seungcheol hyung (he asked us to call that because we insisted on dropping the formality), told us that he wasn't sure what's the cause of this, but the only things that he had to say to us about were heart-wrenching.

"jaemin, your parents..." i could tell the hesitation from seungcheol hyung's voice about telling jaemin the news of his parents. his worst thoughts came true.

"don't say it. I don't want to hear it." jaemin spoke. seungcheol hyung sighed and mouthed 'i'm sorry'. i could hear the sniffles from jaemin, trying to hold back his tears.

"your parents told me that you are one special, loving boy who is willing to help anyone in danger. they wanted you to keep going with that legacy and make them proud." that's when tears had to fall. jaemin couldn't handle his parents' last words. seungcheol hyung let taehee noona comfort jaemin and spoke to me. 

i'm prepared for the worst too.

"jeno, from now on, do not trust your parents, especially your father."
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jeno kept continuing the story on how they've been training to strengthen their abilities after turning 18 and learn about the existence of having partners which enhance these abilities more. before they knew about their abilities, they were training on how to fight physically. in this case, huang renjun is his partner. 

to explain a little better to yuri who seemed unknowledgeable about the other kingdoms, the top-tiered nations are the kingdom of diamond and kingdom of emerald. now that the emerald kingdom took over the diamond kingdom, the emerald kingdom also overlooks the smaller kingdoms that the diamond kingdom used to handle. one of the smaller kingdoms is aquamarine, renjun's kingdom.

"now, our father is searching for jaemin and me since we are both the next thrones of our kingdoms," jeno paused. he hesitated to continue. as much as all of these are true, he still can't believe his biological father changed to be this unrecognisable person.

"to kill us."

yuri could only sigh after listening to jeno's story. she's clueless about what's happening outside the castle; heck no, even she's unaware of the situation in the castle. that explains the fact that she rarely meets her parents. they're too preoccupied in trying to stay stable at their throne. it made her wonder why her parents let her stay alive when they could've just killed her when she's vulnerable.

maybe it's out of pity.

"why now, why did you tell me about this now?"

"because you turned 18."

"is there a significance when i turn 18?"

"yes, it's when your ability starts to develop."

ability? females can get abilities?

jeno could read her expression. how much did his parents constrict her knowledge? at this point, she's living under a rock. jeno nodded and patted her head. 

"yuri? is that you?" both of them turned to the direction of the voice. it's seungcheol. he immediately ran towards them and kneeled for the princess. 

"you've grown so much, princess." yuri smiled. 

"you don't have to do that. i'm just yuri. lee yuri." she gestured seungcheol to stand up.

"i assume you are our guard, choi seungcheol."

"well, actually, were." despite the situation they are in, seungcheol was still able to crack a joke. all of them giggled. seungcheol then told jeno that it's time for his training.

"your highness, if you want to watch us train, you can follow us to the dome." of course yuri would want to watch. it's probably her only chance to witness cool things.

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"jaemin put himself in danger to get you out of that castle. i already told him not to, but he insisted." seungcheol told yuri as they both watch the princes train hard. as much as yuri don't want them to get caught because of her, she's happy that she's outside. being able to see the beauty of the outside world. 

yuri noticed another 3 other princes whom she has yet to meet just now. one of them was able to control the growth of the plants, and another seemed to be able to control the dimness of the light.

ouh, that must be the guys that jaemin borrowed their ability from. 

yuri then pointed towards them. "seungcheol, if you don't mind, could you tell me who are the princes and their abilities, it's so cool to know more things."

seungcheol nodded.

"since you've met jaemin, renjun and your brother, i'll tell you about the rest."

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the one with the black hair is lee mark, prince of hessonite.

as you can tell, prince mark can move objects and individuals by using his mind. it can be channelled through his eyes or hands. this is called telekinesis. however, he has no sense of direction at all. despite numerous times nagging to him what's left and right, he's still as confused as ever. hence, his partner, lee donghyuck, is here to overcome that problem. not only that, he developed psychokinesis, which is the ability to move objects that are not in his line of sight.

this leads me to lee donghyuck, prince of topaz.

photokinesis is his ability; in other words, controlling light. he could only use his ability when there's a light source. hence, he's the strongest when the sun's out. with mark, he could use this power anywhere and anytime, despite no light.

the one that's controlling the movement of the plants is zhong chenle, prince of peridot.

he has two abilities; nature enhancement and geokinesis. from the colour of his hair, it's pretty obvious he can control nature. he can be called the nature prince. and what i meant by nature is both plants and the earth itself. however, he has a limit on the range that he can use his powers at. his partner is jisung; with him, he developed sensing, which is the ability to sense the location of other people. 

there's one more prince, but he's training by himself. prince of ruby, park jisung.

his ability is the most non-physical one; premonition. he's able to receive a vision about the future of an object or person without touching them. as you can tell, he can only use it when there are no distractions, so he has to be in a quiet room. however, with chenle, he could overcome that and also develop enhance intuition; the ability to anticipate or sense danger before it occurs.

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out of all the princes, there's one particular prince that she can't stop looking at.

na jaemin, prince of diamond. 

she doesn't know why. maybe his first impression did leave a mark on her? his hair colour and long eyelashes are a pretty rare sight. talking about first impression, she remembered that jeno mentioned seungcheol's sister, but she's nowhere to be found.

"seungcheol, where's your sister?"

"she's been with you all along, your highness." yuri wrinkled her forehead, questioning what he meant.

then, it hit her. the way that seungcheol spoke is similar to someone she knows very well. someone she's very close to.

"taeri?!"