"have you found him yet?"

"no, your highness. we already spread ourselves within and outside the kingdom."

"how long more will all of you take? another 18 more years? to find one person?"

"we're sorry, your highness. we tried ou-"

"i'm tired, of the 'we tried our best' bullcrap. i'm going to allow another month for all of you to find the prince. if not, all of you will be slain." the king's voice roared across the room.

all of the royal guards shook at the threat from the king and quickly dispersed themselves to do their mission. the king was left alone with the queen, sitting at the throne beside his. he stood up and slowly approached the lifeless looking queen, caressing her cold cheeks.

"i missed your eyes, that shine bright when i see you from afar."

brushing her neatly tied hair, the queen giving no reactions.

"now, all i see is emptiness. i had no choice. this is the only way i can have you and the kingdom by myself."

just one more thing to do before i can fully control the kingdom.

kill prince lee jeno, the next person in line for the emerald throne. and for a bonus, prince jaemin.

just as the king finished his sentence, his legs suddenly shivered and made him almost lose his balance.

not this again.

"why, why, why?! all these years, my powers have never been stronger but why am i getting weaker now?! i'm so close to my goal!" the king screamed and punched the floor; echoes bouncing between the walls of the room.

i need more of those flowers.
____________________________________________

jaemin felt his cheeks getting hotter as he realised the princess had been intensely staring at him for the past few minutes.

"p-princess, umm. your eyes are going to dig into my face if you keep staring for too long."

"I wasn't looking at your face. i was looking at your hair. your now, brown hair."

right, i forgot about that.

his original pink hair colour is an eye-catching scene when he first entered the castle. other than himself, the people rarely had pink as a hair colour. hence, he had to lie about how he changes his hair colour often to avoid suspicions about him being a prince. thus, causing him to change his hair colour to brown.

not going to lie, jaemin almost wanted to tell them he had a condition of which his hair will change colour once in a while. but, of course, that's a dumb idea. that's less believable than manually changing his hair colour.

"i miss your pink hair already." yuri slightly whined and pouted. every time the princess spoke, it always surprises the diamond prince. it's still unpredictable. like how it is now. although her words about his hair don't seem significant to others, to him, it is. and that, he also didn't expect her to pat his head, out of nowhere. this partially annoyed jaemin. not annoyed at the princess, but annoyed at himself. usually, he will be the one who is very confident about flirting or giving affections to other people. it seems oddly awkward for him to be the one receiving affections, although the princess might think it's just her way of being around friends. every time he tried to make the princess' heart flutter from his flirting, from her expressions, it seemed like it didn't work; except for that one time. but one out of many attempts, still not enough. and hence, jaemin tried it again.

the princess seemed to be lost in her thoughts while still patting his head, and he took this chance to grab her hand, the princess jumped from his grip.

"princess, if you kept doing this to me," he pulled her closer.

"i can't help but fall in love with you." he ignored his heart that's been beating too fast that he almost couldn't handle it, making sure that he kept staring into yuri's eyes. he hoped that she would be lost into his eyes instead. part of him thinks that what he said is to , but there's another part of him that feels that he just confessed. if it's the latter, then, this is the first time he has done that; letting his heart tell the truth first before his brain.

that moment felt like it's going in slow motion. within minutes, he could remember how he was the one who got drowned into yuri's eyes, how his gaze slowly goes down to her nose, and then to her lips; her plump, tinted lips. his other hand unconsciously cupped her cheeks as he gets closer, letting his desire get over him. he could felt the warm breath from yuri's mouth, as he gets closer, and closer...

"your highness!" the now brown-haired prince jumped at the sound of taehee's voice, who was calling out for the princess. he's honestly thankful to taehee for doing that; he felt that he might regret doing what he was going to do. again, seems like the princess isn't reacting to what he did.

"yes, taeri?" she ensures that she called her by taehee's other name, just in case.

"the king is looking for you." yuri quickly stood up from her seat.

