ettenyl to interview the locals regarding the events of that day. Of course, of course, the locals gave extensive tidbits of information regarding Kai and Baekhyun, and of course they mention her name only a few times.

Prince Kai was more handsome in person. He looks a lot better than he does in the newspapers we get. We’re very thankful that he stopped the rains.

Lei rolls her eyes thinking about it.

Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, it did. Last night, she found an article with several pictures of Baekhyun visiting the children at another orphanage. The page had several thousand shares and likes (it probably has millions by now), and the comments—the comments. It seemed as if the entire population of Helios was beginning to like him. (And a certain Wendy Son shared a link to one of these articles on her Facebook page.)

This is why she doesn’t want to see Baekhyun or her despicable brother’s face at all today—which results in her calling Lucas the night before asking for an entire day together.

Lucas is the son of a wealthy family owning a good chunk of Helios’ real estate market. Although he is handsome, intelligent, and kind when the right people are looking (or when Lei laces her hand through his), he is one the person she hates more than anyone else. Because when no one he cares for is looking, he becomes the dictionary definition of terrible. He looks down on anyone who doesn’t have enough zeroes in their bank account, he plays constant games of manipulation for “the thrill,” and no one—not even Lei—can beat him at revenge. His parents showered him in gifts when he was young as a reward for existing, and as a result, he isn’t used to not getting what he wants. It is due to that reason that his picture is on the news more often than the royal family’s—something that Lei wants for herself. Her brother possibly hates him more than she does, and because of that she always tries to make it a public affair to lace her hands through Lucas’ in front him.

Lei heads downstairs dressed in her shortest and tightest dress, and although Wendy tells her not to go into the dining room, she waltzes in anyways, making sure her brother sees.

“What are you wearing?” Kai stops eating at the sight of her. Baekhyun raises his head from his soup, and when he spots Lei, he pauses his spoon in between his bowl and open mouth.

“I’m going out with Lucas.” Lei flips her hair over her shoulder and takes a bite out of a red apple. “I’m going to be busy all day, so don’t mind me.”

“Busy doing what?” Kai demands. “Clubbing? At 8 in the morning? No, you’re not going out dressed like that. Where did you even find that dress? I thought we got rid of them all.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Lei shrugs. “I’m going to spend my day with someone who actually likes me, and I want to look my best.”

“Excuse me?” Kai scoffs, and he rises from his seat. “But I love you, and I’m not going to allow you to ‘hang out’ with a boy who couldn’t possibly care less about your wellbeing.” He walks over to her and grabs the apple from her hands. “Are you listening to me? You’re forbidden from leaving this castle.”

“You’re grounding me?” Lei laughs at how delirious her brother is. “You wish you could. I’m not going to get pushed around by you. Just a few nights ago, you forced me to trudge through a forest to ‘go home right now.’ No way I’m letting you trap me in here.” She draws her head back and curls her lip upward. “That’s basically child abuse.”

“Child abuse? Really? You’re missing the point here. I’m protecting you from getting molested by Lucas! He’s 18 for god’s sake, and you’re not even of age yet.”

Lei gasps at his vile words—and in front of Baekhyun. She looks over Kai’s shoulder and sees that Baekhyun who seems to have busied himself by eating copious amounts of bread and soup.

“I will be 18 on the 21st of June, excuse me? And how dare you make such assumptions!” Lei grabs the apple back from Kai. “We’re not a couple. We don’t do anything illegal either, you dimwit. I’m not stupid enough to break the law.” Well, there is that one time grand theft auto was involved… “And for your information, what we do is none of your business.”

“None of my business?” Kai grabs the apple again, but Lei keeps her nails dug into it. “It is my business when my baby sister goes off wearing provocative clothing around grabby men. Now get changed.”

“No,” Lei reaffirms, and she lets the apple burst into flames. With a yelp, Kai drops it as a few guards rush over to extinguish the fire.

“Lei!” a familiar voice exclaims from the doorway of the dining room. Lei lifts her eyes upward, and upon finding the source of the voice, she breaks into grin. She loathes him—but not as much as she despises her brother’s will.

“Lucas, you came.” She runs into his arms and breathes in his cologne. He reciprocates the hug and holds her tighter. There are some things she likes about him, and the way he rolls is definitely one of them.  The thing with Lucas is that he doesn’t settle for average anything—which is why he dresses as if he is a prince himself. “Thank you.” She pulls away and nudges a shoulder to the direction of her brother. “You saved me,” she rolls her eyes, “from death.”

“I bet.” Lucas squints at the scene behind her. “That’s the prince of Yosul, right?”

“Ugh,” Lei groans, “yes, I know. I’m sorry you have to see him here.”

“Don’t be.” Lucas’s lips curl into a smirk as he approaches Baekhyun. “Hello,” he greets him. “I’m Lucas, the future heir of Pyros Estates.” Baekhyun glances up at him, but before he can reply with his own greeting, Lucas cuts him off. “I’m sure you haven’t heard of me. After all, you support a nation that oppresses its people to the point where access to the Internet is almost illegal.”

“Lucas,” Kai booms. At the sound of his name, Lucas stands up straighter. “You don’t have the right to barge in here and insult my guests.”

“Insult?” Lucas feigns surprise by placing a hand over his right chest. “Is this what you think this is? Stating facts is considered insulting now?”

“Lucas, let’s go.” Lei has had enough of this bickering. “We have a lot to do today.” She grabs his arm and pulls him away from another confrontation with her brother. The last time they had an altercation, Kai walked away with a bruised jaw, Lucas with a swollen mouth, and both with a hurt pride. “Come on.”

