"okay, jisung, take a deep breath." yuri tried her best to calm the panicking jisung down. even chenle being by his side isn't enough for him to calm down. jisung listened to yuri and took a deep breath, ensuring his anxiety is at least partially out and allow him to think rationally. everyone eventually gathered, including the king himself. he's already healthy enough to walk around the base.

"tell us, jisung, what's going on?" seungcheol asked calmly. his sister could be in danger but in order to get it out of jisung properly, he needs to not panic too. plus, jisung is still a sensitive teenager at heart. 

"i-i saw taehee noona. she was being dragged away by the guards from her room. but i couldn't tell from the vision what was the reason she was being dragged." he's pretty disappointed that he didn't manage to get the reason out from the vision he gets which will happen soon. here's another thing about jisung's ability. despite being able to see the danger that's going to happen in the future, he's unable to tell how long it will be before it happens.

"so, what do we do, guys? do we go back there to get her before it happens, or?" chenle asked.

"hmm, i think not. by now, i'm pretty sure the "king" already know how you princes look like. the only reason he doesn't recognize me is that the last time i was introduced to the kingdoms was when i was a baby." jaemin was right. literally no one in the base could go back to the castle at this point in time. even if jaemin couldn't give a proper reason to go back in there too when he's already been dismissed by the king and took all of his things away.

"i mean, jeonghan's there, so he could take care of her for the moment." mingyu spoke. wonwoo, who's right beside him, nodded. "we saw him fought before, he isn't so bad."

"jeonghan? the imposter's underling? how is that even possible?" the king intervened. during the period he was saved, he was too weak to recognize who was around to save him from the dungeon he was kept in.

"don't worry, father. he was there when we rescued you from the dungeon. i trust him, so you should too." of course, a father always has a soft spot for his little girl, and immediately complied. 

"then, we should quickly send a message to them before my sister gets taken away." seungcheol said. renjun immediately went off to send the message, with jeno following him behind. 

"i hope the message gets there before it happens. if not, we need to start thinking of a plan b." mark voiced out. while the rest were murmuring around, seungcheol was at the back of the room, prying out the memories from his head. 

jeonghan. his name sounds familiar.

____________________________________________

"i did it. i found it's enemy."

"you're impressive, taehee. and i should keep reminding you that."

"thanks, jeonghan. but you were also pretty useful and gave a helping hand."

"it's my pleasure, taehee."

taehee eventually found out another weakness of the black flower while she was experimenting it. yarrow, the flower that helps to tend wounds, actually could easily kill this black flower. it was also made into a solution, and one drop is enough to kill it. however, the effect on it seems to be long; approximately a week. the experiment was done following the environmental factor that the flower is currently living in. she makes sure the waters and fertilizes it every hour even after putting a drop of the yarrow's solution. originally, the plan was supposed to be in two weeks time. now that she finds the perfect enemy for the black flower, they could tell them to get prepared in a week's time for the raid to the castle.

jeonghan finds a paper to write the letter before giving it to the messenger to deliver it.

"umm, that's weird. why is it back from there?" jeonghan looked up at taehee who was standing right beside him and looking out of the window.

"what are you talki- ouh wait what?" it flapped its wings and landed on the window pane safely. it's mimi. ever since they rescued the king and yuri out of the dungeon, jeonghan suggested delivering messages to the people at the base using mimi, his pet bird. jeonghan kept bragging about how smart mimi is and how she could recognize particular sounds and go to it directly when called. so with that, jaemin doesn't need to travel all the way to the castle just to get the message. mimi recognizes the sound of the bell from the necklace that jeonghan personally made himself, so he gave one to jaemin, and one for both taehee and jeonghan. mimi can recognize the faint sound of the bell even by a small movement of the necklace.

"hi there, mimi. were you from the base? and what is this?" taehee immediately untied the rolled paper on mimi's leg and unrolled it.

taehee noona will be in danger soon. please take care of her.

-rj

this must be from jisung's vision.

