The Kingdom of Korea was in an uproar. 

There had been an attempted assassination on the royal family. King Park had received a stab wound and Prince Jisung received a concussion, but luckily, the royal family remained alive. Unfortunately, three guards and two commoners were killed while trying to protect the royal family. 

The culprit was a tall fellow dressed in all black, who ran away before they could capture him. It was also noted that there were some others dressed in similar attire walking around the palace, yet their faces could not accurately be described. Their names and origins do not appear in the databases, so they remain a mystery. 

The drawing that they published on the newspaper of the culprit didn’t look familiar to Donghyuck, but what was familiar was the outfit he was donning – that had been the exact same outfit the dude choking him had been wearing. Why he was found as a threat, who knows; maybe they killed anyone who looked at them. 

He reached up to touch the bruises on his neck. One more squeeze and Donghyuck was sure that the guy would have snapped his bones on the spot. 

Thankfully, Johnny had not decided to punish Donghyuck or chew him out for having placed himself in that situation, since it wasn’t Donghyuck’s fault – it just so happened that that was when the assassination attempt was placed.

For the past three hours, Johnny had locked them up in the flat, barricading the front door with the couch and hiding behind the counter bar of the kitchen, knife in his hand while Donghyuck is forced to sit next to him with a frying pan, the same one Johnny had used.

“Johnny, how long are we going to stay here?” Donghyuck asked, crawling around the counter to reach the bookcase. “No one followed us home and tried to kill us-”

Johnny grabbed Donghyuck from the waist and pulled him back. “Don’t move. Do you want to die?”

Kind of. “At this rate, death is preferable compared to boredom.”

It took Donghyuck a total of ten minutes to convince Johnny to get them out of the ridiculous position 

“Johnny! Come! On!” Donghyuck tried to pull his brother’s arm, though Johnny was really good at resisting. “This is stupid!”

“Fine, only because I’m hungry.” Johnny got up and went to the kitchen, knife still in his hand as he took out a carton of eggs. “Keep an eye out, Hyuck-”

“Absolutely not.” Donghyuck got up and pushed the couch back to its original spot, ignoring Johnny’s cries. “I’m tired, Johnny! I was almost killed, I want a nap.”

“But what if we die-”

“Still don’t see the downside, brother.” Donghyuck set the frying pan on the counter and went to his room. “I’m going to take my much needed nap-”

“What if that thing comes-”

“Night, Johnny,” Donghyuck said, slamming the door to his room shut.

***

Later, they had a small dinner, mainly some omelettes, but Johnny was jittering the whole dropping, dropping a piece of his food or his fork every so often. He even dropped his water cup twice. 

“What’s wrong with you, seriously,” Donghyuck muttered to himself when he got up to get Johnny yet another rag, while the latter was trying to soak up the spill with napkins.

“I don’t know, Donghyuck, maybe because the only relative I have left was about to die?” Johnny yelled at him. “Sorry for me not being in the right headspace!”

Donghyuck stared at Johnny. This was really out of character for him, but if he brushed it off, he knew they would get into a screaming match. “Sorry, Johnny, I didn’t think of it that way. I just saw some guy choke me and you hit them with a frying pan.”

Johnny rolled his eyes, standing up from the table. “Of course you did.” He picked up their plates and walked past Donghyuck in the kitchen. “I’m going to clean up.”

“Hey that’s my job-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Johnny said, setting the dishes down in the sink before grabbing the rag from Donghyuck. “Just go do something, I don’t know.”

Donghyuck would have protested, but he knew Johnny wouldn’t budge, so he decided to just stay in the living room on the couch, bored. 

He grabbed a nearby book; Johnny always kept them in stacks everywhere and they were pretty boring, but hopefully Donghyuck would find an interesting one. 

This particular book turned about to be history about the Kingdom which Donghyuck didn’t give a damn about. They all knew the stories, from the grandparents of the king how they became the first in their line, to the King’s brother, wife and newborn getting murdered around sixteen years ago. Boring. They always taught this in lessons and it was just glorifying everything. 

The royal family were just a bunch of rich people. He didn’t know if they were nice enough since he’s never met them, but Prince Jisung is always being shown to the public and had a lot of fangirls, so who knows. Not Donghyuck, and he didn’t care. 

He threw the book on the other side of the couch and laid face down, bored. His neck was still sore from the choking of that weird guy, and now Johnny was pissed at him. Great. 

Suddenly, he heard someone bumping into their front door. 

“Johnny, do you hear that?” Donghyuck asked his older brother, who had been cleaning up in the kitchen. 

“Hear what?”

Donghyuck pushed himself off the couch, annoyed. “Nevermind, I got it.”

He walked to the foyer and opened the front door to see what the commotion was, but he barely got a glance at the stranger in front of him before he was being thrown on the floor. 

“Ow! What the-” He sat up, rubbing the back of his head, looking at the person in front of him. It was the same guy from earlier! How the hell did he get here? “Uh, Johnny-”

Johnny got out of the kitchen to see what was going on. “What was that- HOLY !”

The stranger, dressed in the same outfit as before, hovered over Donghyuck, hand wrapped his neck like before, trying to choke him again. Donghyuck tried to pry his hands off him, but it was no use, the stranger was stronger than him. 

Johnny grabbed the frying pan Donghyuck had left on the counter and swung it towards the stranger, only unfortunately, the guy was already predicting the attack, since he let go of Donghyuck to swipe it away from Johnny.

Donghyuck scooted backwards, frantically glancing around the living room trying to find a weapon. He struggled to get himself up, but he managed to grab a thick textbook to get ready to hit the stranger with. 

