A/N hey guys!! sorry for the late updates, a lot of stuff has been going in my life, but i should be getting back on track!! enjoy!!

Donghyuck watched Mark melt two cups of sugar on the stove, stirring the hot liquid around with the cooking spoon. “That looks really good,” he said slowly, watching the caramel swirl around.

“Sugar has a high melting point,” Mark commented, turning down the heat right when the timer on the stove went off. “The apple roses should be ready.”

“YES!” Donghyuck shrieked, eagerly putting on his oven mitts. “I’m starving, I bet I can eat the whole pan right this instant.”

Mark wanted to mention how Donghyuck had to wait a few minutes for it to cool before he could take a bite, but since the latter kept gushing about how he always hate them years ago, it would be kind of redundant to tell him to be careful; Donghyuck seemed to know what to do. 

He moved a bit to let Donghyuck take out the pan from the oven, where Mark caught a whiff of the apple and sugar. “Pretty!!” Donghyuck squealed, setting it carefully on the stovetop while staring at it in awe. “It looks so crispy!!”

Mark grabbed the bowl Donghyuck had set nearby and set it down on the counter. “Be careful, I’m going to pour in the caramel,” he said, lifting up the saucepan from the stove, pouring the contents in the ceramic bowl. 

“Pfft, this isn’t my first time,” Donghyuck said, pulling open the drawer. “I need to find a knife, I must try a piece right now on the spot.”

He rummaged his hands in the drawer, trying to find a knife when he found it through the worst way possible. 

“Dammit!” he screamed, pulling back his hand, a line of blood spilling from a cut. “Ow!”

Mark’s eyes widened when he saw the cut on Donghyuck’s hand. Without saying anything else, he hastily set down the saucepan back on the stove and grabbed Donghyuck’s arm, pulling him towards the sink. “You have to wash it off,” he instructed him, turning off the faucet. “And disinfect it.”

Donghyuck didn’t say anything, trying to ignore the stinging pain on his hand. He decided to focus on Mark’s grip on him, totally a stark contrast from when Mark had his hands around his neck-

Oh. Yeah. He forgot why they were here in the first place. 

“You want to kill me one minute and the next you’re helping me with a little cut on my finger,” he said under his breath. 

“It was never intentional,” Mark said, turning off the faucet when he saw how the water was running clear now. “I’ll find you some bandages-”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Donghyuck said. “It’s not that major, you know, I’ve had worst ones on my knees before. Plus, it’s not like I need a blood transfusion or something.”

Mark nodded, though he still thought it would be best to get a bandage. “Well, you’re O+, which you’ll have to remember if you ever do need one.”

Donghyuck frowned. “That’s impossible, I can’t be O+. How do you even know that anyways?”

“Antigens found in blood make up your blood type,” Mark explained. “You have the Rh antigen, but not the ones found in A or B people.”

“But-but both of my parents were AB,” Donghyuck explained. “Johnny is B, I have to be A, B or AB.” 

Mark shrugged. “My identification system could be faulty,” he said, “but you should still get an accurate testing of your blood type should you ever need a transfusion.”

Donghyuck nodded. “Maybe one of my parents was wrong or something,” he mumbled. “Wait, we forgot!” he dug his hand in the drawer again (careful this time) and took out the knife. “We should eat dessert now.”

***

“So how was life like before you came here?” Xiaojun asked, looking through his boxes in the basement for some wires. “You quit schooling and went to work.”

Johnny shrugged. “I had to earn money somehow,” he said. “You know about my parents passing away.”

Xiaojun made a surprised face. “Sorry, I honestly forgot about that,” he mumbled, looking away. “I’m really sorry-”

“Don’t be, I get what you’re asking,” Johnny said. He knew Xiaojun didn’t mean it maliciously, seeing how he also lost his own parents when he was young. “But… I mean, I got a job at the palace, which pays okay. The royal family doesn’t really do anything, but the advisor is such an .”

“Not surprised, they tend to be like that,” Xiaojun said, taking out a cardboard box. “From what I know, there’s a really hidden rumor that he killed the King’s younger brother and his family back when we were young children.”

“The wife and the newborn baby,” Johnny recalled. “Would he really go through that extreme? Wouldn’t it make sense to kill the older brother?”

“Why are you asking me, do I know what his intentions were?” Xiaojun said. He took out a handful of wires from the box. “I think these should do the trick, though I’m not really sure- god, when is Kun coming back? He’s so good at this stuff."

Johnny raised an eye at him. “Are you sure nothing is going on between you two?” he asked. 

“No, nothing, now leave me alone and answer my question,” Xiaojun said, standing back up. “, my bones cracked.”
 

“You’re so old,” Johnny joked. “But to be serious… I mean, when I work, Doyoung often keeps an eye on Donghyuck- you remember Doyoung, right?” he asked Xiaojun. 

“Oh, that guy always hated me,” Xiaojun recalled. “I was pretty sure he could kill someone, matter fact, I think he has.”

Johnny tried to stifle a laugh. “The introvert who tries to get Donghyuck to do aegyo?” Johnny asked. “Xiaojun, you’re really funny.” 

“Well, excuse me for having random irrational fears,” Xiaojun said, grabbing a toolbox and handing it to Johnny. “Hurry up and take this, we got stuff to do.”

***

Yangyang felt really bad for accidentally hurting his best friend, so he grabbed the hoe and started to work more seriously on the field, wanting his friend to rest. 