"soon? when?" as jeonghan asked that, they could hear heavy footsteps coming towards taehee's door. both of them immediately hid the letters and the antidote into the secret compartment under taehee's table. just as she closes it, the guards opened the door widely and roughly; two of them walked towards taehee and dragged her away. another two also grabbed jeonghan.

"wait, what's happening? why are you doing this?"

"it's the king's command. sir jeonghan, you too are requested to be there."

"alright, but let us go. we can walk to him on our own." jeonghan's charisma and rank seemed to scare the guards a bit, releasing both of them immediately. both of them neatened their clothes before walking towards the king's room.

"can you tell us at least why he's doing this?" jeonghan asked the guards who were walking right behind and in front of them. 

"sorry, sir. we can't tell you anything." jeonghan rolled his eyes. it was a pretty awkward journey since all of them were quiet. but both taehee's and jeonghan's mind were noisy, thinking about what could've possibly gone wrong. was jeonghan not careful enough that someone saw him entering taehee's room? did someone eavesdrop them? this is going terribly wrong.

"we're here, your highness."

"come in."

the doors were opened ajar by the door guards, allowing them to see the sight of the "king" and the queen on their throne. even though both of them knew he's not the real king, they have to continue their acting skills all the way till this monstrosity ends.

"yes, your highness." they greeted.

"can both of you explain to me, this?" the king demanded and showed a small letter on his hands. they were pretty far away so they couldn't recognize what was in the letter. but they could tell that it was the same paper used from the base. dammit, we are caught.  jeonghan thought. but they kept their composure and acted like they didn't know anything.

"i don't understand, your highness. what is that paper?"

"this paper, was found from your bird, mimi, jeonghan. and if you are continuing to be clueless, this is what was written in the letter:

we miss you. we will come in two weeks time, like you said. be prepared.

- jm

so how are you going to explain this? also, one of the guards saw you going inside the maid-of-honour's room and eavesdrop you, talking about killing something or someone. such coincidence that both of you are in the same room tonight. are you both planning something behind my back?"

taehee could hear her thoughts crumbling as though all the plans have been ruined and it's all because both of them we not careful. but she swears, she's not going to expose the secret and just sacrifice herself for the sake of the princes, the king, the princess, the guards and her brother. she was already prepared to open until...

"no, we are not." jeonghan spoke ahead of her.

"then explain to me this."

"we..." jeonghan looked at her, telling her to trust him and follow along.

"...are lovers." taehee's mouth was agape after hearing the unexpected reply. how is he going to follow up from that reasoning?

"that letter, was from me to taeri. taeri send me a message beforehand to come to her room in two weeks since we will be busy taking care of the queen while you will be out doing the mission."

"jm isn't your initial."

"jm stands for jeonghan and mimi. we are like a family now."

"then, what about the "killing" conversation, and "be prepared" for what?"

"we were talking about... killing our time and be prepared to do... you know what i mean..." taehee praised jeonghan in her heart for being a genius and able to think of logical reasons within a short amount of time. so, taehee easily played along.

"t-that's true, your highness. he came to the room today because he missed me. we didn't really want people to know. but i guess we were caught." taehee said as she held jeonghan's hand for the sake of the play. jeonghan didn't understand what he was feeling but his heart fluttered and he had butterflies in his stomach from taehee's warm hand. he can't help it but hold it tighter. both of them looked at the king's reaction to see if he's convinced and they could tell the awkwardness he felt from the situation, realising he misunderstands everything. definitely a relief from the both of them.

"a-alright. both of you are dismissed. but remember to do your job and try not to do things that can easily misunderstand people, especially in the recent situation that happened."

"yes, your highness." they greeted and left the room, going back to taehee's room once again. they were finally able to breathe properly from the tension they had in the king's room.

"phew, goodness. that was, insane," taehee giggled. "didn't know you were such a genius to think of that."