"really?" that's unexpected. the king rarely called out for her during regular days. there's probably something important that he needs to bring up to her. she immediately gestured jaemin and taehee to follow her, briskly walking towards the room where her father is in, tripping on her dress a few times. as usual, jaemin and taehee were anxiously looking out for her at the back. for that moment, yuri had forgotten about the situation between her parents, her brother, jeno and even her best friend, prince jaemin. and when she recalled that, her excited footsteps started to get slower before it stopped. jaemin and taehee noticed this and immediately ran towards her.

"hey, what's wrong?" took him a while to realise her muffled cries. in an instant, he hugged her. something is very wrong.

"hey, hey, you can tell us what happened." taehee was also looking around to make sure no one is there while both of them are hugging. luckily, there's no one.

her cries seemed to get louder and made both of them panicked.

"shh, shh, princess. the others might be able to hear you." jaemin whispered, as he tightened his hug and caressing her head, hopefully calming her down.

"i-i'm s-sorry, jaemin... i'm s-sorry for being too excited to meet my parents." oh my gosh, really, my princess. jaemin's sure that he's falling for the princess even more now. her innocence is incredible.

"m-my p-parents d-did bad things to y-your p-parents and y-yet i-i'm...."

jaemin pulled away from the hug and held on to her shoulders.

"look at me." the princess slowly looked up, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"do i look like i'm angry or mad?" yuri shook her head.

"exactly. so don't ever feel bad about that, alright? they are your parents, of course, you should be excited to meet them. i'm really fine, my princess. don't worry." he said as he kept caressing her head, ensuring the princess that he's alright. taehee didn't show it from her expression, but deep inside, she was squealing from this cute sight. she admitted that the few times that she felt that jaemin was going to do things to yuri, she would purposely interfere to tease both of them. evil for her to do, but she knows that yuri needs more time to realise her feelings too.

the prince wiped her tears with his thumb. before the princess might argue, even more, he said, "no more buts, let's just meet your parents, alright? they are waiting for you." why does that sound wrong, okay nevermind.

the princess nodded and neat herself up. took a deep breath and exhaled all her negative feelings and continue running towards her parents' room.

____________________________________________

"the princess is here!" the guard announced and opened the doors to the room. all three of them entered at the same time, but the guards stopped jaemin and taehee.

"only, the princess." yuri was slightly taken aback by the instruction, but she ensured them that she'd be fine on her own. jaemin and taehee continue gazing at the princess' back till the door closes behind her. then, both of them looked at each other.

i got a bad feeling about this.

____________________________________________

the princess elegantly walked towards her parents and bowed to them.

"you asked for me, your highness?" yuri was looking down, so she didn't realise that the king was walking towards her till she saw his shoes. she looked up and realised that she rarely was this close to her father throughout her life. unexpectedly, he even hugged her.

"oh, yuri. how i've missed you so much." her heart felt warm. she never felt her father's love before. she hugged back and dug into his chest more, tightening the hug. she's longing for her parents' love.

love. right. what does that mean in the first place? is this what jaemin meant when he said love? love as a family?

she can't believe she's even thinking of jaemin when her father is right in front of her. then, she felt another body, wrapping around her. she looked up; it's the queen, her mother. however, she's oddly cold.

"now, this is what i called, a family." her father spoke.

no, it's not. jeno isn't here.

this made her feelings go over the place. yes, she's glad that she's finally getting some attention from her parents. but it angers her that her parents' acting as though jeno doesn't exist. they really hate him. she doesn't understand at all. why are they letting their selfishness and greediness take over them?

the king and the queen pulled away from the hug. like a robot, the poker-faced queen walked back to her seat. the king laughed it off and explained that the queen might be too tired to speak.

this is so wrong.

still holding on to the princess' hand, the king spoke, "since you are old enough to get married, i've decided to call out princes from the other kingdoms and let you choose who do you want to be with."

he finally asked, but what makes me hesitant to do it?