He knew that Chen Le went out to find some herbs for his bruise so he was going to take a while. Yangyang wasted no time to get to work on the crops. 

This plot of land was going to be used for wheat, if Yangyang recalled correctly, which he thought was pretty cool. He’s always wanted to learn how to grow plants and fruits and vegetables, but you can’t really have your own place to grow stuff if you’re constantly moving from place to place trying to find some scraps to eat. 

He remembers how one time, Chen Le found some abandoned cake near the back of a bar, and even though it was enough for two people, he let Yangyang have all of it. It had been months since they had last tried cake, and October had passed, meaning so did Yangyang’s birthday. However, Chen Le was a year and a month younger than him, yet he still let Yangyang have it. 

Yangyang was really tired of having to move all the time. He hated how they would have to find hidden alleys to hide from the rain, how cold it would get in the winter, how they would die of the heat in the summer. Their diets mainly consisted of practically rotten produce, or if they were feeling risky, some stolen ones. 

Yangyang liked to read those magazines that teens his age would read, but he could only read them if he found discard pieces in the trash. Still, though, he would treasure them, read them even though they still struggled with their Korean from time to time. He even had them hidden in a hole near a bridge, where he and Chen Le would sometimes sleep at. They don’t really have stuff to carry their belongings- not that they had belongings anyways. 

Yep. What a good life they have. 

The sun was starting to get hot, Yangyang realized; beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and he could feel how sticky he was getting. He promised he would advance on the field, though, so he didn’t want to stop.

It got harder to ignore, though, and soon Yangyang was panting, already cursing at the sun. Stupid sun, why did that thing have to exist, anyways? Making his life so complicated. Now he was going to have to find a lake and steal some soap and risk getting his fingers cut off. 

Yangyang looked off to the distance, wondering where Chen Le was and if he was okay, when he Chen Le sitting down besides a tree with- 

Holy moly, was that Prince Jisung???

Why was he so lucky? Before he would have thought it would be a miracle to see the princes at least once before he died, and now he kept running into them. This was great! This was amazing! Prince Jisung was talking to Yangyang’s best friend in the entire world!

Yangyang hoed the ground at a faster pace, wanting to get all the work done, despite it getting tiring. His knees were shaking but he didn’t want to stop, he didn’t want Chen Le to worry, no, he could never make his friend get worried. 

He didn’t complain about his heatstroke one bit.

***

Jaehyun had been in the middle of assembling a very important piece to find Yukhei’s whereabouts when a frantic Jeno came into the lab, which meant one thing: Lee-eun had come with him. 

He didn’t do anything, though, hearing how Jeno was rambling to Jaemin quietly as Lee-eun hadn’t come into the room yet. Jaehyun didn’t have anything to hide, and he was getting pretty tired of these games. 

Plus, he had a plan to get Lee-eun to spill to prove Jaehyun’s innocence. 

“My, your place is a mess as always,” Lee-eun said, mentally criticizing everything in the main lab room even though Taeyong had been in a process of cleaning. “I hope it’s because you’ve been too busy trying to make progress.”

Jaehyun pushed away from his desk, glaring at Lee-eun. “I would like it if you don’t question my habits,” he said, turning his attention back at the contraption he had been working on. “Now if you excuse me, I’m really worried about finding Yukhei, so I would really appreciate it if you let me continue what I’m working on.”

Lee-eun didn’t look at him, grabbing a pile of papers that Taeyong had just organized, went through some of the sheets only to throw them all over the desk. “Really? You’ve been working? Where’s the proof of that?”

“You can’t rush science,” Jaehyun said, grabbing his hammer. “Why do you think it took me so long on these models? Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Lee-eun smirked, picking up a box of boring materials before throwing it hastily back on the ground. “It was destroyed in one, though,” he said. “Jeno! Come along, we have things to do, you idiot.”

Jeno bowed down to Jaemin. “I’ll see you later, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said before sprinting towards Lee-eun, wincing at the face slap his boss gave him. 

Jaehyun waited until they were gone to sigh, staring at the state of the room. 

Jaemin immediately picked up the box of scrap metal and picked the pieces back up. “Stupid son of a thinking he can hurt Jeno like that,” he muttered to himself, 

Not even two minutes later, Taeyong returned with a box of metal coils that Jaehyun had needed, only to get disappointed when he realized the mess that Lee-eun had left that now left Jaemin to clean it up. What worried him, though, was how Jaehyun had his face in his hands, not saying anything. “Sir, are you okay?”

Jaehyun still didn’t say anything in response, so he set the box of metal coils down and inched slowly to the royal scientist. “Jaehyun?”

“I’m fine,” Jaehyun muttered, taking his hands off his face. He ran them through his hair, forcing himself internally to not pull his hair, and picked up his hammer again. “I’m fine-”

He didn’t notice how close Taeyong had gotten until he felt a warm palm on his cheek. 

Taeyong was touching his face, albeit nervously, since it was almost hovering as if he were afraid of Jaehyun refusing the sudden contact. “Are you okay?” he asked again. “I don’t like it when you get stressed.”

Jaehyun stared at him wide-eyed for a few seconds before realizing that he still hadn’t answered Taeyong’s question. “I’ll get better later,” he said, holding Taeyong’s wrist. “Trust me.”

Taeyong nodded, letting go of Jaehyun’s face. “Ok,” he said. “I trust you. You know I always trust you.”