“Don’t worry,” Lucas tells Kai with a wink, “I’ll bring her home safe.”

“No, you won’t.” Kai strides forward and grabs Lucas’s collar with a fist. “The public may see you as a poster child of sorts, but I know exactly what kind of scum you are, and I won’t have any of it. You’re not going anywhere with my sister.”

“First of all, get off me.” Lucas growls through gritted teeth, and the next thing Lei knows, Kai is sliding across the floor where his back hits one of the floor length windows with a thud. The guards are quick to assist him, but it’s to no avail. He remains anchored to the wall by an invisible force. Lucas readjusts his clothes and turns to give Lei a satisfied grin. “Sorry about that, princess.”

This is one of the other things she likes about him. Lucas’s powers, she has to admit, aren’t very useful—at least not in a way she can comprehend, but they do come in handy from time to time. With the power to manipulate gravitational fields, he can render her brother immobile against the wall.

“Lei, if you step one foot out the door—”

“Too late!” Lei grabs Lucas’s hand and runs out, ignoring Kai’s disapproving grunts.

They run out the dining room with stifled laughs, past stone-faced guards, and a baffled Wendy. Once outside the castle walls, the side of Lucas’s car greets them on the front driveway with his chauffeur leaning against the hood.

“Quick, take me to your place,” Lei suggests, looking over her shoulder. They only have a minute at most before Kai comes out with a squadron of guards to stop them.

“Start the car,” Lucas tells his chauffeur who follows suit. He then looks down at Lei with that stupid handsome grin he has. “What do you have in mind? I thought I was the one who made the plans.”

“We’re going to cause some trouble,” Lei remarks, pulling him in the direction of the car. Lucas likes boring activities when he’s trying to impress certain people, but he also likes certain activities to annoy the very same people. “Why?” she asks him once they’re in the car. “Did you have anything you really wanted to do?”

“Well,” Lucas muses, “I was hoping you’d finally get back to me on the subject of where our relationship lies.”

Lei pauses with the tapping of her foot and looks into Lucas’s large eyes.

A fact: Lucas Wong is the biggest jerk to ever exist in the jerk-verse. Similarly, myth: Lucas Wong is incapable of feeling emotion. Lei has known this for months, but she’s been in a state of denial that long. When he told her that he had “genuine” affection towards her, she waved it off, believing it was a joke. He’s Lucas, after all. Emotion? And him? The two aren’t supposed to be seen together. Yet, it persisted, and now she’s sitting in the backseat of a car belonging to a boy who claims he likes her.

“We’re friends who fool around, Lucas,” Lei states slowly—just in case he twists it into something he wants to hear. “We’re not dating. I’m not your girlfriend.”

“Friends don’t kiss me like you did at the beginning of the year.”

Fact: he remembers everything she wants him to forget. The kiss he refers to is the one she gave him at her brother’s birthday party. Kai was fuming that she invited him, and to infuriate him more, she grabbed Lucas and kissed him—with the sole intention of only angering her brother. Nothing else. Not because she has an ounce of feeling towards Lucas. She shouldn’t have, however, because it gave him the wrong impression.

“Lucas,” she says for the millionth time, “that kiss meant nothing. I did that to make my brother angry.”

He looks at her with a blank expression. “Fine. But friends don’t hold hands either.”

“Yes, they do.” Lei sits off to the side as far away as possible from him. She rolls her eyes and stares at the window as they drive past the castle’s gates. “Lucas, you’re supposed to be smart. Why are you asking questions like you’re not?”

“You’re so confusing, that’s why,” he mutters. He then shuffles around in his pocket when his phone begins to ring, making Lei roll her eyes again. Lucas’s phone is the only thing that can capture his attention faster than she can. “What? No! I wanted gold—not gold plated. Who do you think I am? Do you think can rip me off like this?”

And there he goes off, being the dictionary definition of terrible. To ignore his ramblings, Lei takes out her phone too and swipes to the only app that matters—the news app. Today’s top story is about the death of some American billionaire, and it makes Lei smile—not because someone died, but because at least it’s not her brother’s face. The second story slaps any happiness she had because now she’s looking at Baekhyun’s smile.

Prince of Yosul seen at Ouesce Royal Library.

“Are you kidding me?”

Lei glances up at Lucas who seemed to have read her mind. He’s still too invested in arguing whoever’s on the other line, however.

Rolling her eyes, Lei scrolls past all the other irrelevant news regarding public events and statistics. Her brother hasn’t done anything spectacular lately, it seems, because he’s not in the top 10 news stories of the day. But after searching by region, she sees that he once again graces some of the headlines with recent public appearances. Out of the nine stories she scrolls past, two of them have her brother, four of them have Baekhyun, and none of them have her.

“Lucas.” She kicks him in the leg. “I know what we’re going to do.”

“What?” he asks once he’s hung up.

“We’re going to the library.”

“The library?” Lucas tilts his head and squints at her. “Why would we go there when we can go the beach or something?”

“Because it looks like the prince of Yosul frequents it.” Lei holds her phone for Lucas to see. “What if he’s gathering intel on Helios? Plotting our demise? We have to go investigate.”

“Investigate?” Lucas takes her phone from her and scrolls through. His lip twitches, and he peeks up through his bangs. “How do we do that?”

“You’ll see.” Lei smirks.

- - - - -

The Royal Library of Ouesce has a section under construction. It’s the unimportant wing of the building that usually contains books on tax law around the world. While it may be interesting for some people, Lei can’t care for it—as do a thousand others—because the wing