『prelude』

It was a peaceful night inside the castle. The hallways were filled with guards securing the different doors of the castle, while the torches gave light in the night. The king and queen were in their bedrooms sleeping soundly, but the prince, Yang Jeongin, was not in his room where is supposed to.

Through the window of his room, the prince have tied several pieces of cloth so that it could reach the ground, planning to escape the castle in the middle of the night. At the age of 17 years old, he was quite an adventurous person, but he could not go outside of the walls until he's 18 years old. Guarded by his right hand, Chan and Minho, he could not break out the castle as he hoped to. He was only allowed to go to the town in not-so-common times, such as kingdom celebrations, and other festivities and events that could relate with the royal family.

Sneakily, the prince tried to hide himself in the bushes, while his whole body and half of his face covered by a cape. Step by step, reaching for the hidden exit he found while roaming the garden before. There was no sentinel guarding the hidden gate, so it was a perfect way to escape the castle, for the night. He just wanted to get out of the castle for the night, and return by the time that Chan would check his room if he was there. 

He tried not to make a sound while he moved from one bush to another, which he successfully did until a few steps later. At a few meters away, he saw Chan and Minho were roaming around the garden, headed for his direction. He turned his head to the exit and saw a fox was staying in the narrow exit, and God knows how he was afraid of foxes. Looking back at the two, he knew that they could not see him due to their poor sight at night, but he could not sacrifice being caught for he knows that he'll get a beating from the two.

He turned his head around and miraculously, he saw a passage entering the castle where he could hide himself for the time being, while not being caught by the two. He turned his head back and forth at the passage and the two men, getting himself a chance to escape from the sight of them. 

In perfect timing, he rushed to the dark passage quietly. The passage that he entered was directly a stair going to the underground of the castle. It was not that dark as he assumed earlier, there were torches in the side to guide the way of the stairs. Trying not to get caught by his sentinels, he went deeper in the passage.

Maybe this was the place that Chan and Minho told me to steer clear of. Jeongin thought to himself. Both Chan and Minho were always telling him not to go at the passage going to the underground of the castle. Both said that the place was dangerous for him, but the deed was already done and Jeongin was curious enough to go further.

At the end of the stairs, Jeongin saw a wooden door, presumably, a very old wooden door that could be of a hundred years old. It's smell reeked of iron, which is kind of weird because it was a wooden door. With arising curiosity, Jeongin touched the door and put his ears to listen at the other side.

The door was warm, and a sound of heavy breathing can be heard. Jeongin thought that someone was trapped at the other side of the door. Trying to let someone from the other side, he touched the door handle trying to push, but to no success, it was locked with a lock located in the upper right portion of the door. 

In a few moments, he heard faint steps coming to his direction. Once more, he placed his ears at the door, but it was still the same sound that he heard earlier. Realizing, he faced the direction where he came from earlier, the sound becoming clearer. Thoughts came rushing inside his head, it may be someone bad that plots to kill him. Oh no, he thought.

There was no hiding spot in his place, and he has no weapon to try fend off the person coming at him. Instead, he grabbed the torch at his right side and held it nervously. He was afraid that he was going to be killed at the time. Shadows appeared in the staircase, and he was sweating a lot from the pressure and the sight of the intruder's shadow.

Not long after, he tried to step up in the staircase, trying to defend himself for whatever may happen, but his courageous act watered down instantly at the sight of two shadows. There were two people going down, and he could not do anything to defend himself. I should have started my lessons in fencing as what I have supposed to do. He thought to himself while losing hope in the process of a possible deadly encounter.

Jeongin hid himself in his cape while still holding the torch, waiting for the offender to come right in front of him. He let his head down as he waited for the two persons to come in front of him. As soon as he spotted the feet of the people in front of him, he waved the torch in front of them hoping that they get caught by the fire that the torch held. He still continued waving the torch in front of them, but to no avail, since they backed out a little to prevent the touch of the torch. Jeongin's wave came to a sudden halt when he felt a hand preventing his arm from moving.

I'm so dead. He thought and kneeled in front of them.

"Please spare me! You can have my riches, but please, let me live. I still want to know the outside world. I want to be free from this castle. So, please let me live!" Jeongin pleaded while grabbing the leg of one of the intruder. His voice cracked while pleading, but he did not care. He only wanted to be safe from harm. He started crying and was really scared, much to what is expected of him as a teenager.

"Look at us." One of them said, Jeongin slowly raised his head in fear, but upon looking at their faces, he slowly regained a smile. It was Chan and Minho.

He raised himself up from kneeling and proceeded to hug Chan. Jeongin's cry was soft yet it was evident that he was really scared earlier. He was crying at Chan's shoulder, while the older consoled the prince by hugging him and patting at his back. Chan and Minho did not actually meant to scare the prince, they just followed him to know where he was heading. They did not expect the prince to be that scared of them.

Looking at both Chan and Jeongin, Minho crossed his arms and shook his head. The prince was a crybaby after all. Realizing that it was already time to finish their patrol, Minho tapped Chan and mouthed that they have to bring back the prince to his room. Chan nodded in approval, and turned his head to Jeongin once again.

"You're a crybaby." Chan said while letting out a small laugh.

"No, I'm a grown-up man now." Jeongin replied, yet he still cried after what he said.

Minho let out a scoffed breath.