Meanwhile, Johnny had tried to throw a punch, but the man caught it, holding his fist firmly while staring at Johnny, neither of them breaking eye contact. Johnny kicked the stranger away from him, the latter stumbling back a bit, but turned around to face Donghyuck again, the latter hoisting the textbook higher.

“I didn’t do anything, I don’t even know you!” Donghyuck shouted, the book trembling in his hands. “Leave us alone!”

“I have been assigned to kill the royal family,” the guy said before taking the book from Donghyuck’s hand and throwing it behind him, wrapping his hands around Donghyuck’s neck again before pinning him to the wall, lifting him higher. 

Johnny ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife he had left on the counter before running back to where the stranger was, and stabbed him in the back. 

The guy froze, letting go of Donghyuck before falling on the ground, unconscious. 

Where the knife was poking out, interestingly, there wasn’t any sign of blood, only a few sparks being released, revealing a damaged metal plate in his back. 

Donghyuck pointed at the guy’s back. “What is that?”
 

Johnny inched closer, pulling the knife out. There was indeed no blood on the knife. “A robot?”

“Aren’t those rare, though?” Donghyuck asked, scared that the man was going to get up any second now and try to kill him. “And if he was trying to kill the royal family, why go after us?”

Johnny’s eyes widened, “Holy ,” he muttered, looking away from Donghyuck. “It can’t be.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Donghyuck asked him, shaking his shoulder. “Johnny?”

“Nothing, look, we should figure out if this guy really is human.” Johnny grabbed the guy’s hand and sliced its palm, surprising Donghyuck.

“JOHNNY WHY WOULD YOU DO- wait.” 

The sliced palm revealed blood. 

Johnny threw the hand back, confused. “I have no idea what this guy is.”

Donghyuck bent down, trying to poke the man’s skin. It was really soft and warm, nothing like a cold robot would be. “Is he dead?”

“I mean, it doesn’t look like he’s breathing,” Johnny said. “We need to get rid of the body-”

“Wait, we need to find out what he is. Besides, didn’t the newspaper say there were more of them? They’ll try to come after us,” Donghyuck explained. 

Johnny's eyes widened, snapping his fingers. “, who was- do you remember that Chinese student that studied with me?” he asked his brother, mumbling some stuff. “What was his name?”

“...Xiaojun?”

“Yes, Xiaojun, he can help us!” Johnny exclaimed. He pulled the man’s body away from the living room. “Help me tie him, and then pack your bags.”
 

***

Jaehyun slammed his head on the counter, screaming in anger. 

He had started with five. Five prototypes. And now he was left with two. TWO!

First, Model K had ran off all those weeks ago, and Jaehyun still had no idea how he was able to do that. Model L, or Yukhei, had been the one to kill those innocent people who were defending the royal family, but he ran off soon enough and Jaehyun had lost his coordinates. Now, Model M, or Minhyung, had gone after some random person in the hallways and to their house despite the order of only attacking the royal family, and Jaehyun got the notification that the control panel had been damaged and now Minhyung was not going to respond. 

The two left, Taeyong and Renjun, stood quietly as Jaehyun continued to scream at himself, Jaemin trying to calm him down. 

“Jaehyun, it’s not your fault,” Jaemin reminded him, even though Jaehyun wasn’t bothering to pay attention to him. “It was Lee-eun-”

“I shouldn’t have created them,” Jaehyun muttered to himself, sliding all the things on his desk to the ground, startling Jaemin. “I shouldn’t have ing created them.”

Taeyong and Renjun stayed quiet, heads bowed. 

Jaehyun got out of his chair and started pacing back and forth in the room. “If the King finds out I had a hand in their creation, I’m going to be beheaded. Oh god, I’m going to be beheaded-”

“Sir, can you calm down!” Jaemin yelled at him, grabbing his shoulders. “Calm down!”

“You don’t get it Jaemin, I’M GOING TO DIE!” Jaehyun screamed. “I’m going to die, and there’s nothing we can do about it!”

“Well, there has to be something!” Jaemin went to stand next to Taeyong and Renjun. “It’s not their fault! It’s Lee-eun’s fault, he has to pay!”

“He’s the royal advisor, Jaemin, no one is going to believe me!”

“And you are the royal scientist!” Jaemin reminded him. “You’re smart, you can figure this out, you always can!”

“Not this time- wait a second…”
 

***

The King and Queen are hidden in their secret bunkers where Prince Jisung was supposed to be, but like usual, he had matters to deal with on his own. 

Previously, he had arranged to meet with the Chinese prince, Prince Hendery, and they didn’t get to cancel it in time, so he was now in the throne room, with a handful of guards with him, as they received Prince Hendery. 

The Chinese prince came with his own guards due to protocol, so Jisung’s guards held up their spears in case they decided to attack them any second now.

Hendery bowed down. “Nice to see you, Prince Jisung.”

“And you too, Prince Hendery,” Jisung said, bowing down as well. “Surely you have heard of the news.”

“My deepest apologies to the King and Queen,” Hendery said. “I sure hope they find the culprit.”

“I sure hope the culprit isn’t one of your people,” Jisung said in a monotone voice.

“Are you- are you accusing me?” Hendery scoffed, looking away. “We have nothing to do with this.”

“Sure is a coincidence how this happened when you were supposed to arrive.” Jisung crossed his arms. “And how I also found Chinese immigrants sneaking into the palace."

Hendery rolled his eyes. “You know our fathers have been trying to make peace between the two kingdoms.”

“Yeah, well, my father was almost killed,” Jisung reminded him. “Let your father know that if any of your people were involved with this… we’ll declare a war.”

--

A/N this will be the last update for a while since im losing internet for a few weeks, remember to stay safe!!