"yeah, i'm surprised at myself too. you were great at playing along." jeonghan gave two thumbs up. both of them laughed for a while, not too loudly in case the guards hear them. but too much to the point taehee cried tears of joy and hitting jeonghan lightly a few times. it's been a while since she laughed this much. the circumstances didn't allow her to. jeonghan too laughed along but is more happy to see taehee having a good laugh after seeing her stressing out from finding the flower's weakness. he can't help but kept looking at her face. the joy, the light coming out of her face. eventually, taehee stopped and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"goodness, that was a good one." she looked up to see jeonghan looking at her, in a way that made her heart fuzzy.

"w-why jeonghan? is there anything on my face?" jeonghan didn't reply. taehee wanted to pry but she was hypnotized into jeonghan's eyes. she knows how beautiful jeonghan is but she didn't know it was up to the point she felt like this. her hand was conveniently placed on jeonghan's heart; she could feel his heart beating faster than it should be. she broke her eye contact for a moment but jeonghan's right hand softly moved her chin up, their eyes locked onto each other again. his other hand holding her hand that's on his chest.

"this seems like a new feeling for me, but i think this what they call love. i love you, taehee." for a moment, the time stopped and the world is on them. he continued.

"i know i'm being selfish to say that i want to be with you, even though you don't know my story well, and i promise i wi-" taehee stopped him by letting herself lock her lips to jeonghan's. she had the best times with him and would want to continue living like this too. jeonghan was taken aback but he eventually let himself kiss her back.

just for today.
____________________________________________

seungcheol felt the chills under his spine. he squealed.

"what, what, why, why, what happened?" mingyu, who was busy sword fighting with wonwoo jumped when seungcheol suddenly squealed out of nowhere.

"sorry, i just felt a chill under my spine. hopefully, nothing happens to taehee."

"she should be fine. she's a pretty tough girl even when we just met her that one time. also jeonghan's a pretty cool guy." wonwoo said as he poked mingyu with the practice sword.

"ouch, that was unnecessary."

"well, i just sure hope he didn't do anything to my sister. you know, when a guy and a girl is together on their own, they tend to-"

"shh, okay, you are thinking too much. let's just sword fight alright. taehee's going to be fine." mingyu said as he pulled the sitting seungcheol up and pushed him into the practice area.

on the other hand, the princes were busy practising with their partners on their abilities. as usual, mark and donghyuck were busy arguing about the smallest things, but mainly donghyuck nagging at mark about how he still doesn't get his left and right well.

"goodness mark, till when are you going to be this clueless?" donghyuck's massaging his forehead to relief his stress.

"i mean, if you think about it, if it weren't for my terrible sense of direction, we won't be partners. you are literally my light." donghyuck sighed.

"fine, you're right. let's just continue with our practice."

nearby, jeno and renjun were sitting down and watching those two arguing but eventually making up pretty quick. they were taking a break. jeno, especially, was physically tired from the battle he had with his father. he thought that at least had an advantage since his father just recovered but he's really wrong.

"junnie, can i lean on your shoulder?"

"sure. come here, small boy." renjun said as he tapped on his left shoulder. jeno leaned in to, closing his eyes.

"who you calling small boy, when you're the smaller one?"

"you're younger than me." jeno wanted to fight back but he's still too tired, so he just quietly agreed. renjun knows how physically demanding jeno's abilities are and only he could control his fragile emotions. he pat jeno's head.

"you did great, jeno. i'm proud of you." jeno smiled. he's glad that his best friend already knows what to do to make him feel slightly energized. his fatigue's making him yawn even more.

"it's okay, you can take a nap. we'll do our practice later."
____________________________________________

"chenle, i know you are right behind me." chenle clicked his tongue.

"you're so boring."

"what are you doing here?" jisung puts away his practice and turned around to face chenle who's lurking at the entrance door behind him. jisung knew his abilities are better equipped if he learnt to fight too. his premonition ability would help him in what to move to do next.

"nothing, i'm just bored. plus i'm supposed to practice my sensing ability with you."

"sure, i needed a physical break anyway." both of them sat down on the ground, holding each other's hands.

"i think for today, i want to listen to the conversations within the base. i wouldn't want to have a nosebleed like yesterday from trying to sense things more than i could usually do."

"just admit you are weak." chenle slapped jisung's shoulder.