"prince of aquamarine, hessonite, topaz, peridot and ruby. i'll ask the messengers to send invitations to them and invite them to come."

wait, but they are all my friends. i can't be with them. i would rather be with...

"what's wrong, yuri? you can tell me wh-"

"no, i don't want to get married."

"what?"

"you heard me, i don't want to get married." the king was silent from her words, till he suddenly laughed. he even violently let go of her hand.

"i gave you all you wanted, and this is what i'm getting back? ridiculous. all i wanted from you is one thing, and you already disobey me? what kind of daughter are you?" his voice roared across the room. that made the princess took a few steps back in disbelief. the queen was giving no sort of reaction despite that. the king realising what he had done, gets back to his normal, king-self and approached the shocked yuri.

"wait, yuri, i-i'm sorry." he said as he grabbed her hand. however, this time around, he felt all of his energy being out at a deteriorating rate and immediately fell onto his knees.

why now?!

and this felt worse than before. then, he heard another body fell right behind him, gaining attention to both the princess and the king. it was the queen. the queen was on her knees, desperately gasping for air. yuri immediately ran to her, asking if she's alright.

"oh my god, my princess. you are alright!" the queen embraced yuri. this time, it's warm, very warm. yuri still can't understand what happened but embraced the queen back, now feeling the sincerity from her. her eyes landed onto the direction of the king but...

"who are you?" the king or "the king" finally realised the situation he's in and quickly stood up.

"that's right. you are 18 now. you are probably one of those rare ones, huh?" yuri can't comprehend what the stranger was trying to say, but she noticed that he grabbed something from his pocket and consumed it. after gulping it down, he made some hand gestures that made the queen looked empty and still again. even worse, he somehow transformed himself into the figure she thought was her father, the king.

"wha-"

"guards, bring her to our deepest dungeon."

____________________________________________

jaemin was walking back and forth in the princess' room with taehee, desperately trying to convince him that everything will be alright.

"no, it's not alright, taehee noona. something is definitely wrong. i can feel it."

"well, maybe, since yuri is old enough, he's asking her to get married?" taehee teased jaemin. he stopped his steps and glared at taehee. she laughed and immediately apologized.

"i'm sorry, your highness. i'm just joking. but really, i wouldn't mind if you would want to be with the princess. i approve."

"oh god, you too?" jaemin massaged his head, feeling his fake headache coming in. but with that conversation coming though, he decided to speak to taehee about it. 

"fine, i'll tell you the truth." taehee finally, openly squealed. maybe he's more comfortable speaking to another woman than his own group of friends back in the base. he wouldn't want to get constantly teased.

"maybe, i do like her. her innocence, her curiosity, her big, helpful heart, her sincerity, her willingness to learn more; it's incredible. her naiveness makes me want to protect her even more. i always want to be with her, always by her side. i don't know how to even describe this feeling. but i know it, wouldn't work. our situation, makes the thought of being with her to be almost impossible, not only that, i'm pretty sure, she only see me as a prince and a friend from the way she acts around me." taehee chuckled.

"oh boy, both of you are equally clueless."

"what do you mean?" taehee could tell there's so many questions in his mind.

"nevermind. you'll both find out one day." before jaemin could question her, taehee decided to bring up a discovery about the flowers in the castle's garden. she took out the bottle and explained the same thing to jaemin as she did to yuri. jaemin was intrigued.

"and i found out another thing. not only it can manipulate the location, but it also can manipulate other people's mind directly and hypnotise it. incredible, right?" the puzzle pieces are slowly coming together in jaemin's mind. this is one of the greatest discoveries that fit into the picture. as much as he needed to tell the others about it, he has to confirm one last thing before confirming their theory.

but most importantly,

where's the princess?

a/n: hi ya all, i'm back with another update :) school just started and i was busy preparing paperwork for it. seems that there's lesser free time for me to type this story, but i'm determined to finish this story before it gets busier ;') thank you for reading this, and i love you all <3