Chaeyoung was looking back and forth at the two women who stood outside her door. She’d opened it a crack the moment she heard voices outside who seemed to be arguing. 

“Hi?”

“Park Chaeyoung, hello…” Jennie turned towards her, smiling from ear to ear

“Hi Chaeng.” Lisa looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but there, 

“Uhh… how can I help you two? Is anyone of you hurt or…”

“Oh! No.. no… uhh…” Lisa waved her hands frantically, quick to cut her off. “We’re here to discuss something with you...about uh…”

“Chaeyoungie?” The familiar voice of Jisoo called out from inside the room. 

“Why don’t you two come inside? We’ll talk more about it here.” She said through an awkward smile.

Jisoo looked surprised upon seeing Jennie and confused when she saw Lisa enter the clinic after her. 

“Jennie?”

“Eonnie, how are you feeling?” Jennie went straight to Jisoo and hugged her. 

“I’m fine, Chaeyoung has been taking good care of me. What brings you here?” 

Jennie looked up at Lisa who was trying to avoid her gaze, suddenly interested in the view outside the window. “We came to talk to Chaeyoung about something important.”

Chaeng gave Lisa a raised brow upon Jennie’s answer. “Can we talk outside for a while?” she gestured for the door as she looked at LIsa. 

“Uh.. sure,”

Lisa followed Chaeyoung outside who slowly closed the door behind her. She made sure no one was in the hallway before pulling Lisa a couple of feet away from the clinic, far enough to ensure they won’t be heard inside. 

“When I asked you to visit me sometime, I was not expecting this... I was expecting more of you and less of Kim Jennie.” Chaeyoung whispered, looking at her curiously, 

“I kind of hoped for the same thing. Something came up and we really do need to talk to you. And we mean “you” -- not you and Jisoo..”

“If you have something to tell me, you can tell it with Jisoo there.” 

Lisa was aware of the subtle hint of annoyance in Chaeng’s voice. “I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just… the less people know about this the better.”

“Jisoo… can stay silent during situations that require her to stay silent. You tell me, you tell her. No buts --”

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose, she could feel a headache building up, “Fine… let’s just get this over with. Shall we?” 

Chaeyoung nodded.

_________________________________

Lisa took a deep breath upon finishing her story -- she included everything she told Jennie, and explained her situation in detail. She kept her gaze fixated on Chaeyoung who looked confused, then shocked and by now was shaking her head in frustration. 

“I’ll lose my mind any minute now, if any of you don’t say anything.” Lisa said through gritted teeth, the silence was beginning to make her jumpy..

“If we understand this right, you need Chaeyoung’s help with creating an antidote for the King…” Jisoo asked slowly, putting emphasis on her words as she spoke 

“Yes. that’s the plan.” Jennie answered. 

“And you two think she’ll be able to accomplish this?” Jennie and Lisa nodded “Accomplish something the others failed to do? Others being renowned physicians across the kingdom?”

Lisa cringed, she hasn’t thought about that “Shouldn’t you be more supportive of Chaeyoung’s abilities?” 

“I hate to be the bringer of bad news but… Jisoo has a point.” Chaeyoung stood up and went over to the open window. “I don’t think I can help you with that.” 

“But you’re a physician! You’re bound to know a thing or two about antidotes!” 

“I’m a physician -- not a miracle worker. I can’t even…” Chaeyoung stopped, “Look … I do know a thing or two about herbal medicine but unless I see whatever symptoms the King is harboring I won’t be able to help you on that.” 

“We’ll take you to him, I can talk to the guards or… we’ll think of something.” Jennie looked at Chaeyoung who was pacing back and forth, deep in thought. 

“Why are you so invested in this?” Jisoo looked at her curiously, her long black hair spilled as she made herself comfortable in her seat. 

Jennie blushed, but managed to turn herself away from Lisa and Jisoo’s gaze in time. “It’s just…”

“She’s doing this to make up for something she did. Let’s just focus on what needs to be done here, please?” Lisa was beginning to get annoyed. 

“I’d very much love to help you out with this Lisa but… female physicians are not allowed to work on male patients, the same goes for male physicians -- which is why they brought you here when you first arrived and not to Mingyu.” Chaeyoung let out a long sigh. “ Even if Jennie can talk us into getting into his bedchamber, which I highly doubt -- no offense. Do you think the Yangban would approve of me doing a full body check given my status?”

Lisa was hoping it wouldn’t come to this… “You only need to know his symptoms right? Or do you need to do a full physical check up on him?”