"ouch, okay i'm sorry. let's just do it." chenle, being the nosy person he is, he thought maybe they could eavesdrop the couple of the year.

"they're always at the garden, makes it way easier for me. my beautiful plants, please help me sense and listen to them." jisung let chenle focus and waited for him to find them. chenle slowly breathe in and out while closing his eyes, communicating with his flora friends to find their location.

"found them."

"wow, that's fast. you're getting the hang of it."

"but i can't hear anything from them." jisung wrinkled his forehead. "what do you mean?"

"both of them are just sitting in front of each other and staring, not even a single word is out," chenle opened his eyes. "i'm feeling uncomfortable just staring at them doing nothing, so i'm just going to listen to the others instead."

jisung pouted. he actually wanted to know what do his favourite couple like to talk about behind their backs. unfortunately for them, jaemin and yuri were training each other on using yuri's clairaudience ability. since jaemin can channel any royal abilities to himself (actually, almost all), he tried using yuri's ability to feel how difficult it is to use it, without using his augmentation ability.

"maybe we should just talk to each other like this. seems more romantic." jaemin, being the usual flirt he is, even flirts with yuri in his mind.

"it's cool and all. but traditional methods are always better."

"you're right. i want to see that lips moving too."

"okay, that's it. i'm going to cringe."

"where's my old yuri who's always clueless? now she just cringes whenever i try to flirt." jaemin pouted. yuri can't help but pinch his cheeks.

"you're so cute." jaemin then went on focus mode.

"i should read your mind if what you said was genuine." however, no matter how much jaemin tried, he can't read her mind.

"did you just deflect me again? you're getting too good at this."

"i mean, i'm literally the only one who could deflect the imposter's powers, so i need to do well when the day comes." jaemin could tell yuri was partially pressured and felt responsible if things go wrong. he could only give yuri all of his support since he cannot channel her deflect powers to himself. he put her dangling white-silvery hair behind her ear and caressed her head.

"yuri, you are doing incredibly well. you just did your ability with almost no effort, and that's a great progress. don't back down, alright? and remember that you have all of us, you have me that will always support you and be there for you." he said as he move his hand to caress her red cheeks. yuri's arms goes around jaemin's neck and hugged him tightly.

"thank you, jaemin. i'm so happy that we are in this together and not fighting alone." jaemin's glad that he helped yuri. all this while, yuri have been the more cheerful and positive thinking one. but of course, everyone has their limits and have their down days. he's relieved that he could be the one that makes her happy. right now, having each other's presence and feeling each others warmth from the embrace is a way to reassure each other.

"thank you too, for being you." their embrace was interrupted with the sound of wings flapping towards them. both of them slowly release the hug and look around expecting to see mimi coming with the news. and she did. she landed safely right by yuri's side; yuri being the loving girl she is, rubbed the head and the back of mimi's body, showing how thankful she is towards the creature. jaemin untied the letter that's on mimi's feet and unrolled it.

we handled the situation well. taehee's done with finding another flower to kill the black flower. come in one week.
- jh

both yuri and jaemin heaved a sigh of relief after reading the message.

"let's find seungcheol hyung."
____________________________________________

"okay, that's it. i'm officially dead."

"you're old that's why you're easily tired." mingyu teased seungcheol. seungcheol almost threw the practice sword towards mingyu till he heard jaemin called out his name.

"seungcheol hyung! we got a message!"

"let me see." jaemin passed the letter to him and seungcheol too, heaved a sigh of relief.

"that's good. but that doesn't explain why i got chills down my spine. and why must jeonghan be the one that reply, not taehee?"

"hyung, your sister obsession is slowly showing, it's creeping me up." wonwoo spoke. this time, seungcheol really hit his head with his fake sword. seungcheol saw the princess and used the opportunity to change the topic.

"princess yuri, how was your practice? is it all good?"

"yeap, it is! i can't believe i'm that cool." jaemin giggled at how amazed yuri is on herself. jaemin then snapped back to his serious mode.

"this means, it's time for us to get ready for the actual day." everyone nodded.

"let's tell the rest."