"Minimini!"

A voice so familiar to both Kyuhyun and Sungmin echoes in the vast field of flowers. Following the voice, Sungmin can hear clearly the footsteps of no fewer than five men.

"Where are they?" 

After the first voice calls out without an answer, another voice, this time more impatiently, turns to ask the first person.

Letting out a short sigh, Kyuhyun slowly sits up, then extends one hand to help Sungmin sit up. As he patiently wipes off the dirt on his clothes, next to him, Sungmin frantically stands up and runs in the direction of the voice.

"Donghae! Hyukjae! I'm here!"

Hearing Sungmin's voice, the duo turns in the same direction.

"Minnie!"

Within just a second, the three come to each other's embrace like three children reuniting for a playdate. In Donghae's eyes, tears start to fill up and almost threaten to stream down his face.

"It's been too long."

Sungmin tries to remember the last time he got to hear his friends' voices and see them face-to-face like this. It was probably at the Lee's residence four years ago, right after he entered the Palace. That night, he disguised himself as a eunuch to sneak out of the Palace for one last meeting with the Operation. Since then, he never got another chance to see or speak to them in person. That was the last time he saw all of his friends and family. Except for Kyuhyun.

"It's been four years," Donghae replies tearfully.

"How did you get here?" Sungmin still could not believe in his eyes.

"Kyuhyun sent us a letter."

"Speaking of Kyuhyun," Hyukjae speeds up in the other direction. And when everyone least expects it, he raises his hand and throws a punch in Kyuhyun's direction. With Kyuhyun's high reflex, surprisingly, he does not try to avoid the punch.

"This is for the last time we saw each other."

Hyukjae says as he slightly rubs the hand that had just thrown out the punch. The two look at each other for a second, then burst out laughing. Hyukjae extends a hand to help him stand up from the ground: "Don't you dare do that another time."

Walking up to the two, Donghae nags at the two grown men acting like little children: "Yah, stop it. We are not alone, you know. Don't forget who we came here with."

"Who you came here with?" Sungmin asks in confusion.

Donghae turns around and looks in the direction they came from. From a distance, Sungmin can make out three other figures slowly making their way up the slippery hills. They are no other than his father and his two teachers, Kim Heechul and Hankyung.

"Abeonim!"

At the sight of his father, Sungmin immediately runs towards him like a three-year-old child running to his father to show off a toy he had just acquired.

"Sungminnie!"

Lee Youngwoon calmly approaches the four of them. From this distance, he looks just like he did four years ago when Sungmin last saw him. But as Sungmin comes to his embrace, he realizes his father has gotten so much thinner. Signs of old age can be seen more clearly on his face, and his hair is sprinkled with a grey color that makes Sungmin's heart ache. 

Sungmin feels like something has been stuck in his throat which makes it hard for him to breathe. For a long while, a million things pop up in his mind that he wants to say to his father, but in the end, all escape from him as quickly as they had come.

After a long while, Sungmin could finally utter a short sentence to his father.

"Abeonim, how have you been?" 

His father gives him the softest smile that he has always remembered.

"I'm fine, Sungmin."

He wants to say something, but suddenly realises he is no longer the playful child who can talk with his father about anything. For a moment, he has to think carefully about the things that he says to his father.

"Yah, you brat, we are also here."

Amidst the windy flower field, Sungmin hears Kim Heechul's fiery voice from behind his father. He gives both of his teachers a respectful bow, and turns to ask them: "How have you been, Kim seonsaengnim, Han seonsaengnim?"

"I am good, Sungmin ah." Hankyung answers him with a gentle smile.

Sungmin turns to his teacher Heechul.

"How can I, a superstar of this universe, be anything other than great? Nothing can ever take down your super teacher that is me."

Sungmin smiles at him. This is exactly the type of response that he would get from Kim Heechul, so it gives him a sense of familiarity after all the years that he had been away from home.

"Really, Heechul?" His father suddenly speaks up, his tone more serious than when they first got here, "Then why don't you tell us about the death threats?"

Sungmin widens his eyes in surprise.

"Kim seonsaengnim, you have been getting death threats?"

That night, in the headquarter of the Children of the Mountains, seven people sit neatly around a large table. At the top of the table, Lee Youngwoon is seated at the head seat. Next to him, Sungmin is in a deep trance of thought.

"So, are we sure that it is not the Queen's followers?" Sungmin turns to Heechul who is seated in front of him.

Heechul gives him a serious nod.

"Positive. We have caught all of the Queen's followers. It has been one month, and there has been no new attack in or near Seowangmyeong."

"Besides," his father finishes the thought, "if it was the Queen's followers, they would not target specifically Heechul."

Sungmin nods in agreement.

"And Kim seonsaengnim has been attacked a few times for the past month, so we think that someone is targeting him specifically." Donghae chimes in.

"That's another reason for us to come up here, in addition to visiting you, Minnie." Hyukjae continues Donghae's thoughts. 

"Yeah, to avoid the attacks, and have some time to think of a strategy."

"Yo, yo," Kim Heechul suddenly interrupts the flow of the conversation, "have you ever seen anything that I cannot conquer? Those little attacks are not worth your thinking about."

"Then you admit there have been attacks," Hankyung retorts, "and there is still evidence on you to prove the seriousness of the situation."

As soon as he finishes speaking, Hankyung turns to catch Heechul's arm, which has been carefully hidden behind his back. From his left wrist to his upper arm, a white bandage covers what seems to be an open wound. From the wound, a few drops of blood can be seen on the thin layer of bandage.