“Knowing the symptoms would do, but… it would still be best for me to do a full physical check just to be sure. As I’ve said though, I can work with knowing what’s wrong with him. Hopefully it isn’t something I’m not familiar with.”

“Why don’t you all come with me back to the study. I have something to show you.” Lisa stood up, the three women looked up at her in question. “Well? We don’t have all day.”

___________________________________

The small room felt stuffier than usual given that it housed four women than the usual one. Chaeyoung was busy looking at the shelf, marvelling at how it had such an impressive collection of ingredients. Jennie gave up her seat to Jisoo who was looking at them with an amused expression. 

“So… is this what you wanted to show us? This is impressive! I’ve never seen so much ingredients in my whole time as a physician.” Chaeyoung was practically the only one who was giddy.

“No… granted I was also impressed by that, impressed at how much I’m unfamiliar with everything in this time period…” Lisa crouched and reached for the red book, shaking off the dust from the cover and setting it on top of the table. 

“Wait… this is…” Jisoo’s eyes widened. 

“The official record of the King’s medical history… where did you get this?” Jennie asked through a hushed voice, fingers barely grazing the seal. 

“Jungkook gave it to me before he left.” Opening the pages to where she last read about the King’s illness. “He asked me to record all of the progress I’ve made with the antidote, which of course is - nothing, given that I don’t have any idea of what I should be doing.”  

“This is illegal, if the Yangban finds out it’s not in the King’s library... you’d best say farewell to your head Lisa.”  Chaeyoung was clutching her hands on her chest, eyes fixated on the damn book. 

“Look, why don’t you all relax? The crown prince said something about leaving an imitation in its place to fool the King’s council.” 

“You think an imitation could fool the elders in the Yangban? I’m seriously questioning who’s fooling who.” 

“You know, as much as I like how you’re being the voice of reason at the moment, it’s not helping me with my anxiety Jisoo.” 

“Apologies…  it’s just…  I was expecting more from the crown prince. His own stupidity can put us all at risk.” Jisoo looked at Chaeyoung who seemed too afraid to approach the open book 

“No one has barged into the study demanding my head in exchange for the missing book yet … so I guess he might not be as stupid as we think.” Lisa was beginning to question everything at this point. 

Chaeyoung let out an audible sigh of relief and looked over the notes upon Lisa’s reasoning. She looked at the shelf and then back to the book -- doing this again and again until she finished off the whole entry. 

“Hmmm… this is odd. He’s showing symptoms of that plague many years ago… the one that claimed…”

“Our mother?” Jennie finished off, eyes glued to the book. 

“Yes… but it’s odd since people afflicted with it only lived for a week or two and the King is still alive. From what we’ve gathered here -- he’s been afflicted with this for two years now…”

“So? What do you plan on doing with this?” Jisoo looked over at the book, her forehead creased in curiosity. 

“I can make a powder we can try on the sores -- it’s the same thing the head physician at Hongdae prescribed that might help with drying out the sores, if it’s not the same disease then I’m not sure what might happen. I’m just hoping it wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. Anything that might make things worse would be very bad for you,” Chaeyoung looked at Lisa, waiting for her words to sink in.

“I’m just about ready for anything at this point.” 

“Why don’t you create remedies for each of the symptoms and we’ll try and mix them up afterwards. Wouldn’t that work?” Jennie offered, 

“It might, honestly I’m not so sure if mixing different remedies would affect their potency but we could try? That is if you’re fine with that?” They all eyed Lisa who hated how she was always in the spotlight at the moment.

“Yes, we could try that. As I’ve said I’m just about ready for anything and I mean anything at this point.” 

“Great! Then we’ll start off with the pow--”

They all heard shuffling outside the study and hurried voices cutting them off as they looked at each other with a panicked expression.

“Seja Jeoha!” the attendants outside sang out in chorus. 

“Sh*t!” Lisa ducked, signaling the rest to do the same. 

“You said he won’t be back until the day after tomorrow!” Jennie hissed, careful not to be too loud. 

“That’s what he said!.” silencing them with a glare. “I’ll try and talk to him outside, pray to your Gods he doesn’t decide to barge in on us or we’ll all be headless come tomorrow morning.” 

Great, Jungkook always had perfect timing…

Lisa stood up slowly, as she went through countless reasons her panicked mind was coming up with. 

“Is Lisa inside?” he sounded distant. 

Good, that means he’s still far away.

“Forgive us Wang Seja, she went out a while ago. We haven’t seen her come back yet.” 

