For the last 20 minutes, Mina’s been staring blankly at the ceiling. She couldn’t shake the words that she read a while back from her mind. When she saw those words, she felt cold chills running through her spine. Why would Yoo Jinhee write such thing? Sighing, she tossed and her bed. It’s already 10 minutes before midnight but sleep’s not visiting her.

She stared at the diary sitting on her drawer. There’s an unexplainable curiosity inside her. Giving in, Mina sat up and reached for the diary. It’s a very wrong thing to do but she couldn’t help it.

Entry 001

Holding this position for another year makes me feel so pressured. I feel like I have to prove myself to everyone. Suho’s being too kind for his own good. Kai’s still cheeky as usual. Boys will always be boys. Having to live with 12 guys this year, yet again, makes me lose energy. I hope I’ll be able to survive this year.

Mina stared at Jinhee’s neat handwriting, letting her words sink in. Are there 12 guys living here aside from me? Kai, Suho, Lay, Xiumin, Baekhyun…I’ve met and talked to at least five of them so far. She flipped the page.

Entry 002

Park Chanyeol is stupid!! He broke my door with his stupid fireball. I can’t believe I have a dumb cousin!! I’ll make him regret practicing inside the Manor. I hope he’ll hear an earful of scolding from Yunho.

Reading Jinhee’s entries made her ask herself some questions. Park Chanyeol’s another member of the Royals? And they’re cousins? So Yunho probably knows Jinhee. Basing from Jinhee’s expressions in her entries, Mina concluded that she’s someone who expressed herself well. Then, she realized that she’s reading a dead girl’s diary. She shivered just by the thought of it but she couldn’t put the diary down.

Entry 003

D.O. lent me a book. Twisted Kingdoms - that’s the title. He’s such a quiet soul that it makes it hard for me to tell what’s going on in his mind. He distances himself from everyone and just spends most of his time in the library, reading. I started reading it yesterday and I find the plot really interesting. I just wish that D.O. would talk to me more.

Entry 004

Baekhyun snapped at me for messing with his glass ball. I’ve never saw him so angry before that I felt like I froze when he told me to stay away from him. He and Chanyeol almost got into a fight after that. Thankfully, Kai and Suho were there to stop them. Baekhyun’s been so sensitive lately. I don’t know what’s going on with him. He’s not really the type who gives me intimidating stares.

Mina raised a brow, asking herself if Jinhee’s talking about the same Baekhyun that she knows. As far as she’s concerned, Baekhyun’s the most intimidating person she’s ever met yet. Is he always an or is he just acting like one towards me?

Entry 005

Baekhyun apologized for what he did last time. I asked him what’s wrong but he just gave me an ambiguous answer. To make up for it, he helped me with my combat training.

Aside from that, I heard something from the Elders. They were talking about taking Sir Han Shinwoo’s daughter back. They’ve been keeping an eye on her for years. Except for the Elders, the members of the Royals and a handful of people, nobody knows about her yet.

She stared at that page longer, remembering Baekhyun’s words back at Yunho’s office. He was talking about the supposed plan to keep her identity a secret. Instead of answers, she stumbled upon more questions. Why would they keep my identity a secret from other people? She closed the diary and laid it down on her bed. She could feel her head throbbing from all the thinking that she’s been doing.

’s hurting, feeling so dry. Deciding to drink a glass of water, she carefully walked her way out of her room. All the lights were turned off and she just thought that it’s better to not turn them on. She might wake the others up if she does so. Being a pain in the on her first night there is not in her plan. Besides, she could see a bit thanks to the moonlight.

Successfully making it to where the refrigerator was without breaking anything, she opened it and quickly reached for the water. Her brows bristled when she saw a note pasted on a plastic package containing a slice of strawberry cake.

This is for Mina. Don’t you guys dare eat it. – Lay

She couldn’t stop the smile from creeping on her face. Just when she was about to reach for it, someone pulled her hard and pinned her against the wall. She heard the glass breaking as it landed on the floor. The back of her head was hurting from the impact. She couldn’t see who it was.

“Who are you?” he asked with a cold tone. Then, she realized that he was pressing a knife on her neck. She squeaked in fear as he leaned even closer.

“M-My n-name’s-”

“SEHUN!” Suho’s voice echoed inside that massive room as the lights . “What the hell are you doing?” In a few wide strides, Suho reached where they were and he pushed Sehun away. Suho held Mina’s shoulders. “Mina, are you okay?”

Feeling the unexplainable fear rushing all over her body, Mina plopped on the floor with shaking hands. Sehun stared at Mina, finally realizing what he did. “I’m sorry. I was not informed that you were here. I thought someone broke in again.”

“What happened?” Kai asked when he got out of his room. When he saw Mina sitting on the floor with a scared expression, he quickly ran towards them. He was about to hold her hand when he remembered how Mina snapped at him. He stepped back, pulling his hand away. He just stared at how Suho’s trying to help Mina up. The latter looked pretty shaken up.

“I did not know that she was here,” Sehun sighed. “Why is she even here in the first place?”

“Maybe if you were here for the past days, then you would’ve known that she was announced as the new Queen,” Kai replied without taking his gaze off from Mina. “I think your job’s taking a toll on you – mentally speaking. You’re being too paranoid.”

“Jongin-”

“What in the world happened?”

Kai and Sehun looked at Lay as he rushed towards Mina’s side. When he was able to check on her, Lay glared at Sehun. “What were you thinking when you held a knife against her neck?”

Hearing Lay raising his voice is not a good sign. Sehun just sighed, not daring to make excuses. There was a small cut on Mina’s neck. Lay covered that area of her neck with his hand and when he pulled his hand away, there was no trace of such cut left. Mina slowly lifted her head and saw that nine pairs of eyes were staring at her.

She’s never felt so self-conscious than at that moment when she realized that she’s wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts which barely covered parts of her body. She hugged herself, trying to cover herself from all of them. Suddenly, she felt someone wrapping a blanket around her. When she looked up, she couldn’t trust her eyes.

Baekhyun.

There were five families which started to organize the Alice community – Han, Kim, Park, Zhang and Oh. They’re known as the first generation of Alice users. The Han family is the oldest and most respected family of them all because of the powerful Alice that Han Jongwoo possessed. With his leadership, the five families established the Core University to help young Alice users hone their abilities. 

As the Alice community continued being organized, power struggle became a problem. When Han Jongwoo and the other founders passed away, a group of rebels started attacking non-Alice users. The attacks went on for years. The Black Organization’s behind almost all the crimes in the non-Alice world. They’re a group of Alice users who use their abilities to gain wealth and power. They steal and kill. They are manipulators.

The Council, made up of several representatives of Alice families, made a group to go after the Black Organization. The group’s called Noir but they prefer to be called “raiders”. They’ve been hunting rebels for years. Han Shinwoo, a well-known raider, made his family name even more known when he defeated the leader of the Black Organization during the Rift War. Five years after the Rift War, another attack was made and to everyone’s surprise, Han Shinwoo died during the battle.

The information that Mina gathered after reading the records that Suho gave her made her understand the system of the university and the Alice community. Suho, being the kind soul that he is, even explained that the Royals was established to help the Council monitor the school. They are like the student body and just like what Sia said, the members are from the influential families in their world. Baekhyun and D.O. are from the line of th