"Yah, this is nothing. Just a few scratches because I stumbled and fell on the ground a few days ago. These little scratches are not gonna kill me. Han ah, since when have you become such a worried baby?" Heechul replies to his partner in a jokey tone.

"Kim Heechul, be serious. This is serious!" 

To everyone's surprise, Hankyung starts to lose his patience. Sungmin turns to look at his teacher. Hankyung has always been known in Seowangmyeong for his mild manners and calm exterior, so Sungmin rarely sees him raise his voice at another person like this.

"Calm down, the both of you." After a while, Lee Youngwoon decides to come between the two bickering men. "I might have a way to find out who the attackers are. But it would need all of us to work together."

At these words, everyone in the room immediately turns to look at him. This is the sign that they should listen with their utmost attention. Suddenly, Sungmin feels a great sense of familiarity rising up in him. He has not been able to hear these words for the longest time that he can remember.

With his greatest patience, Lee Youngwoon slowly explains his plan to the rest of the Operation. Just like Sungmin had expected, his father always has a way to handle the toughest situations in the world.

"Yah," Heechul starts to protest as soon as Youngwoon is finished explaining his plan, "Why go to that much trouble!? I can deal with all of them myself! Has there ever been anything that a genius like me cannot deal with!?"

"This, Heechul ah, you cannot deal with this on your own!" It is Hankyung's turn to raise his voice, "It is too dangerous, and there are too many of them!"

"Han seonsaengnim is right, Kim seonsaengnim," Donghae joins his two teachers, "It would be less dangerous if all of us did it together."

Heechul is about to roll his eyes and say something else when he hears Lee Youngwoon clear his throat. This is the sign for everyone in the room to be quiet.

"They've all agreed to the plan, Heechul ah, you yourself cannot keep them from doing it."

Hyukjae and Donghae quickly flash their brightest smiles to him, while Hankyung looks in his direction, still with the greatest concern for his partner.

"So it's decided. We will execute the plan in one week." Lee Youngwoon says the final words, putting an end to their long meeting.

As everyone starts to leave the room, Sungmin suddenly turns to Kyuhyun as if just remembering something: "Kyuhyun ah, before, you were gonna say something to me?"

Kyuhyun looks into his eyes for the longest moment. And just when he is about to say something, he again notices the curious eyes of Donghae and Hyukjae and the concerned eyes of Lee Youngwoon standing not far from them.

Kyuhyun lets out a deep sigh.

"I'll tell you later when this is all done."

Sungmin gently nods at him. But within seconds, Donghae and Hyukjae already start to approach them. Hyukjae puts his arm around Kyuhyun, just like he had always done when they were younger: "Yah, tell him what? What were you guys talking about on the flower field just now?"

"Nothing, nosey" Kyuhyun replies as he drags Hyukjae towards the exit of the room.

"Yah, you brat!"

"Let's go, I'll show you the rest of the place."

Sungmin could only smile at his three friends. For a second, he suddenly feels like he is taken back to four years ago when they were still students at Seowangmyeong, hanging around with each other all day without a worry in the world. For four years, he had thought that he would never get this feeling ever again. Luckily, those feelings have a way of getting back to him, and he is once again among the people that he cares about the most. 

Sungmin lets out another smile, then quickly joins his friends. 

One week later, on the streets near Seowangmyeong, seven figures wearing red clothes rush through the night in different directions. As soon as each one of them gets closer to Seowangmyeong, a group of men, all wearing dark clothes, starts to follow them like a predator preying in the night, only to be distracted by another red figure. After three or four times, the group of men has been toyed with by the red figures for about half an hour, when they finally decide to turn around and leave before the situation gets worse.

Just then they realize that behind them, six red figures are standing solemnly, their eyes fierce and sharp as if looking at their own prey. 

"Why are you following us?" Hyukjae takes a step forward and fires the first question at the group of men.

The men have their eyes glued onto the road. Then, as if triggered by something unseen, the men suddenly charge towards the red figures with their greatest strength. With swift movements, Hyukjae and the rest of the red figures avoid the attack and make a siege around the men. 

"Don't even think of getting out of here," Heechul speaks with the sharpest tone that anyone has ever heard.

One of the men immediately steps forward and vigorously attacks Kim Heechul, which he can easily avoid. The rest of the men quickly join the attack but are immediately interrupted by the red figures surrounding them. As the situation gets more uneven, the men unexpectedly throw out what seems to be poisonous smoke. "Everyone cover your noses and mouths!" Heechul immediately yells out to the rest of the red figures. But amidst the chaos, he suddenly can smell a familiar scent that he could not place at the moment.

The scent makes Heechul stop in his tracks. The group of men immediately take advantage of this moment to make an escape, but from behind Heechul, Hankyung already takes out his hardly-ever-take-out-of-the-cover sword and knocks each of them out one by one. They need to get them back to Seowangmyeong for questions, so it is best to keep them uninjured, even though Kim Heechul seems to lack the patience for this.

"Yah, this is too much work!" He nags at Lee Youngwoon as soon as the smoke seems to dissolve.

But Lee Youngwoon does not seem to pay much attention to Heechul's casual nagging. Instead, he checks on everyone after the attack, but is immediately alarmed by Kyuhyun's pale expression.

"Lee seonsaengnim," Kyuhyun tries his best to maintain his calm voice and steady posture, even though the worry in his voice can just easily be heard, "Where's Sungmin?"