“It’s fine, I’ll try and see if she’s there.”

Lisa opened the door, careful not to open it too wide and reveal the three women cowering by the table. 

“Lisa!” Jungkook was all smiles, whereas Yong-Min looked like he could kill anyone at this point.

“Seja” bowing, “I was not expecting you to be back so soon. I have little progress to report …”

“That is fine. I received an urgent news from the council and they require my presence here before the festival.” 

“Oh… I… uh, that’s great I guess?” She tried laughing off the slight quiver in her voice, 

“I am expecting you to attend it… with me. You are my guest after all.” Jungkook wasn’t meeting Lisa’s gaze as he blushed. 

“Su..sure?” wait why was he blushing? Lisa could feel the glares Yong-Min was drilling into her. 

“Great! I shall have the palace tailor make festival garments for you as soon as she is free for today. And oh, I’ll come by tomorrow to check on the progress.” 

Yong-Min’s face twitched ever so slightly. It wasn’t a flush of red or an annoyed look. It was much more subtle. She barely caught it. 

“We’ll leave you be then, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course” Lisa smiled back, bowing to acknowledge the princes’ departure. 

Satisfied that they’ve rounded the corner and left the hallway, Lisa scrambled back inside -- breathing hard as the tension slowly ebbed away as she breathed. 

“So? How did it go?” Jisoo looked like she was about to get a heart attack. 

“It went fine… I think?” They stood slowly, there wasn’t a window by the door but still.. It was always best to take caution. 

“Good, we can start with the powder then … I just need --”

The door to the study flew open, the walls shook from the impact. Making Jennie scream, Chaeyoung to instinctively place herself in front of Jisoo and Lisa to jump. 

A very flustered Yong-Min stood by the door, his jaw set in anger as he took calculated steps towards the women. 

“I knew there was something odd in the way you talked, how you kept glancing at the door…” He slowly took his sword from its sheath, pointing the end at Lisa’s neck. 

“Yong-Min…” It was Jisoo who first spoke, earning another glare from the royal guard. 

“Forgive me for being uncouth agasshi, but I believe this has nothing to do with any of you. My business is with traitor.” He allowed the tip of the sword to graze Lisa’s neck, smiling at her in a sinister way. 

“Yong-Min… I can explain.” Lisa looked him in the eye, trying her best not to tremble at the cold steel inches away from . 

“Save it for the prince and the council.” He said through gritted teeth, “Or better yet… You can talk all you want, it will be meaningless once I drive this through your throat. I knew better than to trust a stranger, a stranger who is not from around here. I do not know what kind of trick you pulled on the crown prince for him to be so taken with you…” His eyes gleamed with an expression that resembled jealousy… 

Lisa held her breath, closing her eyes expecting the worst at any minute.  

“Yong-Min.” Jennie’s voice was surprisingly collected. “Make no mistake in harming her, it’s your word against ours should she die by your hand... “ 

Lisa felt the sword being retracted, as Yong-Min looked at Jennie with contempt. 

“Telling the prince will give away the fact that you were here and privy to his secret!” 

“Knowing about the gruesome event does not necessarily mean we were here. We could be passing by and seeing you with your sword drawn, your dress bloody and the door to the study open -- we were merely curious as to why that is so.” Jennie was taking small steps towards Lisa and Yong-Min, carefully pushing away the tip of the sword as she matched Yong-Min’s glare. “Don’t let your emotions get the best of you Yong-Min, lest you forget what happened three years ago…” 

Lisa could see the shift in Yong-Min’s features, he recoiled and hissed at Jennie as he sheathed. “If I find out other people are made aware of this, it’s your head on the line! And I won’t let anyone stand in my way. I’d rather have my head cut off for suspected treason against the prince than see him go down with something you’ve done!” Lisa could feel the spits as Yong-Min lashed out. He took off without another glance as Jennie rushed to him outside, 

For a short while Lisa was frozen in place, shaking from how things ended up. She realized Jennie wasn’t in the room and ran after her, afraid of what could happen. Yong-Min had his back to them, with Lisa catching the end of Jennie’s sentence before he walked away and she walked back to her. 

“Teahyoung…”

Why was she calling Yong-Min -- Taehyoung?.... 

Jennie took her hand and led her back to the room. 

“No need to worry about him for now. We should really work on that antidote…”

A/N - HI! We'll have a slight shift in POV on the next chapter. Thank you fo reading, subscribing, upvotes and comments. i really really appreciate it :D